TO LOST
PRAISE FOR FOY: ON THE ROAD TO LOST:
“Few writers can match Gordon Atkinson’s ability to tell stories about the sacred in our everyday lives. Foy is a work of power, beauty, and clarity–I saw myself and the world more clearly after reading it. I think you will too.”
— Greg Garrett, author of The Prodigal and Entertaining Judgment
New Novel by Gordon Atkinson Foy: On the Road to Lost, to be released March 1 from Material Media on Vimeo.
CLICK TO PURCHASE
* Amazon * Material Media *
Gordon Atkinson Author Interview 2
Your writing contains beautiful messages. Does the story come first, or the underlying message/theme?
Story first or the beginning idea for an essay. Most of the time I don’t know where things are going to end up when I begin and am as surprised as anyone when I’m finished. This is especially true of fiction, where I consciously seek to avoid directing the writing in hopes of pulling from the unconscious, which is where all the best stories live.
Do you have any kind of ritual you engage in before you write or during the writing process?
The first task is to get every idea down on paper, even if you write it on a napkin. And save those. The next step is to start a piece and gush without thinking onto the paper. In step two one hopes to capture magic from the unconscious. The third thing is to organize and think through the structure of the piece. This is the one I enjoy the least. The last thing is polishing and it’s more like creating poetry. You don’t have to think about structure anymore. Just listen to the sounds of your words and play with them until they sound right.
How much of Foy is based on your own life? Did some of these stories actually happen to you?
I tore my life down into little blocks and used those blocks to build a new life for Foy. There are a few stories that are very close to something that happened to me. Others are based on events from my life but are skewed or lead the character in the opposite direction that I went. And a good bit of Foy is just made up. I’d say Foy resembles me if my life had turned out differently.
Foy has daughters. Will we meet them at some point?
Yes. There are currently two stories that feature his daughters. They just aren’t in volume one. And I have a story planned for Foy’s mother and father. So in the future we should learn a little more about his family.
Foy sure curses a lot for a minister. Is that realistic?
Most ministers know that the scriptures have nothing to say about coarse language, if that language isn’t being used to hurt people. But ministers also have a certain reputation to uphold. So most of them watch their language in public. But I promise you, many of them cut loose when they can do so safely.
What does “On the road to lost” mean?
It is a play on words based on something my wife said when we left the ministry. She said “I once was found but now I’m lost, could see but now I’m blind.” You might recognize that as a distortion of words from the song “Amazing Grace.” I liked what she said. It describes many people who grew up in insular religious communities. It’s as if never having been lost, their journeys inevitably lead them into the wilderness. That’s Foy. He was safe and secure inside the mythic religious world of Fort Davis. He takes a journey into the larger world, where he feels lost indeed.
You mention a volume two at the end of the book. Have you started it?
I have, and I am well on the way. There are forty-one stories so far. There are only twenty-five in this volume.
How has Texas influenced your writing?
I don’t know. But it makes sense to me that I wouldn’t know. Your own culture is invisible to you. Its influence is always strong but rarely recognized. I’ve always lived in Texas. My family is from Livingston. I was born in Fort Worth. I spent my early years in El Paso and my adolescence in Houston. I graduated from Katy High School and went to college in Waco. When I was in seminary my wife and I lived in a mobile home in Burleson. And I’ve been in San Antonio for almost thirty years.
I assume, therefore, that the scent of Texas rises gently from out of every sentence I write.
3rd Prize: Signed Copy of RealLivePreacher.com
(US ONLY)
March 1 – 15, 2017
|
3/1
|
Video Guest Post 1
|
|
|
3/2
|
Review
|
|
|
3/3
|
Excerpt 1
|
|
|
3/4
|
Video Guest Post 2
|
|
|
3/5
|
Review
|
|
|
3/6
|
Author Interview 1
|
|
|
3/7
|
Review
|
|
|
3/8
|
Video Guest Post 3
|
|
|
3/9
|
Excerpt 2
|
|
|
3/10
|
Review
|
|
|
3/11
|
Video Guest Post 4
|
|
|
3/12
|
Author Interview 2
|
|
|
3/13
|
Review
|
|
|
3/14
|
Video Guest Post 5
|
|
|
3/15
|
Review
|
missusgonzo 