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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!
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.
The Shreveport Times Article
I met author Judy Christie a few years back at our “Author! Author!” event here in Shreveport. Judy writes excellent novels with a “Louisiana flair” and her books are delightful. Check them out. Well, not too long ago, Judy and I reconnected and she has written an article for the Shreveport Times about little old me! I am humbled and honored by her article you can read at this link.
Now, for an update to the fourth book in the Chronicles of Jonathan Steel. I am finishing up the final edit this week. After being released from a very restrictive book contract and whittling down the story from 120000 words to 75000 words it is a pleasure to completely redo the novel. I was forced to cut so much of the story in order to meet these word count restrictions. Now, I have written the book I want to read. And, hopefully, my writing has improved thanks to editorial input from fiction editors I worked with while at Charisma.
My plan now is to publish the book under my own imprint and I am shooting for August or September so I will keep you posted.
Thanks again to Judy for a wonderful article.
Tip #3: MAKE time to write!
Tip #3: You Don’t FIND time to write, you MAKE time to write!
My good friend Marilyn once asked me how I found the time to write. I simply replied, “you don’t find time to write, you make time to write.” This wasn’t a lesson I learned from John Maxwell. This is a lesson self taught. I mentioned in a previous post about being a dreamer versus making your dream come true. As I pondered on HOW I could make a novel come true, I stumbled across NANOWRIMO which begins TODAY.
National Novel Writing Month helps you fulfill that DREAM of finishing a novel in one month. When I first learned of this method, I tried it out. I failed. But, the next July after completing “Conquering Depression” with Mark Sutton in the summer of 1999, I set aside the month of August to write a novel. I started it on day one and finished it on day 31. That novel became “The 13th Demon: Altar of the Spiral Eye”.
Since then, I have learned these powerful lessons:
Make Writing a PRIORITY not only for yourself, but your family unit. Read the rest of this entry
Can Fiction be Christian?
This past week the Christian publishing world was shaken by the announcement from Broadman & Holman (B&H) Publishing regarding their new Christian fiction strategy. Steve Laube, a major voice in the Christian publishing industry, commented on these changes at this link. This may seem like some mundane industry-babble but it has grave implications for the reader of Christian fiction. The bottom line is this: a major Christian publisher has decided to back off of fiction unless it ties in with some other media initiative (such as a movie). In fact, all contracts for future fiction that would have been released beyond April 2014 are now null and void. Kaput! Gone! And, I know that feeling!
Why? In September 2012 just a few weeks before the release of my second book, “The 12th Demon: The Mark of the Wolf Dragon” by Charisma, I received a notification that I was being released from my five book contract after the second book. This didn’t catch me totally by surprise. I had already heard from a couple of my fellow authors at the Realms imprint (an imprint is a division of a publishing “house” focused on a particular “genre”) who had suffered the same fate. As of September there were two of us left, myself and Mike Dellosso easily Realms bestselling author. Mike has now moved on also. At least I was in good company! I know this was a business decision made because of the downturn in the economy but it had a lasting impact on my personally as well as many Christian authors.
What does all of this mean for you, the reader of Christian fiction?
It will mean a much smaller selection of books and a much narrower range of genres. Major publishers will not be taking as many chances with new authors and will not be looking to branch out into “strange waters” such as Christian speculative fiction. Frankly, this frightens me. I am already a victim of the troubled economic times coupled with the sea change in traditional publishing trying to adapt to newer digital technology. However, I followed the advice of Michael Hyatt, once CEO of Thomas Nelson (which has been swallowed up by the larger HarperCollins publishing behemoth along with Zondervan). He suggested I self publish. The good news for authors like myself is there are many reputable self publishing ventures available. The bad news is I have to fund the book and all of the prep work myself. Let’s just say it makes for a tremendous tax right off! But, I am hoping the momentum of two previous books will help “The 11th Demon: The Ark of Chaos” sell enough copies to keep the series going.
Down, But Not Out!
I am frustrated.
I haven’t been posting this summer because of family issues with my daughter’s health. But, she is doing very, very well and it is time for me to re-engage the creative side of my brain.
I haven’t been negligent of my writing. I am finishing up the final edit for “The 11th Demon: The Ark of Chaos” and it will be available hopefully by late October. It will not be available in the usual traditional sense but you will be able to purchase it through bookstores, Amazone, B&N, etc. Now that I am no longer beholden to my previous publisher, I have much more freedom to tell the story the way I want to.
For instance, my previous two books suffered from the word limit demon (pardon the pun). I had to constrain my story to fit 75000 words. That required cutting major story elements and, in some cases, entire characters to fit the required word limit. While I don’t plan on going all Harry Potter on my readers and make the next books 700+ words, I have extended the upcoming book from 75000 to 90000 words.
I am back in the world of self-publishing and it is much different from the first time I self-published back in 2006. Self-publishing has gained in reputation since then. To give you an example, I ran my dilemma by Michael Hyatt back in February. If you don’t know who Michael Hyatt is, go to his website. He was former CEO of Thomas Nelson and has launched his own brand teaching authors how to communicate and how to build a platform for their work. I met him at the first annual Platform conference. Michael took one look at my previous two books in the Jonathan Steel Chronicles and quickly, confidently without hesitation told me to self-publish. This came from a man who was once the CEO of one of the largest Christian publishers in the world!
For a while, I pursued traditional publishing for the third book and met with half-hearted response. I don’t want to disparage my previous traditional publisher, but I think today’s tp’s don’t know how to effectively market Christian speculative fiction. Michael Hyatt made the comment this is the fastest growing sub-genre in Christian publishing. I have discussed problems with this genre in previous posts, the least being that bookstores don’t know where to put these books — Christian publishing or secular publishing areas.
So, it is up to those of us who write such books to decide if we cave in to the poor sales and poor marketing and little recognition or do we press on and continue to write the books God has placed on our hearts and minds. Authors such as Greg Mitchell, Mike Duran, Mike Dellosso, Marc Schooley, Linda Rios Brook, and Conlan Brown write speculative fiction and their works are fantastic, awe inspiring, moving, and wildly imaginative. Their books should be flying off the shelves. Instead, like me, they are struggling with balancing day jobs and writing supernatural thrilling stories that are trying to break their way out of our brains onto the written page.
Here is my plea. Check out the Christian speculative fiction market. But some books. Buy lots of books. Support your favorite Christian speculative fiction author and I’m not just talking about the giants such as Ted Dekker or Frank Peretti or Tosca Lee. Look for us little guys and gals who are struggling and promise to give you a good story — a great read that is wildly imaginative, thrilling, and yet, ultimately redemptive.
Give us a chance!
Buy one of our books as summer comes to a close and then post a review on Amazon or on your blog or your website. Help us flood American readers with the kind of thrilling supernatural stories the world is craving but with a different twist — a Christian worldview. Do that, and we will go a long way to changing the world’s attitudes — changing the world’s perception of reality — and showing the world the light and love of Christ!
Bruce Hennigan 
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