Author Spotlight: Joy Avery Melville

Happy Thanksgiving! It is my privilege to welcome Joy Avery Melville. I’ve so enjoyed getting to know her and so many of her answers have resonated with me. Hopefully her story will speak to your heart as well.

Blog post – Joy Avery Melville – Kept for Her – Book 2 of the Intended for Her Series

As this post is set for Thanksgiving Day, I want to especially express my deep thanks to Leagh for this spot on her blog, and for those of you who will read it. I am most thankful to my Lord Jesus Christ for Salvation, and for assigning me the novel, Kept for Her.

Question 1 – What inspired you to become a writer? Have you always written?

I loved reading from the time I could sound out a word, but it was at the very end of my eighth grade, that my English teacher, Mrs. Brown, assigned me a short story as my year-end exam. I had never written anything other than thank-you notes to my great aunt and my maternal grandparents or short letters to friends I’d left behind when my parents moved us to a small village at the beginning of the last marking period that school year. I wrote a 40-page story about a young woman named Dorinda Holden that I remember to this day, and that was in 1968.

The teacher asked me to go to her classroom on Friday after school. When she later handed me the paper with a very large A+ in RED on the top, she told me she was sure I’d be a writer one day. Mrs. Brown encouraged me to take every possible creative writing class, and study everything writing-related I could.

That same weekend, an evangelist spoke at our church about gifts God ‘assigns’ us. He spoke to us young people about being close to the Lord, listening, and watching for how He wanted to use us and those specific gifts. That touched my heart, and I did as Mrs. Brown had encouraged me to do.

2: What common themes do you write about? Why?

In August of 2011, as I was preparing my historical novel to take to the ACFW Conference in St. Louis, I overheard a newscast about a gal who was missing. For some reason, that stuck in my brain. I went to the conference, presented my work to agents and an editor, and each asked me why I chose historical fiction when something about my writing pointed to an aptitude in contemporary writing. One agent in particular went through my One-Sheet (some call them Sell Sheets) with me. She said, “I love your premise verse. I’m excited about your theme, but what if you brought that to current day?” Not what I wanted to hear. Not what others who’d read my story had said at all.

But God.

I argued with the Lord for a month. We later saw another broadcast about that same missing gal, heard that they’d found her and what she’d evidently gone through before her death. To my knowledge, the culprit(s) haven’t been found to this day. I started asking myself, what if she’d lived? How would her fiancé have reacted? What if there’d been a resulting pregnancy? Book 1 of my Intended for Her Series was born—Meant for Her. The words just spilled onto the keys as I wrote it.

When I arrived at the middle of that first book, the heroine’s brother made a huge impact on me. He had a story to tell of his own, which led me to write Kept for Her. I wrote it one year later, and those words came fast and furious (pardon the cliché).

Trauma comes in uncountable forms. Today, we have labeled the results of some of those traumas, as PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). I had no idea God would lead me to write about those who hurt in silence. I certainly didn’t choose the subject on my own, and it’s taken three written books to realize the theme of each happens to be issues that cause people to do just that.

I admit, the main reason I struggled with God’s assignment of genre is that Women’s Fiction way too often starts out very dark and ends dark, so when the Lord prompted me in that direction, I begged Him to allow me to incorporate a thread of the Romance genre and to give my books and their readers a sigh-worthy ending. He gifted me that and has since affirmed my obedience to writing a genre that petrified me to embark on by guiding my thoughts, heart, and hands in each keystroke, and numerous times, by an editorial suggestion to revise, deepen, and strengthen something.

3: Which brings me to this question – What is your favorite Bible verse?

Easy answer for me. Psalm 46:10. “Be still and know I am God.” King James Version of the Bible. I love the New American Standard Bible and have used that translation most since 1980 when I learned of the radio ministry of Charles Swindoll.

It wasn’t until 2012 that I came to make that my life verse when I was arguing with the Lord about which genre I wanted to write. Several instances happened that brought that verse to my mind. Ouch! In the NASB version, it reads, “Cease striving and know I am God.”

The Lord used that to point out that I’m a striver. I tend to push to get something done… before He wants it done… or done in my way, rather than His. I cannot tell you, nor do I want to admit, how often God has reminded me to ‘cease striving.’ Kept for Her was written only one year following Meant for Her, but it has since taken me four years to get it edited and revised (many parts rewritten completely), and striving didn’t hurry it along at all. God stopped me many times during the editing process, and His reasons haven’t been made clear to me… yet.

4: How do you incorporate faith into your writing life? Stories?

I pray over the stories God gives me. I don’t pray this prayer at every writing-session, although I should. Since He had me write Meant for Her, and I became so immersed in the characters, I’ve prayed the following, or words very close to these. “Lord, this book is Yours. I ask that You guide me to write the characters You’d have me include, and please gift me words that will resonate with those readers You have in mind to read these stories.”

Then, when I get to the late editing phase and into publishing, my prayer is, “Oh, Father, please put this novel into the hands of those readers You most want to read it. I give You the honor and glory for each life touched. In Jesus’ name – Amen.

Since these novels are stories God assigns me to write, and since my characters come to life as real people under my fingers against the keyboard, I know the only answer to their struggles is a relationship with the Lord. Not just knowing there is a God, but finding Him to be their all. Some of my characters are born-again believers, some have heard about God, some have strayed from the Lord after asking Him to save their souls. Some have only heard God’s name as it’s taken in vain. To be honest, those truths have come out (or I learn of them) as I’m writing portions of the individuals’ scenes or chapters. Some have come as a surprise to me, and I sit back in consternation, wondering where that came from… as if I didn’t know.

5: What is the most rewarding part of being a writer?

It is not my intention to boast… it is my intention to give God all honor and glory for how He uses an assignment He’s given me.

Personal messages on FB Messenger, personal emails from readers, or even an unusual circumstance. A woman who I’d asked to be a beta reader, told me that one of the characters’ backstory taught her something about an adopted granddaughter, she’d never understood. I was told by a publisher the portion that spoke so strongly to that beta reader would be taken out if I accepted their contract offer for the series. A second publisher told me the very same thing as they didn’t think it was necessary to the story.

But God.

It is the messages I get from readers who God has spoken to… the readers who have said, months after having read my novels, “Your story and the characters still haven’t left my mind. They are so real, their issues are so real, but I’m not left hanging wondering how things are resolved.” Or the gal who went through the same trauma my first heroine did, and contacted me, so I’d know it was Candi’s story that caused her to seek counseling.

When I’m stalled in a story, God brings Psalm 46:10 to mind, or I get a message about a previous book, and I straighten up and pray for readers who may someday, by God’s guidance, get one of my novels and be touched by something within it… something that causes them to seek the Lord.

6: If anyone could portray your favorite character, who would it be?

Cameron (Cam) Reynolds, the hero in Kept for Her, would be portrayed by Gospel singer, Guy Penrod when he was a younger man. I’ve seen the Bill Gaither videos of Guy with his family, my husband and I have attended several of his concerts, and his looks, his testimony, his view of family, and what he’s taught his children, all come together to make a perfect hero.

Secrets ~ Were they truly KEPT FOR HER?

Dr. Cameron (Cam) Reynolds has a secret he is keeping tucked away, so his sister’s laughter will not be silenced. His life revolves around his extended family, the OB/GYN practice, and the horse breeding business enterprise he is building up to honor his parents. Cam believes no woman will want him and thinks he has no need for one in his very busy life.

Dr. Georgianna (George) Zeller has a secret she is keeping tucked inside rather than allowing it to taint how others may see her. She lives in a small Michigan village, works with her veterinarian uncle to pacify her former aspiration to practice equine medicine on a Kentucky horse farm.

Holding onto secrets, Cam watches his plans take a slight detour, while George senses hers going awry again.
Is it possible they might find a God-purposed way of releasing their secrets and allow Him to lead them to joy in their respective journeys?

Bio:

Joy Avery Melville’s heart’s desire is to be the author God has called her to be by sharing Him with readers in such a way they long to have a deeply committed personal relationship with Jesus Christ as Lord.

Fully intending to write Historical Romance—had in fact— she didn’t want to deviate from that. God had different plans for that ‘call’ He’d made on her life back in 1967. A mere eighth grader at the time, she had no clue about the topics she’d be drawn to write about.

Surrendering to the genre God placed on her heart in 2011 has given Joy new insight into the hearts and lives of those who too often hurt in silence.

The settings of Joy’s books are near where she lives in Schoolcraft, Michigan with her husband of 51 years and their Yorkie, Is-A-Bella Bindi, (Is-a-beautiful little girl) who thinks she’s really a miniature German Shepherd.

Joy loves to hear from readers. She can be contacted through her website, Facebook, or by email, and she also has a presence on Twitter.

Website: https://www.joyaverymelville.com (Sign up for Joy’s newsletter here)

Facebook Personal Page: http://facebook.com/joy.averymelville

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Journeystojoy

Email:  joyjournaling@protonmail.com