Blog Hop

Today I'm participating in a blog hop with some fellow authors and bloggers. Part of the blog hop involves me answering questions about my recent work.

1. What is the working title of your book?
a. A THUMBNAIL SKETCH OF THE BIBLE STORY

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?
a. As I was going through grad school, I found that a condensed study or introduction for a given subject was always helpful when learning a new subject. Later, while pastoring and teaching small groups for over thirty years, I found many people, when given a Bible, read only a small portion of the Scriptures and then stopped. They felt overwhelmed by the massive amount of material. Also, they listened to a sermon but had no idea where the smaller story fit in the over-arching story of the Bible. During those thirty plus years, various people asked if I could write a short and simple overview. Their request and need was a key stimulator for this writing.

3. What genre does your book fall under?
a. Religion & Spirituality / Christian self-help.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
a. My book does not lend itself to a movie.

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
a. The Bible is just a simple story with smaller episodes linking the larger theme.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
a. Self-published at this time.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your
manuscript?
a. After thirty plus years of teaching the Bible, I wrote a rough draft. Then, I had thirty plus people, some having a considerable amount of church background and some who had little if any, to read the draft and let me know what in the Bible was so confusing to them. Then I rewrote the book, adding some portions and clarifying others that had not been simplified enough.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
a. There are numerous books that give an overview of the Bible. I don’t know of any that includes communicating to the non-churched as this one. Including the non-churched was a major consideration in writing it.

9. Who or What inspired you to write this book?
a. Socrates said, “you can tell more about a person by the questions they ask than the statements they make." Listening to the questions of those I have taught over the years revealed key misunderstandings people have concerning the basic Bible story. My desire was to clear up those misunderstandings.

10. What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
a. In this book, great effort has been given to eliminate any theological jargon and denominational biases. Whether Protestant, Jew, Catholic, or no religious background at all, anyone can be comfortable with this book as being a basic thumbnail sketch of the Bible.