Amber Starfire
Accidental Jesus Freak: One Woman’s Journey from Fundamentalism to Freedom
July 12, 2018
4 PM PDT 5 PM MDT 6 PM CDT 7 PM EDT
I’m happy to introduce my friend and colleague in writing, journaling, and memoir, Amber Starfire. Together with our co-editor Kate Farrell, we published The Times They Were A’Changing, an anthology of life affirming stories from the sixties and seventies, eras that changed all of us. Amber’s story here in her new memoir, Accidental Jesus Freak, takes you deeply into her journey into one aspect of that era–spirituality and how some of us got lost, or at least took a detour from the “regular” world.
Accidental Jesus Freak: One Woman’s Journey from Fundamentalism to Freedom
Accidental Jesus Freak tells one young woman’s story of the Jesus Movement, how she was caught up in it, its effects on her life, and how (and why) she finally left in order to live a life true to herself. In many ways, this is also a love story and a coming-of-age story that many women will recognize as similar to their own. Women can lose themselves in many ways — to men, to children, to religion. Learning to trust and listen to their own hearts can be difficult, but it’s necessary to living an authentic life.
I have wanted to write about this period of my life and about the Jesus Movement in the 70s and 80s — how so many of us got caught up in that religious fervor — for quite a long time. Even while I was still working on my first memoir, Not the Mother I Remember. But before I could write this memoir, I had to do a lot of research about the times and engage in personal exploration about why I made the choices I did as well as what the biggest influences and factors in my life were. I hope my story will resonate with and encourage other women to break out of the bonds that surround them and live a life of free self-expression. That’s not to say that my memoir is only for women. I’ve had a lot of feedback from men as well, that my story was eye-opening for them.
What you will learn:
- Why it’s important for women to write their memoirs
- The risks of writing a potentially controversial memoir
- Challenges and opportunities with writing a second memoir.
- Techniques for transforming vague memories to vivid ones
- Considerations to think about before deciding to publish
Amber Lea Starfire is an author, editor, and creative writing coach who has a passion for helping others tell their stories. She has authored two memoirs—Accidental Jesus Freak: One Woman’s Journey from Fundamentalism to Freedom and Not the Mother I Remember: A Memoir, finalist for both the 2015 Next Generation Indie Book Awards and the 2013-2014 Sarton Women’s Literary Awards. Her nonfiction books include Journaling the Chakras: Eight Weeks to Self-Discovery, and Week by Week: A Year’s Worth of Journaling Prompts & Meditations. Amber is also co-editor of the award-winning anthology, Times They Were A-Changing: Women Remember the ’60s & ’70s, and her creative nonfiction and poetry have appeared in numerous anthologies and literary journals.
Links to purchase the book:
Amazon
Everywhere else
Signed paperback
