Where is my home?
Explore the question with Jess Archer’s new memoir Finding Home with the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Billy Graham.
Buy it today at http://www.bookstore.westbowpress.com
One was the greatest rock band of all time, another was a misunderstood poet and Christian convert, and the latter is called, “America’s Pastor.” The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Billy Graham were the three forces of artistic and spiritual expression in Archer’s childhood, and the trio of figures in her father’s conversion to Christianity and life’s work.
Archer’s memoir, Finding Home with The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Billy Graham is a true account of growing up inside the world of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. For 15 years her family traversed the globe to prepare cities for Billy Graham’s large-scale, sweeping evangelistic meetings. Her book details the gritty struggles she faced as the new kid in town and the intense anxiety of their transitory life. With humor, insight and help from two of the greatest musical forces on the planet, Archer explores the universal question of, ‘Where is home?’ Through her father’s boss, Billy Graham she finds her way toward the answer to that question.
Archer’s father, Rick Marshall was the director of crusades with Billy Graham for 23 years. He was and still is intimate friends with the man who preached the gospel to millions around the world. When Mr. Graham passes away, much will be said by outside critics and skeptics about his life, but the curious and the celebrant will find Archer’s memoir a first-hand, tender perspective on this extraordinary man.
Purchase Jess Archer’s new memoir, Finding Home with the Beatles, Bob Dylan and Billy Graham here: http://bookstore.westbowpress.com
What people are saying about Finding Home with The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Billy Graham:
“A sweet reminiscence by a restless, poetic spirit who sought solace and guidance in unlikely places while being bounced around the world in her family’s service to God. This book is in turns uplifting, sad, and funny, but never cynical or without hope.”
-Steve Turner, English music journalist, biographer and poet
“Archer takes three cultural forces and braids them tenderly. The result is a charming, honest girl’s story of finding home through the icons of her childhood.”
– David Bruce
Executive Assistant to Billy Graham
The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association
“Love, love,love this book not only for its delicious detail, delicate descriptions, and unique story but for its wickedly fragile, overanxious, ever-yearning, never-quitting, eternally frustrated, warm and loving heart. Archer reminds you why you loved and hated your childhood– no matter what.”
-Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh
screenwriter, The Stoning of Soraya M. and The Young Messiah
Read what fellow writers and bloggers are saying about FHBBB:
Lauren Flake, children’s book author and blogger: loveofdixie.com
Interview about my book writing process with: http://bookmarketingbuzz.com
Article by Jerry Dever | The Examiner
There are a handful of people we all know by name. Most of us only know their reputation and others feel a connection by meeting them once in public, but how many of us get the chance to live inside the world of someone who has left such a mark on our own?
For Jess Archer, childhood was a life on the road with her father Rick Marshall of the Billy Graham Crusade. His work involved moving to a city one year before the crusade itself to prepare for just a few nights of ministry.
“We moved every year. After Mr. Graham spoke we packed up and moved to another city. We had to be like chameleons having to fit in wherever we went while never really at home.”
When I asked Jess what she remembered most about their time on the road she said:
“The vans. They had a fleet of rental vans for the families to move in. If you misbehaved you would be sent to the back of the van for hours. My father was a hippie turned Christian but he kept his music. When the music was on, there was a speaker in the back that sounded great if you were next to it. I admit there were times when I acted up just to get sent to the back.”
From here the interview went a little off track. I asked questions that lead to conversations about the past and how it is nothing like the present. The questions were an attempt to satisfy my own curiosities about Dr. Graham. I asked about everything from the change in his style of preaching over the last thirty years to the scandal concerning his conversation with former President Richard Nixon.
The answers came with a weight in my throat as preconception after preconception vanished. Jess replied to all my questions with a fearless calm and no sense of hesitation to respond. I learned that her father was with Dr. Graham through most of the scandal and that I was not dealing with a loyal employee, but a good friend standing with him through hard times.
Looking over my notes later, I felt a sense of loss in not knowing Dr. Graham personally. The shine of celebrity dimmed from the light of a real person as seen through the perspective of those closest to him. My notes became pages of experience ending in the best thing I have ever heard anyone say about Billy Graham:
“He’s was the youngest old man my father ever met.”
The rest of the details, I will leave to Jess and her book as I await its’ release. The working title is, “The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and Billy Graham.” It is planned for publication later this year. Jess currently resides in Austin, Tx with her husband and son.
Archer, Jess Personal Interview. Summer 2011