Genesis: How The Book Came About
About 15 years ago, I sat in our church on a warm afternoon. Our pastor, a quiet man in his 60's gave his sermon.
I can’t remember the message, but he talked about his workload. At the time, I think he was alone in our rambling 19th-century rectory. I remembered the first Mass of his I attended. He told the congregation that he waited to become a priest because he liked girls.
Good for you, Father, I thought. I like girls, too.
On this Saturday, his office seemed to wear on him.
“I’m tired,” he said. “I did seven Masses this week.”
His remarks sounded more as-a-matter-of-fact, not a whine. I sat there thinking it was too bad he had no help. When we moved to our current parish, two priests usually were on hand plus a chaplain who worked at the nearby state mental hospital. In the 90s, the parish would be reduced to a sole full-timer. An occasional priest might slip in for a weekend to help out.
Wouldn’t it be nice if a second priest would be added? What if someone impersonated a priest to help the church?
That’s crazy. No one could pull that off. But there have been con men from the start of the planet.
I remembered the Tony Curtis picture, “The Great Imposter,” where Ferdinand DeMara posed as several different people, including a surgeon.
Okay, maybe someone could pull it off. How could someone provide bogus credentials and establish credentials as a working priest?
That’s all I had. I already had written two novels by then. One was a newspaper novel, the other a coming-of-age fiction. Of course, both were budding New York Times bestsellers collecting dust in a file cabinet.
The germ tickled my head for months. I collected bits of plot ideas and possible characters. I worked on other books.
Now in the 21st century Begin With Me has become a reality. Like any book, it’s a labor of love, and I hope you love it