All for a Song (43 page)

I knew I wanted to write a series set in the 1920s, but I was having a hard time convincing anyone that it would be a good idea. I’m a Christian writer of Christian fiction, and—let’s face it—the Jazz Age isn’t exactly known for its piety.

We call these years the Roaring Twenties, and they were indeed a time of roaring change. Men returned from fighting the Great War on foreign soil with a new taste for sophistication and adventure. Women, having won the right to vote, stormed the walls of feminine convention, shedding their long hair and long skirts in a new zest for freedom. Thrust into a world where wild parties replaced church socials and cars with rumble seats stole the road from Sunday buggy rides, young girls saw the fair-skinned, long-legged flapper heralded as the new feminine ideal.

So how to incorporate all of that into a series exploring issues of faith? While I was pondering that, my agent extraordinaire, Bill Jensen, asked me, “Have you ever heard of Aimee Semple McPherson?” I was googling even before he finished speaking, and a whole new world opened up to me. Rising to her calling in a way that would have been impossible in any other decade, evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson brought her urgent plea for
repentance to small towns with her traveling revivals, also launching a multimedia ministry through her magazine,
The Bridal Call
, as well as radio and film. Her bobbed hair and attention to fashion made her a towering figure of modern faith, bringing millions to worship at her Los Angeles church.

And there was my focus. Not just flappers, not just floozies, but godly Christian women who were afforded astonishing opportunities to explore their gifts in a world that was becoming increasingly accepting of their contributions.

The idea of beginning this book at the end of Dorothy Lynn’s life turned out to be the jumping-off point for the whole story. I actually watch the
Today
show every morning; I see that spinning jam jar and the faces of those who have lived for a century or more and wonder about the things they have witnessed. Still, there was a crucial element missing, because not everybody would agree that the final years of Dorothy Lynn’s life were resplendent with blessings. Then I went to a funeral for the mother of a dear friend, Matt. Years earlier she had suffered a stroke, during which she was given a glimpse of the life to come. She spent her final years on earth with a frustrated longing—grateful for the additional time with her family, but eager to return to the glory she knew awaited her. I went home that afternoon and wrote and wrote and wrote.

All for a Song
is ultimately a story of longing, of searching for what you think you lack. If we are to yearn for anything, let it be for the return of Jesus Christ. In the meantime, let us love one another, giving gifts of grace.

Award-winning author Allison Pittman left a seventeen-year teaching career in 2005 to follow the Lord’s calling into the world of Christian fiction, and God continues to bless her step of faith. Her novels
For Time and Eternity
and
Forsaking All Others
were both finalists for the Christy Award for excellence in Christian fiction, and her novel
Stealing Home
won the American Christian Fiction Writers’ Carol Award. She heads up a successful, thriving writers group in San Antonio, Texas, where she lives with her husband, Mike, their three sons, and the canine star of the family—Stella.