Help me welcome author and blogger Ellen Fannon as she shares about her very first book she wrote. And read all the way through to learn how you can enter a random drawing to win a free ebook.

Honor Thy Father is my favorite of all the novels I’ve written. The book was a thirty-five-year work in progress, so I’ve come to think of all my characters as real people. When I first wrote the novel back in 1987, I didn’t know the first thing about publishing, and, as I’ve come to learn, not that much about writing, either. I submitted it to every publisher I could find, which, at that time, had to be done by snail mail. I still have the list, along with all the rejections. I shelved the project for a while, although periodically, I dusted it off, looked it over, and made changes. At the time I wrote Honor Thy Father, it was stored on the old floppy discs, which I later had to convert to usable files.

Many years later, I decided if I was going to seriously try to publish my writing, I wanted it to be God-honoring. So, I completely rewrote the book making it Christian-based. Again, I tried to find a publisher, although this time, doing the work online, made the job easier. Again, I had the same results. Then I went to a Christian writers’ conference and learned how much I didn’t know about writing. I revised the book again, incorporating the tips and techniques I learned. Then I revised it several more times and obtained professional critiques and critiques from my Destin Word Weavers Christian writing group.

I was blessed to find a traditional publisher, Winged Publications, who finally brought my dream to fruition. The only problem was the book was too long and had to be split into two volumes. Personally, I don’t like it when authors write a book that leaves readers dangling at the end so they have to read the next book in the series to get closure. But there I was—in the same situation, so Honor Thy Father was split into episodes one and two.

The story centers around a family that is separated by a series of unfortunate circumstances. The book then follows each character through the next twenty-five years, telling the story from each main character’s point of view. Almost every chapter ends with a cliffhanger, so the reader has to wait to find out what happened to that character unless he/she cheats and skips ahead. When the patriarch of the family needs a life-saving bone marrow transplant, the family must come together and put aside misunderstandings and bitterness. 

Each character must learn to overcome adversity through faith and hard work, and ultimately, each character changes and grows. Honor Thy Father is a compelling story of loss, forgiveness, and redemption, and how God can turn tragedy into triumph.

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About Honor Thy Father:

Why should Adam’s daughters, with whom he hasn’t had contact for twenty-five years, honor him now when he needs a life-saving bone marrow transplant? Why should his son, who was kicked out of the house, honor his father? Is there any hope of reconciliation when twenty-five years of anger, bitterness, and divergent pathways have led family members down different roads of life? Honor Thy Father is the compelling story of loss and redemption and how God can turn tragedy into triumph.

How does a family survive after being torn apart? Adam Wallace copes with the heartbreaking loss of his wife and daughters by immersing himself in his work. Charlotte withdraws from everyone and everything around her. Dana, living a life of privilege, does not even realize her loss. Katrina copes by trying to make everyone else happy. Scott copes by rebellion. Ultimately, they all come to realize that God can work through every situation to make beauty out of ashes.

Links to Honor Thy Father: https://www.amazon.com/Honor-Thy-Father-Ellen-Fannon/dp/1959788027

            https://www.amazon.com/Honor-Thy-Father-Ellen-Fannon/dp/1959788256

A Peek Inside Honor Thy Father:

CHAPTER ONE

CHARLOTTE

The letter that forever changed Charlotte’s life arrived in the morning’s mail. Charlotte, however, did not see it until eleven forty-five.

At exactly twenty minutes before twelve, after spending the morning in her little greenhouse, where she passed the hours repotting plants and clearing away accumulated debris, she walked into the kitchen, carefully wiping her feet on the mat just inside the door. A glance at the teapot-shaped wall clock told her she still had fifteen minutes to clean up and get lunch ready before Patrick arrived home from kindergarten. Enough time to sift through the mail which lay strewn by the front door under the mail slot. Perhaps today she would receive something from her publisher. No, she noted, with a tinge of disappointment, no familiar Greenleaf envelope.

But wait, what was this? As she picked up the letter, a strange sense of unease worked its way up Charlotte’s spine. Although merely a simple white envelope, foreboding pressed in on her, causing her stomach to roil. The return address bore no name, only an unknown street in Los Angeles. The unfamiliar handwriting with Charlotte’s name and address provided no clue as to the sender.

With shaking hands, she tore open the envelope and removed the letter.

Dear Charlotte, it began. She skipped to the bottom. The signature read, Your stepmother, Katrina Wallace. Her heart fluttered erratically and seemed to drop to her stomach. Her stepmother? Who was this strange woman who presumed such a relationship? She hurriedly scanned the body of the letter.

I know this letter will come as a shock to you, and I deeply apologize for the disruption of your life. Your father does not know about this, or he would never have allowed me to contact you. But I have no other choice and I am desperate. Your father has been quite ill. He has a highly fatal form of leukemia. Although he is now in remission, the doctors have given him only a five percent chance of remaining there. His only hope at this point is to undergo whole-body radiation and a bone marrow transplant from a close relative.

It is risky for him, but there are no other alternatives.

Please help us, Charlotte. Your father desperately needs you. Even if you do not prove to be a suitable bone marrow donor for him, at least come and make peace with him. It means everything to both of us and although you may not realize it, it is important for you, as well. All your expenses will be covered, of course.

I am praying for you and anxiously await your reply.

The same Los Angeles address and a phone number were underneath the signature.

In the short minute that followed the revelation contained within the words penned on paper, her routine day and her safe, carefully constructed world spiraled out of its comfortable orbit.

Still unable to fathom the depth of this request, Charlotte stared at the letter in her hand with a sense of unreality as her brain struggled to process what she had just read. How could this be happening to her now? Hadn’t she put her father out of her mind years ago? She had gone on, despite everything, and made a happy life with Jeff and Patrick. Why couldn’t the past be left in the past?

About Ellen:

Award-winning author, Ellen Fannon, is a retired veterinarian, former missionary, and church pianist/organist. She and her retired Air Force pilot-turned-pastor husband have fostered more than forty children, and have two adopted sons. She has published six novels, and her stories have appeared in One Christian Voice, Chicken Soup for the Soul, Divine Moments, and Guideposts; and her devotions have appeared in Open Windows, Guideposts All God’s Creatures, and The Secret Place. 

Please visit Ellen’s blog, Good For a Laugh, and sign up to follow her weekly blog at: https://ellenfannonauthor.com/subscribe/