Which character(s) surprised you the most writing this book?
That’s hard! They each revealed things to me that I didn’t expect.
I think ultimately it was Delilah. The outright bitterness she had toward her daughter, Sparrow, because of the death of her son was a burden to me. I personally had a hard time shaking her grief off my shoulders. It really did feel heavy and cumbersome and like a snake that wouldn’t let go.
Sometimes she would make me so angry, but my desperation for her to find hope to reconnect with Sparrow was what drove me. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but the intermingling of forgiveness and hope and letting grief have its natural course broke me more than once as I wrote it.
What do you hope readers take away after reading The Solace of Water?
I have never written a book with the intention to teach someone or to prove some point, so I can only tell you what I learned. I learned that I’m not as good as I think I am. But I in the same breath, I don’t seem to love well the person God is growing me to be—instead I fight with Him too much.
I learned that bitterness will destroy everything it touches. I learned that withholding forgiveness is never worth it. I learned that the person on the other side of that inflammatory Facebook post has a story behind that post—it’s usually worth hearing. I learned so much.
Why is storytelling such a powerful way to share truth?
I think the best way to answer this is with what an Amazon reviewer said about The Solace of Water: “I love when an author uses their gift to take readers to a place they have never experienced. But when they close the last page they feel as though they have exchanged shoes and walked a journey unknown.”
I think that encompasses why hard stories are so important. I get to walk in someone else’s shoes as I write it, and then offer that journey to readers. It builds understanding and ultimately love for those we encounter.
Elizabeth explains the challenges of writing characters with a different frame of reference–click through…