This week’s author interview is with Jim Scott Orrick. He is the author of Mere Calvinism (releasing tomorrow!).

• When did you first want to write a book?

I sometimes imagine what it would sound like for me, now not far from sixty years old, to have a conversation with my twelve-year-old self. Young Jimmy would ask me about my family, and he would be slightly dismayed to learn that I am the father of six daughters and no sons. He would cheer up seeing that my wife is pretty. He would be disappointed that I had not played major-college basketball or professional sports of any kind. He would get around to asking, “So, what do you do?” “I’m a preacher,” I’d answer, “but I’m also a college professor.”

Being from 1972, young Jimmy would probably say that being a college professor was groovy, but he would be thrown off his groove when I answered his question about what I had to go through to become a college professor: “I went to college and seminary for twelve years.” Twelve-year-old Jimmy would sit down and cry about that. He read voraciously, but he was not academically inclined. Writing books was an unlikely prospect.

I began preaching at age seventeen when I was just out of high school, and preaching has been my life passion since then. I came from a Baptist family that valued education, but we Baptists do not insist that our preachers have formal education. When I began preaching, among my branch of the Baptists a college education was desirable but optional, and seminary training was nearly unheard of. I went to college mostly to continue participating in basketball and track and field. In college, I was a pretty good student, but I carefully avoided classes in which the professor required a research paper. Some of my college profs would be shocked to learn that I have written books. And that strange thumping you sometimes hear in the middle of the night? That is my Jr. High English teacher turning over in her grave. I did, however, love to write letters, and as incredible as it seems in 2019, I often spent hours every week writing letters. I wanted to write interesting letters, and I think that is where I honed my writing skills. I still write letters with fountain pens. For that matter, I nearly always write the first draft of serious composition with pen and paper.

My attitude towards extended writing projects never really changed until I was pursuing my PhD in English Literature at Ohio University. I wrote my dissertation on George Herbert’s Debt to the Bible, and I loved writing it. I typed the whole thing out – hundreds of pages – on an old 286 computer, and I never saved it anywhere except on the hard drive. I never knew how! But God is merciful. When I was finished with the dissertation, I hit the print button, and my tractor-feed printer started chugging away. Several hours later, the whole dissertation lay complete on the floor.

How did I come to write Mere Calvinism? I grew up hearing my dad’s Calvinistic preaching, so my entire life I have had friendly exposure to the doctrines of God’s sovereign grace. When I began preaching, I preached free grace. When I began teaching, I taught free grace. Although much of my teaching and preaching ministry has been carried on among Christians who would identify as Calvinists, I have observed that their knowledge of Calvinism is often surprisingly limited. Through the years, when I have given the lectures and sermons that formed the basis of Mere Calvinism, the reaction of these self-identifying Calvinists has not been, “Oh, brother, here we go again. We have to sit through another sermon on Calvinism.” On the contrary, many of them have responded as if they were hearing these truths clearly expounded for the first time.

 

• Which writers inspire you?

William Jay makes me want to read the Bible. John Brown of Edinburgh is my favorite commentator. George Herbert is my favorite poet. My favorite poem is “To a Waterfowl” by William Cullen Bryant. Epictetus is my favorite philosopher. Boethius’ Consolation of Philosophyis my favorite book of philosophy. Shakespeare’s King Learis my favorite play. Pilgrim’s Progressis my favorite book. C. H. Spurgeon is my lifelong hero. For several years I read one of Spurgeon’s sermons almost every day. Martyn Lloyd-Jones has been a huge blessing. Alexander Whyte pushed me into a ministry in which literature figures prominently. As amazing as C. S. Lewis is as a Christian apologist and writer of fiction, he may be even better as a literary critic. Classical music moves me beyond my ability to say. I love hymns.

 

• What book are you reading now?

Phillips Brooks’ Lectures on Preaching. Other than the preaching book that I co-authored with Brian Payne and Ryan Fullerton, I do not know that I have ever read a book on preaching that compares with Brooks. (I still have about seventy-five pages to read).

 

• Is there anything unique about you?

I have never had a cell phone. As a young man, I hitch-hiked all over America. I was seeking adventure, but I was also on a mission. I shared the gospel with almost everyone who gave me a ride. I make all-wood, homemade bows and regularly deer hunt with my bows. I tan deer hides using an ancient, all-natural method called brain-tan, and I make clothing out of the resulting buckskin. I have been a beekeeper for close to thirty years. I have set many of the Psalms to music, and I set to music the Baptist version of the Westminster Shorter Catechism.

 

• Do you have a favorite quote?

“Trust in God, and do the right.” See Norman Macleod’s poem by that name. Also, “The stone that is fit for the wall will not be left to lie in the ditch.”

 

• What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

Homemade, hand-cranked cherry-nut.

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This week’s author interview is with Simonetta Carr. She is the author of our upcoming book, Broken Pieces and the God Who Mends Them: Schizophrenia through a Mother’s Eyes and also Weight of a Flame: The Passion of Olympia Morata, which is part of our Chosen Daughters series.

• Question #1 — Have you always enjoyed writing?

Yes. I learned to read and write when I was 4 and one of my first and favorite presents was a small typewriter. As a child, I used to write and illustrate short stories, just for fun. I threw them all away at a time when they just seemed like clutter. In school, I used to get top grades in writing. It was actually the only subject where I got top grades.

My mother, an Italian teacher, used to take advantage of my interest by asking me to write thank you letters and correct her students’ essays (they were my same age). I also wrote lots of poetry. When I was commuting by bus or subway, I often stared at interesting people and wrote a short poem about them, just like an artist would sketch their features.

 

• Question #2 — Do you have a specific spot where you enjoy writing most?

At my desktop. I type a lot faster than I handwrite, and I have older files and the internet at my fingertips. My working space is a very large walk-in closet which is annexed to my bedroom. When we bought our house, and saw this huge closet with two windows, we immediately turned it into something else. At first, it was a bedroom for our youngest child (and only daughter) when she was very young and needed to be close to us. When she moved out, I turned it into an office, but I also keep my clothes there.

It’s quite cluttered, with huge piles of books (besides those on shelves). It would drive a Feng Shui practitioner crazy. The neat, clean, working spaces of some of my friends have caused me occasional doubts about my system, but then I saw a photo of B.B. Warfield in his study overcrowded with books and felt perfectly vindicated.

 

• Question #3 — At what time of day do you write most?

I write whenever I have time, but my favorite and most productive time is early in the morning. Sometimes I can’t sleep and write at 3:00 am for a couple of hours (then I go back to sleep). Words flow easily at that time.

 

• Question #4 — How do you deal with writer’s block?

By denial. I grew up with writing assignments, first in school, then in journalism. As a homeschooling mother, I coached my kids as they wrote their essays. There was writing to be done and I just did it. I never heard of writer’s block until I came to the States and, since it didn’t seem helpful, I dismissed it. I don’t know if pretending it’s not there works for others, but I just treat writing as a task, like washing dishes, and it gets done.

There are of course times when I don’t know what to write. Some subjects might be difficult, or I might have written so much about them that I feel I have nothing left to say. When that happens, I might read something other people have written and consider new angles. But all this works only for non-fiction. Writing fiction is quite different and I imagine writer’s block is very real in that case, because it requires a larger amount of creativity.

The time of the day also matters. I don’t even try to write when I am tired.

 

• Question #5 — Is there anything you would like to add that you have not been asked about?

I’d like to add a word of advice from my mother, who was also an author. She said, “Don’t write unless you have something to say.” That’s the best writing advice I have ever received.

 

• Question #6 — Favorite flavor of ice cream?

This is probably a weird answer, because I don’t usually like ice cream or sweets in general. I do like Italian gelato because it reminds me of my childhood. When I find it, my favorites are hazelnut, coffee, all fruity flavors, and flavors with some alcohol in it, like rum and raisins (Italians have a variety of those). Berries and lemon are a common Italian combination of gelato flavors that takes me back in time.

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How can readers discover more about you and your work?

• • Website: http://cbfyr.com
  • Blog: http://cbfyr.com/blog/
  • Twitter: @SimonettaCarr

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