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Fire and Thunder – Five Things to Expect

clean, christian,, thrillers, thriller, mystery, mysteries, suspense, fantasy, science fiction, spy novels, cozy mysteries

Fire and Thunder - 250x400If you’ve already read Sons of Thunder, then you get the idea for this series: What if the miracles in the Bible were translated into superpowers for a modern team of heroes? When the second book of the Thunder series, Fire and Thunder, launches on Sunday, it’ll double down on that theme. Here are five things to expect when you read the book.

  1. Fight scenes. Oh yes. Many a fight scene. It’s a superhero novel after all, the good guys and the bad guys have to clash.
  2. New powers. In Sons of Thunder, we saw such miracles as surviving stoning, teleportation, and faith as small as a mustard seed moving mountains, all transformed into super powers. now, get ready for water into wine, calling down fire, and more!
  3. Love. I’m no romance writer, but two characters in love is at the center of this story.
  4. An expansion  of the universe. I spent more time exploring the government agents who investigate people with abnormal abilities, and revealing other aspects of the Sons of Thunder universe.
  5. God. Learning to forgive, love, serve and repent, all of these are fundamental to the story.

Fire and Thunder launches on Sunday. I hope you’re going to love it. If you want to be notified when it’s out, sign up for my e-mail newsletter. You even get a free e-book for joining!

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Five Pictures of Ancient #Israel #snrtg

Hippodrome at Caesaria Philippi
This is the horse racing track at Caesaria Philippi, the ancient Roman capital of Judea. When we read in Acts about Paul being brought before Governor Felix for trial, this was the town.
1st century Galilean fishing boat
This real, original fishing boat from Jesus time was excavated near the Sea of Galilee. There’s no way to say if he actually rode in this boat or not, but it’s almost certain that he looked upon it.
Seat of Moses
Synagogues have a “Seat of Moses,” where the Rabbi often sits. When a visiting Rabbi comes from far away, it’s common to offer him the seat of Moses. We know from the Bible that Jesus visited the town of Korazim. This is the Seat of Moses in the Korazim synagogue. (Actually an exact replica, the real one is in the Israel Museum). So, as a visiting Rabbi in the Korazim synagogue, they would likely have offered him their seat of Moses. It’s very likely Jesus sat here.
Cave where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found
This is the cave where a shepherd accidentally discovered the oldest known copies of the Bible.
The Garden Tomb
This is one candidate — the minority opinion among scholars — for where Jesus was entombed and resurrected.
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Brilliant Christian Movie Idea

Darren Wilson of WP Films is making a film version of Pilgrim’s Progress. Learn more about it here:

http://www.kickdriver.com/r/bIELW9Tc

I’ve loved every one of Darren Wilson’s films that I’ve seen (Father of Lights and Holy Ghost). He’s made more, I just haven’t gotten to them yet. In the past, he’s always made documentaries. This next movie will be his first attempt at fiction. It’s called Heavenquest: A Pilgrim’s Progress.

When I did my own Kickstarter campaign to help publish Death of Secrets and get started as a writer, folks were super generous in supporting me. One thing I always wanted to do was find a good project of someone else’s that I could back in return. Now I’ve found it.

I hope you’ll check out Heavenquest and consider supporting the making of the movie. I can’t wait to see it.

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Return of the Sons of Thunder

I’ve started work on a second novel in the Sons of Thunder universe.

For those who haven’t read Sons of Thunder yet, it’s a contemporary Christian fantasy where God gives the protagonists miraculous powers. An opposing group of people who don’t think the power comes from God rises up at the same time. If that sounds interesting to you, you really should check it out here.

The new novel will see the return of Connor Merrit, Linc Blunt, Sebastian Crest, and a few of your other favorite Sons of Thunder or members of the Legion. It’ll also introduce a couple new characters.

I’m playing around with a couple titles: Dance of Thunder, Dance with Thunder, or Daughter of Thunder. It really depends on how the ending works out which one I choose.

It’ll take a while before it’s anywhere near ready, though. While you’re waiting, have you read Born with Secrets yet? If not, check it out!

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Sons of Thunder

An innocent young man is accidentally caught up in a convenience store robbery. He’s shot three times in the torso and once in the head.

He walks away without a scratch on him.

A young woman is locked in a government cell with no windows, one locked door, and zero way out.

The next morning she’s gone without a trace.

Together, the two of them will learn that God is doing something new in our time. A new age of miraculous gifts is breaking out in the world. Now a team of young Christians will have to learn how to use their Gifts for the good of all, while an evil counterfeit arises to oppose them. In a classic battle of good against evil, a new kind of hero will rise to take up a mantle and a name that dates back to the time of Jesus.

The Sons of Thunder.

This is my next novel. It’ll be published before November! (I hope)

Sign up for my e-mail list to get notified the moment it’s out.

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Writing about evil is hard for me

Life of Secrets is a much more character-driven story than Death of Secrets. Death of Secrets is running, hiding, action, intrigue… Life of Secrets has all that, but mixed in is a woman trying to deal with the garbage in her past that holds her back.

When one gets into emotion and mental state, one has to look at motivations. One has to spend more time trying to describe why someone hurts — why she is angry. That requires writing about someone having hurt someone else.

That’s hard for me.

I like my writing to reflect my value system, and the God who loves — who literally is love — is central to that. I’m most comfortable writing about people doing right by one another, being kind to one another.

But those things shine brighter when set alongside a person who does the wrong thing. It’s just that writing about those wrong things is hard for me.

I just try to keep my mind on the ending of Life of Secrets, which is beautiful. That makes enduring some of the bad characters along the way a little easier.

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Great community

For the past week or so, the main sales channel for Death of Secrets has been people in Helena buying copies locally. Which just causes me to say, I live in a great community! My friends and colleagues have really supported this book. It’s because of them that the launch of Life of Secrets will definitely be funded.

Thanks God, for putting such great people around me.

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Settling in for the long haul

Launch day for Death of Secrets was super exciting. Placing the ads, watching sales start to come in, seeing engagements with the book on social media, and all kinds of other things.

Now, the week after, comes the long term outlook. I won’t say disappointment, because I expected this when I started and my expectations haven’t changed now. It’s just that, in all that excitement of launch day, it’s easy to get caught up.

I did not launch the book on Saturday and become the next Tom Clancy before the Superbowl was over.

The book did well on opening day, and sales are happening about on pace with my low-end estimates before this all started. Now it’s time to set my eyes back on the long-term plan. I opened up one new advertising vector on Monday. I have another one to try out probably next week. I have new ad styles to test out on Facebook and Twitter.

Build Death of Secrets for long term sales. Build an audience. Earn enough on this to launch the sequel in June with at least enough or more success. Keep building the audience. Third book in time for the Christmas season.

Lord, please help me to stick by what I said. I trust you with my book, and with my writing.

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Peter walking on water

The story of Jesus walking on water is pretty well known. I’ll quote it from Matthew 14 just in case:

And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

28 And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind,[d] he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Everyone knows Jesus walked on water. The fact that Peter also walked on water is much less well known. Even less well known — as my pastor pointed out last Sunday — is that Peter walked on water twice.

He walked on water, he fell in, and then Jesus pulled him up and they walked on water together. At least, to me, “they got back in the boat” does not seem to indicate that Jesus threw Peter in the boat and got in after him. They climbed in together, and to do that they would have to be stable on the water.

When I feel like I’m sinking, when I let the storm around me scare me and I lose my footing, I try to remember that. If you let Jesus pull you up, the two of you will be able to walk on water together.

 

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In all things…

“In all things, God works for the good of those who love him,” reads the famous verse from Romans. I’m leaning on it heavily right now.

With less than a week to go until my novel is published, I obviously hope it’s wildly successful. Who wouldn’t? But even as I hope, I know there’s a chance it might not sell very well.

Whichever happens, I know that God will work it to my good. I trust him.