I wrote Biddy’s biography because of 
A Poppy in Remembrance.
As I’ve recounted elsewhere, I spent several days researching Biddy and Oswald Chambers’ lives.
Two intense days focused on the World War I period at Wheaton College, brought the two alive.
As I wrote the novel, I knew Oswald would influence the storyline.
What I did not anticipate was how strong a character his wife Biddy became!
How does a novel inspire a biography?
She kept influencing characters to do things I hadn’t expected!
Biddy’s quiet perseverance influenced Claire’s decision-making.
Found it!
But how she affected Claire’s mother turned the story in a completely different direction.
Indeed, it was the making of Anne’s character in the book!
She was hardly in the story to begin with!
When I looked through the novel, the question arose in my mind, “what kind of person was Biddy Chambers?”
An innocent prompt.
Nine months into writing the novel, I met a member of the Oswald Chambers Publications Association, Ltd.
“Have you thought about writing a Biddy biography?” I asked.
“She’s such a strong and interesting character, it would be interesting.”
He laughed and said, “No, but maybe you’re the person to write it.”
“Not me. I’m a novelist.”
Which is true, but it turns out I became the author of Biddy’s biography!
How the novel writing affected Biddy’s biography.
The research went both ways.
Several people asked me if I had visited Egypt. They thought the descriptions of Cairo during WWI were very vivid.
While I have never set foot in Egypt, in writing the novel, I thought about how to how to depict the country in a sensory manner.
Novel writing is not just straight facts. A novelist tries to paint a picture using all the emotions and senses.
Frankly, the Egyptian scenes were the easiest sections to write in the biography.
Research details made a difference
Physical research done in conjunction with A Poppy in Remembrance overlapped to Mrs. Oswald Chambers.
While on a business trip with my husband, I suggested we spend a day in London hunting for Oswald Chambers-related sites.
We then crossed the English channel and spent two nights in Paris.
We visited the Somme battlefields on the only full day we spent in France.
(My poor husband just laughed, “the life of a writer’s spouse!”)
I stood on the top steps of #45 Clapham Common North and tried to imagine what it looked like 100 years before.
We found the Light of the World painting just north of the altar in St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Everywhere I walked between the two sites, I tried to picture Claire and Biddy at the same places.
I made sure we traveled to the same Underground Station that both fictional and historic women would have known.
My husband and I walked from St. Paul’s Cathedral down Fleet Street past Twining’s tiny tea shop.
I took mental notes every step of the way.
We paused on the corner near St. Martin in the Field’s Church.
Trafalgar Square opened before us with the London Gallery of Art on the north side.
All those places appeared in A Poppy in Remembrance, and most in Mrs. Oswald Chambers, too.
I visited Oxford on that same trip–where Biddy lived and compiled My Utmost for His Highest.
If only I’d known that day. I would have walked up to her former boarding house and taken a real photo!
You never know.
A writer’s brain constantly files away information.
You never know what will influence a description, or how an experience will play out in another project.
I’m so thankful and proud that A Poppy in Remembrance led me to two years of researching and writing Biddy’s biography.
Led by God on both, I come away with six years of gratitude for the opportunity to write two wonderful and satisfying books.
And all because I just went to work one day, with a heart and mind open to wherever God would lead me.
Thanks be to God.
Purchase Biddy here
Purchase Poppy here
Tweetables
How a WWI novel inspired the author to write a biography. Click to Tweet
How A Poppy in Remembrance led to Mrs. Oswald Chambers. Click to Tweet
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Interested in Oswald and Biddy Chambers? I recounted stories about the amazing ways God led me through the writing of two books about them in my 2017 newsletters.
The Ebook, Writing about Biddy and Oswald Chambers, is available free if you sign up for my newsletter here.
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