BOM: How the Idea Germinated

As famine overtakes the land, Simeon leads his brothers into Egypt to buy grain. He doesn't recognize the vengeful ruler he must bow before: Joseph, his long-lost brother. The very brother Simeon sold into slavery years ago. Now, it is the brash Simeon's turn to know imprisonment. Only Mandisa, the handmaid who interprets the ruler's language, is his saving grace. The beautiful widow and her young son see another side of Simeon, tenderness under the tough exterior. Yet he will never be free to love them until he unshackles the chains of his own heart. 

This one's easy--BROTHERS begins in the same scene where DREAMERS ends, and I knew I wanted to write the story because there was so much of Joseph's story left to tell.  DREAMERS, if you'll recall, is the story of Joseph's youth, imprisonment in Egypt, and his love for Tuya, a fellow slave.  The story ends in the midst of the seven-year famine. 

But what about Joseph's meeting with his brothers?  That story remained to be told, and as I studied the Scriptural account, I found myself struck by the little incidentals in the story--how Joseph selected Simeon to remain behind while the other brothers went back for Benjamin. Why Simeon?  Why not Judah, the first-born?  Because Simeon was a hothead, and frequently caused trouble in the family.  But what made Simeon a hothead?  

Welcome to an in-depth account of a truly dysfunctional family.  By marrying Leah and Rachel (and bedding their two handmaids), Jacob created a series of rivalries among his sons that has few equals.  This was the impetus that inspired me to write the story of Joseph and his brothers, while focusing on Simeon and, to a large part, his sister, Dinah. 

Tomorrow:  the research. 

~~Angie