Hello friends!

My posts to this blog are so infrequent, you could be forgiven for forgetting that you signed up! But now is NOT the time to give up and unsubscribe. I am very excited to announce a book project that has been in the works for over a year.

The idea for the book is much older than that. I may have written the first pages five years ago, and had been writing sketches and notes for years before that.

The title of the book is BLUE GOSPEL. This also has been the source of much deliberation. The original title was ‘The Gospel According to Jeffrey,’ and everyone in my life told me I could not keep it. Some rounds of brainstorming later, I came up with ‘The Gospel in Blue.’ Everyone liked it much better. But it still wasn’t right.

So what does the title mean? I’ve settled on Blue Gospel because of its ambiguity, its tone and mood, and because ‘blue’ whatever has been used often in modern culture and media—Rhapsody in Blue, Blue Monday, Blue Valentine, Blue Christmas, Blue Morning Blue Day, etc.

What’s the book about?

I have invented a name for the genre, although many books already exist in this genre. The genre is my original invention:

Bible Fan Fiction.

My book is a functionalization of the biblical gospel story set in the 20th century and from the perspective of the minor characters in the gospels: the Gerasene demoniac, Mary & Martha, Lazarus, Nicodemus, the Woman Healed of a Flow of Blood, etc. The high priesthood of ancient times is mafia. Several parables of Jesus are reimagined and updated to modern concerns. One example is called “The Parable of the Lesbian and the Christian Nationalist.”

It’s edgy and rough. It’s also fast-paced and it will be recognizable to readers of the biblical gospel, but it is completely redone and original. There are guns, cars, drugs, televisions, and smoke-filled rooms. It really fun.

Two more things:

1) When will it be out? If I end up self-publishing, this summer sometime. If I get a publisher, it will probably be quite some time

2) What happened to the Saragossa Bottling Company? That is up next. I haven’t given up on it. It needs reworking, and the ending needs to be written. But it’s coming!

3) STAY TUNED for a BOOK COVER REVEAL in the next week or so!

Thanks for your interest!