Author Profile Interview
1. Tell us a little about yourself.
My life can be divided into two parts: 1) my fairly innocent childhood as a missionary/preacher's kid, traveling through Europe and Asia, before settling back in Eugene, Oregon; and, 2) my darker and more cynical adult life following my father's adulterous affair and my parents divorce. I approached my own marriage with caution and some fear. Thankfully, by God's grace, I've been married happily for over 15 years. My wife is the most fun, free-spirited person--the perfect balance for me. We have two daughters--ages 11 and 13--who keep us on our toes. They are very likeable, and a little too smart for their own good sometimes. Me? I'm a study in contrasts: wild and crazy, but often too serious; in love with Jesus, but constantly wrestling with organized religion; a reader/writer/chessplayer who also loves basketball, hiking, and cliff-diving (when I can work up the nerve).
2. How did you become a novelist, and did you always want to write?
Since reading C.S. Lewis as a kid, I've wanted to be a writer. I started reading books on writing, and I finished a full-length novel while in high school. No, it wasn't very good, but it proved to me that I could do it. After getting some nonfiction published while in college, I went for a decade with very little writing. I was a newlywed, and then a father. A couple years back, though, my wife encouraged me to pursue my dream. She worked extra hours to let me have some free writing time. I received numerous rejections, which I now wear as battle scars, before an agent discovered my writing through my reviews on Amazon. Who would've guessed it? Nine months later I was signing a two-book deal with WaterBrook Press, a division of Random House. It was the fulfillment of that childhood dream.
3. What do you think is significant about Christian fiction?
I don't like categorizing fiction as Christian or otherwise. Partly, I think this alienates it from the very audience I'd like to reach. I also think it creates a laziness on the part of readers, in which we don't feel the need to use discernment in the way we would reading something "secular." Some of the most Christian-themed novels I've read were not in Christian bookstores. Just because a book is morally clean does not mean it's Christian. Mormons publish good clean fiction too. My hope is that we will publish more quality fiction, with a redemptive message based on Jesus' truth, and that it'll carry beyond the narrow confines of the "inspirational" aisle in Barnes and Noble.
4. How do you hope your readers react to the stories you write?
I try to write stories that "explore earth's tension between heaven and hell." I want to challenge our ideas of the natural versus the supernatural. Jesus crossed that divide to reach us, but we hide behind so many philosophies and regulations and slogans that we often miss his presence among us. Nonbelievers are turned off by this. I want to reach those on the fringes of faiths--those who have believed but struggled deeply, and those who'd like to believe but would never walk through the doors of a church.
5. What responses to your novels have affected you the most and why?
I've been blown away by the age range of readers, ages 12-84. Writers receive very little feedback--as opposed to a musician who gets instant response when they play their music. For this reason, I savor each email. I consider carefully the ones with criticisms. And, naturally, I cling tightly to the positive responses. One non-believing reader told me, "I don't like things that are preachy. This wasn't preachy, but it did make me think about my relationship with God more than I have in a few years." Wow! That's the work of the Holy Spirit in a person's heart. That's the type of thing I love to hear.
6. How has being a novelist impacted your relationship with Christ?
More accurately, I would say that my relationship with Christ has impacted my efforts as a novelist. Without Jesus, I would be angry, confused, cynical, and without hope. With Jesus, I'm still often confused and cynical, but I have hope. I have faith. I have his love. These are things I can bring to a novel that I wouldn't otherwise. Of course, once my name is printed on the cover of a book, it leads me toward greater accountability in how I live out my life for Jesus.
7. Other than writing great novels, what other goals do you have for your life?
I've had a lifelong desire to see nonbelievers discover the love and forgiveness of Jesus. I would love to foster this through the arts, specifically, through an artist retreat/workshop which would train and mentor others in all aspects of God's creativity--music, writing, art, dance, etc.
8. What do you like to do in your spare time?
I spend my free time playing games with my kids, going on dates with my wife, reading and writing, playing basketball, and drinking espresso drinks with a writer-friend of mine while mulling over our spiritual walks with the Lord.
9. What can you tell us about your latest novels?
My most recent novel, Expiration Date, deals with God's sovereignty versus our free will. When the main character begins feeling numbers on the skin of those he touches, he discovers the numbers are their expiration dates, the dates on which they will die. Can he change the future? Or are these dates set in stone? And, even more provocatively, does our free will also mess up Satan's plan?
10. What stories can your fans expect from you in the days ahead?
I'm still finishing my exploration of the five senses, which started with sight (Dark to Mortal Eyes) and touch (Expiration Date). My newest novel, still in progress, deals with taste. The story begins with an overweight woman who receives a cell phone call while dining at a Chinese buffet. The caller tells her that gluttons will burn in hell, and she must get out of her seat, go out the front door, and start jogging. "Don't stop until I call back," he says. "I'm doing you a favor. Saving your soul." After he disconnects, she is stunned and nervous. What should she do? The phone rings again and he says, "You took too long. Now something must burn!" In that instant, the buffet catches on fire, unleashing havoc in the restaurant--and unleashing a torrent of deadly and increasingly personal threats in the woman's life. Only as she faces her past and becomes a "wounded healer," will she be able to escape her attacker and the secrets that have forced them together.
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