Interview with Stephen Kendrick Co-Author of 'The Love Dare for Parents'

***I did this interview for my job at the Christian Post. Read original here***

The Christian Post had the opportunity to speak with one half of the creative team of brothers behind Christian blockbusters "Fireproof," "Facing the Giants," and "Courageous" – Stephen Kendrick.

The Kendrick brothers, Alex and Stephen, released their newest book, "The Love Dare for Parents," on July 1 as the follow up to their critically acclaimed first book, "The Love Dare," and now they are looking to further spread the truth of Jesus from the silver screen to the bestsellers list.

The Christian Post: What has the response for the new book been like so far, and how has it fared against the release of the first "Love Dare"?

Stephen Kendrick: We are very excited about this book. Our prayer has been that this new 40-day journey will help moms and dads to win their kids hearts, and help them to train them to live blessed lives of wisdom, faith, and love. We tried to write it whether someone's kids are in preschool or even graduating from high school they will be able to pour out Christ like love onto their kids for 40 days and develop that habit and instill into their children a more dynamic legacy of faith. So often parents have a great desire and hopes, and aspirations for their kids but they don't have any practical plans of action. ... We broke it down into 40 days and each day teaches a principle about parenting and love together.

CP: Of the "Dares," what would you say is the most "daring"?

Kendrick: Challenging [parents] to memorize scripture with their kids. It's something I did growing up. My parents would quote Psalm 91 over our lives, that whole chapter. ... We put some really great passages in the back for parents to memorize with their kids.

Some of the last dares tie in to writing a letter to your kids, and it's really a legacy letter based on Psalm 71 that they can pass on to their children one day. I know that will not be easy for parents to do, but we kind of walk them through communicating with their kids ... I know so many men that will say to me that "my dad and my mom never told me that they loved me." That's first base communicating love to your kids.

One of the days we unpack finding out how your kids are wired, what kind of intelligence has God given them, how do they give and receive love, what the passions of their life, how does their birth order and their gender affect them because all of those things are part of the tapestry that God is weaving together to use each of our children for His glory. Too often, parents force their kids into becoming something they want them to become rather than trying unpack the treasure chest God wants them to become.

Stephen Kendrick on the left, Alex Kendrick on the right.

CP: When writing this book with your brother, how did you guys divide what to write? What was the process like?

Kendrick: With the movies, we will both work on concepts and bring them to the table together. ... I imagine this scene about 75 percent of the way into the movie ... It's like a pearl that you are adding to the mix and that will be strung together with the other pearls, and so that's how we do it with movies where we come up with scenes, ideas and when we have a lot of them after we've been praying for months over it we'll dive in and work together on kind of crafting this storyline.

We'll then usually write separately. Then we'll come back together and say "I wrote this scene, I took a first draft on it, here what do you think?" We'll go back and forth, he'll critique my writing and I'll critique his. He's a better storyteller than I am. When it comes to script writing he is better at writing dialogue. I tend to focus on pure and Biblical principles. He's good at interweaving those into the story telling. When it comes to the books, I will usually write the first draft chapters of the book and send them to him and he will add his touch on them. He edits me really well. He helps me to clarify what I'm writing. It's been a really good partnership that God has made happen with my brother.

CP: Of the two aspects to your ministry-- the film and books-- which would you say is more rewarding and impactful?

Kendrick: Movies are definitely more fun because there are so many different seasons in a movie. It is exciting to be drafting together. Writing a book is very hard, it's like writing 15 college term papers in a row, and you are just like, "when is going to end?" You can communicate so much more when you are writing a book, and you can go so much deeper.

Usually we'll have a book connected to a movie so the movie will inspire people, but afterwards when they walk out of the theater they can think, "what do I do now?" "How can I take the message of Fireproof and work on my marriage?" The books are important because they can dive in and start applying it to their day in and day out lives and dive into what God says about those specific topics.

CP: Which do you feel is an easier tool to convey Christianity to a secular audience: a movie or book?

Kendrick: Definitely the movies. Jesus communicated parables to the secular people around him and he used stories that were very relevant to their lives, and He was taking heaven's truth and packaging it in an earthly context. ... We've seen that we've reached a ton of people through movies who have never walked into the door of a church. Then as a result they'll start reading the books, and the books will get a lot deeper into truth and what scripture said about those issues. And they are much more ready for that after they've watched the movies.

CP: Anything else to add?

Kendrick: We've launched KendrickBrothers.com. We can collaborate, we can help them, they can help us. We want to pour into the next generation of Christian filmmakers. We feel like God has intrusted a lot into us and we don't want to sit on it and be selfish. We want to think long term on how we can help this next generation of Christian filmmakers to make a big impact for God.

We launched a website called LoveDareTest.com, where people can take a free marriage or parenting evaluation. It will then show them how they are doing and here's some verses where you can begin to focus in to make you stronger.

Love Him Madly: An Intimate Memoir of Jim Morrison (Book Review)

Love Him Madly: An Intimate Memoir of Jim Morrison paints a wonderful portrait of Morrison's love life and how the rock icon was off stage and out of the spotlight with the people he thought he loved and the people who loved him.

The book is written from the perspective of the author, Judy Huddleston, who's obsession with Morrison sees her passionately unrational at times as she wages an inner war and what she believes is true love.

Huddleston goes into to detail with every conversation putting the reader in the room with Judy and Jim. From the pillow talk to the drug infused incoherencies of a live free or go home hippie, everything is distinctly real and genuine.

Especially telling is the turmoil in Judy's mind between love and hate, and how easily she was able to have her feelings and emotions melted away at the mere sound of Jim's voice. 

Delving deeper into the abyss of Morrison's soul, the reader is able to understand the loneliness and utter depression of one of the world's biggest rockstars. Filling his life with mind altering substances, booze, and a plethora of woman, some he "loved" and others he forgot, Morrison was truly a tortured artist.

It started innocently enough, a fresh out of high school girl's infatuate crush of someone unobtainable. After attending a few Doors concerts and getting lucky enough to meet Morrison back stage after a show, she was hooked. Morrison became her drug of choice.

Leading the pack as some sort of head groupie, Jim took a liking to Judy and frequently called her when in town or when he needed late night action. However, Judy was different. She had a conscience, she had a soul, she wanted to be intimate with Jim on another level besides the physical. She usually obliged for fearing of losing him or for the chance to make him love her.

Their rendezvous became something sort of like a spiritual revelation as they became one in the physical, metaphysical, and sometimes mentally, but never emotionally. Jim was cold to the emotional stakes of love and the oneness and specialness of intimacy.

Regardless of some of these setbacks and the little jealous and non-chalant games they played together over the years, they had some sort of hypnotic spell that kept them coming back for more.

Judy was committed to this relationship despite Jim's non-comittment to anything. The only things he seemed to come back to was Judy, albeit in between a herd of other girls who couldn't connect with him or intrigue him mentally.

Towards the end of the book and ultimately Jim's life, an expressed profession of love was said between the two. Honesty started to flow between the two of them, there was hope for Judy's dream. At that time however, the drugs and the alcohol became to much for a mere mans body. He became gaunt, disheveled and unstable. His oozing sexuality and "god-like" stature was gone, he was the shell of what was.

Morrison's untimely death in Paris was the end of Judy's childhood, and although one life seemed to come to an end, her life really just began. She was free to be a person not bound by a life of inconsistency. Jim was alive in her memory and in every facet of her senses, and that affection would never grow stale.

Book Review on 'Fire' and Interview with Author, Mima

Fire is able to capture the essence of what it claims right on the cover, "The sweet side of love. The dirty side of rock."


The story follows the twists and turns of a music era that saw the beginnings of grunge music and gangster rap, the suicide of Kurt Cobain and the death of Tupac Shakur – both kings of the genre they helped set in place.


The sound was raw, the players were passionate, and music came from within the depths of the souls who created it.


Fire just doesn't define a band, it defines an era, an era where music shaped what was coming "tomorrow" and now that "tomorrow" is here, it never came.


The 90s are considered by many to be one of the biggest transitional phases of music following the unique sounds of the 80s and turning music into separate genres. 


The 90s split Punk Rock into hardcore, post hardcore, pop-punk, and power-pop. Metal became grunge, screamo, nu metal, rapcore, and progressive. And finally Hip-Hop became legitimate, leaving the confines of family friendly radio and party tunes with Dr. Seuss rhymes and becoming the powerhouse of music it is today. The 90s brought out West and East Coast rap, dirty south, gangster, pop rap, and political rap.


The author of Fire goes by the pen name of Mima. Fire is her first book and it starts with the initial spark of life in a band as they set their sights on something greater. 


Characters Tarah, Jimmy, William, Michael, and Eddie are thrusts into a whole new world – the music industry, where greed, tabloid gossip, and the party hard infested realities of being a celebrity become evident. 


The writing is witty, the emotions are real, and the story is heartbreaking and guaranteed to move you in some way. 


Once you pick the book up, you are sure not to put it down as you feel like you are inside the daily lives of the members of Fire.


The following is a Q&A with book author Mima

Where did you get the inspiration to write Fire?

The idea for Fire was actually floating around long before I actually sat down to write it. However, it was what I perceived as people's obsession with celebrity that probably was the biggest inspiration to actually start writing. It's the combination of everyone wanting to be famous but at the same time, almost not seeing celebrities as real people that I find kind of unsettling. With Fire, I really wanted to demonstrate that not only are celebrities real people with problems (that are often broadcast to the world), but also wanted to show that there is a great deal of work involved in 'being famous' - both breaking in and staying in the industry. And lastly, I feel that both the media, labels, management etc have a great deal to lose if celebrities aren't constantly in the public eye - whether it be in a good or bad light.

How long did this project take you start to finish?

I can't really say for certain because I always jump from one project to another, but I would say that I started to write and research for Fire probably in late 2008 - early 2009. The writing itself didn't take long, but research and publishing did take a little longer. Fire was published in January 2010.

What character do you identify with the most, and are these characters based on anyone?

It's funny because everyone always assumes I relate most to the main character, Tarah - but in many ways, I think Tarah is much more courageous than I am. I actually identify with Jimmy the most, although I relate to some aspect of all my characters. I never write about a character based on anyone. In fact, I introduce them into the story and they tend to form themselves. For example, Jimmy was supposed to be a minor character in Fire but he pretty much took over as soon as he arrived. That's why my next book is all about him.

What was the hardest part of the book and is there anything about the book you wish you could go back and change?

I would definitely go back and change my editor for the book! It's unfortunate how things played out, but it was my first time publishing and I was (and still am) learning as I go! There are definitely some things I would change in retrospect, such as dialogue and a few scenes. The most difficult part of the entire process would be getting a crash course on publishing, marketing etc...the actual writing, creating characters, etc is the easiest part.

Do you think this book would transfer well into a movie, and what actors/actresses would play the characters?

I actually think most of my writing would transfer better in movies than books simply because I often see writing as much more detailed in description and I would rather 'show'' people the story than have them read it. As for actors, it's hard to say. Best to not jump ahead of myself on this one.

What music do you listen to and what did you listen to in the early 90s?

POF of course! I actually listen to many kinds of music - everything from Katy Perry to Slipknot. I like music that is either really loud, really fast or has a lot of honestly and meaning in the words. I can't deal with country though. I listened to a lot of 90s music while writing, for obvious reasons. There is a very dark, intense feeling that seems to come with music during the entire grunge period that really sat with me the entire time I was writing Fire.

Why do you feel you were able to write this book, and what's your background/history with music?

Regarding 90s music, my background was mainly living through it. During the early 90s, music was a huge part of my life and in fact, most of the songs that I listened to during that time is connected to a very specific memory. I think just being a fan, reading a lot of biographies and really learning about the musicians and their lives is probably the most significant thing while writing this book. Anyone can look up facts - but you really have to understand the specific timeframe and how music related to younger people in the 90s. I also talked to various musicians and discussed their experiences, the good and the bad, etc.

What's in the future for Mima?

I have a new book coming out soon. It's the prequel to Fire, A Spark before the Fire. Right now that is my main focus, I also have another manuscript about teenaged bullying that I want to dust off. I also have another manuscript on the go about Vampires (just to jump on the bandwagon) and I might write a sequel to Fire. I also want to work on a screenplay someday....it's also on my never ending 'to do' list.




Check out Mima's sites
http://mimaonfire.com/
Facebook
Myspace
Twitter
Blogger
Goodreads

Read the first chapter of Fire here

Book Review on Christopher Grant's "TEENIE"

Author Christopher Grant

I can't ever remember picking up a book that I knew nothing about that had me so engrossed in the story from beginning to end. I read this book of about 250 pages in four days. Last night, I had to finish it, and continued on to read the last 80 pages. As promised in an earlier post, I will now review the book after talking about the reading at CSI. 

Chris Grant center with Professor Conti's class at CSI

Here are some quotes from his reading and Q&A

A student from the reading asked Grant, "Why go for a young adult book for your first novel?"

Grant- "I was asked to write a book, but was let down and pushed the book away for a few years. I took a writing class and showed the first two chapters to the class and they loved it."

Another student asked, "Why did you write from the perspective of a young girl, and what gave you that experience?"

Grant- "I felt uniquely equipped to write from a woman's perspective. I was raised by my mother and three aunts. I learned a lot from listening to girls talk on the train, and from my niece. Just listen, dialogue is flying around."

Speaking of dialogue, Grant also wanted to make sure there was no use of the "N" word, or profanity. He wanted the language to be almost like you are talking to your parents, and that's exactly how you feel. 

The Review

Teenie is the story of a young 14 year-old High School Freshman named Martine (Teenie). She has a loving family, annoying older brothers, and a handful of friends she hangs with. Things start to change however when she is noticed by the most popular boy in school, basketball player, Greg Millons.

Teenie goes through all the ups and downs of a normal teenage girl and then some. She grows up fast as her naive innocence comes to an end, and she learns the world can be a scary place. There are moments of laughter, scenes of sadness, and even priods of anger as Grant makes you feel as if you are in the story. 

Some of the topics aren't for the youngest of readers, but adult subject matter is referred to tastefully and PG rated. The book is based on everyday life, but most importantly, it teaches kids to not be afraid to talk or speak up when something is wrong. 


Overall Teenie is a great read from start to finish, and I'd recommend it for ages 13 and up. 

(This story will be in Broken Records Magazine and the CSI Banner as well)

CSI Class Gets a Taste of Art, Literature, and Reality

This post is a little different from most of the others, because it has nothing to do with music, nevertheless I continue. A few semesters ago I had a Journalism professor named Peter Conti. I'm extremely grateful I wound up in his class because he got my writing back on track, and really helped me polish what creativity was there. I really wasn't writing anything at the time except for assignments and songs. Also, because of his class I joined the college newspaper, and fell back in love with the feeling of sitting down and putting words on paper.

I've stayed in touch with PC "Peter Conti" since our class, and I was happy to help when he asked me to come to his class for a story idea he had.

His idea is pretty unprecedented for a College of Staten Island teacher. Conti is in the midst of teaching a three week course-SLS 303 (Modern/Post Modern Culture). Within those three weeks three guest speakers of prominence are addressing the class.

SLS 303 by Justin Sarachik

Last Friday, January 14th, internationally known artist Jun Cha, gave his presentation via the web over Skype. One look through this website http://www.juncha.net and you'll see that this 21 one year old self made success story means business. He does tattoo work for celebrities as well as paintings, design, and free hand drawing. Cha's art is other worldly, and it's no wonder why he's gaining so much attention.

Jun Cha video conference by Peter Conti

Unfortunately I wasn't there to see him, but I did go on Tuesday the 18th to see author Christopher Grant's reading of his critically acclaimed book TEENIE.

Conti met Grant through a pick up basketball game in the city. From there the relationship grew and they want on to begin a project co-writing a book about rapper T.I.

Grant was nice enough to stop by room 2N-116 at 9:30am all the way from Harlem. The class was excited to listen to him read excerpts from his book, and was even more eager to ask him questions afterwards.

Christopher Grant reading from his book TEENIE by Justin Sarachik

On Monday PC's class will be visited by NYC gang police officer, Damon Valentino. He is sure to paint a grim and very real picture of an underground culture that most Staten Islanders don't know about. I'm choosing to not write about this until the full article comes out because it is not art or entertainment related like the other two.

Anyway, that was a quick update, stories on Courtney Zito of Hollywood Girl, Drew Torres, and Zo2 coming!!!