MARY E. DEMUTH is the author of three parenting books and four novels, and she helps readers turn their trials into triumphs. Mary has spoken at several national writers conferences and has had the privilege of teaching in the US, Europe, and Africa for various churches and church planting ministries. She’s appeared on national TV in Canada, and WFAA’s Good Morning Texas. Mary and her husband, Patrick, reside in Rockwall, Texas with their three children. They recently returned from breaking new spiritual ground in Southern France, where they planted a church.
SLOW BURNby Mary E. DeMuth
Published by Zondervan
ABOUT THE BOOK
"Beautifully and sensitively written, her characters realistic and well-developed. Mary DeMuth has a true gift for showing how God’s light can penetrate even the darkest of situations." – Chuck Colson
She touched Daisy’s shoulder. So cold. So hard. So unlike Daisy.
Yet so much like herself it made Emory shudder.
Burying her grief, Emory Chance is determined to find her daughter Daisy’s murderer—a man she saw in a flicker of a vision. But when the investigation hits every dead end, her despair escalates. As questions surrounding Daisy’s death continue to mount, Emory’s safety is shattered by the pursuit of a stranger, and she can’t shake the sickening fear that her own choices contributed to Daisy’s disappearance. Will she ever experience the peace her heart longs for?
The second book in the Defiance, Texas Trilogy, this suspenseful novel is about courageous love, the burden of regret, and bonds that never break. It is about the beauty and the pain of telling the truth. Most of all, it is about the power of forgiveness and what remains when shame no longer holds us captive.
Readers, buy your copy of Slow Burn today!
AUTHOR INTERVIEW
1. What gave you the inspiration for this story?
I wanted to explore what it would be like for a neglectful mother to really come to terms with her own depravity. What do you do with extreme mother guilt and brokenness? What was interesting: I started the story not liking Emory very much, but as I wrote the story, I started developing empathy for her. By the end, I loved her dearly.
2. How much of your own experiences influenced your characters? What aspects became traits that were theirs and theirs alone?
With Emory Chance, the heroine of the book, I had little to pull from other than conjecture. Like every mom, I experience guilt, but hers was fairly extreme. I hope I’m like Hixon, but I’m often not. I am selfish and needy and absorbed in my own life. He sacrifices. He looks outside himself. He loves others when others don’t seem to deserve it. I want to be like him when I grow up.
3. If your hero/heroine were an ice cream flavor, what would he/she be and why?
Emory would be licorice, an unsightly flavor, the kind that gets shunned and uneaten (Sorry for those of you who like licorice). Hixon would be something surprising like lavender mint—the kind of ice cream you wouldn’t choose, but once you tried it you couldn’t get enough of.
4. Are there any themes in Slow Burn that you hope the reader sees? Are there any themes that weren't overt but developed as the stories progressed?That you’re never too far from God’s grasp. That sacrifice is a noble trait, the primary trait of Jesus. That loving people is just plain hard. All those themes developed throughout the book. I didn’t set out to write about them, but they emerged. I’m glad they did.
5. What were your most difficult parts to write? Your favorite?
It was hard trying to imagine what it would be like to have the lure of addiction. I personally am pretty freaked out by drug abuse, so absorbing myself in a drug abuser’s mindset wasn’t easy. I loved writing about Hixon and his wrestling with God’s calling him to love the unlovely.
6. When is your next book coming out and what is the story?
Next book is Thin Places, my memoir. It releases in January. The next novel, Life in Defiance, wraps up the Defiance, TX series and releases late next spring.
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Thank you, Mary, for being in the spotlight with us.
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MARY DEMUTH
DAISY CHAIN