Being a first time novelist, I've been surprised by a lot of things, one of which is the difficulty in explainng a book if it doesn't fit simply into one genre.  And that's been a problem with Imaginary Jesus: It's a comedy.  It's a novel.  It's theology.  It's fiction. It's autobiographical.  What possible genre could this be? Let's turn to Amazon.com's rating system to discover what they think.

First, an overview of the three categories that Amazon thinks that IJ fits into:

Good.  Okay.  So our comedy theology novel falls into Science Fiction Adventure (no doubt because our hero chases Jesus through "time and space"), Religious Fiction (no doubt because it has Jesus in it and is fiction), and in Single Women's Fiction (no doubt because the chicks dig me).  Hmm.  Let's see what sort of books that puts Imaginary Jesus up against.

In the category of Sci-Fi adventure:

Yes, this, strangely, makes sense.  Notice the similarity in strange headgear between the jedi and the Jesus.  But since I have every intention of destroying the Star Wars novel which is more highly ranked than I does that mean I am... a Sith?  Brrrr.  Stay tuned to find out!

Now, let's look at Single Women's Fiction:

Again, this is an oddly appropriate place for my book.  "Misery Loves Cabernet" references wine in the title, and there is communion wine in Imaginary Jesus.  And the title below "We Interrupt This Date" infers a breakup. And Imaginary Jesus includes the story of one of the most hilarious and unbelievable break ups of all time.  It is a 7.8 on the John Cusack scale of break ups.  I think a single woman might enjoy hearing about my heart being crushed.  It's a beautiful moment.

Now, let's look at religious fiction:

Ah, C.S. Lewis.  Allow me to take a moment to say IN YOUR FACE, C.S. LEWIS! Imaginary Jesus is totally rocking The Screwtape Letters.  Oh, I know that you wrote your book 40 years ago and it's still selling ALMOST AS WELL as Imaginary Jesus, but I think it's time for you to acknowledge that victory is totally mine for at least 40 minutes until Amazon refreshes the ranking on their books!  In other news, I'm a big fan.  If we are allowed to do this in Heaven I will be asking for your autograph.  If there are pens.  And paper.  Also books.  I'm pretty sure there are at least scrolls, so I might just have you sign a scroll if you're cool with that.

And that brings us at last to a determination of our genre: Religious Single Women's Science-Fiction Adventure Novel!  I had no idea when I was writing it, but Thus Spake Amazon!

In the interest of Science, please feel free to add your own genre suggestions for Imaginary Jesus in the comments!