Using Robots to Define the Genre of Imaginary Jesus

It's a comedy.  It's a novel.  It's theology.  It's fiction. It's autobiographical.  What possible genre could this be? Let's turn to Amazon.com's rating system to discover what they think.
First, an overview of the three categories that Amazon thinks that IJ fits into:


Good.  Okay.  So our comedy theology novel falls into Science Fiction Adventure (no doubt because our hero chases Jesus through "time and space"), Religious Fiction (no doubt because it has Jesus in it and is fiction), and in Single Women's Fiction (no doubt because the chicks dig me).  Hmm.  Let's see what sort of books that puts Imaginary Jesus up against.
In the category of Sci-Fi adventure:



Yes, this, strangely, makes sense.  Notice the similarity in strange headgear between the jedi and the Jesus.  But since I have every intention of destroying the Star Wars novel which is more highly ranked than I does that mean I am... a Sith?  Brrrr.  Stay tuned to find out!
Now, let's look at Single Women's Fiction:



Again, this is an oddly appropriate place for my book.  "Misery Loves Cabernet" references wine in the title, and there is communion wine in Imaginary Jesus.  And the title below "We Interrupt This Date" infers a breakup. And Imaginary Jesus includes the story of one of the most hilarious and unbelievable break ups of all time.  It is a 7.8 on the John Cusack scale of break ups.  I think a single woman might enjoy hearing about my heart being crushed.  It's a beautiful moment.
Now, let's look at religious fiction:



Ah, C.S. Lewis.  Allow me to take a moment to say IN YOUR FACE, C.S. LEWIS! Imaginary Jesus is totally rocking The Screwtape Letters.  Oh, I know that you wrote your book 40 years ago and it's still selling ALMOST AS WELL as Imaginary Jesus, but I think it's time for you to acknowledge that victory is totally mine for at least 40 minutes until Amazon refreshes the ranking on their books!  In other news, I'm a big fan.  If we are allowed to do this in Heaven I will be asking for your autograph.  If there are pens.  And paper.  Also books.  I'm pretty sure there are at least scrolls, so I might just have you sign a scroll if you're cool with that.

And that, my Imaginary Friends, brings us to the end of this wonderful discussion of how the Amazon Robots have determined the genre of my Religious Single Women's Science-Fiction Adventure Novel!

Please feel free to add your own suggestions for possible genre inclusion in the comments!

Meeting George Barna

Imaginary Jesus is published by Barna Books, which is an imprint of Tyndale House Publishers.  A lot of people wonder what that means, and how involved George Barna was in the book, whether I know him, did I really meet him in Portland (like in the book), et cetera, et cetera.

Above is a picture of me and George Barna when we met for lunch a few months ago. I know what you are thinking: "IS THAT A BABY'S HEAD IN THE LOWER RIGHT HAND CORNER OF THE PICTURE?"

Set your mind at ease. That is, indeed, a baby's head.  But the baby was only sleeping.  I was holding her.  The baby is fine.  I know, some of you who dislike George Barna think maybe something terrible happened to the baby.  Maybe it fainted, something like that.  But no.  The baby simply fell into a sweet slumber.

Here's how it came about that I met George Barna.  My agent sent my book to Tyndale.  The editors at Tyndale talked to George's agent.  She talked to George.  Then we all talked to each other.  And then, later, it became a Barna book.  I could go into more detail, but really that's pretty much how it happened.  You can see some of George's thoughts about the whole thing.

The Barna Group then did some research based on themes from Imaginary Jesus, specifically looking at whether Americans think they are connected to God, and do they believe that he speaks to them in a personal way, and what people believe about God interacting with them during times of pain.  You can read an article summarizing parts of that research here.

Anyway, this all culminated in a lovely lunch together with George in southern California at a really great fish and chips place.  George even bought our lunch (thanks, George!), which makes him immediately a great guy to my way of thinking.  We had a fascinating conversation about our relationships with Jesus, talked about books, culture, the church and what to do when there is controversy around your writing or ministry.  George had wise advice and insights and I really enjoyed the conversation.

As for the questions at the beginning of this post, George and I do, indeed, know each other.  We have not (yet) met in Portland.  And George and I met after the book was already written, though I did incorporate some of his research into the book by the time the final draft rolled around.  But I was certainly the author.

All that to say, I think it is another of the Lord's blessings to Krista and me that this book has allowed us to cross paths with George.  Now you may ask questions in the comments and I will answer them.  Because I can't help myself and I just keep talking all the time. 

Thanks for your kind attention, Imaginary Friends.

Life Outside the Box: Jamie Carie, author of "Angel's Den"

Jamie Carie is the author of Angel's Den, and she lives in Indianapolis with her husband and three sons, like some weird mirror of the Mikalatos family with our one wife and three daughters here in Portland.  Check out her website or her blog here.  I'm glad to have Jamie writing our first installment of Life Outside the Box.  Thanks, Jamie!

In the genre I write, historical romance, there is an element of formulaic plotting that is expected by the reader. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl encounter obstacles on the road to love, obstacles get resolved and boy and girl live happily ever after. There is an emotional payoff here that brings the reader (and me!) back again and again. That being said, it is vital to find "outside-the-box" ways of keeping this formula fresh and engaging. In my latest book, Angel's Den, we have the story of a woman who marries her dream man only to find out shortly after the wedding that he is nothing like his handsome outer façade. She has married an evil monster and in 1809, she is trapped. As the abuse escalates she begins to lose hope that she will survive it. Enter the hero - a rough around the edges man of God who falls in love with a married woman and wants nothing more than to rescue her. At this point it would have been easy for the formula to take over and allow Luke to rescue Emma and her husband to die somewhere on the trail (they are following the Lewis and Clark trail) leaving the way open for their HEA (happily ever after). But that's too predictable! What I do at this point is pray, "Lord, how are You going to rescue Emma? If this was really happening to one of your children, and this scenario we've built was real back then, what kind of miracle would You do for Emma?"
Well, I don't want to give away my ending but let's just say when I pray these prayers for my characters God always gives me something "outside the box" and thrilling, beyond what my imagination could dream up! It's one of my favorite parts of being a writer. And if I sound a little crazy, praying for my characters as if they were real people, well, that's one of my favorite parts of being a writer too.
Here's a fan email I recently received for Angel's Den that illustrates my point:

"I have just finished reading Angel's Den. I can tell you I suspected that Eric Montclaire was good looking, but up to no good the first time I met him on page 7. BUT I would have never expected the outcome of the book. Page 45 brought Mr. Luke Bowen into the picture and sure there was chemistry and then I had the plot all figured out:

The triangle would head off into the Pacific Northwest following the footsteps of Lewis and Clark. Then some sort of fatality would overcome Mr. Montclaire. Luke and Emma would build a life in the Northwest and live happily ever after.

Boy, was I mistaken. The events that happened really kept my eyes glued to the end of this book. There were lots of twists and turns that I did not expect." Norma B.

I picture God knowing every story that has ever happened in all creation. It is such an amazing gift when He whispers some of them into my heart and then I get to tell of His amazing love, His awesome creativity, His plan of salvation for each of our stories, to you.

Life Outside the Box

Krista and I have a running joke that while some people "Think outside the box", I "live outside the box."  If I need to tell someone inside the box one of my ideas, I have to hunker down next to the box and stick my head inside so they can hear me.  I've never been a fan of boxes (unless they are boxes of comic books).
Starting tomorrow I'm introducing one of the new features here at Imaginary Blog, called "Life Outside the Box."  As part of Life Outside the Box I'll be inviting artists, writers, musicians and others to participate by writing a blog post about something they've done that's outside the box, that breaks barriers, that moves into new territory.

This should be a pretty eclectic mix of people and topics.  For instance, tomorrow, for the first Life Outside the Box, we'll have a Christian romance novelist sharing about her latest book.  Now, I don't know anything about Christian romance novels.  But I'm interested to see what our guest tomorrow has to say about Christian romance and doing something unique in that genre.

So, tune in tomorrow for the first installment of LOTB.  If you have an idea for someone who should be featured in the future, drop me a line and I'll see if I can get ahold of them.

Collette

I had this friend named Collette.  I met her in a creative writing class at my junior college.  As I recall she had written a story which turned out to be a thinly veiled story about herself, in which the main character was dealing with some conflict with her husband.  I mentioned in the feedback that the story was frightening, to see such a clear example of spousal abuse, and she came and talked to me afterward, to ask if I really thought what she had written about constituted abuse.  I told her I thought it did, and in some mysterious way this caused us to become friends.
That's my first memory of Collette. Over the years we kept in touch occasionally.  Krista and I both briefly worked at the same school as Collette.  She got our newsletter, and she and I would send notes back and forth on Facebook.  She sent me theological questions every once in a while, and made funny comments on my profile about as often.  A few years ago I visited her at her house, and hung out with her and her kids.

Collette was a sweet, loving, patient woman, with a lot of ability to endure difficult things without realizing they were difficult.  She wrestled with tough questions, but with an underlying certainty of God's goodness.  She was friendly, and pleasant, and kind.  She had a sincere faith in Jesus Christ, and spoke about him often and with great affection. I considered her a friend, and I like to think she considered me a friend, too.

And that's about all I can share here about Collette.  This last Monday Collette decided for some reason I cannot fathom that it would be best if she took her own life.

How I feel about this is complex.  I think it's safe to say that the first thing I feel is regret.  I wish she had called me and I had been able to talk to her about whatever it was that made her think this was a good idea.  I wish I had known her better, had been a close enough friend that she would have even thought about calling me.  I was in her town the day she did it.  I wish I had thought, somehow, to call her.  I wish it had crossed my mind.

Related to that, and intertwined with it, is the sadness and a sense of loss.  When someone is gone, there's a realization that I can't call her now.  I left a note on her wall on facebook, but that's more for me than for her. She's not checking her messages anymore.  Or, well, I don't really know how that works. But there's this moment in the feelings of loss where I just want to go back and remember every insignificant conversation we ever had.  I want to re-read our dumb facebook notes to each other.  I want to double check her theological questions and see if I missed a warning sign. I want to make sure to remember every last thing I knew about her, because that's all that's left of her, for me.

And then there's this next-to-last feeling that I'm not sure how to express because it seems wrong to say.  I know it's normal and even expected, but I am really angry at Collette, too.  Killing herself was selfish, pretty much the most self-involved thing she could have done.  It doesn't change that I liked her, or that she was a great person, but I just don't understand how she left her kids behind, and left all of us behind without a goodbye and without asking for our help.  Or maybe she did, and I wasn't close enough to be in that circle. 

The last thing, Collette, is that I'm glad you're beyond this now.  What I mean is, I know you're in the arms of Jesus, and even now he's wiping the tears from your eyes and showing you that all those years you spent broken and worried and hurt and abused and crushed and uncertain of your own value, that all those things are a million years behind you and you are in a place where you can experience (at last) perfect love and see yourself the way our Creator sees you.  I'm very, very thankful for that.  I wish you could have found a big enough piece of that here, but I'm glad you're in the arms of our savior now. So. Rest in peace, my friend.  I will pray for your children and family, and I hope to see you well and whole when next we meet.

Your friend,

Matt

A Writing Nemesis

I am working on finding a suitable writing nemesis. Someone I can battle in the world of writing. Right now I am experimenting with Spanish C.S. Lewis. I made it my goal to outsell one of his books, like the one below, "El Leon, La Bruja y El Ropero."  If my dropout Spanish is correct this is his very famous book, "The Lion, the Fight and the Clothing."  Ha ha ha!  So I have humiliated you at last, Spanish C.S. Lewis! Espero que no empiecen a llorar como un grifo de agua poco!

I await your reply, O Nemesis de Writing!