Beauty on the Backroads

Stories of grace for life's unexpected turns

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An inspiring holiday read: Review of Unexpected Christmas Hero by Kathi Macias

Holidays are not “happy” for everyone, and this is something I too easily forget.

Kathi Macias tackles a realistic aspect of holidays–homelessness–in her latest Christmas novel Unexpected Christmas Hero. This is not a feel-good Christmas story, at least not to start. I found it hard to read at first. The main character, Josie, is a mom with two young children who finds herself unexpectedly homeless because of some poor financial decisions her late husband made before his death. In a year’s time, she went from living the “American dream” and enjoying a robust Thanksgiving to scrounging for a warm, dry place to sleep for a night and eating a Thanksgiving meal in a shelter. Her struggles, fears and survival tactics are so realistic, I was stressed reading about her journey. I was also convicted about how little I think of others on those holidays and humbled by how casually I’ve treated the blessings in my life.

The young family meets Rick, a homeless veteran, who crosses their path many times and helps them when he can. The supporting characters in Unexpected Christmas Hero do the sorts of things I would hope every caring person would think of: taking people into their homes, sharing meals, offering rides, volunteering at homeless shelters.

Macias’s stories almost always leave me feeling uncomfortable in a good way and challenged in my beliefs and actions.

Watch the book trailer below, then read on as Kathi talks with Christian Speakers Services about the book and the “story behind the story” about the man pictured on the book’s front cover.

[youtube=http://youtu.be/VCHDr4wMqT4]

Homelessness is a tough topic for Christmas. What inspired you to use that as the basis for your annual Christmas novel?
I’ve been involved in homeless ministries, to one degree or another, for decades, so I’m not new to this area of ministry. But I’ll admit that I had never considered writing a novel about it until someone in my family, who had personally experienced homelessness at one time in his life, suggested it. The more I thought about it, the more it seemed the perfect theme for a Christmas novel. After all, at Christmas we celebrate the birth of our Savior, who was pretty much homeless at that particular point in time and was born in a stable because there was no room for them at the Bethlehem Motel 6.
Despite having previous ministry and even personal experience with the homeless, were there still some difficult times for you as you researched and wrote this novel?
Absolutely! I always try to climb inside the skin of my characters, and when I thought of myself as the young mother Josie, attempting to care for and protect her two small children while living on the streets, I wept. There were times when my own children were little that we didn’t have a lot of material things and almost never had enough money at the end of the month, but we always had a roof over our heads and never wondered where we would find our next meal. When I consider that approximately 25 percent of the homeless in America are families (either single or dual-parent) with small children, it breaks my heart.
Can you give us a brief synopsis of Unexpected Christmas Hero?
This is a story about a young family—husband, wife, two small children—who seem to be living the American dream. But when the husband dies unexpectedly, the wife (Josie) not only has to deal with that loss but quickly discovers that they are destitute. Her husband had lost his job some months earlier but didn’t want to worry her, so he hid it from her, hoping to find another position. He didn’t, and eventually ran up all their credit cards, took out a second mortgage on the house, emptied their savings, and even cashed in his life insurance policy. It doesn’t take long until Josie and her children lose their home and find themselves living on the streets, depending on the charity of others to survive. Then they meet Rick, a homeless Vietnam vet who takes them under his wing and, in a most surprising and sacrificial way, becomes their unexpected Christmas hero.
Tell us about the “story behind the story,” which involves the man on the front cover.
When the publisher sent the designer out to find someone to pose as Rick, the homeless vet in the book, he spotted a man on the street who looked amazingly like him. He asked the man—whose name is Willard Parker—if he would pose for the book cover. The man readily agreed and then explained that he truly was homeless and hoped having his picture on the cover would somehow help him find his family, particularly his grown daughter. We are doing our best to stay in touch with Mr. Parker and also to spread his story across the Internet and on radio/TV in hopes of fulfilling his dream to be reunited with his family. If anyone looks at the picture on the cover and/or recognizes the man’s name (Willard Parker) and knows the whereabouts of any of his family, we would truly appreciate it if they would contact me at ezyrtr@ca.rr.com so we can take the necessary steps to try and make this reunion happen.
Where can people find your book?
It’s available on any of the main online venues (Amazon, ChristianBooks.com, Barnes & Noble, etc.) and many stores nationwide.
Can you give us your website info?
Sure! You can find me at www.kathimacias.com or www.boldfiction.com. I’d love it if people would stop by there and check out all my books, as well as the video trailers that go with them. They can also sign up to receive my weekly devotional, or check out where I’ll be speaking in the near future. Above all, click on “contact” and send me an email. I’d love to hear from them, and I promise to answer.
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I was given a complimentary copy of this book from the author in  exchange for posting the author’s interview and/or book review on my  blog. CSS Virtual Book Tours are managed by Christian Speakers Services (http://ChristianSpeakersServices.com).

Stuck in the middle: a review of Special Delivery by Kathi Macias

Since reading Deliver Me from Evil, the first in Kathi Macias’ Freedom Series, which focuses on human trafficking, I’ve been eagerly awaiting book two. When it finally arrived, I had to patiently wait before digging in to the continuing story of Mara, who had once been enslaved, and Jonathan, a Bible college student who aided her rescue.

Sadly, I discovered that Special Delivery suffers from middle child syndrome — not that its story is any less important, but it seems to be a link between the first book and what will be the last. The story started slow, including a lot of background from the first book. Two years have passed in the story since the first book ended, so I can understand the need to catch the reader up with what’s been going on in the characters lives, but I felt the build-up took too long.

That said, I finished the book in a day because Macias crafts a story that is hard to put down. I knew that sticking with the story would be worth it by the end. And it was, though it leaves me with an even greater taste for the final book in the series.

FAVORITES: Macias takes her readers to uncomfortable places and issues challenges through her writing to care about people — and their issues — who might fly under the radar of mainstream society. I know when I pick up one of her books I won’t be the same when I put it down. This, to me, is her strength as a writer.

FAULTS: The Christian families in these books seem to have it all together. Especially in this second book, I was tired of Jonathan’s family. They were so sweet to each other and perfectly “Christian” that I wanted to skip ahead to the other parts of the story. The series’ focus is on human trafficking, which is heartbreaking enough, so maybe we need the Flannery family to counteract all the ugliness of a modern-day slave trade. Still, enough was enough for me.

IN A WORD: Satisfactory. Special Delivery provides a bridge from the start of the story to what I’m guessing will be the end. It fills in gaps and sets readers up for the finale. This isn’t the best thing I’ve read from Macias, but it’s still worthwhile.

Check out the book trailer below and read on for an interview with the author.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUVsijRZBaM&feature=youtu.be]

Special Delivery is book two in the Freedom (human trafficking) series. For anyone who may not have read book one, Deliver Me From Evil, can you fill us in on the focus of the series in general, and Special Delivery in particular?

The Freedom series is a three-book fiction series built around the horrifying topic of human trafficking. People often ask me why I decided to write about such a dark topic. First, I explain that I’m not writing about a dark topic; I’m writing about the Light that shines in that darkness. And second, I believe the Church should be at the forefront of the modern-day abolition movement to set the captives (modern-day slaves) free. The three books in this series specifically follows the life of a young woman named Mara, who was sold into sexual slavery by her own parents in Mexico, and then smuggled across the border into San Diego by her uncle who then served as her pimp. A strong sub-plot throughout the series tells of two sisters in the Golden Triangle of Thailand, Chanthra and Lawan, who are also trapped in a brothel. Finally, a teenage girl named Francesca, kidnapped in Juarez, Mexico, and forced into prostitution, is introduced in book two. Special Delivery picks up two years after book one, Deliver Me From Evil, ends, and continues with the stories of Mara and Lawan, as well as others carried over from book one. Mara hopes she is finally free to pursue her own life because she was rescued from the brothel and her testimony helped lock up her uncle for life. But the man has underground connections and is driven by revenge to reach out from behind bars and deliver the ultimate punishment to his niece.

This isn’t the first fiction series you’ve written on nationwide and even worldwide social issues, the one previous to this being the persecuted Church. What draws you to these difficult topics?

As a Christian, I believe I am compelled to use my God-given gifts to honor God in all I do—and that includes exposing the deeds of darkness, calling sinners to repentance, and taking a stand for righteousness by doing all I can to help rescue those who are suffering. I dare not turn my back on “the least of these.” I also believe that God placed this sort of burden on my heart even before I became a Christian at the age of 26. I’ve always been a champion of the underdog, a “soap-box” preacher, if you will. When I met Jesus, I simply redirected that passion toward His people, realizing I couldn’t effect real change in my own strength anyway.

With your obvious passion to right social and moral wrongs through the power of the Gospel, how did writing and speaking enter into that?
I’ve known I wanted to be a writer since I was a child—never wanted to do anything else. When I was a teenager I told my then boyfriend (now husband) that I was going to be a writer one day. What a blessing that God allowed me to fulfill that dream! After becoming a believer and growing in my faith, it was natural to take my passion to fight for others and incorporate it into my writing. Speaking, on the other hand, was an entirely different story. I was terrified of public speaking when I was young, and the day I received Christ I made a “bargain” with God, promising to do anything He asked of me—so long as it didn’t include public speaking. (Does God have a sense of humor or what???) Now, when I stand in front of audiences where I believe God has called me to speak (and actually find myself enjoying it!), I tell my listeners that if God has called them to do something and they feel it’s impossible, they can consider me their “visual aid” that NOTHING is impossible with God IF we will simply take that first step of obedience and let Him fulfill His purpose in and through us.

With the topics of the worldwide persecuted Church and human trafficking under your belt, what other issues are you dealing with in your writing?

My Christmas 2011 book, A Christmas Journey Home, dealt with the immigration/border problem, and my Christmas 2012 novel, Unexpected Christmas Hero, will be about homelessness in America. The next issues-related fiction series I have on tap—which I am just starting to write, by the way—is called the “Patches of Courage” series and will begin releasing in late January 2013. Book one is The Moses Quilt, based on the life of Harriet Tubman, and will be followed by The Christmas Quilt and The Impossible Quilt. This series of books will highlight historical American women whose Christian faith enabled them to walk in great courage and make a difference in the lives of countless people.

Where can people find out about you and your books/speaking/appearances?

They can go directly to my website (www.kathimacias.com or www.boldfiction.com) or my Easy Writer blog: http://kathieasywritermacias.blogspot.com. I’m also on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google, and various other social sites. Would love to hear from all of you!

Where can people find out about free book giveaways on this blog tour?
The blog tour host is giving away a set of two books from the Freedom Series –  Book 1 (Deliver Me From Evil) and Book 2 (Special Delivery). Also, readers can follow @ChristianSpkrs on Twitter or follow on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/CSSVBT.TheFreedomSeries for more book giveaway locations on the tour.

I was given a complimentary copy of  this book from the author in exchange for posting the author’s interview  on my blog. This blog tour is managed by Christian Speakers Services (http://ChristianSpeakersServices.com).