Author Interview ~ Gordon Dalbey

** Gordon is giving away 5 copies of his newest book No Small Snakes in a drawing of those who leave comments. **

In 1988, Gordon Dalbey's first book Healing the Masculine Soul pioneered the growing Christian men's movement, by calling men to a godly strength. Gordon’s articles have appeared in a wide variety of magazines and newspapers, including New Man, Focus on the Family, Leadership, The Priest, Los Angeles Times, Single Parent Family, and Reader’s Digest. Gordon now divides his ministry time between writing, conference speaking, and a private practice in prayer ministry. He lives in Santa Barbara, California, with his wife and son.

Welcome to Novel Journey, how long did it take you to get published?

I wrote my first full-length book ms. in 1985, another in 1986, and finally Healing the Masculine Soul in 1987 which Word published in 1988. It’s still in print after 20 years at over 100,000 sold

Do you think an author is born or made?

The verbal bent or skill seems to come as a native gift. I remember my son at 2 years old came to me upset one day. “Daddy, I….I…” he stammered, “I want to say it, but I don’t have a word for it.” 14 years later, he scored 99 on his PSAT verbals. Like a seed, the gift bears its own vitality and calls out for form and fulfillment. But it doesn’t come pre-assembled. You’ve got to put in the perspiration. If writing is in your DNA, that’s good news, energizing. You don’t do it to get published, paid, or affirmed. You do it because you’re a writer.

What is the first book you remember reading?

I remember reading about Dick, Jane, and Spot in first grade, and the thin, square little Golden Books with the gilt-edged spine. But the first full-length book I read for my own enjoyment was a Hardy Boys mystery, The Secret of the Old Mill, at the age of 9 or 10.

What common qualities do you find in the personalities of published authors?
We all seem to want to make a difference in this world. We have a sense that we’ve been given a unique insight or perspective that no one else has, and a desire to share it with others.

How do you know if you have a seemingly “stupid” book premise that is doomed to fail versus one that will fly high?

When you have a significant book in you, it’s like a pregnancy (from what I saw in my wife, at any rate!). First the passion, then the conception--the easy part. After that, you’re hit with the reality that it’s just got to be written. The first trimester is hard, getting it shaped as it takes root, worrying whether you’ll have enough to say or are capable of saying it. Then you ride with it awhile, become more comfortable and trusting it’ll come out. The closer it comes to being completed, the harder it gets—going over each sentence word by word, trying to get just the right term or phrase.

Still, you need to face the fact that just because the book seizes you, it might not seize a publisher. My new book No Small Snakes was conceived 20 years ago. The book has to reflect some resolution in your own life journey. I was 44 when my first book Healing the Masculine Soul was published. “That book took you 44 years to write,” my sister rightly noted after reading it.

What is the theme of your latest book?

No Small Snakes focuses on spiritual blindness in our materialistic Western worldview, the reality of spiritual evil, and how the coming of Jesus has released the power to recognize and overcome it.

At what point did you stop juggling suggestions and critiques and trust yourself (as a writer)?

With Master’s degrees from Harvard and Stanford, facing my inadequacies felt shameful. Eventually, the pain and brokenness in my personal life became so intense that I knew I needed to overcome my shame and get help. That freedom at last to be real allowed me to see a similar brokenness in others—and stirred in me a desire to share what I was learning, no matter how academic or religious authorities might judge it. It’s been a significant cost, both financially and professionally, but once you experience a truth and write about it, it becomes who you are. There’s no going back.
Are takeaway messages (in your books) important to you, and do you write with an eye to creating one?

I realize that a takeaway is essential, but since I write out of my own experience and learning, it follows naturally as I tell my story and reflect on its implications for others.

When do you know you’ve got the finished product and it’s your best effort?

When I enjoy reading it.

Any anecdotes about the research or writing of your books?

I’m my own laboratory. My own personal struggles crack the seed-shell that allows the book to germinate. I find that often I’ll be reading a newspaper article or book, maybe see a commercial or movie, and a particular sentence or scene leaps out at me and Isay to myself, “This belongs in a book.” I seem to file those gems away somewhere in my mind and they pop out once I get going on the book.

How would you pitch this book to your intended audience?

I would to awaken in them the truth that we already know but fear to face: that we live in a spiritual world—even at the mercies of powers therein. The clear evidence lies in dreams, unexpected events, sexual attraction, and other common experiences which bypass human rationality and good planning. I would remove the shame of our human powerlessness amid these at times overwhelming realities by sharing my own miscues and fears. Then, I would tell the story of how I cried out to God to meet me in that pre-eminent discomfort, and what I learned from that experience. You can’t argue with a story.