Interview with inspirational author Curran Galway

Welcome, readers. Today’s special guest is Curran Galway. She’s chatting with me about her new inspirational fiction, Ordinary Mystic: Practicing the Presence.

Bio:

Curran Galway lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has a degree in English and Education with a Master of Divinity degree in Transformational Spirituality from Seattle University. Ms. Galway has been a spiritual teacher and transformation coach for fifteen years. She is an inspirational speaker, leading retreats and facilitating workshops focused on awakening the true self and practicing the presence.

Welcome, Curran. Please tell us about your current release.

My novel, Ordinary Mystic: Practicing the Presence was released in August of 2016. It is available at Amazon.com. I write stories of awakening and connection to the divine.

What inspired you to write this book?

I had a profound encounter with God while on a spiritual retreat. I wanted to share my story to inspire others and to awaken my readers to the experience of the divine.

Excerpt from the prologue of Ordinary Mystic: Practicing the Presence:

Bridget McGuire fell in love with God when she was thirty-five years old. Drowning in a sea of diapers and lost in her routine life as mother and wife, she felt invisible until that day in 1980 when she was on a retreat in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California. Caught up in an unexpected encounter with God, Bridget’s life was turned upside down forever.

Her journey of transformation wasn’t easy. The tragedies she endured, a brutal divorce, betrayal, forbidden love, and the agony of death, challenged her to continue to reach deep inside and hold on to the dignity of her own divinity. Her story is about the struggle to live the extraordinary in the ordinary.

What exciting story are you working on next?

I am working on the sequel to my current novel. The title is, Ordinary Mystic: The Gift of Stillness.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

When I was in the 6^th grade, my teacher praised me for a poem I had turned in for homework. She told me I had a talent for writing. I believed her and continued to write poetry and journal for years.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I teach elementary school during the week and am not able to write until the weekends. I try to carve out a block of 2-4 hours to write on Saturdays and Sundays.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I often write in my head while I am taking a power walk. I get many ideas when I walk. I write in my head and then type on a computer later.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I always wanted to be a teacher. My grandmother was a teacher. When I received my Master of Divinity degree I decided to become a spiritual teacher of wisdom.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

Writing is my passion! It is a creative outlet for me. I have tried to use the current spiritual principles in a story form so that readers can see what spirituality looks like in daily life.

Forty-nine percent of the people in the United States (according to the Gallop Poll) have had mystical experiences but were afraid to talk about them. My novel is one of the first to offer readers permission to recognize and honor the mystical experience and feel comfortable sharing their stories.

Thanks for being here today, Curran.