Ray Sutherland is a Kentucky native who grew up on a
farm outside of Bowling Green. He served in the Army, spent two years in
Germany, received his B.A. in religion from Western Kentucky University, and
his PhD in the Bible from Vanderbilt University. Ray has served of Professor of Biblical
Studies at the University of North Carolina-Pembroke for over thirty years,
pastored a small church for nine years, and is retired from the Army Reserve.
He and his wife Regina live in North Carolina and have two sons and four
grandchildren.
INTERVIEW:
Mayra
Calvani: Please tell us about Secret Agent Angel, and what compelled you to write it.
Author: If
angels are God’s secret agents then you know there are some really good secret
agent stories they could tell, and my first novel Secret Agent Angel tells some of them in first person as told by
one of the angels. Samuel is an angel who often comes to earth in human flesh
and blood form to be God’s secret agent. Samuel specializes in persuasion and
encouragement of people in a crisis, refers to God as “the Boss,” enjoys the
unpredictability of humans, has a weird sense of humor, and is a junk food junkie.
By design, he often is as unaware of the Boss’s real purpose as are the humans
he comes to help and as a result has some significant misadventures along the
way and even some failures. But he persists in the certainty that God will put
it all to good use, even if humanity and even Samuel himself don’t see how.
My
main purpose in writing the novel was to tell a story that was entertaining,
exciting, and uplifting. It takes a cue
from Billy Graham’s book “Angels: God’s Secret Agents” and tells of the adventures
of one of those angels who serves as one of God’s secret agents.
M.C.:
What is your book about?
Author:
Secret
Agent Angel tells of the exploits and adventures of an
angel who comes from heaven to earth to help some humans through various
crises. Samuel the angel specializes in persuasion, but sometimes gets the
chance to do a little more. Samuel comes to protect a porter on the Ho Chi
Minh Trail in 1968, to persuade truckers in 1970 Omaha to take an interest in
an abused child, to a World War II veteran in a dream to get him to forgive the
Germans, to an accountant in the present U.S.A. to get the accountant to treat
an account ethically, and they all come together in a contemporary truck stop
where they have to oppose a powerful fire demon who threatens to undo all their
good work. Unless Samuel has been successful in strengthening several peoples
spirits.
M.C.:
What themes do you explore in Secret
Agent Angel?
Author:
God is always at work around you. You have a
soul; take care of it. (Both of those statements are borrowed. Both are very
good.)
M.C.:
Why do you write?
Author:
I write as entertainment first, then to uplift.
If I’m writing something and it doesn’t entertain me, I drop it. I also try for
writing a story that is spiritually and emotionally uplifting. I want the
reader to leave the story feeling good and with optimism.
M.C.:
When do you feel the most creative?
Author:
When I’ve written six pages in one day. If
they’re good.
M.C.:
How picky are you with language?
Author:
I’m impatient with endless polishing and rearranging.
I’m very picky about story and plot. I try very hard to write a scene
correctly, but my goal is to get it right the first time. I don’t assume that
my first draft is perfect and I am willing to make adjustments and, above all,
to fix problems, but my goal is to get it right the first time and then leave
it alone. Can’t always do that, but that’s the goal. Pretty language is good,
but the story takes precedence.
M.C.:
When you write, do you sometimes feel as
though you were being manipulated from afar?
Author:
Very little and when I feel that, I strongly
suspect that it’s my subconscious, not an outside power. I have to think too
intensely and work too hard at writing to believe that some outside power is
controlling me. Robert E. Howard, the creator of Conan, said that sometimes he
felt as if he were simply relating someone else’s adventures as if that hero
were telling them to him in random order. I seldom had any such feeling. My
feeling was that the story was up to me and that it would succeed or not
depending on how good a job I did.
M.C.:
What is your worst time as a writer?
Author:
Rejection.
M.C.:
Your best?
Author:
When Secret
Agent Angel was accepted for publication. Another is when my wife told me
that I had written a good book.
M.C.:
Is there anything that would stop you
from writing?
Author:
Death or dementia. Otherwise, I’ll keep on.
M.C.:
What’s the happiest moment you’ve lived as an author?
Author:
That’s a tie between finally finishing Secret
Agent Angel and when it was accepted for publication.
M.C.:
Is writing an obsession to you?
Author:
No. I enjoy writing and I love thinking up stories, but it doesn’t take over my
life. In my regular job I’m a college professor and being obsessed with writing
would be detrimental to that very important work. Still, when I’m deep into a
writing project, I get into it so much that it gets difficult to do other
things.
M.C.:
Are the stories you create connected
with you in some way?
Author:
All of the episodes in Secret Agent Angel relate
to parts of my life. I have spent much time in hospitals, trucks, tanks, truck
stops, and hamburger joints. The main exception is that I have never been on
the Ho Chi Minh trail. That chapter took a lot of research.
M.C.:
Ray
Bradbury once said, “You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy
you.” Thoughts?
Author:
Reality doesn’t destroy my stories, it informs them, even the fantasy part.
Especially the fantasy part. Even though the main character in the book is an
angel, he appears to people who are very realistic people and are in very
realistic situations. I am firmly convinced that we have spiritual assistance
more often than we think. I strongly believe that is reality, so from that
perspective, even the angelic visitation element is reality.
M.C.:
Do you have a website or blog where
readers can find out more about you and your work?
Author:
raysutherland.com is my website.
