I’m often asked how much of what I write is based on true events. I’d be lying if I said my writing is never influenced by life experiences. Sometimes a true event inspires a book. Such was the case of The Stone Giver.
One of my closest friends shared a story with me one day. It was about a sermon and a stone. As I listened, a feeling of warmth spread throughout my body. Inspired by what she shared, I knew I had to write a book. Of course the book would be fiction, but she provided the inspiration for the book by sharing the story of what happened one Sunday morning.
But let’s back up. At first, she simply asked me to check out a website she had come across. As soon as I did, I knew it wasn’t a website she had inadvertently stumbled upon, but one she had created. She was shy about it at first, not wanting to take credit for something she thought was a gift from God. But eventually she shared the story and her dreams of creating a foundation that would help others, using the stone and the ripples it creates as a metaphor.
I couldn’t get her story out of my mind. And then one night at dinner, she told me how she was going to a veterans hospital to give the patients stones. She wanted to give them something tangible to hold and keep as a reminder of the difference they'd made. That’s when I started thinking about a book that involved a veteran and a special stone.
That night, I went home and wrote the opening lines:
Jack looked down at his legs. They were gone. A river of blood formed under him. He writhed in agony as the searing pain coursed through his broken body. Bloodcurdling screams boiled around him.
The Stone Giver is about a woman who has lost her way and a man crippled by war. It’s about love and loss, and overcoming life’s challenges, whatever they might be. It’s about the resilience of the human spirit and the determination to overcome the darkness in our lives. And it’s about you and me and the difference we can make in someone else’s life by simply caring. A smile. A kind word. A stone that reminds us of the ripples we create.
I hope you check out this book, but more importantly that you check out causearipple.com.
Thank you, Sharon, for being such a great friend and for sharing your story with me. I hope that it finds its way onto bookshelves everywhere and that it helps in your mission to create a foundation that causes ripples for years to come.