The Next Big Thing Blog Hop
Harry Wegley, author of Hide and Seek, an espionage thriller, invited me to the Next Big Thing Blog Hop. He blogged about his debut novel on his blog – http://weatherscribe.blogspot.com/ on Jan. 20. Here’s the link to purchase the book http://www.pelicanbookgroup.com/ec/hide-and-seek-softcover
Terrie Thorpe, author of Footsteps of Jesus, planned to join me,too, but had trouble getting all the connections. Check out her books anyway on Amazon.
Thanks for stopping by.
Today, I'm blogging about my debut teen novel, JOE THE DREAMER: THE CASTLE AND THE CATAPULT http://www.inkfromanearthenvessel.blogspot.com The interview was prepared by THE NEXT BIG THING BLOG HOP.
ADA BROWNELL
• WHAT IS YOUR TITLE OF YOUR BOOK (OR STORY)?
Joe the Dreamer: The Castle and the Catapult
• WHERE DID THE IDEA FOR THE BOOK COME FROM?
I was teaching an after-school and summers program for upper elementary and a few junior high students. During the summer, mornings were spent with devotions, intense Bible memorization, and faith-building teaching. I wrote the curriculum and I decided after a break for lunch and games, we needed relaxing time in the afternoon. But I still wanted to redeem the time. What I needed was a great fiction story full of suspense (a character with a problem) that would also tweak their interest in reading the Bible themselves (the character dropped into the skin of Bible characters in his dreams). I wrote a chapter one day and read it the next. The kids became excited and couldn’t wait for the next installment.
• WHAT GENRE DOES YOUR BOOK FALL UNDER?
Teen/adventure fiction
• WHICH ACTOR WOULD YOU CHOOSE TO PLAY YOUR MAIN CHARACTER IN A MOVIE RENDITION?
Joseph Adam Jonas (when he was younger).
• GIVE A ONE-SENTENCE SYNOPSIS OF YOUR BOOK?
After Joe Baker’s parents mysteriously disappear, he finds himself with a vicious man after him and he wonders if God answers prayer.
• IS BOOK SELF-PUBLISHED OR REPRESENTED BY AN AGENCY?
I went with Amazon’s CreateSpace. My first book, Confessions of a Pentecostal, was published by the Assemblies of God’s Gospel Publishing House. Traditional publishers today seem to want to work with younger writers and I wasn’t getting any younger, so I went with CreateSpace. I also like the royalty offered by CreateSpace, which also published my second book, Swallowed by LIFE: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal. Although I had some frustrations with this last book, when everything finally came together I have been quite satisfied with CreateSpace editors and designers.
• HOW LONG DID IT TAKE YOU TO WRITE THE FIRST DRAFT OF JOE THE DREAMER?
I’ve dabbled with the book off and on for 20 years. Yet, I know I can write fast. Being a newspaper reporter teaches you that. I joined American Christian Fiction Writers’ Novel Track in January 2011 and with a goal of 10,000 words and 7,000 already written, I wrote a historical romance, The Lady Fugitive. In five weeks, I had 80,000 words and the first draft.
• WHAT OTHER BOOKS WOULD YOU COMPARE JOE THE DREAMER TO WITHIN YOUR GENRE?
• Nightmare Academy by Frank Peretti, although my book is not speculative fiction. But it does have lots of suspense and ventures into danger and places the average teen wouldn’t see, such as a mental hospital’s juvenile unit. As a medical reporter, I’ve been in those.
• WHO OR WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO WRITE THIS BOOK? A need for young people to increase their faith and know God.
• WHAT ELSE ABOUT YOUR BOOK MIGHT PIQUE THE READER'S INTEREST?
• Robots, catapults, missing people, brain chips, spiritual conflict. Radicals who want to erase Christianity from the earth and plan to scramble the brains of effective opinion leaders, using Joe’s dad’s computer software knowledge, and using their captives to bomb places where Christians gather.
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