Until the Day Breaks (California Rising Book 1) (37 page)

So back to planting my first garden. While growing that garden and taking care of our three young children, I began to grow another baby. On bedrest with my fourth baby, God whispered, “You can write again.”

I was thrilled! By the time I gave birth, I’d finished my first attempt at a Christian novel, but I tucked that book—a murder mystery set on a peach farm—away and kept reading the Bible. After having a fifth baby, I contacted a Christian literary agent, Les Stobbe. I found him in the library in a book listing all the Christian agents. I said a prayer and chose Les because I liked what he said in his bio.

Les and I immediately hit it off, probably because when he called out of the blue one morning, I was shocked to hear a man’s voice introduce himself as Leslie Stobbe. I’d assumed Leslie was a woman—I wanted a female literary agent—and here Les was telling me how much he liked my writing and that I needed to get email. “Writers today correspond by Internet, not snail mail,” he informed me. This was 2005. I told Scott that night I needed to learn how to use email pronto. So I took over our joint account, the account only Scott used until that day, and P.S. Bicknell was born. Scott opened another email account using just his initials.

Les and I later laughed about him being a man with a woman’s name, and then he did his best to sell my first Christian novel after warning me it was probably too secular for the Christian market.

Les was right, that book didn’t sell, so I got to work rewriting my California historical romance novel with the plan of turning it into a series of three novels. Les loved the storyline and suggested the California Rising series name. Thank you, Les, California Rising was perfect! You are a great encourager to writers and a wonderful man of God. I love you and am so thankful for you!

When the rejections began pouring in on
Until the Day Breaks
, Les wasn’t discouraged. One editor gave Les an earful because Roman had damned God in the story. I grew up with people who’d damned God on a regular basis, men who kicked down doors when they were angry, and I watched one of these men give his life to Christ on his deathbed. Jesus graciously forgave this man, my grandpa, and took him home to heaven, and I didn’t get why I couldn’t write about real men like this in my novels.

I wanted to write raw and honest, and I figured if it was in the Bible, I could put it in my stories. So I wrote another book, a contemporary novel, and that story didn’t go over well with editors because incest was in the storyline. The Bible covers incest, so I didn’t get why I couldn’t write about it. Maybe I wasn’t writing this stuff the right way, but if you’ve read this far, hopefully you’re okay with how I write. I love history, and I love Jesus, and I love writing about sinners who really meet the Savior and it stops them in their tracks.

This happened to me. At thirty-three-years-old, I had a personal encounter with Jesus. If you haven’t met Jesus, I’m hoping with all my heart that you do. Jesus loves you so much that he died for you. It’s not a joke. It’s not a tale. It’s the truth. And it’s for you.

I want to thank my daughters, Cami and Lacy, for pushing me to publish this novel. For the past several years when I’ve asked Cami what she wanted for her birthday, she has said, “I want you to make
Until the Day Breaks
into a book for me.”

I never intended do anything more with this novel after it was rejected by Christian publishers nearly a decade ago because I didn’t want to change it for the Christian market, and honestly, I was afraid it might offend Christians, so I thought it better to keep it tucked away in my computer. But I wrote a memoir last year that Scott has decided he’s putting on Amazon. I was hoping to sell this memoir to traditional publishers, but like my other books, my story doesn’t quite fit the Christian market.

“You need to give me one of your novels to practice with on Amazon before we publish your memoir,” Scott said a few months ago. The thought horrified me. Practicing with my novels on Amazon sounded about like going to church without my pants on. I cried, I prayed, I did everything I could to convince my husband this was the dumbest idea ever, but I’ve never been able to say “no” to Scott for long. He’s the love of my life, my great romance. This is why I chose Paula Scott for my pen name.

“Pick a novel,” Scott ordered. “We are going to Amazon with your books this year.”

The Bible says to obey your husband, so I chose
Until the Day Breaks
for Cami and Lacy. I figured if nobody else enjoyed the book at least my girls would appreciate it, and this could be Cami’s birthday present. So happy twenty-fifth birthday, Cami! Thank you for being so sweet, so strong, and so persistent. Rachel reminds me so much of you, honey. And thank you, Lacy. That vein in Rachel’s forehead is your vein, and when I picture Rachel’s eyes, I see your big, beautiful blue-green eyes my precious girl.

I need to thank my critique partners, Michelle Shocklee and Katherine Scott Jones, for all your help working the kinks out of the story. I met you ladies at my first Christian writers’ conference but came home from that conference so discouraged about my writing, not realizing meeting you ladies was an incredible gift. At that conference, I also met Lisa Buffaloe, my beloved writing prayer partner, and Jeff Gerke, who helped me typeset this book. Jeff was a publishing house editor at the time, and I was so nervous I introduced myself to him as Les Stobbe’s agent. Jeff laughed and told me to relax. Thanks, Jeff!

How blessed I was at that conference and didn’t even know it!

Also, a mountain of thanks to Kay Andrus, my daily prayer partner. Can’t live without you, Miss Kay! To Laura Frantz, my dear soul sister, our phone talks and prayers are my favorite! And a shout-out to my brilliant editor, Jenny Q of Historical Editorial. Thanks for all your help, Jenny. Looking forward to working with you on book number two. You’re amazing!