Meg Blaine Corrigan

So I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecution, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong. II Corinthians 12:9-10

These words of the Apostle Paul are my “life verse,” summing up how I survived being raised in an alcoholic home and later being sexually assaulted at gunpoint by a masked stranger. The road from that incident to where I am now has been long and difficult, but it has been by the grace of God that I have not only survived but thrived. My memoir, Then I Am Strong: Moving From My Mother’s Daughter to God’s Child, details several decades of my life, full of many trials but many more blessings.

Following the assault, I ran away with the circus. My second book, Perils of a Polynesian Percussionist, the first novel in a series, is based on the years I spent playing drums for a traveling Hawaiian road show. Marrying beneath my station (a musician!), I ended up in Minnesota playing a different kind of music (before I left him). The second book of the series, due out in fall 2016, gives a clue to what that music was: Perils of a Polka Percussionist. Cover art for both of these books is my original work, with a little help from my grandson, Logan Broich.

God speaks to me sometimes, and in the fall of 2014, He laid it on my heart to write a daily Christian devotional blog. The blog was launched on January 1, 2015, and life as I knew it ceased to exist. God gave me at least one idea for a devotion every single day; some days I had so many ideas, I didn’t know which to pursue. I stayed ahead in my writing most of the year, and in March, followers began asking me to put the blogs into a book. So, on November 1, 2015, I launched my third book, Saints With Slingshots: Daily Devotions for the Slightly Tarnished But Perpetually Forgiven Christian. The book contains 366 entries (one for February 29th, so the devotions can be read any year including leap years), with about eight guest writers. The cover artwork for Saints is also my own.

I have shared my faith story with church and civic groups, mental health professionals, medical personnel, pastors, social workers, and youth and staff at juvenile treatment programs. Next month, I will speak to convicted sex offenders in state correctional facilities.

I turned 69 this year. I should probably slow down, but where would be the fun in that? My writing has opened a whole new world for me. I am blessed to have a wonderful husband, Patrick, who “gets” me. Together we play in our church contemporary music group (he plays bass, and I’m still at the drums). I gained ten pounds with each of my four daughters, which is a total cop-out because one of them is adopted and the other three are step-daughters. They, in turn, have married and given us ten grandchildren. Next month, I will become the great-grandmother of a little girl. Life is good.

For those of you who have read my books, thank you! I hope you found inspiration in what I wrote. Being an author gives one a tiny feeling of immortality: my works will be around after I am gone. If what I have written helps even one person to live life more fully, I will have accomplished my goal.