I’m editing one of our authors whose book is near completion, and he has reached the turning point. Betrayed by a friend, he resigns his ministerial post — even though he’s been fully exonerated — because he knows the gossip will never die.

He leaves the ministry, begins running a motel back in 1972 in West Memphis, Ark. He sells it in a year, realizing it’s not enough to support his wife and four children. He signs on with a personnel firm, but within four weeks, he is highly uncomfortable with the owner’s business practices. Our author quits.

He goes home to find his home cleaned out and thinks it’s burglars. Then he realizes it’s his children’s photos, his wife’s clothes, the furnishings, the dishes — and he understands his wife has left with the kids.

But here’s a man who grew up poor in Alabama. He knows hard work. He works three jobs to clear his debts. He creates two new businesses and does well. He returns to the ministry. His wife moves back with the kids.

But this is a winding life’s journey — a divorce follows. I don’t know the details yet — he’s still writing! He eventually remarries, and his wife  is killed in a car accident along with two of their children, hit by a drunk driver two miles from their home. And yet, he holds to his faith.

What a story! I can hardly wait to read the rest of it, and I’m the editor.