ON A WESTERN TRAIL

Janet Chester Bly in office

Janet Chester Bly
Copyright©2013


This morning I was helping gals from our small church take down the Christmas decorations and do overall cleaning of the building. While mopping the bathrooms, a memory of long ago came to mind.

Aimee Semple McPherson

Back in the early 1970s while hubby attended Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, we also served as youth workers in a northeast Los Angeles church that provided housing. We also helped with part-time church facility housekeeping.



One day when I was dusting an upstairs library room, I felt the strangest sensation and was drawn to one of the books: an autobiography, The Story of My Life by Aimee Semple McPherson. Perhaps because I was in a Foursquare Church (her denomination) not far from Angelus Temple, the church she founded?

I began to read her story right then. This controversial, daring woman of faith fascinated me. Now, decades later, I thought of her again ... and one of the characters I was writing about in my WIP. Emilene Charpentier ... she's like Aimee ...and I didn't realize it until this moment.

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I'm working on an epistolary novel set in the 1800s. Have you ever read an epistolary novel? If so, which one was your favorite? I'd really like to know. Send me a note at janet(at)blybooks(dot)com.