Alumnus Chris Well (B.S. ’91, Mass Communications) is a novelist and magazine editor.  His first novel, “Forgiving Solomon Long,” made the 2005 Top Ten Christian Novels list of Booklist magazine, published by the American Library Association.  His second novel, “Deliver Us From Evelyn,” was published in 2006, and his third novel, “Kingdom Come,” was released this April.  Well also works as the editor for Homecoming Magazine and as a contributing editor for CCM Magazine.  He and his wife live in Nashville, Tennessee.  This interview was conducted in August of 2006.

Q:  I’ve never heard of a “Christian novel” before.  What, for you, defines a Christian novel?

A:  Actually, your question is more complicated than it sounds.  First of all, by genre, I write crime thrillers.  (Actually, they have been referred to as “laugh out loud crime thrillers.”)

My novels tend to revolve around off-kilter characters who get involved in sometimes zany situations, which often draw comparisons to Elmore Leonard (“Get Shorty”) and Gregory Mcdonald (“Fletch”).  Since my novels feature complex characters in ensemble pieces, I am also compared to James Ellroy (“L.A. Confidential”) and Ed McBain (“87th Precinct”).

As for the term “Christian novel,” it is often used to mean one of several completely different things.  In the case where it means “a novel that is informed by a Christian worldview,” that category includes a wide variety of works and novelists, ranging from Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe” (the first modern novel as well as the first Christian novel) to popular authors today like John Grisham.  The Pulitzer-winning “Gilead” is also considered by many to be a “Christian novel.”  Classic writers in this category include C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Graham Greene, G.K. Chesterton, Dorothy L. Sayers, Walker Percy, and Flannery O’Connor.

Q:  Can you briefly outline the storylines and major messages behind your novels?

A:  In my first novel, “Forgiving Solomon Long”, a hit man is haunted by a preacher’s dying words:  “I forgive you.”  It’s an ensemble piece, so there is also a plot about a crime family that makes the mistakes of King Lear and a cop so focused on bringing in the bad guys that he doesn’t notice his own marriage disintegrating.

My second novel, “Deliver Us From Evelyn,” is about a missing media baron, and a crooked traveling preacher who tries to take advantage of the situation.  Everyone from the cops to the mob is scrambling to find the missing husband of heartless media mogul Evelyn Blake, but nobody can decide which is worse—that he is missing, or that she is not.  It draws on my 20 years as a magazine editor, and all of the crazy stuff that happens behind the scenes.

I am working on my third novel right now, “Kingdome Come,” for an April 2007 release.  I don’t want to give away too much about it too son, so let’s just say it is my off-center answer to an “end-times thriller.”

As far as my “major messages,” my stories all seem to revolve around the principle of “you reap what you sow.”  Every act a person does, no matter how small it may seems, is a seed planted.  And someday—maybe sooner, maybe later—there will be consequences.  Since my novels all seem to involve zany, larger-than-life crime figures, we see this concept played out in a big way.

Q:  Where do you get the ideas behind your stories?

A:  I start out with the kernel of the idea—the problem or situation that will anchor the plot.  Then I start adding assorted characters, trying various ideas out, and seeing how they ricochet off each other.  I usually start out with some ending in mind, but have found that as new characters become part of the situation, they story drifts further and further away from what I expected, which helps keep it fresh.

Q:  How much of your real life experience goes into your fiction work, and what type of research is required to write a quality novel?

A:  The character bits often come from either my own experience or the experiences of people I know.  Some of my own personality traits pop up in my recurring cop characters, Detective Charlie Pasch and Detective Tom Griggs.

But many of the situations themselves are either based on some classic story (like the Shakespeare parallels in “Forgiving Solomon Long” and the “Tartuffe” allusions in “Deliver Us From Evelyn”), inspired by events in the news or by my research into the workings of organized crime.  I also end up researching items for little side stories, everything from whether powder creamer is flammable to the plight of the Dalits in India.

Q:  About how long does it take you to complete a novel?

A:  It’s hard to say, because there is a lot of time where the story is percolating in the back of my mind.  [In terms of] actual sit-down and write time, each novel takes 12 to 13 months, give or take.  But even as I write my third novel for 2007, I already have the next two percolating, for 2008 and 2009, respectively.  Since most novelists have to keep their day job, and I am part of that statistic, it’s like an extra full-time job with only part-time pay (and that’s best-case scenario).

Q:  Who publishes your novels?

A:  I am contracted right now with Harvest House for five novels.  That takes me through 2009.

Q:  Did you have many rejections prior to being published?

A:  Not as a novelist.  But my connections, and my writing style, came as a result of 20-plus years in magazines, as a freelance writer and editor.  Everybody has to pay their dues somewhere.

Q:  How persistent do you have to be as a writer?

A:  Very.  It takes persistence to sell that first book to a publisher, persistence to publicize your first book while writing the second one, and persistence to keep going when you realize today’s publishing market is very anti-new author.  That’s what comes when more and more of the stores and publishing houses are owned by fewer and fewer people.  I may be “set” for these first five novels, but that is hardly the time for me to relax.

Q:  What do you hope audience members get out of experiencing your novels?

A:  I hope readers are entertained, but also come away thinking about their role in the world.  That is, how they treat the people around them, and also how they treat the world.  In the second novel, the con artist uses the plight of the Dalits as part of his scam and learns something in the process.

Q:  Do you hope to transform readers in any way?

A:  It seems arrogant to expect my work alone to do something that enormous.  But I would love for my fiction to be a part of the reader’s spiritual journey.

Q:  At what point did you know you wanted to be a novelist?

A:  I have always loved telling stories.  When I was at SIUE, I was focused on telling those stories through radio dramas and teleplays and other art forms.  Being a “novelist” is a more recent tangent, one I am still growing into.

Q:  How did you go from having a degree in Mass Communications to writing novels?

A:  Although my degree was in Mass Comm, I have actually been in magazines most of my career.  For the past 13 or 13 years, I have been a full-time magazine editor.  In the course of my job, I am acquainted with many who work in book publishing.

One in particular, the acquisitions editor at Harvest House, remarked he thought I should write a novel.  I was too busy to seriously consider his suggestion at the time, but for several years his comment was in the back of my mind.  Then in 2002, when the company I worked for went out of business, I finally had some time on my hands, so I started discussing the idea seriously with him.  Even with my “in,” there was another year of back-and-forth before I had something he felt was strong enough to share with the publishing committee.

Q:  What were your career goals when you were earning your degree and how have they changed?

A:  The core goal really has not changed:  I have always wanted to be a storyteller.  However, while at SIUE, I had Hollywood in mind and even wrote a screenplay and some television scripts.  After I went out into the working world, though, I spent the next 15 years working in radio and in magazines.  In a way, my recent successes as a novelist is me finally circling around and coming back to some of my aspirations from college.

Q:  How did your experience at SIUE lay the foundation for your later success as a writer?

A:  I learned about the power of narrative from a variety of classes, including classes in television scriptwriting, the history of theatre, and popular literature.  I also gained quite a bit working at The Observer and at The Alestle, learning from my supervisors and by doing the work.  That was probably the best thing that SIUE offered me—the variety of writing experiences available.

Q:  Finally, what advice do you have for aspiring writers?

A:  Writing is a craft that is learned.  However the art comes to you—a chance meeting, a dream, brainstorming, whatever—it has to be crafted before it is ready to show the reader.  And the best way to learn that craft is to write—a lot.  Write for your college paper, take writing courses in college, write for your local newspaper, write for your church newsletter.  Any opportunity you can find to write is an opportunity to learn and stretch and grow.  And, your first draft is never your final draft.

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