-- Tumble into a fire-lit world through the portal of
nuanced fairy tale, "The Merchant's Daughter."
The sophisticated re-telling of "Beauty and the Beast" is set in medieval England and answers, with brave heroine and kind hero, the most important requirements for a satisfying story.
"It's the kind of story I would like to have read when I was a teenager," Melanie Dickerson said, looking through a copy of the new novel, just out from Zondervan publishing, as she sat in her sunny study at her home in Monrovia. She will be speaking Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2011, at Monrovia Community Library, 254 Allen Drake Drive, from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
It's worked. Dickerson said her elder daughter, 13, has read her first book four times, joining hundreds of other readers who gave it the "Reader's Choice Award." Dickerson's daughter has already read the new one twice, using the publisher's galley proof.
"She loves it, which makes me feel really good," Dickerson said.
Her daughter's acclaim is the award Dickerson cares about the most. But she also enjoyed wide acclaim in the Christian publishing world last year when her first novel, "The Healer's Apprentice" was a finalist for a Christy Award, Christian publishing's highest award.
Melanie Dickerson's new novel, "The Merchant's Daughter," is the second of her fairy-tale and faith-based stories with strong young heroines. Her first, "The Healer's Apprentice" was a finalist for a Christy Award this summer. (The Huntsville Times/Kay Campbell) "When I stood up to accept my medal, I had a feeling of vindication," Dickerson said, laughing. "I looked around that room and thought, 'This book was rejected by almost everyone here!'"
"The Healer's Apprentice" is set in medieval Germany and is loosely based on the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty. It took her several years to find a publisher. But Zondervan is now in talks with her for her next two books.
Both of Dickerson's first novels contain a natural weaving of faith and teaching into the stories that doesn't stick out as awkwardly obvious as some Christian novels.
"There are clear references to God," Dickerson said, referring to instances where the characters go to services, pray or seriously consider how something they do or don't do would affect their relationship with God. "I wanted it to show Christian values, but it is not really overtly Christian."
But she does hope it is overtly inspirational. In "The Merchant's Daughter," the main character, Annabel, ends up being the one to save Lord le Wyse, a fearsome looking man with a mysterious past. While her own life, Dickerson said, has been a world away from an indentured servant's in 14th century England, some aspects of her character come from her own life.
"I've always struggled with fear, and my heroines struggle with fear and trust issues," Dickerson said. "But it's good to see how the characters change and grow, how they learn from their own experiences."
Fiction can be part of a believer's life if it helps them in their own faith journey, Dickerson said.
"One of my heroes is Francine Rivers," Dickerson said, referring to the author of "Redeeming Love." "Her books are so powerful. When I finish them, I feel like I want to love people more, and I feel so thankful for God, for what he's done."
"Fiction can help us when we are reading about someone struggling with the same things we are."