Purpose
-to bring to life how God woo’d his people to choose Him and later enter into covenant with them (a betrothal). Basically, He relentlessly pursued His people’s loyalty, making a show of Himself against the competition to prove to them and all nations who He is: God above all gods, and that He is trustworthy and faithful.
-to show why God (and Pharoah) hardened Pharoah’s heart. The title comes straight from Exodus 9.
-to set the stage for AS A BRIDE IN THE WILDERNESS, which is what I really wanted to write. (Title from Jeremiah 2:2)
First draft written May-July 2021
The Choosing of the Names
Eliza: a particular name I’ve come to love. I had asked Adam one night what should the name of my Hebrew female main character be, and off the bat he said “Elizabeth”, so I went with Eliza.
Seti: Went through a list of ancient Egyptian names. This one is generic enough but also means “Seth” which I thought would be a good Egyptian/Hebrew transfer once he becomes fully integrated in Hebrew society. The meaning: “appointed” for “Seth” is useful for the sequel. The fact that it is also the name of Osiris’ nemesis has fun irony for the character.
Adam and Zechariah: my sons Adam and Zackary
Miera: Started out as Emma. Obviously had to change that. Went to Eliora, a character from a book I like, but too close to Eliza. So out of a name list, I chose Miera.
Sabu: wanted something short and easy to pronounce from the Egyptian name list.
Ameneten: a rendition of Amenhotep
Kabelo: sponsored child I promised to include in the story
Rahel: started out as Rebecca but changed to Rahel because once names changed to Hebrew form, I still wanted them easy to say/pronounce. The name of my first reader is also Rachel.
All other names randomly chosen from lists.
Setting
-I strongly follow the early Exodus timeline (1500’s BC).
-Goshen/Egypt: The only way I could council the fact that the Hebrews had homes in Goshen (spared by the plagues) while they also worked as slaves was to establish a day/time which the slaves were allowed to go home. Though some could just walk home for the night, most the time it was too far, so they slept onsite.
-this, of course, is just an idea, so I only made it applicable to a select few (those purchased by private Egyptian owners) whereas the majority (government slaves) did not have this luxury.
-This also allowed the old and babies to remain in Goshen.
Journey
First written in 2021 with an emphasis on the setting (my goal was to write like Francine Rivers), it came out to 147,000 words long (about 420 pages), which is way too long for an unknown author’s first book. I was unaware of this and sent it out to several agents, where it was auto-rejected due to length. My dream agent was kind enough to inform me on the reason. A debut author’s first book should be under 100,000 (even less for other genres) words to even be considered.
So the emphasis changed to be character driven, leading to the cutting of needless descriptions. After rounds of critiques at ACFW’s Scribes and Scribophile.com, the Red Sea chapters cut out, and better word choices (stronger but less words) (thankyou everyone who helped!), the word-count came down to 97,000 words (about 280 pages). All that took another year and a half.
In 2023 an author friend (thank you Lynne!) suggested I submit it to the Scrivening’s Get-Pubbed contest. I submitted under the title “From the Iron Furnace” and used my real name. It became a finalist but didn’t win. But that was encouragement to keep trying. I didn’t submit to be published there because they want me to have a huge social media following, which I don’t have.
I sent it out again at the beginning of 2024 to my dream agent at the Steve Laube Agency. She responded in June, asking for my full manuscript (which means I’ve passed the first step). In August of 2024, she responded, saying she liked it and to give her more time because she was not sure she could pitch it to publishers yet. She said that it would be difficult, but she’s not afraid of difficult. By late November, she got back to me, saying it wasn’t going to work. I was quite disappointed but yet encouraged that it had made it as far as it did, and that she had even considered it. So I submitted it to a few smaller publishing companies, and right away, they got back to me saying Biblical-era Fiction was too hard of a pitch for the current market, especially since I have no following.
Beginning of 2025, I submitted both books to ACFW’s Genesis contest and began the process of self-publishing by hiring an editor. In May, “For This Very Purpose” had become a semi-finalist in the contest, which meant I couldn’t self-publish, because the contest was for unpublished authors. I had to wait until the winner was announced at the ACFW conference in September. By this time, both books had been copy-edited, and the first one was proof-read.
The ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) conference was in Springfield, Missouri, and very expensive. I otherwise wouldn’t have gone if not for the contest. ACFW is one of the biggest Christian fiction groups/promoters of the nation, maybe even the world (people flew in from Europe). My mom and I flew there to attend the whole thing. I didn’t make Finalist and actually learned that I had basically no chance of getting picked up by my dream publishers: Baker Book House, Bethany House, or Zondervan, (even Kregal turned me down) because of my lack of platform. I learned that to make it to one of those publishers, you have to already be huge, and then if they accept you, it still takes about 2 years to get your book published. The conference was a huge let-down for me. I even skipped the gala. I spoke with famous authors, agents, and editors, even with Steve Laube himself. All told me the same thing. Fat chance. But the representative for Bethany House pointed me to Cynthia Hickey, a big-time author who had started her own publishing company: Winged Publications. She was the only one who showed any interest. She didn’t require an agent or a huge social media following. She asked for my submission, which I sent as soon as I got home, and lo and behold, she wanted to publish both books. Contract signed within 2 weeks of the conference.