A Guest Post by Elizabeth Musser

Elizabeth Musser, an Atlanta native and the bestselling author of The Swan House, is a novelist who writes what she calls ‘entertainment with a soul.’  Her latest novel, Two Destinies, from The Secrets of the Cross trilogy, was recently nominated for a Christy Award.

 Bonjour from just outside Lyon, France.  My just-got-a-little older but still-sharp-as-a-tack agent, Chip, graciously invited me to write a post about my novella, Waiting for Peter, which was recently released as an e-book with MacGregor Literary.  While I was thankful for the opportunity, it is a little daunting to follow all that bad poetry with a semi-serious post about, well, a dog.  And a boy.  And his mother.

But here I go.

Five years ago, my Dutch publisher, Kok-Uitgeverij Voorhoeve, asked me to write a novella for ‘The Week of the Christian Book’, a cool annual offer where, for one week, Christian bookstores throughout Holland give a free novella to customers who purchase over ten euros of products at their store. The only criteria given me was to work the story around the theme of animals.

And so I went about writing Waiting for Peter.  I had plenty of inspiration for the story from personal experience with our loveable mutt, Beau, who is actually the dog on the cover of the novella.  If you are a dog-lover, this next part will make sense.  If not, it may sound a little heretical.

Throughout the years, I had often journaled about lessons I was learning from our dog as well as the way he ministered to our two sons as they navigated elementary school, Jr. High and high school.  I also included in many journal entries how Beau was teaching me a lot about what my relationship with my Master, the Lord, should look like.

So I came up with the story—fictional, yes—but with some parts sounding a lot like those journal entries. Here’s a description of the novella:

A wounded boy, an abandoned mutt, a worried mother, and a God big enough to bring healing for them all.

Peter is a young teen who is emotionally and physically scarred following a tragic accident.  Hoping to find a way to help Peter reconnect with his family, his mother, Lanie, agrees to let him adopt a dog from the Humane Society.  So begins the relationship between Peter and his neurotic mutt, Sunny.

Told from the alternating points of view of Sunny and Lanie, Waiting for Peter is the story of the healing power of love between a boy and his dog and an allegory of how we should view our relationship with God, our Master.

From a Dutch reader: “What a wonderful gem, this novella. Elizabeth Musser cleverly weaves a big story into this small book….”

Hope you’ll enjoy!  A bientôt.  Il faut que je retourne à mon écriture.

Ask Chip.  He speaks French very well!

Au revoir.

For over twenty-five years, Elizabeth and her husband, Paul, have been involved in missions work with International Teams.  They presently live near Lyon, France. The Mussers have two sons, a daughter-in-law and a grandson. To learn more about Elizabeth and her books, please visit www.elizabethmusser.com.  To order Waiting for Peter, please click here.