What inspired you to write your memoir?
I traveled to Kenya, Africa, in 2006, as part of a short-term missionary team. Though the two weeks I spent in Kenya changed my life, I didn’t think of writing about it until my daughter returned to Africa in 2010. She started her own travel blog then and suggested that I start a blog as well since I always wanted to write. Within a few months I had written my story and posted it on my blog. I still didn’t think, though, that it would make a book.

About your Book:
In August 2006, I had the opportunity to fulfill a life-long dream by going on a mission trip to a third-world country. I traveled with fourteen others to Kenya as part of the last Life Missions team to travel to Africa. Our goals were to educate the Kenyans about disease prevention, run medical clinics for the Maasai tribe, and spend time playing with orphans. For the majority of the trip I didn’t feel like I was personally accomplishing any of these goals. I was home from Kenya for several years before i finally realized why I had traveled all the way to Africa.

How did you decide how to publish your book and where is it published through:
As I was posting stories of my trip to Africa on my blog, a co-worker suggested that I should go to a writer’s conference to hone my skills. In August 2010, I attended the Green Lake Christian Writers Conference and was hooked, attending every year since then. In the summer of 2012, one of the speakers at this conference was the owner of Life Sentence Publishing. From the moment I met Jeremiah, I knew that his publishing company was the one I wanted to publish my book.

Life Sentence advertised as a “hybrid” publisher. Many would say that they are just another self-publishing company, but I can’t believe that other companies who print your book would spend the amount of time that Life Sentence spent on editing and proofreading my book, as well as working with me to get everything just right.

How do you see writing a Memoir as different from writing other genres of books?
The story you choose to write needs to have a beginning, a middle and an end, just like any other story. Not all the events that occur in your life have that kind of structure. To make a memoir work, it has to have all the elements of a work of fiction, but still be nonfiction. Sometimes it is a delicate balance. Oh, and of course, you have to keep your reader’s interest.

Author Bio:
Chris Loehmer Kincaid has been writing since she was in the third grade, and though she has worked in the medical field for over 20 years, she has never lost the desire to put words to paper. However, her family and her faith have always come first, making some days a challenge as she continues to work fulltime, mentor a local Kinship kid, mentor her church’s college students and remain active as a member of the state society for her career in medical assisting. She lives in northern Wisconsin with her husband, four cats and one dog. Her two children, Nick and Val, are grown and living on their own. They both share their mother’s passion for Africa.

Website(s)
Author Home Page Link
Link To Book On Amazon
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Your Social Media Links
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6875320.Chris_Loehmer_Kincaid
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What inspired you to write your memoir?
I was inspired by my husband’s battle with leukemia and mine with learning to live without him.

About your Book:
For Ralph Zirkelbach, an innocuous sore throat is the first symptom of acute myelogenous leukemia. He will battle the disease with courage and optimism but, ultimately, will succumb. Through his final year, his wife Thelma fights her own fears of loss, loneliness and the absolute certainty that she cannot live without him. Medical mishaps–a lumbar puncture that paralyzes his legs, a fall from a wheelchair that lands him in ICU–complicate what initially seemed a standard course of treatment and when the disease resurfaces, he has no further options. Their different relggious backgrounds–his Christian, hers Jewish, add to the tension of that difficult year. Yet they stumble along together and after his death she trudges along on her own, adopting as her motto, “When one must, one can” and eventually realizes she’s living by it. Although she has lost her husband, she’s found herself and turned tragedy into triumph.

How did you decide how to publish your book and where is it published through:
I had published novels before and I always write with the goal of publication, even if just on my blog. My book is published by Mazo Publishing. I submitted to them because they are interested in books with some Jewish content and I felt mine would be a good fit. Although iit is certainly more than a book about interfaith marriage, it does discuss that issue.

How do you see writing a Memoir as different from writing other genres of books?
I think fiction writing prepared me to write memoir. A good memoir should be written with scenes, dialogue, inner monologue, tension. Perhaps the major difference from fiction is that memoir requires more reflection from the author as the story develops.

Author Bio:
Thelma Zirkelbach began her writing career as a romance novelist, but when her husband died, left genre writing for creative non-fiction. She has since published poetry and essays, co-edited an anthology titled On Our Own: Widowhood for Smarties, and has recently released the memoir Stumbling Through the Dark. She is a speech pathologist who has been in private practice for many years. A native Texan, she lives in Houston and enjoys reading, writing, traveling and spending time with her granddaughter.

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Author Home Page Link
Link To Book On Amazon
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http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17670626
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