Jennifer Dornbush has graciously offered to give away a paperback copy of this new release. You can enter by using the Rafflecopter link at the end of the post. (Giveaway ends November 17, 2017. If you are the randomly chosen winner, I'll contact you and pass on your information.)
God Bless the
Broken Road is a heartwarming story about a grieving army widow who finds her
way back to her daughter, her faith, and a new love. Amber Hill never imagined
she would find herself a war widow and single mom. She feels robbed and is
angry at God, and she doesn’t know how to help her nine-year-old daughter Bree
through her grief. Where, Amber wonders, are the Sunday dinners, the picnics,
the bike rides, the time together they should be enjoying as a family? Instead,
Amber is left with a folded flag and an empty heart.
Cody Jackson has a
death wish. Or at least that is what his manager thinks, as Cody pushes his
race car and his luck in every race. Is he hiding something, or just daring God
and other racers to end the path of destruction he finds himself on as he
rounds the last turn? When Cody encourages Bree to join in a Derby car race for
local youth, she finds a way to channel her grief into something good—and she
likes that her mom and Cody are starting to become friends—or maybe something more.
Cody invites Amber
and Bree to see him race, but as they watch Cody narrowly escape a devastating
crash, she realizes she can’t lose another person in her life. It’s better to
be alone than feel that type of grief again. But when Amber hits rock-bottom,
she cries out to God and asks for help. With her faith, her life, her family,
and her heart hanging in the balance, Amber is forced to decide between the
broken road she knows so well and trusting that God will provide a new
path. Based on the Rascal Flatts song, God Bless the Broken Road is a
moving, heart-stirring story about the power of faith to change a life.
The movie version
is coming 2018.
What inspired this novel?
God Bless the
Broken Road (GBBR) actually began as a feature film script three years ago. My
friend and director, Harold Cronk, who is best known for the God’s Not Dead
movies, called me one fine summer evening. He pitched me the seed of the idea
and asked what I thought. I said I thought it sounded like a solid story. And
then he asked if I wanted to write it with him. Of course, I said yes.
We finished the
first draft of the script on Christmas Eve, 2014. Over the course of the next
year we refined it while the producers rallied the funds. In the spring of 2016
Harold shot God Bless the Broken Road.
A few months
earlier, as we finished the script version, I talked with the producers about
penning a novel version. They thought it would be a great idea. So my agent,
Julie Gwinn, put a pitch together, and while we were filming, I quickly wrote the
first three chapters. Within two weeks Julie had procured a couple
contracts. We happily chose Simon & Schuster. I spent last summer scribing
the novel, and here it is a year later. The film version is also “in the
can” as we say and will be releasing in 2018.
What do you hope your readers take away from this novel?
When we were
writing the script, the top two takeaways we kept in mind were first, that God
is always with us, even if we don’t feel like He is or aren’t seeking Him actively.
He is always there, and He is always providing us with amazing blessings, even
when/if we don’t acknowledge them. One of the keys to healing and hope on our
broken roads is to turn our gaze to Him so that we can start to recognize Him
along the path. When we turn to Him and humble ourselves, He can start to guide
us and shape our brokenness into blessing.
The second
takeaway that was important to us as we wrote this story is community. My
signature hash tag is #ConnectContributeBelong. I’m huge on the importance of
building actual, physical community (not just having virtual community). We
don’t have to travel our broken roads alone. God has given us friends and
family to lean on for support and encouragement. This can make a huge difference
when we are going through trying times. I think so many people suffer from
depression and suicide because they think they are alone. Mother Theresa said
the greatest poverty we have today is the feeling of loneliness because we have
forgotten that we belong to each other.
So many people feel
like this. They feel alone. They feel that no one understands or cares what they
are going through. What a travesty. It’s so simple to be there for someone. You
don’t have to be a professional counselor or therapist to help someone heal
from a wounding. Sometimes the very best thing is to just to take a moment from
your day to pause, listen, and lend a hug or word of encouragement.
On the flip side,
if you are traveling a broken road it can be difficult to let people in to your pain.
We see this in GBBR in the character of Amber, who lost her husband in
Afghanistan. It takes a lot of courage to be vulnerable and ask for help. But
here’s the secret … people love you and want to help you and be there for you.
Amber eventually hits bottom in order to find this out and finally surrenders.
It’s at that moment when her life starts to really find hope and
redemption.
Needing to be loved
and cared for is not a sign of weakness. It’s the way we humans need to relate
to one another to build real and lasting communities. By the way,
building community this deep requires that you get off social media, look up
from your phone, and have actual human contact! Just sayin’….
GBBR Audiobook
link:
GBBR Movie Trailer
link:
Where you can find Jennifer online:
Author
Website: www.jenniferdornbush.com
Facebook: Jennifer
Graeser Dornbush
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