This week, Tanya Eavenson is our guest on the Story behind the Story. She has a fascinating look at how the Lord gave her the story at just the right time in her life.

Here’s a little bit about the book.

Sometimes love arrives when you least expect it.

Dr. Steven Moore is known nationally for saving lives. If only he could save his own. Unable to deal with his cancer prognosis, he retreats to a happier time in his past—to the woman who once stole his heart.

Four years after the death of her beloved husband, bookstore owner Elizabeth Roberts still struggles to sustain her faith and joy in the Lord as she raises her two sons. She strives to find a way through her family’s grief, never suspecting a man from her past might offer hope for her future.

But how can there be a future when he’s only come to kiss her and says good-bye?

Read her story behind the story. When you get to the end, be sure to enter the contest to win a copy of Restored.

Welcome, Tanya!

RESTORED is the second book in the Unending Love series and it has taken me about six years to write. Not that it was difficult. I mean, it’s a story I wanted to write, one I knew I could write, but something was missing.

Four years ago, a friend and I attended the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference. During the conference, we discussed RESTORED. We came up with different plots, but nothing felt right.

I decided then to take a hiatus from contemporary romance and to begin writing another genre I’ve always loved, historical romance. While doing research and working on my historical romance novel, doctors discovered I had cancer.

There are many times in a person’s life where he or she may reach an obstacle. It may be an illness, an accident or a difficult decision that must be made. I’d reached that point in my life. It was a defining moment, not only dealing with my cancer prognosis, but asking the Lord if He truly called me to write as I thought, or was I mistaken. I stuffed my historical romance novel away and almost gave up on God’s call to write.

But through the fears and searching for God’s direction, I learned He did indeed place this desire to write on my heart and no matter what I was facing in my life, it didn’t diminish His call. I’m inspired by the Lord to write inspirational Christian fiction so people may know the love of Christ. To know the depth He will go to have a relationship with us. And though we struggle, He uses us—people like me, the ordinary—to do out of the ordinary things. Unexpected things—like writing. This propelled me to write RESTORED.

 I began pouring into RESTORED the knowledge I’d gained through my own cancer and that of my stepfather and father-in-law, who were both diagnosed with melanoma. I know now that if I had written this story any earlier in my career, I wouldn’t be on such a personal level with my characters nor could I have written it from the heart.

I love this story. I love my characters, Steven and Elizabeth. RESTORED is a story about lost love being given a second chance when you least expect it. A story of how nothing is impossible with God.

Tanya Eavenson enjoys spending time with her husband, and their three children. Her favorite pastime is grabbing a cup of coffee, eating chocolate, and reading a good book. Tanya is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, Word Weavers International, and writes for Christ to the World Ministries. You can find her at her website http://www.tanyaeavenson.com/ on Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, Google, or on Amazon.

Buy Links:

Amazon: http://ow.ly/YhprC

iTunes: https://itun.es/us/0XoMab.l

Barnes & Noble: http://ow.ly/YhpB1

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thank you so much for joining us, Tanya! It’s been great having you here. I look forward to reading Restored.