When I begin a story, it’s usually with a “what if.” What if I could be there on a day when Jesus healed a whole multitude of people? What would it be like for Jesus to be visible and audible beside me today? What will it look like for Jesus to reign on the Earth? This is why I’ve identified somewhat with the genre known as “speculative fiction.” It’s not science fiction, because the context and the characters are all realistic, in my world view. It’s not fantasy for lack of wizards, swords and unicorns. But it is a stretch beyond what most of us normally see and hear in our daily lives.

Of course, this all works best if it comes with easy to grab handles, ways we can identify with the story. That’s where the characters come in, people like you and I, who stand stunned--or leap and laugh--at miraculous circumstances plunked right into their lives. While I’ve been told that Jesus can’t be the hero of my stories, because readers need to identify with the characters, I always want to test the limits of that kind of thinking. After all, Jesus was the first born of many sons and daughters, not an entirely different species from us.

I’ve been fascinated by stories all my life. I love to read biographies as well as classic fiction. I guess I came to favor fiction because it stretches beyond the mundane toward the unknown. Imagining my own stories--and even writing some--from an early age, I credit my maternal grandmother with instilling the wonder and fascination of reading. I still remember her reading to me when I was five years old, or even younger.

After majoring in writing in college, I diverted toward more respectable occupations than fiction writing. I had to satisfy that creative itch, instead, by making up stories for my sons. During those years I also became an intense movie fan. This may help account for the way I can picture my stories as they unfold in cinematic detail, even if I haven’t master describing all that detail.

After a long hiatus from fiction writing, I started again in about 2006, after a friend prescribed an effective way to meditate on scripture. He suggested that I choose a biblical story and imagine being inside it. In fact, I can remember this same assignment from tenth grade Bible class in my little Christian high school. When I tried it as an adult, I started with one of the stories of Jesus healing a whole multitude of people, and my imagination took off with the scenes that might have filled such a day. All my years of Bible classes, up through a degree in Biblical Studies, paid dividends in adding details to those scenes. And I was on the way toward writing my first completed novel.

Yes, I have started numerous stories that remain unfinished. The best ones, however, drive me to completion, compelling me to find out what happens next. Once I’ve imagined the circumstances and inserted characters for whom I care, and with whom I’m also fascinated, I feel as if I get to watch the story unfold much like a reader does.

For more information go to: www.jeffreymcclainjones.com. You can reach me at jeff@jeffreymcclainjones.com.