Well, I was wrong

If you’ve read my latest book, “STAND”, you may have also skimmed over the afterword. In it, I talk a bit about the premise of the book and my hopes that it would strengthen the faith and resolve of the friends who read it. Of course, all of this still stands. However, one of the final points made in that short note was incorrect. Here’s the original passage:

I anticipate that some readers will take issue with the character of Luis Escobar, the Venezuelan smuggler who joins Alvin and Joyce on The Chariot and abandons his old life to join the Witnesses. Perhaps some will find it unfair that an unbeliever would be given such an opportunity to change at the last moment. Others may feel that once the great tribulation starts, there is no longer an opportunity for honest-hearted ones to join true worshippers. However, in researching our recent publications, I was unable to find such a claim.

However in light of the Watchtower study article from this weekend, I clearly was wrong. The article states:

Let us remember that once the great tribulation begins, it will be too late for people to turn to Jehovah. (w19 pp. 8-16, par 6)

Of course, this statement renders quite a bit of the newest trilogy incorrect. For example, Ronnie Feldman’s character or Luis Escobar would never have a chance to join the convoy. Similarly, the evacuation would not be open to outsiders, nor would there be a global preaching campaign to invite non-witnesses to join.

As stated in this foreword, I always make great efforts and thoroughly researching the elements portrayed in the books so as to make them as accurate and believable as possible, and while I had found nothing recent in our publications on this particular point at the time of my writing, that is no longer the case.

As always, I urge readers to take all of these books with a grain of salt and remember that at the end of the day it is all fiction, and that none of us should read too much into any of the events portrayed. If you find it upbuilding and strengthening, that is great, but it should not be viewed as spiritual food.

Thank you for reading!

STAND now available!

Well, August 10th is here, and as promised, so is the new book, STAND. It's been a long, wonderful ride, and I'm glad I had you all along for the company. EDIT: (At present,  the Kindle version and paperback versions are separate, but should be linked within a few hours.)

For those of you who plan on reading the serialized edition, head over to fleenovel.blogspot.com, where I've posted the prologue. (Subsequent chapters will be released every Monday.)

If you enjoy this conclusion to the FLEE series, please consider leaving a review on Amazon. Happy reading!

In other news, I've been consistently uploading chapters of the FLEE audiobook, with a new chapter being released, on average, every couple of days. I'll do my best to get through the whole book!

A test reading of FLEE

For the last three years I’ve thrown around the idea of doing audiobooks for my novels. A lot of readers have asked for this over the years (some have poor vision, making reading difficult, others are simply too busy to sit down with a book and would rather listen on the go). I’ve always said no, because it was simply too big of an investment in time and resources.

In spite of all that, with STAND finally in the bag and about to be released, I’ve decided to do a ‘test reading’ of one of my books. This means I’ve recorded one chapter (the first chapter of FLEE) and uploaded it to my channel. Depending on its reception, I will either continue to upload chapters or not.

Going into this project, I knew that one of the most daunting aspects would be that of voice acting. While film, directing, and acting are all interests of mine, I don’t believe I have the chops to portray characters on camera, and I’m not sure I’d do much better on a solely audio format.

So, this is a test. If you enjoy this snippet, help me out by leaving a ‘thumbs up’ on the video. If you feel it’s lacking, don’t be afraid to give it a ‘thumbs down’. In a few days I’ll look at the votes and decide how to proceed. Thanks, and I hope at least some of you will enjoy! (I’ll admit, it was fun to do!)

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.

I took a trip to Namibia, and here’s what I saw

Ok, so not a real, physical trip. While I’d absolutely love the chance to fly to the Southern end of Africa and explore Namibia’s canyons, its sprawling desert coast, and its majestic rivers and waterfalls, due to financial limitations such a trip is currently out of the question. (Maybe one day?)

For now, I’ve settled with traveling there through the wonders of technology, particularly via Google Earth. I’ve soared over the dunes of the Kalahari desert and strolled through the streets of Windhoek, the capital of Namibia. I’ve trawled through Wikipedia’s copious articles on the indigenous tribes found in this part of Africa, like the mysterious desert-dwellers known as the San, renowned for their ability to draw water from the ground using only blades of grass and empty ostrich eggs.

I of course realize that many have found the premise of the FLEE series farfetched, and rightly so. The notion that we’d somehow be corralled into a single location for salvation during Armageddon is highly unlikely (some might even say impossible, though I'm wary of calling anything impossible). But if a mass evacuation were to happen, my bet is that we’d be headed here, to Africa, where the land is almost endlessly vast and largely uninhabited.

There is something uniquely alluring about this part of the world. Perhaps it is the fact that our first ancestors were likely given life in a land not so far away, so that much of our early history unfolded in a region similar to this, where many of the same plants and animals existed. Perhaps it is the presence of so many indigenous tribes down to this day that makes the land feel, in some ways, pure and untouched, so unlike our developed, technology-dependent cities.

Maybe it’s the raw beauty of the land: golden desert sands stretching for hundreds of miles before abruptly ending in the crystal blue waters of the Atlantic; natural rivers winding like arteries through otherwise barren scenery; stunning night panoramas that bring to mind Jehovah’s promise to Abraham about his seed becoming as numerous as the stars. In developed countries, that metaphor doesn’t evoke much, but here, where cities, billboards, and highways don’t exist to reflect so much light into the atmosphere, you can see with the naked eye more stars than you could count in a hundred lifetimes.

Of course, there’s another possibility for why I find myself so drawn to this part of the world. Perhaps there is something elegantly poetic about restarting civilization here, right where it all began so many millennia ago.
There is something irresistibly beautiful about such symmetry.

On a roll...?

It's been a productive last couple of weeks. I've set clear writing targets for the last book in the FLEE series, STAND, and have really been motivated to progress with the story. As I mentioned in the last podcast, it's proving a real challenge to connect and conclude the story lines and character arcs introduced in previous books while moving the general plot of the series forward. But we're getting there, and it feels really good!

I've also been chipping away the the newest podcast episode when I have some spare time ("chipping away" meaning working on the illustrations for the video). My drawing skills aren't great and my digital drawing skills are even worse, but perhaps with time and practice the quality will improve some. In the meantime, I hope you can enjoy the illustrations, messy though they are.

This latest podcast episode, number 14, answers some of the questions I've gotten regarding the latest book, The Bloom of Youth, and in particular, whether or not Will's experiences parallel my own as a teen. Enjoy!

Podcast Episode #13 is here along with a sneak peak...

Yep, a new podcast. This one answers some of my most commonly asked questions regarding the FLEE series and also offers a sneak peak of the last book’s cover and title. Enjoy!

Thank you for your patience!

Hi there! It's been a while since my last update (nearly two months, yikes!), so I wanted to pop in here and say a few words about what I've been up to this summer, as well as offer [some very meager] news regarding my current writing projects.

First off, I allowed myself a bit of a break this summer. I had the opportunity to travel with my wife to Japan, where we enjoyed a 10-day vacation. We got some much needed rest (and lots of great food) after what's been a rather stressful few months in our current situation here in Asia. (Side note: I was a few days late on one of the updates for the "STAY" novel on the blog due to enjoying my vacation so much that I totally forgot to publish a new chapter...)

As for the third installment in the FLEE series, I think it's safe to say that it's likely not going to be getting a release this year. (Hopefully early 2019, but please don't hold me to that!)

Part of the reason for its delay is just being too busy with other things to have the time or energy to focus on it. Being the final installment in a trilogy is also part of the issue; there's quite a bit of pressure to make this last novel a worthy and satisfying conclusion to FLEE and STAY. Aside from all that, there's just still so much story to tell. Simply put, it's daunting, and I want to make sure I get it just right!

In the meantime, of course, I've got The Bloom of Youth about to be released (I'm shooting for the end of August), which is a wacky little book written in a totally different voice than my others. But I'm hoping that it'll be a needed change of pace after the heavier books that I've been publishing these last few years.

Anyhow, that's what's been going on in my life this summer. How is yours?