Danielle Grandinetti: On this episode of A Spot of Story, I am chatting with Megan Schaulis, author of Rebuilder, the third book in the Susa Chronicles. Megan, welcome.

Megan Schaulis: Hi, Danielle. I'm so glad to be here with you.

Danielle Grandinetti: After a year of traveling the country in a hundred square foot camper with her husband, daughter, and dog, Megan Schaulis was bursting with wonder and inspiration, and she poured it all into her writing. Megan's debut novel, Protector, won the 2025 ACFW Carol Award and was a Christie Award finalist and a Realm Award double finalist. Megan lives in Abilene where you'll find her homeschooling or staying up way too late reading—and that is very, very relatable.

Megan Schaulis: Yes, indeed.

Danielle Grandinetti: So we are talking about Rebuilder. Can you tell me—since the genre is a little bit off of what we might usually read here on the podcast—can you give me just a little summary of what it's about?

Megan Schaulis: Rebuilder is a standalone sequel to my series, The Susa Chronicles, which means it's starring a character from the other books, but it's a totally new setting, totally new cast, and new problems. It makes perfect sense even if you haven't read any of the other books.

In Rebuilder, our main character is a hero who's a bit broken, both physically and emotionally. He's been through some rough stuff and he's given a second chance, a new life, as the governor of an island territory called Evania. From the moment he hits the sand with his crutches in tow, he realizes this might not be the second chance in paradise that he thought he was signing up for. Sure enough, within 24 hours of his arrival, the island itself starts sinking into the ocean.

So he is bringing all of his past into this new life and trying to figure out how he fits in, how he's supposed to lead people that he never intended to lead, and how he's going to solve all of these very real problems. Of course, in the meantime, he meets an amazing young woman who is the daughter of the former leader of this territory, who is very disappointed that he showed up. There's all kinds of fun sparks between them,some swimming with dolphins, ocean adventures, time on the beach, and some very big, high-stakes problems to solve while they're at it.

Danielle Grandinetti: That's wonderful. That sounds like a lot of fun.

Megan Schaulis: Thank you.

Danielle Grandinetti: Well, before we go into what a day in the life of your characters looks like, I want to back up to the spending too much time reading and not getting enough sleep. What are you currently reading?

Megan Schaulis: I just started The Raven by Carrie Cotton [affiliate]. The Raven is the third book in the Huntress series. The Huntress has been all over the place all of a sudden. It came out a few years ago, but in the last year or so, I've seen it pop up in all my Christian circles. This is a wonderful medieval series. You might call it fantasy only because it's a slightly made-up location, but it's not fantastical at all.

It's a medieval series with Scots and Picts and Vikings and really powerful Christian themes. They are beautiful stories of how people heal through all kinds of circumstances set in just the richest historical setting I've ever read. If someone has ever heard of Outlander but didn't want to go there in terms of the content, this is the best possible alternative. So I'm on book three, which is called The Raven.

Danielle Grandinetti: That sounds like a wonderful trilogy. I will link that in the blog post show notes so others know exactly where to go for it. Let's head back to your book. What does a day in the life of your characters look like?

Megan Schaulis: Rebuilder has two main characters. Hatch is the crossover character from the other series. A day in his life starts with taking a walk on his crutches from the sandcastle-like governor's mansion where he lives and heading up the mountain on the island so that he can watch the sunrise. Due to some traumatic events that happened to him in the previous books, he does not start a day without taking time to just breathe and be in the presence of Alpha. Alpha is the name that I give to our God in my series, and that's how he starts his day.

Then he goes and hobbles over to a hot spring where he does some morning hot spring aerobics with some sweet little old ladies while he works on rehabbing. He has his quiet time to watch the sunrise and then his hot spring water aerobics. Then he usually gets some kind of threat or letter from an enemy territory who's determined to sink them. About that time of day, he normally gets a telegram with some bad news and he talks to the few allies he has, which include a very eccentric old inventor and a kind of reluctant friend, surfer dude. They try to strategize how they're going to keep their island from sinking into the ocean in the next three to four weeks. That's how Hatch spends his days.

Myah is the other main character in this story. Myah's nicknamed "Princess" because she was the daughter of the previous governor and she's kind of the island's favorite daughter. They all love her; they all consider her their own. Myah spends a good part of her day in her glass-blowing studio. She is a glass artist and she uses very old-world techniques of glass mixed with fun, imaginary high-tech to create all kinds of things. So she spends a good part of her day sweating it out in the glass studio.

Then she probably does something to get her adrenaline going, like cliff jumping,swimming way too far out in the ocean, or rock climbing. I'm sure she would rather just end her day lying on the beach, counting the stars, maybe drifting off there in the sand and then making her way back home at some point.

Danielle Grandinetti: Oh, that's really fun. I love the glass-blowing part.

Megan Schaulis: Yes. That was one of my favorite things to get to include.

Danielle Grandinetti: Probably talk more about that here in a minute. But first, let's talk about your favorite scene to write in this particular book and why.

Megan Schaulis: This is very hard to do without spoilers. There's a scene early in the story where it is Hatch's very first day on the island. Nothing has gone too catastrophically wrong, but nothing's gone very right either. Myah also has had a rough day; she just found out this guy is supposed to be the new governor—the replacement for her dad. He's moving into her castle and all these things. Nothing went right in the glass studio that day, so she comes into the kitchen of their shared palace and she is just fit to be tied.

She finds Hatch there on his crutches, cooking dinner, and she just tells him every thought that pops into her head about him showing up on her island. She's not censored about that at all and is trying to explain to him how to cook fish and talking down to him. Meanwhile, he is just totally chill. He is completely calm, hopping around on his crutches and trying to figure out what all these tropical fruits are that he's never seen before because he lived in Susa until now.

He is cooking all this food and at the end of the argument, he gets everything cooked and plated up. He slides the plate across the counter and starts to leave, and she says something to him about giving up or walking away. He tells her, "I ate an hour ago the whole time I was cooking for you." I love that scene so much because it's a very early turning point for Myah—seeing how truly good this guy is. What do you do when someone that you were so ready to hate not only tolerates your tirade, but makes you dinner while you're chewing him out?

I love that Hatch is so good. He is such a good guy. That scene encapsulates it so perfectly and it was fun to get to write cooking. I think cooking is great; you don't get to see a lot of fun everyday life cooking scenes in dystopian fiction. It was delightful to incorporate real-life recipes.

Danielle Grandinetti: I love those moments when the hero’s character is laid out right there in front of her. So what research was required to write this story?

Megan Schaulis: Technically this book is dystopian, or very light sci-fi—not a space epic, but some fun non-realistic technology. Most of the research really went into two things: the location and the glass blowing.

Glass blowing is the coolest art ever. I'm fascinated by this process that takes sand—silica and other elements—and heats them up with metals and natural parts of our earth. Then you just breathe into it through a tube and create the most amazing things. I've watched it live, and it's amazing. I followed some competition TV series on glass blowing a while back, so I was trying to remember all the terminology and looking up things related to that, while keeping it at a level where anyone reading it would understand. I'm not using so much jargon that you need an internship in glass blowing to understand the book. I also found out some amazing things about the history of glass blowing, a lot of which didn't make it into the book, but they were fascinating.

The second really fun thing was the location. While this takes place in a fictitious island territory called Evania, I like to base my settings on real places. The first two books take place in a fictitious kingdom called Susa, located in modern-day Iran a couple hundred years in the future. For this one, I based it on the real-life island nation of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean. I found out ridiculous things, like the Maldives being the flattest country on the planet—I think 20 feet above sea level is the highest point. I learned that the government once held an underwater cabinet meeting in scuba gear! Learning about what grows there helped me ground the story in reality, keep track of where the sun should be, and determine the tides.

Danielle Grandinetti: I especially love location inspiration. You're right about glass blowing; I got to see it in person when I was visiting Italy years ago. It’s like magic the way they turn molten sand into something gorgeous.

Megan Schaulis: We had an exhibit at a recent county fair and I basically said to my family, "Have fun at the fair; I'm going to be camped out here watching these guys as long as I can stand it."

Danielle Grandinetti: What is one bit of research you wish you could have included?

Megan Schaulis: Speaking of glass blowing, a lot of us have heard of Venetian glass. That was the heyday of glass during the Renaissance. Venice and the island of Murano were basically glass houses—meaning glass-making companies. They were so secretive about their techniques and formulas that they forbade their glass artists to marry. They thought they would end up divulging secrets or that a competitor would send in a woman as a spy. I don't write historical fiction, but for those of you who do, someone has to write this book about a glass artist who was forbidden to marry in order to protect his trade secrets.

That didn't have a reason to show up in my future-set retelling of Nehemiah, but I was just like, "This is the coolest piece of information."

Danielle Grandinetti: I didn't know that part of history! The glass-blowing workshop I went to was actually on Murano, but I don't remember that part. Yes, that does need to be a story.

Megan Schaulis: I'm not sure how well it was enforced or how well you could manage to keep a secret out of someone—I mean, look at Samson and Delilah. Maybe my next book will be a Samson and Delilah meets Venetian glass artist story on the Island of Murano.

Danielle Grandinetti: I would read that.

Megan Schaulis: I would too if someone else would write it.

Danielle Grandinetti: Alright, well what was the inspiration behind this story?

Megan Schaulis: I do write stories that are inspired by true accounts from the Bible. My first duology, the beginning of the Susa Chronicles, is a two-book series inspired by Esther. Those two books, Protector and Proclaimer, are the complete arc of the Esther story in a nanotech failed future. This story is inspired by Nehemiah.

When I was digging into Esther, I was reacquainted with the fact that Esther, Ezra, and Nehemiah all take place during the Babylonian captivity. It was really fascinating to me that while they weren't necessarily direct contemporaries in the exact same years, they do have a lot of overlap in their general historical context. I started thinking, "I have an Esther story; maybe someone in that could go further and have their own adventure in an Ezra-Nehemiah type of moment."

For those scratching their head wondering which VeggieTales episode that was—there hasn't been a Nehemiah VeggieTales, much to my sadness. Broad strokes: Nehemiah is a man who is the cupbearer for the King of Persia. He is very high ranking and a personal friend of the king. The king asks why he is sad, and Nehemiah explains that his hometown, Jerusalem, is in ruins. Cyrus, an ungodly king, tells him to go home, rebuild the city, and takes care of the funding. Nehemiah goes back and, through all kinds of drama, persecution, and threat letters, they rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in just 52 days.

I took that idea and set it on a tropical island in a future run by nanotechnology. I took my side character from the first books and made him the governor of this new island. Instead of a stone wall, he is working to install a nanotech-driven "fence" that will help stabilize the island from sinking and protect it from threats. He has 52 days until they are blown into the sea by their enemies unless he can install the fence. There you go: Bible retelling in a beachy nanotech future.

Danielle Grandinetti: That's really cool. I don't know that I've ever read a Nehemiah retelling, but there's so much drama there.

Megan Schaulis: There is. I even did a giveaway once where I got together with 10 other authors who've all done different accounts of Esther, from well-researched to my sci-fi version. But if people know of Nehemiah retellings, I want to read them! I haven't heard of any yet—not even a VeggieTales.

Danielle Grandinetti: As we wrap up, I would love to know what encouragement you want your readers to take away from reading Rebuilder.

Megan Schaulis: I have a very simple message that underlines everything I write: God is good. I'm of the belief that good is not complicated to define. Sickness, poverty, death: bad. Life, health, beauty, joy, peace: good. I want every reader to realize for the first time that God truly is good and wants to be a part of our lives in a very personal way. Not just in a "Lord and Savior" way, but in a face-to-face conversational way—talking about your to-do list, how you're going to handle a new season with a toddler, or what's for dinner tonight. I want people to read my books and say, "Wow, I want to be that close to my good God."

Danielle Grandinetti: I love that. The uncomplicatedness of the concept that God is good. If readers would like to pick up Rebuilder or the first two in the Susa Chronicles, where can they find you and your books online?

Megan Schaulis: My books are available at all your typical online retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Walmart.com. Any local indie bookstore can order them too. You can also get signed copies directly through my website.

The best way to connect with me is through my newsletter, which you can subscribe to on my website. It’s my favorite way to talk to readers and have heartfelt conversations. I send it out about twice a month with encouragement, book recommendations, and news. You can also find me on Instagram. If you head to my website, you can get a free short story—my interpretation of Ezekiel and the Valley of Dry Bones—as a gift for subscribing.

Danielle Grandinetti: I love that story! I will link to your website in this post so you are easy to find. Thank you so much, Megan, for joining me today. I loved hearing about your story, the glass blowing, and the inspiration behind the location.

Megan Schaulis: Awesome. Thank you so much, Danielle.