Featured Book: Heavenly Places by Kimberly Cash Tate

Kimberly Cash Tate made her fiction debut this month with Heavenly Places. Kim is an attorney turned home-schooling mom-writer who hails from Maryland and now resides with her family in Texas. She previously published a non-fiction book entitled "More Christian Than African-American". Kim has been a joy to get to know however briefly via email, and I look forward to continuing this new friendship. It's my pleasure to help promote her debut novel.

About the Book:
Treva Langston's life has suddenly been turned upside down. She lost her high-powered job, her family has returned to a town that brings only memories of heartache, and she's beset with uncertainty about what makes her worthy. To her husband, she's blind to the blessings of their young family; to her mother, her awkward homecoming is just another reason why she'll never be a success. Unable to shake her fears, Treva feels nothing can save her... Treva's sister understands that trials that come with self-doubt. So with the help of her women's prayer group, she invites Treva to ask God for what she can't do alone. Despite herself, Treva rediscovers the gifts and the people she never took time to value. She finds that the promised Heavenly Places she has always looked for have been in front of her all along.

Hey Kim! I'm glad you consented to this interview. Heavenly Places sounds like my kind of book! (Gritting teeth behind smile while awaiting book order.)

Patricia, I first want to thank you for featuring me on your blog! Your presence in the blog world is a definite plus and I consider it an honor and a blessing to be here.

(Blushing) Thanks, Kim! Promoting novelists and debut authors in particular is fun for me. I'm always curious about the authors who write the books I enjoy. Interviewing them for my blog gives me a chance to ask the questions swirling about my brain. So let's jump right in!

In addition to writing and home-schooling your children (how many?), I read you find time to study foreign languages. What languages are you learning now and what was your motivation?

My study of foreign languages was actually motivated by the homeschooling. I started homeschooling my two children, who are now 11 and 9, almost 6 years ago. I was inspired as I read about classical education and got excited about my children learning ancient Greek so that they would be able to read the New Testament in its original language, and also Latin because it’s so foundational to the English language. I began buying Latin and Greek texts and it wasn’t enough to learn alongside them. I had to study ahead! I love it! I’ve got a loooong way to go before I’m able to sit down and read ancient texts, but I’ve learned so much thus far. And I get such a kick out of being able to open my Greek New Testament and understand some of what it’s saying. It helps me tremendously in my personal Bible study.

Gotta tell you how impressed by that I am on many fronts! Homeschooling. Homeschooling multiple children. Teaching your children Greek and Latin. Learning Greek and Latin yourself. Reading the Bible in Greek. Wow!

Would you call yourself a "church girl", i.e. born and raised, or at least attending church regularly from girlhood?

I didn’t grow up in a Christian home. The only time I attended church growing up was when we went to the Catholic church that was affiliated with my Catholic school in Maryland . But God was working even then. Because of the Bible stories I learned as a youth in Catholic school, I was awed by Jesus and never doubted that He was the Son of God and Savior of the world. What was missing was the salvation piece. Although I saw Him as a Savior, I didn’t know I needed to be saved, and I didn’t know I could have a personal relationship with Him.

What made you seek God in your adult life?

Now that’s a long story. LOL! Honestly, I have to say that it was God who drew me and caused me to seek Him. After I graduated from law school at George Washington University , He uprooted me from my lifelong home in the D.C. area, where everything was familiar and diverse, and plopped me down in Madison , Wisconsin , which was, well, the opposite. My fiancé had received an offer from the University of Wisconsin as an assistant professor and I had gotten a great job offer in Madison as well to begin my legal career. But I hated it. I missed home and I would complain all the time. Out of desperation, I cried out to God—remembering all those stories in Catholic school about the miracles God was able to perform—and appealed to Him to get me out of there. Crying out to God got me to thinking that I should at least be in somebody’s church, sort of a tit-for-tat kind of deal if I wanted my prayer answered. About three years after moving to Madison, my husband’s barber invited him to his church, and my life was changed forever. I received Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

What a beautiful testimony! I love that God is there for us even when we aren't in fellowship with Him, and that He doesn't require "tit-for-tat", although it certainly doesn't hurt us. LOL! But when we are aligned with Him, look out!

Let's talk about your book a bit. Is Treva, the heroine of Heavenly Places, based on your own life?

Fortunately, I never experienced the kind of heartache that Treva experienced. I had a passion to tell her story because God kept putting stories before me in which women shared the pain of being treated differently because of their skin color...by other black people, including their parents. Many of these women were experiencing the effects of it still in the way they perceived people and situations, and in the way they felt about themselves. I kept saying, “Lord, if only their lives could be transformed by the power of knowing Christ and the truth of Your Word!” I knew that was what He wanted me to write about. But Treva and I do share similarities in that she’s an attorney and she has an attitude about the place to which she and her family have relocated. I was able to draw upon some personal feelings there. :-)

On your website, Heavenly Places is described as "fiction that feeds your soul". Is that your tagline?

You know, as I was writing the synopsis that just came to me and I liked it! Heavenly Places is entertaining but more than that, it’s food for the soul, and that’s what a lot of women are telling me as they read the book. They’re saying they have never read a novel that ministered to them on such a deep level. That’s exactly what I prayed would happen as I wrote the book so I praise God for that.

How does your background as an attorney help you in your writing career? I envision long yellow legal pads with flourishing pen stokes...

As an attorney who practiced in litigation, I was always multi-tasking with respect to writing. I had to learn to organize my time and efforts because I’d have a memo due to a senior partner, a brief due to the court, a couple of motions to file, and a complaint to draft...all in a week. That has helped me as I write books plus weekly devotions for my website, all while prioritizing the homeschooling side of life. Let me be quick to say, though, that I could do none of it without God’s grace and leading. I’d be a basket case!

You've chosen to write Christian fiction. How important is your faith in your writing?

My faith is everything in my writing. My faith is what makes me, me. My life has been utterly transformed by Jesus Christ and the power of His Word. There’s no way I could not infuse that into my writing. My heart’s desire is that people dig into the Word of God and watch their entire beings be transformed, and my prayer is that my writing would inspire them to start digging.

What has been the response to your non-fiction work, More Christian Than African-American, in general and particularly from African-American readers?

Some African-Americans, based on the title alone, rejected the premise of the book. They did not understand the transforming power of Jesus Christ or the truth that we were never meant to have earthly identities based on the color of our skin. That was the result of slavery. God always intended that our identities be in Him, and when we are born again, we are restored to that original divine plan. The predominant response I received from African-American believers was that the book was eye-opening and life-changing. Still today, I receive e-mails from people who have read it and been greatly encouraged. I’ve received positive feedback from white Christians as well, who said the book helped them to understand better the black experience and also helped them in their Christian walk, because the book was about much more than that identity issue.

I get that. It's like the duality that Dr. W. E. B. DuBois described relative to being Black and American. In fact, I stumbled upon an article you wrote about that book when I googled you to find out more after hearing about your novel, as I always do. That article, "More Than Skin Deep" is what made me reach out to you. I'll provide the link here for those who are interested. It's a powerful examination of the crossroads between faith and racial identity.

That brings me to a final, logical question. What's up next from author Kimberly Cash Tate?

In 2009, ten years from the date the first book was published, a new More Christian than African-American will be released, which will deal solely with the issue of identity. I’ve also completed another novel that may be released later that year.

Keep writing, Kim! I love your energy and enthusiasm. Thanks so much for the interview!

Thank you, Patricia, for this wonderful opportunity!

My pleasure.

You can learn more about Kimberly and her books at her website: http://www.kimberlycashtate.com

Peace & Blessings,
Patricia
Stay focused. Move Forward. Believe.