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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am faced with the reality that my section of the book based on medical data and apologetic and cultural issues is sadly out of date.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.
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 entry“You Saved My Life”
The story of our book continues to baffle and amaze me. Back in 2019, we learned that the second version of our book was no longer in print. B&H Publishing never let us know and I was trying to order copies for a seminar. That day, I realized our two books had an amazing run since the first book, “Conquering Depression” came out in February 2001. I spoke with Mark and concluded that maybe it was time to put the book to rest. An hour after our conversation, I checked my email and got this:
“Thank you for changing my life and for the tools provided to continue life. I was very close to giving up, your book made [me] change my mind and fight the darkness, with God’s help, forever. Thank you, thank you, thank you L*****e M****s, South Africa
May 17, 2019 5:34 AM”
South Africa! Somehow our book had made it into the hands of someone in South Africa. And, according to them, it “saved my life”! I immediately sent the email on to Mark Sutton and called him up. The result of that conversation was to proceed with a third edition of the book with about 40% new content published by our little independent publishing company.
Read the rest of this entryBeating the Holiday Blues
Recently, I had the privilege of being interviewed by Dr. Scott Zentner and Dr. Scott Shelby of Family Solutions Counseling in Monroe, Louisiana. The first interview in October covered information about our book, “Hope Again: A Lifetime Plan for Conquering Depression” by Mark Sutton and Bruce Hennigan. Much to my surprise, they asked me back for an interview in early December. We talked at length about depression and anxiety during the holidays.
We had a lively and wide ranging discussion.
Here is the link to the page with both interviews at our hopeagainbooks.com website.
If you are suffering from depression and anxiety and need help, check out our book at hopeagainbooks.com and more in depth information at conqueringdepression.com for help during and after the holidays. We have a special on conqueringdepression.com where you can order a copy of the book and a set of deluxe LifeFilters for only $20.
Mark and I hope and pray you have a peaceful, joyful and hopeful holiday! Be sure and listen to the interviews, especially the second interview about the “Holiday Blues”.
Upcoming Book Signing!
I never dreamed of becoming a publisher.
I just wanted to get my books out there for people to read without all the hassle and delays I have experienced in publishing four books through traditional publishing.
It started with “The 11th Demon” and I’ve managed to publish five books through my 613media,LLC. And now, Mark Sutton and I have published “Hope Again: A Lifetime Plan for Conquering Depression” through our LifeFilters, LLC company and its imprint Hope Again Books.
There are two stories I can share about this new book. Mark and I had the honor of holding a book signing at First Baptist Church Orlando and Oasis Church in Daytona Beach. We sold almost 200 books between the two events but that is not what drove me to my knees in humility.
At one of the events, a person approached Mark and said he had come to church that day to tell God goodbye. He would then end his life that afternoon in total despair. Now, Pastor David Uth’s sermon was absolutely amazing and powerful. But, the sermon combined with the encouragement to purchase our book helped him to overcome his despair. He is now doing much better!
At the other church, a parent purchased a book because his middle school child, yes, his CHILD asked him to buy him a copy of the book. A week later, the parent shared his child was devouring the book and it was helping them deal with depression. A middle schooler!
Only God can take credit for this! Our traditional publisher had given up on our book and had taken it out of print. As I shared in an earlier post, an email from a woman in South Africa found our book and it “saved” her life and that email prompted us to publish a third version of “Hope Again” on our own. And, I am so glad we did! God is still using our stories of depression to help others.
Now, Hope Again Books is releasing another title! Mark Sutton has written a powerful and exciting work of fiction based on the wars in heaven that led to Lucifer’s fall.
Entitled “Pitfall”, this new book will be released in a special event on December 7th at Brookwood Baptist Church in the Well, the church’s coffee bar/book store. You can come and go from 3 to 6 PM. The address is 9014 Brookwood Church Way, Shreveport, LA 71106 and we are at the corner of Bert Kouns and I49.
Hope Again Books will be sponsoring free coffee drinks and snacks. Mark will be signing copies of his new book and we both will be there to sign copies of “Hope Again: A Lifetime Plan for Conquering Depression”. I will also have copies of all seven of my books.
So, come on by and celebrate the release of Mark’s new book.
Depression Is Never “Out of Print”!
I have some sad news.
Mark Sutton and I have written two books on depression. The second book, “Hope Again: A 30 Day Plan for Conquering Depression” was released in September, 2014. Now, we have discovered, that book is no longer in print.
When Mark and I discovered this fact back in late spring, I was disappointed and we decided that the end had come for our depression book. The very next day, I received an email from a person who claimed the book “saved her life”. In desperation, she reached out in prayer and God led her to our book. The 30 day program led her away from her decision to end her life! And, this person was from South Africa!
It is difficult for me to wrap my head around the fact that something that Mark and I wrote based on our painful experiences with depression could be used by God to change the life of someone else! But, this is how God works. As soon as I read the email, I called Mark and we bent every effort at that point to putting out a third book as soon as possible.
And, we continue to get weekly orders for our LifeFilter cards from our website conqueringdepression.com!
So, now for some good news.
Read the rest of this entryShocking Reviews!
Okay, I’m guilty of neglect.
I was working on my Author’s Page on Amazon this morning because of some confusion from people trying to order “The Homecoming Tree”. It seems there are entities out there who purchase the book and then sell it second hand and for some reason, when you search for the book, THEIR listing comes above my own!
Anyway, while reviewing my settings I stumbled across the REVIEW page that lists all of the reviews for all of my books. Honestly, I have such a poor self image from my childhood, I have avoided reading the Reviews. I was afraid of what they might say.
But, let me put this as kindly and as humbly as possible, THANK YOU for all of the reviews, both positive and negative. I was truly humbled that anyone would choose to read something that poured out my imagination onto the written page. THANK YOU all!
You can check out the reviews at this link.
I am currently working on two books. First, I hope to finish “The 8th Demon: A Wicked Numinosity” by the fall. Second, I am putting together the first book in my science fiction trilogy, “The Node of God” and hope to have it available by the end of the year.
Also, Mark Sutton and I are working on a book about the lies of culture. And, I am outlining the sequel to “The Homecoming Tree” — “The Homecoming Prayer”.
To order my books please go directly to my Author page at this link. If you would like to order books directly from me as some of the print versions can only be ordered through me, go to this link.
If you are interested in our depression book, go to this link.
Hope Again Youtube Channel
Mark Sutton and I invite you to our Conquering Depression Seminar Saturday, Nov. 17th. Here is a link to our new Youtube Channel for Hope Again.
You can register for the seminar at this link.
The Holidays are Here?!?
I’m facing major surgery on December 4th. That’s just three days short of the anniversary of the infamous attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Whenever this time of year approaches, I jump into full Christmas mode beginning on November 1. But, this year will be different. Christmas celebration for us will be dialed back a bit.
So, I have already put up our “Homecoming Tree”. It is not yet decorated and sits in our living room waiting for its mantle of shiny decorations. This year, Sherry has decided to dig out all of our vintage Precious Moments decorations. Some of these date back 40 years! Decorating the tree will be quite nostalgic!
I guess it is fitting that this is the year I release my novelization of “The Homecoming Tree”, a play I wrote and directed at Brookwood Baptist Church in 2005. In looking back through my photographs of that play, I found one of my father. Sean, my son, took those photos on black and white film and when we developed them, yes, developed them — not digital, the developing process left artifacts on the photographs. These artifacts resembled what you would see on a genuine old film. Here is the photograph of my father as he is looking up at the set for the play.
Read the rest of this entryDepression Seminar
Plan on coming to our Conquering Depression Seminar at Brookwood Baptist Church on Saturday, November 17th from 8:30 to Noon. I and Mark Sutton will be talking about depression based on our book “Hope Again: A 30 Day Plan for Conquering Depression”. You can go to this link for information and registrations: Link
Bruce Hennigan 
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