I’m still getting comments and emails from folks about the New Bern event. Several have wondered how to replicate it. The honest answer is that I’m not sure, but as I blogged earlier, the New Bern event was a “boots on the ground” sort of thing.

It’s no secret that, once the Unseen Realm launches, the marketing folks at Lexham will want me to help promote it. That will mean speaking events. It might be a good idea for you all to start thinking about ways to organize something like the New Bern event. It would be nice to favor speaking occasions that derive from people who have followed my content for some time (and, truth be told, I like to talk about other things besides just what’s in my non-fiction). What I blogged about earlier about how the New Bern event came about applies for sure, but this is also about finding like-minded people within a geographic region. If a church isn’t going to get behind this sort of thing, then like-minded people have to collectively make something happen. That of course requires discovering where they / you all are.  In a nutshell, things will have to happen at the grassroots level. For the record, I’d rather speak to 20 people who are serious about engaging the material than 200 who aren’t (read: 200 who have to be convinced they need to care about getting their theology from the biblical text as opposed to some other source). As I’ve blogged before and said many times in emails, I’m looking for people who care. I’m not looking for crowds and popularity. I don’t need mass approval to feel like I know why I’m alive. I just want people who care about Scripture to get something out of what I produce. It’s pretty simple.

How can people find the like-minded online – specifically, where in one’s geographic area others with similar interests can be found? I’m sure there are several means, but the one I know about is this site. I’m guessing there are others like it. I don’t know much about Facebook to know whether that fits or not. I’m not really into social media, so this is a weakness for me. Perhaps readers have other good suggestions. At any rate, getting me to speak somewhere doesn’t require a church or organization, though they naturally help. I’ve had my “speaking policy” online for years now, too. It’s the third question from the top on my FAQ.

Sometimes I’ll be at a  location for some other reason and can tack on a day or two to speak. I don’t travel that often (at least to this point), but when I do I try and post something about it. My travel calendar for the near future, so far as I now know, is:

February 18-22 – Mesa/Scottsdale, AZ. I’m attending the IUFO Congress. I’m not speaking there. This is about promoting the novels and catching up with friends (and perhaps adversaries).

February 22-26 – Nashville, TN. I’ll be attending the NRB convention to promote Unseen Realm and Supernatural. Very little time to do much of anything here other than interviews.

March 7 – Portland, OR. This is the regional meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society. This year it’s at Western Seminary

March 27-29 – Portland, OR. This one is the Pacific Northwest meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature. It’ll be at Marylhurst University

I may be on the east coast this summer, after July 15, but the dates are uncertain. And the annual scholarly conferences in November (17-24) will be in Atlanta, GA.

We’ll see how things change after the book launches (Unseen Realm is still on pace for launching by the end of March; Supernatural may slip to April).