Behind the Novel Featuring Guest: Katie Powner
An Introduction
I had the pleasure of meeting Katie Powner at a writer’s conference in 2018 and she has since become a wonderful friend. She even critiqued my first full length manuscript for me when I was extremely green as a writer. Her books are amazing, and her newest, Birds on a Wire, just released on April 21st with Kregel Publications!
See a full list of Katie’s books on her website by clicking here. She’s a Christy Award-winning author, and a biological, adoptive, and foster mom with a big heart for all the children God sends her way. Keep reading to find out how her real life inspired Birds on a Wire.
Without further adieu, here’s Katie Powner!
I have a notebook on a shelf by my desk that’s been there for ten years. On the inside is information about each foster child who has ever come into our home. On the outside are Jesus’ words as recorded in Matthew 25:37-40: “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’”
There have been many times over the past ten years when I’ve wondered why we ever signed up to be foster parents. When I’ve wondered how the world could be so broken. When I’ve wondered if it’s time to give up and move on because it’s really, really hard. But the verses on the cover of that notebook have been an anchor for me. I’m doing this for you, Lord, I think, as I walk the floor in the middle of the night trying to calm a traumatized baby. For you, Lord, as I drive to what feels like the hundredth appointment for a child who is not my own. Because he is the least of these, as I struggle to teach a scrawny eight-month-old how to eat because he’s never been given anything but milk.
How can I give up if these are the brothers and sisters of Jesus?
Even as a foster parent, though, it’s easy to forget about the plight of vulnerable children. You don’t usually see them. You don’t often hear people talk about them. You already have so much going on in your life. But that whole “see you a stranger and invite you in” thing really hits me hard when I glimpse the front of that notebook. If it were Jesus at my door, wouldn’t I invite Him in? Then why not the two-year-old sitting in the detention center downtown because his mother was arrested and he has nowhere else to go?
I’m not one of those people who believe everyone should become foster parents. In fact, I feel strongly that if you can be talked out of signing up, you shouldn’t do it. But there are so many other ways you can help vulnerable children. The least of these. You can bring meals to foster families, offer to do some of the endless driving to appointments, invite the foster child over to give the family a break. You can give foster kids gifts on Christmas and their birthdays, show up for their sporting events and concerts, pick up diapers and formula after a new foster baby arrives. You can even volunteer as a CASA—Court Appointed Special Advocate. The CASA’s job is to keep in touch with every person involved in a child’s foster care case and speak for the child in court. (In some states, this volunteer is called a GAL, or Guardian Ad Litem. Learn more about CASA/GAL work here: https://nationalcasagal.org/)
The first child who was ever placed with us through foster care had a profound impact on my life. He came to us as a newborn straight from the hospital and lived with us off and on for two years before being adopted by an aunt and uncle from out of state. It was during his stay with us that I started writing a novel about a foster mom and bio mom who form a tenuous friendship over the baby they both love. The story was based very loosely on my own experience, but, more importantly, came from my desire to challenge misconceptions and represent foster care in fiction in a more realistic way than what I usually see. I was devastated when the book was rejected by every publisher my agent sent it to because I thought it was an important story. But after months of rejections, I had to set it aside.
We continued to foster, and I continued to write other kinds of stories. Traces of foster care had a way of showing up in my books no matter what I was writing about because it was such an impactful and important part of my life. And in between projects, I would sometimes go back to my foster care book and revise it. Tinker with it. Change its title to Birds on a Wire. And wonder if I would ever have the chance to share it with the world.
Eventually, almost seven years after I wrote it, my agent and I decided to send the foster care book out again to some of the same publishers. We received another round of rejections. We tried some other publishers. More rejections. And one yes. It only takes one yes. This happens to children, too. They are removed from their homes, from the only life they’ve ever known, and a social worker starts making call after call looking for a foster family to take them in. “All our beds are full,” one might say. “We aren’t able to take anyone that age right now,” another says. “We’re dealing with some family issues, sorry,” is someone else’s response. But then one person says, “Yes.”
After my story received its yes, it entered the long process of publication, and now, almost ten years after it was first written, it has finally been released. I know God in His perfect timing has a reason for the delay. I don’t know what it is, but I’m thankful to have this opportunity now to give people a glimpse at what foster care is really like. What goes on behind the scenes. What kind of challenges both foster parents and bio parents face. And I hope as you read the book, you will think about Jesus’s words from Matthew 25 and consider what you can do for the least of these.
About Katie Powner
Katie Powner is a Christy Award-winning author who lives in Montana, where cows still outnumber people. She writes contemporary fiction about everyday people, filled with humor and heart. She’s a mom to the third power (biological, adoptive, and foster) who loves candy, Jesus, and red shoes…not necessarily in that order. Learn more at katiepowner.com.
About Birds on a Wire
When her newborn son, Providence, is taken by CPS, eighteen-year-old Bri Marshall is determined to do whatever it takes to get him back—with or without Providence’s father. But hurdles like no job, car, or family support complicate the process. Bri never expected to sink this low. What will it take to hold her baby in her arms again?
Thirty-nine-year-old Laura Gambler, facing the big 4-0, is managing new challenges with her own children when she’s asked to take in baby Providence. She could never have imagined the chain of events that agreeing to foster would set in motion or the carefully buried pain from her past it would drag back to the surface.
Both women wrestle with doubts about the future and their ability to parent Providence, even as their love for him grows stronger every day. As their lives become irrevocably intertwined, the two very different women face the same impossible question: Who is the best mother for Providence?
Order Katie’s latest novel, Birds on a Wire today!
