The Inside Scoop!

James L. Rubart

and his thinking man’s novel

The Five Times I Met Myself

Thomas Nelson

**********

I grew up in… the Pacific Northwest in the Seattle, WA area, as well as six years as a kid in eastern Washington.

I was inspired to write my first published novel by… my wife. She’s been my rock, muse, editor, inspiration, counselor and wise sage.

The books that have most influenced my life are… Mere Christianity, The Chronicles of Narnia (getting the feeling I’m a C.S. Lewis fan?), Wild at Heart, and the Bible.

My biggest challenge when writing is… getting started. Once I get going, I’m okay. But there are days when Procrastination Station is where I’m hanging out for hours at a time.

One of my favourite authors is… Stephen Lawhead. Why? When I thought there was no one writing the kind of stories I wanted to read (and the ones I wanted to write someday), I discovered Lawhead. He was a huge inspiration to me.

If I wasn’t a writer, I would be… an actor. I did a tiny bit of acting in high school and took a few acting classes in college. I’ve done a bit of improv and have loved it. Community theatre someday? Yeah, likely will.

The superhero talent I would love to have is… so hard to choose! But since I have to, I’m going to fly.

The Five Times I Met Myself

What if you met your twenty-three-year-old self in a dream? What would you say?

Brock Matthews’ once promising life is unraveling. His coffee company. His marriage.

So when he discovers his vivid dreams—where he encounters his younger self—might let him change his past mistakes, he jumps at the chance. The results are astonishing, but also disturbing.

Because getting what Brock wants most in the world will force him to give up the one thing he doesn’t know how to let go . . . and his greatest fear is that it’s already too late.

My latest novel can be described by these 5 adjectives… Fun. Introspective. Restorative. Thought provoking.

My main character is… in pretty good shape for a guy in his early fifties, 5’11”, dark hair with a touch of gray, loves to cook, still loves the Back to the Future movies, and then there’s his 23 year old self …

My main character resembles… A younger Harrison Ford.

A previously unknown fact about this novel is… how much of it I took from real life. People close to me will smile often as they see names, situations, people that they know in real life that somehow made their way into the book.

My story’s spiritual theme is… that there is hope, no matter where you are in your life, your job, your relationships. And if we dwell on what we think we didn’t do right in the past, it keeps us from seeing the glorious future God wants to take us into.

While writing this novel I was challenged by… rewriting it completely. No, I’m not kidding. I turned in my first manuscript and after reading it, my editor said it wasn’t going to work. She was absolutely right. So I took the basic concept as well as about 15% of the original material and redid the entire novel. Hard to go through that process, but so much the right choice. This version is SO much better than the first one.

The title was chosen by… my publisher, and I think it’s brilliant. I’ve had more positive reaction to the title of this novel than any of my previous six.

As an author, the hardest scenes for me to write are… ones that need a lot of description. Why? When my dream of being a novelist was still embryonic, I dabbled a bit with screenplays. So I get used to the idea of writing dialogue and nothing else. Plus, when I read novels, too much description bores me quickly. Because of that I’m not that keen on writing it.

The story I’m currently working on is… oh, wow, it’s a fun one! It’s called The Long Journey to Jake Palmer, and I just turned in the manuscript to my publisher. The quick background is my family and I spent many days during the past fifteen summers on a small lake in eastern Washington. One day we got out of the boat and punched our way through this mass of cat tails at the end of the lake and ended up in this vast field. Our sons were ten and eight, and I told them we’d just crossed over into another world. When I was brainstorming this book, my wife Darci says, “Why don’t you do make up a story about a lost corridor at the end of a lake where if you got through, you’d reach a place where you could get whatever you want most in life?” And that’s where the idea came from.

You may not know this about me, but I… play a mean 12-string guitar.

If I could be a character in any novel, I would want to be… Aragorn from Lord of the Rings. Doesn’t everyone? (A fun aside: Last summer I met Viggo Mortenson who plays Aragorn in the movie versions of LOTR and he was impressive. Kind, decent man.)

Thanks Jim!

James L. Rubart has a B.A. in broadcast journalism, and for more than 20 years he has also owned and operated his own marketing company. Ever since he was a little boy, Rubart dreamed of writing novels but didn’t begin his journey as an author until 2002. Since then, he has become a bestselling and Christy award-winning author of seven novels, including Rooms, Soul’s Gate and his most recent, The Five Times I Met Myself. Rubart is also a professional speaker.

Rubart says he feels like a 28-year-old trapped in an older man’s body and still thinks he’s young enough to water ski like a madman and dirt bike with his two grown sons. Rubart has spent his whole life in the Pacific Northwest and now lives with his amazing wife on a small lake in eastern Washington.

For more information about The Five Times I Met Myself and James L. Rubart, visit www.jameslrubart.com. You can also follow him on Facebook (JamesLRubart) or Twitter (@jameslrubart).

Relz Reviewz Extras
Jim’s guest post
Get to know Jim
Review of ROOMS & The Chair
Character spotlight on Micah Taylor
Pop Quiz with Jim
Visit Jim’s website and blog
Buy at Amazon: The Five Times I Met Myself or Koorong