Spanish verison of "All Things New" now available!

Great news for you Spanish readers and speakers out there! The first Spanish-language version of All Things New (Todo Nuevo) is now available on Amazon. As usual, there is both the digital version (for use on Kindles, or on the Kindle app for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices), and the paperback version if you prefer a more traditional format!

A huge thanks to my tireless Spanish translator, Carlos, who originally reached out to me with interest in doing the translating, and then spent the next few months pouring himself completely into this project. I'm sure many friends will be both entertained and encouraged by the fruits of his hard work!

In other news, my wife and I have completed the move back to the United States. It's a little weird to be back here after more than a decade living abroad in Asia, and stranger still to be here during a pandemic (I'm currently writing from my new office: a repurposed garage space next to a refrigerator and a washing machine––but I'm not complaining!). We are happy to be with family and finally through the ordeal of our international travels, which were much more stressful than we'd anticipated.

The upside is that since we're finally somewhat settled and I've got more time on my hands, I'll be able to hopefully get this next book finished soon. And if I can find a quiet space to burrow away for a few days, I'll be able to finish recording my audio book as well!

Hope you all are doing ok out there!

Surprise podcast

So I realize that less than a week ago I said I had no plans for a new podcast episode and that was true, but today I had a bit of time and I wanted to tell a story. I think that wrapping up the latest book in the FLEE series has me feeling sentimental. (I'm not too proud to say that while writing a recent section this week, I had to take a bit of a break for some fresh air because I was getting too emotional to continue–it's hard to write a novel when you can't see the screen clearly!)

In any case, I hope you like this podcast. It's a bit shorter and there aren't many drawings, but I hope that helps to slow the pace down a bit and let things sink in for you, just as they're sinking in for me. Please enjoy.

All Things New + New Podcast

In November of last year, I made a post here explaining that I'd be taking All Things New down from Amazon (both the digital and paperback versions). My purpose in doing this was to take some time to update the book, making some corrections to certain parts and removing others altogether. The goal was to release a second, more relevant version of the book to replace the original. However, as some of you may have noticed, although the Kindle (digital) version is no longer available, the paperback is still there. You may be wondering why!

Shortly after making that announcement last year, I realized that removing that book from my catalog would pose a problem for translators, many of whom are still working on their various language versions of All Things New to this day. By removing this book, it would essentially render whatever work they had done of the book so far obsolete. If, in turn, these non-English versions of All Things New were released, it would mean that foreign-language readers of the book would be actually experiencing a novel quite different from the newer English-language version, complicating things.

Another reason for leaving the paperback version of All Things New up is that by and large, the feedback I've gotten from that book has been positive. Most who read it (and again, I'm so grateful for your comments and continuing support) come away with exactly the reaction I was hoping for; namely, one of having their minds opened to new possibilities, and being excited for specific things in the New World.

Additionally, I'm trying out something new: a podcast! I've no idea if there will be any interest in something like this, but I've found that certain topics (like the one I've written about here), work better in the format of a podcast, where things are less formal and I can literally just talk directly to all of you. And so, for this first episode, I've taken the topic here and expanded a bit on it, adding some extra info that some of you might find interesting. So give it a look, and if it's something you enjoy, consider leaving a comment, a like, or possibly even subscribing to the channel. It's a fairly simple affair to produce these so I don't expect it to take up too much additional time and frankly it's kind of nice to have a new format to create in. Here's the first episode:

As always, thank you all so much for your kind support and readership!

The Paradise Trap

It’s been interesting, over the last few years, to see how the climate of JW fiction has evolved. Before I wrote All Things New, I’d read some short stories by other Witnesses about paradise and the resurrection. Some were only a page or two, while others went on for a few thousand words. (To my knowledge, there were no full-length paradise novels available prior to 2013, but if I’m wrong about this please feel free to comment below.) Since 2013 however, a whole slew of JW authors has emerged, each with their own take on what life in the new world might be like.

Despite the increase in authors, though, it seems that many paradise stories fall into a similar pattern. It goes like this: a character shows up in the new world (the Guest) and is introduced to  various aspects of paradise life by a personal guide (the Mentor), who explains why and how things are the way they are.

The reason for setting the story up this way is obvious: the Guest becomes a stand-in for the reader, who has been thrown into this fictional version of paradise, and whom the writer assumes must be curious about each aspect of life, and thus the writer goes about explaining things as carefully and as detailed as possible, doing so through the Mentor.

Yes, this is precisely what I did for my first novel. Mitch Hanson was the Guest, and the various characters he met and interviewed along the way became his Mentors. And no, there’s nothing inherently wrong with this premise. In fact, you’ll find the same set-up in much of popular and classic fiction.

But there is a trap, so writers beware. Because if the author isn’t careful, the book can easily turn into a lengthy exposition about their version of the future. Instead of a story, it reads like a series of small essays in which the author explains why he or she feels paradise will be a certain way. Instead of focusing on the story, the characters, and the underlying themes, the writer finds himself or herself contriving all sorts of scenarios in order to shoehorn in various conversations about why the resurrection has occurred in a certain way, or why technology does or doesn’t exist, or why some other element of paradise life has defied common expectations.

Again, I speak from experience. When I wrote All Things New, I knew that there were some ideas I really wanted to talk about, and so I went about squeezing them into the story via dialogue between the Mentors and the Guest, or debriefings, or found documents, or whatever else I could think of. And at the time, this felt novel and exciting. Looking back, I realize this is pretty much the go-to for stories set in paradise. But can these lengthy forms of exposition be sufficient to hold up the framework of the stories they are trying to tell? Sometimes.

This isn’t to say that these stories won’t find readers; I believe they will. I think Witnesses will always enjoy reading about various versions of paradise, regardless of how compelling the stories at their cores are. However, it’s my suspicion that many readers have begun to tire of novels and novellas that are beginning to feel a bit like soapboxes for the authors’ personal visions of the future.

I think one of the most difficult challenges of writing is not knowing what to write, but what not to write. Over-exposition is the demise of many a budding author. It can be painful to cut and trim and edit out beloved chunks of dialogue, explanation, background info, and all those other bits that spent so much time marinating in the author’s head. But for real, grounded stories, cutting and trimming is exactly what must be done.

So if you’re writing a paradise novel, here’s my challenge to you: just tell the story you want to tell. Refrain from explaining and defending every aspect of your version of the new world. Try not to build your story around explanations.

Remember, even though this is all based on future realities, we’re ultimately writing fiction.

Keeping up with the times

When I first began work back in 2010 on what would eventually become my first novel All Things New, my goal was simple: to create a fictional piece of literature that could serve as an entertaining, thought-provoking glimpse into the New World. The response to that book, which was released in 2013, was beyond anything I’d imagined, which led to the release roughly a year later of The Unrighteous and then Critical Times back in 2016. I’ve always been careful to present these books as nothing more than fiction, but I’ve found over the years that this does not make them free from criticism or claims of inaccuracy.

Of course, none of us knows exactly how things will unfold during the Great Tribulation, at Armageddon, or just after that as we take out first steps into the New World. Some believe that we will more or less immediately transition into a paradise Earth, while others subscribe to a more lengthy process, perhaps spanning decades, as pictured in All Things New. Of course, it’s all guesswork at this point, and debating either side of the argument could become a distraction that I’ve done my best to avoid. (I wrote recently in a post that I’ve tried in recent books to focus more on the lessons learned from characters’ decisions and attitudes, rather than on specific events, and this is one of the reasons.)

That said, I will admit that at the time of writing All Things New, some ideas made it into the book more for the sake of dramatic storytelling than for plausibility. Although these portions likely made the work more memorable, in the years since the book’s release I’ve come to realize that they’ve also caused some consternation, something which I certainly never intended. Additionally, the last few years have seen further information released on the events leading up to and during Armageddon, an event which is featured extensively through the interviewees’ stories in my book.

In past years, my stance about my previous work was one adopted by most secular novelists: don’t look back, ignore the critics,  keep writing new stories. The problem, of course, is that these books aren’t purely secular. Although they are fictional works, they delve into spiritual topics that are close to my readers’ hearts–readers, I do well to keep in mind, who are also my brothers and sisters.

Thus, I’ve come to the decision to remove All Things New from my catalog of books as of January 2018. If all goes according to plan, this will be a temporary move until I can thoroughly revise the book and re-release it (possibly as a second edition, possibly under a new title). I understand that this may be difficult news for some readers, many of whom have written with positive feedback for that first book. However, the words of the Apostle Paul at 1 Corinthians 8:13 really stand out to me:

“That is why if food makes my brother stumble, I will never again eat meat at all, so that I will not make my brother stumble.”

If Paul was willing to give up meat for the sake of his brothers, I can certainly refrain from promoting a fictional piece of literature. And besides, I’m sure with the writing experience I’ve gained in the last few years, "All Things New 2.0" will be a much better read than the first!