Author Interview: Stephen Paul Register (MEANTIME: The Aesthetics of Soldiering)

STEPHEN PAUL REGISTER moved around often as a child in the American South. He settled in Nashville before joining the Tennessee National Guard. He was deployed to to Baghdad, Iraq and Kuwait for over 16 months from 2003 to 2004. He served in Hurricane Katrina relief efforts and also had the duty of supporting Border Patrol in Yuma, Arizona. Stephen attended Belmont University in Nashville from 2005 to 2008 where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Religion and the Arts. He then went on to Yale University to earn his Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School, where he graduated in 2011. He now lives with his wife Anna in Nashville.

Stephen, thank you so much for stopping by the blog to answer questions about your book. Would you please tell us a little bit about MEANTIME: The Aesthetics of Soldiering in your own words?

This book is about what it means to be a soldier. If you really want to know what it means “to soldier” in the modern era, then MEANTIME is the book for you. The book is about me being deployed in three different capacities: as a warfighter in Iraq in the early days of Operation Iraqi Freedom; as a sentry in support of U.S. Border Partol where we patrolled for illegal immigrants on the Arizona/Mexico border; and as a disaster relief aid worker in Gulfport, MS, where my unit was deployed just four days after hurricane Katrina devastated that place.

What inspired you to write MEANTIME?

Armchair BEA Day 4 - Beyond the Blog

Design Credit: Nina @ Nina Reads

Today we're going beyond the blog to see a little bit more about me. Since I'm terrible about not scheduling posts ahead of time, I'm writing this at ten-thirty when I want it posted at midnight. I'm a terrible procrastinator, but it's mostly accidental. I am a life juggler, and I drop the ball quite often... *rambles off into the sunset* The point that I'm trying to make is - the post is going to be a bit haphazard. But isn't that what makes me fun?

Writing Outside the Blog

I have always wrote. I always write. I will always write. Notice all of the tenses there? I have to write. It's ingrained too deeply within my soul, and I have no idea how it happened. My family has saved stories that I wrote well before kindergarten. Were they good? Who knows? I don't think that's the point. The point is - I write.

I did poetry and creative writing competitions in elementary school, and I've had some of each published. I created an imaginary friend when I was eight just so I could write stories about him. Then I created his family. I can also tell you every single thing about the world he lives in, his personality, and his entire life history. We're currently spending time apart and seeing other people. No, I'm not crazy - he is very real to me.