Are you ready?
Welcome to the next two years of my life. After a pretty intense few months of getting it exactly right, I've just submitted the proposal for my first book: Rapture Ready! Adventures in the Strange Pop Culture of the Religious Right. [Update: The new, more accurate subtitle is Adventures in the Parallel Universe of Christian Pop Culture.]
It's a first-person journey through the mirror universe of conservative evangelical entertainment and media — written, as my agent assures publishers , "in a tone that is amusing yet respectful, entertaining yet thoughtful." I've already been having a lot of fun with it, and I'm pretty excited about going forward once it gets picked up. With luck, it should be in stores sometime around Summer, 2008.
Not sure how much I'll be talking about it here, but if you notice any extended absences, it probably means I'm at a rave, or a wrestling match, or a theme park somewhere, trying to figure out what the hell heck is going on.
Comments
Good luck..I'll be interested to read it. I spent the first 18 years of my life in the world you're investigating. Now I spend my summers and holidays there. Quite fascinating really.
Posted by: Jessica | November 16, 2005 4:18 PM
No, Daniel: if there are any extended absences, it'll be because the Rapture came and you were Rapture Ready by dint of your research. Duh.
Posted by: Steve | November 16, 2005 7:12 PM
Instead of a dog wearing a t-shirt, perhaps a fish wearing a barrel?
Posted by: Jim Treacher | November 17, 2005 12:55 AM
I'm looking forward to the book, but please, feel free to drop the "respectful" stuff. To be honest, I've gone (over the last few years) from tolerating religio-crazies to being really sick of them. They're not willing to leave me alone, so I don't want to see them treated with respect.
Posted by: Sean Warren | November 17, 2005 9:12 AM
As one who grew up in the heart of Texas, and who went to a public high school where "rapture ready" t-shirts were not an anomaly by any means, I'm eagerly anticipating. As a model, Dan, I'd suggest Jon Ronson's "Them: Adventures With Extremists."
Posted by: Matt | November 17, 2005 3:35 PM
Ooh, I'm looking forward to this, too...I spent the first 22 years of my life in that world, and emerged with very little bitterness (and a bachelor's degree from an evangelical college). Curious to see your treatment of it.
Posted by: R | November 17, 2005 5:08 PM
Fundagelical oddities were my first inspiration to keeping a weblog.
Honestly, I think the only way to treat this is with the happy laughter of H.L. Mencken.
Hope you focus on the more obscure stuff and not obvious targets like Left Behind.
Posted by: Richard Evans Lee | November 20, 2005 5:51 PM
I hope you get a huge advance
Love, Mom
Posted by: Alice Radosh | November 21, 2005 7:12 AM
if you ever need a translator, just ask.
Posted by: John Wilkins | November 28, 2005 4:45 PM