My thanks to Susan Dean Elzey for stopping by The Plot Thickens for an author interview during the blog tour for her book, Miracle of the Christmas Star. Author Interview
1. Who is the plot based around?The main characters in my novel Miracle of the Christmas Star are the family of Joshua and Sariah and their daughter Hannah, who has cerebral palsy.
2. What is the main idea of the plot?
The night Sariah’s baby of miracles, baby of sorrows is born blue and lifeless, a brilliant star shines through the window of her tiny home in a village close to Bethlehem. The star bathes the baby with light, and she begins to breathe. Sariah rejoices in the miracle, but soon realizes her daughter, whom she names “Hannah,” is not like the other babies in the village. She is crippled and will never be able to walk or talk. Although haunted by the spectre of her daughter’s future, Sariah believes the shepherds who say that the star heralded the birth of the long-awaited savior, and she begins years of searching and praying for him.
Lovingly caring for her daughter, Sariah’s life courageously endures a hard life, and although her faith wavers, it never burns out. Finally, as word of the Savior’s healing miracles reach her small village, Sariah determines that whatever the effort required, she will put Hannah in a wagon and take her to him to be healed. There follows a harrowing journey through the desert wilderness where Sariah is stripped of all in her life that gives her strength and hope. Only her faith remains, and during one fateful encounter in the terror of the wilderness, her abiding faith proves to be all that she and her daughter need.
3. When does the plot take place?
The story takes place concurrently during the 33 years of the life of Jesus Christ in a little village close to His birthplace of Bethlehem.
4. Why did the plot develop the way it did?
The story is basically the story of one mother’s faith and courage as she tries to find the Savior and have him help her daughter. Along the way in the novel, Sariah basically has to be stripped of everything in her life, except her faith, that she needs to approach the Savior and ask Him to help Hannah. That story line propelled the story line.
Throughout the book, Sariah is faced with seemingly insurmountable obstacles, which she faces with patience and love and a faith that if she just endures, she will one day find the miracle for her daughter.
5. How did you come up with the idea for the plot?
I have a daughter similarly handicapped with cerebral palsy as my character is. I have always marveled at the healing miracles of Jesus and the faith of the family members who would bring their handicapped loved ones to Jesus to be healed. I also have always believed that had I lived at the time of Christ, I would do make whatever sacrifice I had to and carry my daughter however far I had to for her to be healed by Jesus. My novel merged those two ideas into this story of a mother who had the opportunity to do just that, and did.
About the BookMiracle of the Christmas Star
Book Details:
Publisher: Cedar Fort, Inc.
Published: September 2011
Genre: Holiday Christian Historical Fiction
Format: Paperback
Pages: 176
Price: $12.99
Buy Links: Amazon
Blurb:
Hannah died the night she was born. The new star's light brought her back to life, but left her stricken with palsy. Sariah, Hannah's mother, believes Hannah can be healed, if only she can find the Savior. Miracle of the Christmas Star is a tender story of love, faith and endurance that will touch your heart and remind you why miracles happen.
Blurb:
Hannah died the night she was born. The new star's light brought her back to life, but left her stricken with palsy. Sariah, Hannah's mother, believes Hannah can be healed, if only she can find the Savior. Miracle of the Christmas Star is a tender story of love, faith and endurance that will touch your heart and remind you why miracles happen.
About the AuthorSusan Dean Elzey
Susan Dean Elzey was raised an Army brat and moved to southern Virginia when she was a teenager. She is the mother of seven grown children, stepmother to two, and a grandmother to an ever-increasing brood of grandchildren. Her oldest daughter has cerebral palsy and is the inspiration behind the character of Hannah in her latest novel, "The Miracle of the Christmas Star."
Susan works as a writer and an adjunct English professor at a community college in a constant battle against comma mistakes and sentence fragments. For years, she has written a weekly humorous column entitled "7XMOM" (Seven Times Mom)for the "Danville Register & Bee" newspaper in which she shares the experiences of her life and of her family that, as her children say, "make us look stupid."
"Miracle of the Christmas Star" is Susan's fourth novel.
Connect With Susan:
Author Web Site
Susan works as a writer and an adjunct English professor at a community college in a constant battle against comma mistakes and sentence fragments. For years, she has written a weekly humorous column entitled "7XMOM" (Seven Times Mom)for the "Danville Register & Bee" newspaper in which she shares the experiences of her life and of her family that, as her children say, "make us look stupid."
"Miracle of the Christmas Star" is Susan's fourth novel.
Connect With Susan:
Author Web Site
About the TourCedar Fort Blog Tours
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| The Character Connection/ | The Plot Thickens/ | |||||
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| Practical Frugality/ | LDS Women’s Book Review/ | The Wormhole/ | Reviews by Molly/ | Why Not? Because I Said So/ |
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