‘The Sower’s Secret’ Author Q&A with Brock Eastman and Shaun Stevenson
Brock Eastman is the award-winning author or coauthor of The Quest for Truth series, Bedtime on Noah’s Ark, Daddy’s Favorite Sound, Mommy’s Favorite Smell, a book in the Imagination Station series, Showdown with the Shepherd, Faith and Science with Dr. Fizzlebop, Edge of the Galaxy, and more. He writes the Dr. Fizzlebop recurring columns and feature stories for Clubhouse and Clubhouse Jr. magazines, for which he has won two Evangelical Press Association awards. Brock and his kids host the Fizzlebop YouTube channel, where they help kids connect their faith with science. He loves playing games, cooking with his wife, and reading stories each night to his four kids, who have also been coauthors on several of his projects.
Shaun Stevenson is a kids’ pastor who loves seeing families discover who God is and what God has done, is doing, and will do one day! As a writer and storyteller, Shaun loves bringing Scripture to life for kids by creating fun ways for them to experience God’s Word. He has written children’s ministry materials and curriculum for several publishers, including The Foundry Publishing, KidzMatter Magazine, and the Church of the Nazarene USA/Canada Kids. His curriculum has been used around the world and has been translated into other languages. Shaun and his wife, Sarah, are the cofounders of The KidMin Creatives, a podcast and resource provider focused on creative inspiration for every KidMin leader! They love sharing ideas and resourcing the KidMin community in order to create environments that will connect kids with God (the ultimate Creative!) in new ways. Shaun is an internationally recognized expert in children’s ministry and frequently speaks at conferences, camps, and webinars. Shaun holds a bachelor’s degree in Bible and theology from Multnomah University and a master of divinity with an emphasis in biblical studies from Portland Seminary. When he’s not writing, performing magic tricks for summer reading programs at his local library, or reading a vintage middle-grade book from the 1990s, Shaun can be found exploring coffee shops, thrift stores, and escape rooms with his wife.
FF: What inspired you to create Parable Port—a town where Jesus’ parables come to life?
SHAUN: Brock and I had wanted to write a book together for quite a while. I remember one day telling my wife, “There are like no books about the parables from the Gospels at all!” She said to me: “Why don’t you guys write one?” So Brock and I talked about it and came up with this idea where the parables of Jesus actually come to life in a small town. The kids in the story would be discovering the parable at the same time the kids reading the book would be! Brock and I laugh a lot, and we both love the same kinds of middle grade fantasy action-adventure stories with high-impact truth. So Parable Port made so much sense to write!
BROCK: Shaun and I have been friends for a while. We both love middle grade fiction and telling stories for kids. We’ve got such a similar outlook on life and worldview that our partnership on this series made a lot of sense. I remember saying, “Shaun, we need to write something together,” and he came back with, “Let’s write about parables.” It started out as a series about a garden atop a skyscraper in New York, called Parable Garden, and it was intended to be a picture book series. But then it changed, because our publisher asked for it to be an early reader. We started there, and then it grew, and they thought it was better as a middle grade series. Which is in truth our favorite audience to write for!
FF: Of all the parables, why did you decide to start with the Parable of the Sower?
SHAUN: If you ask someone what some of the first parables that come to mind are, the Parable of the Sower is almost always one of the first ones that gets mentioned alongside the Prodigal Son or the Good Samaritan. This is also one of Jesus’ first times teaching with a parable, and one of the only parables Jesus really explained at length to the disciples. It made so much sense to start with a parable that would let us hit the ground running!
BROCK: We also tie in the Parable of the Mustard Seed (Matthew 13:31-32) throughout the first story. And while the focus is on the Parable of the Sower, the Mustard Seed “grows” into a significant part at the end of the story. I’ve always connected with the challenge of the verse Matthew 17:20. The idea that even a small amount of faith can move a mountain—the picture that idea painted in my mind as a child was so profound. (A parable at work planting seeds early in my own life.) And now, even as an adult, I am in awe of what that parable means! I live in Colorado, so I gaze at the mountains every day and think, I only need a little faith to move that! Wow! God is good! It’s a lifelong journey growing in faith, facing uncertainties, and challenges, but with God, we know where we are headed and where we will end up! As a sidenote, the Mustard Tree appears throughout the series, a reminder of what a little faith can do!
“‘You don’t have enough faith,’ Jesus told them. ‘I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.’” —Matthew 17:20, NLT
FF: Parable Port is a wild place with things like orange birds and pollen-knockout vines. What inspired this larger-than-life setting?
SHAUN: Brock and I love stories that are fun, exciting, and packed with adventure. So when it came time to think about the birds and thorny vines from the Parable of the Sower, we knew we wanted to pick something that would be super fun and add to the slightly over-the-top world of Parable Port! As a kid I loved reading books that sparked my imagination and had me wishing I was part of that world, going deeper into the story. The awesome thing about writing stories centered around parables is that the same spark of imagination can lead kids to dive even deeper into Scripture and read the parables for themselves, discovering who God is, what God has done, is doing, and will do one day!
BROCK: Indeed, the world of Parable Port grew with every word, sentence, and page we wrote. As we developed our characters and the town (see the map in each book), the world became so real and deep, a place we wanted to explore. I’d like to walk the streets and check out Ketchup Kingdom or jump aside as Mrs. Grumperoust cruises through town in her electric-blue convertible. This growing world, along with Shaun and my own passion for fantasy and adventure, made it impossible not to let our imaginations explore this new world we were creating. We already had the solid storytelling of Jesus through the parables at the core of each of the books. Now we have the chance to explore new ways to share and explain those parables. As a kid I needed to hear something a few different ways before I really understood it.
FF: Is there a scene in the book that made you laugh out loud while writing it?
SHAUN: So many of these scenes made me laugh out loud! I like to write in a coffee shop, and Brock and I work on these stories back and forth. Sometimes I would be adding in a part that had me trying to stifle laughter as people around me sipping coffee glanced over to see what was happening with that guy in the hat and the glasses who can’t stop busting up over his laptop! Sometimes Brock would add in lines that made me actually spit out my coffee because I was laughing so hard! One of my favorite scenes in The Sower’s Secret is when the kids arrive at the Grumperoust estate, and Mrs. Grumperoust is ready for her interview. We were inspired by Lady Catherine de Bourgh from Pride and Prejudice. In the BBC adaptation of that Jane Austen book, Lady Catherine is seated on a pristine chair with a painting of a dodo bird looming right over her head. It has always made me laugh and we knew that was the kind of energy Mrs. Grumperoust needed!
BROCK: Oh, yes, yes—many scenes. What has made this process so enjoyable is the layers to our writing. As coauthors, we continually add to each other’s sentences. Our humor is very similar, so I always have new lines to play off. And it’s this back and forth that just makes things funnier, because there is a depth to the story, and the more we know the characters, the easier it is to write for them. Plus, we have a wide cast of characters, including kids and adults, so there is always a fun angle to take or a quirky personality trait to bring to the surface. Favorite scene . . . that’s very hard, like asking me to choose my favorite child or ice cream flavor . . . I really like ice cream . . . and my kids. But I think the scene where the kids are approaching Grumperoust estate and press the call box button and Mrs. Grumperoust replies in several languages is my favorite.
FF: What do you hope readers learn or feel after finishing this first adventure in Parable Port?
SHAUN: I really hope that readers walk away from this book able to wrap their minds around the Parable of the Sower! I know it’s already helped me remember all the elements of the parable, making it easy to remember the birds, thorns, rocks, and finally the good soil where people respond to Jesus by believing in Him! At the end of the day though, I hope the kids resonate with one of the characters and especially with Anthony as he finds that faith as small as a mustard seed can have a huge impact!
BROCK: I hope that kids can find their place in the story. We created a wide cast of characters, hoping that kids could see themselves, even if just a little, in one of them. This is important to me because I want kids to know that not all our paths are the same, but God planned one for each of us, and Jesus is waiting for us on that path. I didn’t like reading when I was younger, so I also want this book to draw readers of all levels in and allow them to experience the adventure, the humor, and come to know Jesus as their Savior.
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