Hi Everyone,
I hope you are having a fabulous day. For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Ashley Beach. I’m the author of the faith-based fairytale series, The Solstice Chronicles, as well as a brand new Christian adventure series, Heart of God.
I’m going to introduce you to the main character in this story and series, Selah Cross. Selah has become a very dear character to me and it has been interesting developing her character. She grew up in a very Christian home and both of her parents were strong Christians and had dedicated their lives to finding artifacts that proved the existence of God and the Bible. In addition to her parents Christian influence in her life, one of their dear family friends and fellow archeologist, David Judah, spent lots of time with Selah throughout her growing up years teaching her about the Bible and having her memorize copious amounts of Scripture and all these things influence Selah’s thoughts and decisions throughout Selah’s life.
At the start of this story, Selah is faced with an incredulously difficult situation that she would have never imagined being in and everything she has ever been taught or believed in about her faith and about the moral decisions that come with that faith, are going to be called into question, and she really has to find and discover where the treasure of her heart truly lies. I said it was interesting developing her character earlier and it was very true. Whenever you start a new book, especially the first book in a new series, you are just discovering and learning about your characters and you don’t know everything about them yet and it’s a learning experience as you write that first book to get to know your characters and find out how they would react in different circumstances and situations and a lot of that came across in each of the very distinct characters in this new book and series. One of the big things for Selah is figuring out how to navigate this extremely tough situation through the lens of a Christian and believer. I’ll try not to give too much away, but she is accused of murder and of stealing a rare artifact, The Heart of God, that was connected to her parents’ deaths 15 years before. I don’t know about you, but I have never been faced with a situation like that and I certainly don’t know anyone in my family or friends circles, or acquaintances to be honest, that have ever faced something like this. If you have or know someone who has, I’m truly sorry and you are in my prayers. That is a tough, tough, tough situation and part of Selah’s story is how she navigates this extremely out-of-the-blue circumstance with her faith. She is taken to her guardian’s house and then taken on a journey to a safe house and though her guardian and those with her guardian are taking her to this safe house for her protection, she has to deal with the questions of “Is it right to run?” “Why am I running if I’m innocent?” Outside of the big questions, Selah also has to face some somewhat “smaller”, I say smaller in quotes because they really aren’t small issues for a believer, but when believers are interacting with unbelievers, they can be on very different sides of the fence on certain issues and Selah is faced with dealing with some of those issues as well.
Selah’s story is a beautiful one of her faith being harshly put to the test and trying to figure out what she truly believes and if the faith she has spent her whole life believing in and living out is really going to stand tall in these circumstances of great adversity that are completely out of her control. She also has a heart to minister to the protector who has been assigned to get her to the safe house, and I’ll talk more about his story next week, but just seeing the struggle between Selah as a believer and Dylan as an unbeliever is such a beautiful story too and I can’t wait to share more about this story and these characters in the coming weeks!
As I said at the beginning, my name is Ashley Beach and I’m the author of the faith-based fairytale series The Solstice Chronicles, and I was just sharing about one of the main characters, Selah Cross, in my BRAND NEW series, Heart of God. The first book is also called Heart of God and it will be releasing very soon, so check back for updates on that. Join me next week as I share about another character in the series, Dylan Kinkaide.
As always, I pray these stories encourage you in your faith journey and that you find the key to unlocking the beauty within your own story!!
Ashley Beach-Author and Storyteller 