Love is an Orientation on Kindle

I just found out that my book will be coming out soon on Kindle. InterVarsity Press has heeded the many requests—ask and you shall receive.

Much love.
www.themarinfoundation.org

Review Love Is An Orientation on Amazon

I was told by my publicists that one of the next important steps for my book is for people to start reviewing Love Is An Orientation on my book’s Amazon page (scroll down towards the bottom of the page and click, Create Your Own Review). The first thing that came to my mind was,

Why?

The next thing that came to my mind was,

And who cares anyway?

Since I sometimes have no filter from brain to mouth I immediately asked those two things. And I loved their explanations:

Because your book is so different, many people who don’t know you will assume it’s the same old stuff repackaged with a new name and cover. The easiest and most efficient way for people who don’t know you to start understanding your uniqueness is to read other’s words and thoughts who have already read your book.

That makes total sense to me. So if you’ve read my book, please go to Amazon.com and write a review. There are already 3 people who have done so—and the wonderful thing is that I don’t know any of them!!!

Thanks for the help in spreading the word.

Much love.
http://www.themarinfoundation.org/

My Book is Officially Considered Adult Content

Over the weekend a huge controversy hit the GLBT community. No, not gay marriage. Not the Church or the military or an “outing” of another huge celebrity.

It was Amazon…

Amazon decided to classify certain books as “Adult Content” and then promptly drop them from their bestseller search engines because they felt Adult Content was inappropriate. You can read two short articles about it here and here.

I find this funny because on Friday I noticed that my book had no ranking anymore, and I couldn’t even find it through any of Amazon’s general search engines. I called them and told them about my book and its missing rankings in Gender and Sexuality and Gay and Lesbian Nonfiction. They transferred me around to five different people and the final person just told me that nobody had bought my book in 2 days—since Amazon’s rankings are updated by the hour, two days of no book sales would severely hurt the ranking.

And then I come to find out it’s not about book sales because people were definitely buying it … it’s rather that Love is an Orientation is considered Adult Content! Ouch. Who knew I was writing Christian gay and lesbian porn? (that last comment was a sarcastic...)

:)

Much love.
www.themarinfoundation.org

Love is an Orientation Out Ranks the Kama Sutra!!!

Ever since I was told that my book was on Amazon I checked it’s potential ranking categories to see who is bestselling in those areas…and the Kama Sutra was always the #1 book in the Gender and Sexuality category. Well at least for right now, Love is an Orientation is the #1 book in Gender and Sexuality, the #3 book in Gay and Lesbian Nonfiction and has an overall ranking of 5,209 out of the over 2,000,000 books on Amazon.

I realize that the Amazon rankings don’t define a whole lot in the grand scheme of things as there are many other avenues to buy my book (all of which don’t count towards the Amazon rankings), but for this period in time, the picture above that was captured by the “print screen” function on the computer does indeed mean a whole lot to me.

I pray each day that Love is an Orientation will be able to reach out across boundaries and bridge the divide by peacefully and productively advancing the dialogue to lessen this divisive culture war going on in the GLBT and conservative Christian communities.

Much love.
www.themarinfoundation.org

Picking Up My Books—Part 2

These are 3 short videos of me on Monday March 30th at InterVarsity Press’ distribution center, as I complete orders for Love is an Orientation that were ordered through IVP. The first video is me filling out the shipping order. The second video is me packing and sealing the envelopes. The third video is me and my father-in-law packing the boxes of my book into a van to transport back to The Marin Foundation. Who knows, maybe I packed and shipped your order? Enjoy the experience!







Much love.
www.themarinfoundation.org

Picking Up My Books—Part 1

On Monday March 30th I had the exciting privilege of driving to InterVarsity Press’ headquarters with my father-in-law (in a big van) to pick up the 1,000 Love is an Orientation books that The Marin Foundation ordered....because it's officially released and will be hitting the stores shortly!

Here

Here

Here

You can find the full day's events in pictures (including me with IVP staff, my editor, the designer of the cover, me packaging an order of my book and me signing copies) on my Facebook page.

I can't wait to start to hear what you all think! Feel free to post a review of it on Amazon!

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org

My Book is in the Warehouse

I just got the coolest phone call I’ve ever received:

InterVarsity Press just called to tell me that my book, Love is an Orientation, just got delivered to their distribution warehouse!!!

So for all of you who have pre-ordered it (and thank you so very much for that!!!), it should be arriving some point soon! And this also means that soon it’ll be hitting a Borders and/or Barnes and Noble near you as well!

As soon as I go and pick up my copies, I’ll take some pictures to chronicle the experience and post them on the blog to share in this excitement together.

YEA! We did it, and the time is now!!!

:)

Much love.
http://www.themarinfoundation.org/

The Book Endorsement Process—Part 2

These pictures are of the people endorsing Love is an Orientation:

(Top Row from Left to Right: Scot McKnight, Shane Claiborne and Me and Marko)
(Lower Row from Left to Right: David Roberts from Ex-Gay Watch, Michelle Strombeck and Brian McLaren)
*For more information on what they said, see the previous post

The reason I said my endorsers “took a chance” in the last post was because there were a couple people out there who said no to me by giving me the rationale that it is too controversial of a topic and it will “hurt their brand.” Yes, I had some Christians talk to me about “their brand.” I promised my editor, my wife, my family and myself that I would be gracious while taking about Kingdom work and referencing personal “religious brands”, so all I have to say about “religious brands” is that I am sorry those people didn’t want to step out to face head on the most divisive topic in the Church today with a humbled love, grace and forgiveness—both to ourselves and to the GLBT community.

My experience has shown that throughout the endorsement process there were four types of “no’s” I received:

1. The upfront and gracious “no” that is sincere and heartfelt—usually due to not having the full amount of time to read the manuscript and formulate an all encompassing endorsement.
2. The upfront and gracious “I’ll read it and let you know”, and then with their decision to say no, the endorser contacts the author directly to explain why they decided to say no.
3. The not-so-upfront “no” when the endorser tells the author “yes”, and then at the very last minute send an impersonal “no” to the publisher instead of contacting the author directly.
4. The “I’m too important for you” no, when the person doesn’t respond to the initial inquiry; or even the forth, fifth or tenth inquiry either.

On the very positive flip side, my experience has shown that throughout the endorsement process there were three types of “yes’s” I received:

1. The upfront and gracious “yes” in which the endorser loves the author to death and would do anything they could to help the author in any way, shape or form.
2. The upfront and gracious “I’ll read it and let you know”, and then with their decision to say yes, the endorser contacts the author directly to explain why they decided to say yes.
3. The “Man, that was a long shot—I didn’t even know that person knew I existed” yes, who the manuscript was sent to as a best-case-scenario: they read it, loved it, and then decided it worthwhile enough to throw their name and weight behind it.

I had seven “no’s”, of which the breakdown was:

Three #1s
One #2
One #3
Two #4s

And out of the six “yes’s”, the breakdown was:

Three #1s
Two #2s
One #3s

Here is the unique thing that I have found through my book’s endorsements:

Bridge building between the GLBT community and conservative Christians can happen—and it is happening. Just look at the endorsers: they are both gay and straight; and they are both conservative and progressive—all of which are people who believe in this bridge building vision and want to see this culture war change in the immediate future.

I’m not just talking about an idea; I’m talking about an experiential reality.

Thank you Scot, Shane, Marko, David, Michelle and Brian! Let’s continue to make it happen!

Much love.
http://www.themarinfoundation.org/

The Book Endorsement Process—Part 1

The next phase of the Mysterious Publishing Process that I have recently gone through is the “endorsement” portion of the book—you know, the smarter and more famous people who you go to, to validate you, your work, experiences and thoughts so that other people will know you’re “ok to listen to.”

I totally understand the premise of an endorsement … if a respected person respects your work, it lends much credibility to your words. I’ll tell you two things, give you the first hand look at the endorsements for Love is an Orientation, and then tomorrow in Part 2 I’ll give you what I learned about the process of how people say “yes” or “no” to potential endorsements.

The endorsement process for me was really nerve-wracking. Over the last year or so, yes, I have gotten to know (and even call them friends on a few occasions) with some pretty big name folks. No I’m not going to name drop! But due to the nature of my life’s work and how I both approach and live out God’s call, I think it actually scares a few of them. Throughout my experience over the last year it seems as though some of them like to know me, they like to tell others they know me (which helps me spread the message a great deal!), but then they shy away from making a public statement on my behalf. Why? Because all of a sudden my unique bridge building work surrounding a controversial topic is then thrown on their doorstep as well. And they don’t want to have to answer to anyone on this subject, regardless of how much I’ll always have their back and even answer for them.

I’ve learned that for my book, the whole “have mass amounts of people and all of my friends endorse my book” thing didn’t really pan out like it has for many others. Yet that doesn’t matter to me one ounce because I did have a few very special people who were willing to put themselves out there by articulating their thoughts on peacefully, productively and practically building bridges between the GLBT community and conservative Christians through my book.

Here is the sneak peak at those people who will be endorsing Love is an Orientation, and what they had to say:

Scot McKnight, Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies, North Park University
"Homosexuality is more than a biblical debate about who's right and who's wrong. Everything converges in the pastoral and the personal context, and Andrew Marin--unlike any writer I've seen--deals with real humans in real human contexts. We desperately need this book; it has the potential to shift the evangelical movement in a more compassionate direction."

Shane Claiborne, author, activist, recovering sinner, www.thesimpleway.org
"One of the most important conversations happening in the church. And one of the most divisive. Andrew Marin is a fresh, gracious, innovative voice in the dialogue. For Marin, this is not about a hot-button 'issue'--it is about a face, a friend, a child of God. It is about Jesus, whose love many find hard to grasp because of what they have felt from his followers. Andrew reminds us that, whether conservative or liberal, we can have great ideas and still be mean and self-righteous. And ultimately they will know we are Christians, not by our proof-texting, but by our love."

Michelle Strombeck, Moody Broadcasting Network
"Andrew Marin speaks with a loving, clear voice about an issue that is dividing families, churches and our nation."

Mark Oestreicher, president, Youth Specialties

“The evangelical church, with a few exceptions, has been stuck with three options when it comes to our thinking and action concerning the gay community. Some remain silent because they're fearful and aren't sure what they believe. Others engage in loud and acerbic speech-making, convinced that they must first address 'conclusive' biblical truth on this special sin before any possible conversation could even begin. Still others attempt to adopt a 'love the sinner but hate the sin' perspective that sounds good on paper but seems to play out in reality as distancing from those perceived sinners. Andrew Marin, thankfully, breaks through these three options with the 'Why haven't we been doing this all along?' approach of love and dialogue. Reading this book feels like Marin just called a time-out, and asked us all to sit in a circle and talk turkey."

Brian McLaren, author, speaker and activist (brianmclaren.net)
"One of my mentors once told me, 'The hard thing about being a bridge is that you get walked on from both ends.' Thank God for those big-hearted people willing to be bridges . . . willing to suffer a lot of abuse and misunderstanding in trying to bring others together. Andrew Marin is one of those bridge-people, and he has laid himself across a huge gap to bring together people who need each other."

David Roberts, Editor of the gay organization Ex-Gay Watch www.exgaywatch.com

“This book is unlike any other on the debate of homosexuality in the Church. Andrew establishes a new starting place for us all—a definite “must read.”

Much love.
http://www.themarinfoundation.org/

Reflection of Writing a Book - Part 5

This morning I received the coolest email from my editor—it was my book in a proofed PDF, page-laid-out form. It included the Library of Congress catalog page, dedication page, acknowledgement page…the whole shebang. In fact, Dave (my editor) told me they’re sending it to the printer next week. HOW EXCITING! So here is my final reflection of everything I learned, summed up in a nice little paragraph:

Question: What were the overall lessons I learned most from this process?

I learned that writing is difficult and it takes time, patience and a lot of self-forgiveness. Writing cannot be rushed. It cannot be taken lightly, but it also cannot be take too seriously—hence the self-forgiveness. The thing that stuck out to me most throughout this process was that the moment I started to be nice to myself without constantly beating myself up for not getting x-amount of pages or chapters done in x-amount of time, was also the same moment that the Lord freed my mind to write and clearly think through the edits. And from there the words, pages, chapters and edits started to pour out of me. I finished the totality of what it is to get a book ready for publication in such a short time, not because I was pressured into it because of the quick deadline, but because I had something to say and eventually figured out how to provide myself with the optimal environment for success.

I think that writing isn’t so much about what to say, it’s more so about setting yourself up with the best place and opportunity to say it. For me, writing was an organic expereince; one that became environmental at its core. I knew what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it. I just needed to give myself the proper environment, room and time to be able to do so. And that environement, room and time ended up being formulated by me being nice to myself, forgiving myself, clearing myself from technological distractions and as a great friend of mine Dr. John Fuder says: “Andy, know that you’re writing for Jesus!” As soon as I truly and honestly believed that statement, I was good-to-go! And the rest is now officially, history.

Much love.
www.themarinfoundation.org

Reflection of Writing a Book - Part 4

The editing process sucks. It was the worst thing I’ve had to do in a long, long time! Not only are all of your words, thoughts, experiences, insights and conclusions shredded by your editor, but then you have to somehow refocus on the broader task at hand and try to write it all again more succinctly to what makes clearer sense to the audience. My thought about that:

“I did write it clear to the audience the first time, you’re just not trying to understand what I’m saying.”

Wrong attitude. This just elongated my editing process, and it sure made it more painful.

I had no idea how to edit such a large piece of work. My editor’s suggestions were clear and I agreed with them for the most part, but I had the most difficult time trying to implement any of them because I knew in my head what he took out of the text. And for me in that moment, the only thing that made sense was the original full explanation of whatever I was talking about – not the diced up edited version. In my mind I couldn’t separate my original manuscript from the new edited version. It was too watered down; missing too much meat and substance. As I was going through the edits I kept thinking:

“But this would have made sense if you just kept it how I originally had it!”

Wrong attitude. This just elongated my editing process, and it sure made it more painful.

To seek help I called my editor, friends, family and other people I knew who have written books before. None of them seemed to be able to give me a piece of mind (not their fault, I just wasn’t able to receive any of their advice.) Then my ever intelligent uncle, Michael Dalton, spoke up in conjunction with a few others (mom, dad, wife), and they laid it down for me. They said that it’s my name that ultimately going to be on the book, and I better darn well be happy with every word no matter who says what about the content. “Start from scratch [from my original manuscript] and refine it how you see fit.”

It’s almost as if the huge gorilla sitting on my back jumped off and released me from the paralyzing burden of having to conform to “The Man’s Edits.” (sorry Dave ((he is my editor and he reads this)): it wasn’t you, it was me.) And from that point of realization I was free to take what Dave suggested and carve that into a new, sculpted, and way better version of my original manuscript.

Although I might have felt free, the book writing/editing process didn’t change from my original experience: it was still the most constricting project I’ve ever done. In two, 60-hour periods of time (that is 3 days a piece, or 6 days total, for those who don’t like math), I only slept 3 hours per 60 hours. The crazy part was that I wasn’t even tired! I was so engulfed and immersed, reliving each word and story as I did when I originally wrote them down, that time flew by. An hour seemed like a minute and a day seemed like an hour. But I busted my hump and worked hard; harder than I ever worked before. I thought writing a whole book in 7 weeks was rough … how about editing a whole book in 3? Ouch! And I have to deeply thank the folks who gave me their comments and feedback on the edits:

Peter Marin
Eric Leocadio
Dr. Becky Kuhn
Kristen Sifers
Tim Otto
Dr. Jim Coakley
Brian McLaren
and especially my main man Dave Zimmerman – it’s all good in the hood brotha!

It’s done. It’s totally and utterly done and I can’t wait for you all to read it. So here is my next lesson learned:

Editing sucks. It takes HUGE amounts of time and it needs to be treated with the same respect that was given to the writing process. I totally underestimated the severe levels of difficultly that editing brings.

Please don’t make the same mistake because your life will be terrible for significant periods of time. I hated my life because I hated the editing process. It was too daunting and too overwhelming to squeeze into short periods of time. But I learned and grew a ton; and totally and utterly confident and excited for every word that has become Love Is an Orientation. I do know this much though, I’ll never read another, or look at another book in the same fashion!

One more thought – none of what I said was to ever rip on InterVarsity Press. I love them. I love my editor. I can’t wait to do more with them. They are my family, for real! They made this whole process go as smooth as possible. My reflections are just the internal dialogue and battle I faced within myself throughout this journey. And I can’t wait to share that journey with you through the book.

Much love.
http://www.themarinfoundation.org/

Refelction of Writing a Book - Part 3

I get this question a lot: Where did you write your book?

The first 2 weeks were spent writing at my home during the day. But the problem was that I was so nervous to write even one word because I ultimately knew other people were going to read them. And because of that I paralyzed myself. In order then, to take my mind off of everything I would turn the TV on, I would check my email, I would call people … anything I could do to distract myself from the pressure I felt to have to write a ‘generation changing’ book in 7 weeks. Then one night it was really late I was wide awake and decided to start writing.

I wrote and wrote and wrote from about 10pm-6am and it was just flowing out of me (this also coincided with the condensing of my outlines). I wrote 23 pages that first night and I was ecstatic! I realized that in the middle of the night no one is awake so I can’t call anyone, can’t email anyone, can’t watch any Cubs games on TV; I could just write with no distractions.

That was the most freeing realization I ever had! From that moment on I totally flipped my sleep/writing schedule upside down. I would write until about 6am or so each night, wake up about 4pm, wait for my wife Brenda to come home from work at about 5pm, we would have dinner and then I would kiss her goodbye and go to Chicago’s only 24-hour Starbucks underneath the world famous Chicago's Second City Theater at North Ave. and Wells St. Then from about 6pm until whenever I felt like stopping, I would write in one of those big and comfortable leather chairs that Starbucks has. Peaceful. Productive. Wonderful. My middle-of-the-night Starbucks writing time was just what I needed to escape and get away from everyone and everything for those 5 remaining weeks so I could concentrate without distractions. I thank God for that 24 hour Starbucks. It was quite, no one was ever really there from 1am-5am, everyone kept to themselves and like catching lightning in a bottle, I wrote my entire book in 5 weeks in the middle of the night at a Starbucks.

Knowing what I know now I still believe I had to flip my life schedule in order to get this book done. Not optimal, but essential. But, and this is the gracious big but, I’m looking forward to learning from this experience for book #2. I realized throughout my writing that I need silence, I need to be left alone and I need big chunks of time to write as I am not one of those people who can write a paragraph here and there. But I also know for next time though, I don’t have to flip my life schedule because of everything I learned from this first book. I feel confident enough now, that I can tackle another daunting project like this first one during the day instead of at night. I would like a life and be able to write a book; not just write a book.

Lesson #3: Learn what works best for you in regards to your writing environment and style and stick with it. It might not happen at first, but the more consistent you are the easier it becomes.

Much love.
www.themarinfoundation.org

Reflection of Writing a Book – Part 2

In some of the original meetings with my publisher they asked me: “We want this book published like yesterday, so when, as soon as you can, do you think you can get the manuscript to us?” How was I supposed to answer that question?! I had never written anything like a book before and I had no idea how long it would take. I figured if I stopped absolutely everything I was doing in life and just concentrated on writing, I could finish it pretty quickly. Looking back on it now, that was probably not the best thing to say to an eager publisher! So we set the timeline at 7 weeks and I was at that moment an author – not Andy, not President of The Marin Foundation, not husband, son or friend. I was Mr. Writer.

From the end of May to the beginning of July I did nothing but write. I didn’t hang out with any friends, I didn’t see my wife, I didn’t talk on the phone, I didn’t check my email, I didn’t go to school nor did I do anything related to The Marin Foundation. I went on sabbatical and entirely canceled my life. Knowing what I know now, that was not the best way to handle this situation and I know for the future how to parcel time out better; not just with the writing but also with the negotiations. I found out after we settled on a manuscript deadline that publishers usually give authors about 9 months to write a book. And then the book still doesn’t get published for another 11-14 months after that because of the editing process, making the whole thing take anywhere from 20-24 months. At that point I realized what just happened – from the date I signed my contract to the date my book will be in the bookstores will be 11 months. Less than ½ the time it normally takes! But I look at this all as such a blessing as the Lord has fast-tracked the publication of Love is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation with the Gay Community. He has deemed this the time to do this book for it to make as big as an impact as it can, and so far be it for me to stop or slow any of it down!

Lesson #2:

Make sure you get ample time from your publisher so you are not rushed and are put in the best possible environment to succeed and thrive so you don’t have to quit life. Balance is good. My 7 weeks were not balanced and it wore me out very, very quickly.

Much love.
www.themarinfoundation.org

Reflection of Writing a Book - Part 1

Writing a book is nothing like I ever expected. Many people believe it’s a mysterious process, and I was no different. I didn’t know the first thing about the publishing world or how a book goes from a brain to a bookstore. So I asked! Even as I sat with my editor, my publishing team, my PR team and my sales/marketing team from InterVarsity Press and listened to them tell me the ins-and-outs of how a publishing timeline works, I still had no idea what was going on. It’s very difficult, or maybe just very difficult for me, to wrap my head around each step as integral to the bigger picture. I was just so concerned with the writing that I didn’t really have any time to think about anything else. Anything else that is, until after I turned my manuscript in. And now each day is a new day, and ultimately a new experience, that I have no pre-existing knowledge or experience with.

I’m not one of those people who loves change or a lot of closely compacted new experiences. I love my comfort zone and I’m not a big fan of being in ‘limbo.’ And yet ‘limbo’ is exactly what I’m in with this whole book writing process. It was a daunting enough task for me to sit down, never having written anything over a 25 page paper in my life, realizing I had 200 pages starring me in the face. The Lord showed favor and I ended up writing 420 pages, of which was cut down to 211.

And here we now stand.

I just got back my heavily edited version back (which I’m ok with because I knew it had to be ½ the length) on Friday when I was speaking in Los Angeles. As I read it over I started to get really scared because I was reading 90% of what is going to be my final book. Exciting, yes. But this is not a book that is going to make anyone feel good. It’s not going to make anyone feel better about themselves nor is it a self help book to solve all of the world’s issues. It’s a hard look at the life of the Church and the gay community through the eyes of a straight, evangelical man who has been immersed in the gay community for almost a decade. Not quite the traditional Christian book! Because of that I know there will be a firestorm to follow. Not necessarily a bad one, not necessarily a good one; but one the Lord will use to further His message. And as a fervent supporter of my work, Dr. Randy Dattoli, says “the messenger always gets shot.”

In this case, I am that messenger. But none the less I am that messenger who has to deliver a key component about gay relations and the Church, to teach future generations how to productively handle this ever growing topic. I’ll save that topic for another time, but here I want to reflect on my writing experience now that I am almost completely done. I want to reflect on my writing as a ministry, and the things I learned to not only help myself become more self-aware just in case there is another book in the future, but also to help others in my position of walking blindly into writing a book and not knowing what this experience will be like.

Question #1:

How did I write the book:

Wow was writing the book difficult! To put it in student terms that I myself could understand at that time, it was like I had to write 12, 20-page papers all about the same subject, yet on totally different areas about that subject. That is no joke! Now I never took the writing process as a joke, but I sure wasn’t prepared for it to be so grueling. 12, 14, 16 hour days just sitting in front of a computer screen typing, trying to clearly communicate life, experience, calling and unique lessons learned. I didn’t really think it would be that hard. I mean, how hard could it be to know you have nothing else to do all day, every day, besides write. Boy was I ever wrong on that front. I found it to be a very difficult task to clearly, succinctly map out everything I wanted to say not only in each chapter, but also do the same for the entire book. It’s like there are 12 mini sub-plots that have to be interwoven within the broader plot of the book.

When I started to write I put together 4 different outlines, each with the same base-outline used at its core, but each had a different example, story or plot characteristic I wanted to develop. And for the first couple of weeks I would flip back and forth between each of the 4 outlines and my manuscript as I tried to write the book. After muddling around for a couple weeks not being able to write as clearly or concisely as I wanted to, I ditched the 4 outline model and tried to condense all 4 into one Grand Outline. It took me about 2 full days to do that – 2 days that took a lot of time out of my writing schedule because I only had 7 weeks to write the entire book! But none the less those 2 days were worth their weight in gold! Using my one Grand Outline from that point forward I was able to pump out an average of 20 pages per day for 5 full weeks! And I finished on time!

Lesson #1:

Use one outline, and take whatever time is needed to put that Grand Outline together in as much detail as possible. Each time I started a new chapter I praised the Lord for my extremely detailed (52 pages) outline. If it were not for that Grand Outline I never could have written, let alone kept straight, anything I wanted to say!

Much love.
www.themarinfoundation.org

My Book Cover

Here is my book cover! I know I have already posted it on my Facebook page, but I just put up the picture and I actually have quite an interesting story about how this cover design came about:

I’m not one that has ever been known to be creative in designing things. Well, anything for that matter. Cindy, who is the head of the creative department at InterVarsity Press, called me and asked if I could take a trip out to their headquarters and meet with the design team and talk to them about the potential cover design. As soon as she asked I got sick to my stomach. I didn’t want to do that at all! I told her I would try my hardest to think of something, but in the back of my head I knew it was going to be a feeble effort.

There are some things some people can do, and there are some things that some people can’t. And mine is creative design. I was hoping to just be surprised one day with a sweet looking cover that I loved. I guess that wasn’t going to happen.

So I took a trip out to IVP and met with the design team. I was quite nervous, but as soon as I got there I gave everyone a hug and felt much better. Phew. Hugs do the trick for me! When we sat down in the conference room I blurted out that

“The design thing isn’t my thing so I literally don’t have any ideas of what it should look like.”

I just wanted them to know from the start where I stood so they didn’t expect anything miraculous, you know? But then the craziest thing happened, they all smiled at me and said that was awesome because it gives them more freedom to do their thing. Now that’s what I’m talking about! So Cindy told me to just start emoting …

And if there is one thing I can do really well, it’s emote. I emoted for the next hour as they all just quietly sat there and took notes. I talked about my feelings, what I was trying to communicate with the book, my story, and how I just wanted to give everyone in both communities’ big hugs and let them know there is a hope for a better future. A few of the designers then asked me a couple odd questions (at least I thought they were odd because they didn’t seem to have anything to do with cover design), and I went on another long speech about more of my emotions, feelings and random thoughts.

I almost felt like I was in some type of improve acting class – free association for three hours!

Then we ended with the question, “What don’t you want.”

Well I knew exactly what I didn’t want! And the list included the following:

1. No Rainbows. Everything that I have ever done in the print media has been designed around either rainbows or rainbow flags. Now I totally understand that because it communicates the point very quickly. But seriously, enough is enough. And the last thing I wanted was to stare at more rainbows for all eternity on my book cover. (the links don't show the rainbows, but when they were in print there were a ton!)

2. No black cover.

3. No white cover.

When you walk up and down bookstores and check out the shelves all you see is black or white covers and book spines. Boring! Recently when I was in a bookstore there was a yellow book cover that totally caught my eye, and I picked it up just because it was yellow. I ended up buying that book and actually enjoyed it quite a bit! So the one thing I did want – color. I know, kind of sounds weird when I didn’t want rainbows. I didn’t mind rainbow colors, just not in the form of a rainbow or a flag. Easy enough? (And I wish I had a picture of the book spine – it’s awesome!).

Anyways, after almost 4 hours or so we parted ways and I had no idea what just happened. But a week later this beauty shows up in my inbox! And I LOVE IT! I don’t know how they did it, but they sure did it well. It was pretty funny because when I got it I called Dave (my editor) and said:

“That is the most gangster frikin thing I have ever seen in my life.”

He started cracking up and asked if he could quote me on that one to the rest of the staff. He sure could!

And here we are now with another new and exciting experience in the books for this whole mysterious publishing process.

Much love.

www.themarinfoundation.org