Readers Ask: How do Davis Bunn and Janette Oke Seamlessly Blend Their Writing Styles?
Mary writes:
Just finished reading The Centurion's Wife. Was wondering how you & Janette Oke managed to blend your writing styles so seamlessly?
Dear Mary:
Janette and I have written twelve books together now, and our creative methods have progressed with time and prayer.
I suppose that is the one element that is most important, our sharing this desire to serve with our words. It keeps us both humble and focused upon a greater goal that the moment and all the stress that comes through the creative process. We may be giving birth to just words but there is still this risk of focusing down on the small, the momentary, and losing sight of the greater good, the higher purpose, and all that might flow from our work, such as inspiring readers like yourself.
Prayer has remained an essential component of our time together, and our lives.
Kelli writes:
I just finished reading The Centurion's Wife and I LOVED the book.
Not only was it a love story between Alban and Leah, but the fact that you wrote it from the view of a Centurion and a palace servant trying to find answers was what I truly enjoyed. I enjoyed how the search for truth led them closer to each other and of course I loved the fact that they found the truth. To think that what Leah feared the most ended up being a good thing.
When I read about Cleopas on the road to Emmaus, it made me think of a song called I Can See. It is a beautiful song I still have stuck in my head. We all know how the story ended with Jesus and that we as gentiles can accept him, but I like that you had Alban wrestle with whether he could be a follower of Christ. I look forward to reading the other books in this series. Thank you.
Dear Kelli,
It is now almost four years since I wrote The Centurion's Wife with Janette Oke, and your words took me right back to the creative process and the prayers we shared in this period.
Alban's struggle was a crucial component of our story, one we spent a great deal of time putting together. Alban represents the gentile believer in that period before Paul of Tarsus, when the entire believing community was made up of Judeans.
This transition had to be represented there in this early moment, and show the direction that the disciples' revelations would soon illuminate.
Karen writes:
Next year in BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) we will be studying Acts of the Apostles. I have enjoyed the Acts of Faith series because you have not taken liberty with the characters or inserted elements that may not be scripturally correct.
What you have created very easily could be true if we really knew more about the lives of the Followers of "The Way."
Dear Karen,
The aim that Janette and I set ourselves was to maintain a sense of honest reflection upon the gift of God's Word, while creating a depth of character and narrative that heightened our connection to these vital events.
Anna, Tabitha, and Christi ask: Will there be a fourth book in the Acts of Faith series?
It is hard for me to accept that the trilogy – and my twelve years of working with Janette – have really drawn to a close. Janette does seem quite ready to call The Damascus Way http://www.davisbunn.com/book/the-damascus-way.htm her final book. It is a hard thing to write, as I have so enjoyed and cherished these joint efforts.
I still read these responses and feel my fingers reaching for the keyboard, as though I could somehow draw another book from our partnership. It has been so wonderful working with Janette, never more so than on this series.
