What a year!  Two and a half months of normality then lockdown struck. How fortunate I was to have Linda, a beautiful flat, wonderful communal gardens and cafés and shops in easy reach.  Here’s how it affected my writing.

HAS THE CHURCH GOT A FUTURE?  Being Credible in the Post-Modern World

By the beginning of the year I had almost finished the first two sections of ‘Has the Church Got a Future?’  These were: 1 a brisk canter through 2,000 years of church history, looking at the societies it lived amongst and what the key questions were to which Christianity could make a viable response;  2.  The last twenty years, describing every major change in politics, science and culture which has effectively created a totally new civilisation.  I was hoping to have it put before publishers at the London Book Fair, but that was an early victim of the coronavirus.  I carried on writing Section 2, including sections on synthetic biology, mindfulness, economics and health. After Easter I felt that the pandemic might well change the whole scene, so I paused it.

DISCOVERING PSALMS AS PRAYER 

At the start of the year I produced a new edition of ‘Discovering Psalms’, with a much more interesting chapter on ‘Who Wrote What When’. More importantly, I produced a short section at the back setting out all the daily prayers in one place.  It hasn’t made any more sales so far, but I personally find it very helpful, particularly in the evenings.

MAKING SENSE OF THE BIBLE IN 40 BLOGS

In June I decided to start work on a book I had been building up to over the last two years, based on my weekly or monthly blogs on making sense of the gospels, Paul, the prophets etc.  I had already had written about 30 blogs on the Bible, but knew I had to  do some more, particularly on the Old Testament.  So I wrote five blogs about Genesis on my laptop, sitting in the sunshine in the communal gardens.  That’s when I started blogging each week.  However, I realised that this was a bigger task than I had originally thought, so decided to extract the nine blogs I had produced for Holy Week 2018 and make a new book in time for Holy Week 2021.  (I also aim to continue with the Old Testament blogs in 2021).

However, I believe God had other ideas.

THE TROUBLEMAKER

Driving back from Devon with Linda on Monday 21st September at about 3.00, I was casually thinking about the new book on Holy Week when a sentence popped into my mind:  ‘It was hot in the Jordan valley’.  Immediately I realised that this was how my new book was to start.  And that it was not to be a bible study, but a historical novel.  Three days later, working on it over a pint of Guinness in a local pub the title popped  up; ‘The Troublemaker’.  There followed three months of intense writing during weekday mornings.  What I did not realise was how much research I would have to do.  Novels are much more demanding than fact-based writing.  Where the gospels differ you have to choose which story to follow.  You have to be precise about location and time, and fill in the gaps in the gospel narratives as authentically as possible.  An invaluable resource has been ‘The Temple’ by Edersheim (1874), and of course Wikipedia.  It has been great fun writing it, not least in taking the words of Jesus (or Yeshua) and re-imagining them as if I were writing a film script in modern speech.   I finished it on 29th December, the last thing being the Preface, or ‘Information for Visitors from Mars’.

Miraculously, I discovered that my nephew’s wife Jo did editing as a sideline, so she has edited the book magnificently – anyone who wants an editor, email me.  My book designer, Clare, is three-quarters of the way to designing the book ready for printing and is doing an amazing job.  My friend Nat, a Graphic Designer, has produced what I can only describe as a stonking cover.  To say I am excited would be an understatement.

Possible publication date:  Monday 1st March!

LOOKING AHEAD

My next task is marketing.  Emailing the great and the good hoping for nice comments to put in publicity.  And working through the 700 page book my son Peter astutely gave me for Christmas:  ‘Social Media Marketing for Dummies’.

Happy New Year!

Andy