INTRODUCING AND GOD SAID BILLY! A NOVEL BY FRANK SCHAEFFER About the Book And God said, “Billy!” is a darkly comic comingofage story written by the master story teller that author Andrew Dubus III hailed as the funniest American writer since Mark Twain. The story, set in the 1980s, introduces Billy, a young fundamentalist Christian who feels called to go to Hollywood to make “God’s movie”—a religiously motivated film he believes will further God’s intentions in the world. But everything goes off the rails when he accepts a job to direct a softporn slasher/exploitation film in apartheidera South Africa. Billy justifies compromises along the way by clinging to the hope his Bmovie efforts are being “used by God” and will become a “stepping stone” to his divinelysanctioned End Times picture. Billy loses his fundamentalist faith, his film career, his family and more but he finds a strange kind of peace in a most unexpected place. About the Author Frank Schaeffer is a New York Times best selling author of fiction and nonfiction. Frank’s highly acclaimed novels include Portofino, Zermatt, and Saving Grandma and have been translated into nine languages. His nonfiction includes Crazy for God and Keeping Faith. Frank is a frequent commentator on MSNBC and a blogger on the Huffington Post. Frank has overcome dyslexia and is also a survivor of polio and an evangelical/fundamentalist childhood. In his early days, he served as director and producer of four low budget Hollywood features Frank has described as “pretty terrible.” He lives with his wife Genie. They have three children and four grandchildren. “When the family business is religion, it is especially perilous. To millions of evangelical Christians, the Schaeffer name is royal, and Frank Schaeffer is the reluctant, wayward, traitorial prince. His crime...is turning his back on Christian conservatives.” The New York Times “And God Said Billy! Is laughout loud funny on one page. It’s downright insightful throughout and takes readers deep into the shallow psyche of a sincere CharismaticEvangelical whose God fails him. That failure turns out, through a hilarious series of tragic comic reversals, to be – let’s just say something close to miraculous. I love this novel.” Brian McLaren About And God Said Billy!
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INTRODUCING AND GOD SAID BILLY! A NOVEL BY FRANK SCHAEFFER
About the Book
And God said, “Billy!” is a darkly comic coming-‐of-‐age story written by the master story teller that author Andrew Dubus III hailed as the funniest American writer since Mark Twain.
The story, set in the 1980s, introduces Billy, a young fundamentalist Christian who feels called to go to Hollywood to make “God’s movie”—a religiously motivated film he believes will further God’s intentions in the world. But everything goes off the rails when he accepts a job to direct a soft-‐porn slasher/exploitation film in apartheid-‐era South Africa.
Billy justifies compromises along the way by clinging to the hope his B-‐movie efforts are being “used by God” and will become a “stepping stone” to his divinely-‐sanctioned End Times picture. Billy loses his fundamentalist faith, his film career, his family and more but he finds a strange kind of peace in a most unexpected place.
About the Author
Frank Schaeffer is a New York Times best selling author of fiction and nonfiction. Frank’s highly acclaimed novels include Portofino, Zermatt, and Saving Grandma and have been translated into nine languages. His nonfiction includes Crazy for God and Keeping Faith. Frank is a frequent commentator on MSNBC and a blogger on the Huffington Post.
Frank has overcome dyslexia and is also a survivor of polio and an evangelical/fundamentalist childhood. In his early days, he served as director and producer of four low budget Hollywood features Frank has described as “pretty terrible.” He lives with his wife Genie. They have three children and four grandchildren.
“When the family business is religion, it is especially perilous. To millions of evangelical Christians, the Schaeffer name is royal, and Frank Schaeffer is the reluctant, wayward, traitorial prince. His crime...is turning his back on Christian conservatives.”
-‐ The New York Times
“And God Said Billy! Is laugh-‐out loud funny on one page. It’s downright insightful throughout and takes readers deep into the shallow psyche of a sincere Charismatic-‐Evangelical whose God fails him. That failure turns out, through a hilarious series of tragic-‐comic reversals, to be – let’s just say something close to miraculous. I love this novel.”
-‐ Brian McLaren
About And God Said Billy!
MORE ABOUT FRANK SCHAEFFER AND HIS WORKS
Public Speaking
Frank speaks on the impact of religion on politics, his journey from being an evangelical leader (who hung out with the Bush family, Jack Kemp and other Republican leaders etc.) to becoming a spokesperson for progressive politics and religion. A series of 4 op-‐eds Frank wrote for the Washington Post on the military family are among the all time most read and reprinted. One (“My Heart on the Line” by Frank Schaeffer Tuesday, November 26, 2002; Page A29) was read out loud on NBC’s Meet the Press by Laura Bush on December 18, 2002.
From The Washington Post...
“[Schaeffer's] memoirs have a way of winning a reader's friendship… Schaeffer is a good memoirist, smart and often laugh-‐out-‐loud funny… Frank seems to have been born irreverent, but his memoirs have a serious purpose, and that is to expose the insanity and the corruption of what has become a powerful and frightening force in American politics… Frank has been straightforward and entertaining in his campaign to right the political wrongs he regrets committing in the 1970s and '80s… As someone who has made redemption his work, he has, in fact, shown amazing grace.” Washington Post, Jane Smiley
Ü Frank Schaeffer Video -‐ Click Here
Quotes from And God Said Billy!
Ü God’s voice was upbeat and cheerful like a car commercial announcer but even classier. Ü God had yelled “I smell Oscar!” so loud that I glanced over to Veronica to see if she’d heard Him. Ü The good Sisters were not Orthodox but be-‐ loved of God for He condescends to love all His sons and daughters of Christian, of Jew, of Muslim, of Hindu, of atheist.
Ü I was shivering. Was I dead? In screenwriting class there was a Philip K Dick quote was posted on the wall in big black letters: “Maybe each human being lives in a unique world, a private world different from those inhabited and experienced by all other humans.” I felt like that.
Ü The word “salvation” is a metaphor for the journey wherein we may repair the content of our characters so that we become more accustomed to the fire of God’s love and are not consumed by it.
Ü There is no Heaven or Hell. The fi-‐ nal reality is God’s love for everyone. ... Love is the deeper alternative to religious zeal.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
For more information or to book Frank Schaeffer for an interview, please contact [email protected]
LISTEN TO FRANK READ FROM AND GOD SAID BILLY!
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