Author Interview – Miguel Covarrubias

1: Tell us a little about yourself

Hello! I’m Miguel Covarrubias. I’m a storyteller with an insurance day job. I’m a writer over at TheHonestFaith.com, a podcaster with my wife on “The Patron Saints of Pop-Culture” podcast, a father to one amazing little boy, and a former youth minister.

2: Tell us a little about your book

“The Boulevard of Broken Dreams: A youth minister’s story of being shattered” is my story of wanting my dream so badly that I did whatever it took to get it. Turns out when you do that, you kind of anger a lot of people along the way. It’s my struggle with being human and being a minister which, when you think about it, shouldn’t be at odds. However, I found that it quite frequently was.

3: Why write this book? What was the driving force/inspiration?

I needed to tell my story. I see all too often those in youth ministry, even those in other ministries, who struggle with this dichotomy of being human and being in ministry. My main hope with the book was that it would help others feel not so alone. All too often there is this idealized vision of being in ministry. As if, only one heeds the call, there would be a grand world-changing moment. The world and ministry don’t work like that, but we do change the world in little ways. I think all to often the dream and the ideal get tied into our own little delusions of grandeur. When those get shattered, we get shattered. It’s a tough and painful process, but sometimes it is the lesson we need to learn. I hope that through my writing someone will see that it’s okay to walk away. It’s okay to look back and see that you did do some good, even if it was in small seemingly insignificant ways. I want people to know that they are not alone in this, that they matter.

4: What was the greatest challenge in writing it?

Not getting distracted. I started writing this book in 2015 it took until 2017 to finish. I did go through a major edit at the time as well. I would say that editing is probably my greatest weakness when it comes to my writing. Sometimes you are way too close to the story to begin taking a step back to look at what you wrote to see it with a critical eye. So, that was two challenges, but I think that I worried so much about the editing that it caused me to get distracted from the book. So, maybe it is only one. The constant worry of little things were easy distractions to keep me from writing.

5: What do you hope the reader gets/finds in your book?

That they are not alone, and that they matter. That all stories are worthy of being told, we each are a mosaic, or as I wrote in the book a stained glass window. We are all made up of smaller stories of being broken. We take from some of our favorite stories whether they be of a boy wizard, a galaxy far far away, the voyages of the starship enterprise, or what have you to help explain how each piece fits together. These help us in understanding that we are not alone in mending the pieces together to make a bigger artwork. This helps us to see that our small pieces of the story matter in the bigger framework of the mosaic.

6: Writers and readers are often fascinated by “the process” of writing. Can you share your process?

I’m a bit more unusual when it comes to my writing. Most have to be organized and have notes laid out and know precisely how each piece fits together. I’m not at all that way. My process was very much, sit down and let the words flow out of me. I know what I want to say, I know my story, so sit down and write it. Granted, this probably is why most people will not really enjoy my writing. I get that I’m not everyone’s cup of tea, and that’s okay. I put it out there and that’s what I needed to do. With the blog, I just set for myself some goals. Once I started doing it and stuck to my goals I found that I enjoyed doing it that way. I set the goal for myself in 2017 to write at least one post a week. I succeeded, and so I continued. I did upscale to 2 posts a week there for a while, but I’ve since downscaled again until I find a good place to have more words flow.

7: Who or what is your inspiration? As a writer or in life.

My family. Every day I get up around 6 AM to get my son ready for his day. Toddlers need a lot of help. I know this will not always be the case, but when he smiles at me. When I see the light in his eyes at all that is new and wonderful for him, that’s my link to the Divine. I had lost sight of a lot of that through being shattered. I used to see it in my students. I used to love when I saw the spark of understanding go on in them. I used to love to see the Divine in each of them working in different ways. When my dreams were shattered, I didn’t think I’d find that again. I did, in him.

8: Any more books in the works? Any ideas you’re kicking around?

Yes! I am working on 3 fiction ideas right now. Each of them are different. The first I started in 2010 and I haven’t really been able to finish it. I did write this current book and another in the meantime. I guess you can call my second book a fiction novel with non-fiction influences, but the three that I’m working on right now are completely fiction. The first is an exploration of Father/Son relationships as told through a time travel novel. The second is one I’m super excited about, but playing close to my chest as I’m a bit paranoid of people stealing my ideas. The third was inspired by a dream that I had which is still being kicked around in my head and has no real solidity to it yet, but it will come.

9: Where can we buy your book? And what formats is the book available in?

Amazon! I self-published due to understanding that I’m really a niche writer at this moment. I know I’m not everyone’s cup of tea, and that’s okay!

https://www.amazon.com/Boulevard-Broken-Dreams-Ministers-shattered-ebook/dp/B073FPYHWK

It is available in E-book and Paperback! You can also find my 2^nd book there too

“The Story Of Esperanza Reyes”