God gave me a dream of a book, and it took 28 years to bring the dream to reality

Writer Alex Palmer shares how a God-given dream sparked a decades-long journey to write Charlotte’s Candle, a novel born from personal grief and faith. Through setbacks, illness, and perseverance, Alex shows how God’s timing and grace can turn pain into purpose.

Have you ever had something placed on your heart in such a dramatic way you know it could have only been from God? That happened to me via a dream in July 1996.

It occurred at the end of an outdoor adventure week organised by Rotary called RYLA. Before that week, aged twenty-two, I already knew I wanted to write something about childhood bereavement. This was due to the death of my mum in September 1985, when I was 11 years old. At a time when there was no support for children to help them through their loss. As a result, I experienced delayed grief which had a massive impact on my education. When I took my A Level Communications, I wrote a leaflet about bereavement for children and this started the inner healing I needed and developed my understanding of how grief impacts children.