The Story Spark ~ Part 2

Tari Faris

Part 2

. . .What was the reason Libby came to town?

I live in the Phoenix area now, but I grew up in a small town in Michigan, and I make it a priority to visit my hometown every summer. Part of it is because I love to escape the summer heat, and part of it is because I love the pace and rhythm of small-town life.

 

When I was considering what Heritage needed in town, my mind traveled back to some of my favorite memories as a child when I would go to reading hour at the local library. Back then, the local library of our small town was actually in the town hall, just like in Heritage—although it wasn’t in the basement. However, years ago, it was moved from the town hall to the old firehouse that had been updated to a larger location.

 

I hadn’t mentioned a library in Heritage in You Belong with Me but adding a library with part of the grant money made sense so that gave me a reason for Libby to come to town to be the Librarian.

 

As I was beginning to write Until I Met You, I attended a community picnic in my town park where  they have situated an old one room schoolhouse in one corner. It is picturesque and as I stood there, taking in the park and schoolhouse, I knew it was exactly what Heritage needed. A library in the one-room schoolhouse. And if I dropped the one-room schoolhouse in the middle of the square that Austin was supposed to design, we would have instant conflict.

 

There is the long and the short of how I got the story spark for Until I Met You. So, dive in and see how all these pieces come together in a little town named Heritage.

Tari Faris is the author of You Belong with Me. A member of American Christian Fiction Writers and My Book Therapy, she is the projects manager for My Book Therapy, writes for learnhowtowriteanovel.com, and is a 2017 Genesis Award winner. She has an MDiv from Asbury Theological Seminary and lives in the Phoenix, Arizona, area with her husband and their three children. Although she lives in the Southwest now, she lived in a small town in Michigan for twenty-five years..