Interview with Author Marlayne Giron

Marlayne Giron loves to be creative, cook, entertain and has a side-business of doing book and promotional trailers for authors and speakers. She is a loving wife, mother of a teenage daughter, and the author of The Victor, a Tale of Betrayal, Love and Sacrifice. Marlayne calls herself “a Messianic Jewish Believer in Jesus.”

Make a Wish Fulfillment Blog
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Hello Marlayne. Please tell us about your new book, Make a Wish.

Make a Wish is a compilation of short stories written as gifts for other people where I grant their deepest, most heartfelt wish and they are the “star” of their own story. All of these stories were written as gifts for others either because I was inspired to do so or because they were requested. Some are deeply emotional, heartfelt and inspirational while others are just fun.

What a wonderful idea! Where did you get your inspiration for this book?

Make a Wish had a very innocent beginning. A good friend of mine, Henry, who has been a quadriplegic since the age of 14 (and is now in his early 50s at the time of this writing), was really down in the dumps. He had been stood up for a fishing trip, and because of his condition, he is subject to the schedules and whims of others. He wouldn’t get out of bed, wouldn’t do anything and his wife Vicki had given up trying to coax him. Henry and I had become good friends ever since Vicki reviewed my book, The Victor, on her blog.

I had already spoken with Henry several times before this so I was distressed when I heard how low he was feeling. But what could I do? I lived on the west coast and he lived on the east coast. How could I possibly cheer him up? Then a light bulb went on over my head and I thought, “I can write him a story”…and that’s exactly what I did. I wrote “A Gift for Henry” in about one hour and then emailed it to them that night. The first thing the next morning I checked my email to see what the response was. Well…it was amazing! Vicki had written me and told me that they had wept for 20 minutes after reading it. That it had truly been inspired of God because of the details I put in, which I was not aware that were perfect for Henry. Such as the smell of orange blossoms being his favorite, how he was always trying to wiggle his toes to see if they had started working and that all he wants to do when he gets to heaven is to run, run, run for the Lord. I would have to say that 99% of the stories I have written for people received the same reaction. Everyone has felt as though they have been personally touched by God through their story and even those who don’t know any of the people and have read the book have told me how deeply touched they have been by the book. 

Already I’m intrigued with this new book of yours. A Reviewer wrote about the stories in Make a Wish, “While many make you smile, you must have LOTS of Kleenex available, for you will cry rivers after reading some (or, in my case, ALL) of them.” Tell us your thoughts about this.

I am personally amazed at the reactions on the part of those for whom I have written these stories. I pray before I write each one and ask God for inspiration. After 40+ stories I have come to trust the still small voice that puts the words onto the page that it will be just what the recipient needs to hear. I honestly wasn’t sure if anyone would be interested in reading the book who didn’t know the subjects of any of the stories but I have been pleasantly surprised by the reactions and wonderful reviews. The most common reactions are: “How did you know that?” “This had to be inspired by God” and “This was the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.” I seem to be inspired with specific details for each story that only the person for whom it was written knows about (and I don’t find out about til later). The responses have been intensely emotional; my only regret is that I really never get to be there when they are read; I only get to hear about it afterwards via email so it loses some of the emotional impact of the reaction.

What stories touched your heart the most as you wrote them?

“Three Wishes” is the One that made me cry the hardest as I was writing it. I am a deeply empathetic person so I can ‘feel’ the emotions when I am writing and even when I reread this one I still cry. The other three stories that have special meaning for me are “More Than a Memory,” which was written for the sister of my first love, Barry, who died of a brain aneurysm in 1981 and has been gone for so long that hardly anyone remembers him. The next would have to be “Something New Under the Son” because the wish was for the person to win the lottery. I was very conflicted about how to “answer” this wish. My purpose is not so much to be a literary “genie” but to touch the heart of the person I wrote it for in such a deep and meaningful way that they sense it is God speaking to them. I really struggled with this one and so asked a mutual friend some questions about the requesting person to see if something would spark the needed inspiration. I got it when I found out that she worked at Sun Trust Bank and…well…read the story and you will see what the Lord gave me. I was told that after she read her story it worked a true change in her attitude about life and she stopped trying desperately to win the lottery. The third one would have to be my own true-life wish fulfillment story, which appears at the end of the book called “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes” (after the Disney song in Cinderella). 

Wow! So you wrote your very own “wish fulfillment story” about yourself. How awesome is that! Okay, it’s time to tell us something about the real you that we’ll never forget.

Three years before I met my husband I wrote a story (which I illustrated) for myself where Jesus takes me out on a date and introduces me to the man he has chosen for me. I used to pray for my husband by name (it was always Michael) and had a very detailed list of what I hoped to get in my future husband. The Lord answered my prayers right down to his name, looks and everything on the list. On our first date a total stranger, who was part of our six-some, told Michael and his sister that I would be his future wife. To read the details, they are all in my story “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes”.

Thank you so much for such a wonderful interview. Okay, Readers! If you would like your own "Wish Fulfillment" story, you may email Marlayne directly at: thevictorbook@sbcglobal.net. She will need to get a short bio paragraph that tells about you, what your wish is and why. If she has any further questions, she will contact you via return email.