The Cure by Athol Dickson

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The Cure Thumbnail The Cure by Athol DicksonDISCLAIMER: It is no secret that Athol Dickson is my client. We have worked together for hundreds of hours getting his works out before you the readers. He has also become something more:  friend from across the country, kindred spirit and fellow follower of Christ. But I read The Cure long before I met Athol and Riley Keep is a character close to my heart ever since. There is a lot of Riley in me and I suspect in many of you. If you have read The Cure, join the conversation and leave a comment about how it affected you.

The Cure is free at Amazon for the next 5 days

A Review

Riley was no longer dead; his ghostly days were over… here at last was something truly good to drink. The Cure is something truly good to drink. – The Cure

There was a time when Riley Keep was a man of supreme confidence: minister, missionary, educator of New England’s finest. Then something terrible happened; he came face to face with his humanity and what he saw changed him. Now he returns home years later an abject failure, a ghost moving among the living. By accident he catches his reflection in a mirror and he sees something far different: failed protector of an entire people, weakling of a husband, incompetent father, and drunkard.

Athol Dickson offers us the most unlikely, and to be honest, most unlikeable of heroes. Riley Keep has fallen so far that when he returns to his home town in Maine along with a dying homeless friend no one even recognizes him. Not the church people, not his former friends, and not even the mayor who just happens to be his estranged-wife. Through an apparent accident Riley discovers something every person trapped by the demons of their personal sins would give anything to have, a magic bullet that would forever take away their addiction. Riley Keep has discovered The Cure.

What happens next is on one level a rousing suspense story and on another a parable of failure and despair. It is the story of far away pagans and the pagan within us all. And in the end it is a story of ultimate hope. As always, Dickson’s characters are vivid, tragic, heroic, well-intentioned, and severely flawed. Even when Riley Keep gets his act together and appears to become a great success, he is within himself a failure. In other words he is real. Perhaps this is why some found this story uncomfortable.

Upon his return to his home town, Riley observes that people walk by him but never look into his eyes, never see him. He guesses it is because they fear they see some of themselves. I think Riley Keep guesses right.

One question for the author, Athol Dickson …

Riley Keep’s character had such depth. How much of Athol Dickson is hiding inside of Riley?

AD Headshot JPG The Cure by Athol DicksonI do indeed have personal experience with drug addiction and with homelessness. In my late teens, I started drinking and smoking marijuana, and soon I began using narcotics of almost every kind, from LSD to heroin. I was stoned pretty much continuously for about eight years. I ended up addicted to methamphetamine, my drug of choice, what some people call “crank” or simply, “meth.” I was also homeless for a little while, although I always managed to sleep on the floors or sofas of my fellow dopers and never spent the night in a shelter. But I do know what it feels like. So I learned most of what I needed to know to write THE CURE through those experiences, and the rest I’ve learned through association with alcoholic friends and family members, and by volunteering over the years at shelters.

Although it has been years since I considered myself a drug addict, I’ve been to AA meetings and I spend several hours at a shelter near my home a couple of days every month, helping people put together resumes, preparing meals for them, and just hanging out to spread the love. They say an alcoholic is always an alcoholic, but for me at least, the meth addiction has been healed. I do, however, remain addicted to sin, and while that may not sound like the same thing, in fact it really is.

Confessions of a Ghostwriter

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OConnor 02 Confessions of a GhostwriterWRITING IS AN INGLORIOUS PROFESSION even though we writer types too often long for recognition. “I would write if I never made a dime or saw my name in print anywhere,” are words often heard from key note speakers at writer’s conferences. Conference attendees nod approvingly as though none of them came in hopes of finding an agent so they can get published so they can sell books so they can … you get the idea. Admit it or not, we talk a lot about not caring about the glory but embracing that is a different matter altogether.

Even those who never intend to write seem stymied by my current gig as a ghostwriter. “Doesn’t it bother you that your name won’t be on it?” they ask. I sanctimoniously answer “no” while secretly knowing the truth of that statement is more than suspect. As I approach the end of the first full-length book authored by me that will be published, the truth is I am left a bit empty by the fact no one will ever know I wrote it except the person whose name will appear on the cover.

Am I tempted to spill the beans and tell someone I’m not supposed to? Not really. Perhaps that’s because before signing the contract I saw the Roman Polanski film, The Ghost Writer and read Ghostwriter by Travis Thrasher. Here’s a brief synopsis of both:

The Ghost Writer: A ghostwriter stumbles onto a secret that places his life in danger as he takes down the life story of a former U.K. prime minister in this Roman Polanski-helmed adaptation of the Robert Harris novel. Convinced by his agent that he’s been granted a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, talented British screenwriter “The Ghost” (Ewan McGregor) agrees to aid British prime minister Adam Lang (Pierce Brosnan) in completing his memoirs after the leader’s former aide dies under mysterious circumstances. Almost immediately after The Ghost arrives at a remote mansion in the U.S. to begin working with the prime minister, Lang is accused of committing a war crime by a former British cabinet minister. Amidst a deluge of protestors and reporters, The Ghost delves into the unfinished manuscript and comes to the terrifying conclusion that his predecessor died because he discovered a link between Prime Minister Lang and the CIA. The more information The Ghost uncovers, the more convinced he becomes that his life could be in danger as well.

Ghostwriter by Travis Thrasher: For years Dennis Shore has thrilled readers with his spooky bestselling novels. Now a widower, Dennis is finally alone in his house, his daughter attending college out of state. When he’s stricken by a paralyzing case of writer’s block and a looming deadline, Dennis becomes desperate. Against better judgment, he claims someone else’s writing as his own, accepting undeserved accolades for the stolen work. He thinks he’s gotten away with it . . . until he’s greeted by a young man named Cillian Reed–the true author of the stolen manuscript. What begins as a minor case of harassment quickly spirals out of control. As Cillian’s threats escalate, Dennis finds himself on the brink of losing his career, his sanity, and even his life. The horror he’s spent years writing about has arrived on his doorstep, and Dennis has nowhere to run.

That is enough to convince me to keep my mouth shut.

Andrew Crofts, who has ghostwritten over 80 published books, observes. “Only the smallest percentage of books get reviewed. Most vanish completely from the shelves within a few months of publication, and are usually pretty hard to find even during those few months.”

In truth, only a few books are timeless. Most are transitory but the art of words, ideas and writing is not. Flannery O’Connor said, “I write to discover what I know.” That is what is lasting about writing – discovering what I know and I would add what I don’t know. Writing is indeed an inglorious profession if recognition, prestige, and wealth are the reasons you have embarked on its path. But if learning what I know and don’t know is important, then perhaps writing (ghost or not) is the one of the most fulfilling things I can do.

Google, Easter and Not-Much-Ado About Anything

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google Google, Easter and Not Much Ado About Anything

 

ACCORDING TO THE PUNDITS in the 24 hour news cycle and people addicted to Twitter, there was a major confrontation between the infidels of Google and the entire Christian faith a couple of days ago. The cause of the supposed furor apparently was a maelstrom of frenzied Christians up in arms over Google’s decision to honor Ceasar Chavez rather than Jesus Christ on Easter Sunday.

In the opinion of this Christ follower the whole thing is Not-Much-Ado about anything.

Yes it was Easter, the day a huge segment of the world’s population collectively sets aside to remember the greatest event in human history. And yes, Google did choose to honor the semi-iconic figure of a revered labor leader.

Let there be no doubt that it was a conscious human choice on the part of Google to avoid Easter for the 13th year in a row. In fact Forbes Magazine reports that the doodle that appears on Google’s home page every day is one of the few decisions not made by algorithms:

“The Doodles are the company’s face; they are the first thing users see when they navigate to the page. Heck, for some users they are the reason to navigate to the page. And Google lets, well, people make the decision what will appear based on, gasp! Subjective reasoning.

But was Google’s decision a reason to get all up in arms? Let me say first, I am leery of the way the media presented the whole brouhaha. For most of us who woke up this past Sunday morning and headed to church, our minds weren’t on Google or what those offended by its choice of doodles were tweeting. Frankly, Google was the last thing on my mind.

In fact, I knew nothing of the supposed uprising in Christendom until that night when I noticed a comment from Facebook friend on his timeline. I was so in the dark about the goings on at Google that I had to do some research before posting a reply. From there, here is how our brief conversation went:

  • Friend – Any wonder why I no longer adhere to any religious faith? I’m so tired of the crazy and the hypocrisy.
  • Me – What Google does or does not do on this day or any other is of no concern to me. They, like a certain chicken joint, have every right to do with their business what they wish. Just so you know, not all who call themselves followers of Christ are the knee jerks these folks apparently are.
  • Friend – I understand that Tim. It’s just disappointing to see the “persecution complex” that seems to thrive in so many people of faith. They perceive injury in things that have zero effect on them personally. In fact, through their reactions, they marginalize themselves even more.
  • Me – And trust me, it was great thinkers of faith who warned of that very thing. C.S. Lewis and Carl F.H. Henry to name a couple. This is the reason my faith is not in a persuasion, sect, or religion but in a Person.

Jason Linkins of the Huffington Post, not exactly the first place I go for unbiased news, managed to get this one right when he wrote:

“The truth is that it didn’t matter to 99.9999999999999999999 percent of Christianity’s 2.2 billion adherents … It really does a disservice to people around the world — including many Christians — who suffer at the hands of actual persecutors.”

Now I say this is Not-Much-Ad about anything because all these words mean little on both sides. Some people of faith, angered by Google, immediately tweeted they were switching to Bing. Now there’s a great show of identification with the Resurrected Christ, switching from a web site that honored the birth day of a labor leader to one with a picture of a bunch of eggs.

And to good ole’ Jason over at HuffPo, I’ll take your concern for those persecuted for their faith more seriously when you start putting pressure on John Kerry and the Whitehouse to force Iran’s hand on the 8 year imprisonment of pastor Saeed Abedini.

To my Facebook friend, I stand as a force of one to say that you are right about how people of faith marginalize themselves over things that really mean nothing. We need only quote the words of the One we say we trust in to accomplish being marginalized …

“I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by Me.”

As for me, if I am going to be marginalized, let it be for choosing Christ not because I chose Bing over Google!

Victor Hugo Tried to Tell Me

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eggs face Victor Hugo Tried to Tell MeOr, “How I came to have cyber egg all over my face”

Confessions of someone who posts on Facebook before sitting on hands and engaging brain.

VICTOR HUGO said, “History has its truth, and so has legend. Legendary truth is of another nature than historical truth. Legendary truth is invention whose result is reality. Furthermore, history and legend have the same goal; to depict eternal man beneath momentary man.”

When it comes to figures of the past, time has a way of mediating the negative and positive snapshots of a person’s character and life to give us a fairly accurate portrait of what and who he or she was; to give as honest a portrayal as possible of the “eternal man beneath the momentary man”.

I am neck deep in alligators right now with just such a project: sorting through the good, the bad and the ugly of people who lived over 400 years ago and hopefully coming up with an interesting yet accurate final portrait. Multiple hours of research went into delving deeply into source material, reading long passages of tedious and quite frankly boring 16th Century prose and reading some good and some painfully biased biographies before ever writing one word.

The point is that I have taken great pains to ensure my account is well researched and free from the bias of a 21st Century man looking backwards at someone lost in the mist of the 16th Century. So one would think I could do an even better job speaking of someone who is a contemporary, of someone whose portrait is still being painted with their own living words and actions.

One would think.

But when I posted a link to a story at National Review, titled Air Force Chaplain Awarded Bronze Star for PowerPoint Teaching Proper Sensitivity for the Koran, I failed to look beyond the momentary man to find the eternal man. In my best military dad’s righteous anger I read the article in about 60 seconds and then posted what I thought about it on Facebook 10 seconds after that.

After all, our youngest son was awarded the bronze star for valor in combat. As a convoy commander in Iraq a few years ago he was involved in a deadly firefight and nearly lost his life. That’s what soldiers get bronze stars for, not PowerPoint presentations. How dare this Lt. Colonel accept such an award for punching some keys on a computer?

So I sat down to write this post and give vent to my impressions of such a travesty. Thankfully I took a breath and paused to do a little more research and fact checking. Only then did I realize that, to my shame, the snapshot of Lt Colonel Jon Trainer offered in the National Review and repeated by a myriad of copycats including yours truly on Facebook did not offer the whole picture.

And then I read this:

I contacted LTC Jon Trainer Tuesday afternoon, something no other policy analysts or commentators had done, to discuss the matter with him directly. I also contacted field commanders in Afghanistan for comment on the PowerPoint he developed. …. continue reading

My opinion hasn’t changed about the way our government is devaluing acts of true heroism but I am slapping my own hand for raising it before I knew what I was talking about. This age of cyber everything has created an avalanche of words, the majority of which are worse than useless. Shame on me for adding to this mountain of garbage that passes for meaningful commentary.

I am once again reminded of C.S. Lewis admonition to writers: know exactly what you want to say and be sure you say exactly that. Anyone else care to confess to speaking before you were sure of all the facts in a matter? Please, I really don’t want to sit here all by myself in the time-out corner.

Remembering The Blind Side?

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Remembering The Blind Side?

Considering Michael Oher is now wearing a Super Bowl Ring and his biography is a a part of Lifeway bookstore’s catalogue I thought it was time to revisit the most visited post at Dare to Look in 2012.

I’m not sure why this one received over 1300 visits in less than 10 hours but it apparently struck a chord. In case you missed it, here it is again.

 

Did Lifeway Get the Blind Side?

Since 2010, Florida pastor Rodney Baker has been on a crusade to remove an “offensive film” from Lifeway Christian bookstores and as of last month he succeeded. You might ask, what manner of ungodliness did this chain of Christian bookstores operated by the Southern Baptist Convention promote? The answer will probably perplex many of you.

The pastor of Hopeful Baptist Church in Lake City, Florida submitted a resolution to the Southern Baptist Convention, demanding that Lifeway pull The Blind Side. Grossing over $34 million in its opening weekend, that film was nominated for Best Motion Picture at the Oscars and won Sandra Bullock an Oscar for Best Actress.

Weeks before the denomination’s annual convention, LifeWay decided to pull “The Blind Side” from its shelves. A Lifeway spokesman stated that this decision was done to make the resolution unnecessary. In fairness to the trustees of LifeWay, the timing could not have been worse. The SBC’s convention was to meet in New Orleans and the body was about to see its first African-American president, New Orleans’s pastor Fred Luter, elected. Understandably, controversy was not something anyone wanted.

Not surprisingly reactions to LifeWay’s decision have been mixed.

 

The Detractors

Some like New York Times best-selling author Eric Metaxas best known for his biographies on William Wilberforce and Dietrich Bonhoeffer mused about the negative image to the world at large such a decision would offer:

I’m kind of upset. A great movie was pulled from the shelves of a Christian bookstore chain,” he said on the July 5 program. “Look, I’m as concerned about cultural messages as anyone. I’m a father. But there’s a right way and a wrong way to do this – and the wrong way definitely includes the permanent state of umbrage that many Christians seem to exhibit. They seem to have confused being salt and light with being curmudgeons.

Others such as Rachel Held Evans took the action as occasion to bemoan the steps authors must take to be considered by Christian publishing houses.

Christian bookstores have a chokehold on the Christian publishing industry. And this chokehold not only affects the inventory you find on Christian bookstore shelves, but which books are contracted by publishers, what content gets edited in the writing and editing process, and the degree of freedom authors feel they have to speak on their own blogs and platforms. As a result, the entire Christian industry has been sanitized, while its best artists look elsewhere for publication.

The Defenders

Marty King, communications director for LifeWay, was quick to say that the staff had “carefully and prayerfully” reviewed all of it products and applied standards approved by the chain’s trustees. To illustrate their decision-making process he brought up LifeWay’s inclusion of the movie Amazing Grace:

We carry movies like “Amazing Grace”… [which] includes scenes with language some would deem inappropriate for their children’s ears and actions not suitable for everyone’s viewing. But the film is about man’s struggle to understand God’s justice and find redemption.

The Distractions of Legalism

So why did Pastor Baker target The Blind Side and not Amazing Grace? It’s not for me to judge motives so I’ll leave that to him to explain. The irony of this whole situation is that a lesser-known film, To Save a Life, not only remains on Lifeway’s shelves but receives heavy promotion. Not only can you purchase the DVD at the chain but there’s also a book and a group activity kit aimed at teens to boot.

So what’s the irony? To Save a Life is not nearly as well made as The Blind Side and the acting was certainly not Oscar worthy. In fact, about the only thing the two films share is a PG-13 rating. Words that The Blind Side uses sparingly come in generous portions in To Save a Life.

LifeWay has every right to sell whatever it wants to sell and not sell what it doesn’t want to sell. This is America last time I checked. I understand the constraints such an enterprise faces in trying to please everybody. But I also see illustrated here the seminal problem with legalism. Legalism is more about trying to be the Holy Spirit than pleasing God.

We look for ways to banish one non-profane movie while justifying the presence of another. We pass resolutions about all the easy things to fight while avoiding the weightier eternal matters. How else can you explain LifeWay booting The Blind Sidewhile selling Joel Osteen books like hotcakes? That’s the same Joel Osteen who told agnostic Larry King before a national audience that he couldn’t say how one gets to heaven. Last time I checked – no resolutions about that one.

A movie is made that describes in realistic yet tasteful terms how an inner city castaway is embraced and loved by suburban evangelicals. For once the Christian characters in such a film don’t end up being pedophiles or serial killers, Hollywood recognizes the quality of the film, and a few words disqualify it!

Remembering The Blind Side?The Bottom Line

By way of disclaimer I’ve been affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention since birth. My father was a pastor of Southern Baptist churches and I received my education at a Southern Baptist college. I was present along with 43,000 other messengers in St Louis in 1987 when we chose to stem the tide of Neo-orthodoxy and teachings that denied the authority of Scripture in our schools and institutions.

So with that out of the way I just want to ask one thing of my fellow believers and Baptists. The question is not profound nor is it nice. And, unfortunately, people will be bothered by how I word this question more than Joel Osteen’s theology.

And that question is … “What the hell are we thinking about?”

 

C.S. Lewis and the ‘Stuff’ We Say

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lewis 011 C.S. Lewis and the Stuff We SayIn C.S. Lewis’s last interview, he was asked what he would tell a young writer about developing a style. His response was worthy of the last public words of the man who gave the world the simple yet profound Mere Christianity and the magical Chronicles of Narnia.

Lewis’ formula was this:

  1. Know exactly what you want to say.
  2. Be sure you say exactly that.

The man known to those closest to him simply as Jack went on to expand on that by saying:

“The reader, we must remember, does not start by knowing what we mean. If our words are ambiguous, our meaning will escape him. I sometimes think that writing is like driving sheep down a road. If there is any gate open to the left or the right the reader will most certainly go into it.”

Seven years earlier, in the summer before I was born, Lewis penned a now famous reply to an American school girl seeking advice on writing. That advice along with other snippets of wisdom appeared in Letters to Children in 1956. Would that every adult wanting to communicate with other adults heed this advice:

  • Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn’t mean anything else.
  • Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.
  • Never use abstract nouns when concrete ones will do. If you mean “More people died” don’t say “Mortality rose.”
  • In writing. Don’t use adjectives which merely tell us how you want us to feel about the things you are describing. I mean, instead of telling us the thing is “terrible,” describe it so that we’ll be terrified. Don’t say it was “delightful”; make us say “delightful” when we’ve read the description. You see, all those words (horrifying, wonderful, hideous, exquisite) are only like saying to your readers “Please, will you do my job for me.”
  • Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

When I took on freelance writing in a serious way I chose, Simply Communicate as my moniker and the tagline, “You create – we simply communicate.” In the four years or so since then I have written about everything from an in-depth consideration of the Genesis account of creation to articles on how to create Search Engine Optimized content for the web to news articles about everything that tends to make my blood boil. Oh, and did I mention I’m still plugging away at convincing some deluded acquisition’s editor that I know how to tell a story?

This writing journey and life as a whole has proven Lewis’ formula should be strictly heeded. Most breakdowns in communication come from two sources:

  1. Not knowing what I really want to say.
  2. Even when I do know what I want to say failing to say exactly that.

One of the values in writing stuff down is being able to look at the stuff coming out of my mouth a little more objectively. Did someone claiming to be a writer just use a word as weak as “stuff” to describe his words? Sure, I could have chosen something far more eloquent to attempt to convince you of my literary prowess. But to do so would have been about as genuine as most of what you hear coming out of Washington and sadly too many pulpits.

If you aren’t taking time to think though what you are saying to others the odds are, what they are hearing is just stuff. Can you think of a time when you got yourself in a bind with a person you cared about because you spoke before really having anything to say? How about knowing you didn’t know what you wanted to say but plunging on ahead and saying something anyway?

Tell me … how did that work out for you?

 

 

 

January Justice by Athol Dickson

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JJ Virtual Tour 021813 January Justice by Athol Dickson

First there was Phillip Marlowe, then there was Lew Archer,and now there is Malcolm Cutter. January Justice is some non stop thrill ride with a detective for today. I am now a devoted fan. It is rare to read a detective story that keeps you on edge, has twists and turns that are unexpected and, ultimately, leads to an exciting finish. Bravo Athol Dickson. – Amazon Review

To say anything about January Justice by Athol Dickson requires an immediate disclaimer. For almost a year now I have been Dickson’s publicist meaning anything I say might raise suspicions that I speak well of his writing for self-serving reasons. As a result I have effectively disqualified myself as a reliable reviewer of his work, at least to those who do now know me well.

With that in mind, let me instead offer a few snippets from the reviews of lest biased readers:


As usual, author Athol Dickson did not disappoint with January Justice. The style is a bit of a departure from his other works, and while many authors couldn’t make that work, Athol did … This is a suspense novel. Unlike other novels I have read recently, January Justice has great tension in it. The tension carries to the end with little frustration, because the twists and turns make sense and flow within the story line … It has been a LONG time since I’ve found an author whose work doesn’t frustrate me on one level or another. If anything frustrates me at all about this author, it’s that I have to wait to read the next novel! – Claudette

Along the way, the characters became living people – with quirks just odd enough to make them memorable but not so over-the-top as to make them unreal. And the plot? Twists and turns and surprises abound. I still have a crush on Malcolm and a craving for Simon’s tomato soup. Well done, Athol! – Cathy

A tough guy with a soft side, Malcolm Cutter reminds me a bit of Lee Child’s Reacher in that Cutter seems to find trouble and then root out the bad in the name of good. Further, in this novel Cutter gets himself in dire situations but does not seem to mind, maybe partly because he’s still reeling over the death of his love and partly because he is trying to decide himself the point of living. Dickson’s plot is deep and tangled, yet plenty interesting enough to keep the pages turning. The settings of Southern California and Guatemala, with just a bit of West Texas thrown in, keep the cast moving around interesting places. I like to read tough-guy suspense novels and this one keeps up with the best of them. – MB

I first met the author on the book shelves of Barnes and Noble as I was intrigued by the cover art and first paragraph of River Rising. My next encounter with Athol was during a phone interview in which I clumsily forgot about time zones differences and woke him up at 6:00 AM. Since then I have read and reviewed every word he has ever published, interviewed him numerous times, become his publicist and spent several hours a week in phone conversations, and finally had the privilege to meet in person as he and I and our wives met for dinner here in Florida.

And now here I am, working to get the word out to the world about a totally different kind of novel from this man I have come to know so well. This is a classic murder mystery that would make Raymond Chandler proud. There’s a dashing yet damaged leading man with the haunting memory of the love of his life leaping to her death, nefarious elements of crime out to get him as well, an eclectic pair of side-kicks to watch his back, a mysterious woman he can’t quite figure out, and a drive to make things right whatever that may cost.

January Justice is the beginning of a new journey in his writing but the Athol Dickson I know best is still the master of profound suspense. If you want to call me biased, then guilty as charged.

____________________________________________________________

AD Headshot JPG January Justice by Athol DicksonA master of profound suspense. Athol Dickson’s mystery, suspense, and literary novels have won three Christy Awards and an Audie Award. Suspense fans who enjoyed Athol’s They Shall See God will love his latest novel, January Justice, the first installment in a new mystery series called The Malcolm Cutter Memoirs. The second and third novels in the series, Free Fall in February, and A March Murder, are coming in 2013. Critics have favorably compared Athol’s work to such diverse authors as Octavia Butler (Publisher’s Weekly), Hermann Hesse (The New York Journal of Books) and Flannery O’Connor (The New York Times). Athol lives with his wife in southern California.

The Most Read Fiction Across Two Centuries

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Bunyan The Most Read Fiction Across Two CenturiesQUICK QUESTION: next to the Bible, what was the second most read book in the world for at least two centuries following its release? Was that book fiction or non-fiction and what is its subject?

Give up? Perhaps the two following references from recent works of fiction will give you a clue. Both are either veiled or open retellings of the subject of that book. One is a novella written by Mike Duran entitled Winterland. The other is the soon to be released Quest for Clestia by Steven James. Take a moment to read the blurb and watch the video and then see if the answer comes to you.

Summoned into her dying mother’s coma, recovering addict Eunice Ames must traverse a surreal, apocalyptic dreamscape in search of three generational spirits who have imprisoned her mother’s soul. Together with Joseph, a crippled drifter who serves as her guide, Eunice treks an abandoned highway strewn with debris from her mother’s “emotional” wars. Along the way, she encounters Mister Mordant, a perpetually whiny grub, Reverend Ash a fragile, supremely self-righteous minister, and Sybil, a beautiful sylph with a knack for deception. Eunice and Joseph endeavor to lead this peculiar brigade into the hell of her mother’s making, through the swamp of Mlaise and the volcanic plains of Cinder, to the Dark Throne where they were forged. Along the way, Eunice experiences, in awful living color, the forces that have shaped her mother’s descent into madness and disease. And no amount of psycho-babble and positive thinking can withstand the literal monster that is waiting at the end of this highway. – Winterland

Quest for Celestia by Steven James

So what book sold more copies than any other with the exception of the English Bible for over 200 years? It was written in prison by a commoner whose only offense was to preach without the blessing of the state church of England. The book in question along with a number of others was written during the author’s 12 year imprisonment. He even wrote a touching account of his blind daughter, Mary.

The writer (drum roll) was John Bunyan (1628-88) who both religious and secular experts still consider on the influential writers in human history. During imprisonment, Bunyan made shoelaces to his family and preached to his fellow inmates. He also penned his spiritual autobiography, Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners, also considered a classic.

John Bunyan’s magnum opus, which has been imitated in so many ways yet never truly matched, is none other than The Pilgrim’s Progress. Written while in prison, polished on his release and published in 1678 it is a masterpiece of simplicity for its time. Part allegory, part autobiography and part everyman’s story it stands apart from every effort to copy it.

This is not to say that Mike Duran and Steven James, in their own ways, do not pay homage to it because they do. Both do much more so, in my opinion, than some a few years ago who attempted to label The Shack a Pilgrim’s Progress for the 21st Century. Paying homage is an admission by the author that he cannot match the masterpiece but rather seeks to call attention to it and the timeless truths in contains.

So now the question comes: have you read this most read of all non-Biblical books and if so how long ago? If you have read Bunyan’s work does it speak to you like it did the millions of men, women, and children before you across the centuries?

A Deconstructing Recipe for Cooking History

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image2 A Deconstructing Recipe for Cooking History

A MINOR CONFESSION of mine is that I have been known to watch cooking competitions on TV. Shows like Top Chef, Chopped, and even from time to time Hell’s Kitchen have for the most part replaced O’Reilly and the nightly news. Don’t ask me why; I could ask the same question of people who watch golf.

A common requirement of the chefs on such shows is to “deconstruct” a popular dish. The idea is to take something like turkey and dressing, break it down into its basic components, and then come up with something “hip” and “new”. You know, sort of like the way history is treated these days.

Consider the current assault on Thomas Jefferson, Winston Churchill, and more recently Ronald Reagan in pop culture and among so-called journalists. A recent op-ed piece in The New York Times, for example, went to great lengths to paint only the dark side of the author of the Declaration of Independence.

The provocative title, The Monster of Monticello, went out of its way to point out that Thomas Jefferson never worked to do away with slavery. According to the writer, destroying families didn’t bother Jefferson because the Monster of Monticello believed blacks lacked basic human emotions. “Their griefs are transient,” he wrote, and their love lacked “a tender delicate mixture of sentiment and sensation.”

Similar negative portraits of Winston Churchill have been featured as of late with mostly accurate yet incomplete quotes such as:

“I hate Indians. They are a beastly people with a beastly religion.”

“It is alarming and also nauseating to see Mr. Gandhi, a seditious Middle Temple lawyer of the type well-known in the East, now posing as a fakir, striding half naked up the steps of the Viceregal palace to parley on equal terms with the representative of the King-Emperor.”

Dr. Suneel Dhand, a direct descendent of the people Churchill raved against, calls for a better balance to our views of men like Jefferson and Churchill in a recent article in the International Business Times.

Dehand warns against the trend toward deconstructing history in order to come up with recipes more friendly to modern perceptions. He writes, “As hard as it was, I found that I could not ignore Churchill’s heroic qualities.  I may have to constantly balance these against his views and acts against my ancestors, but he undoubtedly deserves to be held in high esteem for his service to his people and country.”

Looking backwards at both Jefferson and Churchill through the lens of our comfortable times, according to Dehand, is a fatal flaw. He points out:

Just as Winston Churchill’s finest hour came during World War II, so too was Thomas Jefferson’s in the founding of a new nation. And had it not been for the likes of Jefferson, who stood up bravely against a mighty king and empire, there may not have been an America for us to be so free in today.

When I wrote Things Still Don’t Make Sensea couple of years ago, I confessed my own confusion with the contradictions I saw in my grandparents as I grew up through the tumultuous years of Martin Luther King and the Evers brothers. The truth is, they were children of their times that only the times and more like them could ever correct. However, deconstructing their lives or those of Jefferson and Churchill serve only to make fools of us all. My grandparents and figures like Jefferson were fallen men and women, beset by hearts that were desperately flawed. Like all of us.

Orwell understood the negative power of deconstructing history. To destroy a people’s history is to control and ultimately destroy them. The job of a writer of history is not to construct or deconstruct but rather to sort. But sorting through the lives of men like Jefferson and Churchill requires more than trying to prove one’s own point. It requires a willingness to see them honestly, admit their failures, all the while refusing to allow their achievements to be diminished by their weaknesses.

So whose life do you see being deconstructed these days? Does it matter?

I’ll be on the Fringe Tonight

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image1 Ill be on the Fringe TonightMost serialized stories on television die of self-inflicted wounds: no new ideas, old ideas posing as new ideas, no story arc, favorite stars leaving for greener pastures. Fringe is not one those shows. It has grown, survived loosing its way at times, and offered a complete story in five years. This in spite of the fact that FOX is legendary for ruining its own Sci-Fi creations. Anyone remember Space Above and Beyond? And of course there’s Firefly.

I know, many of my regulars here don’t watch it and that’s okay. In fact I kind of relish the idea that this story of how one man’s obsession with saving his son by playing God literally rent the heavens in half will be shared by a faithful few like me – a few million that is.

Since, I’ve had the flu and need all my neurons working at full capacity to keep up with an intricate story arc being brought to conclusion in a few hours, here’s what I wrote about the show almost two years ago.

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WHAT SWEEIPNG EPIC tells the story of star-crossed lovers, Peter and Olivia? Separated since childhood they are reunited through a series of events that at first promise hope and happiness but ultimately the couple seems destined for tragedy. Is this a new novel by best selling author Karen Kingsbury or Francine Rivers? Perhaps Dee Henderson is finally reentering the Christian fiction arena. Or maybe this is sophomore author, C.J. Darlington’s break out novel.  My guess is only a few of you have your hand raised, confident you have the right answer.

The correct answer is that Peter and Olivia are the creation of Hollywood wizard J.J. Abrams of LOST fame. For those of you who are too busy watching Biggest Loser or making the phone companies rich by punching in your choice for American Idol there is a quiet success that airs every Friday night on FOX by the title of Fringe.It’s a superbly written, acted and executed story that involves alternate universes, a bit of time travel, some odd visitors called Observers and what appears to be the fast approaching end of everything. In brief it’s science fiction.

“But I hate science fiction,” many of you will retort. Are you sure? The monumental cross over appeal of epic stories like the Star Wars saga prove that millions who never read or watch science fiction don’t hate science fiction. They hate science fiction for science fiction’s sake. Give them science fiction that is well made and contains the elements basic to human nature and they will, in large part, give it a shot

When you peel away the genre, the author’ s voice, the prose and get to the core of all great stories you find the same common elements: isolation, love, failure and redemption.

Ever since the Fall these have been the basic elements of the story of mankind. So what does that have to do with the title of this article or a couple on some quirky show on television?  The truth is I don’t really hate romance. After all, I’ve been married to my best friend for 36 years and have never once forgotten our anniversary. What I hate is romance for romance’s sake. Why? Because romance for romance’s sake is the worst kind of fiction. In short – it’s fictional. True romance only means something when set against the backdrop of everything else that makes us human.

image thumb1 Ill be on the Fringe TonightFringe uses the platform of a story about two worlds coming apart at the seams to tell an even greater story. It is the tale of two empty souls overcoming insurmountable odds to break free of their isolation and commit themselves to each other. Along with it is the story of a father desperately seeking reconciliation with his son and redemption for his disastrous failings. Isolation – Love – Failure – Redemption.  I think what many people find troubling about a lot of modern romance is how devoid it is of those elements. Then again, so are novels and movies from many other genres.

Come to think of it, the average “so-called” Christian worship service suffers from the same two dimensional shallowness. Praise songs and great sermons  without the foundation of a biblical understanding of the nature of man and the nature of God try to tell the greatest story ever after first ripping the heart out of it. What should be the most powerful love story ever heard becomes a cheap romance only fit to rush to the second hand book store and trade in for another.

Give it to Fringe for trying to tackle the themes of isolation, love, failure and redemption with a lot more passion and depth than many a Sunday morning worship service. Does it fall short? Of course it does. At best, all fallen man can do is ask the big questions and Fringe does that with excellence.

So why I do I hate romance? Because it should be Romance with a capitol R. May we all learn to tell stories that lead people to ask the big questions about those common elements of the human condition. May we live our lives so they ask us how they can answer those questions.

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