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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!
Of Magic, Merchants, and Mayhem
I want to thank everyone for reading the past few posts promoting my latest book, “Merchant of Justice”. Response to the story has been good especially from my medical colleagues! If you haven’t read “Shadow Merchant” I encourage you to check it out and our website, hopeagainbooks.com has links to buy the book.
Tomorrow I am traveling to the Daytona Beach area to visit with Mark and Donna Sutton. Mark is my former pastor, co-author, and brother in Christ. In 2001 Mark and I were privileged to release “Conquering Depression” published by B&H Publishing. Since that time, B&H asked us to update the book and in 2014, released “Hope Again: A 30 Day Plan for Conquering Depression.” In 2019, Mark and I released the third edition under our own publishing banner, “Hope Again: A Lifetime Plan for Conquering Depression.”
I cannot express how many lives this book has changed. I do not say this as a boast for I never planned on co-authoring a book about depression because I never planned on having a major life changing depressive episode. God had different plans and as I have said many times, “it was not my plan”. It seems most of the time, what I am involved in has never been MY plan. My simple awakening moment every day is to ask God what work I can be involved in today. His work. Not mine! And God has blessed this little book that kept on going.
Now, I am faced with the reality that my section of the book based on medical data and apologetic and cultural issues is sadly out of date. It needs to be updated.
But, the book is now, in one form or the other, almost 24 years old. Perhaps it is time to let it fade away. Yesterday, while visiting Barnes and Noble I saw many books written by Christian authors dealing with anxiety, depression, and cultural influences. Maybe our book isn’t needed anymore. At the time we wrote the first book, there were hardly any books written at an easily understandable level for helping Christians develop a plan to conquer depression. While it did not become a best seller, it filled a niche and has changed and touched lives all over the world. LOGOS, the Bible study software, lists our book as part of their library.
I am asking for prayer and direction about our book. I will be sitting down with Mark to discuss the future. Mark’s health no longer allows him to write books but his knowledge of the Bible and how to apply it to everyday life is large and in charge!
We talk more about our book at conqueringdepression.com and I apologize that site is not as active as I desire. If you want to check out our book, I suggest you order it from hopeagainbooks.com not the conquering depression website.
On another note, I am actively involved in finishing the final book in the “Chronicles of Jonathan Steel”. I wrote the rough draft for the first book way back in 2000. It has been a long journey writing about all thirteen demons! And I want the last book to bring together all of the story lines. When I decided to write a book series, the first thing I did was sit down and write the last chapter of the last book so I would know where I would be going over the series. I know where I have been headed with every book and I want to true to the stories I’ve told up until now. In a future post I will tell the story again of how a total stranger had a vision about my books and told me I had three guardian angels watching over me to make sure Satan did not keep me from writing these books. Those of my readers who follow Jonathan Steel please be patient. It will be worth the wait!
If you interested in the Jonathan Steel series, I suggest you go to Amazon or Apple Books and download my Volume 1 of the Jonathan Steel Chronicles. There is not a printed version because it would be over 1200 pages long! This is the latest updated versions of the first three books restored to their original form after heavy editing by my traditional publisher. These books are the “author’s” cut, so to speak!
Also, I am working on putting together an audiobook series of the books. Lots going on!
And, I haven’t forgot about Dr. Jack Merchant. I’m working on the third book as I am working on the Chronicles of Jonathan Steel.
And, I am so excited about a book I discovered just yesterday, “On Magic & Miracles” by Mirian Jacobs. She is a Christian author who has addressed the “wizard” in the room regarding how Christian authors can write stories including magic! My spin off series from Jonathan Steel, “The Node of God” has been in limbo because I have wrestled with how to write a Christian story that includes magic. Now I feel liberated and I am about to start work on finishing that first book, “The Node of God: The Harbinger of the Redeemer”.
One last note, tonight at Brookwood Baptist Church our monthly Brookwood Apologetics meeting will feature a Question and Answer Forum where our “scholars” will be open to any question about Christian and science, culture, and so forth. We may not have all the answers but we will have some and we can point anyone in the right direction for answers.
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!
After the Flood
In October, 2023 a tragedy occurred that sent ripples through our local medical community. I won’t go into details just yet. It was devastating to learn we had lost one of our own. In July, 2023 I retired to part time practice status. However, in the aftermath of this tragedy I was asked to step back into an almost full time position for the first half of 2024 in order to make up for the loss of one of my colleagues. For the last six months of 2023 I had been working diligently to write at least four books a year and to jump head on into promotion for our Hope Again Books. Now, that timeline was thwarted. Yes, I used that word. It’s a good word.
Then, on January 17, 2024 I was in Walt Disney World with Sherry and our daughter, Casey for the International Art Festival. Back in Shreveport, Louisiana we had a rare deep freeze come through the night before. At about 7 PM eastern time I checked our doorbell camera at the house just to see if our electricity had gone out. Power was fine. But water was running AWAY from my front door into the front yard and freezing!
I called my good friend up the street and he went into our house. A pipe had frozen in the attic above my study and had taken out the ceiling and flooded the entire first floor of our house. Panic ensued and we had to fly home the next day costing me thousands of dollars, the first of many thousands of dollars spent tin the subsequent six months.
The last six months have been a nightmare. The clean up team was in our house on Friday morning after the house flooded on Wednesday and we had to move out for about six weeks while everything dried out. The team ripped up carpets and baseboards all over the first floor of our house. In my study we lost Sherry’s desktop iMac and multiple other hardware including hard drives with almost thirty years of personal video footage. I lost a plastic bin filled with comic books and magazines from the 1970’s that are irreplaceable.
Read the rest of this entryFree 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 entryThe 9th Demon Cover Arrives!
The final cover for “The 9th Demon: Time of the Cross” is here. Luke Lee of Fusiform Design has done a fantastic job. All manuscripts and covers have been uploaded and will soon be available for purchase on Kindle or in print. I will update you when the book is officially available. So, for now, here is the cover:
Bruce Hennigan 
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