ASK THE AUTHOR
William P. Young
Latest project: Cross Roads (November).
Publisher: FaithWords.

How did the plot for Cross Roads come to you? I have lived long enough to be around and near the events of death and dying. I have been intrigued by NDE (near death experiences) and stories of people who have exited comatose states to report awareness and experiences that suggest significant events can occur inside that “thin place.” How does one explain the continuation of mindful activity even when the biological brain has ceased activity? How does one comprehend a conversation between Jesus and Moses and Elijah on the Mount of Transfiguration? In The Shack, we struggle with Mackenzie who is stuck in the midst of his life. What would happen if we catch a man in-between, in this place between this earthly existence and the other? What if this man is not a likable person, fraught with the frailties so common to many of us, selfish, egotistical, willing to sacrifice relationship for control and success? How do we reach this man? Those sorts of questions along with the metaphor of a crossroads, a place of intersection where one has to stop and choose a direction, face others and witness the consequence of actions, combined to give me an imagination for the storyline. When I began working on it, I wasn’t sure it was possible, that it could work. I am thrilled with the results and I think readers will be also.

Like The Shack, Cross Roads employs nontraditional manifestations of the Trinity. How do you choose how to portray the Father, Son and Holy Spirit? The beautiful reality of imagery is that it employs word pictures, and as we all know, a good picture is worth. … Even in the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament, imagery is rampant and provocative. God is father, but also wind and breath, but also a mother hen who covers and protects her own, an eagle who rescues, a rock that is solid, a fortress that shields, a woman who loses a coin, a man who finds an abandoned baby girl and falls in love with her (Ezekiel, in case you were wondering). Idolatry is when one fastens upon a single image as a definition of God, and begins to assemble one’s life around that single facet. Imagery was never intended to define God, but like facets of a precious stone, each reflects the light of God’s character and the wonder of God’s nature in a way that we can perceive and sense and know. As a word-painter then, I am given freedom to express this magnificence in creative ways. God is not male or female, but all maleness and all femaleness is derived from the Beautiful One, who is a community of other-centered, self-giving love. So, part of the art is to craft metaphors and imagery that satisfies the heart, incompletely but partially, and bends the framework of our paradigms to allow for more space, more light, more love, more anger at all that damages and hurts, more beauty, more grace. The incarnation means that God fully joined our humanity. Jesus is the ultimate bridge birthed in bone and blood. I can touch and understand this man. God has found a son-language that I can comprehend. Can the Holy Spirit not come to me in a way that I can grasp, inside the wonder of a child or the honor of an elder? I think the landscape is open as we participate with the One who the creative.

Your main character, Tony, has quite a few relationship troubles. How did he get so entangled? To use language from Cross Roads, Tony is not entangled because of life, but rather because of death; not just the fear of the event of death, but the ubiquitous presence of death that we dwell within and to which we seem to willingly give ourselves. We find it so much easier to refrain from the conversation that might heal or bridge, to be right than to love, to judge the other, to be afraid of imaginations, than to embrace the person and Spirit of Jesus, who welcomes the stranger, carries the enemy’s pack, receives the outcast along with the religious. We are entangled by death. Tony’s drive for control and significance is birthed within that “beautiful mess,” beautiful because he is made in the image of God and a mess because he knows it not.

 While Tony is in a coma, he spends time in some unusual places—from a place that manifests the state of his heart to the mind of an Alzheimer’s patient. Where exactly is he in that in-between state? I don’t know exactly, that’s why I have called it the in-between. It gave me an opportunity to explore this space, the territory of the soul, if you would. How expansive do we think the human soul is? I like to think that it is an expanding universe barely understood, but exploding outward. I have lived with Kim, my wife, for 33 years. How little do I comprehend the depth and breadth of her soul, but I get to witness and learn and wonder. So for Tony, my question was: What if Tony was given the invitation to explore not only his own soul, but also the soul of another? How would that impact him or effect change? A worthy investigation, at least from my point of view.

C.S. Lewis makes an appearance in the story. Why did you choose “Jack” as a key figure? Many readers will not understand that Jack is indeed C.S. Lewis, at least not without a little work. Introducing him into the story was actually the suggestion of Baxter Kruger, the author of The Shack Revisited. It was one of those playful ideas that took root and grew. Through his mother, Tony was introduced as a child to some of this man’s work, and like a seed planted but ignored, it simply waited for the right conditions to spring to life. Jack gave me a character to “play” with as well as hint at the significant role that authors, teachers, artists, musicians, friends and family have in the formation of our lives. It was also a way for me to give a nod to this brilliant brother, who has astounded me, given me hours of wonder and slipped into some of the precious places of my own soul. 

How do you cultivate your imagination from which spring stories like The Shack and Cross Roads? Good question. I think that being around good stories helps to cultivate the imagination, whether you are listening to another who is a story, or reading or watching, etc. A good story may be shocking, or odd at first glance, or completely other than the expected, but will contain the ring of truth and longing and humanity and meaning. Learning to ask questions and doing so with openness is vital, along with the permission to imagine and explore. Being comfortable with silence and friends with imagination itself.  

First printing for this book is 1 million copies. What do you have to say about such a significant first print run? That is so cool, don’t you think? The first real printing of The Shack was 10,000 copies, and we were told that usually means 8,000 in your garage after two years. Frankly, my first printing of 15 copies at Office Depot accomplished everything that I wanted it to do, so this sort of thing just makes me grin and shake my head. Don’t confuse me with someone who actually knows what they are doing. My gift is quite narrow, and I am so grateful that others know what they are doing.

How might Christian retailers best present this book to their customers? Read it yourself, and then you will know how best to present Cross Roads. While The Shack and Cross Roads come from the same parent, I find it rather difficult to compare one child with another. However, when you meet either one, you will recognize the family resemblance and the more time you spend with either, you will understand their distinctive natures. So fun!

Read more of this Ask the Author Q&A at www.christianretailing.com/young.