Grill of the chaste

Reading my two latest interviews promoting The Thrill of the Chaste, in MercatorNet and the July issue of NewsMax magazine, it struck me that I really must think of some new answers.

Admittedly, my situation is unusual. First-time authors don't normally do very many interviews, and when they do, the interviews are usually for radio, where one can say the same things each time and get away with it. I'm thankful to still be giving interviews about my book six months after its publication.

I had little experience giving interviews before The Thrill came out last December. If one interviewer asked me the same question that another had, and if I could still remember what I had said before, I felt more confident repeating my earlier words than trying to come up with a new answer. Also, to be fair, there are only so many ways that one can restate the same facts.

But now it's gotten to the point that I'm annoyed with myself. I need to find new ways to answer the questions that keep coming up again and again — ""What made you decide to write the book?" How did you go from being a rock journalist living a, uh, free lifestyle to being chaste?" "What is the thrill of the chaste?"

On the other hand, there are a number of questions I haven't been asked, to which I could answer something I haven't said before. I'd like to be asked some devil's-advocate questions, like:

"You say in your book that one thrill of the chaste is wonder. What about someone who's lonely, who has been chaste for some time and not by choice — how can she find that wonder?"

"You have much to say about the unfulfilling experience of casual sex, but most women only have sex in a committed relationship. How can you say chastity is a better way of life for them?"

"You suggest that shared values are important. I know Christian women who are in happy marriages to nonbelievers. Is it really wise to warn young women against dating men who do not share their faith?"

"You've criticized the idea of stressing female chastity over male chastity — yet your book is targeted at women. Explain."
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