Laura interviewed Manders with the stipulation that Manders pass on the friendly inquisition to the first five respondents. I made the cut, so now she's interviewing me. Her Q's in bold, my A's not. Duh.



1. For you, what is the hardest part about the writing process?

The actual writing! I'm a pretty dang great "thinking writer." I can outline and plot whole novels in my head and even mentally compose and remember good turns of phrases I'd like to use. But I'm terrible at self-discipline. I have writer's block frequently, by which I mean I'm lazy a lot. I struggle most with doing the work. Writing is work; it's not thinking about writing or coming up with a great story and characters. I can do those latter things really well. Doing those things doesn't make me a writer, though. The physical act of writing does, and at that I am frustratingly inconsistent.



2. How many books by N.T. Wright have you read, anyway?

Hmm, off the top of my head, I think seven: The Original Jesus, The Challenge of Jesus, Who Was Jesus?, Following Jesus, The New Testament and the People of God, Jesus and the Victory of God, For All God's Worth. I think I'm forgetting another of his shorter works, but I can't remember what it is and I'm too lazy to go downstairs and seek it out. In addition, I've watched his video series Jesus: A New Way and listened to his tape series on Romans (both thanks to Michael Asbell). I've got a few of Wright's other books on my shelf, but have yet to dip into them.



3. What is your favorite thing about being a SAHD?

Wow, just one favorite thing? If I'm being honest I'd say the general flexibility. I can wear what I want, eat or drink when I want, take a break when I want. If I'm trying to impress someone I'd say the opportunity to be more intimately involved in the raising of my kids than most other dads. Truly though, there is something very rewarding in being a man caring for, serving, and raising daily two little girls. I used to think it would make me feel less manly to be in a house full of women. But I actually feel more like a man being able to be what a man should be in regards to the honoring and nurturing of my girls (my wife included). It is both a terrifying thing and a blessed thing to know that how my girls see me shapes how they see their heavenly Father.



4. How often do all the Thinklings show up in one place?

All of them? Never. There are Houston-area Thinklings (Bill, Bird, and Blo), and there are Nashville-area Thinklings (Shrode, Asbell, and Kenny). (The odd thing about those distinctions, though, is that only two of the Houston-area Thinklings still live in Houston, and only one of the Nashville guys still lives in Nashville.) The Thinklings sort of formed because I knew both trios, having lived in both places, and smushed them up together via email to discuss theology and books and such. So only the Houston guys know the Houston guys and only the Nashville guys know the Nashville guys. Although I think Bill (Houston) has met Shrode (San Antonio via Nashville), because they both have family in San Antonio and couldn't pass up the opportunity to meet.

We Houston-area Thinklings get together at least once a year, but usually twice a year, for our Ent-Moot.



5. If you could pick anyone to write a fictionalized account of your life, who would it be?

Good question. I think for it to have the quality and style I'd like to see, and given that I can pick anybody, I'd say novelist Philip Roth. He has a way of infusing ordinary lives with pyschological depth and philosophical substance. He could make this ordinary SAHD seem like a classic archetype of ideals and neuroses (which I am, of course ;-).

But I could never trust Roth to represent my faith and personal philosophical convictions with dignity. So, thinking realistically -- and having sampled some of this guy's fiction -- I'd have to select Bill Roberts. He's a darn good writer, and he's one of the few who could write about me from personal knowledge and who would write about me with affection and with an appropriate reverence for my beliefs.

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Your turn, memesters!

The first five people to comment below will be interviewed by me (questions to appear in a future post). The conditions are that you'd have to answer the questions either in a post of your own and that you'd have to then pass on the questioning opportunity to five respondents.