When the world grew loud, and grief weighed heavy on her, Natasha’s heart cried out, and God met her in the quiet.
Born out of a season marked by miscarriage and the ache that lingered after, My Heart Is Home gathers the moments where Natasha began to acknowledge the pain grief brought with it, to name it, to question it, and to face the reflection it revealed, as her heart found somewhere safe to reside.
For the woman grieving quietly. For the one loving deeply but hurting silently. For the heart that feels empty yet still longs for comfort and truth.
These reflections offer companionship, softness, and the reminder that God meets us gently in the places we struggle to name.
1. Why did you choose to write non-fiction? Honesty. Honesty lives in nonfiction and truth is what I aim to live in and it’s what I love to write. What was and what is.
2. Why did you choose to write about this particular topic? Sharing lived experiences helps connect people that have walked through a similar experience.
3. What is your writing area like? Organized Chaos.
4. How do you balance writing time with other things? Write when I’m inspired and fit everything else around that. It varies daily.
5. Do you think reading helps you with writing? I believe every good writer needs to read.
About the Author
Natasha R. Minier-Robinson is a Christian author, poet, and speaker whose writing explores faith, grief, healing, hope, and the beauty that can emerge from broken places. Through honest reflections, poetry, and memoir-style storytelling, she invites readers into conversations about loss, resilience, and finding God’s presence in life’s most difficult seasons. Her work encourages others to embrace their stories, hold onto hope, and discover that even in the midst of pain, they are never alone.
When she is not writing, Natasha enjoys creating spoken word content, encouraging others through social media and her blog, and sharing messages of faith and perseverance with readers around the world. She is the author of Words Are Art, Beautiful Disaster, Colorless Love, and My Heart Is Home, and other works that inspire readers to find hope, healing, and purpose in every season of life.
More from Natasha
The My Heart Is Home series was written during a season of deep loss, hurt, uncertainty, confusion, and anger. Broken. Wounded. Heart bleeding. End of story, right?
Grief and loss equals the end, right?
No.
God used grief to birth something Natasha never could have imagined.
It was summed up beautifully by Amanda Lentz, the podcast host of Who We Become — Life Beyond Change! During Natasha’s interview with Amanda, she said something Natasha found so profound…
She said, “Grief is not the end of the story… it’s often somehow inexplicably, the beginning of a deeper one.”
As Natasha reflected on this quote weeks later, she realized grief was not the end. It was the beginning.
The My Heart Is Home series was birthed.
Even now, grief seemed like it was the whole story, but it is still unraveling. God has used the miscarriage Natasha went through and turned it into something she never would have imagined… something to help others feel seen, loved, understood, and, most of all, to help them see hope.
Eliza is sure happiness has arrived. She and her family, never to be separated again, join the rest of her people on the road to a land filled with milk and honey. A land to call home. Even better, Seti, the love of her life, has joined her people, pledged allegiance to her God, and vowed to marry her.
But life isn’t that simple. Not only are her plans disrupted by a detour into the great unknown, but she has suffered a severe concussion, thanks to Seti. Her people and her family, though loveable, prove to be a squabbling mess, and Seti, can’t stay out of trouble. Freedom is not so easy. Who is she really, and how does a free woman act?
Seti, an Egyptian, once had everything, or so he thought. He willingly gave it all up for Eliza and her God. Now reduced to an outcast sleeping outside his best friend’s tent, he has no money and no way to prove himself acceptable to Eliza’s family or her people. For the first time ever, he is filled with insecurity and fear. Fear of losing Eliza to his foolishness, but most of all, fear of disappointing the God who saved him. Yet, his every decision leads to disaster.
What is your favorite part about writing? Editing. I love critiquing others and my own writing and then reading it after the edits are applied.
What is your least favorite part about writing? The first draft. I tend to start correcting myself and self-editing as I write, making the process super long. Plus, I really have to get in the mood and think hard to come up with scenes, dialogue, and pacing. With my first book, I just wrote the first draft off the top of my head and thought it was all I needed to do (besides proof reading). Oh was I wrong! Now, I can’t help but start editing and trying to come up with the perfect words as I write a first draft.
What is your writing space like? I usually have a Zero Sugar Twist-UP (Walmart brand) 2- liter beside me (I drink straight from the bottle) and listen to instrumentals. Mostly soundtracks like Braveheart, Last of the Mohicans, Titanic, The Batman, The Tomorrow War. I love Hans Zimmer, 2 Cellos, Lorne Balfe, and James Horner.
Where do you get your ideas for your books? The Bible, dreams, and just from watching people.
What is your work schedule/routine when you write? I work full time as a night shift nurse. Usually, during downtime at work, I get to editing, but I can’t actually write unless I’m at home in a quiet room away from all distractions.
Do bits of yourself/friends show up in your characters? Yes. The main character is always pretty much me as a teenager. Eliza is just that. Seti is my dream boy; nobody in particular. Adam and Zechariah are my two sons Adam and Zackary, and Rahel is the friend I’ve always wanted. When I was a teenager, I wrote my friends into my stories. It was the only way to get them interested in reading them.
About the Author
EJ Ashmore is a wife, mother, and nurse, with a passion for young believers who are searching for answers about God. Whether it be what God wants, who He is, or why He does some of the things He does, she seeks to use ordinary, relatable characters to illustrate God’s unwavering faithfulness and devotion even to those who feel unworthy or invisible.
More from EJ
Why I wrote this:
This all began when my teenage son couldn’t grasp why God would harden Pharaoh’s heart and then punish him for it. But then I read Joel Richardson’s Sinai to Zion, and how God’s love story for His people (Israelite or Gentile/Christian) is framed after ancient Jewish wedding customs and how God designed marriage to mirror His desired relationship with His people.
But I also wanted to reach young girls who felt as I did as a teenager: ugly, unworthy, a constant failure, insecure, and constantly bullied. God seemed to hear everybody else but me. But God’s love story is for the individual as much as for a nation. He pursues, He gets the girl, He proves His worthiness again and again, and He builds her up as His beautiful bride who He will have an intimate relationship with.
Add in the depravity of humanity who barely know their God, stuck in a desert with nothing to do and have no idea how to act not only as free people but as people of God, yet God chooses them and loves them and wants to live in their midst.
I deeply desire for my reader to come away from this pondering how God pursued and pursues them in their own lives, and have a deeper relationship with God and a better understanding of the why God does what He does.
When the wife he believed dead calls from China, an ER doctor races to find her before her enemies silence her forever.
Ethan Wright never recovered from the death of his first love.
Six years ago, Mei Lin discovered evidence linking powerful officials to a human trafficking ring. She planned to smuggle the details out of China and join her new husband in America—but COVID sealed the borders before she could escape. Snatched by the men she’d been investigating, she was wrongfully imprisoned while authorities claimed she had died in quarantine. Now, Mei Lin’s sudden release doesn’t mean she’s free.
Ethan will stop at nothing to get his wife out of China, but he has no idea where she is. He must reach out to his estranged father, a former CIA agent who has powerful connections. With his dad’s help, Ethan begins a desperate search. He finally finds Mei Lin, but she refuses to run without the evidence that could expose the conspiracy—and ensure they’re never hunted again.
Reunited after years apart, Ethan and Mei Lin must rediscover the love they thought they’d lost—while staying one step ahead of enemies who will stop at nothing to keep their secrets hidden.
From a USA Today bestselling author… You’ll love this heart-pounding suspense and gripping romance as Ethan and Mei Lin discover that real love is strong enough to survive anything.
"Shadowing You" is the tenth, and final, book in the Wrights Heroes series. I think it is helpful to read the books in order so you know the different supporting characters better and where they are coming from. I was excited to get Ethan's story. I found the book to be well written. I wanted to see what was going to happen and how the series would be wrapped up. I look forward to seeing what Robin Patchen writes next.
About the Author
Robin Patchen is a USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of Christian romantic suspense. She grew up in a small town in New Hampshire, the setting of her Coventry Saga books, and then headed to Boston to earn a journalism degree. Working in marketing, she discovered how much she loathed the nine-to-five ball and chain. After relocating to the Southwest, she started writing her first novel while homeschooling her three children. The novel was dreadful, but her passion for storytelling didn’t wane. Thankfully, as her children grew, so did her writing ability. Now that her kids are adults, she has more time to play with the lives of fictional heroes and heroines, wreaking havoc and working magic to give her characters happy endings. When she’s not writing, she’s editing or reading, proving that most of her life revolves around the twenty-six letters of the alphabet. Visit robinpatchen.com/subscribe to receive a free book and stay informed about Robin’s latest projects.
More from Robin
Saying Goodbye to Shadow Cove
When I typed the last sentence of Shadowing You, the final Wright Heroes of Maine book, I was dehydrated from all the tears I’d shed. These Wrights feel like family to me. I can’t imagine leaving them behind.
From about book five, I knew about Ethan, the son his father kept secret. I didn’t know his plot yet, though. When I met Mei Lin and understood where she’d been for the last six years, I couldn’t wait to share their story.
But first, I want you to get to know Gavin.
The Wright family has two branches. Roger Wright and his wife, Peggy, raised six sons on an apple farm in central Maine. Roger was a physician who never put his work ahead of his children. He was steady and present, the kind of man his boys grew up wanting to be.
His brother Gavin is a different story. He was a CIA officer, gallivanting the world while his wife, Evelyn, raised their five daughters. For most of the girls’ lives, he was distant and guarded, always one assignment away from coming home. Even after he retired from the CIA, he started a business that kept him close to DC—and far from his family in Shadow Cove.
None of those girls knew anything about their father’s son.
Ethan was raised by a single mother in Virginia. Gavin supported them but visited on his own terms. Ethan grew up knowing he was his father’s secret, too shameful to share with Gavin’s real family.
All Ethan ever wanted was a family of his own, which might be the reason that, when his girlfriend finished nursing school and returned home to China, he followed her and proposed. They were married the same week. But after the honeymoon, Ethan had to return to the States, and Mei Lin had to stay in China until her visa came through.
It should have been a matter of weeks, maybe a couple of months at most. But the pandemic hit. And then Mei Lin disappeared. A few months later, Ethan and her parents got word that she’d contracted the disease and died.
But Mei Lin isn’t dead. Six years ago, she uncovered a human trafficking ring and started gathering evidence against the man in charge. She didn’t know he was on to her until she was arrested and thrown into prison. Nobody came to visit her, not her parents, not her brother, and not the husband who’d promised to love her forever. A few years into her imprisonment, she lost hope that she’d ever be freed. And then, after six torturous years, she was released—just like that.
She might be out of prison, but her enemy can’t let her escape from China. Mei Lin calls the husband who left her to rot, not asking—or expecting—anything from him except some money to help her get to safety.
She certainly doesn’t expect him to fly around the world to find her.
But Ethan hasn’t forgotten Mei Lin. Now that he knows she’s alive, he’ll do everything in his power to get her to safety, including rushing into a country he barely understands. And reaching out to the father he rarely speaks to.
But Gavin isn’t the only one who jumps in to help Ethan and Mei Lin escape China. I won’t spoil it for you, but I know you’ll enjoy seeing some old friends in this story.
Thanks for spending your valuable time in Shadow Cove. Enjoy one last story before you move on to your next destination.
As for me, I’ll be just up the coast in Briar Bay, Maine, where three castaway children…
Book: Routed to Heaven: How Near-Death Experiences, Afterlife Testimonies And Heavenly Insights Can Help You Live With Intention
Author: Julie Bonn Blank
Genre: NF (Memoir, Devo, Christian Living)
Release Date: February 21, 2026
Book PB Covers (12.878 x 9.25 in) – ROUTED PB 12.878 KDP
What happens when Heaven doesn’t just reveal itself—but sends you back with a mission?
In Routed to Heaven, Julie Bonn Blank shares the moments that changed everything: a sudden medical crisis, clinical death, and a breathtaking encounter with Jesus Himself. Standing in Heaven, overwhelmed by love and beauty beyond words, Julie received a message that would redirect the course of her life: “There is still so much work to be done.”
But this book is far more than one extraordinary near-death or afterlife experience.
Routed to Heaven weaves together over twenty additional powerful testimonies from people who briefly crossed into eternity—children healed after death, abuse survivors guided by the Holy Spirit, one person sent back to earth for a do-over, and believers who stood at Heaven’s gates and returned forever changed. These stories affirm what so many long for in uncertain times: Heaven is real. God is near. And our lives matter more than we realize.
What sets this book apart is its purpose.
Each testimony is paired with Julie’s honest, compassionate reflections that address the real-life obstacles keeping believers from living with eternal focus—fear, grief, trauma, unforgiveness, mental health struggles, waiting on God, spiritual warfare, and more. With wisdom shaped by personal suffering and years of ministry, Julie doesn’t just inspire—she equips.
At the heart of the book is what she calls the Heaven-Minded Mission Manifesto—a practical framework designed to help readers stop sleepwalking through life and begin living with bold Kingdom intention. Through prayer, worship, gratitude, belief, and the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit, readers are invited to move from survival to activated faith.
With thoughtful Pause & Ponder sections at the end of each chapter, Routed to Heaven becomes more than a book—it becomes a journey of awakening. For those who want to go deeper, the Companion Study Guide expands on these reflections with guided questions, scripture exploration, and practical exercises—making it ideal for personal growth, small groups, or church studies.
If you’ve ever wondered whether Heaven is real…
If you’ve questioned whether your life has greater purpose…
If you’re longing for hope, healing, or renewed fire for God…
This book—and its companion guide—are your invitation.
Heaven is watching. The time is short. And your mission matters.
1. Why did you choose to write non-fiction? I actually write both fiction and nonfiction. I also have a suspense series focused on healing from domestic violence and human trafficking. (here is an easy link if you want it: https://amzn.to/4wIzRbR0) But in the case of “Routed to Heaven,” because it is a true story and includes other people’s testimonies too, it was already nonfiction. ��
2. Why did you choose to write about this particular topic? I did not plan on experiencing a heart stoppage and visiting Heaven but we can count on the Lord creating plans to interrupt our usual plot. In this case, He orchestrated this Heaven visit very specifically to start my new chapter. He told me to return and complete His work, and the new tasks became an expansion of current activities. I wish I could assure people of the overall plan here a bit more. They sometimes think that their dreams aren’t worthy, or perhaps they want to complete a particular activity but worry that God’s plans might differ. God made our desires, wishes, dreams and talents to all fit together to better His kingdom. Combined with personality, experiences and even traumas—they create a unique package He knows all about and that cannot be replaced with anyone else. He wants to mold all of those things into our mission manifestos in this last season of days.
3. What is your writing area like? Ha Ha. I took a class last summer that talked about making your office/writing area a retreat and how to do that. I admire writing friends who, in great joy, outfit their Tuff or She Shed or find a spare room in their house to jazz up with inspiration, but my writing areas greatly vary. I tend to develop physical pain from too much of one setting, one posture, etc., so long ago I obtained a laptop and have three places I write from: desk, dining room table and couch. Oh, and also the kitchen counter when I need to stand and the back porch when the weather is decent and I crave sun.
4. How do you balance writing time with other things? Always a challenge! When my kids were young, I tucked them into bed and wrote like crazy for a few hours before crashing myself. They are adults now and hubby and I are empty-nesters. Regardless, many things tend to interrupt such as the getting the nonprofit started and funded that the Lord implanted on my mind (brokensoulsrestored.org) and also overseeing Cascade Christian Writers. The book tour interviews maintain priority this week and of course, I am still gathering people’s Heaven stories as more books are to come. Like anything else, writing must remain a priority and sometimes even scheduled to ensure occurrence. Sometimes, God awakens me in the middle of the night or puts such a drive in my heart that I.must.write.now regardless, and then other things are put aside in favor of just writing. And when I am on deadline, as I tend to procrastinate, it can evolve into hours and hours of only writing as people wonder if I’ve dropped into a Black Hole or perhaps returned to Heaven permanently.
5. What types of research do you do? For my domestic violence and human trafficking series, I had life experience, hundreds of hours of training and a domestic violence advocacy certification. I worked in the industry for many years for other nonprofits and now have my own. In addition, I interviewed several ladies in “the Life” and read up on particular subjects. For the Heaven books, the research includes reading other trusted testimonies, watching trusted YouTube interview channels, interviewing people and reading books. Its very important to me that the stories I write are vetted as people do trust me. The stories must pass my Holy Spirit radar and not all of them do. I only publish and recommend the ones that do.
6. How long does the researching stage usually take? For me, the research can take more time (at times) than the actual writing. When I returned from visiting Heaven, I often spent up to four hours a day in studying and researching scripture and other Heaven accounts. I just could not get enough. If you read “Routed to Heaven,” you will quickly see that this created some side effects! In drawing so close to the Holy Spirit, He drew close to me and all I can say is... Wow! I do not spend that much time studying now but still try to get in 90 minutes a day at least.
7. Was there anything you found particularly interesting while researching? For quite a while after visiting Heaven, I found it so emotional when I read other’s accounts that mimicked mine in some small form. If someone else mentioned Jesus’ baritone voice, or the kaleidoscopes that I saw, or talked about how the grass felt on their feet, it sparked a resonant companionship deep in my heart that grabbed me. I guess there is always a part of humans that desire validation, no matter how real our experiences are, and those moments truly felt God- sent for that time in my life. I am so very grateful.
8. Do you have any usual writing habits? Besides getting up in the middle of the night and writing if I can’t sleep or if He awakens me with a dream, I can’t think of any. Unless you count not having a standard office and writing from wherever the fancy hits as one. ��
9. Do you think reading helps you with writing? Absolutely. As an early reader, I drove my fam crazy with library book stacks. I checked out as many as the librarian let me borrow (as she snuck a few in above and beyond) and sat in our backyard to read all summer long. Sometimes more than one book a day! Without realizing it, early on I studied the craft of words, the importance of character building, how to world build, what I liked and didn’t like, what friendship meant, what a good (and bad) relationship was, and how to create a compelling story. If I didn’t get into the story within a chapter or two, it was a dunce and I dumped it. If I could guess the upcoming, I didn’t find it as enjoyable. Interesting enough, someone asked recently what I read back then and I had to think. It was women’s fiction, biographies—mostly secular but also Christian, and a lot of romance. But I must have gotten romanced out because when I write fiction now, it is mostly suspense.
10. What is different about writing non-fiction vs fiction? Honestly? Not much except the research and sources. And I mean that. To write compelling non-fiction, you have to steal the novelist’s entire toolkit: narrative arcs, deep characterization, dialogue, sharp pacing, active voice, and chapter-ending hooks. Pacing, in particular, is vital. Unlike filmmakers, writers don't have the luxury of a background soundtrack. When a movie wants to build suspense, mystery, or anxiety, they let the music do the heavy lift. On the page, we have to build that entire emotional score using nothing but words, rhythm, and tempo. If your pacing is off, the result can defeat your whole story.
About the Author
Julie Bonn Blank is the Bestselling Amazon author of Routed to Heaven: How Near-Death Experiences, Afterlife Testimonies And Heavenly Insights Can Help You Live With Intention
When Julie returned from visiting heaven in August of 2024, she received a list of three things (to apparently start a list of many more lol) and one of those was to gather the stories and write “Routed to Heaven.” She was shocked to discover that while she was exuberant about her heavenly trip and couldn’t wait to share more, many others had experienced visits over the years and became hesitant to talk about their journeys due to misbelief or even put-downs from other people. But the Lord had placed within her heart that not only was it her job to round them up and get them into paper format, but to build a community. And that community had a special role on earth as well as upcoming in Heaven. She began many conversations with, “Hey I went to Heaven and I hear you might have had an experience too.” Even then, sometimes people hesitated. She found cases of “Well, your heart actually stopped and I don’t think mine did so mine was just a vision” or “I barely remember any of mine …” Over time, she was honored to help over twenty people write their stories for their inclusion in “Routed to Heaven.” People now seek her out specifically at times to tell their stories and she also finds people with stories in some interesting places, including funerals and grocery stores. You just never know! But there are many more stories out there and she continues to gather them for book 2, as well as for other purposes.
When the world grew loud, and grief weighed heavy on her, Natasha’s heart cried out, and God met her in the quiet.
Natasha R. Minier-Robinson is a Christian author, poet, and speaker whose writing explores faith, grief, healing, hope, and the beauty that can emerge from broken places. Through honest reflections, poetry, and memoir-style storytelling, she invites readers into conversations about loss, resilience, and finding God’s presence in life’s most difficult seasons. Her work encourages others to embrace their stories, hold onto hope, and discover that even in the midst of pain, they are never alone.
Eliza is sure happiness has arrived. She and her family, never to be separated again, join the rest of her people on the road to a land filled with milk and honey. A land to call home. Even better, Seti, the love of her life, has joined her people, pledged allegiance to her God, and vowed to marry her.
EJ Ashmore
When the wife he believed dead calls from China, an ER doctor races to find her before her enemies silence her forever.
Robin Patchen
Julie Bonn Blank