Last Thanksgiving, my oldest grandson asked, “Grandma, did you ever finish that story about Matthew?”

His question motivated me to resurrect my poor book-boy, who’d languished too long in a forgotten ward of the hospital. I started completely over on my Matthew in the Middle series, reorganizing it for the umpteenth time and finally deciding on three novels.

Matthew moved into my life, consuming my thoughts and my time. Words poured onto pages in a torrent more forceful than Niagara Falls. Weekly word counts creeping from around 5,000 to over 9,000, and then to an astounding 18,133 words in one week! In six weeks, I’d written nearly 67,000 words.

My goal was to finish the series and get the first novel published in time to put a hard copy into the hands of my oldest grandson on his 13th birthday. By God’s grace, I did it. This week I handed my grandson the first book in the Matthew series, Matthew Muddles Through. It’s dedicated to Gabe, the first person to hear and love Matthew’s story.