new book

Where did the summer go? I seriously feel like I missed a big part of it. It seems as though it was just April, I blinked, and now it’s September.

I finally finished the follow-up to Churched. And when I say finally–I mean, my manuscript was due at the end of May. (Yeah, my editor is patient.)

Okay, so we’re still finalizing its title, but I’ll definitely make sure you know what it is as soon as we’ve settled…

Here’s a little about the new book:

Much like Churched, its follow-up is a collection of stories focusing on one particular theme in my life. In Churched, that theme is fundamentalism, and while that’s certainly a thread in this new one too, it’s not the focus. This collection of stories retell my experiences with music: as a church singer, a wannabe Christian popstar, a naive music business major at Belmont, a failed Christian popstar, manager of Jammin Java, and editor of CCM magazine–to name a few.

I can’t remember a time when music wasn’t somehow involved in my life–in big and small ways. As I started to think about stories, music ended up seeming like a natural theme to tell stories about my faith, creativity, loss of innocence, fear, love of God, etc…

Music seemed like the most natural theme to tell some of the parts of my story that didn’t get answered in Churched. Some Churched readers were a bit frustrated because I didn’t write about what happened after I graduated from high school. Not telling the “rest of the story” was purposeful. I feel like it would have been a different book. But not a better one.

But some of those questions get answered in this next one. Not all of them. But some.

However, this book is a bit different from Churched. Not completely. The tone is often similar, but some parts of it are more serious. I’m older in two-thirds of this one, so it deals with older topics and ideas. Honestly, I think some of this new book is way funnier than Churched, but the humor ebbs and flows. In a way, it feels more natural.

I think you’ll like it. I hope you like it. 🙂

This latest writing experience was my first as a father. And I must say it was more difficult than I would have thought it would be. Writing down a piece of your life–at least for me–is an emotional, frustrating, glorious opportunity. But sometimes it requires you to go into a “zone” that feels far away from what everyday life is like. Sometimes it’s a painful or distant place. Sometimes it’s somewhere you’ve never been before or have simply avoided. Prior to Elias being born, Jessica let me “go” to those those places for however long I wanted/needed to go there. Certainly it wasn’t always easy to do, but she understood. Elias doesn’t understand. And so I didn’t even try to “stay” in that place. It was definitely a challenge, one that I was happy to push through. Nonetheless, the stories sometimes trickled out of me because it was difficult going in and out of the zone…

Of course, Elias is my boy, so I don’t mind the extra work… but it wasn’t easy at times… for me or Jessica. But worth it.

I must say: my wife is amazing. She puts up with a lot while writing, and yet Jessica is so patient with me when I’m on deadline. She goes out of her way to help me be as creative as I need to be…

But both of us are looking forward to life being a bit normal for a while. For starters, we’re going to the zoo on Saturday. And I can’t wait. I know… that’s dumb, right?

But true.

🙂

The new book releases on February 16, 2010. More details to come…

As always, thanks for tagging along on my journey.

PS: For those who have asked: the paperback version of Churched releases in June of 2010…

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