Just back from my book signing in Austin and I had time to finish up the latest book by Stephen R. Lawhead. Here is the first day of my review:

It wasn’t that long ago I accompanied my 20-something daughter to an Anime convention. I thought I knew what to expect. My daughter had talked to be at length about her fascination with Anime but this conversation did not prepare me for what awaited. Walking into the hotel/convention center in Dallas, Texas I was instantly immersed and, yes, assaulted by every sensation in the book. There was the raucous sound of heavy metal rock with Japanese singers wailing away at some song whose meaning totally escaped me. I could feel the hot, humid moisture in the air from thousands of bodies crammed into the building. I could literally taste coconut in the air from one of those scented fog machines. And the sights! Colors, faces, bodies, abnormally distorted weapons, leather, feathers, wigs, you name it. I had never seen anything quite like this. It was disturbing and quite disorienting. And, finally, there was this odd mixture of the odor of makeup, latex, leather, and body odor — I instantly dubbed “Anime funk”. I was so disoriented and confused, I hunkered down in my hotel room and made sure my daughter checked in with me every hour while I tried to ignore the confusion raging outside my door!

I bring this up because I had the same initial reaction on opening up and beginning to read Stephen R, Lawhead’s newest book, “The Bone House”. I have been waiting for the next book in the series after “The Skin Map” by Stephen R.Lawhead for a year. That book was fascinating but left me scratching my head and dangling from a cliff almost as abruptly as the time I sat in a darkened theater and watched Boba Fett fly off with Hans Solo in carbonite and realized I wouldn’t know anything for another 3 years!

Whoo! That was one long sentence. And so is the beginning of “The Bone House” by Stephen R. Lawhead. I will divide my three day book review simply into Beginning, Middle, and End. For each section of the book had a decidedly different effect on me.

Beginning

First, let me say without reservation that if you have not read “The Skin Map” you will be instantly lost at the beginning of the “The Bone House”. It literally picks up right where that book left off. No preamble. No backflash. No shortened explanations. You just dive right in.

Mina, who reluctantly accompanied her boyfriend Kit through “ley” lines into parallel dimensions and ended up in Prague of 1607 was last seen in her coffee house/pastry shop having glimpsed a strange device constructed by an alchemist for the villainous, Lord Burleigh. Kit was last seen trapped in an underground treasure room of an ancient Egyptian tomb with his dead great-grandfather Cosimo and his friend, who had located the tomb where the mysterious “skin map” had been hidden only to discover it had been stolen. And, that book ended with Mina suddenly and unexplainably appearing at the locked gate to the treasure room to free Kit, who she had not seen since arriving in Prague.

Confused yet? Not if you read “The Skin Map”. But, you will be if you don’t. So, go read that book immediately or you will be totally lost. It helps that there is a prologue of sorts, “Previously” that does summarize the events of the first book. But, even reading through this and the list of characters did me little good for some of the beginning. Suddenly, we were meeting some new characters such as Archie, the orphaned bastard child of aristocracy. And, Dr. Thomas in Egypt of the 1800’s. Oh yes, and a mystical pharaoh/priest of ancient Egypt, Turms,the Immortal, the very one whose tomb Kit was subsequently locked in centuries later.

Now, don’t give up on me. Lawhead’s command of language is exquisite. The words roll along on the page like a musical melody. His descriptions of historical settings are so spot on, you can see and hear and smell all of the sensations. And, his dialogue is very witty and distinctive. It’s just there are so many characters coming back into the picture from “The Skin Map” at different locations and at different times in their lives, you can get very confused. I found it hard to keep them all straight.

But, if you stick with the story, it all begins to come together in the middle, which I will talk about tomorrow.

In summary, the beginning of “The Bone House” is a direct sequel of “The Skin Map”. I would highly recommend the reader read the first book before diving into this book. The author assumes the reader understands “ley” lines and “inter dimensional” travel and the concept of parallel universes all with striking similarities but slight differences. If the reader has not read the previous book, there will be a temptation to set the book aside and there is simply too much “magic” in this story to not enjoy this second book. It does get more understandable and all is explained in the middle of the book. Also, the spiritual “message” of this book comes to light in the middle and it is a fascinating discussion. You don’t want to miss it!

By the way, I have accompanied my daughter to 5 other Anime conventions and they no longer disturb and confuse me. I look upon them as a wonderful opportunity to explore a complex array of humanity and mine those depths for characters and stories. You should feel the same way about “The Bone House”. Enjoy and explore the complexity of this wonderful story!

Come back tomorrow and I will show you what you will miss if you turn away from the door to “The Bone House.”

Now, for all the links:

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
Book link – http://www.amazon.com/dp/159554805X/
Author’s Web site  –  http://www.stephenlawhead.com/

 Participants’ links:

http://noahsreads.blogspot.com/ Noah Arsenault

http://tessbissell.wordpress.com/“> Red Bissell

http://www.oerkenleaves.blogspot.com/“> Thomas Clayton Booher

http://rbclibrary.wordpress.com/“> Beckie Burnham

http://morganlbusse.wordpress.com“> Morgan L. Busse

http://csffblogtour.com/“> CSFF Blog Tour

http://jeffchapmanwriter.blogspot.com/“> Jeff Chapman

http://carolcollett.wordpress.com/“> Carol Bruce Collett

http://www.kcreviews.blogspot.com“> Karri Compton

http://www.scificatholic.com/“> D. G. D. Davidson

http://tweezlereads.blogspot.com/“> Theresa Dunlap

http://projectinga.blogspot.com/“> April Erwin

http://vicsmediaroom.wordpress.com/“> Victor Gentile

http://going-greene.blogspot.com/“>Tori Greene

http://realmofhearts.blogspot.com/“> Ryan Heart<

http://fantasythyme.blogspot.com“> Timothy Hicks

http://www.christopherhopper.com/blog/“> Christopher Hopper

http://thequietpen.wordpress.com/“> Janeen Ippolito

http://thewriterssword.blogspot.com/“> Becca Johnson

http://www.spoiledfortheordinary.blogspot.com/“> Jason Joyner

http://www.molcotw.blogspot.com/“> Julie

http://carolkeen.blogspot.com/“> Carol Keen

http://krystisbooks.blogspot.com/“> Krystine Kercher

http://mharvireads.blogspot.com/“> Marzabeth

http://www.katie-mccurdy.blogspot.com/“> Katie McCurdy

http://www.shannonmcdermott.com/?page_id=189“> Shannon McDermott

http://rebeccaluellamiller.wordpress.com/“> Rebecca LuElla Miller

http://www.bookwomanjoan.blogspot.com/“> Joan Nienhuis

http://www.chawnaschroeder.blogspot.com/“> Chawna Schroeder

http://reviewsfromtheheart.blogspot.com/“> Kathleen Smith

http://www.mindsinger.com/“> Donna Swanson

http://www.rachelstarrthomson.com/inklings/“> Rachel Starr Thomson

http://www.epictales.org/blog/robertblog.php“> Robert Treskillard

http://christiansf.blogspot.com/“> Steve Trower

http://frederation.wordpress.com“> Fred Warren

http://christian-fantasy-book-reviews.com/blog/“> Phyllis Wheeler

http://www.theravenquill.blogspot.com/“>  Nicole White

http://finishedthebook.blogspot.com/“> Rachel Wyant

This past weekend I spent driving from Birmingham, Alabama through Talladega, Alabama up through Chattanooga, Knoxville, and on into Lexington, Kentucky. I had the honor of meeting some very dedicated and wonderful people at Crossroads Christian Church for the “God in the Dock” Apologetics Conference. I had the pleasure of meeting the organizer of the conference, Clint Field and watch his joy as people showed up and mostly filled the seats in the auditorium.

 Clint had invited me to bring my book, “The 13th Demon” to the conference since portions of the book are based on apologetic principles. For more on apologetics, click on the tab labeled “Apologetics” on this page. Now, I knew this was risky. I have organized our own conference in Shreveport and I’ve been to my share of larger conferences. Fiction books are not the usual fare at these conventions. The books that are sold at the vendor tables involve science and doctrine and theology and logic and philosophy. And while many atheists would call any connection between the God of the Bible and sound science and history “fiction” these books are far from something you would curl up with in front of a fireplace with a cup of hot tea.

However, I did manage to sell a few books and the questions about the books caused me to pause. Who is my audience for my book? Who would want to read “The 13th Demon”? Here are my answers to that question for those of you still wondering if this book is for you.

Who Should Read my Book?

1 — Men, in fact, manly men, tough men, men who dream of being tough, in fact anyone who enjoyed any of the Bourne movies. I told one person at my table that Jonathan Steel was like a “Christian Jason Bourne”. Jonathan Steel is one tough, angry man with skills that will definitely protect him against just about any assailant. But, he does have a soft side. He is a Christian. He thinks!

2 — Women will enjoy this book. I told one teenage girl there was a “bit of romance” in the book and her mother jerked it out of her hand. I shook my head and told her it was in anyway related to the “Twilight” series. There were no doe-eyed girls mooning over sparkly skinned guys. But, there is a growing love story in the book. Four very strong women populate the world of Jonathan Steel and one of them is very evil!

3 — Teenagers will enjoy the book. Why? Because one of the main characters is a teenager and he will become a recurring character. As my editor told me, “every teenager is a hero is his/her own mind”. So, if you are a teenager, check out “The 13th Demon” and ask yourself how you would react if you were chased by a giant . . . sorry, “Spoilers, Sweetie”!

4 — Median and Senior Adults will enjoy this book. Two of my favorite characters surface in this book and will be with us in the future. One is Jonathan Steel’s mentor, a Yoda like Einstein look a like with a definite attitude. The other is one of the warmest people you will ever meet, Dr. Liz Washington. If she doesn’t melt your heart . . . sorry, I don’t want to give too much away.

There, I hope that gives you some idea of the broad based appeal of my book. I know it is a bit scary. It is supposed to be. It is, after all, about spiritual warfare and the forces of evil. But, the story is ultimately about forgiveness, sacrifice, and unconditional love. It is worth facing the creatures that lurk in the dark shadows of Jonathan Steel’s world to see the Light that God brings to that darkness. Take a chance!

My debut novel, “The 13th Demon: Altar of the Spiral Eye” is available this week and my launch party is Friday night, October 7th, 2011 from 6 to 8 P.M. at Brookwood Baptist Church (corner of I49 and Bert Kouns) in the Well, the coffee shop. I will be introducing the ink*well, a regional Christian artists’ community and speaking briefly on “One Book’s Journey: How to Get Published”. Those who purchase a book are entered into a drawing for one of the following: an Ipad2, a nook touch, and a Kindle WiFi. Coffee and snacks are complementary. Click on this for a flyer: bruce-flyer

I bought my first macintosh in 1991. I was disgusted with the PC world and my favorite computer, the Amiga had gone bankrupt so I bought this thing called a Powerbook 140. It had a black and white screen, a trackball, and one mouse button but I fell in love with its simplicity immediately. It wasn’t long before I was a Macintosh convert. Not sure why but I realized that I had a tendency to gravitate to the underdog. Everyone else was using PCs and passive matrix laptops with this new operating system called Windows.

But, I sensed that there were some people out there who thought differently from the mainstream. I saw this in the Powerbook and in the Macintosh desktops to come. I saw my first “Personal Computer” in 1977. It was called an Apple II and it consisted of a beige box with an integrated keyboard, a funky looking thing called a mouse, and a green and black monochrome monitor on which you could play this game called “Pong”. I wanted it! But, it was only selling for a measly $4500! And, being a starving medical student, a computer was out of the question.

Now, 16 years later, I had my first Apple computer and this thing was truly science fiction come to life. It was different. Just like I enjoyed being. Different, unique, thinking outside the box, looking at life from a different perspective. When Apple was almost gone under the hands of Gil Amelio and selling for $11 a share on the stock market, I heard rumors Steve Jobs was coming back as part time interim CEO. I told my wife to buy as many shares of Apple as we could afford! People thought I was crazy. But, I knew that Steve Jobs, like Walt Disney had a singular vision of creating the highest quality experience. Jobs did this with a personal computer and made it more than just a box with buttons and mouse. He wanted it to become a tool of creativity; a natural extension of the artist’s mind.

Well, the rest of the story is history. I had one of the first blueberry iMacs. I had one of the first lime iBooks. I had one of the first aluminum Powerbooks. And, those machines served one purpose for me — to allow me to continue to express my writing in a creative way. Just using a Macintosh fired up my imagination. Just thinking about “think different” had just that effect.

In 1999, I really “thought” different when I wrote “The 13th Demon: Altar of the Spiral Eye”. I had a dream that people would want to ready a gritty, realistic novel about the conflict between good and evil and learn in the process there is a God and the evidence for God is overwhelming! But, I ran into editor after editor that could not think “different”. Publishing is a business. It is about selling books. And, it is about predicting the future. What will people be reading two years from now? I thought I knew. I was right. But, it would be more like five years before people would be reading books by authors like Ted Dekker. I like to think I was there at the beginning, and maybe just a little premature. I was thinking “different” and no one else could think with me.

It took 12 years. I had to be persistent like Steven Jobs. He left Apple at the height of his creativity, the launch of the Macintosh in 1985 and it would be, well 12 years before he came back to Apple and made them see how his “dream” could change the world. It was a slow climb after that but look how his imagination and creativity have changed our world.

It took me 12 years to get “The 13th Demon” to the marketplace. Now, I am nowhere near the level of a Steven Jobs. I may fade quickly into obscurity after this book launches. But, I know that God gave me a dream and when God places us in the position to become a part of His work and His Story, we have to think “different” from the world; we have to think way outside the box.

My conclusion is this: John Maxwell said it well, “There are dreamers and then there are those who make their dreams come true.” A dreamer can go back to sleep at night and come up with another dream. One who makes his Dream come true focuses all of his/her energy; all of his/her resources on accomplishing that dream. And that requires the creativity of thinking “different” of thinking “outside the box”. Thank you, Steven Jobs for your legacy. But, more than that, thank you God for thinking outside the box and becoming flesh and dwelling among us and showing us ultimate love and dying the final sacrifice for our disobedience. For, finally and completely, Steve Jobs is responsible for how he spent his life and I do not know where his heart and soul were in relation to God, but he will stand before Christ and answer for his life. When I stand before Christ, I want to know that I thought “different” from the world and did everything in my power with great focus and perseverance to change this world through the love of Christ!

Here’s the deal.

You can’t get published without an agent.

You can’t get an agent unless you’ve been published.

Anyone see a problem with this scenario?

Getting published WITHOUT an agent:

The story of our “Conquering Depression” book is a fairy tale. It never should have been published. My pastor and best friend, Mark Sutton asked me to help him write a book on depression since I had just recovered from two years of counseling for my depression. He wanted my medical angle on depression and he would give his counseling angle on depression. We sat down and wrangled out a format — a thirty day plan for conquering depression. The idea was that anyone could break a habit in thirty days. And, when you are depressed, you can’t take things in large chunks. You’re lucky to swallow small bites. Take one day at a time, was our feeling. We started working on it in the early summer and by Halloween, we had a finished outline, the first week or seven chapters, and a book proposal. Now, what to do with it?

Here’s where it gets weird. Mark was going to Nashville the second week of November to hold a marriage seminar. We had met an editor we will call Ben when he was at a major Christian publisher in the Northwest. Since that time, Ben had been hired by Broadman & Holman and was now living in Nashville. What if we got Ben to give us some advice on a good publisher for our book? Maybe he would know if the current market would welcome a book on depression.

We met with Ben at lunch on a Friday and I had the book proposal in a clear binder on the table. While we were waiting for Mark to come to the table, Ben picked up the binder and asked, “What is this?” I was supposed to keep my mouth shut but I told him briefly it was a book proposal for a book on depression from a Christian point of view. His eyes widened and he frowned. He frowned! Then he said something I will never forget. “Since we’ve moved to Nashville my wife has really struggled with depression and we can’t find a good resource anywhere. I’ll take the book.”

We signed the contract that next January. It was just that easy. No, it was a God thing!

Working WITH an Agent:

It wasn’t long until a man contacted Mark and wanted to be our agent. He was highly recommended and I saw my opportunity to get “The 13th Demon” published. At that point, I had shopped the book around without success for a year and a half as an unsolicited manuscript.

We will call my new agent Frank. Frank promptly got to work putting together a book proposal. He asked for my first six chapters and then I got a bill for $400. I was puzzled. What was this bill for? It was for editing my first six chapters. Now, I have learned since then that an agent will edit your chapters if you are a new author. But, Frank had never mentioned he would charge me for this service either in our talks or in our contract. I was a bit disturbed, particularly when he suggested some substantial changes that sounded suspiciously like he didn’t understand fiction writing at all. But, I paid the bill and made the changes. Then, I started getting copies of my rejection letters and the letters had been copied onto the back of someone’s manuscript pages. Maybe this was normal for an agent, but it was disturbing to think that somewhere one of his clients had a copy of a rejection letter on the back of a page from MY manuscript. Two years passed and I never heard a word from Frank. I got the occasional rejection letter and finally, Mark and I called him only to discover he was now being sued by a former client, AND was under indictment for fraud. We fired him! Two and half wasted years!

Lesson to be learned: Read your contract carefully and have it checked by an attorney. Really research your prospective agent. Ask up front what expenses you will be responsible for. And, check out a reputable source such as the Writer’s Digest Guide to literary agencies.

Agent #2: Four months later, Mark was at a retreat in a western state and he ran across a kind couple who asked him to have a seat at their table. In the course of the conversation, it turned out the man was a literary agent and by the time Mark came home, we had a new agent. This time, the agent was with a major literary firm out of New York City. And, right off the bat, it was easy to see this man was vastly different and far more professional than our previous agent. However, I ran into an instant problem. He refused to represent my fiction! What? I want to get my fiction published. This was what I had lived for; dreamed for; hoped for since I was 13 years old. And yet, he steadfastly refused to even read my fiction and told me, “Fiction has to be stunning to get published. Forget fiction and stick to your non-fiction.” We went back and forth for two more wasted years. He decided to leave his firm and go back out on his own and he let me out of the contract. He was a kind man and he taught me a lot. But, our relationship was very frustrating.

And so, as I wrote in yesterday’s blog post, I decided to self publish. And, after getting “published” and establishing a “track record” I was given a list of five agencies by a good friend of mine who insisted I needed to find an agent and become respectable and go the traditional route of publishing. The first two agencies turned me down. But, the third agent, Jeff Jernigan was kind and supportive and understood that I had a working knowledge of the publishing industry particularly after working with BookPros and his words were this, “When you get you next book finished, contact me. We’ll sign a contract and I’ll get you a publisher.” And, that is exactly what he did!

I can’t sing his praises enough! Jeff has been a wonderful agent. He went the extra mile in my contract negotiations. And, in our conversations he would say things like, “I will see to it you become a successful author.” He was encouraging from day one and he has delivered far and above my expectations. It took me ten years to find a good agent who believed in me, but it was worth the effort and the struggle.

Don’t give up. Take my advice and develop a “track record” of some type through contests, blog posts, essays, whatever you can find to show that you are a good writer and one day, you will find an agent who will make all the difference in the world. It happened to me and it can happen to you!