Yes, I finally get to do some promo for my book, James: The Brother of Jesus. I’ve mentioned it on here a few times but I haven’t done much promotion because until recently it wasn’t available through Amazon, which I know is many people’s preferred way to buy books online. Now it’s up there, and along with adding a link to my sidebar I also had the chance to make this promotional video for the publisher, Pacific Press, which I’m sharing with my devoted blog-readers.
This was one of my favourite of the Biblical novels I’ve written: I usually write about Bible women but this is a case where a man from the Bible (albeit a minor character) caught my imagination. James himself, as I imagined him based on his Epistle and the very few glances of him that we get elsewhere in the New Testament, is an intriguing character in himself, but writing this book also gave me a chance to write about Jesus from a different perspective. I’ve always found it difficult to write about Jesus because it’s so hard to portray sinless perfection in a way that’s interesting to the reader — but seeing him through the eyes of someone who (initially) doesn’t accept him as Messiah and actually kind of dislikes and resents him, gave me a whole new point of view. Writing this book was really fun and challenging. It had a complicated journey to publication which took awhile, but I’m so glad to have placed it with Pacific Press, a terrific Christian publishing house that I haven’t worked with before, and I hope it will find its way into the hand of lots and lots of readers who will learn from James’s journey as I’ve imagined it, just as I learned from researching and writing about him.
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My latest Biblical novel delves into the hidden world of Jesus' family through the eyes of his brother James. Click 
Sunrise Hope is a contemporary novel from a Christian perspective, about a young woman who wants to save the world -- and discovers her own limitations along the way. Click 
Explore the stories of Bible women! Buy my collection Daughters of Grace from the 
Note to self: Why does YouTube always choose to freeze the clip with my face in the most unflattering position, so that that becomes the cover image for my promo?
While I love the title of this blog post, I found this book to be th most interesting and insightful towards the end when James …um ….offers us a glimse into the how the temple priests and teachers reacted to Jesus especially towards the end of Jesus’ life.
Hi Trudy
You have certainly piqued my interest here. Is is book available for purchase in the St. John’s area. Chapters, Coles, Book and Bible or do we need to buy on-line. Cheers
The Book and Bible house is supposed to be ordering it but I don’t know if they have it in stock yet.
Sharon, glad you found it insightful … although of course, it’s important to remember that it is fiction, and thus it’s just one writer’s take on what might have been going on behind the scenes in Jesus’ death.
Yes, but I think too often we look at the temple priests and leaders and think: “What idopts!” While in the end their behavior cannot be excused, Jesus was not following centuries of established tradition.
idiots…
Yes, I agree Sharon, we often are too quick to judge the religious leaders of Jesus’ time. One thing I think we rarely appreciate, which I got out of my research for this book, was what a difficult position they were in as leaders under Roman occupation, on the heels of several previous Jewish uprisings which had been dealt with quite harshly. When we’re under pressure, we often make the “safe” rather than the “right” decision.