From company vice president to the mail room – to say that Joe’s life has taken a drastic turn would be an understatement. A vindictive HR manager put him there and is doing everything she can to keep him from even talking to the company present. As his family struggles to adjust to their change in circumstances, Joe struggles to find out what exactly happened. But will he learn who’s responsible for his hardships or will he learn a true life lesson instead?
WHAT LED YOU TO WRITE THE JOB?
My desire to help believers understand Job. It is an arcane and difficult book, and at least one person even told me it scared her, so I was hoping to put it in terms that modern westerners would be more able to grasp. There is an important over-arching message there about suffering and our part in the greater creation, which I hoped to bring out. But, the biblical book is mostly conversation, and I knew I would need something to drive the narrative and keep it from being just a boring treatise, so I infused humor: wit, wordplay, situational and even slapstick where appropriate. I hope that makes it an enjoyable reading experience and will lead readers back for a second or third trip through.
STARTING OUT, WHO WERE THE AUTHORS WHO INSPIRED YOU? WHO INSPIRES YOU NOW?
My first inspiration was A.A. Milne, and that progressed to Robert Benchley, James Thurber, C.S. Lewis, Frederick Buechner, Franz Kafka, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Flannery O’Connor. My current project is a collection of Southern Gothic short stories based on Ecclesiastes, in the school of O’Connor.
HOW DOES YOUR FAITH INFLUENCE YOUR WRITING?
My fiction has all been Scripture-based to this point. I want to bring a bittersweet realization of mystery to my readers, while still offering them some exhortation about their place in the Kingdom of Heaven.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN YOU WANTED TO BE AN AUTHOR?
My first story I wrote in Kindergarten. It was a retelling of the King Kong storyline. In my version the monkey lived.
WHAT DO YOU MOST HOPE THAT READERS GET FROM READING YOUR WORK?
Well, I think I’ve answered this, but to be more general I want it to be an experience that will draw them back into the books again, to mine the deeper symbolism and meaning and gain a greater experience of their relationship with Christ and His bride.