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Episode 27 of the Ideas to Books Podcast features an interview with Biblical Fiction author Barbara Britton.
Meet Barbara:
Barbara M. Britton was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, but currently lives in Southeast Wisconsin and loves the snow—when it accumulates under three inches. Barb writes romantic adventures for teens and adults in the Christian fiction and Mainstream markets. She is published in Biblical fiction and enjoys bringing little known Bible characters to light in her stories.
She is a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, Romance Writers of America and Wisconsin Romance Writers of America. She has a nutrition degree from Baylor University but loves to dip healthy strawberries in chocolate.
About Barbara’s newest book – Jerusalem Rising:
Nehemiah challenges the men of Jerusalem to labor on the wall and in return, the names of their fathers will be written in the annals for future generations to cherish. But Adah has one sister and no brothers. Should her father who rules a half-district of Jerusalem be forgotten forever?
Adah bravely vows to rebuild her city’s wall, though she soon discovers that Jerusalem not only has enemies outside of the city, but also within. Can Adah, her sister, and the men they love, honor God’s call? Or will their mission be crushed by the same rocks they hope to raise.
How Barbara got the idea for Jerusalem Rising:
I have taught the story of Nehemiah rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem many times over the years. I had my Vacation Bible School students kick over brown paper wrapped boxes and restack them. I dressed like Nehemiah and told of his bravery going before King Artaxerxes to ask for an extended leave and supplies to rebuild the wall. I had my classes “Boo” Sanballat and Tobiah for bullying Nehemiah. But I totally missed the list of builders in Nehemiah, chapter three, where the daughters of Shallum are listed as builders of the wall. Are these the first female construction workers listed in the Bible? How come the daughters of Shallum weren’t in my Sunday School materials? Well, now they have their own novel.
We don’t know how many daughters of Shallum worked on the wall. No husbands are listed for these girls, so they are most likely young, unmarried women. I gave them the names Adah and Judith and brought to life what it might have been like working alongside men to raise the wall of their city. Men and women didn’t co-mingle much in public in Bible times, so this a pretty big deal to have women recognized for all of us to see—many, many years later.
Nehemiah allowed the daughters of Shallum to labor on the wall. He noted their achievement in his writing for all of us to see. Kudos to Nehemiah, son of Hacaliah, for highlighting these “Wonder Women.”
And the next time I see a list of names in the Bible, I’m not going to race through the pronunciations. There just may be another book in those lists.
Book trailer for the Tribes of Israel series:
Where to purchase Barbara’s books:
Connect with Barbara:
- Barbara’s website
- Barbara’s Facebook Author Page
- Follow Barbara on Twitter
- Follow Barbara on GoodReads
- Barbara’s Amazon Author Page
Sponsor for this episode – The Coloring Book for Writers: Scenes of Life Edition
This coloring workbook begins with helps for brainstorming, including a proven technique for writing your story’s premise. The next section shares scene elements and gives tips on how to use a scene’s outcome to keep readers turning those pages. The remainder of the book contains 75 Story Starter mini-worksheets, each with a coordinating coloring page. The Story Starter topics in this book are, for the most part, all normal parts of life. Have fun by using the brainstorming/premise-writing concepts taught in the opening section to come up with interesting story ideas from these everyday scenes of life.