Churchill on writing books

Winston Churchill once said that writing a book goes through five phases. In phase one, it is a novelty or a toy. But by phase five, it becomes a tyrant ruling your life. And just when you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling it into the public.
~Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, Built to Last (New York: Harper Collins, 2002), p.ix.

I resonate with that quote so strongly, especially because, at this point in the brief history of my life, I am at phase five with one book and close to it (probably phase 4.9) with another.

Most of my 10s of readers (are you still there?) know that I've long been working on a book on the process of transition from seminary to ministry. Lord willing, this November that book will be released by Doulos Resources; From M.Div. to Rev.: making an effective transition from seminary into pastoral ministry is about 90% complete, and I'm earnestly hopeful that I might finish the manuscript in the next month.

You may also be aware that, a few years ago, I realized that I needed to carve a section out of that manuscript and use it to form a separate book on surviving and thriving in seminary. It wasn't very long after that point that I came in contact with Mark Warnock, who writes a blog entitled Seminary Survival Guide. We quickly figured out that we should combine our efforts to fight the powers of evil, and we began to hammer out a hybrid of our collective work into what is now taking shape as a book. We're still working on a title, but we're considering Mastering Divinity (and Other Myths): a seminary survival guide.

Soon I will fling the beasts out into the public! Get ready...