Well, that went by fast.
I’m going to take a break from my typical study/devotion to write a personal note. I haven’t penned one since June, when I mentioned I got a publishing contract to write a book.
Monday night at 7:00 p.m. I finished that book. Yesterday at 3:50 p.m. I completed the last chapter’s edits. I’ve been working on this thing in some form or another since 2004. I know. That’s ridiculous. It took less time to build the Eiffel tower.
In my defense, I had some other stuff to do.
Anyway, according to the contract stipulations, I’ll submit the manuscript to my publisher today.
Never underestimate the psychological power of a deadline, and a signed piece of legal paperwork, to keep a writer moving forward. These five months have been a crash program of working through endless drafts while trying not to disappear from my marriage, my church, and my original call to the Christian life itself. I also managed to take some showers during that time.
The publication date is supposed to be June, 2022.
Well, we’ll see.
The book is about the interior spiritual life of a born again Christian. So I guess it’s a book about me. And you. And how we can make our experience of Jesus even better.
It’s a sequel, a natural follow up to my first book, Solid: An Indestructible Foundation for New Christians. (Yep, check it out on my Amazon author page).
How long is the new book? Let’s put it this way—I’ll probably hear Google swallow hard when I hit the send button. Hopefully you won’t care though, when you’re holding the finished product in your hands, because great books are supposed to be an experience, not a collection of twitter posts.
You can read a bad book really fast, even if it’s Tolstoy thick. That’s because you can skim it and not miss anything. The well-written books are the ones that take the time. They practically defy skimming because there’s too much to miss. The sentences are crafted for maximum impact. The ideas are too provocative to swoosh past.
At any rate, June is on the way…
Bareknuckle Bible 
Well done our brother, God bless you
Thank you, Nora!
That’s awesome, congrats John! Your mentoring over the years on inner life issues have been some of the most impactful for me personally, so super excited to read it and see many of the insights reach a broader audience.
Thanks, Nathan. Back in the day we worked with outlines and spoken messages here and there. But this new book will bring together those principles in a more cohesive package.
Congratulations on crossing the finish line, as well as squeezing a few showers in along the way! 😁
Thanks, Lauri. Guess I’ll have to cut my hair and my fingernails now.
Congratulations on the hard work and follow-through to complete the project! It’s always easy to start something, much harder to finish.
Thanks Jeff. I celebrated by taking a nap (for real). Will probably take tomorrow off.