Your story is set in the 1950s. What kind of research did you do to get the details right?
I did a lot of Internet research, purchased several books that covered the 1950s life and racism in the North, and spoke with as many people who were willing. Cold hard research will never give every scenario or the whole story, so I didn’t want to give the impression that Sinking Creek is representative of every town in central Pennsylvania in the 1950s and the same for the African American and Amish communities. I just did my best to portray one story to the best of my abilities.
What are the challenges of writing about characters with a whole different frame of reference than yours?
In a word: terrifying. I was afraid on so many levels—writing out of my culture, writing filled with bitterness, self-harm, and hate but yet still couldn’t be without hope. It’s always about hope.
Ultimately, I just had to fall into that uncomfortable rhythm and pattern of pure honesty as I wrote every scene. Honesty is just naturally uncomfortable in so many scenarios. That honesty had to invade every space of the book—the grief, the racism, the self-destructive behavior, the self-centeredness it takes to withhold love and forgiveness, and how all of that affects relationships.
I just had to face it as honestly as I could and then write it without holding back—ask my husband if I was easy to live with while I wrote this book. My emotions were all over the place. All of this is counter-intuitive to me, and I had to fight the urge to just want to hide. But through Delilah, Emma, and Sparrow, I realized that nothing—no secret, no habit, no deed—is truly hidden.
How does your faith impact how you tell stories?
I believe faith is kind of like the concept of the sunrise or daybreak—which readers will pick up on a bit in the book also. When you feel all is lost, daybreak is still going to come, and it will sweep away the night and burst forth.
I had to remember that ever scene I wrote that might make the reader cringe that God was present every single time—and hope was on its way. God’s not shocked, not scared, and not hopeless. I had to keep that point of view in order to finish this book.
I had to make sure that the characters, who I’d grown to love, would come to that knowledge and embrace it. That nothing happens outside of His hope.
What are the best ways that readers can support their favorite authors?
Write a review and tell your friends. Word of mouth about a book you enjoyed can be even more powerful than an expensive advertisement.
It’s not in the nature of most authors to feel comfortable asking for help in spreading the word, but it is essential. So if you loved The Solace of Water or another book you’ve read recently—tell people about it and bless the author with a review.
And sending a message to the author of the book about how the book touched you—that’s pretty awesome also. Those are the emails I won’t ever forget.
Visit Elizabeth Byler Younts’s author page:
https://www.familyfiction.com/authors/elizabeth-byler-younts
The Solace of Water
Elizabeth Byler Younts
Thomas Nelson
In a time of grief and heartache, an unlikely friendship provides strength and solace.
After leaving her son’s grave behind in Montgomery, Alabama, Delilah Evans has little faith that moving to her husband’s hometown in Pennsylvania will bring a fresh start. Enveloped by grief and doubt, the last thing Delilah imagines is becoming friends with her reclusive Amish neighbor, Emma Mullet—yet the secrets that keep Emma isolated from her own community bond her to Delilah in delicate and unexpected ways.
Delilah’s eldest daughter, Sparrow, bears the brunt of her mother’s pain, never allowed for a moment to forget she is responsible for her brother’s death. When tensions at home become unbearable for her, she seeks peace at Emma’s house and becomes the daughter Emma has always wanted. Sparrow, however, is hiding secrets of her own—secrets that could devastate them all.
With the white, black, and Amish communities of Sinking Creek at their most divided, there seems to be little hope for reconciliation. But long-buried hurts have their way of surfacing, and Delilah and Emma find themselves facing their own self-deceptions. Together they must learn how to face the future through the healing power of forgiveness.
Eminently relevant to the beauty and struggle in America today, The Solace of Water offers a glimpse into the turbulent 1950s and reminds us that friendship rises above religion, race, and custom—and has the power to transform a broken heart.