I’ve blogged about The Turning and the very positive effect it has had on my spiritual walk even though it is a work of fiction. I’ve shared the message of the book on FaceBook and other media outlets. Today I had the opportunity to interview Davis Bunn in person.

I’d met Davis on two occasions previously, but he had no reason to remember who I was although he did remember one of the events. Davis is one of the best of the best in our profession – in fact, he’s being inducted into The Christy Award’s Hall of Fame and is the M.C. for the event. Despite the pressures on his time, he was a very gracious interviewee.

Davis told me his first passion was fantasy and science fiction. As he’s surveyed our world today, he’s become dismayed by what is happening around us. The Turning, he related, is not so far afield from those genres because an epic is a hero’s journey, where what’s happening inside parallels outside events. In other words, a hero is born when right action evolves from right thinking. This is central and involves “enormous concepts.” The Turning was not an entirely new focus for Davis as The Warning (2001) and The Presence (1992), both published with Bethany House, presaged the current book.

Davis was able to share that he has just signed a 6-book contract with Revell that he will be writing under the pen name of Thomas Locke. The working title for the first book is “Emissary,” and Davis says it is a classic fantasy for the modern reader.

Having been asked my classic question, “What do your readers not know about you?” Davis says that despite his busy schedule, he tries to teach a class for writers at least once a month pro bono – he says it’s not just education, a giving-back. He says “teaching is tithing.”

He then asked me why the interview when I’d already reviewed The Turning. I gleefully told him, “Because your publicist offered you to me!” At that, he smiled, shook my hand, and departed to get ready for The Christys.

I received a complimentary copy of The Turning from River North Fiction in exchange for my honest review.