When God Puts A Dream In Your Heart: Author Melanie Dobson on Faith & Via Belle (Inspirational)

 What do you do when God puts a dream in your heart, but the doors keep closing, rejection keeps coming, and nothing seems to be working out the way you expected? 

In this powerful inspirational episode, Reginald D sits down with acclaimed author Melanie Dobson for an inspiring conversation about faith, perseverance, hope, purpose, resilience, rejection, gratitude, trusting God, personal growth, and refusing to give up on your dreams.

Melanie is the award-winning author of 30 novels, and her latest, The Lost Story of Via Belle, is an atmospheric dual-timeline mystery exploring broken dreams, hidden secrets, sacrificial love, healing, courage, and the redemptive power of truth. The novel was inspired in part by author Grace Livingston Hill, whose own perseverance through significant personal struggles deeply influenced Melanie. 

But Melanie's own journey to becoming an accomplished author didn't happen overnight.

Small beginnings don't determine how big your purpose can become.

Throughout this inspirational interview, Melanie and Reginald explore what it means to trust God when life doesn't make sense, remain faithful in the small things, persevere through rejection, and keep moving when your breakthrough hasn't arrived.

• Discover how to keep pursuing your dreams and purpose through rejection, disappointment, closed doors, and seasons when you don't understand what God is doing.
• Learn how gratitude, faith, perseverance, and consistency in small daily actions can change your perspective and help you rediscover hope when life feels uncertain.
• Hear an inspirational story of faith and motivation that will encourage you to stop comparing your behind-the-scenes struggles with other people's seemingly perfect lives and remember that your current chapter doesn't determine how your story ends.

Press play now and let Melanie Dobson's inspirational story encourage you to keep trusting God, keep pursuing your purpose, and refuse to let rejection or a difficult chapter convince you that your story is finished.

Melanie's Contact Information:

Website: https://melaniedobson.com  

Melanie's Books:  Purchase "The Lost Story of Via Belle" - https://melaniedobson.com/books

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melbdobson

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/MelanieDobsonFiction

Transcript

Welcome to Real Talk With Reginald D. I'm your host, Reginald D.

On today's episode, I had the pleasure of sitting down with acclaimed author Melanie Dobson,

a writer known for powerful, hope filled stories that is full of faith, history,

relationships, redemption and the resilience of the human spirit.

Melanie has written 30 novels and her latest novel is the Lost Story of Vera Bell.

A compelling story of love,

loss, hidden secrets, healing and redemptive power of truth.

Welcome to the show, Melanie.

Oh, thank you so much for having me. I'm so happy to be here.

Thank you so much. So Mel, let's start out like this. Can you tell us a little bit about your childhood and where you grew up?

Oh, sure, yeah. I live in Oregon right now, but I actually grew up in Ohio. And it's such an interesting question because I just got back from Ohio yesterday.

So I don't get home home very often. But I was just there in my childhood town where I grew up, I lived in a small town. Both sets of my grandparents lived in this little small town of Mount Vernon.

And I actually grew up right outside kind of a rural community, what's now called Amish country. So kind of in the middle of nowhere, corn beals, all of that. And it was just kind of a magical childhood.

We spent a lot of time playing outside,

a lot of time bicycling. We didn't have, you know, any libraries or bookstores close, but the bookmobile would come out once a week to where I lived and, and I would take my bike over there and just fill up my basket with books.

And so that's when I just kind of developed my love of reading. I would read, read, read for hours out there. And when the week would come to an end, or I should say when my books would end, before the week ended, I would start writing stories and kind of making up stories.

And so my love of writing and creativity goes all the way back to those early years.

Yes. So your writing journey started with a red journal and also a newspaper. Can you tell us about that?

Oh yeah, yeah. My dad, I was about 8 or 9 years old when my dad first got me a little red journal. I think you must have recognized my love of writing.

And so I would just take little notes, you know, every day. I started my own little diary and would kind of, you know, I mean it was really simple things like, you know, went to my grandparents house for pizza or things like that.

But I just kind of developed this sense of like loving, you know, being able to put my thoughts onto paper.

But also the legacy of words. You know, we write and they stay.

And so even as a child, I really, really liked that part of the writing process.

And so, yeah, so all the way back then I started writing. I. Actually, when I was nine,

I took my grandfather's typewriter. Of course, this was years before computers, and I typed out my autobiography, which ended up being about two paragraphs, because I was nine.

Not a whole lot had happened to me yet, but, yeah, I just sat there and handpacked and went and typed my autobiograph.

So I have just loved doing so ever since I was a kiddo.

Yeah. And I am very familiar with the typewriter.

Good to know.

Exactly. But, you know, the good thing about it, when you look at what you just said,

is that people need to realize that things start at a small beginning in life.

You know, you never know what life would take you when you're doing things that you are passionate about when you're young.

Yeah, it's so true. So true. And I did. I love stories. I loved writing. And it's just a dream, you know, it was a dream back then. I never imagined I would become a novelist.

And what. I'm just so grateful for being able to do what I love to do, you know, for all these years. 50 plus years.

Yes. And that's a blessing. That's a blessing.

It is. So you've built a career around telling stories filled with faith,

resilience, redemption, and hope.

Was there to find a moment where you realized storytelling wasn't simply something you enjoyed, but a part of your purpose and calling.

Oh, I love that question.

Yeah, I mean, I really didn't actively. I always loved writing fiction, but it wasn't until my late twenties where I had written a nonfiction book and I was working in the public relations world, doing a lot of press releases and things like that.

And I had gotten married in my late 20s, and it was my husband who said, you know, you're doing all these different things, but I really feel like you are called and your desire is to write fiction.

And around that time, it kind of hit me that Jesus told parables. He was a storyteller and I was a follower of his teachings, and that perhaps this was a calling, that for my life to be able to do this.

And so I started. I got serious right. About my 30th birthday, got serious in putting down stories, started writing, thinking that, you know, I'd already published nonfiction. And I'm thinking, oh, you know, it's just I'm making things up.

How hard could it Be right.

And so, you know, oh, it's going to be so easy. So naive of me to think I could just, you know, whip out a novel like that. And it was a seven year journey.

So it took me seven years, really, from that point, even though I was an avid reader, even though I had taken classes in fiction writing and all of that, I had to learn how to actually weave together a story, how to weave together the faith elements that were important to me,

how to create characters. You know, all of those things that go into fiction writing ended up being really difficult for me. But I loved the challenge of it. And so once I dove in and was like, okay, I'm gonna do this, and I.

I was one of those writers that have a stack of rejections that, you know, are huge,

very tall stack of rejections in those early years. But, yeah, it was just something that I decided, or not decided, that's not the right word. But kind of realized, I guess, back in my 30s, that this was going to be a calling for me to be able to continue pursuing it.

Yeah. And it's so important. I always tell people, everybody has a purpose in their life and a calling. And like, once you find that, things just change. I mean, it does.

I mean, it has its ups and downs, don't get me wrong,

but feels so different inside when you know that's why you're here.

Yeah, no, it's true. I love that.

So your new novel, the Lost Story of Via Bell, was inspired by the timeless storytelling of Grace Livingston Hill.

What was it about her work that inspired you and when did you realize there was a story here that you needed to tell?

Yeah, so Grace Livingston Hill was a writer, a very popular novelist back in the 1920s through, like the 1940s. And she wrote, I think she ended up publishing a hundred novels.

Incredible.

But she actually,

you know, she wrote these kind of romantic historical mysteries. You know, she had a lot of different genres. She wrote in a lot of faith elements in her stories. I kind of had this romantic view of what her life might have looked like.

And as I became an adult, I used to read her book. She was one of the. The novelists that I would check out back all the way in my childhood when I would take my bike over the bookmobile.

I was getting Grace Livingston Hill books and I just had this kind of romantic view of her life.

Well, when I became an adult and started researching what Grace Livingston Hill's life was like, I found out she actually had a very difficult,

very difficult. And she had to write these Stories to support herself and her daughters and her mother. You know, that was part of it, but it also was very much her calling, like you're saying.

It was very much her calling. And I was just so inspired by how her resilience of being able to continue on, to keep pursuing her calling. She literally. She passed away with a novel in her typewriter.

I mean, she was working on the story when she finally passed on, and her daughter came back and finished the novel for her.

And so I wanted to write a novel that no one has done this before. I mean, she's. A lot of people have her stories, they're on the shelves. They remember her.

But finding out her story was a little bit more challenging.

And so I wanted to write a novel that was inspired by her life, but also one that I hoped kind of like, was the way that she did her storytelling.

So it was really fun for me to kind of dive in.

So the novel wasn't. It's not her story, but it was definitely inspired by the story of Grace Livingston.

How. Yes, Dan, that was brilliant. That was. That was brilliant. So, Via Bell, let's talk about this.

Yeah.

So for people who's listening,

B E L L E means beautiful.

So Via Bell writes beautiful romance stories that make people believe in happily ever after.

Yet behind the scenes, her own life becomes filled with loss,

secrets, and uncertainty.

What did you want readers to understand about the difference between the life people see and the struggle someone may actually be carrying?

Yeah.

Yeah. And that was a big part of my process.

And, you know, again, inspired by Grace Livingston Hill, how she was writing these romance novels when her life was not romantic at all.

But for this story, it was kind of this deep dive, you know, taking it, you know, 100 years later, after Grace Livingston Hill was writing her books, looking around specifically with social media and sort of the facades, you know, the pretty pictures that we put on social media, you know,

this is what life looks like without being realistic about it. So other people think, you know, this is how this person really lives all the time, you know, instead of recognizing that this is a facade and so just wanting the story to be like, okay, we all have kind of a front that we put out there.

We all have this. But we also have stuff that we're all dealing with behind the scenes. Everybody does. It's common to everybody. I think maybe the big theme through that is we're not alone.

That's what I think I wanted people to hear. You know, it may look like everybody else's life is perfect on the screen.

Or on whatever social media platform you're on. But the reality is, is that we all have challenges, we all face difficulties, we all have to continue, you know, keep on pushing forward.

And we're not alone in those challenges and difficulties, even though it might not look like that on social media.

So I think that maybe that was kind of the overarching theme of what I was trying to show through historical fiction. And then the story is a twofold. It's historical fiction.

And then there's also a plot line with more contemporary fiction. And so I'm showing how that crosses over between the two different time periods. Some things don't change, you know, through history.

Some things are still the same all these years later.

Yes, I like that. I always tell people, man, some things just don't change no matter how hard you try.

So your character, Harper, is desperately searching for the story that might finally give her the breakthrough she's been waiting for.

And I think a lot of people can relate to that. What would you say to someone who's working hard, praying, believing and pursuing a dream, but still hasn't experienced their breakthrough?

Yeah, I would say if God has put a dream in your heart, don't give up on it. And that was, you know, in this book particular, my Harper character, who is fairly young, you know, she's in her 20s, but she has a dream that she's passionate about.

It doesn't seem like it's ever going to. To come to fruition in her life.

And through the course of the story, we see how her. Her dream, she achieves her dream. It's just different than she had ever anticipated, and it was better than she ever expected.

And I think. I mean, I'm sure you could say this as well, Reginald, but it's like in my own life, like I had a dream that was small, and God's taken it in such a.

Done such amazing things with it, and it's gone so many different directions that I could never have anticipated. And so I' you know, at that point, it's just. It gives me so much gratefulness because I'm like, this isn't me.

This is something that I am trying to be faithful with what God has given me, with those few loaves and fishes as the Bible talks about the small things that he has given me,

and be faithful with that. And then he can take it if he wants to, you know, in whatever ways he sees fit. So it might not look like success at times in the eyes of other people,

sometimes it might.

But from my perspective, I Just sit there in awe and say, thank you, God. I see.

I see how you're working.

I see the incredible things that you've done, the relationships that you have formed in unexpected ways through my writing. Things that surprise me pretty much every day, to be honest with you.

I just sit back at the end of day and I just say thank you. Because it's not me. It's just God working through it in unexpected ways. And I think, Amy, for me, it's like the novel writing I feel very strongly is my purpose and calling, at least for this season of my life.

It has been for a couple of decades. But then to see him springboard from that, if that makes sense, and do so many other things that aren't necessarily fiction writing but are as a result of that, I think is pretty cool.

Yeah, it is.

And the thing about it and what I hear from you and I always tell people, a lot of times,

sometimes I know it's crazy. It feels crazy. The world, it's like everything is going crazy sometimes, and everything is so fast, and it's so changing, and it's this. But. Well, you wake up every day and you simply count your blessings,

you know, that's when God starts to elevate you because you got to learn to thank him for the simple things so he can get you to the bigger things for you to be grateful for, so you know how to handle it.

I agree. And that is something that I learned. Wow. Gosh, it's probably been seven or eight years ago now, and I was kind of hit kind of a hard spot in life and was just kind of trying to figure out, you know, like, find my joy is what I say.

I was trying to find my joy. And. And that's when God inspired me to start a gratefulness journal, like what you're talking about.

And just writing down, whether it was every day or once a week, just looking back on my week, reflecting and writing down the things I was thankful for.

And when you start thinking about, oh, my goodness, oh, my God, like, have that reflection time of all that, it changes your whole perspective.

It just. You realize all the amazing things that have happened that you would not have stopped to appreciate if you don't take that time to reflect on them. And it does.

My joy was like, okay, it brought back all that joy that I've been missing for a while.

Yes, absolutely. So, Melanie, one of the major themes surrounding this book is perseverance.

Across generations.

We also think perseverance means doing something dramatic,

but sometimes it's simply getting up and continuing.

What have you learned about the quiet kind of courage required to keep going when life takes an unexpected turn?

Yeah, I love that.

And I mean, for. Just because I'm a writer, just because we've been talking about writing in particular.

For me, it's getting up every day and putting words on paper. And that's not always, you know, having that. It's not like I wake up every day with this creative, like, ready to go in my creativity.

Sometimes it's just a matter of just kind of pouring out whatever I can get out, even when it's not good.

Right.

Just that. Again, faithfulness of putting word after word on paper. But, you know, relationships. Being faithful and showing up, placing that phone call, sending that text. Somebody who's having a difficult time just being steady, I think, in the small things.

And being steady in the small things gives God the opportunity than to grow it and to have it. Yeah. Not explode, but just. I think, just grow. I think it's the right term.

I keep. I keep saying the word faithful, but for me, that's kind of the theme of my life, I think, is just being faithful in the small task, being willing to do the small things.

And then if God wants to grow it, he obviously is able to do that. And sometimes it just remains a small thing. And that's okay.

That's okay. You know, if I have a day of writing that isn't necessarily the brilliant, best day of writing, it's okay. I learned things. I mean, to me, writing is a very much an experience of.

I call it worship. But it's just like a lot of listening,

a lot of time of just. It's a very spiritual moment for me, I guess, the writing. And so sometimes, again, it's not about the words.

It's about the community or about hearing God's voice or something else.

Yes.

And I want to go here with you because I picked up on something with you. Let's talk about faithfulness.

All right.

It's easy to tell somebody to trust God when everything is going well.

It's much harder when your plans fall apart.

How has your own faith helped you navigate seasons when you couldn't understand what God was doing or where your story was going?

Oh, my goodness. That's such a great question.

We only have a few minutes. I feel like I could talk about that for a couple hours,

which I won't, because there have been multiple times,

specifically in my writing or in my parenting or different, you know, some personal things where it's just. It's been hard and you don't see.

You can't see the necessarily a good outcome, or you get that big rejection, and it seems like the doors are closed for forever at times. You know, I've had a few really difficult rejections in the publishing world, where it's like, okay, well, Lord, if you want me to continue on,

you know, you're going to have to open up the doors. And for me, thankfully, he has. But it's always. It's been a journey. It's been a journey of trusting him.

All right, Lord, I feel like this is the purpose, this is the calling you've given me. How you know, which direction do you want me to take this? And whether it's, well, my world is traditional publishing or indie publishing or, you know, there's all these different kinds of the publishing world,

but yet. But all that to say of being. I guess it's being willing to be like, okay, this door closed, slammed sometimes in my face, like, completely closed. And I had a pastor that once talked about, you know, the door closes,

can you take another turn? And God has a window probably open down the hallway. You know, we had this happen once when my husband and I were first married almost 30 years ago.

He had gotten a. A job opportunity, an offer in New Zealand. And it was a really cool job. And, you know, at the time, we were living on the east coast in the United States, and.

And we sold everything. So our house. We had just adopted our two girls. We were, like, packed up. We had sent our stuff to Auckland and New Zealand, and literally right before we got on the plane, he got a phone call that said the job fell through.

And we're like, okay, now we're homeless.

We have two.

We have, you know, he's given up his job. I've cut back on my work. You know, like, our stuff is in New Zealand and we have no job.

And. And so it was just. Yeah, it was just a really difficult season because we're like, lord, you took us down this hallway. The door was open. We went down the hallway.

And that's when our pastor gave us that analogy about sometimes it's not the door, it's the window over here.

And wouldn't you know, it. It wasn't right away. It was months. I think it was almost a year. And God opened up a door for my husband to get a job in Berlin, Germany.

Completely different. But it was amazing. It was exactly where we needed to be. He gave me time to write. It's where my. Kind of launched my writing career. Time with our girls.

I mean, it was absolutely in hindsight, where we needed to be. But man, those rejections and those closed doors in the season, in that moment are very difficult.

Yeah, they are. People have to understand that when things like that happen, God already had another plan.

Exactly. He's not surprised. Right, Right.

We just have to be patient through the process when it's all said and done.

So, Melanie, we're living in a time when people are surrounded by bad news, division,

uncertainty and fear.

Yet you intentionally write stories about hope.

Why do you believe hope filled stories are so important right now?

And can efficient story genuinely change someone's real life life?

Ah, two really good questions. To answer your last question, yes, a great story can absolutely change somebody's life.

And that is why I do what I do. Because I know from the stories that I've heard from people who've read my books or from the books that I've read where God used them to change my life.

A great story. And it could go either ways, right? It can be a story that like you talked about, that's dark or difficult, or something could change life in a negative way.

Or you can read a story of hope and be inspired in some way. I mean, one of the top, if not the top novel right now is called Theo of Golden.

And it's a beautiful story about how a gentleman is proactively seeking out ways to bring hope and encouragement to people.

And I think you read that story and you can't help but read that story and have your life changed in some way. Being on the lookout on how can I do good?

How can I bring hope into somebody's life? I mean, that's the theme of that book. So yes, I think it's really important to be able to first of all turn off some of the bad news.

I have. I'm kind of, I could be a news junkie. I want to know what's going on. I guess it's kind of a fear of missing out. I want to know what's happening all the time in the world.

And for me, I've had to turn off the news often,

you know, these days because it is very hard to process all of that. We, and I think part of it now with social media, we get so much information and we're just not.

God didn't create us in such a way to be able to process all of that at once, all of the emotions in a healthy way that go along with all that.

But then just to be able to settle in to a story, fiction or nonfiction doesn't have to be a novel but settle into a story that reminds us of how God works things together for good, how he can take a really difficult situation and bring hope through it.

And so that's what I hope to do. I mean, that's what my desire as a novelist is to be able to continually show how God works things together, can work things together for good, for those who love him.

And hence the message of hope that you're talking about.

Yes, I love it. I love it.

So, Melanie, what I have now is quick fire questions. That's what I have. I'm just going to shoot them at you. You just give me your answer. Not a right or wrong answer, anything.

All right, let's try it.

All right. When life doesn't make sense, what helps you continue trusting God?

My gratefulness journal that I mentioned already of reading his Word. But I think going back to the gratefulness journal, whether it's writing out the things I'm thankful for or reading back through it and see all the amazing.

I have thousands of things that I've written now. So being able to go back and be like, oh, look what he did here. Oh, look what. Oh, my goodness, look what he did there.

And remembering and reflecting on what he's done in the past, knowing that he hasn't changed and he will continue to do that in the future.

Yes,

absolutely. Finish the sentence.

When I feel like giving up, I remind myself that God is faithful.

Great answer.

What's one lesson life has taught you that you wish you had understood 20 years ago?

Oh, my goodness. Oh, don't sweat the small stuff.

That's me.

That is me.

And when the final chapter of Melanie Dobson's story is eventually written, what do you hope people will say? Your life. Life and your stories gave them.

I hope that they will always. That my books will always direct them to hope and purpose and redemption through Christ.

Yes, that is it in a nutshell.

That's all I've lived for at the end of the day.

So, final question, Melanie. If someone listening today feels like they're living through a chapter they never wanted,

maybe they're experiencing loss, disappointment, rejection, uncertainty,

or a dream that hasn't happened.

What do you want them to understand about faith, perseverance, and the fact that their story isn't finished yet,

yeah.

I would say don't quit. I would say those days that you get up,

you know, this is your calling. You know, this is your purpose, something that God has put in your heart. Don't quit. Like, continue on with the hope and the reflection.

Like, look Back at upbreath stories, nonfiction stories of people who have been in similar situations and see how God used their life, use the difficulties they have to do something amazing.

And yeah, just basically don't quit, don't give up.

Yes, that's it. Because God has a purpose for your life, you're not going to achieve it by quitting. That's not going to work.

You know, you have to go through it at the end of the day.

Now, one thing I love about you is that you let God speak to you and come into your mind and kind of of get the creative juices flowing for you to do a novel, do a book or all those kind of things.

Just like, man, I don't know what I'm gonna do on this one, I don't know what I'm gonna do next. And all that kind of stuff, you're not just throwing them out there, you know, it's actually coming to you.

And I think that is a.

A gift all the way around, you know, because a lot of times when I do a podcast, I'll be at the last minute, like, man, I don't know what I'm gonna talk about, but I just hear something and it just,

it, you know, And I said, okay, I heard one word,

you know,

walking around the grocery store, somebody be talking on the phone and they'll say one word, it'll stand out. I say, oh, I gotta talk about that,

you know, so it's like it just registered,

you know,

so last. And Melanie, where can listeners purchase your books or follow you on social media?

Oh, yeah. So my website is just my name, Melanie Dobson, d o b s o n.com  https://melaniedobson.com and all bookstores should have my books on Amazon. You know, indie stores should have my books, books.

And I'm on Facebook primarily and on Instagram. My username is @melbdobson on Instagram, and those are the main places that I'm located on in the social media world.

There you have it. Melanie Dobson. Melanie, thank you so much. I have really enjoyed you. I have really enjoyed you.

This was a blast.

Yeah, it's so powerful. So powerful. Now I'm praying that God's going to keep elevating you. You, and I know he will.

I know you're in your element. You are in your element.

So thanks for listening to Real Talk With Reginald D.

If you enjoy listening to Real Talk With Reginald D, please rate and review on Apple Podcast. See you next time.