Recently I have spent a great amount of time evaluating my writing. I have always wanted to write for children, but what message do I want to share? What is the point?
Each of my books, included a story I wanted to tell. A Star in the Night is a story about how we can be Christ to each other and it was framed as a Christmas story. Angel Donor is about how a young girl finally gets her much needed liver from a generous family who lost a loved one. Next, there is my first novel, Souled, which was about a boy who was obsessed with video games and ended up trapped. Finally, I found a lot of joy in running Parables, the Catholic magazine for Children.
All of these projects had one thing in common – they all had a message I was trying to share. They all had a nod to God in some way. I didn’t do this intentionally, but it came out that way. As I thought more and more about it, I realized my “why” for writing. When I write, I want to have a story to tell, but more than that I want to share with the world who Jesus is and that He is with us all the time!
As St. Dominic Savio had said, “I am not capable of doing big things, but I want to do everything, even the smallest things, for the greater glory of God.”
Jennifer Gladen 