Interview With Melanie Dobson, Plus Giveaway, Day One

Some of the best friendships begin when we least expect them. I first met Melanie Dobson in the early 1990s at a trade convention for religious broadcasting industry. Thus began our friendship that has grown over the years despite the physical distance between us.

At that annual convention, we would often meet for breakfast and talk about writing and our dreams to become published fiction authors. While I’ve yet to realize my dream, I’m happy to report that Melanie is already an award-winning author of nine contemporary and historical novels including The Silent Order and her latest Love Finds You in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. Melanie was the corporate publicity manager at Focus on the Family before she launched a public relations business in 1999. She now writes fiction fulltime so she can work at home. Melanie and her husband Jon have two daughters, and they live outside Portland, Oregon.

Melanie has graciously agreed to give away one copy of Love Finds You in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. To be eligible for the drawing, leave a comment today or tomorrow. The winner will be announced Thursday. Open to U.S. residents only.

Today, Melanie will talk a bit about her family and life as a writer at home.

Tell me a bit about your family. How old are your children now?

Jon and I married in Colorado Springs, Colo., thirteen years ago. We have two adopted girls named Karly and Kiki. They are seven- and eight-years-old now and keep us entertained around the clock.

Why did you choose to work from home rather than find a job elsewhere?

For many years, my husband did contract work for film and animation companies, which meant we traveled around the United States and even to Germany for his job. Instead of trying to find work each time we moved, I started a public-relations business from home in 1999. During that time, I also slowly began to pursue my dream of writing fiction as well. We adopted our first daughter in 2003, and the next year, I signed my first contract for a novel. I’ve been writing fiction ever since.

You started working from home before you had children. What challenges did working from home present to your marriage, and how did you compensate?

My greatest challenge with working at home before I had children was that I lived in my office. It didn’t feel at all like a home. When we were on the East Coast, my phone would ring late at night from clients and media on the West Coast. And there was—and still is—just one more project to do or email to write in the evenings.

Before we had children, Jon and I would often go away for the weekend to camp or stay at a bed-and-breakfast to escape the home office. Now I try not to work after the girls come home from school, though I still find myself working after they go to bed.

Don’t forget to tune in tomorrow to read about how Melanie finds time to write and what’s she working on next.

Love Finds You in Nazareth, Pennsylvania

Christian and Susanna Boehler had never spoken when they were chosen by lot to marry in a Moravian community in Germany. But in 1754, they travel to Pennsylvania with a dozen other newly married couples to establish the settlement of Nazareth and share their faith with the surrounding Indian nations. Just as Susanna’s heart begins to warm toward her husband, she learns that he had asked to marry another woman—and that he loves her still. As war rages between the British and French Indians and their young marriage faces hardship, will Susanna and Christian remain strangers in marriage, or will their hearts finally be united in love?