John Edgell - Author

Authors Wake Up in the Morning with Scruffy Hair

When I was growing up we played a card game called Authors. There were Shakespeare cards, Robert Louis Stevenson cards, Louisa May Alcott cards, and on and on—fun game! I looked at those authors’ pictures and thought, “Wow! They must have had it all together!” To me those authors were a cut above.

Well, Dickens was in the deck too, and later on in life I read his biography. What an eye-opener! He struggled with the same kind of stuff of life that you struggle with and that I struggle with as well. When he got up in the morning, he had scruffy hair! So did all those other authors, except for those without hair! Simply put, authors are everyday people.

I Take on the Guise of a Story Character

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Writing from the Normal and the Whimsical

The other day, life took me into Las Vegas, to ‘the strip,” as it is called. Other names for Las Vegas are Sin City, The Lady, Disneyland for Adults. In other words, Las Vegas is a realm within a realm, and as I glanced about while driving the strip I found myself in nothing less than a fantasy realm. I “ever so slowly” drove a few blocks—the traffic is horrendous—and found myself in the realm of the “normal.” Hmm. What is normal anyway? [Do feel free to give me your perspective on that question.]

Visiting the strip gave me pause to think about my mind as a writer. Within my mind is the normal, the realm of everyday life. Although I do not personally find the Las Vegas strip particularly delightful; still, off in a moiling corner of my mind is “the strip,” a realm of enchanting whimsy. I prefer mountains in the desert, sculpted by God, to gaudy buildings constructed by men. On the other hand, I have a sister who prefers the buildings!

Where the Normal and Whimsical Meet

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Shaping the Mind in the Image of God

As a writer and Christian I want to be like a wise potter who shapes a piece of clay into a thing of beauty. When a clay sculpture is fired the beauty becomes set, and most often, enhanced. My desire as an author is to gently shape the mind of the reader into a thing of beauty. Of course, the shaping of the mind is more complex than simply reading a story. Still, story can be a vital part of that complex process.

I remember when I was a kid asking my dad the “why” question. His stock answers were something like “because,” “because I told you so,” or “you’ll find out someday.” Also, there were some questions I feared asking, like questions about sex.

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