Jerry Jenkins Interview, Part I

(We inteded to air this video in its entirety, but our equipment wasn't the best and Jerry is soft-spoken, so it was too difficult to hear him. We apologize.)


Jerry Jenkins, former Vice President for the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, is the author of more than 150 books, including the best-selling Left Behind series. Sixteen of his books have reached the New York Times best-seller list (seven in the number one spot). Also the former editor of Moody Magazine, his writing has appeared in Reader's Digest, Parade, Guideposts, and dozens of Christian periodicals.


His non-fiction books include as-told-to biographies with Hank Aaron, Brett Butler, Bill Gaither, Orel Hershiser, Luis Palau, Walter Payton, Nolan Ryan, and Sammy Tippit among many others. The Hershiser and Ryan books reached the New York Times best seller list. The 2002 Baker book, Behind the Stories, tells more about Jerry Jenkins himself in the chapter, The Test of Success.


Jerry Jenkins helped Dr. Billy Graham with his memoirs, Just As I Am, also a New York Times best seller. Jerry owns Jenkins Entertainment, a filmmaking company in Los Angeles, which produced the critically-acclaimed movie Hometown Legend, based on his book of the same name. Hometown Legend was listed as one of the Top 10 family films of 2002 by Good News Communications' MOVIEGUIDE.


Jerry Jenkins also owns the Christian Writers Guild, which aims to train tomorrows professional Christian writers. As a marriage and family author and speaker, Jenkins has been a frequent guest on Dr. James Dobson's Focus On the Family radio program. Jerry Jenkins wrote the nationally syndicated sports story comic strip, Gil Thorp, from 1996-2004.


Jerry and his wife Dianna have three grown sons and three grandchildren.

(Interview conducted at ICRS in Atlanta 2007 in the Tyndale hospitality suite.)

Gina Holmes: We're sitting here at ICRS with Jerry Jenkins, author of the Left Behind Series and many, many other fantastic novels. Thanks you so much for being on Novel Journey.

Jerry Jenkins: My pleasure.

Gina: First of all I just have to say that you are Novel Journey's biggest fan, is that correct?

(Jerry chuckles)

Gina: Before we got on the air, he was just telling me how much he loves our site. (Gina laughs)

Jerry: I'll handle the fiction.

Just kidding. I know that you've probably been asked this question to death, but it's your first time on NJ so I'm going to have to ask it. What is it do you think it is about the Left Behind books – they're the best selling series of all time – what is it do you think that appealed to the masses?

I think it was the great writing. (He's grinning as he says this) Actually, I think it was like a perfect storm. People are interested in spiritual things. I think they're looking for something beyond themselves within a scary time. People are buying books by the Pope, the Dali Lama, and eastern mystics, gurus and all that. I think they hear about fiction based on Bible prophecy, it fits in the same realm.





And then ... it's just a great idea. It's a great story. The idea that people could just disappear right off the face of the earth, in the twinkling of an eye and then seven years of tribulation and the glorious reappearing of Christ. I think something elementally does work with that fiction. People love the characters. They want to find out what happens next. That's what you want from any novel. And when Dr. La Haye and I are out signing books, people tell us, "Your book changed my life." Well, when novelists hear that, they love it!

And secular novelists even hear it. Someone reads a classic and they go "Your book changed my life." When somebody tells us that, they mean it literally. Literally changes them from darkness to light, from death to life. Nothing you can hear can be more important than that.

What are you working on now?



I'm working on the longest novel I've ever written. It's twice as long as any Left Behind novel. It's called RIVEN; it comes from the Rock of Ages, "From Your riven side which flowed." I just finished the manuscript, and I have to do my final run-through before I send it in to Tyndale, but it came out at 872 pages.

Wow.

My feeling is it's either my Magnum Opus or my swan song. It's my 177th book and I've never had more fun writing a book or more of a challenge. It's basically a death row story. I have no idea how commercial it'll be, but I feel like it's something special.

I guess a novel that's 872 pages, if you weren't Jerry Jenkins, might be a tough sell.

That's true, and in fact when the publisher met with me when I was about ¾ of the way through and it was already 1 ½ times the size of Left Behind, I thought they were gong to say, "All right wrap it up." But they said, "Don't cut a word, just let it tell itself out." So they're happy with it so far.

They're going to publish it as one novel.

One novel, yeah. It doesn't break. It has to tell out. With creative type setting, design, and good editing we'll get it to work.

So there's going to be a Riven one through fifteen?



(laughing) I hope not.

Riven, the video game?

(Laughs)

If you could go back to the Jerry Jenkins who was just starting out, who had all these aspirations of writing novels, magnum opuses, Left Behind series, what would you tell him?

I'd say stick with baseball. Try to make a career out of that. (chuckles) No, I got some good advice when I was a young writer. People who I idolized and wanted to meet, I'd ask them what would you tell me or somebody who wanted to be a writer for a career?





One of the things was to never say no. If you're a writer, be a writer, and if you're looking for assignments and get assignments, don't turn them down. Now it happens that I'm in a position I can turn down assignments. I don't have to take everything that comes along, but when I did have to do that, I never considered it a burden. It was a privilege.





When you realize how much competition there is, it's the people who are available, and flexible, and adaptable, willing to work with an editor who succeed. Probably the best advice I know now is to develop a thick skin and to realize every piece of published fiction is not a solo, it's a duet between you and the editor and a publisher. So learn to work with them. You do get to a point, too, where you gain enough pedigree that if you disagree with them, you can say so. Sometimes they even agree with you and let you change it back. But in the meantime, you need to do what the publisher wants you to.

You talk about having thick skin. How thick is your skin? Do you get reviews that hurt your feelings? Now at this point, knowing how successful you are, as many lives as you've changed, does it still bother you if you get a bad review?

To Be continued tomorrow ...