Movie Review: "Heaven Sent"

My Review of the Heaven Sent movie:

Today, I have another movie review for you and a giveaway contest at the end of this post! In case you didn’t know, Pure Flix is like the faith-based version of Netflix. It works the same way the difference is in the content that points you back to Jesus Christ and shows you how much The Creator of the Universe loves you!

Pure Flix is a one-stop shop for faith and family-friendly movies and shows where you can confidently stream in your home with the entire family. With new premium and exclusive original entertainment choices every week, Pure Flix streaming service has the largest variety of high-quality, curated, positive, encouraging, wholesome movies, series and kids' content in one service. Pure Flix is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment, alongside AFFIRM Films.

Pure Flix VIP Ambassador program asked me to review the movie Heaven Sent. The main idea for this movie, in words from the producers, is: Elise, a grandmother hurt by her past, and Patrick, a widowed pastor, have closed the door on love. But with faith and a little help from technology, will their live-streamed romance find a way?

I watched this heartwarming movie after it was made available for viewing on Pure Flix. Heaven Sent captivated me from the first scene and kept me engaged throughout the movie.

Now for my review: 

When I saw that Karen Abercrombie was starring as the leading lady in this movie, I knew it was going to be good! I became a fan of Karen ever since her debut as Miss Clara in the movie War Room. I soon found that her performance as Elise in Heaven Sent did not disappoint!

She mastered not only her lines but her facial expressions. There wasn’t a moment in this movie when Abercrombie was out of character. The same could be said about the supporting actors. However, Abercrombie’s performance stood out the most as she is clearly becoming a legend.

Most impressive is the fact that not only was Abercrombie the lead actor, but she was also the executive producer who co-wrote this entire movie!

J. Leon Pridgen II played the leading man, a widowed pastor named Patrick. He did a great job showing how his character grew from heartbreak to hope as he entered a relationship with Elise.

This movie was filled with honesty, humor, faith, family themes, fun and sweet surprises. There wasn’t anything to not like about it. I related to and empathized with the characters. I thought the storyline was seamless and the plot was well-thought. The actors delivered a stellar performance.

If you want to watch a movie that will make you laugh, smile and believe in true love again then Heaven Sent is it.

Themes of this movie included:

· Letting go of our children/grandchildren

· Family over fame

· Finding love after loss

· Miscommunication

· Grace during misunderstandings

Heaven Sent is a movie that will introduce you to Pure Flix, prompt you to join and watch it again and again! And once you’re a member of Pure Flix, you’ll find more content to view that will encourage your heart. So don’t delay, join today!

Watch Heaven Sent movie trailer:
https://youtu.be/cTrGCnXLKiE

Jean Thomason from Momentum Influencer Network interviewed Abercrombie. Watch their conversation here: https://youtu.be/y-vp-TthzLk

Before you go, enter this contest for your chance to WIN a FREE 3-month Pure Flix subscription! Note: This giveaway is limited to U.S. residents only. The giveaway starts today (Feb. 10) and will end on Feb. 14, 2023. 

If you're participating in the giveaway for Heaven Sent, please note that we cannot accept winners that have won a Pure Flix subscription in the last six months.

Here is the Giveaway Contest link:
http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/f8dcb68c437/?

Disclosure: Many thanks to Pure Flix for providing a sample of the product for this review. Opinions are 100% my own.

#HeavenSentMIN #MomentumInfluencerNetwork

Devotionals for the Heart: On Prayer

Prayer That Gets Answered
A devotional by Dana McNeely

Sitting cross-legged on the floor with the other eight-year-olds, I watched as the Sunday School teacher placed cutout figures on the felt board. Menacing soldiers held spears at the ready. Pagan-looking priests surrounded an altar. A king and a queen, dressed in purple robes and golden crowns, carried rich gifts for an idol. A white-bearded man, out-of-place in worn shepherd’s garb, pointed an accusing finger at the king.

I loved that exciting story—Elijah fed by ravens, the widow and her son sustained by the never-ending flour and oil, the boy raised from the dead, the fire from heaven, and after three and a half years of drought—RAIN!

Elijah was as staunch and unflinching as any action-adventure hero. And when he prayed, God answered—in miraculous, awe-inspiring ways. I’m inspired by his dramatic spiritual victories, but I’m just an ordinary person—flawed, selfish, and often cranky. How can I expect my prayers to have the kind of impact Elijah’s did?

Comparing yourself to another person’s success is never helpful. Praying down fire from heaven isn’t God’s plan for me, but he’s made clear I should pray for family, friends, enemies, leaders, the poor, the sick, and others he brings to mind. I should ask the Lord to make me a better person and thank Him for everything.

Despite his heroic persona, James 1:5 tells us “Elijah was as human as we are, and yet when he prayed earnestly that no rain would fall, none fell for three and a half years!”

Earnest Prayer and An Obedient Life

Notice that James says Elijah prayed “earnestly,” There was some quality to the manner of Elijah’s prayer that was especially sweet to God’s ear. The dictionary defines “earnest” as sincere and intense, steady, committed, wholehearted, fervent, deeply felt. Elijah demonstrated all these qualities in his life as well as his prayer.

While others worshiped idols, Elijah proclaimed himself the Lord’s man. He told King Ahab, “As surely as the Lord lives—the God I serve—there will be no dew or rain during the next few years until I give the word!”

Elijah lived his life strictly by God’s revealed will. God said, “Go east and hide by Kerith Brook,” and Elijah went. “Drink from the brook and eat what the ravens bring.” No problem.

“Dwell with the widow woman in Zarephath.” Done.

When God told Elijah to show himself to Ahab, Elijah went. He didn’t shrink from that unpleasant duty, even though the king had been seeking him with evil intentions for three years. Elijah was the Lord’s servant. He was all in.

Prayer That Gets Answered

“O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, prove today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant. Prove that I have done all this at your command. O Lord, answer me! Answer me so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God and that you have brought them back to yourself.” – Kings 18:36, 37 (NLT)

· At the time of the evening sacrifice, Elijah ‘came near’ to the altar—though he was expecting an answer by fire! What faith in God’s power and protection!

· Elijah wasn’t afraid to remind Yahweh of His covenant with the nation of Israel, boldly addressing Him as “Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, Israel.” For us today, a covenant relationship is the privilege of a believer to plead that relationship, to remind God that we are set apart for Him because of the blood of Jesus. 

· Elijah’s first request was to glorify God: “Let it be known that you are God.” His second was that the people would know the Lord and come into a right relationship with Him.

The prayer on Mount Carmel reveals Elijah’s strong faith and his life’s purpose—to serve God, glorify his name, and bring people to Him. This is the kind of prayer that gets answered.

For further thought:

Do you ever feel you’ve made a mess of things and have no right to bail you out?

Here’s hope for you. The Bible says, “So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” ~Hebrews 4:16 (NIV)

God wants to answer your prayers too. Don’t be afraid to seek Him!

Other posts about the prophet Elijah ~ Love in the Time of Drought, In the Waiting Room, A Widow, a Prophet, and Provision from God, An Intersection of Time and Eternity, and Ways to Handle Drought, and On the Mountaintop.

~*~
Author Bio:

Inspired by the Bible story of Elijah and the widow’s son, Dana McNeely wondered why the prophet had come to stay with these two. Who were they? What was their life, before? And how did the boy change after dying, seeing the other world … and coming back? 

Dana began research for her novel, “Rain,” which tells the story of the three-and-a-half-year drought from the boy’s perspective.

No stranger to drought, Dana lives in an Arizona oasis with her hubby the constant gardener, two good dogs, an antisocial cat, and migrating butterflies. She writes biblical fiction, cozy mysteries, and has written for magazines and newspapers. Her short story “Death in the Butterfly Garden” appears in SoWest: Killer Nights (2017).

Connect with Dana on Facebook, Twitter, or DanaMcNeely.comSaveSave

Devotionals for the Heart: Drought

Ways to Handle Drought
A devotional by Dana McNeely

If you’d like to read other posts about the prophet Elijah, click these titles: Love in the Time of Drought, In the Waiting Room, A Widow, a Prophet, and Provision from God, and An Intersection of Time and Eternity. Scripture passages are from the New Living Translation.

The specter of death walked the land of Israel. After three years without rain, streams ran dry and wells became mud. Crops failed and food supplies dwindled. The effects of the drought gripped nearly everyone, from the poorest laborer to the king and queen in their palace. But in Zarephath, a Canaanite city far away, three people lived surrounded by God’s comfort. The prophet Elijah, the widow, and her son. And then …

After a long time, in the third year, the word of the Lord came to Elijah: “Go and present yourself to Ahab and I will send rain on the land.” So Elijah went to present himself to Ahab. Now the famine was severe in Samaria, and Ahab had summoned Obadiah, his palace administrator. (Obadiah was a devout believer in the Lord. While Jezebel was killing off the Lord’s prophets, Obadiah had taken a hundred prophets and hidden them in two caves, fifty in each, and had supplied them with food and water.) Ahab had said to Obadiah, “Go through the land to all the springs and valleys. Maybe we can find some grass to keep the horses and mules alive so we will not have to kill any of our animals.” So they divided the land they were to cover, Ahab going in one direction and Obadiah in another.

~I Kings 18:1-6

It’s hard to imagine facing such a disaster. Hardship and deprivation strip away a person’s defenses and reveal who they are underneath. In this passage, several people face the same hardship but respond differently.

Bold obedience

When God sent Elijah to announce the coming drought, he walked into the king’s presence and told him to his face. When the Lord sent the prophet to Cherith, he waited by the brook until told to go stay with a widow and her son. With the never-empty flask of oil and jar of flour, the three lived in relatively pleasant circumstances while the rest of the country suffered. Yet, when Elijah heard the Lord’s voice yet again, he immediately left this haven in search of the king, walking miles across cracked earth, past rotting carcasses, breathing the stench of decay.

Quietly doing the right thing

While Elijah was a more in-your-face kind of guy, Obadiah worked behind the scenes. He served the king faithfully but not when that service was contrary to God’s principles. At great risk, he hid some of the prophets the queen was intent on killing off.

Later, while assisting the king in his search for grass for his horses and mules, Obadiah unexpectedly met Elijah.

Obadiah . . . bowed down to the ground, and said, “Is it really you, my lord Elijah?”

“Yes,” he replied. “Go tell your master, ‘Elijah is here'.”

“What have I done wrong?” asked Obadiah, ‘that you are handing your servant over to Ahab to be put to death? As surely as the Lord your God lives, there is not a nation or kingdom where my master has not sent someone to look for you. . . I don’t know where the Spirit of the Lord may carry you when I leave you. If I go and tell Ahab and he doesn’t find you, he will kill me. Yet I your servant have worshiped the Lord since my youth. Haven’t you heard, my lord, what I did while Jezebel was killing the prophets of the Lord? I hid a hundred of the Lord’s prophets in two caves, fifty in each, and supplied them with food and water. And now you tell me to go to my master and say, ‘Elijah is here.’ He will kill me!”

Elijah said, “As the Lord Almighty lives, whom I serve, I will surely present myself to Ahab today.” ~I Kings 18:7-15 (NIV)

We feel Obadiah’s panic and listen to the prophet’s calm reassurance. But Elijah’s response to the arrogant King Ahab takes a more imperious tone.

When [Ahab] saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, you troubler of Israel?”

“I have not made trouble for Israel, Elijah replied. “But you and your father’s family have. You have abandoned the Lord’s commands and have followed the Baals. Now summon the people from all over Israel to me on Mount Carmel. And bring the four hundred and fifty prophet of Baal and the four hundred prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

Angry Defiance

The king and queen refused to accept any responsibility for the devastating drought, although the prophet clearly told them it was because they abandoned the Lord and worshipped other gods. But instead of humbling themselves and turning from their sin, they blamed Elijah. And when they couldn’t lay hands on him, they turned to killing other prophets in retribution.

Despite seeing the Lord’s power in bringing and ending the drought, King Ahab and Queen Jezebel continued to defy Him throughout the rest of their lives, until they each met a violent end.

Thoughts to Ponder

· James 5:17 says Elijah was a man like any other, and that his earnest prayers brought about God’s will. To me, Elijah seems a hero of epic proportions, standing up to the rulers and idolatry. Have you come across a bold crusader like Elijah?

· Obadiah “flew beneath the radar”. He saved a hundred prophets, but the king and queen never knew about it. Was he a sneak? Do you think we need to be bold, to do the right thing?

· We might want to blame someone else when calamity strikes, but remember Ahab and Jezebel’s mistakes. Turn away from anger and turn to God for help. He will give you what you need to get through hardships.

~*~
Author Bio: 

Inspired by the Bible story of Elijah and the widow’s son, Dana McNeely wondered why the prophet had come to stay with these two. Who were they? What was their life, before? And how did the boy change after dying, seeing the other world … and coming back? 

Dana began research for her novel, “Rain,” which tells the story of the three-and-a-half-year drought from the boy’s perspective.

No stranger to drought, Dana lives in an Arizona oasis with her hubby the constant gardener, two good dogs, an antisocial cat, and migrating butterflies. She writes biblical fiction, cozy mysteries, and has written for magazines and newspapers. Her short story “Death in the Butterfly Garden” appears in SoWest: Killer Nights (2017).

Connect with Dana on Facebook, Twitter, or DanaMcNeely.com

Devotionals for the Heart: Thoughts on Time and Eternity

An Intersection of Time and Eternity
A devotional by Dana McNeely

Note: This is the fourth post in a series on the prophet Elijah. To read previous posts, click the titles: Love in the Time of Drought, In the Waiting Room, and A Widow, a Prophet, and Provision from God.

After Elijah reached Zarephath and found shelter with the widow and her son, they lived under God’s blessings. Though the drought worsened, the never-ending jug of oil and jar of meal nourished them. It would have been reasonable to expect the good times to continue.

However, some time later the widow’s son became ill. He grew worse and worse and finally stopped breathing. She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?” (1 Kings 17:17-18 NIV)

I feel for this poor woman. One moment she ate the bread of life, the next she gagged on the stench of death. Anguished, she lashed out, but then secret guilt whispered. Did you come to remind me of my sin? Any mother would be devastated by her child’s death, but she’d already lost her husband. Now she was alone in the world.

I don’t know about you, but I want life to roll along smoothly. When it does, I often forget to thank God, taking everyday blessings for granted. But when trouble strikes, it’s easy to complain or blame others or myself.

I know this is unreasonable. We live in a fallen world, and God hasn’t promised immunity from its hardship, even to those who follow him. Think of Joseph, who ran from Potiphar’s wife but still ended up in prison. Or Daniel, who refused to quit praying and then faced lions.

Though I empathize with the widow’s reaction, what I find interesting is Elijah’s calm response to her remarks. Known for his somewhat hot temper, Elijah didn’t remind her of all he’d already done to help her and her son. In humility, he ignored her harsh words, and in faith, he took this problem to the Lord.

“Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. Then he cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, let this boy’s life return to him!" (1 Kings 17:19-24 NIV)

The Lord heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!"

Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the Lord from your mouth is the truth.”

I believe the Lord prepared the widow’s heart with a whisper before Elijah even arrived. She must have heard the truth about God’s love and claims on her life during the time the prophet lived with her and her son. Yes, she reacted out of pain and confusion when her son suddenly died. Such a response doesn’t mean she had no faith … only that it faltered. In quietly asking the widow to give him her son, Elijah allowed her time to quiet her soul and consider. And the Lord, in his mercy, ignored her outburst and looked on her heart, where a tiny spark of faith burned.

In an intersection of time and eternity, God reached down and touched the widow’s son, restoring him to life. Yes, he was still subject to a fallen world; he would grow old and die again. But now, more than ever before, he was his mother’s comfort and a blazing example of God’s mercy and miraculous power. If the widow’s faith in God was a spark before, it was a sturdy flame now.

Do you believe in miracles? When Paul met with Agrippa, the apostle asked, "Why should it be thought a thing incredible that God should raise the dead?" (Acts 26:8 KJV)

Have you ever experienced that which only God can do? Perhaps your miracle was as soft as a whisper to the heart or as earth-shattering an event that, even now, you can hardly bring yourself to speak of. An intersection of time and eternity.

I leave you with this final thought from the great Bible scholar A.W. Pink: “Bring into the scene the living God, and no matter how drastic and desperate be the situation, all difficulties a once disappear, for nothing is impossible to him.”

*For further reading: Elijah by A.W. PinkSaveSaveSaveSave

~*~

Author Bio: 

Inspired by the Bible story of Elijah and the widow’s son, Dana McNeely wondered why the prophet had come to stay with these two. Who were they? What was their life, before? And how did the boy change after dying, seeing the other world … and coming back? 

Dana began research for her novel, “Rain,” which tells the story of the three-and-a-half-year drought from the boy’s perspective.

No stranger to drought, Dana lives in an Arizona oasis with her hubby the constant gardener, two good dogs, an antisocial cat, and migrating butterflies. She writes biblical fiction, cozy mysteries, and has written for magazines and newspapers. Her short story “Death in the Butterfly Garden” appears in SoWest: Killer Nights (2017).

Connect with Dana on Facebook, Twitter, or DanaMcNeely.com

Interview with Jennifer Dornbush, author of God Bless the Broken Road

Welcome Jennifer Dornbush to the blog! She's been here before with a lovely devotional but today, she's here to answer my questions about her debut novel, God Bless the Broken Road.

She's also offering you a chance to win her book! Details about the book giveaway contest are toward the end of her interview.

Enjoy!

~*~
Interview with Jennifer Dornbush, author of God Bless the Broken Road:

Alexis: Tell us about the inspiration behind your book, God Bless the Broken Road. What is this book about?

Jennifer: God Bless the Broken Road is a heartwarming story about a grieving army widow who finds her way back to her daughter, her faith, and a new love. Amber Hill never imagined she would find herself a war widow and single mom. She feels robbed and is angry at God, and she doesn’t know how to help her nine-year-old daughter Bree through her grief. Where, Amber wonders, are the Sunday dinners, the picnics, the bike rides, the time together they should be enjoying as a family? Instead, Amber is left with a folded flag and an empty heart. 

Alexis: What do you want your readers to remember the most about this book?

Jennifer: The book actually started as a movie script that I co-wrote with Harold Cronk. When we were writing the script, the top two take-aways we kept in mind were first, that God is always with us, even if we don’t feel like He is or aren’t seeking Him actively. He is always there and He is always providing us with amazing blessings, even when/if we don’t acknowledge them. One of the keys to healing and hope on our broken roads are to turn our gaze to Him so that we can start to recognize Him along the path. When we turn to Him and humble ourselves, He can start to guide us and shape our brokenness into blessing.

The second take-away that was important to us as we wrote this story is community. My signature hash tag is #ConnectContributeBelong. I’m huge on the importance of building actual, physical, community (not just having virtual community). We don’t have to travel our broken roads alone. God has given us friends and family to lean for support and encouragement. This can make a huge difference when we are going through trying times. I think so many people suffer from depression and suicide because they think they are alone. Mother Theresa said the greatest poverty we have today is the feeling of loneliness because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.

So many people feel like this. They feel alone. The feel that no one understands or cares what they are going through. What a travesty. It’s so simple to be there for someone. You don’t have to be a professional counselor or therapist to help someone heal from a wounding. Sometimes the very best thing is to just to take a moment from your day to pause, listen, and lend a hug or word of encouragement.

On the flip side, if you are traveling a broken road it can be difficult to let people into your pain. It takes a lot of courage to be vulnerable and ask for help. But here’s the secret… people love you and want to help you and be there for you. Needing to be loved and cared for is not a sign of weakness, it’s the way we humans need to relate to one another to build real and lasting communities. By the way, building community this deep requires that you get off social media, look up from your phone and have actual human contact! Just sayin’….

Alexis: Why is Amber, your story’s heroine, angry at God? How does God respond to her anger?

Jennifer: Amber is angry because she doesn’t understand why God would take her husband away and leave her daughter fatherless. God responds steadfastly. He is always there for her, but she just can’t see it. Eventually Amber hits rock bottom and finally surrenders. It’s at that moment when her life starts to really find hope and redemption.

Alexis: Tell us about Amber’s nine-year-old daughter Bree. What’s her favorite cupcake flavor? How deep is her bond with her Mom? How is she handling the aftermath concerning the death of her dad?

Jennifer: Bree’s favorite cupcake flavor is pink. I don’t know what pink tastes like, but Bree LOVES pink. Bree also loves her mother and wants to be close, but she feels distant from her because of how Amber is handling her grief. She gets angry at her mother for “not being any fun anymore.”

Alexis: If you were a professional grief counselor and you could step into your story to walk Amber and Bree through their heartache, what would you say? 

Jennifer: Ironically, Amber has many grief counselors who step into her life during this story. They all tell her the same thing… “God is with you in your pain. Go to Him. Lean into Him. And let your friends and family help you carry the burden.”

Alexis: In what ways does God work behind the scenes to fill Amber’s empty heart with His Love?

Jennifer: A million ways… But Amber just can’t… or won’t see it right away. She’s very stubborn and has to learn through hard knocks. (Don’t we all!) But in the end, the main way God works through her is the character of Nelson, a man from Darren’s army unit. I won’t spoil it, but Nelson ends up playing a HUGE role in Amber’s transformation.

Alexis: Cody Jackson is the hero of this story. What’s he like? Describe his look, personality, heart, and the reason why he has a death wish.

Jennifer: I wouldn’t say Cody is the hero of this story. Amber is our true hero. When Harold and I wrote the original script of this story, we were very insistent that we didn’t want to create the kind of story where boy saves girl. We wanted the real love story to be between Amber and God. God’s persistent love for Amber (via a very impactful intervention from an unsuspecting character) is what saves Amber.

However, Cody is a strong catalyst in Amber’s transformation. He plays a pivotal role in that he awakens Amber’s heart and mind to things she needs. Cody is country-boy handsome, has a genuine smile, and is a total gentleman. But he has his own demons to fight. He has a death wish because he’s impatient. He wants to reach his goal of being a professionally competing stock car driver – now! And at any cost. This gets him in trouble over and over.

Alexis: What does Cody love the most about being a racecar driver? Why?

Jennifer: He likes going fast. Makes him feel alive. He’s a visceral person. He acts on instinct. This keeps getting him in trouble in the track.

Alexis: Why is it important to Bree for her Mom and Cody to be friends?

Jennifer: Cody gives Bree a new lease on life when she joins Cody’s go kart club. Bree can see the goodness and lightness in Cody and she knows her mother needs that kind of influence in her life right now.

Alexis: Who notices first that love is in the air between Cody and Amber? What made the sparks fly?

Jennifer: Cody. Definitely Cody. Cody has his eye on her from the first time he spots her across the church parking lot! Amber isn’t really ready to try love again until the very end of the story.

Alexis: What role does Cody’s daredevil tendencies on the racetrack and Amber’s guarded heart play in their love story?

Jennifer: There’s a scene where Cody gets Amber to drive his race car on the track. It’s the first moment of “fun” Amber has had in a LONG time. This playful moment is the catalyst that starts to break down the wall around her healing heart.

Alexis: In what ways does Cody’s walk with God grow as this story progresses?

Jennifer: When Cody steps into Clarksville, we learn he isn’t really the church going type. But his mentor, Joe, insists that he attend church with him and sets Cody up leading a kid’s ministry. As Cody starts to get involved, the church community becomes an important part of his new life. His walk with God is directly related to becoming involved in this new community of Christians. I think that’s how it happens for a lot of us. We find God along with finding friends who love and serve God. The devotion of our family and friends to their faith can often become an inspiration for our own personal growth and relationship with God.

Alexis: Share how your book became a movie. When can we see it in theaters?

Jennifer: God Bless the Broken Road (GBBR) actually began as a feature film script three years ago. My friend and director, Harold Cronk, who is best known for the God’s Not Dead movies, called me one fine summer evening. He pitched me the seed of the idea and asked what I thought? I said I thought it sounded like a solid story. And then he asked if I wanted to write it with him. Of course, I said yes. 

We finished the first draft of the script on Christmas Eve, 2014. Over the course of the next year we refined it while the producers rallied the funds. In the spring of 2016 Harold shot God Bless the Broken Road. 

A few months earlier, as we finished the script version, I talked with the producers about penning a novel version. They thought it would be a great idea. So my agent, Julie Gwinn, put a pitch together and while we were filming I quickly wrote the first three chapters. Within two weeks Julie had procured a couple contracts. We happily chose Simon & Schuster. I spent last summer scribing the novel and here it is a year later. The film version is also “in the can” as we say and will be releasing in 2018.

Alexis: Thanks for the interview, Jennifer! Do you have any closing comments?

Jennifer: “Turn left and drive fast!” (This will make a lot more sense if you’ve read the book!)

~*~
Author Bio: Jennifer is a writer, speaker, and forensic specialist creating a diverse range of stories that shed light on the dark places of the human experience. 

Her story creation is bred from a very unsheltered childhood as the daughter of a medical examiner whose office was in her home. She investigated her first fatality—an airplane crash—when she was 8-years-old and from there gathered a decade of on-sight experience in death investigation and 360 hours of forensic training through the Forensic Science Academy.

The stories she creates stem from the unique range of human experiences. Because of her background, she does not shy away from telling stories about tough circumstances and how characters choose to deal with them. Jennifer’s characters encounter light in their darkness… redemption where none seems possible…and bits of levity to sweeten the journey.

Her feature film, God Bless the Broken Road, is slated for release in 2017 in conjunction with the novel released on June 6, by the same title published by Simon & Schuster.

Jennifer has several crime-drama series being developed for television and a bilingual kid’s show, Team Abuelita, in production with Baby First TV.

Wanting to share her love of forensics with other storytellers, she scribed non-fiction work, Forensic Speak: How To Write Realistic Crime Dramas, published by Michael Wiese Productions, hailed as a north star to creating authentic crime dramas.

As a forensic specialist, she has consulted with TV writers on network and cable TV shows. She regularly leads seminars and webinars on forensics and crime fiction and has taught screenwriting on the high school and university level and mentored new writers.

Sign up for her newsletter and YouTube channel at www.jenniferdornbush.com.

~*~
Blurb for Jennifer's book: God Bless the Broken Road is a heartwarming story about a grieving army widow who finds her way back to her daughter, her faith, and a new love.

Amber Hill never imagined she would find herself a war widow and single mom. She feels robbed and is angry at God, and she doesn’t know how to help her nine-year-old daughter Bree through her grief. Where, Amber wonders, are the Sunday dinners, the picnics, the bike rides, the time together they should be enjoying as a family? Instead, Amber is left with a folded flag and an empty heart.

Cody Jackson has a death wish. Or at least that is what his manager thinks, as Cody pushes his race car and his luck in every race. Is he hiding something, or just daring God and other racers to end the path of destruction he finds himself on as he rounds the last turn? When Cody encourages Bree to join in a Derby car race for local youth, she finds a way to channel her grief into something good—and she likes that her mom and Cody are starting to become friends—or maybe something more.

Cody invites Amber and Bree to see him race, but as they watch Cody narrowly escape a devastating crash, she realizes she can’t lose another person in her life. It’s better to be alone than feel that type of grief again. But when Amber hits rock-bottom, she cries out to God and asks for help. With her faith, her life, her family, and her heart hanging in the balance, Amber is forced to decide between the broken road she knows so well and trusting that God will provide a new path.

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Buy Jennifer's book on Amazon and AudioBooksNow

Watch the movie trailer for God Bless the Broken Road, https://vimeo.com/191227455

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Connect with Jennifer:
Website - www.jenniferdornbush.com
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.graeserdornbush
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jenniferdornbush/
Pinterest - https://www.pinterest.com/jenidornbush/
Twitter - https://twitter.com/JGDornbush

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