A Post for my good friend Dr. Jim Nelson, who recently published his Noah's Catastrophic Global Flood book.

If you get a chance, and you're at all interested in Noah's Flood as recorded in Scripture, check out Jim's new book.

Here's the link on Amazon; you can get it in hard copy and/or digital form:  http://www.amazon.com/Noahs-Catastrophic-Global-Flood/dp/1493679821

This is an interesting notion (a meme I found among writing posts somewhere). 

I can certainly relate to that idea... in my childhood there were plenty of hours... on days when I was left alone by a single mother... when I simply went to work creating something, usually sculpting from whatever objects were around me. 

I didn't discover the magic of words and sculpting stories until much later.  Stories came first.  Primarily through the reading of Bible stories by my father when I visited him (a rare event).  Then I began reading on my own... Danny Orlis (by Bernard Palmer), and Ken Platt's The Boy Who Could Make Himself Disappear, and then Edgar Rice Burroughs' Tarzan and John Carter of Mars series.  Through high school and college I discovered creative writing, taking a course here and there.  And all the while journaling, constantly journaling, which I discovered later, is a writing style all by itself.  The first person narrative.  Classics like Dracula were written that way.  Finally, I launched into the unknown.... sculpting of stories for their own sake.  Trident's Flame was my first.  Sanctum Threat my second.

There is something about surviving one's childhood through the use of creativity that lends itself to better coping skills in adulthood.       

Bookfessions #990 and Commentary

I recently discovered Louis L'Amour's Flint (1960).

I was amazed by the story, and wonderfully pleased by the writing.  I've started another western since then (by a different author) out of curiosity for the genre; L'Amour was my first read in the western genre. 

 

I re-read Flint a second time, and loved it, which made me think of Bookfessions #990 entry.  I'm also doing a study of L'Amour's plot structure and how he went about drawing readers back into it, especially at the end of each chapter.

 

Several bloggers rank Flint among the very best of L'Amour's works (well over a hundred in the genre).  

 

The next I'd like to try is Reilly's Luck.

 

Here is a list of his novels, short stories and other works:

The Louis L'Amour Collection
(updated May, 2009)

The Sackett Novels:

Daybreakers, The 102111
Comstock Lode 102871
Beyond the Great Snow Mountains 102061
Galloway 102376
Conagher 102335
Bowdrie 102426
Jubal Sackett 102996
Crossfire Trail 102897
Bowdrie's Law 102962
Lando 102236
Dark Canyon 102384
Buckskin Run 102392
Lonely Men, The 102301
Down The Long Hills 102228
Dutchman's Flat 103010
Lonely on the Mountain 102541
Empty Land, The 102798
End of the Drive 103234
Mojave Crossing 102160
Fallon 102350
From the Listening Hills 103465
Mustang Man 102343
First Fast Draw, The 102194

Collected Short Stories of Louis L'Amour:

The Frontier Stories (Collected Short Stories): Vol 1, The 103549
Ride the Dark Trail 102442
Flint 102103
The Frontier Stories(Collected Short Stories): Vol 2, The 103622
Ride the River 102434
Guns of the Timberlands 102483
The Frontier Stories(Collected Short Stories):  Vol 3, The 103648
Sackett 102129
Hanging Woman Creek 102509
The Adventure Stories(Collected Short Stories):  Vol 4, The 103812
Sackett Brand, The 102186
Haunted Mesa, The 103077
The Adventure Stories(Collected Short Stories):  Vol 5, The 103820
Sackett's Land 102210
Heller With A Gun 102780
The Adventure Stories(Collected Short Stories):  Vol 6, The Sky-Liners, The 102467
High Graders, The 102707
Hills of Homicide, The 102079
To the Far Blue Mountains 102277
High Lonesome 102145
Law of the Desert Born 102475
Treasure Mountain 102327
Hondo 102459
Long Ride Home 103119
Warrior's Path, The 102491
How the West Was Won 102244
Lonigan 103093
Iron Marshal, The 102665
May There Be a Road 103309

Other Talon and Chantry Novels:

Lock Man, The 102848
Monument Rock 103150
Borden Chantry 102616
Kid Rodelo 102863
Night Over the Solomons 103002
Fair Blows The Wind 102657
 Killoe 102822
Off the Mangrove Coast 102038
Ferguson Rifle, The 102293
Kilrone 102285
Outlaws of Mesquite, The 103135
Man From the Broken Hills, The 102517
Kiowa Trail 102723
Rider of the Ruby Hills, The 103044
Milo Talon 102939
Last of the Breed 103036
Riding for the Brand 103028
North to the Rails 102772
Last Stand at Papago Wells 102830
Strong Shall Live, The 102574
Over on the Dry Side 102640
Lonesome Gods, The 102533
Trail to Crazy Man, The 103051
Rivers West 102608
Man Called Noon, The 102814
Valley of the Sun 103218
Man From Skibbereen, The 102590
War Party 102681
The Kilkenny Trilogy Matagorda 102913
West From Singapore 103069
Kilkenny 102905
Passin' Through 102988
West of Dodge 103192
Mountain Valley War, The 102806
Proving Trail, The 102558
With These Hands 103382
Rider of Lost Creek, The 102764
Quick and the Dead, The 102251
Yondering 102889
Radigan 102202

Hopalong Cassidy Novels:

Reilly's Luck 102178

Non-Fiction:

Riders of High Rock, The 103184
Shadow Riders, The 102418
Education of a Wandering Man (L'Amour biography) 103127
Rustlers of the West Fork, The 103168
Shalako 102137
Sackett Companion, The (L'Amour's personal guide to The Sackett Novels) 103101
Trail to Seven Pines, The 103226
Showdown at Yellow Butte 102756
Smoke From This Altar (L'Amour poems) 103143
Trouble Shooter 103200
Silver Canyon 102095
Trail of Memories, A (L'Amour quotations) 102087
Sitka 102954
Novels Son of a Wanted Man 102566
Bendigo Shafter 102673
Taggart 102319
Brionne 102731
Tall Stranger, The 102947
Broken Gun, The 102749
To Tame A Land 102921
Burning Hills, The 102152
Tucker 102525
Californios, The 102855
Under the Sweetwater Rim 102582
Callaghen 102368
Utah Blaine 102699
Catlow 102269
Walking Drum, The 102970
Chancy 102624
Westward the Tide 102632
Cherokee Trail, The 102400
Where the Long Grass Blows 102715

Bookfessions #999 and Commentary

I can relate to this sentiment; not that I can recall having difficulty learning to read (the mechanics of it), only that books didn’t grab my attention for many, many years.  There seemed to be so little written of interest to young boys.  I distinctly recall Ken Platt’s The Boy Who Could Make Himself Disappear (1971, Laurel Leaf).  That was the first truly great novel that I read.  I followed that with some Danny Orlis (Bernard Palmer) adventures which I received through a church pastor and his son (a large, 50+ book series published from the late 50’s through the early 70’s by Moody Books, Back to the Bible, and Tyndale).  From there I ventured into the worlds of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan (~25, from 1912-1965), the Mucker (3, from 1914-1917), and John Carter’s adventures on red planet, Barsoom (11 books, from 1912 to 1964). 

Those were some glory days in my early education.  Of course, my reading was somewhat limited by the fact that I felt the need to grab my knife, bag, rope, compass, flashlight, canteen, stick, lunch and my dog, a Great Dane by the name of Bear, and run off into the hills and mountains to find my own adventures.  Reading wasn’t sufficient by itself.  The adventure series sure stimulated my spirit for both adventure and seeking God.  Both excellent outcomes in my view.  If my Jake Sloan Adventures captured the hearts of youth and young adults reading them in that same way I would be ecstatic (and extremely grateful for God’s blessing on the project).

Bernard Palmer's Danny Orlis Adventures

Did you know that Bernard Palmer's Danny Orlis adventures series, the Christian youth fiction books that inspired me to read as a kid, are named as Amazon Editors' Favorite Books of the Year for 2014?!  How cool is THAT?!!!

Many of those books are older than I am!  It's amazing to me that editors of this era would consider those books as so special as to be FAVORITES.  I figure, there must be some Christians among those editors.  Outstanding!

Perhaps I should approach Moody or Tyndale about the Jake Sloan Adventure series. Since they have Palmer's series as such a nice example of youth adventure literature. Those 50+ books didn't just vanish into the history of pulp fiction.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bookfessions #981 and Commentary

 Bookfessions #981

I like this one, too, as it brings to mind the impact of fiction.  Yes, it's "just" fiction, and you cannot sit there and extract your life principles from a quick reference to the Table of Contents.  

However, if you've had any experience reading the Bible, for instance, or reading classic literature (such as Shakespeare's plays, Hemingway, Thurber, Steinbeck, and many, many others) you have a sense of how you can reflect back on examples of both good and poor human behavior, including the consequences that often follow those life decisions.

In this Bookfession observation the author is noticing how a book both affirms your own sense of good, better, best, and plain old bad relationship decisions.  The story may even encourage your own sense of worth, the value of good-quality relationships, and the need to maintain high standards for yourself.

I heard from a speaker this past weekend that, while the national average of destroyed marriages hovers somewhere around 50% (for those in the Christian church as well, sadly enough), the average in California is (he reports) around 75%!  I was amazed to hear it.  I am still amazed by the 50%.  But 75% is almost beyond belief.  I mean, even if you carry reservations for marriage in a general sense, and you agree that the social contract of exclusive fidelity to another, whom we assume you also love, this statistic represents a boat-load of brokenness, sadness, pain, long-term struggle with self-worth, and both immediate and long-term crises of trust in nearly any relationship afterward. 

Imagine how a dozen really good books that included healthy relationships, ones that made the reader say, it "made my standards for a relationship higher," might impact the world?  It's encouraging to know there are still such books being written.  Debbie Macomber and Nicholas Sparks both come to mind.  My wife has read almost everything these two have written (she's still working to find the rest of Macomber's material). 

As an author interested in portraying good relational choices among young adults I hope that my books rise to that level for readers.  I hope my readers might someday reflect on my novels the same way the Bookfessions author does.  Something like, "Trident's Flame made my standards for a relationship higher."  A very cool thought.  Kudos to Bookfessions!

Fox Reader With One of His Favs, Sanctum Threat

Sanctum Threat has been up for a week or two now, and several have downloaded it from Amazon.  Both digital and hardcopy formats are available. 

One of my students downloaded an earlier digital version but found the images within were not showing up on his device.  I'm looking into why that might be. 

It could be the pdf-to-mobi conversion issues they have at Kindle.  I finally had to reload the book as a MS Word document to ensure it looked the way it was supposed to.  (Personally, I think they should take pdf off their list of acceptable formats.)

http://www.amazon.com/Sanctum-Threat-Jake-Sloan-Adventures-ebook/dp/B00MS89JAE

Hard copy and Digital copies of SANCTUM THREAT are now available!

 Both book types are available through Amazon!

Here is the link for them. 

Not sure why Amazon had trouble completing those.  Kindle seemed to load just fine (once I got past the fact that they don't convert PDF files well... I eventually loaded a simple Word document). 

Nick Fury (left) is a little concerned about the conversion programs over at CreateSpace and Kindle. 

Here is a nice weapons cache for young Jake Sloan's next mission.  He may need something a little more powerful than usual.  He's headed to India, Bangladesh, and London.  It's still Operation DEW Drop, but its continuation and conclusion.

The next time we catch up with Jake Sloan (that is, after Operation DEW Drop) will be in his home town while working on the horse ranch of Mr. Walsh.  It also introduces Jake's very first solo Private Investigation job. 

The tendrils of that breach in security reach into the dark world of a Saudi Prince by the name of Assad.  Assad may be of noble birth, but he is not noble in character.  Jake discovers this nasty fact when he tracks down the prince's henchmen in Indonesia in the midst of human trafficking.  That's where the adventure begins.

I don't have a title (or ending) for this operation quite yet; I just know that it immediately precedes Force Multiplier (an operation that occurs in French Polynesia).

Bookfessions #1016 Plus My Commentary

Bookfessions.tumblr.com has been a fun site to visit due to the numerous thoughtful observations they make about reading, books, stories, etc.

It like 1016 (noted here), because it's the sort of observation I find myself wondering about asI write the Jake Sloan novels.  Should I include a map of the area?  Would the reader like a graphic of the location where the adventure is happening?  Do readers have an appreciation for location and/or geography? 

As a reader I know that I do, and part of my goal as a writer is to create what I think I would like to see in a book were I perusing the shelves.  That's been one of the basic pieces of advice I've taken to heart as I embarked on this adventure (of novel writing):  Write the novel you would like to see on the shelf but haven't yet.  Pretty good advice, I believe. 

It forces you to believe in your own sense of quality, genre, characterization, plot flow and plot complexity... those sorts of things. 

Part of what inspired me to attempt the feat in the first place was reading Frank Peretti's teen/young adult novels (Dr. Cooper Family adventures).  http://www.amazon.com/Dragons-Throat-Cooper-Adventure-Series/dp/1581346182

 

My kids absolutely loved them, but the series was discontinued.  I wanted to see more of them on the shelves, or more novels like them on the shelves.  Since my kids were growing up in the process I thought a slightly older character (in the young adult age range) might be in order.  So after a brainstorming session during one of our San Diego road trips to visit the grandparents, Jake Sloan Adventures were born.  I think they are just the sort of novels young Christian youth might like to read. 

I hope that including an occasional map will help readers visualize where the adventure takes place.

Sanctum Threat Available

Sanctum Threat is up for sale!!!

The CreateSpace estore has the hard copy ready.  Kindle will have the digital version ready later today, and Amazon.com their hard copy by Tuesday or Wednesday of next week (Aug.26th, 27th).

Here is the CreateSpace estore link:
https://www.createspace.com/4779455