For several years the question was stubbornly clinging to my subconscious psyche. It was far enough below the surface that I didn’t obsess over it, but close enough that I couldn’t forget. “I wonder if I could write a novel?” For 20 years I worked on creative teams in churches helping to write full-length dramas…

I began to write stories when I was in grade school, just for my own entertainment. The earliest I remember was in the sixth grade. I wrote that one on a stenographer’s pad-one chapter per page. I remember being disappointed that when I typed it, it didn’t fill a whole page. I continued writing, off…