He Shall Be Peace: The Prophecy of the Child Jesus is the latest book by local author Jennifer M. Franks
Author Jennifer M. Franks has been a Coronado resident for over a decade. She met her husband, James, here in San Diego, and has two children in our local schools. She loves Coronado because of the people and the community. She says that folks here are “open to new people coming in” and our town is full of “great devoted moms and dads and great kids.”
Jennifer Franks had an interesting and adventurous childhood. Her father was a chemical engineer and traveled to developing countries to work. Where her father went, the family, mom, brother Anthony, sister Julia and Jennifer, followed. Jennifer lived in Nigeria, India, Venezuela, Malaysia, Thailand, Borneo, Indonesia, Seal Beach and El Toro, California. Her favorite place was Indonesia, partly because they lived there (five years) the longest. She loved the rainforest, people, and culture. She truly appreciated the rustic, raw beauty of Indonesia.
Jennifer attended fourth and fifth grades in the United States. She went to four different high schools and finally graduated from a high school in Fresno, California. She attended college and earned a degree in Health Science at Fresno State. While she was a Bulldog, she began writing about the year she spent in India with her family. She was twelve years old when they got there and recalls being the only Western family in a camp of 5,000 Indian families. The camp was very traditional. Jennifer particularly remembers the pool being open a certain time for males and only two hours a day for females. It was so hot in India that the family basically lived in one room, the one with air conditioning.
Jennifer published her first book, The Lotus Blossom, in 2005. It is a non-fiction account of that very hot and difficult year in India. They spent most of the year in the one air conditioned room. They slept, played and studied in that room. Jennifer wrote the book for her family, especially her siblings, so they would always remember that year. She explained, “It’s supposed to be a nonfiction memoir, but it reads as a comedy.” She initially started writing as a keepsake, a journal of sorts, but got so much satisfaction from the writing, she decided to publish the book to have something to show for her time. Since that first book, Jennifer has made a personal goal to write a book for every genre.
Wild Card Willie and the Pony Express is Jennifer’s second book and it was written for her children. Her goal was to “tie in history and the frontier.” The book is a chapter book intended for elementary aged children and is even used to support the curriculum at Silver Strand Elementary here in Coronado. It is historical fiction.
Jennifer decided to write her third and most recently published book, He Shall Be Peace: The Prophecy of the Child Jesus, because she had read a lot about Saints and finds them fascinating and inspiring. She also followed the dictations of a German nun, the Venerable Anne Catherine Emmerich. It took two years to write this book and a plethora of research. So much is unknown about this time in the life of Jesus and it was important to Jennifer to make her book as historically and biblically accurate as possible. Her ultimate goal was to “bring the gospels to life in a story form”. The biggest challenge, she found, was writing dialogue for the Holy Family, trying to think of an answer for the question, “What would Jesus have said?”
The author is most proud of her last book because it was the most difficult to write. The volume of research necessary to meet the goal of historical accuracy was very time consuming. Jennifer says that “each book gets a little better and I learn about the techniques of writing. I write because I enjoy it.” Though she plans to spend some time promoting He Shall Be Peace, it may have been overheard that romance is the next genre she will tackle.
He Shall be Peace: The Prophecy of the Child Jesus can be found on both Amazon.com and Kindle. I have found it an interesting and pleasant read well worth the time. Check out Jennifer’s webpage at www.heshallbepeace.com
All photos in this blog courtesy of the author, Jennifer M. Franks.
Kellee Hearther
Online Editor
eCoronado.com
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