Everyone's Story runs from Friday to Friday. However, because of the ACFW conference, Kathi's visit with us will extend to Monday, September 24th, followed by a very special visit starting on that Monday--and yes, you're being kept in suspense!
Please enjoy our time with Kathi. She'd enjoy hearing from you.
Kathi is graciously offering the third (and final) book in the Freedom Series, on the topic of human trafficking (specifically, child sex slavery). One randomly chosen commenter will win one copy of THE DELIVERER. The winner will be announced on Monday, September 24th.
A blurb follows, and then a You-Tube video.
The Deliverer picks up just months after Special Delivery leaves off, continuing with the stories of Mara, freed from slavery but still struggling with scars and memories from the past; Jonathan, attending Bible college but strongly drawn to Mara, despite her past; and Lawan, having escaped the brothel in Thailand and miraculously reunited with her younger sister in the US and adopted by the same family. Will Mara be able to move past the pain and hatred that bind her, even if it means traveling back to the place where her parents betrayed her and sold her into sexual slavery? Will she allow The Deliverer to set her free—once and for all?
An Interview with Kathi Macias:
What inspired you to write
the Freedom Series?
I was finishing up writing
my previous fiction series, The Extreme Devotion Series, about the persecuted
Church around the world, when my publisher asked what topic I would like to
tackle next. We tossed a couple of ideas back and forth, but when she suggested
human trafficking, particularly child sex slavery, I agreed to do some
preliminary research and get back to her. I knew human trafficking existed and
that it was a terrible thing, but I didn’t believe it existed here, in the US,
and I had no idea how prevalent it was worldwide. When I discovered there are
approximately 27 million people held in some sort of human trafficking
(modern-day slavery) today, with estimates of 100,000 to 300,000 minors in
sexual slavery in the United States right now, I was horrified. I was also
convinced that I had to do whatever I could to help educate others on this
monstrous crime and to call them to get involved in stopping it.
The Freedom Series,
published by New Hope Publishers, follows your other notable series, Extreme
Devotion. As an author, did you set out to write a series each time or did one
story leave you personally hungering to explore more through other character’s
viewpoints?
The Extreme Devotion
Series was launched with my twenty-year passion to write book one, No Greater Love, set in South Africa in
1989, just before the fall of Apartheid. But as I talked to New Hope about the
book (who at that time had never published any fiction), I was encouraged to
consider a series in order to better launch their first-ever fiction line,
“Fiction with a Mission.” Being a long-time supporter of Voice of the Martyrs,
Open Doors, and other such ministries, I was already familiar with many around
the world who paid a huge price for their faith, so it was no problem to come
up with more stories to flesh out the series. Unlike The Extreme Devotion
Series, however, which consists of four books with four completely different
stories/characters/settings, The Freedom Series is three books that follow the
main characters throughout the continuation of the same story.
Your stories are not a
light-read. Despite being a best-selling and award-winning author, did you
worry about how your Freedom or Extreme Devotion novels would be received?
Absolutely! And to be
truthful, it’s been an uphill battle to generate interest in such difficult
topics. Once I convince someone to try one of the books in either series, they
proclaim they’re hooked and can’t wait to read the rest. But so many, when they
learn of the topics around which the series are built, decline to read them,
saying they prefer something “less dark” when it comes to fiction. I can certainly
understand and respect that, but like I always tell anyone who will listen, I
don’t write about the darkness; I write about the Light that shines in the
darkness!
Please share with us why
you cite the scripture of Habakkuk 2:2 on your website. What importance does it
hold for you?
You began your writing
career not as a novelist but rather as a newspaper columnist and reporter. In hindsight,
would you say this helped form your seemingly author’s theme of writing about
the ugly truth of what happens in this world?
I can’t give enough credit
to my journalism background when it comes to my writing today. Not only did it
open my eyes to the often ugly truths that are part of a fallen world, it also
helped me learn how to research those ugly truths—and how to write about them
cleanly and efficiently, eliminating the need for numerous, in-depth rewrites
and edits. That’s not to say I don’t spent the time on the second part of that
Habakkuk 2:2 admonition to “make it plain,” but it does mean that my initial
draft is relatively clean and well organized, thus requiring less editing and
tweaking.
As a Christian, what
message do you hope to show in your novels?
As I said earlier, though
many of topics I tackle are dark, I don’t write about the darkness; I write
about the Light that shines in the darkness. That is such a key for me! After
all, if we don’t believe that the Light of Christ is strong enough to penetrate
even the most evil darkness, then we have made our God far too small. People in
dire situations need to know that there is nothing too hard for God; that He is
able to rescue even them; and that He loves them enough to go to any lengths to
do so.
And for a fun question: do
you and your husband still go biking? What joy does this bring to you?
I must confess that after
forty years of Harley-riding, my husband has traded in his bike for a Corvette.
I am still known as “Easy Writer,” as we zip through town in that Sunburst
Orange sports car, but I don’t have to wear a helmet anymore. When you get to
my age (looking 65 in the eyeball!), that’s a welcome change.
Author Bio:
Kathi Macias (www.kathimacias.com; www.boldfiction.com; www.theTitus2Women.com) is a multi-award-winning author of 40 books, including the Golden Scrolls 2011 Novel of the Year and Carol Award Finalist, Red Ink. A popular speaker at both women’s and writers’ events, Kathi lives in Southern California with her husband, Al.
You can find Kathi on the web at:
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