Behind the Scenes of By This Shall They Know—Journey to Maple Creek
This summer, I had the privilege to visit Maple Creek. Not the fictional Maple Creek Church, with all its smiling faces and welcoming hearts—its lessons and struggles, joys and defeats.
No, what I visited was a little gravel road, up in the heart of nowhere, flanked on either side with thick trees—some deciduous, some evergreens—a very peaceful spot, with a stillness almost unnaturally deep and strong.
I remember the excitement welling up inside me as we made our detour out of the beaten track to visit this spot where I had imagined the scenes that have become so real to me now. But the journey to Maple Creek began long before I found myself winding along Widdifield Station Road, my eyes alternately straining to catch the view and eagerly checking the GPS to find out when we’d finally reached that little empty place so full of meaning and imagination.
Today I’d like to take you on a part of that journey—the journey to Maple Creek.
Long Ago in a Land Far Away
I hardly know where to begin the story that is still writing itself today. I could go back to a certain Mackenzie family of eight boys, of whom Sidney, Marcus and Felix alone can claim to be the same characters today (Stanley was the baby of the family then!). Or I could go still further back to the various characters peopling various tales, and the scraps of appearance and disposition that turned into still more characters later on—but I think, on the whole, that it would be a digression only pleasing to me.
It is undisputable that the story was born in these byways of fancy, and gradually morphed into something very different from what it was at the start. But the true beginning of the Matthews family came late one spring evening eight years ago, when the sun was still holding back night, and I was lying in bed, day-dreaming—as girls will dream—of my own future family, who they might be, and what I would call them. A girlish fancy led me to couple together the names Sidney and Stanley as my firstborn twins, with a Margaret (a family name) following close behind for good measure.
The next morning, if memory serves, I wrote the first scene of the then May family—with Sidney up a tree (quite literally!) and Stanley coming to tell him they were almost ready to go to the cottage for the weekend! I wonder if I would have written anything more profound if I had realized it was the first step in such a journey!
The May Family
After that the story grew in leaps and bounds. I wrote reams of sketches, snippets, half-finished tales, and random character development. The family at this time consisted of ten—Sidney and Stanley, Margaret, Matthew, Marcus, Felix, Gerald and Geoffrey (another set of twins!), Robin and little Rosie, spanning thirteen years and all living in a monster dream home, the plans of which I had found in our basement. I wrote stories about them when they were children, and teens, and all grown up, and I wrote about the next generation and even the next . . .
But at that point I was never going to publish. Oh no! This story was just for me—there were many reasons why, but the main was that the fundamental premise of the story rested on an involvement in professional sports that I was no longer comfortable with. And that was the whole story—in my opinion, anyway.
But then came the moment when I decided I wanted to publish, and I wondered . . . if I changed the entire premise of the story, would it still capture the love and loyalty, brotherhood, fellowship and above all, heroism, that I loved so much in my childishly absurd ramblings about a family called May?
The Matthews Family
After that, everything about the story changed. The setting, the purpose, even the characters. The palatial mansion melted into a white-sided farmhouse, the last name was changed, several characters were reordered or removed, and the great purpose and ambition of the characters’ lives completely altered. It didn’t happen overnight. First one detail would change, then another. Then I would run up against an obstacle and be stuck there for awhile, but detail by detail the story began to take on a new aspect, and got better and better.
And you know what? The parts I loved best stayed the same! Because it isn’t really what a story is about, so much as what a story is, that makes it meaningful.
Each of those steps paved the way for the final great change that came over the whole complexion of the story. If even one step had been missing, I don’t know if I would be sitting here writing this today!
My Ongoing Journey—To Maple Creek
In some ways—okay, perhaps many ways—the journey of my beloved characters reflects my own journey. A journey from girlhood to womanhood, but a journey of faith and love and belonging, too. A journey to find out if the things that really matter for eternity are still capable of raising a generation of heroes—here, today.
I’m still on that journey, but I believe in the destination. I believe that it is possible to live the ordinary everyday with the concentrated purpose of eternity, and that no matter what you change in circumstances, characters, plot and external substance, the true essence of what really makes a good life-story is in the wholehearted selflessness, love and devotion that find their climax in living for God and for His kingdom.
And maybe it took me hundreds of thousands of random words in random snippets that will never see the light of day to mature and grow one story worth reading—and maybe it will take hundreds of thousands of random deeds of love in random scenes of your life to grow a life worth living—but I believe with all my heart that it is worth it in the end.
For more information on By This Shall They Know, see my release post, or order here from Amazon.
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Love this
So glad you enjoyed it, Cat!