Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m an author, podcaster, blogger, preacher, Christian minister, and seminary professor. The past few years, I have been more or less reinventing what all those things mean to me, and how they fit together in my life and work.
Before I am any of those things, however, I was first – and will always be first – a writer. I have written close to forty books, with thirty-one of them published. Most of my published writing explores spiritual themes, including theological textbooks, devotional writing, instructional guides, and a children’s book.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Waiting…Devotions for the Journey was written in the aftermath of my late husband’s death. We discovered that he had stage four metastatic liver cancer with advanced cirrhosis on January 4, 2019. They told us he had anywhere from two to eleven months to live, but in reality, he died exactly twenty-two days later, on January 26. Staying, sitting, watching and waiting was all we could do. One day, while sitting with him in the late stages of his life, I thought a lot about waiting: the pensiveness of spirituality in such periods, and how while we try to make waiting an optimistic experience, it’s a hard one to process. Waiting doesn’t feel optimistic; it feels bleak as we encounter the powerlessness of a situation. We don’t know where we are going or what exactly is going to happen. After he died, writing the book, Waiting…Devotions for the Journey helped me to process what I had experienced emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and the challenge of being a young widow (I was one month past my thirty-seventh birthday when he died) by getting in touch with its complicated process, often coined as the “dark night of the soul.”
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I can’t easily explain the process by which I write. I used to say “I get words,” but sometimes I get ideas and words flow. I like to write in the middle of the night, but I’ll write whenever the mood strikes. I don’t know what I would do without the ability to write. I find that I am not always the best at verbalizing my thoughts or feelings, and writing often becomes an essential conduit for that needed release.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I have been profoundly influenced by philosophical works. One of my college majors was philosophy; I love studying the history of thoughts and ideas. I was deeply influenced by the writings of Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Paulo Friere, Paul Tillich, and Albert Camus. On the more poetic side, I love Kahlil Gibran. His book, The Prophet, was a life-changing read as it was a softer side of spiritual insight.
What are you working on now?
I’ve spent a good part of this year working on a fiction novel. I was getting dressed in the bathroom one day, getting ready to go out, when I had this wild plot for a novel set in modern times, examining modern-day social issues. I’ve done a few short stories, but never attempted a novel from start to finish before. I’m getting close to the end (thankfully!). I am also working on a religious encyclopedia, which is a work I have wanted to do since I was around seventeen years old. I also throw a little poetry in there from time to time, ranging from expressions of emotion to erotica. It is interesting to write at this stage of my life because I am exploring writing that is expressive of me in a different way than just mere belief or doctrinal themes. I’ve often said that before my husband’s death, I had forgotten how to be a person. Through my writing, I am learning to reconnect to myself as an individual.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
I use a few different methods to promote my books. The first is, obviously my website: https://kingdompowernow.org. I also utilize Amazon’s author page, mine is https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Lee-Ann-B-Marino/e/B00J7X49YE/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1. It’s a great tool to share through social media as all my titles can be found in one place. I also use my podcast, Kingdom Now, for a few “author spotlights” every season by which I talk about the inspiration behind how those titles came to be. Kingdom Now can be found anywhere one listens and looks for great podcasts, so check it out!
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Every true writer has an intense and conflicting love affair with writing. Sometimes it seems empty; sometimes it seems cruel; sometimes we are left searching for words; sometimes the depths of its intimacy pour from us. Sometimes we feel ultra connected to our writing; sometimes it feels cold and distant. New authors need to learn to embrace their own unique relationship with writing, its ups and downs, and discover just what it means for them to be a writer. They don’t have to be a writer like me or any other writer they might know and love. They just have to learn how to best express what they have to say using their unique gift of words.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
To say I got the best advice ever from a meme sounds cliche, but I did! I saw a meme quoting Dita von Teese that said, “You can be the ripest, juiciest peach in the world, and there is still going to be somebody who hates peaches.” After so many years of trying to be something that in some ways I wasn’t, coming to a point where I said I couldn’t be that person anymore, and now learning to live again after a huge life change (including interacting, dating, and well, surviving), I am feeling that reality. For some people, some things are never enough. For others, they are exactly what they want. Find those who know it’s just what they are looking for.
What are you reading now?
The Chosen by Chaim Potok. Even though I read this book when I was in sixth grade (I had a memory of asking my homeroom teacher what “dungarees” were), I said I would be interested to read it again and see what I missed. I also never read the other books in the series, The Promise and In the Beginning. I am moving soon and found all three books together, so I said I’d read them. I also know a fellow podcaster and blogger who was raised as an Orthodox Jew, and we’ve had a few conversations about his experiences growing up. I am interested to read the series of novels if for nothing else, a fresh set of eyes on the friendship forged between Reuven and Danny and the challenges they faced from their spiritual communities.
What’s next for you as a writer?
I am aiming to complete my novel by December of this year. I said after that, I need to take some time and work on some “grown up” writing, including updates to some of my existing books and completing some older writing projects. I have started a devotional book, along the same lines as Waiting…Devotions for the Journey, only from a different angle in the experience of grief and loss. Eventually, when I am ready to expose my inner thoughts to the world, I will release my poetry collection. I am most excited, at current, to launch the Kingdom Moments Podcast soon, which features excerpts from some of my published books in short, devotional-style episodes.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
I’d definitely bring the Bible with me, because no matter how many times I go through it, I seem to always find something new about it, especially in things I never noticed before.
I’d probably also cheat and bring The Essential Tillich with me, simply because it is a compiling of the best of Tillich’s writings, so I could have just enough with me to remember the rest! My other accompaniments would be The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir and Dangerous Liaisons by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos for a fiction read impossible to ever find dull.
Author Websites and Profiles
Lee Ann B. Marino Website
Lee Ann B. Marino Amazon Profile
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