Red Ink (Extreme Devotion Series: China #3)Author: Kathi Macias
Publisher: New Hope Publishers
Release Date: October 4, 2010
ISBN-10: 1596692790
ISBN-13: 978-1596692794
Paperback: 320 pages
List Price: $14.99
Sale Price: $10.19
Today is day 2 in my part of the Red Ink Blog Tour! If you missed the excerpt from day 1 make sure to check it out! I am also hosting a giveaway for one copy of this book which you can enter by clicking HERE. I would like to introduce the author before getting started, so here we go!
Award-winning author Kathi Macias has written more than 20 books, including the award-winning devotional A Moment a Day, and the popular “Matthews” mystery novels. One of her recent novels, Emma Jean Reborn, is being put into script form by playwright Barry Scott. Kathi has won many awards, including the Angel Award from Excellence in Media, fiction awards from the San Diego Christian Writers Guild, and the grand prize in an international writing contest. With women’s ministry as her primary interest, Kathi is a popular speaker for women’s retreats, conferences, and churches. A mother and grandmother, Kathi and her husband, Al, call California home.
About the Author:
Award-winning author Kathi Macias has written more than 20 books, including the award-winning devotional A Moment a Day, and the popular “Matthews” mystery novels. One of her recent novels, Emma Jean Reborn, is being put into script form by playwright Barry Scott. Kathi has won many awards, including the Angel Award from Excellence in Media, fiction awards from the San Diego Christian Writers Guild, and the grand prize in an international writing contest. With women’s ministry as her primary interest, Kathi is a popular speaker for women’s retreats, conferences, and churches. A mother and grandmother, Kathi and her husband, Al, call California home.The Interview
TIFFANY: What is Red Ink about?
KATHI: Red Ink is about a young Chinese woman named Zhen-Li, raised to observe the party line, including its one-child-per-family doctrine, who falls in love with and marries a Christian and adopts his faith. Though the couple downplays their Christianity in an effort to survive, Zhen-Li’s family is appalled, and she and her husband are ostracized. When she becomes pregnant for the second time and refuses to have an abortion, the persecution begins in earnest.
Zhen-Li’s parents, under pressure from the government, pay to have Zhen-Li kidnapped and the baby aborted. It is then Zhen-Li decides she must live up to her name—"Truth"—and take a firm stand for her faith, regardless of the consequences, and so she begins to regularly teach children about Zhu Yesu ("Lord Jesus") and to distribute Christian literature every chance she gets. Based loosely on the life of Christian magazine editor Li Ying, currently serving a ten-year prison sentence in China , the story of Yang Zhen-Li tells the desperate tale of her incarceration and separation from her family, as she continues to minister to other prisoners, and even to her guards.
A parallel story takes place in Southern California, where two women in a senior care home feel called to pray for someone in China. They also pray for the granddaughter of one of the other residents, who they sense is in danger. This proves to be true, as the impressionable young girl is being lured into the human trafficking scene by an older boyfriend. The stories dovetail as God intervenes at a level of grace and mercy that is nearly unfathomable.
TIFFANY: Did you have any specific inspiration that contributed to writing Red Ink?
KATHI: Yes. I am a longtime supporter of Voice of the Martyrs, and I regularly read their updates on persecuted Christians. When I read of Li Ying, a young Chinese woman who is serving a ten-year prison sentence for printing and distributing Christian literature, I decided to base Red Ink on her story.
TIFFANY: Who was your main support system when writing this book? Did you have anyone who specifically gave you strength, courage or advice while writing Red Ink?
KATHI: As in all my international books, I like to work closely with people who either live in the country/culture I’m writing about or who have done so extensively at some time. My editor on Red Ink, Randy Bishop, was that person. He has served on the mission field in China and was a huge help to me in bringing realism to the story.
TIFFANY: What do you hope readers will take away from this book?
KATHI: My primary purpose for Red Ink, as well as for the entire Extreme Devotion series, is to help the Church (particularly in America ) realize how many of our brothers and sisters in other countries are suffering for their faith—and to call them to prayer and to help them any way possible.
Second, in Red Ink, I want people to realize how powerful their prayers are. When God calls us to pray, even if we don’t have details and don’t understand, we need to be faithful and respond!
TIFFANY: What is your favorite memory in regards to writing Red Ink?
KATHI: My favorite memory is when I first heard of Li Ying, the woman whose story birthed the book, and all she was enduring for her faith. I saw her picture in the VOM Magazine, and I have never forgotten her face. Her image has kept me going as I wrote the books in this series.
TIFFANY: Red Ink is loosely based on a true story. Can you give us an overview of that story?
KATHI: As I mentioned earlier, Red Ink, like all four stories in the Extreme Devotion series, is based on true events. The life and imprisonment of Yang Zhen-Li in the book is very loosely based on the life of Li Ying, who is currently serving a ten-year prison sentence on similar charges.
TIFFANY: Do you have a specific creative process when it comes to writing?
KATHI: My training is in journalism, so I tend to do research first, gathering the basic facts I need for my story. I’m not much of an outliner, though I know many writers use outlines quite effectively. I basically have a starting point and a planned ending, and I just let my characters unfold the story in between. I do write on a very tight deadline, though, setting word-count goals for myself weekly, sometimes daily. That seems to work best for me.
TIFFANY: You have written other novels besides Red Ink, which is your favorite so far?
KATHI: That’s a tough one, as I usually think whichever one I’m working on at the moment is my favorite, but I suppose I’d have to say my favorite besides Red Ink is book one of the Extreme Devotion series, No Greater Love, which is set in South Africa in 1989, just prior to the fall of Apartheid. It opens with a forbidden interracial romance, and the action never stops!
However, book two of the series, More Than Conquerors, is also a favorite. It takes place primarily along the Tijuana/San Diego border, but also in the Mayan stronghold of San Juan Chamula, where outsiders—particularly “evangelicos”—are not welcome and have been known to disappear.
Thank you very much Kathi! I enjoyed getting to know a little more about you and your novel Red Ink!
KATHI: Red Ink is about a young Chinese woman named Zhen-Li, raised to observe the party line, including its one-child-per-family doctrine, who falls in love with and marries a Christian and adopts his faith. Though the couple downplays their Christianity in an effort to survive, Zhen-Li’s family is appalled, and she and her husband are ostracized. When she becomes pregnant for the second time and refuses to have an abortion, the persecution begins in earnest.
Zhen-Li’s parents, under pressure from the government, pay to have Zhen-Li kidnapped and the baby aborted. It is then Zhen-Li decides she must live up to her name—"Truth"—and take a firm stand for her faith, regardless of the consequences, and so she begins to regularly teach children about Zhu Yesu ("Lord Jesus") and to distribute Christian literature every chance she gets. Based loosely on the life of Christian magazine editor Li Ying, currently serving a ten-year prison sentence in China , the story of Yang Zhen-Li tells the desperate tale of her incarceration and separation from her family, as she continues to minister to other prisoners, and even to her guards.
A parallel story takes place in Southern California, where two women in a senior care home feel called to pray for someone in China. They also pray for the granddaughter of one of the other residents, who they sense is in danger. This proves to be true, as the impressionable young girl is being lured into the human trafficking scene by an older boyfriend. The stories dovetail as God intervenes at a level of grace and mercy that is nearly unfathomable.
TIFFANY: Did you have any specific inspiration that contributed to writing Red Ink?
KATHI: Yes. I am a longtime supporter of Voice of the Martyrs, and I regularly read their updates on persecuted Christians. When I read of Li Ying, a young Chinese woman who is serving a ten-year prison sentence for printing and distributing Christian literature, I decided to base Red Ink on her story.
TIFFANY: Who was your main support system when writing this book? Did you have anyone who specifically gave you strength, courage or advice while writing Red Ink?
KATHI: As in all my international books, I like to work closely with people who either live in the country/culture I’m writing about or who have done so extensively at some time. My editor on Red Ink, Randy Bishop, was that person. He has served on the mission field in China and was a huge help to me in bringing realism to the story.
TIFFANY: What do you hope readers will take away from this book?
KATHI: My primary purpose for Red Ink, as well as for the entire Extreme Devotion series, is to help the Church (particularly in America ) realize how many of our brothers and sisters in other countries are suffering for their faith—and to call them to prayer and to help them any way possible.
Second, in Red Ink, I want people to realize how powerful their prayers are. When God calls us to pray, even if we don’t have details and don’t understand, we need to be faithful and respond!
TIFFANY: What is your favorite memory in regards to writing Red Ink?
KATHI: My favorite memory is when I first heard of Li Ying, the woman whose story birthed the book, and all she was enduring for her faith. I saw her picture in the VOM Magazine, and I have never forgotten her face. Her image has kept me going as I wrote the books in this series.
TIFFANY: Red Ink is loosely based on a true story. Can you give us an overview of that story?
KATHI: As I mentioned earlier, Red Ink, like all four stories in the Extreme Devotion series, is based on true events. The life and imprisonment of Yang Zhen-Li in the book is very loosely based on the life of Li Ying, who is currently serving a ten-year prison sentence on similar charges.
TIFFANY: Do you have a specific creative process when it comes to writing?
KATHI: My training is in journalism, so I tend to do research first, gathering the basic facts I need for my story. I’m not much of an outliner, though I know many writers use outlines quite effectively. I basically have a starting point and a planned ending, and I just let my characters unfold the story in between. I do write on a very tight deadline, though, setting word-count goals for myself weekly, sometimes daily. That seems to work best for me.
TIFFANY: You have written other novels besides Red Ink, which is your favorite so far?
KATHI: That’s a tough one, as I usually think whichever one I’m working on at the moment is my favorite, but I suppose I’d have to say my favorite besides Red Ink is book one of the Extreme Devotion series, No Greater Love, which is set in South Africa in 1989, just prior to the fall of Apartheid. It opens with a forbidden interracial romance, and the action never stops!
However, book two of the series, More Than Conquerors, is also a favorite. It takes place primarily along the Tijuana/San Diego border, but also in the Mayan stronghold of San Juan Chamula, where outsiders—particularly “evangelicos”—are not welcome and have been known to disappear.
Thank you very much Kathi! I enjoyed getting to know a little more about you and your novel Red Ink!
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ReplyDeleteThank you so much for being part of the blog tour for Red Ink. I look forward to hearing from your readers! Blessings to you all!!!
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