My mind is always working. I love thinking up stories. That love, combined with a dream and some good exercise were the seeds for the series of stories that make up The Last Publishers.

The ladies in the No Greater Joy office like to take fast walks around the Amish community during our lunch break. One spring, three others and I were headed out on our usual route. To break up the monotony, I asked if I could tell them about a dream I had the previous night. They were agreeable, so I launched into the story.

I was so caught up in the plot that we found ourselves back at the office, our walk over, without noticing the path we had taken. The sights and sounds of the countryside coming to life had fallen away as we pictured the characters caught up in a drama of eternal proportions. As we walked through the door to the office, I finished my tale.

All three women turned and looked at me as though I were a stranger instead of the person they saw on a daily basis.

Where did all of this come from? I can’t believe all that stuff is in your brain. You need to write a book!

And I knew they were right. How hard could it be?

Famous words! This little dream turned out to be 4 books, not just one. That same day, I outlined the whole story — all four books: The Vision, The Test, The Cave and Starlight. The outline alone was 30 pages long!

Within the next month I had the general story line for the first book completed. After that, it was sheer hard work. Sentence by sentence, word by word, I rearranged, deleted, and added to the text. Then I had someone come in and slash the manuscript to shreds, rearranging entire events. This was too much! I almost gave up, but my own vision would not let me rest.

I don’t think that my dream was prophetic. My dream was born of my own burning vision to see the gospel go forth to the Muslim people, to ALL people. Telling this story is also a way of teaching and introducing new concepts to the reader in an easy to understand format.

The Vision is the story of a group of people, united by their desire that Muslims hear the good news of the gospel. It is the story of their commitment, their hardships, their joy, their frustrations, their passion, their grief and ultimately their victory.