Featured Interview With Carol Amon and Lawrence Kemp McGehe

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I am proud to say I’m a Southern girl from Columbus, Georgia and Larry is a mid-westerner from Dubuque, Iowa, transplanted to Illinois. We were married in 1978 and have combined our careers and life experiences to bring a unique blend to our writing. We love to travel and have visited all seven continents and all fifty states, connecting with individuals across the world. We also enjoy mentoring young adults, whom we fondly identify as our “children.” Our only “child,” Casey, was a delightful, smart, and loving cocker spaniel, who we enjoyed for 14 years and still enjoy in our memories.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
We both grew up with amazing mothers who read to us from our earliest memories. We memorized books to the point that people thought we could read at age three! I had a poem published in college, but both of us first wrote primarily for professional journals and magazines. The journey of writing our first novel began in the early 2000s.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Liz Curtis Higgs, Francine Rivers, Melanie Dobson, Brock and Bodie Thoene, Elizabeth Musser, Tom Clancy

Tell us a little about your latest book?
• Tell us a little about your latest book?
In Search of My Heart, the first book of the In Search series, is a story told by Miriam, a young Jewish girl, who grows up in first-century Israel in the loving home of her strict religious family. Her fellow Jews bustle throughout their small village with a zest for life, but also with a clear disdain for the Roman soldiers who occupy their town. Miriam has definite views regarding her life and a strong desire for adventure in the world beyond her village.
Her life and expectations are shattered when she experiences tragedy at a young age. Bitterness and disillusionment replace the joy she has always known. Through a series of events interwoven with biblical accounts, Miriam is catapulted into the lives of scriptural women who have encountered the Messiah. Compelled by her curious nature, Miriam joins the women traveling with Jesus. Her long-held beliefs are challenged. Doubts, trials, and pain attack her attempts at faith. She questions whether Jesus could be who he says he is. She wonders if she can trust those who have been touched by him and more importantly, whether she can trust herself.
We get a glimpse at this time in Jewish history through the eyes, emotions, and thoughts of this intriguing young woman. Miriam helps us see ourselves in these ageless, yet very personal issues.
Some readers will be interested in reading this book to learn the history of this time and place and become more familiar with the geography of Israel and surrounding areas during the time of Jesus. For those readers, we provide an extensive body of notes and three different maps at the end of the book. Other readers may be more interested in the biblical context of the story’s events. In Search of My Heart has plenty of intrigue and a few surprises along the way.

Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles

Carol Amon and Lawrence Kemp McGehe’s Website

Carol Amon and Lawrence Kemp McGehe Facebook Page

Featured Interview With Carol Amon and Lawrence Kemp McGehe

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I am proud to say I’m a Southern girl from Columbus, Georgia and Larry is a mid-westerner from Dubuque, Iowa, transplanted to Illinois. We were married in 1978 and have combined our careers and life experiences to bring a unique blend to our writing. We love to travel and have visited all seven continents and all fifty states, connecting with individuals across the world. We also enjoy mentoring young adults, whom we fondly identify as our “children.” Our only “child,” Casey, was a delightful, smart, and loving cocker spaniel, who we enjoyed for 14 years and still enjoy in our memories.
When asked about our greatest honors, we brag on each other: Carol was the recipient of Presidential Award for Excellence in the Teaching of Mathematics, which led to a meeting with President George H. W. Bush at the White House. Larry was named an All-American Softball player who pitched his team to third in the nation. He also served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam era.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
We both grew up with amazing mothers who read to us from our earliest memories. We memorized books to the point that people thought we could read at age three! I had a poem published in college, but both of us first wrote primarily for professional journals and magazines. The journey of writing our first novel began in the early 2000s.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Liz Curtis Higgs, Francine Rivers, Melanie Dobson, Brock and Bodie Thoene, Elizabeth Musser, Tom Clancy

Tell us a little about your latest book?
In Search of My Heart, the first book of the In Search series, is a story told by Miriam, a young Jewish girl, who grows up in first-century Israel in the loving home of her strict religious family. Her fellow Jews bustle throughout their small village with a zest for life, but also with a clear disdain for the Roman soldiers who occupy their town. Miriam has definite views regarding her life and a strong desire for adventure in the world beyond her village.
Her life and expectations are shattered when she experiences tragedy at a young age. Bitterness and disillusionment replace the joy she has always known. Through a series of events interwoven with biblical accounts, Miriam is catapulted into the lives of scriptural women who have encountered the Messiah. Compelled by her curious nature, Miriam joins the women traveling with Jesus. Her long-held beliefs are challenged. Doubts, trials, and pain attack her attempts at faith. She questions whether Jesus could be who he says he is. She wonders if she can trust those who have been touched by him and more importantly, whether she can trust herself.
We get a glimpse at this time in Jewish history through the eyes, emotions, and thoughts of this intriguing young woman. Miriam helps us see ourselves in these ageless, yet very personal issues.
Some readers will be interested in reading this book to learn the history of this time and place and become more familiar with the geography of Israel and surrounding areas during the time of Jesus. For those readers, we provide an extensive body of notes and three different maps at the end of the book. Other readers may be more interested in the biblical context of the story’s events. In Search of My Heart has plenty of intrigue and a few surprises along the way.

Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles

Carol Amon and Lawrence Kemp McGehe’s Website

Carol Amon and Lawrence Kemp McGehe Facebook Page

Featured Interview With Terry Lister

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born and raised on the very tiny island of Bermuda. Because of our size Bermudians are great travellers. There are few 10 years who do not have a passport. So it is only natural that l am a great traveller. Two months ago, l visited my 100th country. I still live in tiny Bermuda but l sure do get out often!

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
When still a young boy on rainy Saturdays I would lie across my aunt’s bed and we would read together. Interestingly, she will launch her second book in a few weeks.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favorite authors include Mark Twain and Agatha Christie. My favorite genres to read are mystery, history, travel, and adventure.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
My last book, Let’s Go to Gabon, Cameroon and Namibia, is the third in my travelswithTerry series. I retired in 2014 and spend 50% of my time travelling. I started in Central America, followed by South America and now Africa. I started writing about my adventures when I began traveling in Africa. My books share the culture and customs as well as history of the countries l visit. This book opens up these three fascinating countries to readers who have never been. I write in a style where I invite the reader to travel along with me so the reader has a feeling of being on the trip as well.

Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles

Terry Lister’s Website

Featured Interview With Angie Elita Newell

Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
My name is Angie Elita Newell and I am originally from the Northwest Territories in Canada. I am an indigenous woman, I was born in the eighties which was the end of a policy in Canada enacted by the Canadian government which became known as the sixties scoop. The sixties scoop was forced assimilation of indigenous children, we were taken from our families, our nations, and placed in urban cities in adoptive or foster homes, so myself and one of my brothers found ourselves in a suburb of Vancouver call New Westminster, the Royal City.

I recently have fallen completely and totally in love with cats, and have a semi feral Maine Coon mix, I live at the bottom of the mountains and he is often confused for a lynx.

At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I have been fascinated with story telling from a toddler onwards, oral story telling is huge component of our culture and my love of books come on at the age of five, out in the back lands of Shuswap Lake I was with my cousins and brothers and we discovered an abandoned farm, there was a shed next to the barn which was stacked from the floor to ceiling with news papers from the 1920’s to the mid 1960’s and I was introduced to the funny pages, comics, and spent many hours over the next three summers reading them all. At six I started writing and all through elementary school my stories which I often illustrated found their way to my school’s glass display case in the hallway.

Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favourite authors outside of William Shakespeare are mostly from the early half of the twentieth century, Wilfred Owen, T.S Elliot, Ernest Hemingway, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, F.Scott Fitzgerald and JRR Tolkien, these men have had an extraordinary impact on the way I craft my art. Literary Fiction holds a special place in my art, for me its like a warm cup of coffee in an oversized chair next to a fireplace on a stormy day, comforting, when the world descends into a chaos I’ve always found reading to be innately grounding, its a shared experience that reminds us that the human experience in a connected one, at our very core we are all one energy. This world inspires my writing, she is crazy, beautiful and awesome, we need to remember that she has given us everything and we to enjoy her splendour in her raw supernatural state, because even without a human mark, she is perfect.

Tell us a little about your latest book?
My debut novel, All I See is Violence, is a transcendental journey through the history of my ancestors, we journey backwards through the unsung female warrior Little Wolf, the war monger General George A. Custer and the spread too thin single mother Nance, their stories dance through time and space to the battle of Little Big Horn, the destruction of yet another treaty and the creation of Indian reservations. In remembering everything we’ve been through, and honoring it, we can release it and move forwards, for this world is always expanding and nothing every stays the same, so let’s move with it and create something better than what we’ve found.

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Angie Elita Newell’s Website