Who Is Paris of London?

Hi guys! I’m Hannah K, a writer with a passion for serving God and working with troubled kids. I started my first novel as a 16-year-old living in Xiamen, China. Paris of London was the story of a boy who raised himself on the streets of Edwardian London, and returned as a young man to minister to the street kids. I worked on Paris of London for over two years, completed the book (and the musical the book was based on), and was serious about trying to get it published. But as I learned more about the craft of writing, huge, gaping problems began to appear in my book (e.g. it had no plot). I knew it needed tons of editing, and after two years of almost-daily work on it I was getting a little burned out.

Enter Marty’s Kid, my second novel, telling the story of a teen who grew up with a drug dealer, how he encounters the love of Jesus, and his struggle to believe amid the darkness and evil of the criminal gangs he’s involved in. Believe it or not, Marty’s Kid is based on a character I came up with years before Paris–and when I wrote the first words of the book it was like speaking for the first time to someone I had seen and loved from a distance for decades.

Will I ever go back to Paris of London, try to publish it? I hope so. But more than that, Paris of London, and my character Paris, encapsulate my first step into the world of writing, of at-risk children, and of letting God guide my heart into his ways. Through Paris, I discovered my inspiration, my dream, my calling. Paris was my first love. And he led me to God.

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