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PATTI’S BLOGS
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Meet seasoned authors, learn about new books and find inspiration to help you along your journey. No matter how far you’ve come or where you are going, I’d be honored to travel with you. If you like what you see, please subscribe to avoid missing updates.
Antony has won several book awards, is a columnist for Practical Homeschooling Magazine, and hosts The Shepherd’s Pie radio show and podcast. A previous guest on Step Into the Light, Antony returns today to discuss the sixth book in his teen historical fiction Harwood Mysteries series titled The Devil’s Ransom. Join us as Antony discusses The Harwood Mystery series, it's message for teens, and his plans for an innovative and intriguing adult series due to release next year.
FEATURED BOOK: The Amazing Crab Alley Revival
AUTHOR: Sharon Wilharm
PUBLISHER: Elk Lake Publishing
GENRE: Southern Historical Fiction
SERIES OR STAND ALONE: Stand Alone
TARGET AGE: All
IT IS MY PLEASURE TO WELCOME AUTHOR SHARON WILHARM TO THE OVER FIFTY WRITER. SHARON TALKS ABOUT WHAT GOD HAS TAUGH HER THROUGH HER WRITING JOURNEY AND A LONG SEASON OF WAITING.
WHEN GOD SAYS WAIT
by
Sharon Wilharm
Next week, The Amazing Crab Alley Revival, my debut novel, releases to the world. The week after that, I turn sixty. The timing couldn’t be more perfect. You see, I’ve been writing for most of my life, with my ultimate goal being to write novels. But God had other plans. God wanted me to wait.
I wrote my first novel in the early 2000’s. Leastwise, I think I wrote a whole novel. It may have been just a partial story. I’m pretty sure it wasn’t full length. I know it had a lot of issues and wasn’t ready to submit anywhere. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to make it work.
So God, in His graciousness, redirected me down other paths. He had me homeschooling, creating curriculum, writing and directing movies with my filmmaker husband.
Time passed.
I made a few more attempts to write a novel. None of them got past the initial planning or research. Each time I’d get to a certain point, God would gently make it clear that it wasn’t time yet.
I wasn’t ready.
My daughter graduated, got married, moved away. We released our last movie. I began writing in earnest—learning the craft—but none of my efforts ended up going anywhere.
Covid hit.
I started a podcast. Which turned into a radio show. I wrote a Bible study. I concentrated all my efforts on writing and speaking about women in the Bible.
Then, after I’d given up on my dream of being a novelist, God finally gave me the green-light. The book I’d started in 2018 came together, got accepted by the publisher who’d published my Bible study, and now it’s finally releasing to the world.
The response so far from reviewers and early readers has been overwhelmingly positive. It’s been very much worth the wait.
The Amazing Crab Alley Revival is a story about an older woman who’s gone through the motions all her life and feels there’s got to be more. She longs to do something great for the Lord but worries it’s too late. Hers is a story of encouragement for anyone in a season of waiting.
If you’re feeling tired and weary today, wondering if you’ve passed your age of usefulness, please know that the best things in life are worth the wait. Look at all the waiting women in the Bible had to go through—Sarah waiting for her promised child, the Israelites wandering in the desert for forty years until God finally led them into the Promised Land, Hannah praying for a son, Anna waiting for the Christ, the bleeding woman waiting for healing …
The list goes on. If you’re a woman in waiting, you’re in good company. If you’re a woman feeling past your prime, you’re not alone.
As long as we’re here on earth, God has work for us. We need to be serving Him however we can up until the day He leads us to our new home in Heaven.
“‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” Jeremiah 29:11(NKJV).
Blurb for The Amazing Crab Alley Revival
In 1897 Florida, a widowed woman searching for purpose finds herself drawn into an unexpected friendship—and a revival that will transform an entire town.
Wealthy widow Lydia Culpepper is evaluating her mundane existence. For sixty-three years, she’s faithfully gone through the motions of fulfilling everyone else’s expectations for her life, but nothing she does is ever enough. She longs for something more.
When a young boy comes to her house in search of his missing coon dog, she gets her wish. She meets Emily Reed, a young finishing school instructor, and Opal Jackson, an Irish single mother, and the three women join together on a mission that turns the First Baptist Church on its head.
Suddenly, the town is in an uproar as lives are being changed. When Yellow Fever hits, it looks like their efforts may have been in vain, but the epidemic isn’t enough to thwart the fruits of the Crab Alley Revival.
Sharon Wilharm is an author, speaker, Bible teacher, podcaster, radio host, and former filmmaker. The common thread of all her activities is women and storytelling. She loves to tell stories that inspire and encourage women in their walk with the Lord.
Sharon is the author of Women of Prayer, a 10-week Bible study about praying women in the Bible, and The Amazing Crab Alley Revival, a Southern historical retelling of Lydia in the Bible. She’s also the host of All God’s Women podcast and syndicated radio show heard daily on Moody Radio Network and Faith Radio Network.
Learn more about Sharon at SharonWilharm.com.
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