Turning a “Dear Abby” Letter into a Novel with a Message

by Eva Marie Everson

I couldn’t help but laugh.

With the exception of my hometown paper, which came out once a week and gave all the local who, what, when, where, and why of a Mayberry-esque community, I’d not been much of a newspaper reader. Except, that is, for the “Dear Abby” column. I read the letters asking for advice and the replies given as though they were Pulitzer Prize contenders.

Ninety-nine percent of them, I cannot remember. But one—one in particular written about forty years ago—caught my attention and held on. This letter to Abigal Van Buren told the story of a young, single woman who woke in the middle of the night to the sound of a man snoring. She managed to slide out of bed (I would have been screaming as I ran from the room) and dash to the living room where she called the police. The man was arrested. As it turned out, he had been at a party down the street and had been invited to just “crash at my house” by another guest. But he’d gone into the wrong house! This left the woman whose home he’d invaded greatly distressed, especially when he didn’t show up for his court date. Thus the “Dear Abby” letter. Abby’s response was to “check other courtrooms.”

Now you see why I laughed.

I had not yet become a professional writer, but I clearly remember commenting to a co-worker that “this would make a great premise for a novel. Could be suspense. Could be romance. Either way, a good premise.”

The letter played in the back of my mind for years. By the late 1990s/early 2000s, I had become a published author and was president of a group of both professional and freelance writers. As part of a writing exercise, members of the group “threw” plot elements (I recall only a ring, a sibling, a betrayal, a death) out on the table. We were then to take those elements and form a storyline in our preferred genre. With mine being southern fiction, I created a tale of twin sisters, a stolen ring, and unforgiveness even after one of those sisters tragically passed away.

The opening was fine, but I really had nothing else. A beginning—yes. A middle—no. And nothing even remotely close to an ending. Still, the story of the sisters wouldn’t leave me alone. It niggled and annoyed until I gave it a title and a detailed plotline. I then put it away.

The years went by and, one day as I rifled through some files, I came across the story of the sisters. I had, over those years, done a lot of biblical study on the subject of forgiveness. More specifically, on what happens when we don’t forgive those who have hurt us. New thoughts and directions began to percolate.

As I “fluffed and puffed” the storyline, something different formed: a sister in one family who held on to bitterness and a brother in another who would willingly lay down his life for someone he should have felt resentment toward. When the “Dear Abby” letter came back to play, I determined that these two people would meet in the way of the letter. Thinking he is entering the home of an army buddy, the brother (Marty) wanders into the home of the sister (Beth), crawls into a guestroom bed, and falls asleep. Though the night ends with his arrest, he returns to teach Beth more than she could ever imagine about love, tolerance, and the forgiveness required by God.

So now I had a beginning and a middle and something close to an ending—but no real conflict for Marty.

One evening, as I sat on the floor of the guestroom in my own home, rifling through some paperwork that belonged to my late father, I came across an interesting document. Interestingly enough, I’d never noticed it before. Never really put too much thought into the facts behind it. But, as soon as I saw it, I knew—here lay the conflict. I now had all the pieces. A hero. A heroine. A plotline full of conflicts and resolutions. A well-kept secret. More importantly, I had a story of unforgiveness and its tragedy alongside a story of forgiveness and the hope it brings.

I found the results remarkable, even for me, the author.

So what was that piece of paper discovered in my father’s paperwork all about?

You’ll have to read the book to find out.

I know . . . forgive me. 

Eva Marie Everson is an ECPA bestselling and multiple award-winning author and speaker, including an ECPA Gold Medallion. She is a Christy finalist and a Silver Medallion winner. She has won a Carol, several Maggie and Golden Scroll awards, and an Inspirational Retailers Choice Award among others. She and her husband make their home in Central Florida where they enjoy their children and grandchildren. They are owned by a cat named Vanessa.