Peace by Piece speaks to a child’s experience of relocating. What is it that makes moving so difficult?
The whole foundation of your life is set to completely shift; the familiar hurtles toward obsolete, and you can do nothing to slow its pace; and, maybe more than anything, the faces that look back at you are set to change exponentially. I wanted to alert parents to the fact that, just because we’re a highly mobile society and moving is common, this doesn’t make it any less traumatic for children. There are ways to help smooth out some of the rough spots for their children.
The metaphor of puzzle pieces is key to your writing. What makes that image so valuable?
I chose to use the puzzle analogy because it’s something a child easily understands. A puzzle requires the user to remove the pieces from a nice, neat box, undergo difficulty of making some pieces fit, and see the eventual beauty of the finished picture when he or she perseveres to the end.
You have lots of great vignettes. What’s the most fun part of your book?
Hm… I tried to incorporate a lot of my favorites, but I’d have to say my Christmas memories, watching my beloved teacher participate in comedy/drama, and my friend and I reenacting the children of Israel.
Your writing has the bright freshness of a child’s outlook. What richness comes from writing from a child’s perspective instead of as an adult?
A lot of this child’s perspective came via my own kiddos. I asked them a lot of questions and also tried very hard to go back into my own childhood memory to remember what I felt. Something else I did was look at yearbooks from those years, which triggered memories I would have long forgotten. The richness of undertaking something like this is a renewal of gratitude to my parents for their willingness to follow God’s leading, the general delight of remembering how much I enjoyed life at age eight, and the renewed determination to continue making my home a positive place for my own children.
How does your faith affect your writing?
As a Christian, my faith encompasses everything I do and am. While I don’t refer directly to my faith in my book, it’s obvious to the reader that I am the child of Christian missionaries. My delight in life, my very real struggles processing the move, and the obvious kindness and support from my parents are designed to paint a picture of hope for the reader—but not of just any hope. A hope and a faith that rise above any difficulty, no matter how large it looms in the mind of a child, and helps them move on successfully.