Joe Boyd
Author, Between Two Kingdoms

Joe Boyd has written a page-turner in this fast-paced fantasy of a Dark Prince’s shadowy rule over a land where the True King is slowly being forgotten and usurped. With masterful storytelling and deft cliffhangers closing each chapter, readers are easily drawn into this sharply-imagined novel. A clever plot device poses the inhabitants of the real Prince’s Upper Kingdom as eternally seven-years old, making their risky life-and-death mission into the Lower Kingdom a more powerful allegory. Lovers of fantasies from C. S. Lewis to J. K. Rowling rejoice: a new author has delivered the goods! And with a parable that will rattle your view of “real” life. - Dave Workman, Author of The Outward Focused Life

Mr. Boyd is a teacher, a pastor, an actor and a screenwriter. His goal in this story is clearly evangelical, and you might consider reading it with adults who are new to the faith, or are seeking the truth, and discussing it chapter by chapter as suggested above. Mr. Boyd avoids “Christianese.” There are no churches or pastors in the story, but the truth of God’s love for us, our sin, and the wonderful gift of salvation and security are vividly pictured. - LeeAnn Bonds, Bible Basics Editor

Between Two Kingdoms by Joe Boyd, is a powerful allegory about living in the last days of Earth.I like the way the characters are presented as both seven-year-olds, and adults…I am embarrassed to admit I was half-way through the book before I remembered Jesus’ words, “. . . unless you are converted and become like little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). Boyd is creative and innovative in his portrayal of the kingdom of Heaven. -Erin Cronin, Christian Children’s Book Review

This is a fascinating parable that takes a deep look at what is faith in the Lord as Tommy performs his mission but temptation is everywhere he goes. Readers who relish an interesting Christian saga with a timely message to the doubting Thomas and Thomasina as well as encouragement to the faithful will especially want to read this allegory. However, the measure of how well it is written is that the non-believers will relish Tommy’s saga in the Lower Kingdom on a holy mission. -Harriet Klausner

Between Two Kingdoms is a fantasy book with use able data for our daily lives. This is the first thought I had while reading these stories filled with verbal imagery. What I found was so much more. There was one surprise after another as I read each and every chapter. I saw me in those pages. I saw you in those pages. Joe Boyd has a great imagination and grasp on all things not of this world and of this world. The way he describes constant distractions that keeps our lives from being 100% happy and free is one extreme. All the ideas I realized I have on Heaven and the way the church should be are revealed as another…

Do you like to read stories that stand alone as individual pieces or be a part of one giant story or puzzle? Do you like C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien fantasy books like The Chronicles of Narnia or The Lord of the Rings? Have you read The Shack by William P. Young? If you have, then this book fits right in with those stories and descriptions of who, what and where God is and Jesus his son. If you have not, I hope that you will read them all in the future. You don’t have time to read them all? Ok, then read this one first because it is the shortest and then work your way to one of the others. I believe you will love this story and place it on your shelf for many to read. It will be a classic in the future just like all of C. S. Lewis’ works. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars. – Bradley Evans

Between Two Kingdoms by Joe Boyd is a beautiful and meaningful fantasy. I think any older child, young adult or adult would find themselves captured by the Higher Kingdom of light and the Lower Kingdom of Darkness. For me this book became more than a fairy tale. It became something like my real life or my real psyche. There is a light side where I always remain seven years old. Then, the dark side where everything is vague and I am old. When I am old, everything is dark, dreary, dense, ugly. I would much rather stay seven years old forever. Then, I would have the chance to meet THE KING and THE PRINCE. I would live on Mount Basilea in a breathtaking palace. I would always believe in innocence and kindness…For me this is more than a fantasy. BETWEEN TWO KINGDOMS is my daily life. Joe Boyd has written a fabulous, not to be missed allegorical novel. It took me on an adventure. Parts of the adventure seemed so familiar. I wondered had I visited this place at another time and met Tommy, Mary, Bobby. The Prince? Yes, surely I’ve felt His angelic touch. – I Love to Read Blog

I have lots of friends all over the world who read this blog. Many are self-identified Christians, but some are not. I often wonder what my I-have-more-questions-about-God-than-answers friends think about my more God-centered posts. I thought I would write a post tonight for them. (I’m talking about my actual real-life friends who read this – not cyber eavesdroppers. You all know who you are. We’ve talked about this stuff at 2 a.m. in bars across America over the last decade. For whatever reason you are all on my mind tonight.)

First of all, I want you guys to know that I didn’t become your friend to try to convert you. I know you all know that, but it is true. I respect you and your spiritual journey. Nothing is gonna ever change that.

Second, I would want you to know that my faith – though rooted in Jesus and the Christian tradition – likely has some substantial differences to cultural Christianity. If you know me, you have likely sensed that already. This is intentional on my part. I am not trying to be the Christian who shocks people or anything like that. I’m trying to follow Jesus as I understand him. Jesus himself came off as anti-religious a lot, and I sometimes do the same.

You should also know that I grew up very religious. I was a card-carrying bible thumping evangelical right winger when I was younger. I was also a bit of hypocrite – very proud of my morality, spiritual knowledge and rising church fame. I was convicted by God that I was a fake in the years before I met most of you…so I became whatever I am now to try to rectify that.

More than anything, I would want you guys to know that I do not see Christianity as simply an individual spiritual contract between God and a “sinner.” I think that is a modern reduction of a much greater truth. I also don’t see Christianity as fundamentally about morality or being a good person. I hope I am both, but i don’t think that is the point of it all. More likely, it is a healthy by-product.

I’ve studied the Bible nonstop for twenty years and I believe it is historically reliable – not all parts are intended to be taken literally, but it does hold up to textual accuracy tests for ancient literature. That means I believe the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the earliest and most reliable biographies of Jesus. I believe that they were written by eyewitnesses; and, at the very least, the words in them are what those eyewitnesses believed really happened. (So much so that they were all tortured and martyred for the words they wrote without ever recanting them.)

They made it clear that Jesus was a radical revolutionary Jewish rabbi with one clear message – that the “Kingdom of God” had come to earth and would continue to come until God reigned over all. This message needs a lot of unpacking for us non-Jews 2,000 years removed, but I think it means that God himself is now available to people who call out to Him – that God is actually creating a nation/tribe/colony out of the people of earth – a people who will bring about the redemption of the planet through submission to Jesus as King. (I think “Christ” basically means “King.”)

Jesus said this about himself in John chapter 3:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

This is John 3:16 – the verse that people hold up at sporting events for whatever reason. I think many Christians don’t notice that it is the “world” whom God loves and the “world” whom Jesus saves. The individual is mentioned as receiving enteral life, but that is because they are part of the whole. I think this is important. God loves us. Not just me. True faith in Jesus is never about me. It is about God and all of us. This is why so many of you care so much about others. You get this innately. You know that we (all of us) are more important than just you. Sure, we are all selfish, but we also love each other. That is because God made us to be a people – not just a collection of individuals. In the “already present but not fully realized” reality Jesus called “The Kingdom of God” we all live together with God in the now. He loves us all as we love each other. This desire is in your soul because God put it there. It isn’t about simply living right or being good – it is about a real God made of love who hardwired us to be restless until we join his love revolution against the powers of evil in the world.

In this understanding, “heaven” begins now. Another beef I have with modern Christianity it is that it has reduced the faith to some fundamental theory about the afterlife. I’m sure you have all had people try to get you to say a prayer or “believe” so that you will go to heaven when you die. I strongly believe in life after death, but I don’t think that is the main point of faith. Faith is for the here and now. Faith is trusting God to make things right – to lead his people – to fix the world starting right now with me and my friends. Faith is about resurrection. (Those early biographers all believed that Jesus raised from the dead. There is no doubt that Christianity spread so quickly because all of the early disciples truly believed Jesus was made alive after being dead for three days. That would change everything if it is true.)

To put it simply, I would say that heaven and hell are already co-existing on earth. We’ve all felt both extremes. As Christians, we hope and pray for more heaven and less hell. Someday, I believe that we will be resurrected into a reality that is all heaven and no hell.

The last thing I would say to you – if you are still reading, is that the key to personally accessing all of this stuff is both easy and hard. It is easy in that all you have to do is give up. You have to admit that if you were really in charge of the world, you’d screw it up. Then you have to admit the same is true for your own life. You are broken and can’t be trusted to make your own way in the world. (This is the reality of “sin.”) You are so broken that you should just sell yourself as slave to someone more powerful, wise and loving than you are. You need a Master. Another word for “Master” is “Lord.” I gave up on trying to rule my life and became the slave of Rabbi Jesus. (This was the hard part.) Now Jesus calls all the shots and I just do what he says. I trust him more than I trust me. He’s my guru and I’m his apprentice. He’s my Lord/Master.

When all of us become that desperate, then the “Kingdom” can come to us. And the kicker to all of it is the most revolutionary thing Jesus taught us…that God himself is at his core a “Father.” You know how no matter how old you get, you never really feel like a grown-up? That’s because you aren’t really one. We are all children in adult masks waiting to be received by the perfect Father we never had. He loves us – all of us. Including you. And me. And that smelly dude on the bus muttering in pig latin.

I hope my thoughts find you well this evening. I think and pray for you often. I’m around if you want to talk about it.

The first is for Twitter users. Just copy and paste this in your Twitter status for a chance to win:

“Just RT to enter: I just entered to WIN a copy of the new novel Between Two Kingdoms, by @joeboyd from @freebookraffles“

The second give-away is on the blog www.readingteen.blogpsot.com. You need to comment on the review of B2K there to be eligible to win the book.

Check out our first review on Amazon by Charles Schierbeck:

It is hard to know how to cast Joe Boyd’s book. I think the category of allegory is correct, however, at times I think that parable might be the better word. Rather, a string of parables woven into one longer story. What makes this nice is that you can read the book one chapter at a time, as a sort of devotional, or just plop down on the sofa and get lost in it for a whole night. I’d like to reread it with a group. It is that sort of book that you would want to read with friends and discuss.

The biggest thing I got out of the book was the authors concept of the upper kingdom. As I first read the book I was trying to figure out if the upper kingdom represented heaven or the church. Then I realized that there is no real distinction between the two. The upper kingdom is the “church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity” (CS Lewis, Screwtape Letters). I understood this concept, that the church is God’s attempt to bring his kingdom into the world. However, when I finally made the connection in the book it was a shock to my system just how much I had separated the two in my real life. It is perhaps a little sad that I have not thought of the church the way it is presented in this book.

The title of my review is perhaps a bit lofty. It would be hard for me to place any book in the company of Lewis, Sayers, Tolkein, or Williams. Of the group only Lewis is really comparable, as none of the others wrote allegory. While “B2K” might not rank with the best of Lewis’ work it is at least as good as if not better than his lesser works (such as Pilgrims Regress). The reason for the title is that the author is clearly influenced by these authors in the same way that Lewis was influenced by MacDonald and Chesterton. He is a good student of these masters. So, if you like Lewis’ allegory, “Hinds’ Feet on High Places”, by Hanna Hurnard, or “Phantastes” by George MacDonald; then you should add this book to your reading list.

The Cincinnati book launch is this weekend at Vineyard Community Church. Joe will be signing books after all four weekend services: Saturday at 6:30 pm. Sunday at 9, 10:15 and 11:45. All proceeds from that event will go toward the “Luke 4 Challenge” which, among other things, provides clean drinking water for the people of Nigeria. To date over 60 wells have been dug through the initiative – saving thousands of lives. To learn more, check out this video of the first borehole drilled in 2008:

The problem is that I do things like make movies and write books. I pour countless hours – years – into these things and then suddenly they are “finished.” Today is an exciting day for me, so I’m going to write about it. Not because I want you to buy my book, but because I know people will be reading it soon. It feels somewhat like sending a kid to college. (I assume. I still have eight years before that dreaded day.) I’ve done all I can for her and now she is on her own…off to become whatever she will be – to meet whomever she will meet.

Here are my hopes for this book:

1. That it lands in the hands of people who are ready to receive the Kingdom like a child.
2. That it can be used as a new canvas on which to paint the gospel.
3. That it will give useful metaphors to people to talk about the Trinitarian God and his work in the world.
4. That those who read it would become more courageous.
5. That parents and kids would read it together.

If you pray, I’d ask that you would pray for those things as you think about me and the book. Though it may look from the outside like I do many different things, all I really do is tell stories about Jesus and the Kingdom in different ways. A storyteller just wants his stories to fall like seeds on fertile soil ready to receive them. Today just happens to be the first day that this particular seed is scattered.

Between Two Kingdoms review on www.pastoralia.org.

Between Two Kingdoms review on www.light-her-lamp.blogspot.com.

Here are a few simple ways you can help spread the word:

1. Use Twitter and Facebook updates to let your friends know BTK is releasing March 1. Just link them to www.betweentwokingdoms.com.

2. If you have a blog, link us there.

3. Ask your local bookstores to put  BTK on the shelf. The book is selling online at Barnes & Noble, Borders and the other major booksellers, but not every local store is carrying it on their shelves. They tend to listen to local customers…

4. Invite your Facebook friends to join the BTK fan page. Here is the link: BTK on FB

5. Actively participate here on this blog. Add your comment to the discussions.

Thanks again for all of you who have supported Joe and this project through the years!