Until the Day Breaks (California Rising Book 1)

by Paula Scott

  A Note From Paula

  When I first began writing Until the Day Breaks, I was twenty-four-years-old with a baby on my hip and a baby on the way. This was my second attempt at a novel. My first book was also a historical romance that Harlequin considered acquiring when I was twenty-two years old. In the end, the editor decided my hero was too mean. I had no idea that when an editor was interested in a book, you were supposed to fix the problems they mentioned and then resubmit the story. Instead, I began researching California history and wrote book number two, the first draft of this novel. My husband, Scott, was in the military, and we lived in Germany at the time, and reading about California helped my homesickness.

  I wasn’t a born-again believer back then, but I was raised in the Catholic Church and loved my religion. My best friend, Christy, was a Protestant, and we had long talks about the differences and similarities of our faiths. The clash between Catholics and Protestants has always fascinated me, especially since we all worship Jesus. I knew historical romances needed conflict, and putting a Catholic guy with a Protestant girl in an arranged engagement in the middle of a revolution sounded interesting to me. Looking back, what really interested me was God.

  I’m a fifth-generation Californian, and I fell in love with California’s beautiful missions when I was a little girl. In high school, I began reading historical romances. I just couldn’t get enough of these exciting books. A high school English teacher, Mrs. Bonnie Newton, my earliest critique partner, took me under her wing and drove me to my first writers’ conference. As Mrs. Newton aged, I drove her to several more conferences. She asked me to call her Bonnie after I graduated high school, but I never could get there. I tried to teach Mrs. Newton how to put gas in her car, but she said she’d never touched a gas pump in her life and never planned on doing so. Her husband always filled her gas tank. I happily pumped the gas on our way to and from the conferences and marveled that a woman in the 1990’s had never put gas in her car. We remained great writing buddies until her death when I was in my thirties.

  Along with Mrs. Newton, many special people encouraged me along the way, and I’m so grateful to those who took the time to help me grow as a writer. High school teachers, college professors, and of course, my amazing family. My mom has always been my biggest fan. Her unwavering support has carried me through many long years of writing discouragement. Thanks, Mom!

  My dad read my first book and edited it for me too. I was twenty-one years old, the wife of an equally young army lieutenant, and we were flat broke when Scott was in flight school in Alabama. My dad paid me four hundred dollars to write that first historical romance I set in the South. Daddy called it an investment in his future. When the book didn’t sell to Harlequin, I called it a waste of Daddy’s money, but looking back, I see growing up with parents who loved reading books, and who wanted me to become a novelist, set me on this long road to publication. I’m so grateful they never gave up on me. And, of course, my big brother, Patrick. Thank you for believing in me and financing this novel. You’ve always taken care of me, even when we were little and your love for our Savior inspires me. Hoping together we can help World Vision meet the needs of many more precious children in the coming years.

  Back to my writing journey, my third book, not a historical romance, a love story set in 1972, landed me a New York literary agent. I am thankful Peter Miller gave me a shot at the big time when I was a young, stupid, starry-eyed writer, but it was really Jennifer Robinson, who worked for Peter, who put the writing wind in my sails when she said, “You have that something special I can’t teach you, so let’s get to work, and I’ll teach you the rest!”

  I learned so much from Jennifer with my third novel, and I hope to thank her someday for helping a baby writer learn to walk.

  A few years later, I was born again. All of a sudden, I couldn’t write anymore. Actually, I strongly sensed God didn’t want me to write anymore. Laying down writing felt like giving up my legs. Where would I go? How would I walk? Heartsick, I left Peter’s agency and quit writing feature stories for newspapers. I stopped working on my novels, put my laptop away, and planted my first garden.

  I also picked up a Bible.

  I haven’t put the Bible down since. Each year for the past fifteen years, I’ve read the Bible straight through in a year. One year, I read through the Bible several times. I was pregnant and stuck on bedrest and decided I’d only read the Bible and no other books that year. Talk about eye-opening. The Bible is not a shy book. The Bible rocked my world.

  God is very passionate, and he often compares our unfaithfulness to sexual infidelity. True love began with God in the garden where two humans were naked and felt no shame. Don’t be confused, sexuality is very meaningful to God. We are the ones who mess up sex.

  So back to planting my first garden. While growing that garden and taking care of our three young children, I began to grow another baby. On bedrest with my fourth baby, God whispered, “You can write again.”

  I was thrilled! By the time I gave birth, I’d finished my first attempt at a Christian novel, but I tucked that book—a murder mystery set on a peach farm—away and kept reading the Bible. After having a fifth baby, I contacted a Christian literary agent, Les Stobbe. I found him in the library in a book listing all the Christian agents. I said a prayer and chose Les because I liked what he said in his bio.

  Les and I immediately hit it off, probably because when he called out of the blue one morning, I was shocked to hear a man’s voice introduce himself as Leslie Stobbe. I’d assumed Leslie was a woman—I wanted a female literary agent—and here Les was telling me how much he liked my writing and that I needed to get email. “Writers today correspond by Internet, not snail mail,” he informed me. This was 2005. I told Scott that night I needed to learn how to use email pronto. So I took over our joint account, the account only Scott used until that day, and P.S. Bicknell was born. Scott opened another email account using just his initials.

  Les and I later laughed about him being a man with a woman’s name, and then he did his best to sell my first Christian novel after warning me it was probably too secular for the Christian market.

  Les was right, that book didn’t sell, so I got to work rewriting my California historical romance novel with the plan of turning it into a series of three novels. Les loved the storyline and suggested the California Rising series name. Thank you, Les, California Rising was perfect! You are a great encourager to writers and a wonderful man of God. I love you and am so thankful for you!

  When the rejections began pouring in on Until the Day Breaks, Les wasn’t discouraged. One editor gave Les an earful because Roman had damned God in the story. I grew up with people who’d damned God on a regular basis, men who kicked down doors when they were angry, and I watched one of these men give his life to Christ on his deathbed. Jesus graciously forgave this man, my grandpa, and took him home to heaven, and I didn’t get why I couldn’t write about real men like this in my novels.

  I wanted to write raw and honest, and I figured if it was in the Bible, I could put it in my stories. So I wrote another book, a contemporary novel, and that story didn’t go over well with editors because incest was in the storyline. The Bible covers incest, so I didn’t get why I couldn’t write about it. Maybe I wasn’t writing this stuff the right way, but if you’ve read this far, hopefully you’re okay with how I write. I love history, and I love Jesus, and I love writing about sinners who really meet the Savior and it stops them in their tracks.

  This happened to me. At thirty-three-years-old, I had a personal encounter with Jesus. If you haven’t met Jesus, I’m hoping with all my heart that you do. Jesus loves you so much that he died for you. It’s not a joke. It’s not a tale. It’s the truth. And it’s for you.

  I want to thank my daughters, Cami and Lacy, for pushing me to publish this novel. For the past several years when I’ve asked Cami what she wanted for her birthday, she has said, “I want you to make Until the Day Breaks into a book for me.”<
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  I never intended do anything more with this novel after it was rejected by Christian publishers nearly a decade ago because I didn’t want to change it for the Christian market, and honestly, I was afraid it might offend Christians, so I thought it better to keep it tucked away in my computer. But I wrote a memoir last year that Scott has decided he’s putting on Amazon. I was hoping to sell this memoir to traditional publishers, but like my other books, my story doesn’t quite fit the Christian market.

  “You need to give me one of your novels to practice with on Amazon before we publish your memoir,” Scott said a few months ago. The thought horrified me. Practicing with my novels on Amazon sounded about like going to church without my pants on. I cried, I prayed, I did everything I could to convince my husband this was the dumbest idea ever, but I’ve never been able to say “no” to Scott for long. He’s the love of my life, my great romance. This is why I chose Paula Scott for my pen name.

  “Pick a novel,” Scott ordered. “We are going to Amazon with your books this year.”

  The Bible says to obey your husband, so I chose Until the Day Breaks for Cami and Lacy. I figured if nobody else enjoyed the book at least my girls would appreciate it, and this could be Cami’s birthday present. So happy twenty-fifth birthday, Cami! Thank you for being so sweet, so strong, and so persistent. Rachel reminds me so much of you, honey. And thank you, Lacy. That vein in Rachel’s forehead is your vein, and when I picture Rachel’s eyes, I see your big, beautiful blue-green eyes my precious girl.

  I need to thank my critique partners, Michelle Shocklee and Katherine Scott Jones, for all your help working the kinks out of the story. I met you ladies at my first Christian writers’ conference but came home from that conference so discouraged about my writing, not realizing meeting you ladies was an incredible gift. At that conference, I also met Lisa Buffaloe, my beloved writing prayer partner, and Jeff Gerke, who helped me typeset this book. Jeff was a publishing house editor at the time, and I was so nervous I introduced myself to him as Les Stobbe’s agent. Jeff laughed and told me to relax. Thanks, Jeff!

  How blessed I was at that conference and didn’t even know it!

  Also, a mountain of thanks to Kay Andrus, my daily prayer partner. Can’t live without you, Miss Kay! To Laura Frantz, my dear soul sister, our phone talks and prayers are my favorite! And a shout-out to my brilliant editor, Jenny Q of Historical Editorial. Thanks for all your help, Jenny. Looking forward to working with you on book number two. You’re amazing!

  If you enjoyed this novel, please consider leaving a review on Amazon. Leaving reviews is a great way to connect with writers and other readers. I actually met Laura Frantz by leaving an Amazon review for one of her books. She contacted me to thank me for the review, and we became dear friends. Leaving a review is also a great way to be friendly to writers. Thanks so much!