Our guest this week on The Story behind the Story is Chris Loehmer Kincaid. She shares an interesting story behind her book, Where the Sky Meets the Sand. Before we get to that, here’s a little bit about the book.

An American businesswoman with a secret past. An African boy without a home. Two missionaries with more than one mission to accomplish. Will all of their wishes come true where the sky meets the sand on the African plain?

That’s intriguing. What led you to write the book?

One January night a few years before I wrote this book, I had a dream about a young boy living in the bush of Kenya. That dream would become the opening scene of this book.

The first time I traveled to Africa was on a mission trip with my daughter in 2006. Neither one of us ever imagined we would return. Yet, in 2010, my daughter, trying to find her role in life, volunteered in Kenya for six months, traveling throughout the country and working in a variety of capacities. It was while she was gone, that Kenya resurfaced in my mind and I started writing a memoir of our first trip. It was also during that time that I dreamed about Ole.

I returned to Kenya in 2013 with my daughter, and it was during that trip that we started founding our own nonprofit organization, Tumaini Volunteers. Our mission is to provide sustainable food sources to communities living in poverty. My third trip to Africa in the fall of 2015 was the first volunteer trip on behalf of Tumaini Volunteers. As this book was in in the process of being published, I traveled to Kenya for the fourth time.

In my travels, I’ve been to the magnificent Rift Valley and have met various Maasai people living there. The adults have all been gracious and hospitable, and the children ridiculously friendly. Research for this book wasn’t on my mind during those visits, however. I had been there for other reasons. But those fascinating people were ingrained in my heart and my head.

Wow! Thanks for sharing that, Chris.

Chris Loehmer Kincaid, salutatorian of her high school class, attended the University of Wisconsin majoring in Mass Communications, where she received an associate degree. She moved to Colorado where she graduated from the Colorado College of Medical and Dental Careers. She has worked in health care as a certified medical assistant for over thirty years, the last nineteen years in family practice. A long-time member of the American Association of Medical Assistants and the Wisconsin Society of Medical Assistants, she served as president of the state organization in 2004.

Her entire life, however, she has wanted to write. In 2010, at her daughter’s bidding, she started her own blog, The Dino Chronicles. It was through this blog that she first started writing about her mission trip to Africa in 2006.

Her memoir of that first trip to Kenya, “A Time for Every Purpose Under Heaven,” was published in 2013. Since then she has also published two devotionals, “The Christmas Story in 40 Days” and “The Early Life of Jesus in 40 Days.” Her first novel, “Where the Sky Meets the Sand,” was inspired by people and places from her travels to Kenya. She is working on publishing her second novel, “The Truth Beyond the River”.

She lives in northern Wisconsin with her husband, two cats and one dog. In 2013, she and her daughter started a nonprofit organization, Tumaini Volunteers, to help provide sustainably to those living in poverty in Kenya. She has traveled to Kenya five times since 2006 and looks forward to the next trip.

Her website – http://www.chrisloehmerkincaid.com/about.html

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/ChrisLoehmerKincaid/

Twitter – https://twitter.com/CLoehmerKincaid

LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-kincaid-92b21347/

Blogs, “The Dino Chronicles” –   http://chrisloehmer.blogspot.com/

and “writing what I can when I can” – http://writingwhaticanwhenican.blogspot.com/

Chris is giving away a signed copy of Where the Sky Meets the Sand. To enter, just follow the directions below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Thanks so much for joining us!