Vicksburg resident Sharon Donovan’s first novel, “Forever,”  was published in December.

“It’s an exploration of love,” Donovan said. “Can you know love when you’re 15? Or does love have an age? Or do you find love when you’re 70? It’s a good story. Everybody that reads it will be heart-warmed.”

The novel is the story of two teenagers who fall in love and make a pact to stay together forever.

Faith is a big part of Donovan’s journey as a writer. She said she has always been a big reader, but she got the inspiration to write a novel while watching a sermon by televangelist Joel Osteen.

“I’ve listened to many of his messages, and I’ve always been inspired and encouraged. He was giving a message and he was talking about the things that he could do… And when he said that, it was like something just clicked. And I said, ‘You know what? I can write a book.’ And so I decided to write a love story,” Donovan said. “So I sat down to write this book, and of course I said, ‘I am not a writer.’ But I remembered the story in the Bible about Abram and Abraham, and God changed Abram’s name to Abraham because Abraham means father of many nations.”

According to the Bible, God told Abraham that he would have as many descendants as stars in the sky.

Donovan took the idea of God manifesting things by changing their label and ran with it. For motivation, she created a vision board in the form of a mock advertisement for her novel labeling it a best seller. She also decided it was important to call herself a writer.

“God calls those things that are not as though they were so that’s the journey of my book,” she said.

Donovan worked on the novel for 12 years before publication.

“I thank God for making this possible. And I would say, dream until your dreams come true,” she said. “When your dreams come true, dream some more. Get those visions in front of you, you know?”

“Forever” is carried by Barnes and Noble, Amazon.com, and iTunes. It is also available for Kindle.