Interview with Author Randy Ingermanson

We're here today with author Randall Ingermanson, famous for the "Snowflake" method of plotting a novel. Also known for his "Mad Genius Marketing" E-zine and website and his "Advanced Fiction Writing" E-zine and website. Randy has six published novels and one non-fiction book Who Wrote the Bible Code?. Three of his novels, Transgression, Premonition, and Retribution are set in Biblical times, which is why I asked him to talk with us about Biblical fiction. (Be sure to check out all of his websites. Randy is very versatile and knows a lot of good stuff.) :)

Jill: Why did you choose to write Biblical fiction in addition to your other genres?

Randy: I write what I like to read. I’ve always liked historical fiction, and my special interest is Biblical history. I don’t particularly like the term “Biblical fiction” because it carries the connotation “badly researched and poorly written.” Of course, that’s not true of all Biblical fiction, but that’s the perception. So I avoid the term.

Jill: What Bible characters have you written about so far, and if you care to tell us, which ones do you hope/plan to write about in the future?

Randy: I’ve written three time-travel novels set in first-century Jerusalem. My main characters are modern folks who’ve found themselves unexpectedly stuck in the New Testament. They meet folks like the apostle Paul, and James, the brother of Jesus, but those are deliberately minor characters.

I’ve also recently written a novel about Jesus, and the main characters are the familiar characters from the Gospels—Jesus, Peter, John, Judas, Mary of Bethany, Mary of Magdala, Mary of Nazareth, and so on. I think this will someday be considered my best work, but I still need to sell this book. I’d like to continue this into a series and take it all the way through the New Testament.

Jill: What drew you to write about these characters?

Randy: Well, they’re darned interesting!

Jill: When you set out to write a Biblical novel, what steps do you take to research the story?

Randy: I don’t start researching when I start writing. I’ve been researching for 25 years. So when I sit down to write, I’ve already done massive amounts of research. I learned to read Hebrew years ago. I’ve read tons of books on archaeology and the New Testament world. I have a special interest in Jewish history, so many of the books I’ve read were written by Jewish authors. Some of my most valuable books are on cultural anthropology.

Jill: Some Biblical stories say very little about the characters and even the plot leaves many holes, giving the Biblical novelist much room to fill in the blanks. But others give us much detail, and we know how the story ends. How do you weave the tale so that it doesn’t come across predictable?

Randy: In my first three novels in the New Testament, that was easy because I had non-Biblical characters who had their own concerns (such as getting back to modern times!) and so they had their own story. Then the Biblical story interacted with the characters’ story (and generally screwed up their story badly). That way, even if you really know the Biblical story, you see it from an entirely different perspective and you are actually hoping the Biblical story will play out differently.

With my Jesus novel, I told the familiar Gospel stories, but always looked for what insights I could bring in from cultural anthropology, Jewish studies, and study of the secular history. For example, when I told the story of Mary and Martha (which nowadays gets a rather threadbare interpretation of “just relax and take time for your devotions”), I explained WHY it was so radical to allow Mary to sit there with the men while Martha was working. That violated a strong cultural taboo. It had nothing to do with taking time to smell the roses. It was about Jesus overturning cultural norms.

As another example, I took one of Jesus’ sayings about “going the second mile” and showed Jesus doing that—in a way that infuriated his disciples, and at the same time, saved their necks. As a final example, the familiar stories of Jesus arguing with the Pharisees has long ago gotten sidetracked into a set-piece starring freedom-loving Jesus smacking down the legalists. Yawn. The reality is far more complex, and I show the real story behind the story there.

Thanks Randy - those insights sound intriguing. I love understanding the cultural setting behind the scenes of Scripture!

Join us tomorrow for the second half or our interview with author Randy Ingermanson. And if you post one of those pesky comments, you'll enter a drawing to win a copy of Randy's book Premonition! (Which, by the way, gives a fascinating look at New Testament culture mixed in with the story.) :)