Who Should Read “The 13th Demon”?
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!
God and the Twilight Zone
This coming weekend, I will be in Lexington, Kentucky for the “God in the Dock” Apologetics Conference featuring Frank Turek. I am blessed to have been invited to this conference to display my book, “The 13th Demon: Altar of the Spiral Eye”. My book, as I have said in previous blog posts, centers around apologetic truth, or the truth of the science and evidence behind Christianity. One of the terms I use in the book, is “extra-dimensional” in describing God and the angels. I didn’t make this up. This aspect of God is well discussed in such sites as Reasons to Believe and Reasonable Faith. But, before I go into more detail on this issue, let’s look at some Bible verses:
Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the whole world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. Psalms 90:2
God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. 1 Timothy 15b-16a
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Colossians 1:15-17
He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 2 Timothy 1:9
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” Exodus 3:14
- “You ARE God” — Notice how this verse says that “before the mountains were born” with that past tense word “were” is followed by a present tense description of God. This implies God cannot be called a “was” but always is called an “is”. In other words, our conception of time does not fit God. We exist in a single dimension of forward moving time. For us there is always yesterday, today, and tomorrow. But, for God, time is something different from our concept. God moves through time like we move through air. He cannot be confined to yesterday. He exists. Period.
- “Lives in unapproachable light” — Einstein established that if anything in our three dimensional universe ever achieves the speed of light, it will be simultaneously at all points in the universe at all times in the universe at once! And, Einstein established, despite recent scientific experiments claim, that nothing can ever travel faster than the speed of light. The speed of light is “unapproachable”. I find that very interesting considering how many times God is associate with light throughout the Bible!
- “He is before all things” — Pretty clear. Jesus, as the incarnate being of God, is before all things. Notice the present tense again. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit as our Triune God exists before and outside of everything in our universe. God is transcendent. God exists outside of our three dimensions of space and one dimension of time. Which He would HAVE to do if He created our universe and its four dimensions of space time.
- “Before the Beginning of time” — interesting that Stephen Hawking way back in the 1970’s won the Nobel Peace Prize for Science for establishing as a fact that when our universe came into existence, all of space and time began. Before that creation event, time did not exist. This verse describes that time had a beginning thousands of years before Hawking confirmed it!
- “I AM” is probably the best description of God in the Bible. God can’t say “I was” or “I will be” because for God, there is no confinement to time as we understand it. If man had made up God, how in the world would he have conceived of these extra-dimensional descriptions of God when those concepts were as foreign to ancient man as moon travel dynamics.
You see, science has established that the universe had a beginning and the entity that brought the universe into existence had to have existed outside and before the universe. In other words, had to be outside our dimensions, or extra-dimensional. Another word to describe that entity is “transcendent”. This is a term that only the God of the Bible can claim as true. God is truly the transcendent Creator of this entire Universe.
12th Demon?
Many are asking about the 12th Demon. On Amazon you can still find copies of my self published second book in the series, “The 12th Demon: Vampyre Majick”. This book has been PULLED from publication and has been substantially rewritten and will be released by Realms in October, 2012.
The order of the books will be in decreasing numbers, e.g., from 13 down to 1. The higher the number, the earlier the book in the series. Also, you may find copies of “The 13th Demon” with a blue cover from iUniverse costing over $25. DO NOT buy these books. They are supposed to be off the market and the new version from Realms is the authorized, revised version.
Jonathan Steel is an Angry Man!
By now some of you may have picked up a copy of “The 13th Demon: Altar of the Spiral Eye”. If not, why not? If you like exciting, fast paced thrillers you’ll like this book! If you want a touch of romance, you’ll like this book! If you want to see a tough guy fighting against the forces of evil, you’ll like this book! And, if you’re a teenager tired of sparkly vampires and doe eyed lovers, you’ll like this book!
Right off the bat, you’ll learn that my main character, Jonathan Steel is an angry man. His fuse is very short. And, his fury comes quickly and full blown. Why would I create a character with so much anger?
Because all of YOU are full of anger! And, of course, me, too! Our society is on the simmering verge of violent anger all the time. Just try and drive down a crowded highway and see if someone doesn’t blare their horn at you because you were a microsecond too slow in coming off the brake. Or listen to the person at the next register scream their way through a botched sale. Better yet, try and convince your customer that you did all you could to please them. Anger is all around us. Why are we such an angry society?
In our postmodern society, relativism is the rule. What is good for you is not necessarily what is good for me. This frame of reference puts an awful lot of stress on an individual. You see, when there are no external absolutes, then it is up to us to decide what is right and wrong. Now, I don’t know about you, but accessing each and every tiny little interaction with the world around to decide if it is “right” or “wrong” can get very tiring. Not only that, but when I decide something is “wrong” you might decide the same action is “right”. And, instantly we are at each other’s throat.
Not only that, but our naturalistic society claims that human beings are NOT special. Just look at that shark billboard not too long ago put out by PETA. I mean, they actually felt sorry for the shark (not the human whose leg was bitten off) because it would be thrown on dry land and smother to death. Come on! You’re telling me that if your significant other falls into the ocean and is about to be eaten by a shark and all you have at your disposal is a rifle, you would let the shark chow down? That is INSANE! Human beings are SPECIAL because we are made, wait for it, in God’s image. We are not animals. We are not equal to sharks. We are at the top of the food chain. And, while God has given us specific instructions to care for the planet and its inhabitants, (which we have ignored!) we are still omnivores. And that means that somewhere along the line, something has to die for us to survive, even if it is a banana!
This lack of respect for humans as special and made in the image of God, reduces our value in the eyes of society and in the eyes of other humans. Suddenly, my rights are more important than anyone else’s rights. I’m not sure how that plays out given that each individual is NOT special, but we are, after all, wonderful at rationalization even when the rationalization is decidedly NOT postmodern. And so, when everyone else’s value falls to zero, my value rockets to new heights. It is I who deserve special treatment. My needs are paramount. Forget my fellow man. Let them go feed the sharks! Hey, idiot in the green car? Forgot how to signal? Well, take this!
This weekend, I am traveling to Lexington, Kentucky for the “God in the Dock” apologetic conference. I am sure that somewhere between my home and the final destination at the airport, I will get angry. But, in spite of that inevitability, what I have just talked about is an “apologetic” issue. The issue of human value and human worth is part of a person’s worldview, how you view reality. Apologetics is the defense of the truthfulness of the Christian faith based on sound, rational evidence. And, so, losing one’s temper is really a matter of applying an apologetic issue. Is every person equal in the eyes of God? Is every person deserving of respect? Is every person of value? Important questions for our times. For, if we answer ‘no’ to any of these questions, we ultimately doom ourselves to a fate worse than death. We head down the path toward Nazi Germany or Stalin’s Russia or Pol Pot’s Cambodia. As our anger spirals more and more out of control, the day will come when a car horn will be replaced by a gun; when an organization will no longer put up billboards but start dumping sharks into swimming pools; when anger is the dominating emotion. To conquer anger, you must begin with respect for others. Tough? You bet you. Hard? No doubt. In fact our country fought a bitter civil war over this issue.
Want help understanding anger? Pick up a copy of my book, “The 13th Demon: Altar of the Spiral Eye” and join me on a journey with Jonathan Steel as he tries to understand the source of his anger and ultimately, how to control it instead of letting it control him!
What do you think about the value of human life? Do you struggle with anger? Or, is it just the other guy? Let me hear from you!
Christian Fiction Online Blog Tour
“The 13th Demon: Altar of the Spiral Eye is now on the Christian Fiction Online Blog tour.
Book Launch — A Few Pictures
I didn’t advertise the heck out of my book launch. I wanted it to be cozy and have a couple of dozen people show up. I planed it for our coffee shop, the Well, as one of their Friday night Events. But, over 100 people showed up and I signed 91 books! I consider that an amazing response. I want to thank all my friends who showed up to kick off the release of “The 13th Demon: Altar of the Spiral Eye”. The evening started with the book signing followed by my introduction of the ink*well. Then we drew cards for prizes: an iPad2, a Nook touch, a Kindle, and two book collections for aspiring writers as well as a few of my new tee shirts.
We had a “Southern Baptist open bar” with all the coffee and soft drinks and luscious snacks and pastries anyone wanted to eat. After the prizes, I spoke for about 25 minutes on “One Book’s Journey: Getting Published in the 21st Century”. I met so many wonderful people and the evening was just grand! Thank you again for coming. Here are just some of the pictures:
The line lasted for an hour!!!!
My Daughter Casey and her "sister" Sarah Sutton!
What a Wonderful Crowd!
My friend, Magdy channeling the Doctor
My friend Keith Johnston who I have not see in 30 years!
I’ll post more pictures tomorrow and on my Facebook page.
My two best friends, Ronnie Page and Mark Riser
My wife's good friends -- My new Muses!
Signing the book!
The Prize Table
The 13th Demon on Kindle and Nook!
Here’s the deal. Tomorrow I’ll be posting about the book launch but last night at the party I told those of you who have a Kindle I could sign your Kindle.
Click on Kindle for the Kindle version.
And click on Kindlegraph to get a virtual book signing sent to your Kindle. Note: I didn’t realize this but you must have a Twitter account (which is free) and search for my name, Bruce Hennigan and 13th Demon and Conquering Depression will both come up in the list.
And here is the nook version. To my knowledge, there is not a way to sign an nook book right now.
Thanks again for coming! Stay tuned for updates and pictures of the launch party.
Final Countdown Book Launch — The World’s Most Amazing Publisher!
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 here for the flyer: bruce-flyer
I had never heard of Strang Communications before the day I got an email from my agent, Jeff Jernigan informing me Strang was interested in “The 11th Demon: Children of the Bloodstone”. I was astonished mainly because we sent out the book proposal only two or three weeks before. Who was Strang Communications?
Of course, I went immediately to their webpage and I was very impressed with their huge body of work. But, honestly, I didn’t study their site too closely. After all, I was only going to get rejected. Again. My Daddy always said “Anticipate the worst so when it doesn’t happen, even the bad stuff seems good.” I remember the evening I moved into my sister’s bedroom after she got married. I was seven years old and I would not have my very own room! My Daddy showed up with a hammer that he quietly placed on the nightstand by my bed.
“What’s that for?” I asked.
“So you can bust out the windows when the house catches on fire.” Daddy said nonchalantly and left the room.
I slept with that hammer on my chest all night and I kept waking up to make sure smoke wasn’t in the air.
Strang had responded to a query letter and now they wanted to see the book proposal. Jeff and I had put together a book proposal and with my permission he sent it on to Strang. A few days later another email. Jeff said they wanted to see the entire manuscript. Fortunately, the book was finished so I emailed a copy to Jeff and he sent it on to Strang.
Soon, the correspondance was literally flying back and forth. What other books have you written? What other series are you working on? Since you are a doctor, do you have a medical book planned? Tell us about the entire Jonathan Steel series.
That December, 2009 was bad. Very bad. I had herniated a disk in my neck shortly before Thanksgiving and I couldn’t sit at my desk and type. And suddenly, Strang wanted book analysis on cometitors, book reviews of the top three competing books for three of my series, detailed outlines of each book in all three series, etc. I had my neck surgery on December 17th and the next day got a request from Jeff for more additional material.
Don’t get me wrong! I was ecstatic. It was just in pain. And after the surgery, I couldn’t sit comfortably at my laptop because I couldn’t look down! But, I made it through the Christmas holidays and then the best email of all came in January, 2010.
Strang wanted to extend a contract to me for the entire Jonathan Steel series. That’s 13 books! They wanted to pick up the first two books I had self published and re publish them! I kept pinching my good arm, the one that still had feeling in it. This was the best post-Christmas present ever.
And then, silence.
February — silence.
March — silence.
I was getting worried. I knew from my contract Strang wanted the first book rewritten and shortened by June 1, 2010 and I was working feverishly on cutting 30,000 words from the novel without killing the story. But, silence? What was going on?
April arrived and Jeff sent me an email. It’s time to go over the contract. We arranged a conference call and it was astonishing. As Jeff and I went over the contract with a fine tooth comb I realize how blessed I was to have Jeff Jernigan as my agent. The previous months had passed in silence for me, but Jeff had been working hard to negotiate the best deal possible for me. And he got a great contract. I cannot tell you how marvelous, how wonderful it is to have Jeff as my agent.
Now, I started the process of learning about speculative fiction in depth. I became a reviewer for the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blogtour. Soon, I was reviewing books by authors from Strang, now called Chartisma Media through my own imprint, Realms. I read Mike Duran’s “The Resurrection”. I thought my book was creepy! Then, I read Greg Mitchell’s “The Strange Man”. I had nightmares for at least a week! Finally, I read Mike Dellosso’s “Darkness Follows” and I realized I was in excellent company. For Charisms Media “got it”. They were taking a huge risk in publishing Christian “horror” by bringing to Christian ficiton readers the outstanding quality of books I had just read. These books were amazing and now, I was intimidated. I had some big footsteps to walk in!
It has been a long and amazing journey for “The 13th Demon: Altar of the Spiral Eye” from frustration with an industry that did not see the future of Christian speculative fiction to problems with agents to the netherworld of self-publishing. But, God has a plan. In His time, he saw that my book fell into the hands of the right agent at just the right time and the right publisher at just the right time. I am so grateful to Jeff Jernigan. I am so grateful to Debbie Marie Strang, editor for Charisma Media for catching the vision of this kind of fiction.
Now, let’s see what happens! Adventure, danger, evil, and redemption await YOU in “The 13th Demon: Altar of the Spiral Eye”!
Book Launch Countdown — “Think Different”
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!
Bruce Hennigan 
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