Sweet Ever After Q&A

Sweet Ever After Q&A 

| answering your questions about my newest novel |

Hello, Sweet Friend! 

First off I wanted to say THANK YOU to everyone who submitted questions for this Q&A! I absolutely loved seeing all the different and amazing questions come in about this story! 

I’m so excited to finally talk about this story here in my blog! If you are subscribed to my weekly newsletter, then you have been hearing me talk about this story for quite some time now (*whispers* if you want exclusive weekly updates about this story including never before seen quotes, GO SUBSCRIBE). 

Before we get into the questions I’ll set the story up just a little with important information! 

Sweet Ever After 

Sweet Ever After is a dystopian fantasy with some medieval elements (it takes place in a fallen future world with fantasy elements and has horses as transportation lots of times) retelling of the Bible story of Ruth. After a pandemic hits the world (like some dystopian stories have XD) survivors 17 and under have “powers”. This is the world where my characters live.

This is a retelling of Ruth though there are loose parts to the story with some timeline shifts and added characters including multiple Bible stories and characters woven in. Some are directly related to the Ruth Bible story and some are made up or the timeline of how they met is changed. 

There is one main main protagonist for the whole story (my Ruth character) and 3 other main protagonists who also get a POV and one side character who also gets a small POV. 

This story is written in 3rd person (something I haven’t done in a while but is perfect for this story). Sweet Ever After is also the first planned book in a series! 

This is all the need to know information! Now let’s get into YOUR questions! 

Questions from Saraina (Blog - Sarania Whitney) 

Q: Which character do you relate most to at the moment? 

A: This is hard. What character do I relate to the most right now? Hmm. Honestly, I’m going to say my Boaz character (also named Boaz). He loves his family and wants to always be there for them and protect. Something he has to learn is that God has it all under control. Boaz cannot always protect his family but God can. That can be a struggle for him not always being there for his family which can *is* a struggle for me as well, especially as I've gotten older. I think I relate the most to him right now but I also relate to Ruth and how much she loves Spring and happy and girly things and learning to trust people.  

Q: What words come to mind when you think of the book? 

A: Sweet Ever After. XD Just kidding but then seriously. 

Emotional, struggling, pro life, growing up, second chances, redeeming, golden, shadows vs light, dreams, protector, loss, family, wheat, horses, birds, broken, healing, believers, hope, dreams, falling, savior, chosen, friends, found family, rescue, burning, running, love, forgiven. 

Q: What songs capture the theme of Sweet Ever After? 

A: 

• Sweet Ever After by Ellie Holcomb (the song that gave this story a name <3)

• Rescue by Lauren Daigle 

• Never Gone by Colton Dixon 

• The Blessing by Kari Jobe 

• Soldier, Poet, King by The Oh Hellos 

• Rise Above It All by UNSECRET 

• Out Of Shadows by Ely Eira 

• Lease On Life by Andy Grammar 

• It’s Always Been You by Phil Whickham 

• Awesome God / God Only Knows - Campfire Melody 

Q: What are the personality types of the main characters? 

A: This is such a fun question! I love personality types (though sometimes it is hard to find the perfect personality type)! I’m going to be using the enneagram because that one is my favorite! 

Ruth: 2w1

Boaz: 2w3 or 9w8 (as of now I’m not sure which one is more accurate. I feel like it's one of these but I’m not positive which one yet). 

Naomi: 6w5

Rehab (if you know Jesus’s lineage then you know how she is VERY connected to this story): 8w9 

Q: What's the most unexpected element of the story?

A: Hmm. One unexpected (or at least I didn’t expect it) was just how many Bible stories have been woven into this story and I can’t take any credit for it. I do believe God set these stories in my heart so to Him I give all the credit (also that in how much he has been a part of this story I feel like even more than my others which is saying a lot). 

Also, some of the topics are things I would never think to write on my own mainly with one character (Rehab). She has a backstory that I wasn’t originally going to have in this story because it is…not the kind of stories I write or would put into a book. But as time has gone on I felt it was really important to actually have her story including her backstory into this book. If you read her story in the Bible in Joshua then you know what backstory I am talking about (it's in the Bible so…I’m going to trust God in this process and write this). 

Questions from Erin (Story Of A Christian Girl)

1) What's your favorite thing about this story?

AHHH! THIS IS SUCH A HARD QUESTION! Can I say everything? Like everything is my favorite. 

If I must choose only one thing it will hands down be God. Him coming and writing with me has been so amazing. All the stories He has highlighted to me and just how much He is a part of this process and how MANY prayers He has answered for me concerning this book has been absolutely incredible. He has been my favorite part of writing this story! 

2) Which verse has inspired you the most?

Whenever I write a story I try to always have a bible verse or scripture over the whole story. While I was working on the outline I read this verse and now it is the verse I have at the beginning of my novel. 

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed.” —Proverbs 31:8, NLT

So this is a verse that has really inspired me and this story (mainly concerning Rehab and Boaz). And of course, the whole book of Ruth has been incredibly inspiring because that is where the story really began. 

3) Which character would be your role model?

I LOVE this question! I think it is so important as writers and Christians to write good role models but for ourselves and for our future readers. 

I have to say that the character who would be my role model is Rehab. She is an incredible character. She fiercely loves her children, she is very loyal, she believes and constantly points people to God, so forgiving, and gives all thanks and glory to God. She is a real role model to me. I love how she will stand beside her children and will love and save them. I’m realizing that a lot about her character and her love for her children is inspired by my mom. My mom is a role model to me and I think why I say Rehab is because of my mom. So, yeah, Rehab would be my role model. 

Questions from Madisen (@sweetmadilynne) 

1. Have any other Bible stories influenced this book (if so, what)??

YES!!! I have a lot of bible stories that have influenced this book and have become “subplots” aka side stories and characters in this story! I actually haven’t counted them all so this is fun to count them today! 

So my main source of inspiration is obviously the story of Ruth. 

Then I took a lot of inspiration from Joshua 2 & 6 (Rehab’s story). 

Other passages of the Bible I found inspiration and characters are: 1 Samuel 1, 1 Samuel 9:1, Hosea, and Luke 8:49-46. (Each of these passages brought a new character to the story). 

I have also found a lot of inspiration in the Psalms and Proverbs. The verse I have over my story is Proverbs (31:8). Other verses that have been really inspirational to me is Psalm 147:2-3 and Deuteronomy 31:8. I know that the more I write, the more verses will come to mind and pop up but these are the immediate ones that come to mind and are very much a part of this story. 

2. Is Sweet Ever After connected to any of your other writings??

No but that would have been really cool! I have thought about planting “Easter eggs” in this story to my other stories but with it not being in the same time frame of my other stories (I have the contemporary ‘series’ with all those books clueing into each other and then my completely fantasy book that takes place exclusively underwater) I don’t know how I would do that. 

3. So far, who is your favorite character & who do you relate to most?? 

Ooo! This is a hard question! Earlier I said I related to Boaz the most (and Ruth) so I’m going to stick with him. But then my favorite character. Who is my favorite character? That's really hard to choose. I’m going to choose a side character (obviously I endlessly love my main characters but why not spotlight my favorite side character?)! 

My favorite side character (and maybe character because I love him so much) is named Abiel. (I am super private about my characters names and y’all! I’m just sharing all their names with you! This is crazy and really fun! I think it's also easy to share with you because the names I am sharing are all names and people inspired from the Bible)! Back to Abiel! He is so fun! He is silly and sweet and protective. He is the kind of guy who would make fun of himself to lighten the mood, really easy to be around, but then would in a moment lay down his life for you without a second thought! <3 

4. What era/time frame/season does this take place??

You know me so well to be asking this question! I love writing in seasons (which you know)! So this is set in a dystopian future (a somewhat destroyed world) with some magical elements. It is set mostly in the spring and summer months. Ruth is kinda coming out of a “winter” dark time. Her story is a lot about second chances and new growth and life (hence spring and summer). 

5. Do you have a time frame for writing?? Like do you want the first draft done at a certain time or are you just seeing where this goes??

I am not holding myself to a timeline. I did this same thing with Broken Ballerina and absolutely loved that whole writing process. My hope is to finish by graduation (so the end of May). I think that would be really cool but then I’m just seeing where this is going to go! 

6. What's the storyline?? (If you are willing to share) 

I kinda shared some of this at the beginning of the post. I’m not going to share a ton of the storyline (I will definitely do another post once I finish with a blurb (better overview of the story)). 

Ruth’s story is a lot of things but mostly I think her story is a love story between her and God. She goes through lots of hard things. She has a lot of loss in her life which makes her both afraid of love and want it with all of her being. She wants to be loved and accepted but struggles with the fear of losing that love. A lot of her story is coming to trust God completely with her story. She has to trust Him and love Him first as He has always loved her. God never left her. No matter how hard life got, He was there with her. That is something she has to learn to see before she can ever be able to be in a real relationship (romantic, friend, etc). She has to learn to trust and believe in God’s love for her before she can trust in anyone else. 

7. & last but not least, what's your favorite thing about Sweet Ever After??

I love this question! I already talked about my favorite thing earlier—God writing with me and highlighting different bible stories and characters to be a part of this story—so I’ll do my next favorite thing about Sweet Ever After! Something I really love is my female cast of characters! I love them because they are all so different and wonderful (the guys are awesome too and all different but I want to highlight my girls for a moment). 

One of my favorite books is Little Women. Something I love is that each of the four sisters are different from each other and highlight different personalities and aspects of being a woman. I love that. So, with this story I really wanted to make each girl have different personalities and things that make them them. 

I also really wanted to show how we all have strengths. Sometimes that is physical and being confident and strong externally. But there are more strengths in that. There is strength in being a mother and a father. Strength in being quiet. Strength is kindness. Strength is standing up for people and laying your life down for them. Strength in seeing beauty even in a fallen world. Strength in being calm. Strength in taking action. Strength in speaking. Strength in crying. And strength in saying no and making boundaries. There are many kinds of strengths and I think it’s going to be really wonderful getting to highlight these different kinds of strengths! 

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BEHOLD PEACE Update: 

Last week we finished our Esther Study (Chosen, Favored, & Planned by God). I absolutely loved our final discussion! We talked about what we learned from Esther, having the heart of a queen going after God, going through trials and hardships, finding the beauty in the pain, and motherhood. 

I hope you check it out and find some encouragement! 

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Discussion Time

Thank you so much for reading this post! Thank you so much for reading this! I hope you find something encouraging or fun in this post! 

Make sure to comment below any topics or questions that you’d like me to cover in one of my posts! Next week I’ll be sharing a Masterclass (basically that just means that it has lots of story examples (something I haven’t done in months but miss doing)) on how to write realistic insta love with lots of examples (all from Disney movies XD)! 

I want to hear from you! Meet me in the comments and tell me what you thought of today’s post? Are you excited about Sweet Ever After? Is there a topic you want me to cover? I would love to chat and pray for you! 

If you have any questions or want to talk (or have a prayer request), make sure to comment down below! Be sure to subscribe to this blog to stay in the know because I post new content here every week. ALSO, If you want to hear more about my writing and what I’m reading, make sure you are subscribed because I am doing special updates for BLOG SUBSCRIBERS ONLY! 

Love, Moriyah 💛