Here she is…

Roman’s headstrong little sister, Maria Vasquez. The girl who’s driving me crazy right now. I need to nail Maria down. Make her go home. The trouble with Maria is I can’t make her do anything. She’s a lot like many of us. Her own worst enemy.

Rachel in Until the Day Breaks was such a manageable heroine.

Maria is not manageable.

Maria is running from God.

And the man she desperately loves.

Because of the lies she believes.

Have you ever run from God because you’re following the wrong voice? The enemy’s voice or perhaps your own voice?

I have. For thirty-three years, I didn’t want to obey God. I wanted to do it my way.

So I forged my own path and experienced a lot of pain and heartache along the way. Pain and heartache will come. It comes to all of us in this broken world. But bringing on our own pain and heartache because we’re stubborn and prideful raises us to a whole new level of pain and heartache.

Why can’t Maria just surrender?

Why can’t we surrender?

Here is what I know right now. I must surrender to writing. Turn off my phone. Turn down all other distractions. And write until I finish this novel. So on that note, I probably won’t be blogging here for awhile. Far Side of the Sea is due to my editor in October. At the beginning of the summer, October seemed so far away. Now October feels right around the corner. The late August mornings are cooler. Some leaves on the trees are turning. And our stone fruit harvest is over, praise Jesus!

But Maria is still running in my story and I need to outrun her.

When Far Side of the Sea first came to me, this was the Bible passage it came with:

 

Where can I go from your Spirit?

Where can I flee from your presence?

If I go up to the heavens, you are there;

if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me

and the light become night around me,”

even the darkness will not be dark to you;

the night will shine like the day,

for darkness is as light to you.

Psalm 139:7-12.

Please pray for me to finish this story. And finish it well. And please let me know what you think of my new cover. After standing on the cliffs of San Francisco a few weeks ago, looking out at the ocean, trying to imagine Maria here in 1849, I think the cover is about perfect. Hope you like it too.