INTRODUCTION BY MICHAEL
Co-writing with our friend Judith Pella was one of the most enjoyable periods in my writing life. When the three of us got together to brainstorm (both Judys and me), the ideas gushed so fast we could hardly keep up with them.
Two of the ideas that came as we were finishing up the Stonewycke series and the book Robbie Taggart, were for two new series—one set in gold rush California, the other set in 19th century Russia. The gold rush story was Judith’s idea, the Russian historical epic was mine. It wasn’t long before we were writing away on the first books of both series, passing pages and chapters back and forth and brainstorming where each story would go.
Then a peculiar thing happened. Judith became so caught up in the history of Russia that she began to lose interest in Corrie. At the same time, Corrie’s deepening spiritual development was taking me over as characters in my books often do.
I was eager to follow Corrie as she matured from her teen years into early adulthood. My early enthusiasm for the Russian story began to wane. We each found ourselves more attached to the other’s brainchild!
So Judith and I reached a mutual decision. We decided to continue the stories we were individually excited about, each of us on our own. It was a little frightening to launch out without the safety net of being able to depend on one another. But we thought, “We can do this.”
Our editor at Bethany wasn’t so sure we could do it!
She didn’t like the idea one bit, and argued strenuously against it. She had little confidence that we could write decent novels on our own.
She was so skeptical in my ability to write a novel by myself that she insisted in keeping Judith’s name on the cover of the Corrie books long after I was writing the books entirely myself. She didn’t think the name “Michael Phillips” would sell books. The first printings of four or five Corrie titles were printed with “by Michael Phillips and Judith Pella,” until finally the folks at Bethany realized it probably wasn’t best to represent the books inaccurately.
This little trip down memory lane explains why Judith’s name appears on the first two of Corrie’s Journals only, and why my name is listed only on the three titles of the Russian series co-written by both of us, after which Judith continued that series on her own.
What readers say about Corrie’s Journals
AMAZON REVIEWER
LOVED IT!
A sweet uplifting story with quite a few surprises. Well written. Can’t wait to read the next book.
AMAZON REVIEWER
COULDN’T PUT THE BOOK DOWN
I have been in love with this series for years. I love going back every once in awhile and reading the books again. I am always hooked and don’t stop until I’ve read the first to last book.