Interview with the Authors of BO'S CAFE

John Lynch
As a great communicator and writer, John Lynch is a vital staff member of the Truefaced team. In addition to speaking nationally with the Truefaced team since 1997, John has co-authored a number of books and resources with Truefaced, including the bestseller TrueFaced and the popular TrueFaced audio-video message.

John also serves as teaching pastor at Open Door Fellowship in Phoenix, Arizona, a position that he has held since 1985. The authenticity, longevity, and playfulness of these two flawed communities, Open Door and the Truefaced group, brings real-world reality and potency to this Truefaced message of Bo’s Cafe.

John used his love for writing and performing as the co-founder and playwright for Sharkey Productions, a theater troupe focused on Gospel-anchored theater productions for those still seeking Jesus. John and his wife Stacey are passionate parents to their three children Caleb, Amy and Carly.

Bill Thrall
As a leader of leaders, and a co-author for the TrueFaced team since 1995, Bill’s genuine desire is to see relational health in those he works with, has been vital in setting the tone of the organization. His eloquence and integrity have given him opportunities to teach TrueFaced’s principles internationally. His wisdom has been penned throughout the entire series of The Ascent of a Leader, Beyond Your Best, and TrueFaced Experience books.

Prior to joining the TrueFaced group, Bill founded and pastored the influential church, Open Door Fellowship, for over 20 years. While there, he developed an effective character development training program, which has influenced thousands.

In his spare time, Bill can be found fishing, golfing, crafting furniture for his family in his wood shop or cultivating fruits, vegetables and herbs in his beautiful backyard garden. Bill and his wife, Grace have three grown children Wende, Bill, and Joy and nine grandchildren.

Bruce McNicol
Bruce is a master at helping people experience the freedom of grace through metaphors and stories, which fill the best-selling Truefaced resources he and his friends have co-authored. These include TrueFaced, The Ascent of a Leader, Behind The Mask, Beyond Your Best, The High Trust Cultures, and others.

Bruce’s degrees in finance law, theology, leadership, and organizational development help hone his gift to speak into the lives of others, which continues to draw international audiences.

As co-founder and president of Truefaced team, Bruce’s passion is to see tens of thousands of safe places like Bo’s Café growing around the world, whether they be families, businesses, schools, hospitals, churches, organizations, sports teams, military or governments.

Bruce enjoys the beach, sports, and observing cultures through history-makers, emerging leaders, mass media, and comedians. His constant interest is his wife Janet, who is a homemaker, nurse and mentor. Together, they absolutely enjoy their three children, Nicole, Chad and Ryan.



First off, thanks so much for joining us for an up-close and personal interview for TeensReadToo.com! My name is Jen, and I’ll be your server today…oh, wait, wrong job! Anyway, thanks so much for taking time out of your writing schedule—which I’m sure is busy!—and answering a few questions for your readers and fans.

Thanks. It’s a cool deal to be on here with you all!

Let’s get some of the typical interview questions out of the way first. When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer?

John: I’ve been a storyteller, actor, playwright, director, most of my life. But we learned we had to write to get these truths of grace out to a larger audience. So whalla, three years later, we’re fiction writers. It’s been a tremendous experience.

Bill: God has given me the ability to put wisdom in statements that will help others, so even thought I don’t write much, I craft statements and insights that have been used by many things.

Bruce: I have been writing stories and crafting metaphors for several decades. I first knew this was an area for me to focus on when a high school English-speech teacher named Mrs. Bandonis told me I could “see things in pictures and stories” and she encouraged me to keep writing and speaking. It’s important for all of us when we’re in those teen years to be open to those around who might see gifts and abilities and traits in us long before we see them in ourselves.

Can you tell us a little bit about your road to publishing Bo’s Cafe?

Bruce’s wife, Janet, and John’s wife, Stacey, told us that we should ask Paul Young (The Shack author), who we didn’t know, to look at Bo’s Cafe. After waiting several months, Janet pressed Bruce one late Friday evening to email Paul. Bruce did and Paul called back in 20 minutes! What we didn’t know is that Paul and his family had been encouraged by one of our previous books, TrueFaced. Paul asked to look at our Bo’s Café manuscript and then he and co-publishers, Wayne Jacobsen and Brad Cummings, ended up asking if we would be open to publishing with them. They helped us in the editing process and now we have the privilege of Paul endorsing Bo’s Cafe. This all has been a crazy, rare ride. For crying out loud, our book is in Walmart! Go figure!

Tell us a little bit about either your latest or upcoming release. If you could only tell your readers one thing about the story that had to convince us to buy the book, what would it be?

We think each of us, no matter what our age, find ourselves in this story of Bo’s Cafe. The journey of Bo’s Café gives us hope that we can find real, authentic, safe places in this world. Places where the worst of us can be known and we discover we will be loved more not less. We don’t know what any of us could need more.

What, or who, has been the greatest inspiration for your stories?

The characters in Bo’s Café are based on the stories of real people scattered around the world. Those we’ve known as friends, with all their warts and pain and goodness, and those who have loved us with all our warts and pain, inspire us. These characters in Bo’s Café are composites of stories and lives we’ve walked with for a long time.

Let’s hear about your family, who I’m sure are thrilled to have a published author among them!

Yep, our nine children have lived through this business of having a husband or a father become an author before, but it never gets old.

John & Stacey have three kids-24, 21 and 16. Bruce & Janet have three children—25, 23, and 14. And, Bill and Grace have three children (you have to have three kids in order to co-author with us!) and the Thrall’s also have 9 grandchildren. John and Bruce have a lot of catching up to do in this category.

All nine of our children absolutely love Bo’s Cafe but they have always been underwhelmed that their dads are speakers and authors. They just know us as the guys who hang out with them, do random humor, go fishing and golfing and concerts and tripping with them. (You should know that John has a Golden Retriever who he loves more than his co-authors, and we think maybe more than his family).

Now for some fun facts. What’s your greatest comfort food?

John needs more comfort than Bill and Bruce.

John: All Mexican food, Singapore rice noodles, those buttermilk bars that you rarely see anymore, egg custard, bread pudding and cheesecake. Crunchy peanut butter, he thinks this will be the official food of heaven.

Bill: Licorice candy.

Bruce: Steak and fine wine. Bruce eats fruits and vegetables for six days straight, just so he can BBQ steak once a week.

What are the first three things you do when you wake up in the morning?

John: 1-I feed the cat and dog, 2-I make coffee, 3-I check our book’s ranking on Amazon

Bill: 1-I go to the bathroom, 2-I put on my walking clothes, 3-I break open the diet coke on my walk, I can’t stand hot drinks.

Bruce: 1-I feed Yoda, our Yorkipoo, 2- I take Ryan to cross country practice @ 4:45am, 3-I check out our newest Phoenix mountain—Piestewa Peak.

If I came to your house and looked in your closet/attic/basement, what’s the one thing that would surprise me the most?

John: The absence of any tools or almost anything that could fix or make things. I am inept at all such endeavors. I have all the mechanical aptitude of a blind Pomeranian.

Bill: The amount of fishing gear I have everywhere.

Bruce: The absence of a basement. Phoenix has tons of swimming pools, but less than 1% of its homes have basements. This is totally stupid, except for the air conditioning and electrical companies who make a ton of money off of people who need their services to stay cool on the ground floor. You can kiss attics goodbye, in the Valley of the Sun attics are good for one thing, insulation. (I can vouch for John on the blind Pomeranian thing).

Everyone asks the question about “if you could be a tree, which tree would you be?” so I want to know: If you could be a color, which color would it be, and why?

John: Blue. Who doesn’t like blue? But there is very little blue food in the universe. Even blueberries are more purple than blue.

Bill: Blue.

Bruce: Vermilion.

Who is your favorite cartoon character?

John: I loved “The Tick”. I don’t think he’s on anymore, but I thought he was incredible! He was one of the lesser super-heros. He could do great stuff but had a great sense of humor while doing it.

Bill: Mr. Magoo

Bruce: Wile E. Coyote

Which cartoon character is most like you?

John: I hope to eventually grow into the old man in “Up”. He ends up learning some of the greatest magical truths this life can teach.

Bill: Superman

Bruce: The Tortoise

If you could beam yourself to anywhere in the world (“Beam me up, Scotty!”), during any time in history, where and when would it be—and why?

All three of us would say: Right here, right now. These are the days! Never been a better time to be alive. Every other time had weird diseases and bad plumbing. We would have enjoyed seeing Babe Ruth swing a bat, the Beatles at Shea Stadium, Jesus in front of Pilate, or Dostoyevsky writing…But mostly here, in real time, standing with those who are courageously learning to believe they can live authentically in love.

So what’s your favorite type of music to listen to? Favorite musical artists? Do you listen to music while you’re writing?

John: I always have “Pandora” on when I’m writing. Right now I’m listening to Mindy Smith and Patty Griffin. I’m a Bruce Cockburn fan, along with David Crowder.

Bill: Frank Sinatra, no I don’t listen to music while I’m writing.

Bruce: Symphonies and bands of the late 20th century. I like from Denyce Graves and Andrea Bocelli to Bob Dylan and Jack Johnson and Bruce Cockburn, and anything Pandora can get to me, yep I listen to music while I’m writing.

Do you have any favorite T.V. shows? Movies you watch over and over again? What was the last movie you saw at the theater?

John: If I don’t get to see “The Office” I can’t face the next day. My daughter is getting me hooked on “House”. Their season opening episode was incredible! Surprisingly, they have also got me watching “Grey’s Anatomy.” Some pretty good writing for a weekly show.

Bill: Old-movie re-runs and ESPN.

Bruce: Sports Center, Bear Grylls, Stephen Colbert, John Stewart, and some of the Comedy Channel (I hope you will still read our books after this).

You have the chance to give one piece of advice to your teen readers. What would it be?

John: Don’t buy into the cynicism all around you. There is incredible life to be experienced. Somehow I stumbled into it. Find those who are safe and know how to love and keep them for your entire life. There is a real God who knows everything about you and is absolutely crazy about you. Let Him love you. If you allow these things, you will have a life beyond all telling.

Bill: Learn to trust somebody with who you really are.

Bruce: Trust God and others with you, the real you, and give them access to your life.

One last question. What stories can we look forward to from you in the future?

We may find ourselves doing a follow-up to this story, following the life of one of the other characters from Bo’s Café. There’s so much more to come.

Again, thanks so much for joining us at TeensReadToo.com!

This has been a great experience for us. Later friends. Hope you deeply enjoy Bo’s Cafe and find yourself in it, with great hope.