From Hardin County News, Lumberton, Texas June 11, 2008

Woman achieves goal with novel
By AMY A. COLLINS REPORTER

HCN/Amy A. Collins Norma Davis of Silsbee holds up her inspirational novel, "Pick Up the Broken Pieces,"

Brandi Weston is a prostitute who has escaped an abusive pimp in Kansas City and finds herself in Beaumont. Although she has escaped one facet of her past, she has to face several others and learn that even prostitutes can go to heaven.

Brandi, her journey, and the people she meets aren't actually real, but exist in the novel "Pick Up the Broken Pieces," by Silsbee resident Norma Davis.

Davis, 65, was born in Granby, Mo., one of thirteen children, but now lives in Silsbee with her husband Gale and English bulldog, Bronco, who also makes an appearance in the book.

Davis is a woman of many talents, such as playing the piano and sewing, but writing was something she felt compelled to do after being diagnosed with breast cancer in 1997.

"My first thought was 'this happens to other people, not me,' and my second thought was 'I want to write a book before I die,'" Davis said.

But not just any book; she felt compelled to write a Christian book showing how unlikely people could find God. Davis said she's tried to avoid making the book sound "preachy," by adding in humor and suspenseful moments.

Davis had never written a book before, so she hopped on the information highway and searched, finding Gilbert Morris's "How to Write and Sell a Christian Novel." Davis said she read it three times before beginning her book in the fall of 2006.

It was a learning experience, Davis said, because she had to revisit grammar by studying some of her daughter's college books.

The title comes from a chapter where Brandi Weston, the novel's main character, is hiding from her pimp in a Kansas City closet. There, she overhears a ladies' church meeting, where a former drug addict says she found religion at a mission and the women there sang a song called "Pick Up the Broken Pieces."

"It helped the woman to Christ, and that song stays with Brandi, leading her to Christ in a unique way," Davis said.

Davis said she borrowed actual events from her life, especially from her experience with breast cancer, for the novel. One chapter describes the night Brandi woke up after a radical mastectomy and has a religious experience.

There is another humorous chapter about a wedding dress that doesn't get finished until the day of the wedding. Davis chuckled as she admitted that was true to life as well.

"When my now daughter-in-law was marrying my son, I wanted to make the wedding dress," Davis said. "I was also working full time, giving piano lessons, and juggling a lot of other things. The wedding started at 2 p.m. and I finished it at noon."

After a year of writing, editing, and revision, the novel was complete.

"I had so much fun writing this book," Davis said. "It was such an exciting and uplifting experience. I felt like God wanted me to write this book and share it."

Selling the book was the next and probably more difficult of the steps in Davis's journey to becoming a published author. Davis found Publish America at the end of 2007, after a year of scouring the Internet and receiving two rejections.

"It is hard to get published in an extremely saturated market," Davis says on the site. "I was thrilled when Publish America offered to publish my book."

Davis said a sequel is a possibility, but she only has a small outline and a few ideas for now.

"I don't want to be rushed with it," Davis said. "I wrote my first one at my leisure and I'd like to have the same luxury if I choose to write another, but it is a lot of fun to do."

"Pick Up the Broken Pieces" can be purchased online at www.barnesandnoble. com or www.publishamerica.com and can be order from most book stores. Also Davis' Web site at www.publishedauthors. com/normadavis.