T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY — Author Michelle De Bruin of Pella held a book signing event for “Coming Home Forever,” the third and final installment in her “Coming Home” trilogy, at Stepping Stones Christian Bookstore on Friday.

Michelle De Bruin has been busy since she took a leap of faith into launching a second career as a writer, penning six faith-based works of historical fiction since 2018.

De Bruin, who is based in Pella, held a signing event at the Stepping Stones Christian Bookstore in Marshalltown on Friday for “Coming Home Forever,” the third and final installment in her “Coming Home” trilogy set in a small, fictional Iowa town called Oswell City in the early part of the 20th century at the tail end of World War I. She said she had been writing for “quite a while” prior to being published as she worked toward a bachelor’s degree in religion at Central College, and each book in her first trilogy had “Tomorrow” in the title — “Hope for Tomorrow,” “Promise for Tomorrow” and “Dreaming of Tomorrow.”

“Coming Home Forever” centers around two primary characters, Rose and Timothy, she a local woman who has fallen in with the wrong crowd but seeks to turn her life around, and he a WWI Army chaplain who returns from France to the town where his father serves as mayor.

“The ‘coming home’ theme comes from the stories of people that moved there, and they find purpose in their lives. They find meaning, acceptance (and) new relationships, so each of the stories tell how the ladies, which, they are on the covers, but the men, too, who are the heroes of the stories… They have faith journeys.”

The stories of the two main characters eventually become intertwined as he tries to figure out what’s next now that his military service is over, and she struggles after dropping out of college and falling in with a questionable friend group. In the author’s words, Timothy becomes well known by the end of the story, and the town has a chance to rally around him.

De Bruin, who originally hails from small town southeast Iowa herself, said Oswell City is “a composite” of several rural communities in Iowa

In addition to her writing career, De Bruin worked for a church in Pella and now serves as a chaplain at the Pella Regional Health Center. Her books will be available for sale at Stepping Stones, located at 14 W. Main St. or via direct order from her website, https://michelledebruin.com.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.