Author: Millie Norwich Inman
Located in: Boerne Texas
Submitted: February 12, 2025
Tell us a little about yourself. I retrieved a Bachelor of Arts degree from Washington University in St. Louis, married, taught school, and raised three kids and one orphan before indulging my love for writing. Then, for several years I dabbled in freelance for mostly Christian periodicals with notable success. A heartbreaking divorce immersed me in several years of prayer and launched a cross-country move to Texas where God has blessed me over the last twenty years super-abundantly above all I could ask or think. I'm now a widow surrounded by children and grandchildren who have flocked to this neck of the woods. They lovingly refer to me as "Moses" for leading them to the lone-star land of milk and honey. A playful, creative group, they've also dubbed me "the Grandma Moses of writing." In the meantime, after twelve years as a single, God introduced me to a traditional, Jesus loving Texan. We had ten sweet years together. One day we'll be two-stepping at the Wedding Banquet of the Lamb and His Church.
What was your motivation behind this project? The inspiration for Collision Course was the nagging awareness that history and classical literature were being scoured from our schools and public institutions. I feared for my grandchildren and yours. There's wisdom that satisfies the soul in classical literature and real history. People who don’t know history are condemned to repeat its worst miseries.
I decided to research mid-eighteenth century England to find true causes behind the American Revolution. An untold story clarified, populated with amazing characters that might entice my children and grandchildren to thirst for more. I wrote Collision Course lovingly for posterity— yours and mine, and thoroughly enjoyed it myself.
What do you hope folks will gain from this project? I pray readers will be entertained and encouraged while being enlightened and edified. I pray people will learn more the the benefits and limitations of a representative, bicameral government. This story is a good look at the sin nature of man and the addictive nature of power. No wonder our founding fathers preferred farmers, lawyers, businessmen, and ministers over career politicians. My editor and i are also praying folks will find the gospel embedded here and respond to it.
How were you personally impacted by working on this project? This story confirmed to me a thousand points of wisdom. There was a plethora of insight into man's laughable worldly folly and the most noble callings of the saved. I identified with several Christ-followers - Lord Bute in particular - slogging through this corrupted world. I found the politics fascinating, as I chuckled at contemporary parallels.
Who are your influences, sources of inspiration or favorite authors / artists? Oh, there are so many! I'll just mention a few: Harper Lee, Francine Rivers, Ken Follett, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sharon Kay Penman, Leo Tolstoy, all the writers of classics.
Anything else you'd like readers / listeners to know: I've immersed in joy sitting in the transepts of Westminster Abbey just drinking in the stunning, enormous leaded- glass rose window over the north entrance. Or being transported to ethereal realms by strains of the all-male choir Evensong. Parliament no longer meets in St. Stephens Chapel and the Painted Chamber, but it acts the same. I've sat looking over the green leather upholstery in the House of Commons as an MP spoke from the floor punctuated by loud huzzahs or drowned out by scoffs and groans. I've visited the mighty, cavernous red-upholstered House of Lords. I've startled at the large, iconic wool-sack. And I've recalled it reminds the ruling peers of the traditional wellspring of Great Britain's economy least anyone dare encumber the wool industry with regulations and taxes.
I've sucked in the fragrance of the mighty River Thames from an open boat cruising to Kew and Richmond. I've sauntered in public gardens rich with spring flowers. I've lingered in the high-walled kitchen garden at Kew where lettuce reclines under foxglove and hollyhocks stand as sentry behind carrots and herbs. I've gawked my way over hill and dale on the train to Edinburg. I've thrilled to the fragrance of salty air thicker than fog on the ferry ride from the village of Wemyss to the Isle of Bute in Scotland. I'e wandered Lord Bute's garden trails in May through waning crowds of daffodils and dwindling bluebell patches, stood speechless at the base of the solemn obelisk honoring the life of the widowed (dowager) Princess of Wales Augusta. (She's the young prince's struggling single mama in Collision Course). I've been awestruck by the perfume while walking through banks of yellow azaleas. I've lingered beneath towering ancient rhododendrons dressed for some surreal heavenly ball in the finest silk.
