WELCOME
To my Blog!
Thank you for joining me on my exciting new author journey as we DISCOVER DESTINY and OVERCOME DARKNESS together!
ABOUT ME
Author Kristi Cain
In many ways I am your typical teacher mom in the Smoky Mountain Foothills of East Tennessee. Except I have a special passion to inspire others with the gift of story. This inspiration hit the day I got a phone call at school that my four-year-old daughter was being taken to the hospital by ambulance.
Yes, there were many dark times after that. But God used that journey as a special calling for me and my entire family. This made me a firm believer that sometimes destiny calls us from the most difficult places in our life and it is only by facing our own dark valleys that our special testimonies can truly shine.
ABOUT MY BOOK
The Key of Shadows
The Key of Shadows is a Left Behind meets A Christmas Carol first book in a supernatural trilogy about a Key with the power to seal or reverse the End Times win. In this Christian fiction novel, teacher Kelcy Clark feels adrift after her daughter’s struggle with a serious illness. But as she walks through a grocery store parking lot, she gets upended when a homeless man knocks her over and draws her into a dark and scary place: the spirit world.
There, the man promises she will discover her true destiny if she helps with a pretty serious problem. Evil forces are planning to steal the Key to the Abyss – which could hand them the end times win. To protect the Key, Kelcy must confront the dark spirit Aechl. But it gets personal when she finds out he’s targeting her daughter and a former student.
To keep from ruining the quest, Kelcy must hide her true identity from Aechl. But Aechl has plenty of secrets of his own. Secrets of a long-forgotten past that threaten to destroy the Key – and the world.
COLLISION POINT
My Stories and My Destiny
Have you ever wondered about your true destiny or calling? All my life, I have dreamed of writing a great novel. Somehow, I’ve always had a knack for turning a phrase. Not singing. Not driving. Not anything remotely athletic. Not even walking around without tripping out of sheer clumsiness. Only writing.
But the problem was, in my younger years, I didn’t think I had anything to write about. I hadn’t found my true calling. My platform. My story.
But God.
One day while I was teaching, I got a call that an ambulance was taking my daughter from pre-K to the hospital. She had just had her first seizure. It would be the first of thousands. Without the slightest warning, she was plunged into a darkness so vast, no amount of medical expertise could pull her out of it. We were suddenly in a world without answers and without hope. A world that was stealing my daughter’s bright spirit away. And we were powerless to stop it.
But God.
Out of our darkest moments of despair, God gave us an answer that only He could provide. And there it was – my calling.
It started small. Little seeds planted in my classroom. Connecting my stories to my students’ stories to the stories of authors we shared. Challenging each other to find hope through all the heartache.
And then it grew. Inspiration hit and before I knew it, the pages of my first novel took shape. And I am here to tell you that sometimes it is only through the dark valleys that our special light of destiny can truly shine.
“KEY” POINTS
The Take Away
In The Key of Shadows, my protagonist, Kelcy Clark is a lot like me. She dreams of writing and her daughter suffered from a devastating seizure disorder. To fulfill her destiny, she must step out of her comfort zone and embark on a harrowing quest in the spirit world. But the lessons she learns there will change her life and affect the fate of the universe.
In many ways, Kelcy’s journey is my journey and her destiny is my destiny. In many ways this story is autobiographical in spite of the many fantastical and supernatural elements.
But at heart, there is a real message about the higher purposes we are all called to and the amazing, incomprehensible kingdom we all have a citizenship in. So today, I want you to reflect on your own special strengths and gifting. What have you always enjoyed the most? What have you always been naturally good at? No matter how silly or small it might seem, I promise there are people out there who can benefit from your gift and who will be inspired by it.
Now, think back to your own painful struggles. Chances are, you’re not alone in that particular hurt. Chances are there are many people out there – many more than you’d ever imagine who know exactly what you’ve been through and exactly how that feels. People longing to heal. People longing for hope.
In the days and weeks to come, I want to challenge you to consider how you might use your special gifting to shine that light into the darkness your neighbors are struggling with today. With God’s help, you may be well on your way to lifting the light of destiny from your own story to help a lost and hurting world.
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Cainspirations by author Kristi Cain 