After three years, I have finally published a new story. You can download it from Amazon either here or from the link above. BUY IT! Nowhere else this weekend will you be more entertained for $2.99 than by "The Warrant."
If you read The Princess, you will notice a significant switch in the genre of fiction I've taken up. In trying to create new, interesting characters for another political story, a secondary person became more interesting to me. This character was a more spiritual, allegorical personality, and so from there I junked the basic, narrative fiction formula I was in and went fantasy/sci-fi. Moreover, the political genre is virutally dead - there is more apathy toward it than our actual elections! Just take a look in a Walmart bulk box to see it packed with Richard North Patterson hardbacks.
But after switching, I began to realize that the angel/demon genre I was in was only slightly less beleaguered. For good or ill, Frank Peretti defined the genre back in the late 80s with his Present Darkness series. His "behind the curtain" look at spiritual warfare was novel, sensational, and a landmark in Christian fiction. In fact, until Peretti, most of us thought Christian fiction something of a scientific impossibility, if not sinful dabbling. The genre then fell off for several years, both in the Christian and secular presses, only spawning grocery-rack-style romances with any note. Then recently, different authors, most very new, have tried to revive it a'la Twilight or Harry Potter, hoping angels/demons would provide a vehicle for the next big thing. And it goes without saying that post-Peretti, most of these genre pieces are syncretistic at best, rarely attempting to conform with any type of conservative theology or spiritual truth.
So, I became anxious during prewriting about whether or not I was in the right genre, or if the genre even held any promise to be interesting. But, I kept putting fingertips to keyboard, and one day last autumn the story you can read for $2.99 as an e-book exploded out of my mind and onto the computer screen. I am confident you will find it compelling, and I hope you enjoy it. It comes more out of the 11-year-old creative recess of my brain. Once when asked what qualified him to write children's stories as a bachelor, C.S. Lewis replied, "Not only do I know some children, but believe it or not, I used to be one." (paraphrase)
Tell your friends! "The Warrant" is a unique look at the spirit world all around us. I thought it was about time to write about it, since they are already looking at us.
