This week I’m hosting Lorraine Beatty with Protecting the Widow’s Heart ((US only) and Kathi Macias with The Singing Quilt (ebook if out of the US). If you want to enter the drawings for the books, please leave a comment on your post with your email address. I will not enter you without an email address (my way to contact you if you win). If you don’t want to leave an email address, another way you can enter is to email me at margaretdaley@gmail.com. The drawings end Sunday (Mar. 16th) evening.
Interview with the heroine from The Singing Quilt by Kathi Macias:
1. Jolissa Montoya, tell me the most interesting thing about you.
I don’t think of myself as interesting at all. I feel very insignificant and often try to stay as invisible as possible. I suppose that’s because my parents died in a car accident when I was a little girl and I went to live with my uncle, who never ceases to tell me how worthless I am and how much trouble I’ve caused him.
2. What do you do for fun?
Very little, actually. My uncle is in a wheelchair now, so I have to do all the housework and cooking, as well as work and take night classes.
3. What do you put off doing because you dread it?
Speaking out loud because I stutter. I am ashamed of the way I sound.
4. What are you afraid of most in life?
Being alone, though I’ve been that way most of my life. And, of course, making a fool of myself in public because of my speech impediment. As a result, I fear failure of any kind and fear trying anything new.
5. What do you want out of life?
My dream is to help others, especially children in poorer neighborhoods who have difficult lives, much as I did. But with my speech impediment, I don’t see how I can ever do that successfully.
6. What is the most important thing to you?
Being loved and accepted, since I haven’t experienced that since my parents died. If I could just feel that myself, I believe I could offer it to others. Recently, however, I have met a wonderful older lady who allows me to call her Abuela (Grandma), and she is teaching me about these things and offering me hope.
7. Do you read? If so, what is your favorite type of book to read?
I haven’t had much time to read in my lifetime, but Abuela is introducing me to the Bible, and also to the life of a woman named Fanny Crosby. She was blind and yet she accomplished so much it makes me think that maybe I can too. I love reading about her!
8. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
Physically, it would be my speech impediment. I would love to speak clearly the way others do. But my heart says the most important thing I would change is to be loved—and know how to love others.
9. Do you have a pet? If so, what is it and why that pet?
No, my tio (uncle) never allowed me to have a pet. He said they were too much trouble, and he already had plenty of trouble taking care of me. But I can still remember a fluffy white cat that I had before my parents died. Her name was Snowball, and I had to give her away when I went to live with Tio.
10. If you could travel back in time, where would you go and why?
Back to the day when my parents left me with a babysitter to go out to dinner. I would beg them not to go because they never came back. I miss them so much, and I long for a family again. Abuela is helping me with that and introducing me to a new family—the family of God. It is the first time I have felt real love or hope since my mother and father died.