With her debut novel “Forbidden Gift” recently published, a lifelong dream of becoming an author has been fulfilled for Debra Torres, a web content specialist for Liberty University’s IT Development department.
“Forbidden Gift” tells a thrilling fictional tale about a young Amish writer named Johanna Yoder who is forbidden from writing by the bishop of her Amish community, but Yoder can’t seem to stop. When the bishop discovers she’s been writing under a pseudonym for a local newspaper, she faces an ultimatum that could crush her. After other secrets come to light, Johanna is left with a decision that could tear her Amish community apart.
Torres’ writing aspirations had to fit around her full-time workload at Liberty and, being the mother to five children, she often had to put the project on the back burner for many years. When her husband, Michael, asked her what it would take to finally finish, she came up with a steady approach to creating the story with what little time she had left each day.
“I’m not a fast writer, and I had to respond honestly, so I told him that one good page would probably take me 30 minutes,” Torres said.
With that realization, Torres determined she would set aside 30 minutes a day to write. She stuck to it for the most part, staying late after all her coworkers had gone home for the day and even working on her lunch breaks or listening to novel marketing podcasts.
Torres credits her friends and coworkers who supported her during much of the process, from writing to finding an agent and landing a publisher. Her front cover image of protagonist Johanna Yoder features Liberty student Katherine Shepler and was taken by cinematographer and lighting expert Doug Miller, a professor in Liberty’s Cinematic Arts, Zaki Gordon Center. Her beta readers were also her Liberty coworkers.
“I didn’t want to go through this journey alone,” she said. “This wasn’t a ‘me’ thing. It was a ‘we’ thing. I was amazed at how many people cared about this project and did all they could to help make this dream a reality.”
“All the help from the Liberty community has been amazing,” Torres added. “Fulfilling your creative dreams while working full time is really possible. And I’m so glad God picked a place like LU for me to work while writing and publishing my debut novel.”
“Forbidden Gift” can be found on Amazon in e-book or paperback format, and it is the first in the three-book series “Willow Brook: Secrets of the Pen” published by Elk Lake Publishing, Inc. Visit Torres’ website to learn more about her pursuits as an author.
