Local author, Thom Mollohan, releases second book
GALLIPOLIS – Local author, pastor and Christian inspirational speaker Thom Mollohan recently released his second book, Crimson Harvest. Mollohan is also the author of The Fairy Tale Parables: Classic Fairy Tales Pointing to God’s Love and Truth.Q&A with the Author
GHH – You recently released Crimson Harvest. Tell me a little about the story. What was the inspiration for the story?
Mollohan – Well, Crimson Harvest is a sort of Christian response to the “What if…” of vampires. Basically, a young woman named Heather is drawn into believing that “a little stepping-over-the-line can’t hurt anything.” Of course, her doing so is the “trigger” for a very scary turn of events for her and her family. But it also sets the stage, ultimately, for a reckoning between good and evil and shows how faith, or rather the One in Whom she places her faith, saves the day, so to speak.
I am, of course, just wanting to tell a tale that is exciting and suspenseful. In that sense, it’s simply a story. I tried to write it in in such a way that it would appeal to a young adult or teen, but I wrote it so that it would also have significance for someone looking for something “meaty”. In fact, if you like hidden meanings in names and so forth, I enjoyed playing little word games when I wrote Crimson Harvest (most of which are ridiculously obscure).
Anyway, what seemed to happen, interestingly enough, is that over time, as the “what if” grew in my mind, there ended up being an increasing significance to the idea of “vampire” in the context of Christian thinking.
Diane, my wife, and I have worked with young adults in one way or another for over twenty years now, and have had the privilege of walking with them through some very sticky situations. We’ve seen, for instance, the power that the longing to be loved or the urge to escape pain can have over young men and women and how they can become seduced by the false promises of people who will say whatever works in snaring them. We’ve seen how these things can draw people into some tragic situations.
As the popularity of vampire literature has grown over the years, it began to dawn on me that “vampire”, in the classic sense of a life-stealing personality, is a perfect term to apply to the social pressures at work in our world that exploit the young and unwary. I remember reading some time ago that more money is spent on marketing to teens and young adults than any other group. Whether people believe in a literal devil or not, there are some really bad guys out there who want our kids. Drugs, gangs, and human trafficking are all extreme example of the reality of it.
Of course, I do believe in a literal devil, and I really believe in evil. Crimson Harvest was hard for me to write because I had to decide early on not to “tone evil down”. I’ve seen real evil and I don’t like looking at it. But we can’t really grasp virtue or love or anything good unless we take a long, hard look at evil, too. In fact, I personally would go so far as to say that we can’t really grasp God’s love for us unless we are willing to take long, hard look at the condition of our own hearts and what it did in putting Christ on the cross.
GHH – What do you hope people walk away with after reading your book?
Mollohan – It’s a fast-paced book, so it might not allow for as much opportunity to reflect as I might like, but I still hope that it invokes some thinking about life, the false-promises swirling around us with which our kids must wrestle, and, most importantly, the grace of God that forgives and heals and makes us clean.
GHH – When did you first start writing?
Mollohan – I’ve been writing something most of my life. (laughs) I wrote half-a-novel over the course of a few years when I was a teenager, but couldn’t resolve to my satisfaction where it was going. I still have the notes for it somewhere, but I think that if I ever pick it up again, I will go a different route with it now.
GHH – What is your writing process? Do you have a certain number of pages a night you write?
Mollohan – The writing process for an article or a short story is pretty much starts for me with an idea that I need to get down on paper. I recognize the source of inspiration as God’s stirring something in my mind and heart and I reflect on how that idea lines up with the Bible. I then sit down with the idea and start writing around it until it finally congeals into a (more-or-less) permanent form, although I’ll pick it to death if I don’t finally submit it. There comes a point when I simply have to say, “I’m done with this now, even if it isn’t quite perfect, because I’ve got other things I have to do.”
As far as books go, I’ve got four more books in progress at the moment. Two are novels, one as a sequel to Crimson Harvest and the other as a major enlargement of a short story I once wrote. Another book is the development of an article I wrote a year or so ago on experiencing a deeper and more victorious spiritual life, and the last one is on what being a dad and husband has taught me about God and the Kingdom of Heaven. This last one is in the final revision stage so I’m hoping to be able to have it out by next year sometime.
Most of the time, notes for my books get scribbled on whatever scraps of paper that I have handy. Sometimes I have a hard time reading what I’ve written, but when I’m excited about an idea, I get a little hasty and sloppy. I then start to organize the notes into an outline, researching elements as necessary. I usually start drafting chapters at that point (when I have time, which seems like never). (laughs)
GHH – Anyone in particular who helps you through the writing process and after?
Mollohan – My wife, Diane, is the biggest help. It seems that God is always using her wisdom and faithfulness to grant me a bigger (and better) perspective on life. My children are great mechanisms of inspirations also. They all know (at least a little) The Fairy Tale Parables, but Ben, my oldest son, is the only one who’s read Crimson Harvest. Even though it is redemptive in the end, it comes across as a bit too dark for the others.
Overall, I’ve been richly blessed in that I’ve had friends and other family members who’ve prodded me at key moments. My sister, Vicky, for instance, encouraged me greatly. And then there is my friend, Kent Williams, who volunteered to go through my final draft of Crimson Harvest. I remember a few years ago when Kent and I were talking about the whole vampire as a “symbol of the times” thing and that he told me I should write a story about it. I decided to play a joke on him and actually do it.
Both Crimson Harvest and Mollohan’s first book, The Fairy Tale Parables: Classic Fairy Tales Point to God’s Love and Truth are available through booksellers like Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Books-A-Million. The electronic version of Crimson Harvest is available only through Amazon. Mollohan’s publisher, PublishAmerica, was suggested to him by another local author, Paula Blevins.
No comments:
Post a Comment