Behind the Writing

We just made a funny little graphic for my blog’s new book store with a picture of all my books… and it had 20 covers. That made me pause.

Twenty! Wow. It doesn’t even feel like twenty.

If you asked me about each one of them I could probably tell you the story of writing it, where I was (The New Breed I pounded out the majority of my half in one weekend, The Guy’s Guide to God, Girls and the Phone in Your Pocket… I wrote on my back patio, 52 Ways to Connect with Your Smartphone Obsessed Kid… on a LazyBoy)… it’s fun to reflect. But it just doesn’t seem like 20.

If someone asks me how many books I’ve written, I honestly answer, “Depends who’s counting.” I have 20 books available on my Amazon author page, but one of them is really a video training curriculum with a guide (Real Conversations), another one is the Spanish version of Getting Students to Show Up (a solid book with an unfortunate title- the publisher titled that one, and I’ve taken flack from it ever since), and one is a set that contains my new Skinny on Volunteers book. But the Amazon page doesn’t have the e-book, What’s a Fo Sheezy, or the workbook Doug Fields and I wrote, Should I Just Smash My Kid’s Phone?

So how many?

Who cares. All I care about is when a parent comes up to me and says, “I’d love to go through something with my son– a discipleship tool to help him on his road to manhood.” I hand them a copy of my Guy’s Guide To God, Girls, and the Phone in Their Pocket. Or when a youth worker says, “What’s the most important thing I should be focusing on in ministry?” I hand them a copy of Connect or Ministry By Teenagers.” Or when a parent says, “I want to engage in meaningful conversations with my kids, but they just aren’t interested in any devotionals or typical Christian curriculum.” I hand them my Zombie Apocalypse Survival Guide for Teenagers for their kid, and Get Your Teenager Talking for the parent.

Someone just asked me, “What the best book you’ve written?”

How do you answer that?

Amazon readers have given the highest ratings to three of my books: 52 Ways to Connect… The Guy’s Guide… and Sex Matters. But the book that has overwhelmingly garnered the most positive feedback from readers (I always have about 30 people read my books before I turn them into the publishers) is the one coming out next January, If I Had a Parenting Do Over. It definitely has a different feel than anything I’ve written so far. It’s me looking back on my parenting mistakes and detail 7 vital changes I’d make. And if a parent asked me, “What one book should I read?” I’d hand them that book no question.

So that only leaves one question.

What’s next?

Hmmmmmm….