Grand Rapids, MI (Christian-PR) Critically acclaimed author Mary DeMuth has written fiction and non-fiction and even helps aspiring writers perfect their craft, but in her new memoir, Thin Places, DeMuth takes on the even greater challenge of sharing her own story. Raised in a broken home, DeMuth lost her biological father when she was ten and was stripped of her innocence growing up in an unstable environment. Repeatedly raped by two neighborhood boys at a young age, DeMuth details her traumatic and sometimes disturbing childhood in her new memoir, Thin Places (Feb. 2010).But Thin Places is about hope and healing more than it is about the traumatic events of DeMuth’s childhood. According to DeMuth, Thin Places are “snatches of time, moments really, when we sense God intersecting our world in tangible, unmistakable ways.” When she encountered the true love of Jesus at a Young Life camp in high school, DeMuth’s life trajectory changed. God reassembled the pieces of her emotionally fragile self, which initiated true healing and peace.
“Folks may wonder why I’ve spent all this time looking back,” says DeMuth, “dredging up what God sees of my story, what my eyes see. Jesus says truth sets people free. This is my way of doing that—of telling the stark truth on the page so others can be set free.”
DeMuth’s desire is to see readers set free from their family secrets. In light of that, she’s provided a place for readers to anonymously share their family secrets. Since the blog launched in February 2009, over 150 survivors have emailed their family secrets for DeMuth to anonymously post. For more information, visit the blog at: http://blog.myfamilysecrets.org/.
Writing is a cathartic experience for DeMuth, and remnants from her past influence her books. They are infused into her nonfiction parenting advice as well as her fictional characters and plots. Her literary fiction features gritty story lines and touches on the dark subject of abuse. Her first novel, Watching the Tree Limbs, featured a 9-year-old girl who was raped by a neighborhood bully, and the Defiance Texas Trilogy examines the emotional pain that results from the disappearance of a young girl in Texas. DeMuth talks about these writing projects in Thin Places. “Writing [Watching the Tree Limbs] is a thin place where I see God’s desire to heal me,” says DeMuth, “and I understand that He loves me no matter what emotions I express.”
About Mary DeMuth
Author and speaker Mary DeMuth helps people turn their trials to triumph. Her books include Ordinary Mom, Extraordinary God, Building the Christian Family You Never Had, Watching the Tree Limbs, Wishing on Dandelions, Authentic Parenting in a Postmodern Culture and the first two books in the Defiance Texas Trilogy: Daisy Chain and A Slow Burn. Mary lives with her husband Patrick and their three children in Texas. Find out more at http://www.marydemuth.com/.
