A Divine Connection
I was an avid reader from a very young age. Wild horses cannot drag me away from a bookstore. I loved scrolling through books along the aisles reading about the different stories. I can lose myself in the world of fantasy and the different characters that are portrayed in the pages of a book. As a teenager, I loved horror stories, and practically read all of the books written by Stephen King. Later, I began to enjoy crime/thriller books written by the likes of John Grisham, Patricia Cornwell, James Patterson, and PD James. But my all-time favourite has to be V C Andrews. A good friend of mine recommended the Flowers in the Attic series, which I felt was equivalent to watching a soap opera. I find her series of stories relatable as it always involved a family and the many secrets they hold. I come from a large family, where the children will always sit around the table and hear the adults recount interesting "stories" about the distant relatives in the family. Maybe that was what drew me to V C Andrew's style of writing. I love the introduction and development of each of the characters portrayed. I was inspired by her writing style.
As I grew in my faith, I began to spend time reading the bible more. My perspective began to change as I started to view the stories with the same excitement as I will read my books. The bible was full of drama, and interesting anecdotes. Before I started writing my debut book, I spent a lot of time reading Genesis 24 which was the foundation behind my story. I was very captivated by the love story that was woven together in the chapter, and I could imagine how the story would have played out during the ancient times. The bible story talks about how a father sends his servant in search of his relatives to find a bride for his son. When the servant reached the town well, he prayed for good success. He didn't know how he will fulfill his assignment so he asked God for directions. After the prayer, God brought Rebecca out. The story goes on to show, how the servant brought Rebecca to meet Issac (the groom). Issac was waiting in the fields when he saw them approaching from afar. Scripture wrote how fell straight into the arms of Issac as she was trying to alight off from the camel she was riding.
And that inspired me to write A Divine Connection, in a modern setting, where two people meet by a chance encounter. When the servant prayed for good success, the word used there in Hebrew is Qarah. That word is used for being positioned in the right place at the right time. Throughout my book, the main characters Ian and Rosella can be only positioned because of the Qarah moments. In a modern world, where we meet through dating apps or hangouts, their paths were divinely orchestrated to cross paths.
