Author Q 'n' A: Chris Brockman

Author of What about gods? and Malachi's Cove

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Chris, what is the main message you wish your readers to grasp from What about gods?

I assume that parents will be reading What about gods? to or with a child. The message is simple: There are no gods. The book is straightforward in its approach, giving parents substance and support to discuss this claim with their children.

What inspired you to write a book geared toward children, as opposed to adults?

When my children were young, I wanted them to come to the questions of God and religion naturally, when they were curious and able to deal with them in a thoughtful way. I wanted them to know that belief in a god was not important and had little to do with being good. But religion is ubiquitous and proselytizing by its nature. Even their little friends would bring up God to them. I realized a need to counteract Bible Stories in the doctor’s office and vacation bible school, so I wrote What about gods?

Chris, you and I share not only a friendship but also a reverence for the sun -- I as a believer, you as a non-believer. Do you find relationships such as ours occur more frequently now than in previous decades?

I think our friendship is rather unusual. Whereas I can appreciate people’s character and qualities separately from their religious beliefs (and people, especially Christians, wear their religion quite overtly), religious people usually want nothing to do with an atheist. I had a poem scheduled for publication in an online poetry journal this month, and the editor cut it at the last minute when she discovered I was a non-believer. The editor is overtly Christian, but the poem had nothing to do with religion. Religions demonize atheists, but non-believers are generally more ethical than those who have adopted a religious dogma uncritically, because they’ve arrived at their principles for being good by a process of thought.

Chris, tell me about your work with the book, Malachi's Cove:

I came across Anthony Trollope’s 1857 short story years ago, and I read it to my children. I thought it was too good to be relegated to the dustbin of literary history, so I reconstituted it as a young adult chapter book, with a few other minor changes. This was way before the self-publishing craze. I copyrighted my version, found an illustrator and designer, a printer, and a binder, and I had several hundred copies printed. The idea was to start my own press. It was a good idea, but I’m not much of a promoter.

What books have influenced you the most, as a person and as a writer?

A Dr, Suess book, McElligott’s Pool had a profound effect on me as a child. It carries the message that the world is full of wonderful possibilities that might come to pass if a person has imagination and patience. I also read a lot of science fiction as a youth, and all of Robert Heinlein’s books. His juvenile books have that same message, anything is possible if you’re resourceful and use your brain. I’ve used his Have Space Suit, Will Travel in my middle school English classes. I write mostly non-fiction and poetry, however, and my influences have been as eclectic as my reading.

Who are your favorite authors, and why?

I read mostly for information and to support my community college classes, but some books I’ve loved fairly recently are Rebecca Goldstein's 36 Arguments for the Existence of God, Sara Gruen's Water For Elephants, and Audrey Niffeneger's The Time Traveler’s Wife. I've read all of Jacqueline Winspeare's Masie Dobbs books, all of Wendell Berry's fiction, and almost all of Homer Hickam's books, so I guess I must like them.

What is Chris currently reading?

Aside from Southern Culture for my class of the same name, E.O. Wilson’s Anthill.

What writing projects are you currently working on? Forseeable publications?

I have a memoir manuscript, as well as a manuscript of themed children’s poems, I’m sending out when I get around to it. I have a couple of other children’s book manuscripts I’ll get around to finalizing one of these days, along with a collection of my adult poetry. I have a complete manuscript on alternative weddings and another of poems reinterpreting some famous Old Testament Bible stories. As I said, I’m not a very good promoter.
Where can we read more of Chris Brockman's writings?

A lot of things I’ve written are available on gather.com. I’ve published several essays in the Oakland Journal that are available in its archives online, the same for The Humanist. Someone could also buy a copy of What about gods? from Amazon.com, and I still have a few copies of Malachi’s Cove.

Please share the social networks where we may link up with you:

I am primarily active on gather.com, but I do have a presence on facebook.com

When Chris isn't writing, what might we find him doing? (Family, job, interests, and so forth.)

My children are grown, and they and my grandkids live in different parts of the country, so I don’t get to see them often enough. I work hard at being a community college English instructor and periodic part-time writer.

What is the most important statement on writing you'd like to share?

Writing allows us to think on paper.

What is the most important statement on life you'd like to share?

It’s good to be reasonable and reasonable to be good.
 
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I've recently had the pleasure of reading and reviewing Chris Brockman's publications and share the links to those book reviews: What about gods? and Malachi's Cove

Book Review: Malachi's Cove

Malachi's Cove
by Chris Brockman
Marigold Press, 1978, US
Hardcover, Literary Fiction, 48 pages
Review by Ruth Cox

The tale of Malachi's Cove, as told by author Chris Brockman, is of a Cornish girl, a young woman who possessed the height of stature in strength and fortitude. She was unstoppable in her plight to protect that which she felt she had earned to be hers. And now she felt this was her little cove, this place called Malachi's Cove by the people of the beach. For Malachi Trenglos had built his hut above and he and she had blazed the trail from the cliff to the sea.

Malachai, now called old Glos, had grown old and bent working the water for the gift of the sea and could do it no more. But fate had seen fit to grace him with a gem of a granddaughter who would toil the treacherous cove by day and by night to bring in the weed. Mahala, known to all along the coast simply as Mally, was a force to be reckoned with. The old ones respected her for caring for her grandfather and continuing his seaweed business; the young ones taunted her for her unkempt appearance and unladylike behavior. One lad, Bartholemew, found in her great pleasure. Barty insisted he and Mally would one day be friends.

Would Mally one day be Barty's treasure? Or, would she bring him to his early demise? There would be lessons to be learned by young and by old before the answers to these queries could be heard.

Barty scoffed at Mally's insistence the weed of the cove belonged solely to her. She considered him nothing but an interloper. A storm brewed between them as fierce as that which one day seized the overhead sky and the waves churning below. Both Mally and Barty fought feverishly to gather the seaweed, fiercely jabbing and jeering at one another all the while. Then there was a great Splash! and Barty was engulfed by waves cresting into the endless whirlpool inside the rock-lined hole.

Mally fetched old Glos, then ran to fetch Barty's family, and then she hid near the hut. As Barty's family carried their accusations and his broken body past her, she turned her head away, until a sound beckoned her back.

"Mally!" The lad whom she had been accused of killing called unto her ... proof she was not to be blamed.

Malachi's Cove by Anthony Trollope, was originally published in Good Words, 1864, and again in a collection of Trollope's short stories, Lotta Schmidt and Other Stories, 1867. Author Chris Brockman has edited this classic "to retain the flavor of the period in which it was written" while modernizing it for the reader's pleasure. Brockman adds and subtracts from the original version just enough to portray his own literary style. The beauty of Brockman's publication of Malachi's Cove is complimented by his chosen illustrator, Ken Green, whose graphic artistry enhances the text of the storyteller.


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This review is written and ©Ruth Cox. Reviews written by Ruth Cox are the sole property of said reviewer. This book review is written for and first posted to: Ruthi Reads! No monetary compensation is received in exchange for the writing of this review. A complimentary copy of the book was presented to said reviewer for personal reading and review purposes. This fact has no bearing on the written result of the review.

Book Review: What about gods?

What about gods?
by Author Chris Brockman
Prometheus Books, 1978, US
Children's Non-Fiction, 30 pages
Paperback, $12.98
ISBN: 0-87975-106-1
Review by Ruth Cox
 
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According to the King James version of the Bible, Proverbs 22:6, we are to "Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it." To most parents this instruction makes perfect and simple sense so they set out raising the recent addition to their family, basing their child-rearing on their own moral standards. New parents may seek or receive advice from family members, friends, and neighbors, as well as by reading books on the subject of raising a child. Ultimately, the parents will choose to raise their offspring in adherence to their own behavioral attitudes and beliefs.

In his book, What about gods?, author Chris Brockman addresses this child-rearing issue from the perspective of that of an atheist, or non-theist. Not so simple; not back in the mid-seventies when the book was written, nor even still today. For example, it is only within the last decade that atheism has been taught in British schools. In the United States, presidents ask the people to bow their heads in prayer for their nation. The general population of the universe has long believed in a god or gods. The atheist simply does not.

So what resources are non-theist parents to avail themselves of to combat what their children are being told about god by children in the community raised in a religious family household? How do the atheist parents combat the shoving-it-down-your-throatism of a religious community when trying to train their children in the way they believe their children should go?

Brockman answers these questions by providing a non-fiction children's book which parents can read with their children. He begins by defining a god as "a mythical character" made up "to explain things people don't understand." Brockman goes on to explain that through science we have outgrown the need for make-believe gods through "thinking, measuring, and testing." What about gods? instructs children to ask "about what it means to be good, and what it means to be bad," eschewing the need for rules set forth by a god when one can think from within oneself to determine what one should or should not do, for the good of oneself, as well as for all of humanity.

God. It is odd how such a tiny little word can hold the power to wreak limitless havoc in the mind of mankind. Perhaps what Chris Brockman is trying to convey to the believers of an all-powerful deity with What about Gods? is parallel to what Stephen F. Roberts wrote, "I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours."

And to the children, this message from Chris Brockman: Keep on thinking.

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This review is written and ©Ruth Cox. Reviews written by Ruth Cox are the sole property of said reviewer.

This book review is written for and first posted to: Ruthi Reads! No monetary compensation is received in exchange for the writing of this review. A copy of the book was purchased by said reviewer for personal reading and review purposes.

For your convenience a link to purchase this book through Amazon is included. If purchase is made via this link, said reviewer will receive a referral commission.

What About Gods? (Skeptic's Bookshelf Series)

Book Signing Events: Author Brenda Youngerman

My friend, author Brenda Youngerman, has just released her latest novel, Restored Hope. If you happen to be in the area, do drop by one of her August book signings to get your signed copy of this beauty of a book!

Book Signing:
August 5, 2010 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Williams Bookstore
443 W. 6th Street
San Pedro, CA 90731

and

Book Signing -
August 29 - 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Martha's Bookstore
308-1/2 Marine Avenue
Balboa, Island
92662

Restored Hope, is the latest in a series of Fiction With A Purpose. Brenda writes her novels based on the human condition. I've just ordered my signed copy direct from Brenda and you can too! Just visit BrendaYoungerman.com to place your order and be sure to visit her blog Brenda Youngerman - Fiction With A Purpose and comment to let her know you've just placed your order for a signed copy!