Jonathan Williams served as a missionary with the International Mission Board’s Xtreme Team in the jungles of Peru for two years. It was there, lying under a mosquito net in a hut in the middle of the Amazon Jungle, that Williams began to write his first novel, Jungle Sunrise.

Williams, 30, writes and lives in North Texas with his beautiful wife, Jessica, where he pastors Body Life church and serves as the Campus Pastor for Trinity Christian Academy as he pursues a Master of Divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. His passion and desire is to inspire readers with creativity and truth.

Living with a previously unreached indigenous tribe, the Amarakaeri, Williams experienced first-hand the beauty and danger of native life as he had the opportunity to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, hunt with bows and arrows, fish with spears, navigate the rivers, and encounter every aspect of the tribe’s culture. This breathtaking scene of the Amazon serves as the backdrop for Jungle Sunrise.

The author’s website is www.JungleSunrise.com.

Q: It’s rare today to find an author who does nothing but write for a living. Do you have a ‘real’ job other than writing, and if so, what is it? What are some other jobs you’ve had in your life? Have they influenced/inspired your writing?

I am the pastor of a new church in Fort Worth, Texas, Body Life Church. I am also the campus pastor of Trinity Christian Academy. Both give me opportunities to write for work and the flexibility to write creatively. Every job I have had has given me relationships and experiences that may one day become a part of one of my character’s lives in a future book or short story.

Q: What compelled you to write your first book?

When I was living in the jungle as a missionary, I experienced the impact such an environment can have on a man. The culture, the people, the beauty, the struggles, all work together to mold your character. I wanted to illustrate this change in a fictional story. Jungle Sunrise shows how this wild way of life, coupled with God’s pursuit of man, can transform a man in need of transformation.

Q: Tell us briefly about your book.

When award-winning fiction writer Jonah Frost’s drunken depression drives him into the Peruvian Amazon Jungle, he searches for a story worth writing and finds instead a life worth living. In a place where he clearly does not belong, the young New Yorker discovers faith, adventure, love and a second chance.

This untamed and passionate journey unfolds in my first novel, Jungle Sunrise.

Charming, funny and handsome, 30-year-old Jonah feels he has wasted his best years. It’s not just the 1,070-day writer’s block that has him down, but also his dead-end job of teaching creative writing at a community college compounded by his unwanted divorce three years ago. Getting fired sends him over the edge. After a nearly successful suicide attempt, Jonah is cajoled by his brother to join him on a trip to Peru. Jungle Sunrise tells how that get-away excursion turns into a dangerous voyage by seven strangers bound together by a shared desire to locate the nearly extinct Isconahua tribe. In the end, only three of the seven survive.

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

I am writing my second novel, a story which also takes place in South America as it follows the main character, a widower, who has invested his life into helping abused and abandoned street kids find a better life.

Q: Do you have a favorite character? Why is s/he your favorite?

I love Memphis Jones, the missionary in Jungle Sunrise, because he knows who he is, his strengths, his passions, his shortcomings, and his mission. My favorite character, however, is Jonah Frost, because I can relate to his journey of discovering a second chance and himself through adventure, grace, danger, truth, and love.

Q: How did you feel the day you held the copy of your first book in your hands?

That was a joyous day. It’s very rewarding to see the fruit of years of hard work, patience, and prayer.

Q: The main characters of your stories – do you find that you put a little of yourself into each of them or do you create them to be completely different from you?

People say, “you write what you know.” I find that to be true, especially in my first novel. Several of the characters are my complete opposite, but the two main characters do reflect my personality, interests, and struggles. I’m a missionary like my character, Memphis, and a writer like my character, Jonah, but our connection only goes a little bit further than that similarity.

Q: Is there an established writer you admire and emulate in your own writing? Do you have a writing mentor?

I admire Donald Miller’s transparency, appreciate Dave Egger’s fluid language, and enjoy the real-life storytelling seen in Earnest Hemingway’s writing.

Q: When they write your obituary, what do you hope they will say about your book/s and writing? What do you hope they will say about you?

I hope that my books portray truth in a creative way and that they inspire readers to chase faith, passion, and adventure. I hope that if I leave any legacy, that it is one of a faithful Christ follower, loving husband and father, and bold missionary.

Q: Now that you are a published author, does it feel differently than you had imagined?

I had always heard, but now know, that all of the work you put into your book only increases once it’s published. There’s much more work to be done when the book is finally on the shelves. I enjoy it, though, because it gives me the chance to spend more time writing and talking about the book. It’s a long journey, but worth the endurance.

Use this space to tell us more about who you. Anything you want your readers to know. Include information on where to find your books, any blogs you may have, or how a reader can learn more about you and writing.

Thank you for this opportunity to talk about my first novel, Jungle Sunrise. A synopsis, author information, a video trailer, and reviews can be found at www.JungleSunrise.com. The book can be purchased at Amazon.com.

I believe that new readers will agree that through characters such as, Grace Cervantes, the beautiful photographer who rescues Jonah from himself; Basil Cosgrove, the anthropologist with his own agenda; and a missionary, Memphis Jones, the strong, brave hero who lives with natives and hunts jaguars while taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth, Jungle Sunrise is a story for every reader who has ever felt dead inside or unexpectedly awakened. It’s an inspirational and adventurous escape novel with a love story to match.

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