Caroline Friday is a novelist and award winning screenwriter with eleven screenplays. Her adaptation of No Place for a Lady, by Maggie Brendan, has been optioned by Starz Media for distribution on the Hallmark Channel. In addition, her script, Angels on Earth, placed second-runner up in the 2008 Kairos Screenwriting Competition sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation. She recently completed her first novel, The River Flows, based on her script by the same name. She currently serves as attorney, co-founder and EVP of Sixth Day Media, LLC, a faith-based and family film finance and production company headquartered near Atlanta. Caroline has a Business Administration degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, as well as a Juris Doctor in Law (JD) and an (MBA) from Wake Forest University. Affiliations include Women in Film, American Christian Fiction Writers, the American Bar Association, and the Illinois State Bar Association. Caroline is also a Stephen Minister and a Bible study teacher. She resides in Marietta, Georgia, with her husband, Bill, three children, Anna, Braxton, and Rachel, and yellow lab Dodga. She can be found at www.sixthdaymedia.com/caroline.

Set in 1868, in the Colorado Territory, Rekindled opens with a vivid image of a horribly burned man, scarred beyond recognition, who watches from a distance while his wife, Kathryn, stands over a gravesite bearing a tombstone with his name: Larson Jennings. Flashbacks of the flames that stole his identity mirror the anger welling up inside of him as his foreman and supposed friend, Matthew Taylor, slips an arm around her shoulders, claiming what is rightfully Larson’s. And to make matters worse, as they turn away, a noticeable bulge under the front of her skirt indicates Matthew has claimed much more than Larson could have imagined.

What a great movie opener, veiled with mystery and intrigue so that the reader begs to go back in time and fill in the gaps: How did this happen? Why can’t he reveal himself to her? Who is in the grave? And the biggest question of all: Would she still love him? Isaiah 52 tells us our Savior, Jesus, was marred beyond any human face or appearance as he hung on the cross. If we could see that image today, would we turn away in disgust, as many did, or would we look beyond the hardened exterior to the heart of love?

Larson’s quest is similar in that now, five months after surviving a fire, he finds himself in a world where people wince at his appearance, often turning away in pity. He has lost everything: his property, livelihood, identity, and wife. And yet he refuses to give up on Kathryn’s love. No longer the selfish, cold man who prided himself in his physical brawn while keeping the horrors of childhood locked away from everyone, he has become a new man, with a new heart, set on following the ways of God. The old Larson Jennings would have lived to avenge the man who shot him in his sleep and tried to burn him alive, but now the new Larson, known only as Jacob, lives to rekindle his love for Kathryn. This desire provides the primary conflict that sets this story apart from other historical romances, catapulting it into the theatrical category that Hollywood likes to finance. While Westerns have not done well at the box office in the past years, Rekindled could very easily attract an A-list talent eager to show his acting chops as a burn victim, much like Ralph Fiennes in The English Patient.

To sustain a two-hour movie, the plot would need to be thickened significantly. I would forgo the love triangle with Matthew and embellish the tempestuous relationship with the rich, yet evil, Donlyn MacGregor, who owns the splendid Casaroja ranch. Donlyn is a fascinating, conflicted character who could be scripted in a more morose fashion than portrayed in the book. I thought of the British actor Robert Carlyle, or even Gary Sinise, with brandy on his breath and shirt half buttoned, making lewd, unwanted advances on a heavily pregnant Kathryn—enough to make one’s skin crawl. We soon learn this behavior is partially motivated by a desire to secure Larson’s property and the water rights that accompany it—a clue as to why there was an attempt on Larson’s life in the first place. But Larson never lets things go too far with Donlyn. On numerous occasions he steps in as the rescuer, which ignites the spark needed to win Kathryn’s heart. The moment she is able to look at Larson without turning away, we know we have a true heroine.

The final, climactic scene in the book was something I have never seen on screen: a woman giving birth while fighting off an axe murderer (one of Donlyn’s evil henchman who also burned Larson) in a burning building! Sounds farfetched, but it had me on the edge of my seat, gripping my abdomen with knees pulled to my chest. (CBA writers, these are the kind of scenes Hollywood loves!) Larson comes to the rescue, as one would expect, racing through the fire to save his love. In the movie, the axe murderer would have to be Donlyn, not his henchman, and he would have to go toe to toe with Larson amid the burning flames—a showdown long overdue. Of course, you know who would win, right? Oh . . . and what about the baby? Is Matthew Taylor really the father, or is it someone else? Hmm . . . Guess you’ll have to read the book to find out. Or better yet, wait for the movie.