When I set out to write this book it was with blue collar tradies in the forefront of my mind – people who know what it is to work hard and go home physically tired. It’s the space I know well and the ‘gap’ I see in the various books that have already been written with a focus on faith in daily work.

It’d be fair to say this mob aren’t renown for being avid readers, especially of non-fiction, theological type works. So I feel like I’m getting a knack or writing for niche groups. Last time was those exploring a bivocational approach to church leadership – a tiny group of people – and this time it’s tradies who like to read. Probably not a huge group either…

While this group were my initial focus my hope is that the book will be read well beyond. So it is written in a way that is accessible and easy to grasp.

That said I began to have a few wobbles as to whether the title would limit its’ reach. Truth is, it probably will. So I mused on various other titles; “Faith With Dirty Hands”, “Blood Sweat and Faith” as well as a couple of others, but after wrestling it around for a couple of weeks I’ve come back to my original focus and decided to lean in hard – hence the cover image of greasy hands gripping a spanner.

I was chatting with friends the other night about the choices and said “it’s not the difference between selling 100 000 copies or 50 000. It’s more a case of whether it sells a 1000 or 500.”

Thanks to all who offered their thoughts and reflections. It was helpful in the musing. I knew however that the decision was eventually going to be mine to make – rather than by Facebook poll or similar.

And yes, I realise the cover looks fairly blokey, but again, I just have to accept that I’m a blokey kind of man who writes in a blokey kind of way – so it fits.

Anyway, if Tim Keller, or Jon Mark Comer – two of the more popular authors in this space – haven’t lit a spark in you, then you might like to try Hamo’s Hi-Vis Faith. It will be published in a few weeks when I have had time to finish the audio version. My hope is to throw digital, paper and audio out at the same time, knowing that for some people audio is their staple these days.