David Athey is the author of Danny Gospel.
First, here’s his bio:

Midwesterner by birth, now teaches English and oversees the literary journal at Palm Beach Atlantic University. Athey has published poems, reviews, and short stories in numerous journals, including The Iowa Review, Oxford Magazine, and Harvard Review, and holds an MFA from Hamline University. He and his wife live in Palm Beach, Florida.

1.  David, you’ve said that Danny Gospel took you 18 years to write. What took you so long?
 
 There are two extremes that a novelist can take when it comes to writing a story. One is a sort of Calvinistic predestination, in which the plot is completely outlined and the novelist simply moves from point A to B to C, and the characters are forced to follow along. The other method of writing is more like Saint Augustine’s “Love God and do what you will.” You allow the characters to do and say anything they like. The novelist, playing God, allows the characters to have complete free will. It’s a crazy way to write a novel, actually, but that’s the way I did it. I allowed Danny Gospel to be so alive that I never knew what he’d say or do next. He was always surprising me, including at the very end.
 
2.   What can you tell us about the genesis of Danny Gospel? What came first and inspired the rest? One particular character? A scene? An image?
 
I met a man in a Newman Center library who claimed that a mosquito was helping him to find a missing child. I thought: this guy is nuts! And then I reconsidered: while everyone else is sitting home watching TV, or sitting in offices, restaurants, bars and libraries, this guy is out searching for a missing child. He’s doing God’s work. Yes, he appears crazy, but so did many of the Saints.

 
 
3.  The novel is set in Iowa and Florida. What’s your relationship to those two places?
 
While my wife was working on her Ph.D. in Iowa City for 5 years, I worked odd jobs (parking ramp attendant, pizza prep, dry cleaners’ delivery boy…) and read hundreds of books and wrote hundreds of poems and tried to finish my “holy fool” novel. After the Iowa City stint, we were hired to teach at Buena Vista University in Storm Lake, Iowa. For a writer with a contemplative nature, the Iowa landscape is conducive to getting work done. There’s almost nothing to block one’s vision, from sunrise horizon to sunset horizon. Florida is similar, and completely different. We’ve been down in that “magic kingdom” for 12 years now. I still don’t have a tan. I dream of surfing, but I saw a shark on my first visit to the ocean. I teach creative writing at Palm Beach Atlantic University, and my students and I never run out of things to write about, because (and Amy can attest to this) Florida is probably the strangest place on earth. 
 
 4.  Danny Gospel is entertaining and even funny at times, but there is also a pervasive presence of tragedy in the novel. What can you tell us about that?
 
“Gospel” means good news, and Christ came that our joy may be complete. And yet we must carry our crosses. I think that aspect of the novel will ring very true with readers. Life is wonderful and painful. And the Christian life is, ultimately, a divine comedy.
 
 5. You are a poet. How is writing a novel different from writing poetry?
 
 I think the longest time I ever spent on a poem was 2 years! (And then I threw it away.) Writing poetry can be helpful to a fiction writer because it forces you to master the art of saying much with few words, and finding the most resonant phrases and creating the strongest images. I love novels that have a poetic feel to them, especially if they are dealing with theology. The mysticism in good poetry allows the reader to interpret, which is one of the great pleasures of reading.
 
 6. Danny Gospel contains a diverse cast of characters, including some Catholics doing Catholic things, and was published by Bethany House, a division of Baker, a traditionally “evangelical” publisher. Is this the start of a trend?
 
I believe that Bethany House is completely open to Catholic writers, as long as the stories connect with other Christians. A novel, in many ways, is the perfect meeting place for all sorts of believers. A good story is like a good campfire, and sometimes we can all sing together.