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February 2014

How We First Met: Nathan and Janelle

Nathan and Janelle


Setting A nearly empty hotel conference room in Denver. Convening are 600 Christian fiction writers, most of whom are age 50+ married grandmothers.

Players A single, 44-year-old grandmother from Marin supporting a family of 5 by working two jobs and writing historical romances late at night, imagining the love she so sadly lacked in her former marriage – to an evangelical pastor. And a still-in-the-throes-of-divorce-negotiations, 48-year-old entrepreneur from Albuquerque who already regrets that he was suckered into attending this conference.

Action “Want some gum?” she asks as she sits beside him, despite 400 other perfectly suitable empty chairs. He does not chew gum. “Sure.” Twenty minutes later, as the speaker takes the stage, they have just begun to learn how much their pasts overlapped, while never quite intersecting.

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