A Peek into my Coming Book!

My dear readers, I want to invite you to peek into my book, A Traveler’s Guide through Suffering and Joy, which is being published later this year. The entire book which is a Bible study and all the appendices are complete as a first submission draft. I’ve revised them multiple times.  I’d like to share with you one page.

“What page?”

My latest version of my table of contents.

“Table of contents!” you say. “What’s so exciting about a T of C?”

I’ll try not to be offended. I find tables of content to be highly interesting. They are one of the key ways of exploring a book to get acquainted with it before reading it.

I drafted my T of C several years ago. It has been settled.  Until this morning. I realized there was something I could do to make this do more than show the logical organization and flow of ideas. It did that job, but it was not interesting.

“What did you do to draw in the reader?” you ask.  Good question. Let me show you.

Here is my revised table of contents.

A Traveler’s Guide through Suffering and Joy

Changed by Theology that Feeds and Leads

By

Karen Thomas Olsen, DRS

Table of Contents

Section A: Prep to Travel

Introduction:   Never Travel Alone

Chapter 1:       Excuse Me? Is There Another Trail?

Chapter 2:        Where Are We? The Three Cosmos

Section B:   Sampling the Soil: The Ground Under Our Feet

Chapter 3:       Which comes first: suffering or joy?

                        Discovery One: Recompensive Suffering and Repentive Joy

Chapter 4:        How do I make sense of the senseless?

                        Discovery Two: Collateral Suffering and Redemptive Joy

Chapter 5:       Will I ever be the same?

                        Discovery Three: Transformative Suffering and Joy

Section C:       Exploring New Territory: The Winding Way Up

Chapter 6:       What good is my suffering?

                        Discovery Four: Compassionate Suffering and Joy

Chapter 7:       “Father, where is the lamb for the offering?”  How do I become a living sacrifice?

                        Discovery Five: Sacrificial Suffering and Joy

Chapter 8:       What is my witness?

                        Discovery Six: Exemplary Suffering and Joy

Section D:       Exploring the Depths and Peeks: The Unexpected Views

Chapter 9:       Am I ever alone? Why do I feel alone?

                        Discovery Seven: Communal Suffering and Joy

Chapter 10:      What do I gain in exchange for my soul?

                        Discovery Eight: Eschatological Suffering and Joy

Chapter 11:      How can my messy life glorify God?

                        Discovery Nine: Doxological Suffering and Joy

Chapter 12:      O Joy, why do you seek me through pain?

Traveler’s Tales: Tracing Rainbows

Appendices

1. Vocab Cafe
2. Travel Charts
3. Travel Guidelines
4. Recommended Tours: Bibliography

My responsibility is the content. I’m not sure how this will look on the page. I am looking forward to seeing how the publishing team will want to lay out and present the work. We’re not crossing that bridge yet.

Oh dear. What do you think? Here’s what I did to the T of C.

Each chapter starts with a question. Hmm. The questions can be intriguing. So, I decided this morning that these questions placed under each chapter title would open up the chapter and invite the reader to be interested in the chapter better by placing the question under the chapter title in the T of C as well as at the beginning of the chapter. So I added the questions to the T of C. (Chapter titles in Section A already contained questions. Questions were not a part of the subsequent three sections containing the discoveries or categories of suffering and joy.)

Looking at the page, I knew the questions were much more interesting and inviting than the chapter titles. Actually, the chapter titles may even be uninviting. Sigh. Then I knew my publisher would want to switch the order and make the question the chapter title and the title then the subtitle. So, I switched them…and tada! (The editor can decide about the capitalization issue in the questions.) Questions do engage thought. Some of these questions really stir thinking. Some may just be puzzling, like “Which came first?” Who cares? Well, the chapter explains.

So, what do you think?

I tell you what I need. I need more prayer support. I need great counsel. I need prayer for my publisher and the team. I need the Lord’s leading. Yes, I gladly admit that I’m very needy! Last fall I chose Psalm 28:7 in context of the entire psalm as my prayer for this project. I know that some of you are praying for this project. Thank you!!!!! I ask for more prayer. Thank you. This is a very important way that you can be involved in this project.

If you want to test read some of the chapters, let me know. We will then connect by email.

Gratefully in the Lord,

Karen

Psalm 28:7

The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in Him, and He helps me. Therefore my heart exults, and with my [book] I shall thank and praise Him.