BUT FIRST, A WORD FROM OUR BLOGGER:
You know a great character actor by your feelings about her during the dramatic presentation. If she's the antagonist, and doing her job well, the distinction between actor and character becomes blurred, causing the audience to accept the dramatic conflict as real, and to dislike the actor as the character she plays. Printed literature demonstrates a similar phenomenon, when the reader becomes so invested in the characters that he truly empathizes with them, feeling both their pain and their joy, and possibly even disliking the work for the emotional upheaval he experiences with them. A Slow Burn does exactly that to the reader. Emory Chance is a woman who has never known unconditional love, and in fact, just the opposite. Beginning with her mother, every relationship she has experienced—with the notable exception of her recently murdered daughter Daisy—shoves down her throat the message that she is despicable, hardly worthy of the oxygen she breathes. And of course, when one believes she is a nothing, that is the way she lives. With Emory seemingly on a quest to destroy every friendly attempt at building her up, and the friends who try, she desperately tries to numb her pain with pot, pills and beer. I would have to say I hate gritty stories of southern racism, bigotry and hatred in all forms. Yet, once I get into them, and have to deal with the ugly truth of The Human Condition, the redemptive process that follows rings so true and beautiful that I end the book rejoicing in God's love. Mary E. DeMuth's novel of harsh, human reality both hurts and heals the reader right along with the authentic characters she created for the gray world of Defiance, Texas.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Mary E. DeMuth is an expert in Pioneer Parenting. She enables Christian parents to navigate our changing culture when their families left no good faith examples to follow. Her parenting books include Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture (Harvest House, 2007), Building the Christian Family You Never Had (WaterBrook, 2006), and Ordinary Mom, Extraordinary God (Harvest House, 2005).
Mary also inspires people to face their trials through her real-to-life novels, Watching The Tree Limbs
(nominated for a Christy Award) and Wishing On Dandelions (NavPress, 2006).
Mary has spoken at Mount Hermon Christian Writers Conference, the ACFW Conference, the Colorado Christian Writers Conference, and at various churches and church planting ministries. She's also taught in Germany, Austria, Monaco, Italy, France, and the United States. Mary and her husband, Patrick, reside in Texas with their three children. They recently returned from breaking new spiritual ground in Southern France, and planting a church.
ABOUT THE BOOK
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.
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If you would like to read the first chapter of A Slow Burn, go HERE
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