I was
privileged to invite Ms. Pita for an interview with BooKecCenTric to discuss her latest
book and her inspiration behind it. Enjoy!
******
@Maria Isabel Pita:
Light & Breath (Lucid Dreams &
Spiritual Warfare, Book 3) 2018.
The books in this series are based on real dreams
and events. People and circumstances are fictionalized, but the experiences are
all true to life. Mary's dreams are actual dreams I have had, and the dreams of
other characters in the story were contributed by other lucid dreamers. I was
inspired to write them because it was through lucid dreams that the Holy Spirit
made me a disciple of Christ. I wrote about this in my non-fiction title,
"Lucid Dreams & the Holy Spirit."
2) Who is your target audience, and why do you
think this book will appeal to them?
@MariaIsabelPita:
I don't like to limit myself to any
particular target audience, but if I have to pick one, I would say young women
and even older women. I personally think I would have benefited from reading
this book when I was a teenager or in my twenties or thirties because it would
have helped me better understand the faith I was raised in, but never properly
educated in. I had mainstream ideas of what Jesus said, and what it meant, even
though in my heart I always believed in him.
3) What message do you wish to pass across to your
readers with this book?
@MariaIsabelPita:
I want to do what anyone who loves and
believes in Christ wants to do - spread the Good News! I also want to show how
dreams are important, and we should pay attention to them. They are expressions
of our soul that have much to teach us. In Christianity the dream is one of the
most common ways the Holy Spirit communicates with us. Both the Old and New
Testaments were full of dreams. A Christian woman who had heard about my book
but not read it herself, told me that we should focus on Jesus, not the Holy
Spirit. Yet it was Jesus who gave us the Holy Spirit. Such a dismissively
suspicious attitude toward the workings of the Spirit is a truncated
Christianity, for our faith is in the One Triune God—the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit.
4) What was the hardest thing about writing your
latest book?
@MariaIsabelPita:
Getting anything else done! Seriously,
all three books in this series, which begins with "The Spirit of
Imhotep" flowed from me with an almost effortless joy. I think they had
been building up in me for years and the time was finally write to let them all
out. When I'm writing, I feel connected with my creative soul in a way that is
much like dreaming while awake.
5) As a writer, is there anything you've learned
about yourself while writing this book?
@MariaIsabelPita:
Oh yes! I see no point in writing if
I'm not learning and growing while I write, which is a form of exploring and
experiencing and living.
6) For your own reading, do you prefer ebooks or
traditional paper/hard back books, and why?
@MariaIsabelPita:
eBooks and audio books for the most
part, except special non-fiction books I want to have around just to open and
read sections from.
7) What is your niche genre, and if you were to
write in a different genre, what would it be?
@MariaIsabelPita:
I'm not sure I fall into a niche genre,
but overall it would be Romance, with a capital R because it always revolves
around my love of God, as well as the romance between a man and a woman, and
the romance of life itself with all its mysteries.
8) What books and authors have most influenced you?
@MariaIsabelPita:
C.S. Lewis, Romano Guardini, Gabrielle
Bossis, and many more.
9) Is there anything you'd like readers to know
about you?
@MariaIsabelPita:
Yes. I identify with Mary Magdalen,
because before Christ came to me in my dreams, I was a self-indulgent little
sinner who made the mistake of accepting a publishing deal with an erotic
publisher who said he would print my romance if I added lots of graphic sex to
it. That started me down a dark road of BDSM that makes "Fifty Shades of
Grey" look tame by comparison. I have been as a person, and a writer, made
new.
10) Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal
with bad or good ones?
@MariaIsabelPita:
Oh naturally I read them! It's
wonderful to share my experiences with others and to feel my work through their
minds and hearts. Fortunately, I don't get many negative reviews, but even they
are stimulating, and sometimes give me pointers on how I can become an even
better writer.
What is your preferred method to have readers get
in touch with or follow you (i.e., website, personal blog, Facebook page,
Goodreads, etc.)?
@MariaIsabelPita:
My personal Blog.
Any additional comments you would like to add?
@MariaIsabelPita:
My priest understands that my lucid
dreams are my special charism. In Christian theology, a charism denotes any
good gift that flows from God’s love to humans.
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Maria Isabel Pita was
born in Havana, Cuba. Her family moved to the U.S. when she was eight months
old, and she grew up in Fairfax, Virginia. Reading, writing and history have
been her abiding passions ever since she can remember. In college, she majored
in World History, and minored in English Literature and Cultural
Anthropology. Maria is a member of the International Association For the Study of
Dreams, and a regular contributor to the Lucid Dreaming Experience Magazine.
Website link:
