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19 years ago . . .
Just for fun, here is an interview I did back in May, 2007 on the launch of “The 13th Demon”. I was much younger, much fatter, but had much more hair!
In Whose Image? Part 1
My upcoming book, “The 1st Demon: Imago Diaboli” I write about the important question, “What does it mean to be human?” Soon, it will be available for purchase and to begin to set the stage for my story I want to share my prior ideas that provide the foundation for ideas in this book. Note that some of what I will post is controversial!
In my book, “Death By Darwin” Ruth Martinez reveals her greatest regret in successfully defending the serial killer, Reginald Drake. Both characters figure prominently in “The Chronicles of Jonathan Steel”. In a tense courtroom scene, Ruth has to approach the “death” of the victim on the operating table during the harvesting of the victim’s organs for transplant. Was the victim still alive? What constitutes “death”? Ruth has put the coroner on the stand.
Ruth retrieved a folder from the witness table and placed it on the edge of the witness stand. “Dr. McCormack, this is your final autopsy report on the victim, correct?”
“Well, I prefer a PDF, but some of us are old school.” He nodded toward Judge Tucker. The jury chuckled and Ruth waited for the gavel to rap in vain. The laughter died down.
“You may laugh at death, Dr. McCormack. But, I do not.” Ruth said quietly. “Would you turn to page 135 for me, please.”
McCormack sighed and grabbed the folder with meaty hands. He licked his finger as he thumbed through the pages. “Page 135. You want me to read the whole page?”
“No, just the final cause of death, please.”
McCormack shrugged. “I can tell you what she died of.”
“I don’t want you tell me anything, Dr. McCormack.” Ruth said loudly. “I want you to read what you put in the official record as the cause of death. That is all that matters right now. This folder has been placed into evidence by the prosecution and I could care less what you think. I want to know what you wrote down. So read the last entry! Now!”
Ruth was startled at the ferocity of her own voice. McCormack’s face grew red and he smacked his lips. “I don’t like being talked to that way, young lady.”
“I am not a young lady, Dr. McCormack.” Ruth stepped closer. “And, while you and the judge play glad hands with each other, I can easily file an injunction for a mistrial. I have an entire room full of witnesses to your harassment of this attorney and your scorn and disregard for this court of law. Now, read the entry!”
Ruth’s voice echoed around the chamber and she waited for the gavel to fall. She was met with only silence. McCormack glared at her and looked down at the page. “Cardiorespiratory arrest.”
“Thank you.” Ruth reached forward and took the folder from him. “Now, I will ask you to please, in layman terms, tell this jury what that phrase actually means.”
McCormack pursed his lips and crossed his arms. “It means the heart stopped and the victim died.”
“The heart stopped. What about the brain?”
McCormack blinked. “What?”
“What about the brain? When did it die?” Ruth pressed on.
“Honey, the victim was beaten and suffered brain damage.”
Ruth nodded and felt nausea creep up her throat. “Brain damage. But, when did the brain die?”
McCormack shrugged. “I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”
Ruth tossed the folder back onto the evidence table and retrieved another folder. “Are you familiar with the Unified Declaration of Death Act of 1981, the statute that established the medicolegal definition of death?”
McCormack uncrossed his arms and shook his head. “Of course, I am. I’m the coroner. I know death when I see it.”
“So, isn’t it true that statute established a bifurcated definition of death?”
“Bifurcated? What the heck do you mean by that?” McCormack said. “Marshall, stop this nonsense.”
Ruth glanced at Tucker and he was leaning forward in his chair, his eyes narrowed. “I think you may be onto something, Ms. Martinez. Dr. McCormack answer the question.”
“But, Marshall.”
Tucker picked up his gavel. “Don’t make me use it.”
McCormack shrugged again. “I guess you mean the duel definition of death. Brain death versus cardiac death.”
“Exactly, Dr. McCormack. Now, let me ask you something. In your professional opinion as a medical doctor and the medical examiner for this county, is it possible for the brain to still be alive after the heart stops beating?” Ruth moved across the floor toward the stand, the other folder in her hand.
“Well, sure. That is why we use cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Keep the circulation going to keep the brain alive.”
“So, when the heart stops, the brain is still alive?”
“Technically, yes. But, the victim’s brain was—”
“What?” Ruth was at the stand now.
“Damaged.”
“But, was her brain dead?” Ruth asked.
McCormack opened his mouth and looked over her shoulder at Tucker.
“Don’t look to him for help. YOU are the expert. You said ‘you know death’. Only YOU can answer this question. Was the victim’s brain dead when her heart stopped?”
“No. Damaged but not dead.” McCormack said.
A key piece of legislature went before the Louisiana legislators a few years ago removing the requirement for two doctors to sign off on a certificate of death for patients donating their organs after death. Dr. Jeff White, a local cardiologist and expert on medical legal law, authored a position paper against the bill. You can read the paper here.
Read the rest of this entryLive Long And . . .
I stood in the middle of the pasture and looked up at a star filled night. Growing up on a farm out in the middle of Nowhere, Louisiana God gave me a gift I would not appreciate for years. Living so far away from city lights, every night sky gleamed and glittered with a celestial light show. I saw the Milky Way stretching across a sky filled with twinkling stars. Points of light moved across the expanse as satellites and spaceships soared in orbit. I lost count of the many falling stars. On this night, at the age of 11, I wanted one thing and one thing only. I wanted to meet Mr. Spock.
I grew up in the golden age of science fiction television: Twilight Zone, Outer Limits, Time Tunnel, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, and Lost in Space. At the age of 11, I was growing increasingly tired of the silly and overly dramatic Dr. Smith ruining every effort of the Robinson family to get home to Earth. Perhaps it was because of my growing maturity. Maybe it was because of my evolving ability to write stories.
In September, 1966 something life changing happened. I had seen commercials for this show and I decided to give it a try. Star Trek. The very first episode was about a salt vampire. Yes, there was that vampire angle again! But the story? Amazing! The characters? Riveting. I was hooked!
And now I waited, eyes fixed on the distant stars reaching out with my “Vulcan” mind meld to any alien life form flying by. Come by and pick me up! Take me to outer space!
Nothing happened. I wish I could say I have had a close encounter with a UFO, now a UAP, or an ET. This side of a movie or theme park ride, I haven’t. My fascination with these phenomena did not wane. And as part of my apologetic training, I had to ask the question, “Are we alone? If the universe is filled with life, why is it so silent?” These questions prompted me to write many potential science fiction novels. Naturally, I wanted to work one of these novels into “The Chronicles of Jonathan Steel” and “The 10th Demon: Children of the Bloodstone” was born. I recently re-edited the book mainly for grammatical errors and then created a new cover. Here is it is:
I have also taken “The 7th Demon” and “The 5th Demon” and combined them into one book. Both books were supposed to be in one volume but the pandemic interfered. I have now combined both books into one large book, “The Pandora Stone: Demons 7, 6, & 5”.
And to make life easier, I have combined all ten books into three volumes. “The Chronicles of Jonathan Steel Volume 1” contains “Demon 13”, “Demon 12”, and “Demon 11”. Volume 2 contains “The 10th Demon”, “The 9th Demon”, and “The 8th Demon”. Volume 3 contains “The Pandora Stone”, “The 4th Demon”, and “The 2nd Demon”.
Don’t forget, “Death By Darwin” is technically a prequel to the Chronicles and Ruth Martinez figures heavily in the last books. And Dr. Jack Merchant now has his own series “Shadow Merchant” and “Merchant of Justice.”
And now, the full reveal of the cover of the last book, “The 1st Demon: Imago Diaboli” which will be available as soon as the final cover is finished and the book is uploaded for distribution. I will post a blog announcing it!
Writing 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.
The Last Book is Almost Here!
I am counting down the days until the release of the FINAL book in “The Chronicles of Jonathan Steel”. In anticipation of this release, I have re-edited the earlier books in the series and each day, I will feature something about each re-issue.
I’ll start with the book that began in it all. But, before I do that, here is an enticing image I created as a starting point for the cover of “The 1st Demon”.
Before I go on, here is the newest cover of my newest version of “The 13th Demon”. “Demon 13: Dark Covenant” is a re-edited version of Book 1 in “The Chronicles of Jonathan Steel” and is available on all book sites, both printed and ebook format. Whatever you do, DO NOT order the original “The 13th Demon”. It is no longer in print and if you order it, you will buying a used copy from someone at a jacked up price! Search for Bruce Hennigan and/or Demon 13: Dark Covenant.
I’ve shared the story of “The 13th Demon” before but I’ll recap. Mark Sutton and I had finished our manuscript for “Conquering Depression” to be published by Broadman & Homan in the summer of 1999. Yes, that long ago! We turned the final manuscript in mid June and I decided to take a few weeks off from writing to just read. During the next 7 weeks, I read over a dozen books.
At the airport book store in June, I ran across a book by Robert Crais featuring Elvis Cole, P.I. The cover intrigued me because it showed a Jimmy Cricket cuckoo clock. I had to check out a story about a private investigator with an obsession with Disney. Turns out Robert Crais is from Louisiana, my native state and I fell in love with his books.
I couldn’t just turn my back on writing, of course. My determination was to write my first novel. I took out my many novels in progress and narrowed them down to six possibilities. I placed the finished chapters of each novel in their individual folders. Each night, I read through a folder. And NOTHING happened! No excitement! Nothing grabbed me and begged me to continue writing!
Near the end of July I joined my pastor, Mark Sutton, and several staff members from Brookwood Baptist Church on a trip to Saddleback Church in California. Sitting across the airplane aisle from Mark, I was not happy when he asked me what I was going to write next. I remember looking at him with a sinking sensation.
“Nothing! Mark, I got nothing!” I sighed. “What if God only wants me to write Conquering Depression and nothing else?”
He never answered that question and it bounced around in my head throughout the trip and in the coming days. I set a goal of starting my novel on August 1st. On July 31st, still nothing. That night before I went to bed, I had a startling revelation. This kind of revelation happens to me way too often. I realized I had made a plan and held it up to God and told Him, “Hey, God, here’s this great idea I’ve had and you just need to go ahead and bless it. I’ve saved you the trouble of getting my attention to tell me what to do next.” With a dreadful sinking sensation, I prayed, “God, I am so sorry I presumed to do what I thought you wanted me to do. If writing Conquering Depression is the only book I’ll ever write for you, then I accept that. I give my writing career to you.” And I fell into a restless sleep.
Four A.M. I woke up in a cold sweat and sat up in the bed. It was there! The entire story was there! Had it been a dream? Had it been merely the gestating ideas and characters pulled from a myriad of potential novels? I had no idea. All I knew is I had to start writing. By dawn, I had written sixteen chapters of what would become “The 13th Demon”. Where did thirteen come from? I had no idea. Why demons? I had no idea. I was interested in science fiction, not horror or supernatural.
But there was one foundational concept I had established. I loved the writings of Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park, anyone?) because Crichton would take an interesting concept out of the blue and build a fascinating thriller around it. Dinosaurs, genetic engineering, and this strange thing called chaos theory. By this time in my life, I had joined the Christian apologetic community, Reasons to Believe. I had discovered amazing scientific, philosophical, and historical facts corroborating the truthfulness of the Bible and the Christian faith. I remember thinking, “Why hasn’t anyone ever told me this? It would have saved me from countless episodes of doubt and damage to my faith!”
Could I build a story around some of these “apologetic” facts? Could I “disguise” Christian principles in a thrilling, supernatural story? After all, Frank Peretti had done so. And just recently the Left Behind series had taken the world by storm. These concepts were floating around in my head along with a character from the Elvis Cole novels, Joe Pike. A stoic, emotionless, justice obsessed killing machine, Pike fascinated me.
And so, Jonathan Steel was born originally as a minor character in this story. “The 13th Demon” was supposed to be about the pastor, not Steel. But as I wrote the story organically coming out of this gestalt from my sleep, I realized Steel was the far more interesting character. And by the time I finished the novel on August 31st, one month later, I had my protagonist and his team. Now, what to do with it?
I did what every prospective author did at that time (and what we had done with Conquering Depression) by putting together a book proposal and blasting as many Christian publishers as I could. The response was devastating. Every publisher turned me down. And I realized the problem was not necessarily my writing. This book was what would be called “Christian Speculative Fiction” in the future. CSF is science fiction, fantasy, and horror written from a Christian worldview.
Now, thanks to writers like Ted Dekker, Tosca Lee, Andrew Peterson, and Robert Whitlow CSF is common place. But at this time, Christian publisher had no idea how to market it. True, Left Behind was doing well. But books about demons? Books with horror elements?
My best response came from Kregel, major publisher. They loved the book but said, “we don’t know what to do with it.” And then a simple question in my rejection letter changed everything. “Does this mean there are twelve other demons?”
Hmm!
Tomorrow, more of the story.
FREE Writer’s Workshop
ACFW Aspiring Writers Workshop
What is the ACFW?
Before we move on, I’d like to take just a couple of minutes to tell you who we are.
ACFW stands for American Christian Fiction Writers. We exist to support, encourage, and equip writers who want to write fiction from a Christian worldview—whether they’re just starting out or already published.
This workshop is hosted by the Louisiana Chapter, a local community of writers who meet regularly for encouragement, learning, and connection. Many of us were once sitting at home where you are today — wondering if we could really do this.
One of the biggest things we believe is that writers shouldn’t have to work alone. Writing can be hard, confusing, and sometimes discouraging, but community makes a huge difference.
We want to offer you an opportunity to meet with published Christian authors and learn more about the craft of writing. And it is FREE! Yes, FREE!
When is it?
Saturday, April 25, 2026
Registration begins at 8:30 AM and we encourage you to please pre-register at the link below.
The workshop lasts until 4 PM with a break for lunch where you can talk and visit with published authors! Please BRING A SACK LUNCH!
Door prizes will be given away throughout the day.
Authors will have their books available for purchase and book signing!
Where is it?
Barksdale Baptist Church
1714 Jimmie Davis Highway
Bossier City, Louisiana
71112
What is it?
A hands-on fiction-writing workshop taught by published Christian authors. Includes writing exercises, critique, and door prizes.
How do I register?
Preregistration encouraged.
More info & registration: www.narrowwaypress.com/aspiring-writers-workshop/
What does this workshop include?
This free workshop includes:
Foundational fiction-writing instruction
A hands-on writing exercise
Live critique and feedback from published Christian author
Door prizes and giveaways
What do I bring?
A notebook or laptop, a sack lunch, and your curiosity!
As a preregistered attendee, you’ll receive priority seating, guaranteed materials, and entry into preregistration-only door prize drawings. We’re excited to write with you!
Come ready to write—no experience required.
Pray about the story God may want you to explore.
This workshop is interactive and hands-on, and your preregistration helps us prepare materials and seating just for you.
See you soon!
— ACFW Louisiana Chapter
I will be giving a talk on “Knowing Your Audience” which is not exactly what you might think it is. I’ll have books available and coupons for purchasing ebooks.
I hope to see you there!
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 Bowsinger” Sings a Powerful Song of Love and Redemption
Most readers are unfamiliar with the term “Christian Speculative Fiction”. This sub genre consists of fantasy, science fiction, and supernatural thrillers written from a Christian worldview. And yes, there are at times horror stories are involved. To create a work of Christian fantasy is to compare oneself to such legends as C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. Few have managed to reach a level of storytelling to comprehend with these legendary authors.
“The Bowsinger” by Eileen Copeland is worthy of joining with the ranks of Lewis and Tolkien. I have known Eileen for years and there have been many times I saw her working hard over her laptop in our church coffee shop. A few years back, I was privileged to be asked to take a look at some of the early chapters of this work. I was impressed then. And I am truly impressed now. I was so honored when Eileen asked me to write a review for her book.
When one writes reviews, there is a different mindset. As an author and editor, I am looking for specific elements of the writing to signal if it is well written and the story and characters are well developed. I must confess, when I started reading “The Bowsinger” I completely forgot I was reviewing the book. Instead, I was drinking in, soaking in, living in this fantastic world Eileen has created.
“The Bowsinger” has all of the necessary requisites of a classic! Fantastic characters, including elves and dragons! A slow growing love story. A heroine (with a secret!) faced with impossible odds yet dedicated to her Creator and His teachings. A kingdom under siege from forces of evil!
As you meet Aralyn, you are immediately won over by her personality, her spunk, and her “hidden” talent of “singing” an arrow to its intended destination. Originally betrothed against her will to an awful shopkeeper in her village, she soon learns she is to marry Brone, a wealthy businessman in a distant land. His escort, Master Gillis, takes Aralyn away from her village and her home headed for her fate with Brone. Of course, along the way to the kingdom, bad things happen. I don’t want to ruin the story. You must read it yourself!
Just know that the character development and growth of Aralyn and her escort, Gillis, is deep and layered. I loved these characters even when they were decidedly unlovable. And the dragons! Physically beautiful and stunning in their appearance, their wisdom and compassion were so surprising for a creature that usually spends most of its time eating and charring its enemies! Aralyn’s friend, a Grand Dragon has her own quest: “Aralyn, I will tell you this—I must keep searching until I discover where my rider fell and claim that ground for him.”
And, of course, Elves come to Aralyn’s aid against the evil forces threatening to conquer all that is good.
Eileen creates a chilling metaphor for the seductive attraction of sin and our heroine is not immune to those forces. Her battle to overcome evil and control her own temptations is at the heart of the latter part of the story and worth every minute of buildup to the climax.
I have known Eileen for years and I had to tell her how proud I was of this novel. What a great effort realized with care and diligence and a deep understanding of what the reader wants to experience.
Get “The Bowsinger” today! Enjoy the journey! Sing with Aralyn. Eileen must have the same gift for she sang her story to hit the very heart of every reader! Well done!
You can find her book at this link.
On another note, please pray for Eileen as she is experiencing significant health problems and can use all the prayers we can send up!
The Homecoming Tree — 20 years!
My mother and father married on July 27,1935 in the middle of the Great Depression. Most Americans have no idea how bad times were in 1935. My father wanted to be a farmer and by the time 1940 rolled around their family was almost starving. My mother laid down the law and my parents along with my brother and sister moved from the tiny watermelon capital of Louisiana, Saline to the big city of Shreveport. My father was fortunate to get a job at the post office thanks to his brother in law. My mother went to work at Sears & Roebuck downtown.
They leased a house of Buckner Street with plenty of room for the family. Then, in 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. My father was thirty days away from being deployed to Europe when he was told as an employee of the U. S. Post Office, he would keep his job.
Soon after, my uncles from Saline left for Europe or the Pacific. Their families, one by one, moved in with my parents. My father converted a back porch into two bedrooms. The Hennigan “boarding” house was in business.
One of my aunts worked as a taxi driver in Shreveport during the war and the stories my parents told about her antics showed she was far ahead of her time! I loved to sit just off my uncle’s living room in Saline while my parents and their brothers, sisters, and in laws shelled peas and shucked corn and told about life during the Depression and World War II.
In 1999 I had converted all of my parents’ photographs from the past century into an old fashion slide show. My brother, born in 1937, joined them and I turned on the video camera while they told me their life story. Slide by slide we covered their lives from 1914 until to the early 1950’s. In particular, I was interested in life in Shreveport and Bossier City during the war.
In 1992, I became the drama director at Brookwood Baptist Church. By 2005, I had written and directed over 100 long and short dramas and I was ready to move on from drama to dedicate my time to writing books. For my last production, I decided to write a play based on my parents’ stories from World War II for our holiday production in 2005.
“The Homecoming Tree” told the story of a family living in Shreveport from their Thanksgiving meal up through Christmas Eve 1941. It was a huge production covering the entire stage area of our new church campus and featured over fifteen actors and actresses. We had a snow machine for outside scenes. We turned the baptistery into a radio studio. My mother had passed away in 2004 but my father recorded a 1940’s song and along with songs from 1941 it played during the scene changes. I had a three camera setup to record the entire production. (Unfortunately, one of the main actors routinely got off track in the third act and we had to flail around a bit to get everyone back on task.) However, it was one of the best received productions at Brookwood Baptist Church.
A few years passed and I was not happy with one of the characters I had created. I imagined a different framing for the story and rewrote the play featuring a modern day business man about to ruin his family by running off with his secretary. In order to teach him the importance of family, he is sent back in time to 1941 with amnesia and has to learn the lessons of the Greatest Generation. To be honest, many churches asked for the script but because of the scope of the production, they were unable to produce the play.
I decided to write a novelization of the play. “The Homecoming Tree” novel premiered in 2018. Great reviews followed. One reviewer said it reminded him of his favorite Christmas movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life” (which was totally intentional on my part) and that reviewer reads the book every Christmas to get into the spirit of the holidays.
This year marks the twentieth anniversary of “The Homecoming Tree” play and I want to encourage everyone to check out the book for this Christmas. Now, more than ever, we need to remember the sacrifices and devotion of the “Greatest Generation” as they fought and defeated evil throughout the world in order to bring about freedom and liberty.
You can find out more about the book at this link.
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