Have you ever met someone and just clicked?
I met Jessie Mattis at the ACFW conference in 2023. We spent time together with several other first-time attendees, all of us dreaming about the day we’d become published authors.
We’d both bought tickets to the conference gala on the final night and decided to go together… because who wants to go alone?
As we stood in the hotel lobby in our formal dresses, we had an...incident.
Let’s just say it involved a leaking water decanter, the back of one dress being completely soaked with ice-cold water, and several memorable minutes standing laughing ‘til we nearly cried under the hand dryer in the ladies’ room, trying to salvage the situation before the gala.
Moments like that have a funny way of turning acquaintances into friends. Lifelong friends.
Fast-forward three years, and those two unpublished authors are now both published authors.
I couldn’t be more excited to introduce you to Jessie’s wonderful debut novel, which launches out into this world TODAY…A Mess of Dreams!
If you love Michelle Shocklee, Jennifer L Wright, and Susie Finkbeiner, you’ll love Jessie Marris!
In spring of 1943, seventeen-year-old Lorene Stewart isn’t looking for complications. She’s content on her parents’ Illinois farm, longing for the day she might travel beyond the cornfields of Potomac. But when Amos Alexander chooses her angel food cake at the town cakewalk, everything changes. For the first time since tragedy struck her family long ago, Lorene’s heart stirs with hope. Yet as quickly as their romance sparks, a world torn apart by war threatens to extinguish it.
When Lorene befriends Dietrich, a German POW whose kindness and mysterious past captivate her, she begins to question everything. How can someone deemed “the enemy” side with all that’s right and good? And what if Amos has inherited his father’s deep prejudice, which he swore to resist? Amos seems to know what he wants, but when his father forbids him to court Lorene, it’s unclear if he will honor his parents’ wishes or pursue true love no matter the cost. Lorene must discern who she can trust if her dreams are to become reality. Her hope of a future spent changing the world with the right man at her side depends on it.
As another year comes and goes, Lorene seeks freedom from a burden of guilt she’s carried since childhood while navigating the treacherous waters of first love and family loyalty. With a community divided by fear and suspicion, a forbidden friendship that challenges everything she thought she knew, and her own stubborn heart standing in the way, she has to determine if love is worth the risk-or if some messes are too hopeless to become dreams.
When did you first realize you wanted to be an author?
I never intended to be an author. I sort of fell into it in 2017 when I was searching for certain book for my kids and couldn’t find it. So I wrote it! And then I caught the writing bug and haven’t looked back.
What first inspired the idea for this book?
When my grandmother passed away in 2018, I began to reflect on her life and thought what a shame it was that so many of her experiences would die with her. I wanted to bring back to life some of her stories so that parts of her could live on. I originally wrote a single novel that contained three parts, but eventually turned it into three separate books (which now includes a fourth). While A Mess of Dreams is the most fictionalized, I did picture my grandparents in their youth as I wrote, constantly asking “what if?” My characters aren’t duplicates of my grandparents by any means; they are their own personalities now, but they were originally inspired by my grandparents, and the story is set in my/their hometown of Potomac, IL (also fictionalized in the books).
The inspiration to write about German POWs came from learning that there was an actual POW camp in Hoopeston, IL, which is not far from Potomac, where the story is set. My great-grandma is said to have once taken chocolate cake and cold lemonade out to the fields where German POWs were working hard in the heat picking tomatoes for the local canning factory. Learning this really made me curious to dive in and learn more, so I did. I can only imagine what the townspeople thought about my great-grandma taking treats to the prisoners!
Which character in this book was the most fun—or the most challenging—to write?
My main characters were fun to write because they felt so relatable, but I really enjoyed writing the secondary characters, Frank and Ruby. They each bring a spark of life to the story with their energy, humor, and bold outlooks on life, and they made me smile a lot as I was writing. Their own stories unfold more throughout the series, so it was even more fun to write the second and third books. I think every introvert needs a friend like Ruby or Frank!
Are any of your characters like you in some way?
I definitely see bits of myself come through in Lorene, the main character. I tried to keep her separate from any one person I know, even though she was inspired by my grandma, but since writing requires diving deep into a person’s mind and experiences, I think it would have been impossible for parts of me not to have shown up.
What era is your book set in and what is it that compelled you to write a story set in this time period?
A Mess of Dreams is set in 1943 on the Illinois home front as effects of World War Two showed up in every community in everyday life. I love twentieth century history. It’s fascinating, yet not so long ago that it feels separate from life today. The WW2 era still feels relatable to me.
Did any part of the research for this book surprise you?
Yes! When I began diving into research about German POWs on the home front, I admit I had some preconceived notions. Learning about how many of the German soldiers were not, in fact, Nazis, and that they were only serving in the German military because it was required of them was a point I had never considered. As I learned about how the POWs worked in our communities alongside our farmers and other laborers, it began to make sense how they could assimilate the way some of them did. Many of them didn’t know what freedom and democracy could look like until they arrived on American soil, and many were grateful and good workers. Before I learned about this chapter in our country’s history, it was much easier to lump all German soldiers together as “the enemy.” Of course, they still were, but it became much more nuanced in my mind as I began to think of them as individuals with beliefs and opinions of their own.
Is there a particular scene in the book that holds special meaning for you?
There is a scene in the second half of the book where Lorene experiences deep inner healing from a prior tragedy. Writing this scene is memorable to me; I was in tears as my fingers flew over the keyboard, and I remember feeling like I had little control over the words that were coming...they just came. I pray this scene can speak to readers who may be struggling with some deeply buried hurt of their own, and shows them what healing can look like.
How has your book changed from your first draft?
Originally, I wrote one long story with three parts, but some helpful advice from an agent years ago led me to break it up and expand it into three separate novels. I’m so glad I did! This story wouldn’t exist otherwise. A Mess of Dreams is the part of the original story that expanded and changed the most, and it was so much fun to write.
What are you working on next?
Since A Mess of Dreams is the first in a contracted series of four, I will be working on the next books for a while. They are all completely written, but all in desperate need of some intense editing, haha. Once I’m through with that in a couple years, I intend to dive into some deep research on the Korean War, and I’m hoping to craft a new story with new characters inspired by my other set of grandparents. They have some pretty neat stories of their own that I want to attempt to capture on the page. There are some fascinating elements to the Korean War that are yet untapped as so many writers focus on WW2.
What theme or message do you hope readers walk away with after finishing this story?
I pray that readers walk away from reading A Mess of Dreams with a new understanding of God’s goodness, even in the midst of tragedy. Everyone goes through painful seasons, and I really desire for readers to experience the reality of God’s presence in the thick of our pain. I want this book to be a fun, entertaining journey, and I really hope it’s not perceived as preachy, but having the characters live out and wrestle through their faith as they go through life felt only natural to me. There are also themes of relentless hope, forgiveness, healing, and the importance of community that I pray will resonate with readers.
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