Women Behind the Gospel: Seeing Jesus Through Their Eyes with Author Katie Sampias

My guest today on the Online for Authors podcast is Katie Sampias, author of the book Her Story of Jesus. Katie Sampias is a Christian, wife, mother, who writes about mystery, hope and contemplative prayer. All her life she has loved every aspect of stories – reading them, writing them, imagining them and investigating and researching them.   She grew up in Brisbane, Australia, in a busy household with five children. She was the only girl!   It was not long after she learned to write that she discovered her love of writing stories. At the age of 12, she won a trip to Vanuatu for writing she had submitted to the local paper.   She finished school, went to college, and started working in a field that was not writing, but the desire to write never left her. Her Story of Jesus is her first complete book. It was something that bubbled up from within, and she simply had to finish!   In my book review, I stated Her Story of Jesus is a religious historical fiction by Katie Sampias. Katie uses something she calls investigative imaginative prayer to understand Jesus. In other words, she imagined herself with women mentioned in the Bible and then asked questions like, "How did their encounters change them?" "What would it have been like to have been in that place at that time?" "What were they feeling?" Her imaginings led to this book where the reader gets to be inside a gospel story but from the viewpoint of a lesser-known woman.   From Mary, the mother of Jesus, to her midwife, to the bride at the Cana wedding, to Pilate's wife, and more, we see Jesus from the eyes of these women. We learn their story and how meeting Jesus changed them - and why. I loved this idea and actually have been contemplating my own narrative about Mary but didn't have the words like imaginative prayer or imaginative contemplation.   I think that this is a good book even if you don't see yourself as especially religious. It might open your eyes to what women of another time thought and how they responded when meeting a religious figure. It's an easy read - don't miss it!   Subscribe to Online for Authors to learn about more great books! https://www.youtube.com/@onlineforauthors?sub_confirmation=1   You can follow Author Katie Sampias Website: https://katiesampias.com/ IG: @katiesampiaswrites FB: @Katie Sampias Writes LinkedIn: @Katie Sampias Substack: https://substack.com/@katiesampias Purchase Her Story of Jesus on Amazon: Paperback: https://amzn.to/4grJOEb   Teri M Brown, Author and Podcast Host: https://www.terimbrown.com FB: @TeriMBrownAuthor IG: @terimbrown_author X: @terimbrown1   Want to be a guest on Online for Authors? Send Teri M Brown a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/member/onlineforauthors   #katiesampias #herstoryofjesus #historicalfiction #terimbrownauthor #authorpodcast #onlineforauthors #characterdriven #researchjunkie #awardwinningauthor #podcasthost #podcast #readerpodcast #bookpodcast #writerpodcast #author #books #goodreads #bookclub #fiction #writer #bookreview *As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.