I met Jennifer Slattery at the Atlanta Christian Writer’s Conference. When I heard her tell the story behind her upcoming release, Intertwined, I knew I had to help her publicize the release. Here’s the gist of the story:
Abandoned by her husband for another woman, Tammy Kuhn, an organ procurement coordinator often finds herself in tense and bitter moments. After an altercation with a doctor, she is fighting to keep her job and her sanity when one late night she encounters her old flame Nick. She walks right into his moment of facing an unthinkable tragedy. Because they both have learned to find eternal purposes in every event and encounter, it doesn’t take long to discover that their lives are intertwined but the ICU is no place for romance….or is it? Could this be where life begins again?
Betty: My dad received a donated kidney, so your husband Steve’s story touched me deeply. God used Steve to meet a dire need, and God’s way of bringing it about was nothing short of miraculous. I heard you say your research and preparation for this book helped bring him to this place.
Jennifer: It’s totally a God-thing that I even wrote this story, and I know now that God had much bigger plans than just a novel. He used my book to bring about the events that helped save a young man’s life.
Steve: I would never have thought of donating an organ prior to being baptized and prior to hearing my wife’s discussion with Ami over the book. Coming to Christ gave me a different perspective; changed my attitude a little. Christ has made me more empathetic, compassionate, and considering others.
Betty: That’s so beautiful. I’m reminded that God so loved the world, He gave His only Son. His love in us extends toward others, sometimes at great cost to ourselves. But His grace is sufficient, and at times, even extravagant.
So, Jennifer, how did the idea for the book come about?
Jennifer: One day, a friend who worked as an organ procurement coordinator suggested I write a novel on donation. The idea didn’t appeal to me, so I promptly told her no. But a week later, I awoke with a story about a single mother who worked in the organ donation field and needed to see God’s attentive caring hand. I’d been walking with God long enough to realize, when stories unfold like that, they come from Him. So, I called my friend. I told her I’d write the story on one condition—that she’d help me, a lot, because I had zero medical knowledge and knew such an endeavor would require immense research and understanding.
Betty: And, I know she did agree to help you. Something else came out of this time with her. Can you tell us a little about that?
Jennifer: She agreed, and over the next six months, we met regularly as she taught me the ins and outs of organ donation. Often my husband joined us. He’d eat his lunch, listening, asking questions on occasion, merely curious.
Steve: I wanted to be supportive of my wife and her writing. I don’t know if I really thought of anything at that time, but once Sam’s need came up, it made me think, “that’s not so bad—donating a kidney and helping someone else. I think it was the three things together. I don’t think it was just one thing. There was a fellow shop director at work that donated a kidney for his cousin, and I thought that was pretty cool that he would do that. When I heard about Sam’s need, I went and talked to Jeremy and went and asked him about it because I thought it was something I could do. I didn’t know all the particulars and Jeremy helped me understand what I’d be up against if I decided to do it.
The book made me think more about organ donation. Prior to her writing the book, donation had never crossed my mind. It made me start thinking about donation.
Betty: Here’s the instance where God really showed up. You’ve mentioned Sam. Jennifer, how did you first become aware of Sam and his need for a kidney?
Jennifer: Not long after moving, I connected with a woman who had arrived in the Omaha area the year before. Having two teenage daughters herself, she understood my worries and pain. As a result, we became quick friends. Each morning, we’d walk around a small, man-made lake, praying for our children, for others, sometimes for one another. But one day, our prayers became more serious, more urgent.
“Do you know Kathy?” she asked. “She works at the church.”
I admitted I didn’t.
“Her son has gone into kidney failure and needs a transplant. He’s only seventeen.”
This hit my mama’s heart hard as images of my own child surfaced. I worried when she came down with the flu. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to fear losing her all together. And what must life be like for this poor child, spending three hours a week, four hours at a time, hooked to a dialysis machine? It seemed there was nothing my friend or I could do but pray.
Betty: And this was Sam. You did pray, and you shared this with your family. God had already prepared you and your husband in advance. He’d moved you to Omaha, where you would come into contact with this special friend who would become a prayer partner, and touch your husband’s heart with this great need. So of course, we know your husband was a match and he was able to donate a kidney to Sam.
Jennifer: Yes, he was actually a paired match. It’s been just over a year since that beautiful, miraculous day, and both my husband and the recipient are doing well. Better than well, because through their prayers, they caught a glimpse of God’s ever-faithful heart and tender care.
Betty: What a beautiful testimony! Knowing this, and reading the book’s blurb at the beginning of this post, I really want to read it. Why another book on organ procurement? What message do you and your friend hope to convey through Intertwined?
Jennifer: Although the idea sort of came out of the blue for me, Ami had been wanting to see an accurate novel on organ donation for some time.
From Ami Koelliker: It’s one of the biggest frustrations in the transplant community—seeing novel writers completely misconstrue donation. Often they’ll get the process of determining death, how the recipients are chosen, and how it impacts the family that’s donating, wrong.
Donation is not a romantic concept, and when you turn it into one, it affects people in the wrong way. It causes people to believe in myths and distrust the medical process and community.
Betty: Donation might not be a romantic concept, but it can be a life-changing one, correct?
Ami: People want to see that good came out of someone’s life; that their life mattered, and this is often what they see once they consent to donation. They see their loved one’s legacy through donation. Years later, people look back on that legacy with peace and joy. In the moment when they’re loved one dies, they don’t understand the who, what, why but when they choose donation they can look back three years later and see how God was working.
Jennifer Slattery writes soul-stirring fiction for New Hope Publishers, a publishing house passionate about bringing God’s healing grace and truth to the hopeless. She also writes for Crosswalk.com, Internet Café Devotions, and the group blog, Faith-filled Friends. When not writing, Jennifer loves going on mall dates with her adult daughter and coffee dates with her hilariously fun husband.
Visit with Jennifer online at JenniferSlatteryLivesOutLoud.com and connect with her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/JenSlatte
Intertwined
Abandoned by her husband for another woman, Tammy Kuhn, an organ procurement coordinator often finds herself in tense and bitter moments. After an altercation with a doctor, she is fighting to keep her job and her sanity when one late night she encounters her old flame Nick. She walks right into his moment of facing an unthinkable tragedy. Because they both have learned to find eternal purposes in every event and encounter, it doesn’t take long to discover that their lives are intertwined but the ICU is no place for romance….or is it? Could this be where life begins again?
Intertwined, part of New Hope Publisher’s contemporary fiction line, is a great reminder of how God can turn our greatest tragedies and failures into beautiful acts of love and grace. Readers will fall in love with the realistic characters and enjoy the combination of depth, heart-felt emotion and humor that makes Jennifer’s novels so appealing. Readers will be inspired to find God in every moment and encounter in their own lives!
Click on a link below to buy the book
Betty Thomason Owens 