Back in the "Writing Saddle"

It has been a while since I posted here. This is mostly because of my commitments to a number of other things in my life. Back in January I was asked to help our youth group at church as a youth leader.

“How hard could that be?” I thought. Silly rabbit…

I made a choice that outside of my work as a programmer for Microsoft during the “day hours” I would use my talents for the Lord and build something for our youth group on the web. This turned out to be one of the most amazing and most rewarding things I have ever done and it’s like a cross between a digital bible and a social network. While it’s a closed environment (on purpose) it’s my hope that someday all Christians will have access to a tool like this. This project essentially consumed every moment outside of work, family events and finishing the editing for my next book.

During the summer I managed to get Maximal Reserve, my next work, edited with Rachel Starr Thomson and ready to go for a February 1, 2011 release. I just saw the typeset version and I must say that it looks great. I am so excited about sharing this story with you all. It’s very different than Wayback – a different premise, a different set of heroes and villains and more contemporary in its approach.

This morning, after dropping my daughter off for a drama practice at school I headed to a local college library to continue writing on the long awaited sequel to Wayback. It’s a quiet environment that gives me the concentration that I need to write.

I have struggled with the working title for this book and it’s lurched from various titles such as The Pact of the Fallen to Mid-Cycle (it is the second book a three book series) and finally have arrived at the title that I am happy with: Insurrection. It’s a single word, like Wayback, not a lot of books with this title exist and it has dual meaning, much like Wayback did (going Wayback and finding a Way Back).

I am now referring to Insurrection as “The Big Scary.” This is a term that I saw Tosca Lee (the author of Havah and Demon: a Memoir) use for her upcoming story of Judas Iscariot, which is coming in 2012. “The Big Scary” is a good way to describe a book that you know will challenge yourself—not just the mechanics, but in the big ideas that it challenges in both yourself and your readers.

Why call it “The Big Scary?” Well, this is the third time I am rewriting this story. I really thought I would bring this sequel to market before Maximal Reserve, but some early readers were disturbed by the content. After more than a year of research into the concept, I was blown back to the drawing board. As you know, research is a key part of my books and I like to educate on the way to entertainment. I shelved the idea and kept researching coming to the same conclusions that I had early on, but with new ideas for the approach to take to get the idea across.

This idea will be controversial and in the months ahead I will share my raw research with you and we can talk about the conclusions that I have come to in the two and half years since I started this manuscript.

Until that point, think about what your feelings are regarding the following:

• How advanced was man before the Flood?
• How advanced was their technology?
• Was any ruin left that might give us a hint of how advanced man was before the Flood changed the face of the planet?
• Did man get help from another source with this technology? If so, what was the payment for the exchange of this information?
• Why did God have to destroy the entire human population of the planet, including animals that breathe through their nostrils?
• What did God mean by the phrase that “Noah was pure in his generations?”
• What does the mysterious set of versus that frame the reason for the flood in the early part of Genesis 6 mean?

Book Club, Signing & The Gathering 2010

Late last summer I made an important connection. As it turns out, it was providential. Sara Peters, the Bookstore manager of Southeast Christian Church, got a hold of a copy of Wayback that I was sending across the country trying to stimulate sales and the market for Christian techno-thrillers and quickly became my biggest cheerleader. The book flashed through the staff and is a good seller in their amazing bookstore.

I met Sara last year in Denver at ICRS and after she invited me to attend the Gathering, I knew I wanted to be here. The Gathering is just that--a collection of the owners and operators of Chrisitan bookstores from around the country (there were even proprietors here from Hawaii). Sara did an amazing job of organizing this mega event and it went very well.

While I had heard of "Mega-Churches" before, I had never really experienced one. Having gone to Bob Jones University, one of the largest Christian universities in the country, I thought I understood what big was.

I was wrong.

Southeast is enormous -- multiple sanctuaries (even one for weddings), multiple fellowship halls, a building for the youth called "The Block" and even a fitness and ministry building. You need a Segway to get around the campus. I'm not kidding!

While Southeast has hundreds of ministries and thousands of volunteers their compassion and friendliness are unmistakable.

The bookclub had me in for a presentation and discussion. There were at least 120 people there and we had a great time. The topic of my presentation was Christianity and Science Fiction - should we be involved with this stuff? The presentation went well and I had great conversations and questions about many of the subjects in Wayback.

It's so encouranging as an author to meet fans and put faces with the people that are "friending" you on Facebook and commenting on your blog site and sending you reader's email. The booksigning for the retail owners went very well - over 100 books were signed and I met some other authors who have had experiences similar to mine. One was a writing couple: Dave and Diane Munson. Now retired, Dave worked as an undercover FBI agent and Diane was a federal prosecutor. They write suspense novels such as: Hero's Ransom. It was interesting comparing notes about their writing journey and their impressions of the industry.

One thing that happened during this trip was the encouragement of fans for me to get the sequel to Wayback completed. I'm about 60% of the way done and this trip really lights a fire under me to get it done.

Here are some pics of the book club as the room is still filling up. Sorry I couldn't get one with everyone in it. Since I was speaking I was concentrating more on my discussion than being a photographer.

Gratuitous picture of me in front of a display stand of Wayback in the Southeast bookstore.

At the Author Autograph party for the Gathering. Met some great authors.

Blessings,

Sam

A Quick Summer Update

We are now officially into the summer and while Pennsylvania is getting a lot more rain than normal, it's been a good one so far.

Last Monday night, my wife and I enjoyed our first book club meeting where we discussed Wayback with Pat Webster's friends. We go to church with many of the members and it was a fun night. It was really neat to see how the scenes that had originated in my gray matter over two years ago came alive to those that read the book and to find out what they liked and disliked. It was very energizing.

Reviews are continuing to come out and you'll want to keep your eye on a "big one" coming from Christian Fiction Review over the next few weeks - Wayback will make an appearance there. Good reviews also continue to come in on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The Facebook Fan Site is also continuing to grow at a healthy pace.

I am diligently working on the sequel to Wayback, tentatively called MidCycle. I'm about 80% of the way done with the first draft and I like where it's going so far. Someone once said that a sequel must be similar to the original work to be considered a sequel and different enough so that it really is a different book. That's a challenge.

I will be in Denver on July 12,13 & 14 to attend the International Christian Retail Show, representing STL Book Distribution with Wayback. This is the largest Christian Book Show in the world, so I plan on making the most of it (looking for an agent, looking at different publishing houses, networking and even meeting some of the best Christian Fiction authors).

As more news comes out this summer, I will post it here. Enjoy your summer!

Blessings,

Sam