Interview with author of Squat, literary fiction about life on the streets

Q: When did you first decide you might like to become a writer?

Not when I was too young. I had some trouble with the alphabet in the first grade. When I was a teenager in Oklahoma, I read a book by a man who would walk twenty-four hours at a time through the streets of New York City, and then he would write about it. I decided I wanted to walk through the streets of a city and write about it too. I haven't walked for twenty-four hours straight yet, but I have tried to see the city at all hours.

Q:What made you decide to write this book? Where did you get your inspirations?

I wrote this book to describe a whole group of people who often get left out as we go about our lives. When I first began to work as a pastor of a church and community ministry in the inner city, I would visit people who lived in abandoned buildings. I wanted to write about their hopes and dreams.

Q: What role do you think religion should play in writing fiction? Do you favor more of an indirect role, or direct role in your style?

I believe that all truth is God's truth. When we write something that is true, we are writing something "religious." Even though I speak directly about what God does in the life of one homeless man in one day, I don't think a "religious" work has to be that specific.


Q: What marketing ideas are you working on? Do you have a website or a blog?

Please check out Squatbook.com for all kinds of videos and other things.

Q: What's your next project?

I have just completed the first draft of a novel about the future, kind of a Brave New World from a faith perspective.

Read a review of Squat, Chapter 1 of the novel, or buy it here.