Getting to know you Thursdays with Kay Marshall Strom. I first read Kay's book Once Blind the story of John Newton and had to contact Kay about the book. I have since read her first 2 books in the Grace in Africa series and I can't say I loved them cos the topic is not one to love but these books captivated me and had me crying and outraged at what happened. These books really evoke emotion and this is a sign of a good reader. I have been in contact with Kay over the past couple of years and am so happy to have her on my blog today. I would recommend you check out her websites also. Welcome Kay thanks for visiting with us today.
If you have a question for Kay I am sure she will be happy to answer it.
1. Can you tell us a little about yourself?
Well, I am a wife and a mother, a writer and a railer against social injustice. I am follower of Jesus Christ. I have been writing for 25 years (probably as long as some of your readers have been alive!) and have 35 published books. Because I write on so many global topics, my books have taken me to the most interesting places around the world and have brought me in contact with the most intriguing people.
2. When you were a child did you have a favourite book or books?
I loved to read, and read every book I could get my hands on, but my favorite of all was Grimm’s 50 Famous Fairy Tales. I read it so many times I could recite the tales by memory! (Jenny here I have a Grimms fairy tale book and one of my favourite books was a book with 3 fairy tales)
3. Do you have a favourite Genre to both read and right write?
I really enjoy historical fiction. I love the realism it lends to the plot line, and it’s such a fun way to learn about different times and places.
4. Did you have favourite authors growing up who have influenced you?
Charles Dickens. When I was in 8th grade, I was given the assignment to read A Tale of Two Cities. It was a thick book, and looked terribly stogy, and I really did not want to read it. But once I got started, I couldn’t stop. I loved that book! Oh, the way Dickens wove bits of plot into the story—Madame DuFarge’s knitting. And the panorama of history he laid out—the French Revolution. And the heart-rending lines— “I would give my life to keep one you love beside you.” Charles Dickens not only convinced me I wanted to be a writer, he demonstrated the power a story has to touch hearts and change society.
5. When did you know you wanted to be an author?
Right then, when I was in eighth grade. In fact, I wrote my own first heart-rending short story that year. It was terrible!
6. How did you go about becoming an author?
When my children started school, I decided to really try writing for publication, so I took a class in adult education. I learned nothing, but I did build up my confidence. As an assignment I rewrote the story of Deborah from the Bible, and I took it to the Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference. No one was impressed with my efforts. But at the conference I took a class on writing for children, rewrote the story and the proposal and presented it again. By the end of the conference, I had a contract for my first book.
7. If you were not a writer what would you like to be?
Well, before I was a writer, I was a teacher. I enjoyed it and would probably do that again.
8. Outside reading and writing what do you like to do?
Travel! I am so fortunate that my writing has called for so much global travel. I also speak on cruise ships in exchange for cruises for me and my husband. How cool is that? ( wow that is so cool)
9. Do you have a place you love to visit or would love to visit?
Anywhere! Point me in a direction, and I’ll go! (So when are you coming to Australia?)
10 . If you could have a meal with 3 living people who would you choose and why?
Oh, hard choice! Maybe I’d say Geraldine Brooks, John Grisham, and Liz Curtis Higgs. Geraldine is an amazing writer of historical fiction, and I’d love to pepper her with questions. John Grisham is a great researcher, so he would have a lot to add to the conversation. And Liz would keep us all laughing. I’m afraid we’d never get a chance to eat!
Finally can you tell us about your current books and/or any that will
be coming out soon. Also where we can find you on the web.
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My just released book, The Voyage of Promise, is actually book 2 of the Grace in Africa trilogy—the saga of Grace Winslow, a woman with an African royal mother and an English slaver father. In book 1, The Call of Zulina, Grace is forced into a slave rebellion where she is forced to choose who she was—African or English, slave or slaver—and then to live with the consequences of that choice. Book 2 begins five years later in West Africa, 1792, when slavers burst into Grace’s life and tear her new family apart forever. She watches in anguish as her husband is led in chains aboard a tightly packed slave ship bound for America. An old enemy has a more sinister plan for Grace—a different kind of servitude in London. But Grace will not be enslaved, and she will not give up on the man she loves. In her determination to be reunited with her husband, she finds God reaching out to her. Book 3, The Triumph of Grace, takes Grace to slavery in the American south. It will be released February 1, 2011.
My review of The Voyage of Promise
Another great book. It continues Grace's story 5 years after book one ends. This book had me crying within the first couple of chapters at what happens to Grace and her people and injustice of it all. This book had me captivated to find out what would happen next. this book is a really good read but it is also hard hitting and I love how it tells the story of the slave trade from the point of an African. We also see how England was starting to oppose the slave trade but how the traders and businessmen who made there money because of it clash. This is a series that should be compulsory reading for history students as it shows the slave trade for what it really was. This is not a read for the faint hearted but it is a book and series that needs to be read so people never do this again and to help fight the modern day slave trade. I was hoping to finish the book by the end of 2010 as it would then have made my top 10 reads for the year but at this point I am sure it will be in the top reads of 2011.
Cant wait to read book 3 I read the first 2 chapters and really cant wait to read more.
