Читать книгу From the Dark Domain - Keith Potter - Страница 6

Fiction is so different than non-fiction. After laying bare my first written gurgitation of imagination to a friend, his response set me back months. “I feel like I’ve seen you in your underwear.” After some recovery, I committed to the brave work of exposing.

To that end, I want to thank Nancy Commins for early manuscript efforts and my new friends at Wipf and Stock for their final touches. Sally Bryant and Jackie Hester believed in this enterprise while others urged me to “stick to the day job.” Ronnie and Karen Lott, along with Dennis and Stacey Barsema, led me to Rwanda in concert with our partners at Opportunity International, where I fell in love with the people and place. An extraordinary guide, Bishop John, showed us the best in Rwandan education and orphan care. Two books offered keen preparation for telling the awful story of genocide: Shake Hands with the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda, by Lt. Gen. Romæo Dallaire, and Left to Tell: Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust, by Immaculée Ilibagiza.

Speaking of exposing, Book Two has some overtly sexual parts, especially for a work that will have a faith-inclined readership. For the courage and care required, I did a deep read of Redeeming Love, by Francine Rivers. While Rivers has earned the right, far more than I, to push the boundaries of Christian writing, I am drafting on her model of honest (if at times voyeuristic) prose that leads to a more believable premise. Please try not to be offended, but rather sympathetic to the force of human sexuality, as well as the healing required in the lives of the characters—as in many of our own. The narrative also includes a critique of the Church, especially in its extremes on the far right and left. With respect to all, the chief character drafts on his own self-discovery to find his voice about the whole work and person of Jesus. Again, the intention is not to offend, but certainly to chide us all toward a lively communion in the middle space between extremes, where the best work gets done.

I’m grateful to my kind and courageous wife, Sue, and children Kristen (and Joe), Erin, and Luke for granting the space and encouragement to create. Friends at Saratoga Federated Church often asked how this project and others have been progressing. Northwest Christian College (now Bushnell University) taught skills and shaped my worldview as a student, and offers a playground for this season of passionate service.

It’s worth noting that all characters in this book are fictitious constructs and amalgamations born from my imagination. Only bits and pieces of each episode are the products of walking through this beautiful but imperfect life with brave, broken people like me.