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Angels and Demons and Books, Oh My!
Take some time this coming Saturday, October 31 before Trick Or Treating and join a dozen or so local authors at our “4th Annual Wholesome Book Fair” at Barksdale Baptist Church, 1714 Jimmie Davis Highway from 11 – 2 PM.
I will have my latest (and last!) Jonathan Steel book, “The 1st Demon: Imago Diaboli” available not only as paper back but ebook code for any digital book reader. If you haven’t read my “Chronicles of Jonathan Steel” series, I have re-edited the first three books and now would be a good time to start the series. They would make great Christmas presents.
Let me address the “demon” in the room. My books do not in any way glorify demonic actions or Satan. My books are character driven and focus on spiritual warfare between the forces of good and evil. At the recent GeekD con, I would tell people, “My books are about the spiritual battle between good and evil and any person 13 or older can read them. They are ‘safe’ without gratuitous cursing, sexual content, or gratuitous violence.” Ultimate every book in the 12 book series is redemptive and God honoring.
I also have my two “Jack Merchant Medical Mystery” books and I can tell you readers from my hospital have loved these books. The main character is a radiologist (like me, but I am not Jack Merchant!) who must solve the murder of his wife in order to clear his name. In the process he becomes a consultant to the medical examiner’s office as a forensic radiologist.
And my favorite book of all I have written (18 books in all! I can’t believe that!) is “The Homecoming Tree”. This warm, comfortable story set between Thanksgiving and Christmas 1941 is based on my parents’ life living in Shreveport during World War II. It is filled with historical references to Shreveport and Bossier City in 1941. Each chapter begins with the latest news from that day in 1941!
I have readers who read this book every Christmas. And I have to admit, the tone of this novel was inspired by my favorite movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life”. So come pick up a copy of “The Homecoming Tree” as a Christmas gift!
I will also have the final books written by my former pastor and co-author, Mark Sutton. Pitfall and Demon Undertow are two very different books and I am privileged to offer his books since his passing in January, 2026. Some of these books are signed by Mark!
Also, at the book fair, you will meet Ruby Elizabeth whose book I just helped to get published. This will be her first book fair and I am looking forward to everyone meeting Ruby and her parents. Her book, “More Than My Diagnosis” is available everywhere, but you can get a special HARDBACK signed copy ONLY at this Book Fair!
I hope to see you there. And, yes, I will have candy! And, yes, I will be in costume. Which one? One of the following: Indiana Jones, War Doctor (from Doctor Who), or a Jedi Master. Come play with us this coming Saturday.
Is Reading a Book About Demons Dangerous?
I am often asked why a Christian reader should purchase a novel about demons. After all, isn’t reading about demons exposing oneself to the influence of Satan?
Let me clue you into a disturbing fact: if one is a Christian, one is already under the influence of Satan!
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” Ephesians 6: 12,13 (And verse 13 is why I call my publishing entity 613media).
If you are a Christian and you are totally unaware of the influence of Satan in your life there is a good chance he has you right where he wants you! J. Warner Wallace of coldchristianity.com calls most people in our culture, apatheists. They just don’t care about God or demons or religion.
But for those who have dedicated their lives to following Jesus Christ, we are in a battle between the forces of good and evil. True, God and his angels are on the winning side but Satan and his fallen angels (demons) are making headway in today’s culture. Ignoring spiritual warfare is to relinquish the battle to the enemy! For example, 26% of Americans identify as “nones”, someone who has no identification with religious issues. This means that over one quarter of Americans do not believe there is a God!
My “demon” books do not glorify Satan or his minions. Rather, these books expose the nature of demonic influence in our lives. Each book is built around an important tenet of Christianity and discusses methods and means to protect oneself from the influence of the enemy.
Here is a graphic that illustrates the widespread influence of the forces of evil in our world.
In my fictional accounts of spiritual warfare, my broken, angry hero, Jonathan Steel, faces off against humans hosting powerful demons from a “Council of Darkness” dedicated to opposing the plans of the followers of Christ. Each book features an important spiritual concept and, usually, a cultural “deception” to divert attention from the work of the Lord,
My books do not contain profanity or gratuitous violence. They can be read by teenagers and people of all ages. One of the main character is a teenager. Let me tell you two stories about the genesis of these books.
Way back in 2010, I visited Abilene, Texas with my good friend and apologist, Michael Licona. He asked me to interview a man who had experienced a near death experience and to comment on the medical side of his experience. The specifics of that story, I’ll save for another day but the evening of the first day, a group of us were eating at a local Tex-Mex restaurant. Jessie, the man who had experienced significant trauma, had survived, and had a religious epiphany said he often saw “Dad”, as he called Jesus, walking around the room and speaking to him. You can imagine this doctor had a bit of skepticism about his visitations!
Jesse sat across from me at the table and suddenly stopped talking and looked over my shoulder. I glanced behind me. No one there. He looked back at me and said, “Dr. Hennigan, what does the number thirteen have to do with you?”
Salad fell from my open mouth. “What did you say?”
“Dad said to ask you about the number thirteen.” He said innocently.
I had never met Jessie before that day. He had no way of knowing I was coming or who I was. Let’s just say, he was not tech savvy. I was in the final stages of publishing my first book with a traditional publisher and no one knew this, not even Mike Licona,
“Well, I am about to publish a book entitled ‘The 13th Demon’. I turn in the manuscript in a couple of weeks.”
He smiled and looked back over my shoulder and nodded then his gaze met mine. “Dad said no matter what happens do not let Satan stop you. And that is why you have two guardian angels.”
Affirmation from God I was on the right track from the most unexpected source! The second story is creepier. Sitting in my office in one of our satellite hospitals, I had accessed the internet on what was then only a dial up connection. Hospitals are notoriously way behind time on tech! Deep in the weeds planning my next novel on vampires, I opened a search result link. The screen went completely black and from the center an image emerged. Bulbous eyes, fangs, forked tongue comprised a demonic face that grew and grew. Suddenly, the image overlapped the edges of my laptop screen! The things was coming OUT of my laptop! Impossible!
I slammed the lid shut and removed the battery (an option at that time with Powerbooks). Gasping for breath, I called my co-author and pastor, Mark Sutton. I told him what had happened. Was I going crazy? He didn’t hesitate in telling me, “God must really want you to write these books. Satan is pulling out all stops to stop you.” The follow up to this experience was my week in the “demon” house in Austin while finishing “The 12th Demon” about vampires. But I’ll save that for later. Let’s just say, that face that came out of the laptop? It became very physical!
I don’t mean to boast that my books are “God ordained”. But, I believe without a doubt I was inspired to write a series of books accessible to Christians and non-Christians exposing the underside of evil. Including my last book in “The Chronicles of Jonathan Steel”, “The 1st Demon: Imago Diaboli” there are twelve books. One for each apostle, one for each demon on the Council of Darkness. Note I am considering the prequel book, “Death by Darwin” as part of the series as it introduces Jonathan Steel.
I encourage you to consider reading my books. I assure you will learn quite a bit about spiritual matters, spiritual warfare, how Satan works, and most importantly how God is all powerful and has already won the battle.
Blessings.
The Last Book, the 1st Demon is here.
“The 1st Demon: Imago Diaboli” is now available through all book outlets online. If you go to this link you can find links to each site that offers the book.
As I stated in a prior post, this book has taken longer to write than most. I went back and read all the prior books in “The Chronicle of Jonathan Steel” as well as the prequel “Death By Darwin”. I even reviewed my Jack Merchant books as characters from those two books feature in this final story. Below, I will reveal the second chapter of the book for those who have read and those who have not read my books. In this chapter, Jonathan Steel and his main love interest, Ruth Martinez (from Death By Darwin) are driving from Shreveport, Louisiana to Austin, Texas. During the six hour drive, Jonathan tells his story to Ruth. The chapter not only recounts many of the developments from the prior books, but it also illustrates their growing relationship. Just a WARNING, this chapter contains many spoilers so reader beware.
Thanks again for all who have supported these books in the past. The final book contains many “tropes” that have become fairly common place in the last 20 years but I stuck with the story I outlined way back in 2000. If story beats seem all too familiar, I wrote them first!
Read the rest of this entryWriting In Between
Before we go looking for the 11th demon, here is a glimpse of the possible cover of my upcoming book, “The 1st Demon: Imago Diaboli”. Full cover reveal is coming soon.
It took several years but I decided to self publish my first two Jonathan Steel books through iUniverse and then, BookPros. BookPros was a fantastic company. They mainly focused on marketing and publicity but then got into the “hybrid” publishing business. They only took books they decided were marketable and a writer had to go through the same process of presenting a book proposal as they would have to get a contract with a traditional publisher. However, beyond that point, I had to fund the project just as anyone would with self-publishing but the advantage was the excellent marketing and publicity program.
BookPros released “The 13th Demon” and “The 12th Demon” and both were successful. In fact, it was my success with BookPros that led ultimately to my third agent and a five book contract with Strang Communications (Now Charisma Media).
My local Barnes & Noble was kind enough to allow me to have book signings for both books and then asked me to participate in a unique event. Our manager for the Barnes & Noble asked several local authors to come every Saturday in the month of November and write a novel. We had about six of us sitting at a large table in the store with our laptops working on a novel. Potential authors were invited to come by and join us.
I first met Winnie Griggs at this event. Winnie Griggs is an award winner writer of book series (https://www.winniegriggs.com/) and she spoke at our recent Aspiring Writer’s Workshop conducted by our Louisiana chapter of the American Christian Fiction Writers. Our little group sat around the table and for a few hours every Saturday worked on novels. Anyone could come by and talk to us and ask questions. Winnie gave a short workshop on writing a novel.
By then, I had two books finished of my twelve demons and was working on the third book. It would be about UFO’s and ETs. But I wanted to do something that was an “in between” work bridging the second and third book. I had left the reader in a bit of a cliff hanger at the end of the second book. And the third book would begin a couple months later. I decided to write a story connecting the two books and it would not contain one of the twelve demons.
I also wanted to try an experiment. I would write each major scene from a different character’s point of view in first person. This would force me to get into the heads of each character and learn how to speak in their voice. By the end of November, I had finished what would become “The Ark of the Demon Rose”. I ran it through Xlibris with no intention of actually selling the book. It was short, but still long enough to qualify as a novel. I had a dozen or so copies printed and gave them away to my supporters. Free. No cost.
Now, I was years later and producing those five books for my contract. What to do with this book? After conferring with my representative, we decided I would retcon that book into the lineup of twelve demons. It became “The 11th Demon”. I worked very hard with Strang to rework and re-introduce the first two books. I have written about the difficulties of having to shorten the word count of those books making them less than what I had intended. This led to my recent release of the re-edited books as “Demon 13: Dark Covenant” and “Demon 12: Wolf Dragon”.
I have now re-edited that original “Ark of the Demon Rose” as “Demon 11: Ark of the Chimera” and here is the cover. It is now available at all outlets. If you have purchased prior copies of “The 11th Demon” still available from Westbow Press, this book has new content and is different from that original book. Westbow continues to provide that original book and I have asked for it to be returned since, technically, I own the copyright but that is a lesson for another day. I recommend seeking out “Demon 11” if you want to see more of the original content.
Tomorrow, evil will reign from the skies!
Of Garlic and Crosses
Before I continue my story from yesterday, here is a portion of the cover for the upcoming book about the 1st demon. I had to play around with the subtitle. My original idea would have given too much away so I settled on this subtitle. The full cover will be revealed soon.
Barefoot, I stood in ankle deep sawdust soaked with blood. The deer’s eyes, devoid of lids and glaring from a skinless skull stared at me in deep sorrow. I fought back nausea as my brother soaked the deer head’s skin in another tank prior to mounting it on a solid form matching the deer head’s shape.
I ran out of his taxidermy shop, past my house, to the front yard. Already with the coming night fireflies blinked in the distant trees. I gasped for breath and slowly recovered. At age eight, growing up on a farm, I had seen my share of animal death. But the sight of those lifeless eyes would haunt me for years. Just that afternoon I had watched “Dracula” on the 3:30 Dialing For Dollars Movie. My mother drove a school bus and she dropped me off at the house on her way to finish her rounds in time to watch the movie, whatever its subject. I was to write down the “count, amount, and direction” in case we got a call during a commercial. If they called and we gave that information and the current amount, we would win hundreds of dollars. Watching the Dialing For Dollars Movie was a sacred trust.
But Dracula? The images terrified me and now, as the sun set on the distant horizon above our farm, I felt the cold stare not of the eyes of a dead deer but the cruel hypnotic stare of Count Dracula and I ran screaming into the house. We had no garlic. But I made a crude cross out of popsicle sticks and placed it beside my bed. I don’t think I slept that night.
Thus began my fascination with vampires.
So back to that question from yesterday’s post: Would there be twelve other demons? When I wrote “The 13th Demon” I had the possibility of one sequel in mind just to complete the story of Joshua Knight. But, twelve more demons?
I love book series. Spencer, Kay Scarpetta, Elvis Cole, just to name a few. However, in the years I have spent reading book series I have always noticed something. Along about the fourth or fifth book, it was as if the author ran out of ideas how to more the main character forward. Often, this resulted in bringing the character back to their less than “mature” state that developed over several books. Not a problem if this digression was intentional and worked within the story.
Before I considered writing a book series, I had to know if there was enough “story” about Jonathan Steel for twelve more books. So I did two things. First, I prayed about it.
Second, I sat down and outlined possible future book ideas with the central theme being one of the apologetic facts I had learned. I concluded its as doable. There were far too many good ideas.
But, what about Jonathan Steel? Did he have enough story to justify twelve more books? Fortunately, I had created a character with amnesia. That would give me a lot of latitude in telling stories centered around his slowly recovering memory. I could do this without cheating on his growth and maturity over many books.
And so, I sat down before I went any further and I wrote the next to the last book where he would completely recover his memory. I had to know his entire backstory. This gave me a goal to work toward. And then I wrote the last scene of the last book. All of the elements of a puzzle put together by the time we got there. I now had the final tapestry. All I had to do was fill in the details.
I was sitting in my office at the hospital. At that time, the hospital had only dial up internet connection. I decided the second book would be about vampires and their history and why we are fascinated with them. I would make Joshua join a vampire “clan” and Jonathan would have to rescue him. I had recently read a frightening book on prions, “Deadly Feasts” by Richard Rhodes (https://a.co/d/01b7ia7A) and I thought prions would be an interesting scientific fact as the threat in my story.
While searching for information on vampires, a page showed up in my browser. Totally blank and then something formed in the center of the image. A demonic face appeared, fangs exposed, eyes bulging. It hissed and snapped its jaws at me. And then, the most astonishing thing happened. It came OUT of the screen. Not just an illusion! The image bulged out of the screen, overlapping the edges as if it was becoming REAL! I slammed the laptop shut, my heart racing! What had just happened? In a panic, I removed the battery (they were removable at that time) totally resetting the computer and picked up the phone to call my co-author and pastor, Mark Sutton. I told him what had happened and to my surprise, totally believed me.
“Bruce, you’re writing about spiritual warfare. Satan doesn’t want these books to come out and he is trying to stop you. This just proves, that no matter what, these stories should be told.”
And so it began!
I’ll continue the saga of “The Chronicles of Jonathan Steel” tomorrow. For now, here is the cover of the re-edited version of the twelfth Demon, “Demon 12: Wolf Dragon” now available everywhere in print and ebook format. Note the figures in the background. They came directly from a chapter in the book that recounts, with historical accuracy, the horrid reign of Vlad the Impaler!
You don’t have to sleep with garlic tonight. Just embrace the cross.
Lots of New Developments!
I haven’t posted in a while. 2026 has turned out to be a challenging with health scares for my family and all is well at the moment.
Good news, though. I have just finished the last chapter of the rough draft of my final book in “The Chronicles of Jonathan Steel”. Just a few more weeks of editing and book layout and cover design and the book will be released!
It has taken me longer to finish this book than I planned because I had to go back and read all of my eleven other books! Yes, eleven including “Death by Darwin”, the official prequel to the series. Here is the good news. I have updated and re-edited Books 1-3 in the series and they are soon to be available on all outlets. The titles:
Demon 13: Dark Covenant Book 1
Demon 12: Wolf Dragon Book 2
Demon 11: Ark of the Chimera Book 3
I have combined the 7th and 5th demon books into one book: “The Pandora Stone: Demons 7, 6, & 5” and have re-edited this book. I wrote both books during COVID so some of my story beasts were a little wonky and I wanted to fix that.
I also have a new cover for “The 10th Demon: Children of the Bloodstone”.
If you have read all of my books, then the changes will not be that significant. But, the first there books have been spotty with regard to availability since I took them back from their traditional publishers.
Here’s the new covers!
More good news. I have combined all books into three volumes of ebooks “The Chronicles of Jonathan Steel”: Volume 1 includes Demons 13 – 11. Volume 2 includes Demons 10 – 8. Volume 3 includes Demons 7 – 2. These are ebooks only and are available on any outlet.
I’ll alert you to when these books are available. Most are already available as ebooks if you search for them. Next post will discuss the upcoming Aspiring Writer’s Workshop, a free workshop on Saturday, April 25th.
The 2nd Demon Officially Available
Links to ordering “The 2nd Demon: Tales of the Grimvox” in ebook and print format are listed below
Nook and Barnes&Noble Paperback
Enjoy!
The 2nd Demon is two weeks late but is here!
“The 2nd Demon: Tales of the Grimvox” is now available as an ebook on most platforms. It will be available for order as paperback after Friday, January 10, 2025.
I was hoping to get the book out before Christmas but Santa brought us a pre-Christmas gift, a six pack of flu!!!
Blurb: The second demon possesses Jeremiah Stone, the brother Jonathan Steel never knew he had. Jeremiah has kidnapped Steel and is using the Grimvox, an arcane repository of demonic history to sift Steel’s memories. Searching for a specific memory, Jeremiah and Steel relive their past lives and the legacy of their father, the Captain. With the help of Father Caskey, Josh searches for his adopted father. Steel must escape his brother and the connection with the Grimvox before he loses his mind. And, his life!
I must admit I just checked over the final galley proof and read the last chapter. I’m still trying to see through my tears! I hope you enjoy this book. It is the culmination of many previous books and the coming together of a lot of loose ends. It definitely sets the stage for the last book in the series. Have a Happy New Year!
Free Books!
As the year 2023 draws to a close I have to admit I have not written a new book. However, I have done something I have wanted to accomplish for some time. I have taken “The 13th Demon”, “The 12th Demon”, and “The 11th Demon” and reworked them into one volume of an “author’s” cut.
What is an “author’s cut”? When an author signs a contract to produce a work, that author is now an employee of the traditional publisher. The work is no longer completely the author’s. The publisher is a business and, as a business must produce a work that will bring in money. This means shaping that work into something that can sell and, at the same time, not break the bank. Thus, publishers demand strict word count limits. Word count limits translate into page numbers. Page numbers, in the world of printed books, costs money. There must be some kind of break even at 80,000 words as this seems to be the sweet spot for printed books. Any larger than 80,000 words and the basic cost of printing goes up.
Since I have formed my own publishing entity, I am keenly aware of this. The problem for me as an author was trimming my first two works down from over 100,000 words to 80,000 called for substantial artistic sacrifices. Admittedly placing a word limit can be advantageous. It forces the author to be more creative in the editing process. But, I had to sacrifice entire characters and their story arcs to fit the word limits for these books.
Now, I own the works and I have chosen to restore these dissected parts back into the whole. I have also tuned up the “bread crumbs” I placed that led to future story lines. “The 11th Demon” never suffered from the word limit problem. If anything, it was too short to begin with. I have fleshed it out some more to fill in details on the storylines and the “bread crumbs”.
All three books are now available in one ebook volume. The printed version runs over 1200 pages so I am sticking with the ebook version for now and it can be found in any online book source.
Look for “The Chronicles of Jonathan Steel Vol. 1” and enjoy. The work includes new versions of the first three novels, “The 13th Demon: Dark Covenant”, “The 12th Demon: Wolf Dragon”, and “The 11th Demon: Chimera”.
Now here is the really good news. For a limited time, the first thirty readers who access this link to my “bookfunnel” source can download an ebook version of this collection for free! But hurry! The free books are limited to only 30! FREE BOOKS for first 30 readers!
Weigh Your Heart!
I was very depressed trying to watch a Hulu show, “The Patient”. If you made it through the entire series you know why. Dark, depressing, hopeless, filled with despair and the most subtly violent murders I’ve ever witnessed. I wanted to chain myself to a dark, basement bedroom floor by the end of the thing!
And watching the first part of that series changed my approach to writing. I’ve been working on the next two demons in my Chronicles of Jonathan Steel trying my best to keep them in separate books. That didn’t happen. The story of the 4th demon is so intertwined with the 3rd demon I had to combine the books for one LONG book. It will cost a bit more but that is because of the added cost of printing and producing the book by my distributor, Ingram.
Read the rest of this entry
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