In case you hadn't noticed, it's been a bit quiet around here this summer. After the push to get Restoration's Journey published and promoted, I decided to take some time off from writing to simply enjoy my summer. It has been a time to relax, refresh, and spend time with my family.

Well, as the sun sets on summer, my sabbatical draws to an end. I am excited to get back at it. I have had the opportunity to read some great stories as well as some inspiring non-fiction. Through the process I have been reminded why I write. God has given me a message to share and the ability to creatively communicate that message. I was also reminded that I may never know the impact my faithfulness to this calling may bring. However, I am convinced this is what God has called me to do, and so once again I am excited to do it.

What remains now is to decide which book I will work on. There are beloved characters, whom you have met in the Unseen Dominion series, who are patiently waiting for their paths to unfold in the ways their author would direct. And trust me, there is an important final chapter remaining for them to walk out. On the other hand, there are some brand new characters in a book tentatively named Seer, who have begun a nail-biting journey with a powerful message to share.

So to you, my faithful readers, I have a question: Would you prefer to wait a bit longer to get the third, and I believe final, book in the Unseen Dominion series? Or would you be okay with me introducing a whole new series, of which book one is about half written? I realize this is a tough question to ask, given that you have only met half of the characters in question, but let me leave you with one final thought. I am quite sure that if you knew the terrible situations in which the new characters currently find themselves, you would be demanding that I conclude the story and liberate these pour souls, as soon as possible. ;)

Let me know what you think.

So far we’ve looked at what angels are not, and what they can’t do. It’s about time to look at what they are! First and foremost, angels are God’s messengers. In fact, the Greek word angelos, which is where we get our English word angel (I know—profound), means messenger from God.

In the first post of this series, I addressed the fact that many people in our modern-world don’t really believe in anything they can’t see, touch, hear, etc. However, angels play a crucial role in the Christian faith. It would be almost impossible to tell the Christmas Story without the involvement of these messengers of God. Here are just a few of the verses from Luke which highlight this.

An angel of the Lord appeared to him . . . the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zachariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John.” . . . The angel answered him, "I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and tell you this good news.” (Luke 1:11-13, 19)

In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” (Luke 1:26-28)

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. (Luke 2:8-11)

Throughout the book of Acts, we see examples of God’s messengers giving instruction and direction to members of the early church. Philip was instructed to travel a certain road, where he was able to witness to an Ethiopian (Acts 8:26). Cornelius was instructed to send for Peter, who witnessed to Cornelius and his household (Acts 10:3). Peter was assured that none of the men sailing with him would be lost to the storm that threatened the ship (Acts 27:23). These are just a few of the messages delivered by angels to God’s followers throughout the New Testament.

While there is no reason to believe that angels do not still speak to people when God so instructs, it is important to be cautious. Remember there are two sides to the unseen battle. The ultimate instruction we possess from God is the Bible. He will never have one of his messengers communicate anything that is counter to the scripture He has already given us.

It has been an exciting couple of weeks here at Hearts of Compassion. My second novel, Restoration's Journey, is sprinting down the home stretch to Release Day, March 1st!

Many of you, my faithful blog readers, have already heard from me about the exciting opportunity to be the first to read this new novel. For those who haven't, now you are.

In our world of thousands of new books hitting the market each month, it is absolutely critical for a new book to launch with excitement, expectation, and an abundance of reviews and preorders. That first day only comes one time for a book. My goal is to ensure that Restoration's Journey captures as much spotlight in that brief moment as possible.
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So, I am looking for readers who would be willing to offer honest reviews on March 1st in exchange for a free ARC (Advance Review Copy) of the novel.​​​ To keep expenses down and to keep the flow of publishing proceeds headed to Living Water International, I am primarily looking to provide ebook copies, though I will have a few print copies available.

If you would like to participate with us in this exciting pre-launch activity, drop me a quick note​ through our contact form.

Stay tuned for the first sighting of a printed copy of Restoration's Journey!​

​I recently completed a full edit, hopefully the last, of Restoration’s Journey, the second book in the Unseen Dominion series. One insight that struck me in this process was the ripple effect a single edit can have on the direction of a story. About two-thirds of the way through the story, I decided to have one character depart a scene prior to a significant event. The repercussions of this modification plagued me throughout the remainder of the edit. The character no longer knew the things she knew. Other characters’ motivations changed because the modified character did not inform them of key events. And on and on it went. All for the better—I hope.

This observation got me thinking about real life. Even our small decisions can have effects that ripple throughout our lives, and the lives of those around us. Unlike editing a novel, there are no do overs. You can’t just go back and change the events to provide the desired outcome. How important it is for us to consider carefully the decisions we make. Like a pebble in a pond, once the ripples are propagating through the waters of life, corrections become much more difficult than stopping the pebble in the first place. The good news is that positive actions can ripple through our lives just as effectively.

This brings me to my purpose for posting these thoughts today. At Christmas we celebrate the single most significant source of ripples in the timeline of humanity. Our Creator, in the person of Jesus Christ, chose to step into the world as a human being, born as a baby. The infinite became finite to live as one of us. He made Himself known. Lived an unblemished life and offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice on our behalf. The forgiveness and grace of Jesus rippled throughout time, from the first day of creation to the coming Day of Judgment. All of our lives have been, are, and will be forever impacted by this divine pebble dropped into the pond of life.

Merry Christmas, and may your new year be filled with life-changing ripples for His glory.
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‘Till next time!

​Thought it was time for an update on the progress of the next book in the Unseen Dominion series. The rewrite process is proceeding nicely. I am so excited and impatient for you to have the opportunity to read this exciting story. If you've looked around our website, you've already seen the cover for Book Two, Restoration's Journey. If not, here it is. And, for the first time, here is the cover blurb introducing the story.

How do you run from an unseen enemy. . . 
 
            . . .when you've never been out of the building?

Twelve-year-old Ima Fredericks spent her entire life at the government research facility, known as CeSiR Tech. When the one person who treated her with kindness is murdered, Ima flees the only world she’s ever known. But, escape is the easy part. The real challenge is surviving an unknown world, while hunted by predators from the unseen dominion.
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If you haven't read it yet, check out the excerpt from Restoration's Journey and stop back to let me know what you think. I'm currently targeting the completion of the rewrite in December and hope to have advanced reader copies available around the first of the year. If you've read book one and have interest in the opportunity to provide pre-release feedback on Book Two, keep your eyes open for more information, or drop me a note.

'Till next time!​

I have read many resources on the craft of writing. From these I have gleaned, and I’m sure missed much valuable information. However, I do not believe I have read anything as valuable to the development of a quality story as the book Story Trumps Structure by Steven James. I’ve read several of this author’s novels, a couple of which I've reviewed previously in this blog. I absolutely love Steven's engaging and suspenseful writing. This book brings an under-the-hood look at his thought process while creating those enthralling stories.

So much has been written about plotting, outlining, creating backstory, point of view (POV), grammatical good and bad, and on and on it goes. As its title suggests, this isn’t that book. Instead, Story Trumps Structure is a guide to really thinking through your story. How do you escalate tension? How do you create it in the first place? And, why do you need it? It guides you to think through your plot twists, overall and in each scene. There are many other valuable story considerations presented, such as cause-effect, story progression, and the value of organic writing, just to name a few.

The book also examines character development. This is the best, if not only, book I’ve read on character status, and the value varying status between characters. There are other character considerations, which I have observed in other resources, such as quirks, transformation, uniqueness, and attitude. But, even in these more common considerations, his approach is fresh and effective. I also really enjoyed his discussion of character intention.

I read this book, as I often do, between the first draft of my next novel and the rewrite process. I believe Steven’s insights will prove invaluable in taking my own writing to the next level. I only wish I had read this book before writing my first novel. Yes, I have much to learn about my craft, as I believe we all do.

This book will remain on my writing desk for years to come and I give it a “14 dog-eared pages” rating!

‘Till next time.

If you’ve read my book reviews, you know that I usually comment on the quality of the characters in a story. In my opinion, the ability to develop characters that are both believable and relatable is paramount to an engaging story. As a writer, it is my job to develop characters to the point that the reader cares about what happens to them. Whether they are lovable, or easy to hate, they need to feel like real people. Even if they aren’t people, as may be the case in speculative and fantasy novels.

So how does one go about creating jump-off-the-page characters? I’ll admit, I am not a recognized expert on the subject. I haven’t been writing best sellers for decades. But, I am a student of people and I believe that is key to creating realistic characters. When we attempt to describe someone, our first instinct is to address physical characteristics—tall, short, lanky, not, blond, curly, bald, blue-eyed, green skin, fangs, talons, on and on and on. While these can be important to help the reader establish a frame of reference, just a little detail will allow the reader’s imagination to fill in the rest.

More important are the personality, past experiences, and goals of the individual. While these won’t necessarily make their way directly into the story, they shape everything about the character—how they dress, walk, talk, think, react, solve problems, and relate to other characters. If a writer doesn’t work through the details of a character’s personality, past, and plans, the characters will begin to look and act an awful lot like the author. Let’s face it, most of us just aren’t that interesting.

I’ve personally found that the ability to flesh out the details of my characters is helped by studying people. This involves more than just watching people to see how they act, though I certainly do enough of that. It means reading about people. How do introverts and extroverts differ? How do creativity and logic shape a person’s responses? I read an article earlier this week which looked at autistic traits in IT personnel. How might someone over-sensitive to sounds or smells respond in my story? Or, how might someone under-sensitive to touch play out as my antagonist?

There are hundreds of ways that studying what makes us unique can enhance a writer’s ability to create relatable characters. But, I’ll leave you with one more that came to me today. As I read an article about what your Facebook posts say about your personality, I began to ponder, “what would the Facebook or Twitter posts of my characters look like?” One more unique way of adding dimension to those flat characters that first step onto the page.

‘Till next time!

Welcome back faithful readers . . . oh wait, I went away. Well, not literally. I’ve actually been deeply engaged in a major writing project. At last, I’m back. If you attend Engedi Church here EEEin Holland, you may get the opportunity to read, and hopefully benefit from, this creative pause. For the rest of you, thank you for patiently waiting. I mentioned this project, back in May, in my blog on teaching through fiction versus non-fiction. So, after nearly four months studying dozens and dozens of Bible passages and writing over 40,000 words (one teaching lesson and twenty-five devotional style readings) the project is done! Well, there’s still some editing to do, but the bulk of the work is done.

As much as I have enjoyed writing this discipleship curriculum, I am very excited to get back to working on Book #2 in the Unseen Dominion series. Not to mention rekindling my social presence among my outstanding readers and social media friends. My creative tank is in desperate need of refilling. This may seem like an odd statement, but for creative types, being actively involved in the creative process is life-giving and much needed. There is a great blog post about the Creative Personality, which I read a few months ago, that lays out some of the quirks with us creative types. As I’ve stepped away from the highly creative “novel” world, to the structured creativity of writing a biblical study (getting too creative with a biblical discipleship curriculum would be frowned upon), I have encountered multiple of the creative traits addressed in the blog.

Anyway, I’m back. And, I have a few books to write reviews for, which I read during this time away. So, stay tuned for some book reviews and updates on the editing and pre-publishing process for Restoration's Journey, the sequel to In The Image of Man.
‘Till next time.