I was attending a conference — don’t remember what it was even about.  But I’ll never forget the conversation I had with my roommate one night..

“You’ve just got to write this woman’s story,” Mimi urged. “Katharine Bushnell has been lost to  history. She made a great contribution advocating for justice and equality for women, backed by years of study of the Bible and few people know about her.”

I laughed off Mimi’s suggestions. But the challenge had been planted in my mind.  I hadn’t acquiesced yet, but I wanted to know more about this women. When I began researching and reading about Katharine Bushnell, I couldn’t find personal  letters, or journals, or detailed accounts from people who had known her.

Discouraged, I made an  appointment with  a literary  agent  to ask his advice.  “Simple,” he said.  “Write it as historical fiction.” Voila! I could do that  I had all the facts of her life for the framework of the story — and fiction gave me the freedom to expand on that framework with how I think Kate would have acted.

Kate became so  real and alive, even my twenty-three-year-old grandson read the story and wrote: “Katharine is a fascinating character…It’s fascinating in part to see someone so determined to heal and fulfill her calling that she abandons the familiar.  It strikes of yearning for more, for both herself and people she serves”

Wow. Kate, as she has become to me, could even touch the heart of a young male adult. She was  was worth writing about. And your reading Daughters of Deliverance!