{"id":10274,"date":"2013-09-09T21:37:33","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T21:37:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharefaithblog.wpengine.com\/?p=10274"},"modified":"2017-10-26T18:23:18","modified_gmt":"2017-10-27T01:23:18","slug":"interview-trevin-wax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sharefaith.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/interview-trevin-wax\/","title":{"rendered":"Clear Winter Nights: A Journey into Truth, Doubt, and What Comes After"},"content":{"rendered":"

We got the opportunity to chat with Trevin Wax, managing editor of The Gospel Project, blogger for the Gospel Coalition, and book author. Trevin has a brand new book “Clear Winter Nights” coming out September 17th. Trevin discusses his inspiration in writing this “Theology in Story” fiction novel, the excitement of writing fiction and, who can benefit from reading Clear Winter Nights.\u00a0
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Trevin, you’ve\u00a0got a new book coming out, Clear Winter Nights. Tell us a little background on the book and explain what your inspiration was in writing it\u2026<\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n

There are different kinds of people when it comes to reading. You have the type that loves fiction – they can read novels all day long, action stories, fantasy, mysteries, sci-fi, and literary fiction. Then you have the readers who are into non-fiction books – business books or theology. These groups don\u2019t often overlap. I think we underestimate the power of good story, of memorable characters with crisp clear dialog to help teach and present truth. \u00a0 For some time now, I’ve been talking about the need for pastors and church leaders to think about the way we teach and present truth. Not just to think about the content that we\u2019re proclaiming, but also the entire package of the way we present. How do we present truth, in all of its glory and all of its beauty and get it to connect with the listeners or readers? So for me as an author, that was my emphasis and inspiration in starting Clear Winter Nights. How can we communicate truth in an ever-changing world in a way that really communicates with people? Fiction is one of the ways to do that.<\/p>\n

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Looking at the other books you\u2019ve written, this looks to be your first fiction novel is that correct?<\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n

It is.<\/p>\n

Talk about that new experience, was it harder? More fun?<\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n

I started writing stories as teenager and would often enter writing competitions, so it\u2019s kind of like I\u2019m going back to my roots. But as far as publishing, I\u2019ve only published non-fiction books, so this was new for me to branch out and try something different. It was much harder than I anticipated, but also, even though it was exhausting in the editorial process, it was exhilarating to be able to create and watch characters come alive on the page. Overall it\u2019s been a fun journey so far. \u00a0 Because this is a hybrid book of both theology and fiction (it says it right there on the cover \u201cTheology in Story\u201d), we\u2019re very up front about the fact that we\u2019re using the story to be a source of entertainment, but also to teach. So we\u2019re up front about that. But it is a very different editorial process, because in a non-fiction book you start with an argument and you basically refine and tweak that in the editorial stage to make a stronger case. With fiction, it\u2019s totally different. If you make a change in the characters history, or something in the dialogue, it will have repercussions throughout the book that you have to check and maintain.<\/p>\n

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Talk about your characters Chris Walker and the grandfather, are they completely fictional? Or based on real people you\u2019ve known? Or experiences\u00a0you’ve\u00a0had yourself?<\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n

I wouldn’t say that they are based on any specific person to the point that readers should be looking for parallels. You have Chris Walker as the main character, who\u2019s just finishing up college. Chris has just recently broken off his long-term engagement to his fianc\u00e9 and he\u2019s really struggling with the fundamentals of his faith. He\u2019s asking himself if he is going to walk away from his faith that\u2019s he has grown up with or if he is going to own it. There\u2019s also been a recent revelation in his family that exposes some major hypocrisy, so there\u2019s this whole swirling mix of things that cause Chris to question what has been the core of his identity his entire life. I actually created Chris when I was discipling some college students in my home. We\u2019d have a meeting at my house every Tuesday night, and we\u2019d discuss and bounce around ideas that are present in the book. And in creating the character, I also went back on my own journey and thought through areas that I struggled with in that period of my life, so there is some of me, but also many experiences that I got from college students that I was discipling.<\/p>\n

Gil, who is the grandfather in the story, is a retired pastor in a rural town in Tennessee. With Gil, I took some different grandfather figures that I’ve experienced in my own life. Then, I used some of the wit and wisdom of G. K. Chesterton and his ability to turn a phrase, because I wanted that gift to be present in Gil\u2019s character when he spoke. So I used real people as inspiration when I started the book, but they turned into characters of their own as the book progressed.<\/p>\n

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Who can identify with this book? Is it mainly targeted towards the Christian that is going through struggles in their life? Would non-Christians benefit from this book? What about the Christian who isn\u2019t struggling at all?<\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n

Because of the story itself, it can definitely be geared towards the Christian who has some struggles going on in their life, or Christians who are questioning their faith and wondering why they believe what they believe. But it also can interest the non-Christian who\u2019s wondering about Christianity. The book presents some of the basic fundamentals of Christianity within a narrative story. I actually know people who have reviewed the book say that they\u2019re going to be handing it to people they know who are not believers. But there are two types of Christians who I think are going to benefit from this mainly:\u00a0 The young Christian, (this could be a graduation gift, college, I\u2019m thinking that age group of 20 to early 30s), the person who\u2019s deciding – is this something I just grew up with or am I going to really own my faith? That target will really resonate.<\/p>\n

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But I\u2019ll tell you who else might enjoy this book, the Christian who is confident in their faith, but might not know how to have these conversations with other Christians who are struggling. I think sometimes we as Christians think that we have a very open environment where doubts can be brought up and discussed. But I think those who are doubting, would say that we don\u2019t have that, in the home or in the church. It\u2019s not always a safe place to raise issues and spar with other believers and try to get to the truth about something. So I\u2019m hoping that the Christian who\u2019s confident will look at this book and increase their compassion for the skeptic, but also have a model that shows how to discuss these issues without being defensive or aggressive. It\u2019s not only the truth in the dialogue, but it\u2019s how the conversations happen.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The book comes out September 17, where can readers pick up a copy?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/i>
\nYes, September 17th<\/sup>! The book will be available on Amazon (Pre-order now<\/a>), Lifeway Christian Resources, and other book stores across the nation. I\u2019m very excited about it and hope you will be too!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We got the opportunity to chat with Trevin Wax, managing editor of The Gospel Project, blogger for the Gospel Coalition, and book author. Trevin has a brand new book “Clear Winter Nights” coming out September 17th. Trevin discusses his inspiration in writing this “Theology in Story” fiction novel, the excitement of writing fiction and, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10275,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[1839,1840,501,1841,1842],"class_list":{"0":"post-10274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general","8":"tag-author","9":"tag-book","10":"tag-christian-interview","11":"tag-pre-order","12":"tag-trevin-wax"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogrouting.sharefaith.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/trevin_wax_480.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nClear Winter Nights: A Journey into Truth, Doubt, and What Comes After - Sharefaith Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sharefaithblog.wpengine.com\/2013\/09\/interview-trevin-wax\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Clear Winter Nights: A Journey into Truth, Doubt, and What Comes After - Sharefaith Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We got the opportunity to chat with Trevin Wax, managing editor of The Gospel Project, blogger for the Gospel Coalition, and book author. 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