Author: Sheridan Voysey
Located in: United Kingdom
Submitted: March 13, 2013
Tell us a little about yourself. I am an Australian writer, speaker and broadcaster on faith and spirituality, living in the United Kingdom. I have written 5 books, and had 18 years in broadcasting and public speaking. I am married to Merryn and we live in a little terrace house in Oxford from which I write and travel.
What was your motivation behind this project? This book was not my idea to write. As readers will discover, it was a well-known British author friend of mine who suggested that this story of broken dreams and new beginnings should be told for the benefit of others. My response was initially negative, and I didn't think my wife would want our private story told. But as we both prayed about the idea we grew in the conviction that, yes, this book should be written.
What do you hope folks will gain from this project? My prayer for Resurrection Year is that those who have experienced a broken dream will find hope and healing through it. For Merryn and I the broken dream was having a child. For others it might be unwanted singleness, the loss of a loved one, the loss of career or something else. The broken dreams may differ, but the emotional and spiritual journey involved in starting again has proven remarkably similar for all. This is the story of one couple who were able to start again.
How were you personally impacted by working on this project? As I've shared on my blog, writing Resurrection Year required Merryn and me to relive some very painful experiences. I re-read a decade's worth of journals in preparation. During this phase of the writing process Merryn would come home at times to find me in a very dark place indeed. (Much of that heartache is revealed in chapter 1 of Resurrection Year a chapter few whove read the book can read without tears.) But in another sense, there was a joy in writing this book that Ive rarely experienced before. The books structure came fairly quickly and very little of the draft material was edited out. The words, paragraphs and metaphors flowed. The craft of writing is always difficult, but I felt a grace in writing this book that was unique.
Who are your influences, sources of inspiration or favorite authors / artists? There are many but, in terms of memoir writers, I hope Resurrection Year has even just a pinch of the grace that Frederick Buechner, Tim Winton, Anne Lamott and Kathleen Norris have brought to their memoirs.
Anything else you'd like readers / listeners to know: I'm amazed at the kind words people are saying about Resurrection Year. Gary Chapman, author of The Five Love Languages, has 'highly recommended' it. Darlene Zschech has called it 'a gift'. Marva Dawn describes it as 'a profound read' and Ruth Graham, Adrian Plass and many others have endorsed the book. It seems God is up to something with this little story that I never wanted to write.
