After Her Father’s Death, Teri Lyn Tobey Found Her Way Back to Writing

The author of the Believing the Impossible series reflects on grief, faith, biblical history, and why she believes it is never too late to pursue your purpose.

Writer Teri Lyn Tobey knew she felt called to write. But after her father died, she stepped away from the novel she had begun and from much of the life she had known. It would take years before she found her way back to the work.

In a conversation with WorldWide Entertainment TV, Tobey described her father, a Baptist pastor, as someone who encouraged her to understand what she believed and why. Their discussions around the dinner table helped her make her faith her own. Later, her studies at Taylor University helped her learn to discuss those beliefs with people who might see things differently.

Tobey had written monologues and other short pieces, but she had never written a novel when, in 2006, she felt called to begin one. She resisted at first. Then she gave herself one day to write—and produced three chapters of what became Favored, the first book in her series.

Her father’s illness and death interrupted that journey. Tobey said she became angry with God and put her writing aside for nearly a decade. She eventually returned to church and to her unfinished manuscript. A young woman who worked at Tobey’s antique store read it and encouraged her to pursue publication. Favored was published in 2024.

Making familiar biblical stories feel human

Tobey’s Believing the Impossible books use fictional characters and imagined scenes alongside biblical figures and historical settings. She is careful to distinguish the novels from Scripture, describing them as fiction intended to encourage readers in their faith.

“The people in the Bible are people just like us,” she said. Tobey tries to imagine the feelings and everyday struggles behind stories that readers may know well. In her view, biblical events unfolded over time, even when the text recounts them briefly.

That approach informs her research. Tobey said she begins with biblical study, then consults history books, maps, Hebrew laws, archaeology, and other historical material. The research can shape how she imagines the world around the scriptural account, while leaving room for the fictional characters and storylines she creates.

She also spoke about learning new details through her research, including information that changed how she understood familiar passages. The discoveries, she said, have sometimes made her revisit assumptions she carried from childhood Bible lessons.

The series follows characters through different periods surrounding the life and ministry of Jesus. Favored follows Mary and Joseph through the events leading to Jesus’ birth. Fragile explores the lesser-detailed years between Jesus’ birth and the beginning of his ministry. The third book, Forgiven, was released on September 29, 2026, and focuses on forgiveness, including the ways people may need to forgive themselves as well as others.

A calling can take time

Tobey’s reflections on grief and purpose were among the most personal parts of the interview. She described a difficult period after her father’s death as a kind of wilderness—painful, but also a time she now sees as preparation.

That perspective gained new meaning as she helped care for her mother after a stroke. Tobey recalled her mother worrying that she no longer had a purpose. Tobey told her that her calling had not disappeared; the way she carried it out might change.

For listeners who feel they have missed their opportunity, Tobey said she will be nearly 60 when her first Bloom Bible study is released in March 2027. She sees the years before her writing career resumed as part of her own preparation, and believes people can discover or pursue purpose at different stages of life.

The Bloom study will focus on six Old Testament women and how they endured circumstances including rejection, loss, shame, and disappointment. Tobey said she plans to make companion teaching materials available through her website. She is also developing Faithful, the next novel in her series, with a planned release in late 2027.

Tobey’s path back to writing did not follow a straight line. Her story, and the themes of her books, return to a question she hopes readers will consider: how can faith and purpose continue through grief, uncertainty, and change?

Find Teri Lyn Tobey’s books and updates at terilyntobey.com.