LONGWOOD, FL-A Southern sharecropper's daughter, Doris R. McCray's life was anything but idyllic. After leaving home at age 15 to live in New York, she was raped numerous times, became a drug and alcohol user, and once contemplated killing a man with a gun. Her life, documented in the autobiographical The Journal of a Southern Girl: The Early Years (paperback, 1-60034-637-5), soon became an emotional roller coaster ride.
"I thought God was punishing me for leaving my mom and siblings," says McCray. "The will to survive prompted me to go back to school and continue to seek peace and happiness." By refusing to let life's trials keep her pinned down, she soon proved to the world that she was a survivor, and she is determined now to show other survivors the way to happiness and freedom from bondage.
McCray says she hopes her book will serve as the impetus for change with those who struggle in secret. Her candid, heart-wrenching account includes all types of struggles that many people can identity with. If more people came out of their shell, they could reach their destiny or purpose in life and help others do the same, she reasons. "One of the most important things you can say about me is that I am tenacious," says McCray. "I am a living testimony to what God can do if you trust Him and if you have somebody out there who is praying for you. If you have the faith of a mustard seed, you too can overcome."
Doris R. McCray resides in Suffolk, Virginia, after living 40 years in Rockland County, New York. She worked in the corporate world for 26 years. She is a widow and mother of a 33-year-old daughter. She has been a born-again Christian since February 1986.
Xulon Press, a part of Salem Communications Corporation, is the world's largest Christian publisher, with more than 3,900 titles published to date. Retailers may order The Journal of a Southern Girl through Ingram Book Company and/or Spring Arbor Book Distributors. Salem Communications is the country's leading Christian communications company with interests in radio, Internet, and magazine publishing.
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2007