MEMORIES OF GLASS - Melanie Dobson - One Free Book

Welcome back, Melanie. As an author, I know it takes a lot of people to birth each book. Who were the people involved in the birthing of this book, and what were their contributions?

An entire labor unit worked alongside me to birth this book! It began with my friend Ann Menke urging me to check out the story behind a series of mines in The Netherlands. Then the courageous Johan van Hulst who was 107 when I wrote this book and many other Dutch friends who contributed by sharing the history of their family or helping me straighten out my facts. My critique partners gave me honest feedback as I rewrote this novel and then the editorial team at Tyndale House who was phenomenal at helping me sort through my many threads.

If you teach or speak. What’s coming up on your calendar?

I love to teach! I’m speaking in two weeks at a chapter of the Pacific Northwest Association of Church Librarians and then on October 1 at the ACFW group in Vancouver, Washington. In November, I’ll be speaking at the Olympic Peninsula Christian Writers Conference (https://www.opcwc.com/).

If you had to completely start over in another place, where would you move, and why?

My husband and I did this exact thing almost twenty years ago as newlyweds. Before we had children, we decided to move from Virginia to a mountain town in southwestern Colorado. Just for fun. In hindsight, it was a bit crazy, but we had a wonderful year. I was just building my PR and writing business, and Jon wanted to launch an animation company. We hiked to multiple ghost towns during our year and dreamed about the future and worked like crazy. God used this season in the Rocky Mountains to grow our marriage and launch our dreams.

Sounds wonderful. If you could only tell aspiring novelists one thing, what would it be?

Years ago, I watched an interview with a bestselling novelist, and I was shocked when the woman said she was a “horrible” writer. She quickly followed up this up by saying that while she was a horrible writer, she was a fabulous re-writer. 

At the time, I was talking frequently about writing and thinking about it even more. The problem was that I was not actually doing much writing because I was terrified I would fail. And if I failed, it would be the death of my dream. Once I realized my first draft didn’t have to be perfect, I let go of my fears and began scribbling down my thoughts and eventually scenes onto paper. Then I reworked and polished for several years until I had a clean manuscript to send off to a publisher.

So my advice to aspiring novelists is to write! Study the craft and then sit down with a computer or laptop or device and begin pouring out the first draft. Later you can think about the editing and ultimately publishing of your manuscript.

You’ve been asked to be in charge of a celebrity cruise. Who would you ask to take part, and why? (AS in what program, singers, etc. [it doesn’t have to be writing related])

Almost everything in my life is writing related. J I would probably organize a cruise to ports across Europe and invite writers and locals to share the history and stories of each city that we visited. My idea of a perfect cruise would be endless pots of tea and a quiet space with an ocean view to write so I wouldn’t be much of a help in coordinating any shows!

Tell us about the featured book.

Memories of Glass is a time-slip novel inspired by the Dutch men and women during World War II who rescued more than six hundred Jewish children from a deportation center in Amsterdam. Almost eighty years later, Ava Drake, the director of the prestigious Kingston Foundation, begins to uncover the devastating story about her family’s role in financing Hitler. As she and a child advocate named Landon West dig into the past, Ava discovers that her story is intertwined with the West family and an elderly Dutch woman who has spent a lifetime remembering a boy who was lost during the war. A boy she never expected to find.

I have a time-slip novel percolating in my brain right now. Please give us the first page of Memories of Glass.

Brilliant color flickered across her canvas of wall. Sunflower yellow and luster of orange. Violet folded into crimson. A shimmer like the North Sea with its greens and blues.

Most of the walls in her bungalow were filled with treasures of artwork and photographs and books, but this pale-cream plaster was reserved solely for the light, a grand display cast through the prisms of antique bottles that once held perfume or bitters or medicine from long ago.

The colors reminded her of the tulip fields back home, their magnificent hues blossoming in sunlight, filling the depths of her soul with the brilliance of the artist’s brush. Spring sunshine was rare in Oregon, but when it came, she slipped quietly into this room to watch the dance of light.

Sixty-eight bottles glowed light from shelves around her den, their glass stained emerald or amber or Holland’s Delft blue. Or transparent with tiny cuts detailing the crystal.

These wounds of an engraver—the master of all craftsmen with his diamond tools—made the prettiest colors of all.

Only one of the bottles was crimson. She lifted it carefully off the shelf and traced the initials etched on the silver lid, the ridges molded down each side, as she lowered herself back into her upholstered chair.

All of them she treasured, but this one . . .

This bottle held a special place in her heart.

I’m eager to read your book. It will go at the top of my to-be-read pile when it arrives. Where can we find you on the Internet?

I really enjoy connecting with readers. The best places to find me are on Facebook and Twitter (@MelBDobson) as well as on my website— http://www.melaniedobson.com.

Thank you, Melanie, for sharing this new book with us.

Readers, here are links to the book.

Memories of Glass - Christianbook.com
Memories of Glass - Amazon paperback
Memories of Glass - Kindle
Memories of Glass - Audiobook

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