Coming October 2025
The Myth of Good Christian Parenting: How False Promises Betrayed a Generation of Evangelical Families
Novels
-
Storybound
In the land of Story, children go to school to learn to be characters: a perfect Hero, a trusty Sidekick, even the most dastardly Villain. They take classes on Outdoor Experiential Questing and Backstory, while adults search for full-time character work in stories written just for them.
In our world, twelve-year-old Una Fairchild has always felt invisible. But all that changes when she stumbles upon a mysterious book buried deep in the basement of her school library, opens the cover, and suddenly finds herself transported to the magical land of Story.
But Story is not a perfect fairy tale. Una’s new friend Peter warns her about the grave danger she could face if anyone discovers her true identity. The devious Tale Keeper watches her every move. And there are whispers of a deadly secret that seems to revolve around Una herself….
-
Story's End
Long ago, a King ruled the land of Story....
During his reign, Heroes, Villains, and characters of all kinds lived out Tales filled with daring quests and epic struggles. Then the King disappeared, and over the years nearly everyone forgot that he had ever existed. Now an evil Enemy has emerged, determined to write a new future for Story. And an ordinary girl from our world named Una Fairchild must find a way to defeat him.
Una and her friends Indy and Peter set off on a quest for answers, facing warlocks, beasts, and enchantments at every turn. But Una soon discovers that the real key lies in her own mysterious ties to Story’s past—and to the long-forgotten King who may be their only hope for survival.
-
A Sliver of stardust
Wren Matthews thought she’d outgrown nursery rhymes a long time ago. But that was before she knew that songs of twinkling little stars and four-and-twenty blackbirds were the key to an ancient, hidden magic.
Wren’s discovery catapults her into a world of buried secrets, strange dreams, and a mountain fortress under an aurora-filled sky. But just as she starts to master her unique abilities, her new world begins to crumble around her . . . and only she can save it.
-
A Legend of Starfire
The Land of Nod used to be just a name in a nursery rhyme to Wren. But when she discovered the secret magic of stardust, she learned that some of those rhymes had secrets of their own—and the Land of Nod is real.
A few months ago, the evil Magician Boggen attempted to escape his exile on Nod and return to Earth. Wren stopped him, but Boggen is still out there. To save her world, Wren will travel farther than even she could have dreamed: to the heart of Nod itself, where she must defeat Boggen once and for all.
-
The 12 Dares of Christa
Christa is a holiday junkie. What's not to love? There's decorations! Exchanging gifts! Caroling and hot cocoa! The spirit of hope!
But thanks to her parent's recent separation, Christa's favorite time of year is now filled with heartache. And when her mom announces that she is taking her on a trip to Europe over winter vacation, Christa knows she should be excited.
She just can't imagine spending the yuletide season away from home - and without her dad.
However, waiting at her hotel in Italy is a special package from her father: the first of twelve dares that take Christa to landmarks in three beautiful countries, and introduce her to people who will show her that hope is still alive in the strangest of places.
Funny, genuine, and feel-good to the core, 12 Dares of Christa is Marissa Burt's fifth novel.
currently writing
-
This narrative nonfiction book traces the development of Christian devotional practices throughout church history, examining when and how Christian heroes became lionized for their scrupulosity and extreme zeal (e.g. Jonathan Edwards, John Bunyan, Therese of Lisieux, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther, Adoniram Judson, Jim Elliot, etc.).
It explores the intersection of extreme devotion with religious OCD and scrupulosity in order to consider whether current aspirational ideals align with Jesus’ invitation to come to Him to find rest.iption text goes here
-
Shiny Happy People + Speak + Jesus and John Wayne.
This novel is told alternatingly between dissociative blog posts, incognito internet search histories, journaled prayers and a telescoping narrative that moves progressively from distant third to first person. THE DAUGHTER shows-not-tells how high control religious family life teaching cultivates abuse.
Sixteen-year-old Hope, stay-at-home-daughter and eldest of the nine children in her Quiverfull family, wants nothing more than to embrace an attitude of J-O-Y (Jesus first, Others second, Yourself last). But underneath the cheerful spiritual veneer, the dark reality of sexual and spiritual abuse festers, compounded by purity culture, instant obedience, and corporal punishment. When Hope recognizes that her abuser is grooming her younger sister, things spiral out of control, forcing Hope to finally abandon the only role that’s defined her and take the first integrated steps on the difficult and bittersweet path to freedom.
-
The first in a middle-grade fantasy series of Redwall meets Beatrix Potter set amongst hobbit-like hedgehogs. In this book, the hedgehogs must work with Arthurian felines and the ghastly night-moths to discover why birds are mysteriously disappearing and, in so doing, save the forest from the looming threat to their way of life.
-
In this middle-grade fantasy, the Aos Sei fairies face insurmountable odds as their centuries long war with their powerful and ancient ocean-borne enemies the Fomorians comes to a close. Out of desperation, a rag-tag group of fairies follow mysterious celestial signs that lead them to a remote hillside and a young boy named Sochet in this magical realism retelling of the legends of St. Patrick from the perspective of fairyland.
-
Biblical fiction meets historical magical realism in this novel that tells the story of the five women of Exodus 1-2 who together rebel against the most powerful man in the world and the supernatural pantheon of Egypt, and, in so doing, help to save their people.
Miriam, the shepherdess and secret scribe, comes face-to-face with her own shame and God’s seeming absence. Shiphrah, the self-made spinster midwife and her apprentice Puah risk everything when they disobey Pharaoh’s bloodthirsty orders. Jochebed, the wife and mother weighed down by stillbirths and a failing marriage, hides her long-awaited son and overcomes impossible circumstances with extraordinary faith. Bithia, the barren princess desperate for a miracle, fights through her cynicism and discovers, with all the women, that there is indeed a God who powerfully and redemptively responds to His peoples’ cries.
Companion novel set among the teenage exiles—Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah—in Nebuchadnezzar’s Babylon.