Into the Fire

Error-free?

 

                           

 

If you like baseball, you know errors are often disastrous for the team committing them and embarrassing for the player who makes them. Major league players making key mistakes can cost them the game. They're unacceptable, disappointing, and distressing when they happen at critical moments. The crowds tend to react unfavorably with unified groans or worse. Errors are the bane of baseball.

Well, errors can be the bane of fiction too. I'm not talking about typos and other mistakes which are found too frequently in printed and e-books these days. Although annoying to see them, I'm speaking of those errors which give the reader an unpleasant jolt of disbelief. Suddenly a character acts like someone other than who he's been portrayed to be for most of the story. A tool is available in the nick of time where no tool should ever be. An angel appears to save a person when there's been no hint of spiritual references in the story. The "deus ex machina" plot device can scream "Error!" to sophisticated readers who don't tolerate mediocrity in storytelling.

Writers strive to avoid error-free fiction, but it isn't as easy as it might seem. We do find ourselves in difficult situations in our stories which demand a sound resolution. The problem is we can't find one so we tend to invent something to give a quick and even logical solution. However, the "solution" isn't plausible. It's too convenient, too easy, too . . . unbelievable.

Do you use a particular method to avoid these kinds of errors? And have you read novels which failed to correct them?

 

Father, we need your assistance in all things. Big or small. With all that we do. We're desperate for you, Lord. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.   

No guarantees . . .

 

    

 

When a writer attempts to write a story with serious intent and hopes to, at the least, touch some hearts, make readers feel either positive or negative emotional responses, and leave a lingering association with them as the pages end, it's unsettling to realize there are no guarantees that even his/her best effort can accomplish this purpose. And I should note the negative emotional responses would be intended not as reactions to the writing style, plot, or anything other than the sought after direction and conclusion to the story.

I wrote this post to illustrate an additional purpose to putting words on the page to tell a story. While authors can speak modestly of their work or gloat about their multiple novels and sales, few of us can claim to have written a novel that transcends the "norm" in our genres. We hope to provide enjoyment for those who either purchase our work or receive it as a gift, but just because we invested a lot of time and even more work into perfecting that story, we face the obvious: Zero guarantees our intentions will be realized.

I absolutely do want to write those novels that will remain timeless in capturing the essence of the human condition with characters who depict our weaknesses and flaws, our singed emotions and our passionate desires, and who resonate in multiple ways with the readers who pick up the books to experience the stories.

Very few things can produce guaranteed satisfaction, certainly not in the arts. While skills and expertise can be appreciated in those pieces of art, those works of fiction, those sounds in music, few can give guarantees of satisfaction to the general populace who experience them. In spite of the talent - or lack thereof - most art has its devout followers and its sincere critics. The artist/writer/musician cannot please everyone. 

But they persist to please, to hold rapt, and to ascend to a heavenly purpose in spite of the no guarantees that perpetually accompany their creations. 

 

Father, we know the danger of trying to please man, especially over obedience to you. Help us all to do as you ask above all else. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.  

 

Almost . . . Certain Jeopardy

 

                      

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=Certain%20Jeopardy%20by%20Jeff%20Struecker%20and%20Alton%20Gansky

If you want authentic military thrills, Captain Jeff Struecker teams with author Alton Gansky to put together an intense story about a journey to Venezuela that morphs into something totally unexpected, acutely dangerous and, as things go terribly awry, with little chance of succeeding. Going from observation status to "certain jeopardy" involves the separate kidnapping of Hector Cenobio, a respected nuclear physicist, and his wife and two young children organized by Islamic terrorists from Iran and an upper minister in the Venezuelan government.

Six Special-Ops men get "the call". Team leader is at a civilian doctor's appointment, one team member is mountain biking with his brother, and one must leave his pregnant wife and young children, while the others all respond with the requirement to be at headquarters within an hour. They all arrive, joke around, receive their instructions, their comnmercial flights, and are on their way.

There's a secret meeting at a local family restaurant which results in a murder. When the murder is tied to the mission, the  mission radically changes and everything ratchets up for the six Americans.

The discovery of a past failure of one team member's actions to get a critical instruction taken care of causes the danger to amp up and sends the group into premature actions, putting everything at risk. With death seeming like a real option to each member of the team, the mission requires constant improvisation and critical decision making on the fly.

Meanwhile back at home, the teenage son of the team's leader has a major chip on his shoulder and gives his mother grief after frequent arguments with his father, the pregnant wife of the assistant team leader is about to lose her baby and possibly her life, an argument with his ex-wife over child-support precedes the mission for another team member, and life strains at both ends for these families.

Certain Jeopardy is filled with tension, conflict, and the need for impossible decision making. Well-written and a genuine thriller, Captain Struecker and Alton Gansky make an incredibly cohesive team and present a believable scenario of Spec-Ops soldiers in horrific situations, doing all they can to make the mission work under impossible conditions.

I must admit as per my usual conduct where the military is involved, there were plenty of tears shed toward the end of this story. Christianity is presented perfectly as a way of life for individual characters with equal exposure given to those who don't believe. Resolutions of faith for the unbelievers were left open for another story.

Highly recommend Certain Jeopardy published by B&H Publishing Group for thriller readers - especially those like me who admire the military and Spec-Ops.

 

Father, thank you for teaming up these two wonderful men of faith. Thank you for the dedication and years of service to the military given by Captain/Chaplain Struecker, for the giftings to this soldier of bravery and courage, but most of all for his devotion to you, and thank you for Alton Gansky who has dedicated his gifts to you for many years. Please bless these men in their individual writings and their team stories. Keep the inspiration coming for them, Lord. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

 

 

Favorite Titles

 

 

 

I wrote this post on titles last year:

http://hopeofglory.typepad.com/into_the_fire/2012/03/titles-of-novels.html.

Are you satisfied with the titles you've attached to your work? Is naming your stories a struggle for you?

I love titles with dual meanings. The innuendoes surface somewhere along the pages of the novel, or the title takes place in conversation between characters and gives relevance to the deeper message.

Honestly, I love good titles. Of all kinds. One word or a few. Good titles just add another dimension to the story and reveal something worthwhile about the book.

So, can you think of some of your favorites? You can either list them for the specific genre(s) or throw out a few you like, including your own. I'm easy.

Here are some of my own that I love with dual meanings:

Hope of Glory

The Famous One

Breath of Life

Destination

The Fixer (for its genre, it works)

Race (WIP)

Here are some from other authors:

Comes A Horseman; Germ; Deadfall (Robert Liparulo)

Almost Heaven (Chris Fabry) (Although I love Chris's writing, I loved the title better than the book this time.)

The Last Man; Kill Shot; Consent to Kill; The Third Option (Vince Flynn)

Back on Murder; Pattern of Wounds (J. Mark Bertrand)

Less than Dead (Tim Downs)

Unforgotten (Kristen Heitzmann)

 

Father, thank you for the beauty and talent you disperse, but most of all thank you for the salvation you offer to all. No words to express that kind of gratitude. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

 

 

Sunday's Offerings

 

The floodgates of the heavens are opened,

  the foundations of the earth shake.

The earth is broken up,

  the earth is split asunder,

  the earth is thoroughly shaken.

The earth reels like a drunkard,

  it sways like a hut in the wind;

so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion

  that it fails - never to rise again.

 

Isaiah 24:18b-20 (NIV)

The plans of God . . .

 

                  

Who can know them? Once in awhile we are given notice of impending actions, but most of the time we are called by faith to believe in what we cannot see, to trust not in ourselves, and to walk in the Spirit. It's a tough go. But it's the best "go".

Lee Hough wrote the following entry to his CaringBridge page. It makes me sad because it seems his battle with brain cancer is coming to an end. He will be the victor, but it's not easy to view it that way from down here. God's not limited by time or disease. That's all there is to say. Please pray for him and his family.

 

"As many of you already know, I received a clear MRI on my brain back in February of this year.  But then I began to have regular headaches again (one of the symptoms that first indicated something was wrong two years ago).  So, in June a different type of MRI test revealed the cancer had spread all throughout the right side of my brain and into the brain’s corpus callosum, which is the connecting area between the two hemispheres. With that discovery, the oncologist predicted I had about two months to live.  That was seven weeks ago.  I have since retired from my work as a literary agent with Alive Communications. In light of my circumstances, my car mechanic and good friend, Hugh, recently asked, “How do you know Christianity is the only way?  The one true religion out of all the others?”  By the tone of his voice, I could tell this wasn’t simply an academic question for him.  He really wanted to know. And your answer? Christian theologians and philosophers have studied the world religions and have written brilliant, comprehensive responses to Hugh’s question over the centuries – but unfortunately none of that was on the tip of my tongue that morning as the two of us stood there in the middle of his car junkyard.  Even if I had had some impressive argument to wow Hugh with, something about serving up an argument to his question felt wrong to me. I think he was looking to hear something spoken out of conviction by me rather than cleverness. Truth be told, looking back I wish that I would have just simply said, “How do I know Christianity is the one true faith?  Because Jesus Christ was crucified, died, and on the third day was raised from the dead.”  And where does this answer come from?  From whom?  An eyewitness.  The Apostle Paul laid down this cornerstone confession for the early church after he himself saw Jesus alive: "Now, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you . . . by this gospel you are saved (1 Corinthians 15:1-18): For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance:  that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, and then to the twelve.  After that He appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, . . . then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all He appeared to me also." So, tomorrow, Friday, I’m headed back out to Hugh’s junk yard to say those words that have been the bedrock of our belief for 2,000 years.  I’d like to close this Caring Bridge with these beautiful contrasts from Paul: *  That we are sown a perishable body, but raised imperishable.    (1 Cor.15:42) *  Sown in dishonor, raised in glory (43) *  Sown in weakness, raised in power (43) *  Sown a natural body, raised a spiritual body (44) My friends, we’ve prayed for healing and whether that may still yet happen in this temporal world or not, I believe I’m about to receive that permanently.  Thank you all for showing Paula and I Jesus in the way that you have prayed, loved, and supported us through this journey. Sown in weakness, raised in power. Lee"

 

God, you know Lee. You know the pain and trials. You know the outcome. I always ask for a miracle because you are able to do those things we can't explain. However, like the Hough family, I accept your results, knowing those left here will suffer sorrow. Please, if you choose not to heal Lee here, give his family all they need to go through this utter sadness. Please. Thank you for Lee, a true gentleman, a good man, a Christian to the end and beyond. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.                         

When you're someone else . . .

 

                       

 

Writers know all about alter egos. They usually have many. They have to. The good, the bad, the ugly, and all the squishy parts in between those familiar identifications.

If we can't look deep inside ourselves to find the essence of many characters, we often manage to make them cliché. Of course we hope we can't fit inside the skin of a serial killer, or an adulteress, or even a small time crook, but in spite of our queasiness at attempting to visit those mindsets, we must feel the depravity that accompanies those actions and portray them without a carbon copy character. Not an easy task to do evil well. Unless . . . well, we won't go there.

Which is precisely why we sometimes struggle with our bad characters. We earnestly try to avoid those kinds of actions in our real life, but we can find emotions or desires for revenge, unforgiveness, infidelity, lying, cheating, and even murder if we profess to be honest and are willing to delve deep enough into this thing we wear called flesh.

Alter egos assert themselves in conversations, day or night dreams - even blog posts. We object strongly or silently condone getting even. How much more can we write these kinds of emotions which inspire actions in our characters?

Do you have an alter ego when you write? Will you admit to it?

 

Father, the war continues between our spirits and our flesh. Please hold us steady in you but give us critical insight into this flesh to portray it, not glorify it, in writing. Help our stories show the battle as it truly is. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.  

Summer TV

 

 

King and Maxwell is entertaining, laying the groundwork for the continuation of this series. I like it. Good chemistry between the actors Jon Tenney (playing Sean King) and Rebecca Romjin (playing Michelle Maxwell), not bad writing which I think will improve as more history is laid down for the characters. Anyone else watching this series?

 

Lord, thank you for the talent you give to so many. If only they would use it for your glory . . . In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

Writer up!

 

 

 

Either you are or you aren't. A writer. Creative or otherwise. Yes or no. Enough of the foolish declarations and self-doubts, false humility, fearful murmurings of how you can't really call yourself a writer. Enough! Pick one: writer or not.

Being "published" does not define you. It no more makes you a writer than running makes you a marathon man/woman. If you're not a writer, what are you?

It's time. Writer up! Either be one or don't.

 

God, thank you for giving me the privilege of writing words in stories. I love writing. Thank you for all of it. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.  

WTH is wrong with sin?!

 

                            

 

The relative definitions of "right" and "wrong" from those who choose not to believe in a deity or choose to define creator as superior-intellectual aliens or as some abstract fluid and distant entity far removed from everyday life, naturally recoil at the biblical references to sin.

Sin is a dirty word. Personal. Antagonistic. Prejudicial. Restrictive. And no one wants to admit to it.

One person's "wrong" is just another person's "right". We're seeing this more and more as some collegiate professorial types are now calling pedophilia just another sexual persuasion not unlike hetero/homo-sexuality. Certainly not "sin".

As a full-fledged sinner type, I can testify as to what the hell is wrong with sin. First off, it's hell-ish. If behavior goes unchecked, the nature of mankind is to corrupt whatever he chooses to do. Without some restrictions as to what's acceptable and upright, murder, mayhem, and misery prevail. If this wasn't the case, utopia would've arrived by now. Clearly, it has not. Ever more clearly is the disintegration, rebellion, and repetition of heinous behaviors from mankind manifesting themselves in the gruesome and barbaric live murders of full-term babies, the perversions of beastiality still present, pornography of all types on the rise, homosexuality and transgender supplications lauded, and the direct evidence of lying, cheating, and even murder from the higher-ups in government. This world is full of sin. And it isn't pretty. And rather than deteriorating in the amount of demonstrated conduct, it's on the rise.

The underlying problem with sin is that much of it is accompanied by a little fun or a lot of fun. When you inject entertainment into the mix of right and wrong, suddenly there are innumerable excuses as to why sin "isn't so bad". The human flesh loves to experience gratification of many - perhaps any - kinds and will propel us forward into doing things we sense are not particularly good for us in the long term. But, boy, that short term thrill can justify the moment. At least until the remorse sets in to those whose consciences are not yet seared.

Conscience in and of itself can provide reasonable arguments for not doing something which can be harmful to us or others and can establish a distinct right and wrong. The problem with conscience is it can be influenced by the effects of sin. If you betray your conscience enough times, repeatedly, it disappears as a warning label and provides no strong objections to the bad behaviors and consequential choices. And if the consequences seem minimal - which really they rarely are - there's all the more reason to rationalize what you've done. You develop a resistance to the severity of the outcomes because of your desire to continue certain behaviors. Sin is definitely addictive.

The final example of a life of sin is the one displayed on your face, tattooed in your eyes. You might not look like a meth-head in physical appearance (which really is a picture of a life given over to sin), you might be beautiful or handsome in physical stature, but there is one detail you cannot prevent if sin is your lifestyle of choice: hardness. It will scream its presence from your eyes, your expressions, your attitudes, your general countenance. It cannot be disguised or hidden. In fact, it will eventually become blatant. Its level of decadence will be worn as skin, your flesh. Unrecognizable to others of like-minded living and even to you when studying your image in the mirror, you cannot be separated from it by your own doing.

And once you embrace sin, indulging it as a chosen companion, the cure for your woes becomes a distant vision, unclear and blurred. It's still there in its brilliance, but you can't see it well even in moments when you try. You begin to wonder if it was ever real.

So. These are "WTH is wrong with sin?!"

Romans 6:23

 

Father, you delivered me from my life of sin and you took the hardness and washed it away with the Blood of the Lamb. There are no words good enough to explain the Glory. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

 

Sunday's Offerings

 

Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

 

Hebrews 13:7-8 (NIV)

It's only . . . Blind Justice

 

                           

 

James Scott Bell is the king of lawyer snark. He writes fascinating stories that feature attorneys with serious flaws. Imagine that, you say, an attorney with flaws! Suffice it to say Blind Justice features Jake Denney who's about ready to pack it in, maybe once and for all.

Jake's a jerk. Major. Big time jerk. He's divorced with a 5 year old daughter Mandy who sees deep into his tattered soul. He gets visitation with her, but the whole situation with his ex-wife and her husband stinks, and he's not about to make it friendly - even for Mandy. His cases have dropped to zero since his drinking has pre-empted everything else. He managed to perform poorly in a court appearance and that pretty much shut down his ability to land cases and pay the rent on his office space. Until . . .

A childhood friend's mother calls Jake and asks for his help. "Howie" is now grown up, sort of, married, one young son named Brian. He's been working construction in Alaska to make the kind of money his wife seems to want. Howie's bringing her a Teddy Bear, flying home one day early, but when he arrives, the house is dark and quiet and he's locked out. Howie manages to break into the sliding glass door and goes to their bedroom where his wife Rae reveals she wants a divorce. Howie cries and pleads with her to change her mind, and then . . . that's all he remembers. Except for the appearance of the devil. 

Howie is accused of murdering his wife, stabbing her 25 times and then wounding himself, and his parents and sister ask Jake to be his attorney. When Jake takes the case, Howie's sister Lindsay insists her brother could not and would not kill Rae. Jake finds he's attracted to Lindsay and tries to explain to her how the evidence looks pretty convincing. She refuses to accept it, and although Jake admires her pluck, he's convinced the best he can get is some reduced charge.

Jake calls his Shakespeare-speaking P.I. to help him with the case and investigate Rae. He finds a kid who'd been sleeping with her and who says he saw someone running away from the house after hearing a scream but went home without telling anyone.

Howie is slow and considers Jake his only real friend. Jake can tell Howie looks up to him which only makes his alcoholic regression that much more despicable. But Jake can't help himself, and nothing seems to slow his demise, even the fury he feels after his wife refuses to allow Mandy to see him again unsupervised since their last visit didn't turn out too well.

Through all of the drinking, the investigation, the determination to get Howie acquitted, and the bully prosecutor's handling of the case, there's a creepy undercurrent in the proceedings. Jake's investigator "Triple C" feels it and even Jake senses something wrong, but Jake immerses his fears and doubts in the bottle.

When multiple things go terribly wrong, Jake is forced to realize his answers can't be found at the bottom of those bottles. And injustice can't turn a blind eye to the truth.

Blind Justice by James Scott Bell is a well-written, thoroughly entertaining story about a young attorney on the skids who somehow manages to do just enough damage to himself to wake up and search for a reason to quit retreating from life. With a hopeful and satisfying (albeit a tad convenient) ending, Blind Justice is a quick and valuable read that captures the destruction of alcoholism and the beauty of unconditional love while taking a hard look at the evil Howie recognized.

Good story. Highly recommended.    

http://www.amazon.com/Blind-Justice-ebook/dp/B00CZLCKVY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374202003&sr=8-1&keywords=Blind+Justice+by+James+Scott+Bell

http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?WRD=Blind%20Justice%20by%20James%20Scott%20Bell

 

Father, James has been writing books to honor you for many years. Please continue to bless his life, family, and inspiration. Please continue to supply the readers for his books and give him many more stories to tell. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

 

 

Grateful . . .

 

                  

Saying "Thank you" seems inadequate so much of the time. The synonyms don't do the feelings justice. The embellishments of "so much" and "very much" and "from my heart" don't serve their purpose no matter how intense the feelings of gratitude are. They're never enough to reveal how deeply the feelings dwell. So. Insufficiently, I want to express my thanks to Tim George and Jessica Thomas for making a Kindle version of The Famous One possible. Because of your efforts, several more people have read the story and blessed me with their responses.

And thank all the rest of you who've read this novel. I appreciate each one of you. 

All I can offer are infinite thank yous.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Famous-One-ebook/dp/B00CQRUNCK/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374098949&sr=1-3&keywords=Nicole+Petrino-Salter

 

Thank you, Lord, for giving me Joey Parr's story through the unique circumstances of that experience. I'm always grateful for all you've done for me. There are no words for that. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.  

Timeless . . .

 

 

 

You can ask writers all kinds of questions and get such different answers to the same topics.

Ask writers what they hope to accomplish with their novel(s). Ask them if they have a purpose in writing a particular book. Ask them what their goals are in writing stories. Ask them if they write for a specific audience. Ask them what they hope to achieve in publishing. Ask them whatever you want.

In rereading Tender Is the Night I realized something about certain authors with certain books, and I discovered I wanted that quality in at least a couple of my own. Timelessness. I say "a couple" because an author doesn't arrive there easily. He has to swim to a depth that feels like drowning and then make his way back to the surface of his current reality. 

Even though they write in an era past, present, or future, their novel speaks to the ever present because it captures the humanity of its characters so precisely that time no longer is a factor. It doesn't matter if the mode of transportation is a horse and wagon, a Ferrari, or a space traveling vehicle. If the gown belongs to a flapper or the Levis are hip-huggers or the telephone is a dial-up land line or a smart phone, the characters are as everlasting as the sunrise and sunset, and the crisis is always personally experienced.

What about you? Is there something specific you wish to achieve with your writing?

 

Father, only you can put those stories on pages that permeate time. Only your inspiration makes lasting quality. Only you. We're all desperate for you, Jesus, whether we know it or not. I love you, Lord. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.  

Remembering reading . . . Tender Is the Night

      

I had a glorious remembrance of the book Tender Is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. He gained a favored spot in my heart when I was in the 17 to 20 age bracket, so planted in me that I remember his writing with a certain feeling I can't describe. I loved his writing.

I just finished rereading Tender Is the Night because I couldn't remember much of it and wanted to revisit why it held such a memorial in my heart. Published in 1934 and filled with what researchers lament was a lot of autobiographical experiences for Fitzgerald, it apparently debuted with less than scintillating sales and supposedly broke the author's heart. He never completed another novel after Tender Is the Night and didn't live to realize it's impact or fame in the literary world.

After finishing the story this time, the melancholy creeped over me, and I realized that hopeless overtone which permeated the book was probably what captured my existential outlook at that time of my life. I was lost spiritually even though I knew there was a God. The symbolism of stories which accentuated the pretending of vitality, while really owning none of it, resonated with my young and foolish soul. There's a particular "cool" wrapped up in masquerading that all of life is caught and celebrated in your worldly ways, and the couple in TItN lived in the pleasures money could buy them, running out of pleasure while money still prevailed.

From the writing standpoint it was brave and bold in style, unflinching and different. Dick Diver was both a tender man and a cold cad. Nicole was delicate, unstable, stubborn, aloof, and selfish. Neither were good parents to the two children they had together, the son and daughter more like expected fixtures in a marriage. Their lives were filled with amazing and disgusting people, parties, entertainment, and sometimes Dick managed to make his psychology degree work for him. They lived the deluxe ex-pat European lifestyle. 

He fell in love with the wealthy and beautiful girl-woman Nicole, traumatized by a terrible event in her childhood, determined to make her well, but when she got there, neither of them had much left for each other.

The story's end is abrupt and ugly. It's a quick stab that leaves an endless scar. I can't decide if it was brilliant or he'd had enough of writing his story which took him several years to complete. Suffice it to say, in a sad way that speaks volumes about lost lives of any stature, I still cared about this novel but only because it captured the nuances of those who refuse to look at life through any lens but their own and those directly in their circles. The feigned meaning of life evaporates for some while others carry on the charade. 

 

Father, you're here, there, and everywhere for all of us. Waiting. Asking. Saving. Thank you for rescuing me from meaninglessness. You are all that truly matters. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.     

 

So who is . . . The King

 

                              

     Signet Select; Published by the Penguin Group

 

If you want thrills, horror, philosophy, just a dab of humor now and then, teen angst, grown-up angst, professionalism, genius, a smidgen of spirituality, and killer killers, you need to start with The Pawn and read all the way through to The King by Steven James. With intricate and complex storylines, this Master Storyteller weaves in the successes of horribly evil characters and the sometimes failures of all types of law enforcement to stop them. Given their advantages in committing heinous crimes when their intellect is way above average, Patrick Bowers and his associates use every method available to fend off future attacks and capture these human monsters.

About these killers . . . Richard Basque is out of prison on a technicality, and there's nothing he likes better than kidnapping women and eating some of their organs, preferably before he kills them. He relishes the "hunt" and thrives on confounding Patrick Bowers. He's left a bloody body trail, but those murders aren't connecting until one day after a picnic with Patrick and his step-daughter Tessa, Patrick's Special Agent FBI profiler fiancée Lien-hua Jiang returns to her car to find a huge surprise as Patrick and Tessa depart from the park.

In the meantime the Director of the FBI's (Margaret Wellington) brother has committed suicide, and she wants Patrick to figure out why. His history with Margaret is checkered and uncomfortable at best, but Patrick assures her he will do everything he can to find anything that might've been missed. And of course he does. Which brings back another escaped psychopath from The Queen, the self-nicknamed Valkyrie who is really the alter-ego of Alexei Chekov.

The King, like every book in the Patrick Bowers Series, is primarily told from Patrick's POV, but Steven takes us down the dark roads of his venemous criminals' thoughts. The strange conclusions of his killers - although not off base for self-evaluations - remind us of how evil begins within our nature. Could we become them if we allowed ourselves to delve into our true instincts and abandon personal restrictions?

Tessa's emotional struggles are not atypical of maturing teens, but her high intellect often provides too much stimuli, while coming in handy other times, seducing her away from the desire to pursue her deceased mother's wish for Tessa. Losing her mother pre-empted serious belief in any deity and destroyed and toppled a timid faith. Will Tessa overcome her pain to find true relief from all that she's taken on and assumed about herself and the world around her?

Peripheral characters become essential and a vital part of each story, aiding the big picture of crimes and relationships. Always done well, the reader is filled in at so many levels with important, fascinating, and meaningful data. (Steven does manage to plug his new series by making a character reference the amazing magician "Jevin Banks" from Placebo.)  

The brilliance of the Patrick Bowers Series lies in Steven's ability to thread complex plot details efficiently throughout the stories, braiding them together and binding them with that small splayed tail at the end of each book which assures us that as much as we need the pursuits of these crazy men and women to end, as a reader we're amped up to find out how in the world Patrick and his associates will be allowed to chase them down and eliminate them. We yearn for resolution, face our need for justice, and actually hope that "justice" allows them to be exterminated. It's in our nature after all.

 

Father, you've given Steven incredible talent and he's following his gift. Please help him to continue down the path you've designed just for him. Bless him for all things he does to honor you. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.  

 

Sunday's Offerings

 

But the man who loves God is known by God.

 

1 Corinthians 8:3 (NIV)

Evaluating . . . All Souls

 

 

 

All Souls, A Gatehouse Thriller (#1) by K. T. Kaufman (aka Karin Kaufman), is available on Kindle for readers who enjoy contemporary speculative thrillers.

K. T. Kaufman has written a thoughtful, disturbing story for the first book in her Gatehouse Thriller Series. Jane Piper is a hunter of "Sacks". Sacks are those who kill "innocents" assigned to them by upper echelon members of their organization. Just as these innocents' names appear on a list, so do those mysteriously dubbed Sacks' names come down from Gatehouse to those in charge (called "porters") of the hunters. The hunters have been personally affected by the Sacks' killings, losing a loved one at their merciless hands. Jane lost her younger sister to a ruthless, brutal killer, and her parents blamed her after the tragedy. As a result, she applied to be a hunter at Gatehouse.

So, are the hunters primarily vigilantes dispatched by their porters via Gatehouse to impart justice? Are they just people hell-bent on revenge? Are they really sadistic hedonists as their counterparts appear to be? How exactly do they view their roles in the heirarchy of murder?

There appears to be a serious leak in the Gatehouse leadership which puts Nathan, Jane's porter, Jane, and fellow hunter Zach on the run. Supposedly there's a woman who has turned away from her high-ranking Sack position to defect to Gatehouse. Nathan vetted her and is convinced she's legitimate, but Jane and Zach aren't as certain because of her hideous crime as a Sack. When all of their lives are threatened and it seems the "safe" houses are coming under constant Sack attack, Nathan and his friend Claude, number 3 in the Gatehouse leadership, must find a way to keep the four of them from being killed by the relentless assaults from groups of low-ranking Sacks who used to work alone.

Jane's, Zach's, Nathan's, and Claude's constant running, their incessant need for sleep, and the twist you know is coming but aren't sure exactly what it's going to be, are very well done by Kaufman. The story doesn't dawdle, and the threats, the new exposures, and the need to discover the culprits keep those Kindle pages clicking to the next one. There's a considerable amount of profanity used in this general market offering, but God does make it into the final pages more as a reckoning and revelation to the heroine who can't quite ferret out the difference between justification and redemption. This process seems to lay the groundwork for both the title and the development of Jane Piper in future books.

I could not decide if All Souls fit into any of the following classifications:

"Allegory is a literary device in which characters or events in a literary, visual, or musical art form represent or symbolize ideas and concepts." Wikipedia

"A parody (/'pær?di/; also called spoof, send-up or lampoon), in current use, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on or trivialise[citation needed] an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of satiric or ironic imitation. As the literary theorist Linda Hutcheon puts it, "parody … is imitation, not always at the expense of the parodied text." Another critic, Simon Dentith, defines parody as "any cultural practice which provides a relatively polemical allusive imitation of another cultural production or practice."[1] Parody may be found in art or culture, including literature, music (although "parody" in music has an earlier, somewhat different meaning than for other art forms), animation, gaming and film." Wikipedia

The American Heritage Dictionary's secondary meaning for irony: "incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs".[5] This sense, however, is not synonymous with "incongruous" but merely a definition of dramatic or situational irony. It is often included in definitions of irony not only that incongruity is present but also that the incongruity must reveal some aspect of human vanity or folly. Thus the majority of American Heritage Dictionary's usage panel found it unacceptable to use the word ironic to describe mere unfortunate coincidences or surprising disappointments that "suggest no particular lessons about human vanity or folly." Wikipedia 

An interesting conceptual novel, not generally my type, but All Souls is a quick, well-written read and a good first entry to this series. 

 

Father, you know how hard Karin works, you know her heart, you know her desires. Please continue to bless her efforts to do as you ask, to honor you, and to be the one you designed her to be. Encourage her as only you can do. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

 

 

 

Another look . . .

 

 

 

Visiting over here again. So as you virtually sit in this pretty place with a book or e-reader, perhaps you can leave a comment about your thoughts on being a reader over there.

 

Lord, thank you for always accompanying me even when I'm wrong. I'm desperate for you. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

An Honor . . .

 

  

It has been my honor and my pleasure to have read all of Vince Flynn's novels and to share my reviews of them with you. If you haven't had the privilege to read these amazing stories which nail down the current state of our country, I hope you will make the time to read each one and absorb the insights and revelation transmitted on the pages of these stories. Truly, there is no time like the present.

God bless Vince's family in this time of mourning and God Bless America. Lord, we're all desperate for you. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.