Chatting with author Christopher Moore

I'm finally prepped to post about Lamb: The gospel according to Biff, Christ's childhood pal by Christopher Moore!

To be honest, I took a long time to read the whole thing, but don't be fooled, the book is awesome and completely up my alley - hm...not sure that I like how that sounds. It's one of those novels that's great to limit your reading to a couple pages a day and really take it all in. You know, like the REAL bible...if you're into that sort of thing.

I took a little dose of Biff every day over the course of the winter thus far. It brought a smile to my face (not to mention tons of laugh-out-loud moments), plugged my heretical brain full of actual excerpts from the good book, and offered many tender moments to pull it all together. Not to mention sex scenes with seniors!

I'll be the first to explain that I'm spiritual rather than religious in the traditional sense, but I still have an appreciation for the fundamentals. I think that's why I was happy to read this interpretation of the story with a big helping of sarcasm, foul-mouthery, and wit. Speaking of which, here is one of many wonderful, hysterical excerpts. Joshua (Jesus) is explaining a rare conversation that he had with his father (God), and Biff giving his usual take on the situation:

"All men are evil, that's what I was talking to my father about."
"What did he say?"
"F*ck 'em."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"At least he answered you."
"I got the feeling that he thinks it's my problem now."
"Makes you wonder why he didn't burn that on one of the tables. 'HERE MOSES, HERE'S THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, AND HERE'S AN EXTRA ONE THAT SAYS F*CK 'EM...'"
"He doesn't sound like that."
"...FOR EMERGENCIES."

The best part of the whole experience is that Mr. Moore encourages readers to email him and lists his address on the back of all of his books. So, I called his bluff. I emailed him a couple questions and was amazed to see a response within twelve hours. It's a No Ordinary Rollercoaster exclusive!

NOR: Were you worried about tackling a project that required so much research, one that could potentially upset so many people? I think you struck a marvelous balance between humour and the truth behind the story but were you confident the whole way through? How did you ever convince yourself to take on the project?

CM: It was a huge, huge project. But I'd already written five funny books, it seemed like I should try to write a "hard" funny book. I had no idea whether I'd be able to pull it off. I've done that since, with Fluke and the one I'm working on, and it's always challenging, but usually I'm pretty happy with the results. Okay, challenging is an understatement. Let's just say there's lots of whining and anxiety on a day to day basis for a couple of years, but if you don't try it, you for sure won't do it, right? I mean, I'd failed before, they don't eat you. (Except for the book I wrote about the Pacific Islanders, they, actually, might eat you, but not because the book sucked.)

So that's that. I loved Lamb. You will too. Christoper Moore is hilarious and is awesome at blogger relations.

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Of vampires, old and new
The Golden Compass [print vs. screen]