Kristen Ethridge: Books and a Blog

I have a special guest today here on the blog. Kristine McGuire is the author of Escaping the Cauldron, a book about her journey through the occult and the redeeming power of Jesus Christ. I’m excited to get to share her powerful testimony with you.

What is the book about?

The book is part testimony of how I went from committed, albeit legalistic, Christian for twenty-nine years to witch, medium, and ghost hunter for eight years before God restored my faith and life. It details my personal struggle with trying to be “the perfect Christian” while being drawn to the Occult from childhood. The book is also a Biblical study that examines the current pop-cultural interest in the occult (in particular ghosts, hauntings, and mediums) and how this interest is affecting Christians as well as their beliefs about the supernatural.

Why call it Escaping the Cauldron?

This is actually the first book in a series, What Christians Need to Know about the Occult. It is a series of collections written from my former experiences as a witch, medium, and ghost hunter. This book is primarily about ghost hunting, mediumship, and the paranormal but I chose “Escaping the Cauldron” as the main title because witchcraft was truly my entry into the arena of occult interest and exploration including such things as divination, psychic ability, spirit guides, mediumship, ghost hunting, etc.

What do you think is the most important chapter of the book?

I think there are many important chapters but “Spiritual Warfare” and “How Should Christians Respond?”are the two which take everything discussed in the previous chapters bringing it all together, helping the reader understand their authority in Jesus Christ and leading the way to a ready defense for any kind of paranormal or supernatural event they may experience in their life as a Christian.

What do you hope to accomplish with this book?

I hope to inform and equip Christians with information about the occult. Additionally I pray the church will begin to acknowledge the presence of the spiritual world around us and listen to people who come forward with stories or claims of paranormal experiences without dismissing them immediately. When the church refuses to listen or offer any Biblical assistance, many people are forced to seek help elsewhere. This generally means seeking out ghost hunters, mediums, and psychics. I also hope to encourage Christians who may be questioning their faith to seek a deeper relationship with God, especially if they are stuck in a form of legalism. Our answers truly can be found in Jesus Christ.

Where is the book currently available to purchase?

The book is available in paperback and Kindle editions at Amazon. The book is also available in paperback and e-book editions at my blog site: Kristine ReMixed at www.KristineMcGuire.com andLulu Publishing.

How are you available to the Christian community?

I write a daily blog, Kristine ReMixed at www.KristineMcGuire.com, on a variety of topics including faith, marriage, prayer, spiritual gifts, and the occult. I also work with my husband through Big Fish Ministries at www.BigFishMinistries.com, ministering through speaking with him at church and para-church events about marriage, facilitating seven day or special event prayer rooms, helping the homeless, etc. I am also available to speak at any youth, women’s, or church events on a variety of Christian topics.

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Author Kristine McGuire

Find Kristine McGuire on Social Media Sites:

Follow on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/kristinemac

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A complimentary copy of this book was provided to me as a blog tour host by the author in exchange for posting this interview on my blog. Please visit Christian Speaker Services atwww.ChristianSpeakerServices.com for more information about blog tour management services.

Do you remember when you were young and people asked what you’d like to be when you grew up? Maybe a firefighter or a teacher. Or, if you were me, you decided to be a pediatric surgeon. (I even stuck with it from age 5 until college, when I realized that medical school was cost-prohibitive for someone who thought they’d ultimately like to be a stay-at-home-mom.)

What they never told you as a kid was how much prep work went into actually getting the job. The same is true of writing. Even though it’s a pretty solitary gig, one you can accomplish 90% of while still in your pajamas, you still have to treat it as a professional job. And the first gateway to getting any job is the job interview.

In the case of publishing, the gatekeeper isn’t HR. It’s agents and editors. And you have to treat them the same as you would with anyone you asked for a job.

I see a lot of agents, especially, in the tweetosphere and blogosphere talking about crazy query letters. There are even websites dedicated to them, like Query Shark , which allows other writers to critique and hone queries, and the legendary-but-now-silent Miss Snark.

Writers, your query letter is the literary equivalent of cover letter and resume. It’s a tough job market. Printing resumes on pink scented paper might have worked for Elle Woods, but it doesn’t work in the real world. Following agent and publisher guidelines when you query demonstrate that you’re a professional. That you’ve done your basic homework. That you’re someone they would enjoy working with.

In the world of HR, someone who doesn’t meet the requirements on paper doesn’t get called for a job interview. In writing, someone who doesn’t meet the requirements on paper doesn’t get asked for a partial or a full.

If you mass-query agents, send them books which aren’t in the genres they represent, or otherwise brand yourself as someone who isn’t professional, they have every right to decline your query right then and there. They’re looking for business partners. Because whatever else publishing may be, it’s a bottomline dollars-and-cents business.

And that’s okay with me. I figure it’s okay with you too, assuming you’re like me and would like to make some money off your writing. The English major in me loves the romanticized idea of F. Scott Fitzgerald writing at some Parisian cafe or Lord Byron running off to Italy for inspiration. If that’s why you write, that’s fantastic. And you can still have success on your terms through self-publishing. There are so many venues today in which to get your work into the hands of readers.

But I write because I want it to be my career, not my hobby. That’s why I attend writer’s groups and conferences. It’s why I polish my manuscript for contests. It’s why I try as hard as I can to make my daily word count. I’m treating this as a profession, not something I play at like my husband plays golf.

And above all, I try to be professional when seeking out business partners. Agents and publishers are the key to building my career as a writer. I want to partner with the best for my career path. That’s why I only query agents who work with the type of manuscripts I write. I need someone who knows my market and has built relationships. And that’s why I follow guidelines.

The Bible says “study to show yourself approved…” (2Tim 2:15, KJV) Seeking out agents and publishers for your work is no different. Study what’s expected by agents and editors you’re interested in…that will help win their approval. The writing wins over all, but it’s up to each of us to use every advantage we have to get that job interview.

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realize just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

The first time I heard the David Crowder Band sing “How He Loves,” I was driving home down the narrow stretch of road alongside the beach. At sealevel, where Hurricane Ike had rolled ashore about a year and a half prior, I couldn’t help but be struck by the lyrics.

I mean, struck to the point of almost being unable to drive because of the tears in my eyes. I mean, struck by the understanding of the past year and a half of my life. I mean, struck with the knowledge of the lengths God will go to in order to accomplish His plan in each of our lives.

I thought I was moved because I have a soft spot for DCB. I’ve been listening to them since I was a Baylor Bear, before they were THE DAVID CROWDER BAND (except they don’t use the “the”, but it sounds awkward without it here) and instead just the cool guys who led worship. I thought the college nostalgia combined with that loaded word “hurricane” struck me.

But then I thought about it as DCB repeated the initial verse.

He loves like a hurricane. We are a tree.

Hours before Hurricane Ike hit Galveston in September 2008, it took up the ENTIRE GULF OF MEXICO. All of it. Not a single droplet of water in that ocean was not under the cover of Ike’s clouds.

The winds roar and swirl. The waves rise and consume. The fury rocks and shakes. In Bolivar, the island to the east of Galveston which bore the brunt of Ike’s transformative power, concrete house slabs were peeled up off the ground like a sticker off a child’s hand. Today, when you drive in Bolivar, you would have no idea that entire subdivisions once existed. There’s nothing of the old remaining.

And what about those trees, bending beneath the weight of the wind? After they bend and make it through the storm, they are often not in the same place they were before. They’re stripped of the leaves and fronds. They’re not the same. Many of Galveston’s historic oaks, planted after the Great Storm of 1900, went in to shock. The ones which did survive required care and fresh water. Hundreds of them didn’t survive. Many of those were made into tree sculptures, bringing a new life and purpose to their once-solid trunks.

God loves like a hurricane. He is all consuming. He loves with a passion, a fury. He loves with an organic purpose, a irrespective of all the careful planning we do with our own lives.

And we are the tree. We can’t be unaffected by His presence. We don’t fully understand His changes overnight. The old is stripped away. And sometimes, He brings something entirely new in the place of what was originally there.

It’s not always wind and waves that make up a hurricane. We all will endure life’s storms. And God brings them into our lives not because of insensitivity, but because He works all things to good for those who love the Lord and are called according to His purposes. I quote that verse often because it’s true.

Hurricanes have a purpose. Our lives have a plan. God shows love in them both.

If you’ve been around here for about five minutes, you’ve heard me talk about things I’ve learned through dealing with and recovering from Hurricane Ike. I’m even writing a book, Ike 101: Life Lessons I Learned from a Hurricane and How You Can Recover from the Storms in Your Life and sending it out to agents and publishers now.

My friend Leigh Jones, a former reporter for our local paper, The Galveston County Daily News, and her colleague, Rhiannon Meyers, have just come out with the first definitive book on Hurricane Ike and Galveston’s journey to recovery. Called Infinite Monster: Courage, Hope & Resurrection in the Face of One of America’s Largest Hurricanes, Leigh and Rhiannon interviewed scores of residents and officials in Galveston and the Bolivar Peninsula to put together a timeline of both the storm and the climb from the rubble.

This is a book you must read. Galveston didn’t receive the attention of notable storms like Katrina or the Haiti earthquake because it immediately got bumped from the news cycle before the winds settled down. The very same weekend as Ike, the economic crisis began as Lehman Brothers collapsed. A small town on the Texas coast couldn’t compare to Wall Street, even when that small town was 90% flooded.

As I read the last page of Infinite Monster, I broke into tears. It helped me to process some of the emotions which still linger almost two years later. When you’re buried under your own personal day-to-day journey of recovery, it’s hard to remember details and events in the bigger picture. Leigh and Rhiannon helped me do that.

The stories of the people interviewed for this book show the best of America and heroism. They are people like Galveston Beach Patrol Chief Peter Davis who swam down flooded streets to check waterlogged cars for victims trapped inside as the storm surge rolled in–only to lose his own mother in the weeks after the storm. They are people like Renee Brawner, a teacher on Bolivar Peninsula who assumed she’d be home in a few days, only to have nothing more than a slab to return to. They are people like Leigh herself, whose own home flooded to the ceiling, causing her to lose everything while she functioned as a lifeline to Galvestonians, tweeting the details of Ike and writing play-by-plays for Texas’ oldest newspaper.

Infinite Monster clearly shows just what happens behind the news stories. When the camera crews are gone and the headlines fade, real people must still rebuild their lives. And Galvestonians showed the same perseverance in 2008 as they did after the Great Storm of 1900, still the largest natural disaster in American history. It’s a story which will make you proud, no matter where you live, and it is a story which will inspire you to both be prepared and prepare to recover.

You can order the book at Amazon, through my link on the title in the 2nd paragraph. But if you want an autographed copy, leave a comment and I’ll get you one. Leigh and Rhiannon will be doing a book signing on July 10 at Galveston Outfitters, the store my husband and I own and I’ll be happy to set aside a copy for you and ship it to you. This is a book you’ll want on your shelves, and having it signed by two people who went through so much personally and brought this story back to life will be a real treasure.