Tuesday, August 30, 2016

Dem Duke Boys / God is GOOD

Just a quick update.
God is good. (In case you didn't already know that.)

You might surmise that there's a story behind me saying that.  If so, you surmised well.  Good job.

I recently had quite a scare as my writing laptop was inadvertently drenched in water!  I walked into the room, picked it up, and it was literally in a puddle!

Of course my mind starts racing... what did I have and what didn't I have backed up...?
(Some things.  Not enough for comfort, though.)

So, while I was busy having a nervous meltdown, DW went around to the kids to see what happened.  After much police-style interrogation, it turns out one of the younger ones thought life would be much cooler if we all came in and out of the house through the windows like the Dukes of Hazzard.

(Funny, I don't even remember ever letting them watch that show.)

So, yes, after many prayers of healing for electronics I disassembled everything and blew it out as best I could with compressed air.  Let it dry for a week and...

IT WORKED!!!

Did I happen to mention... God is GOOD!

So yeah, I've been back in to the blog.  Just uploaded a new book review, for The Occupied.  Very intense (though probably not as tense as having a year's worth of writing floating in a puddle).

The latest chapter of Juggernaught should be up tomorrow or the next day as well.  It's a very cool one, so definitely check that out.


Live Your Adventure,
-E.L. Fletcher


P.S.  God is GOOD!!!!


Sunday, August 28, 2016

Book Review: The Occupied

The Occupied
Available: September 1, 2016
Publisher: Tyndale House
ISBN: 978-1-4964-1135-8

Official Book Description:

As a youth, Trevor Black unleashed spiritual forces he couldn’t comprehend. Years later, Trevor is a high-flying criminal defense lawyer in New York City, with a six-figure Aston Martin and a trophy wife. But in an extraordinary turn of events, he receives a burdensome gift: the ability to perceive the invisible. And the dark forces he now sees are all gunning for him.

When one of Trevor’s hometown friends is murdered, the MO is eerily similar to a shocking trail of murders that have already crossed the lawyer’s path. So Trevor must return home to find the killer. . . and face not only his own personal demons, but supernatural ones as well.

Review:

I like a good suspense story, so I was excited to read this book.
It also presents a bit of a problem to review as I don't want to give away too many clues.  In other words, please forgive me for being a little on the vague side.  It's for good reason.

The prologue starts out in the middle of the story to give us some mystery and a teaser of what's to come.  Our protagonist is no longer a lawyer, but a disbard man who sees "monsters" everywhere!

Surprisingly, the next several chapters overcorrect the timeline in the opposite direction, dealing with him 25 years earlier as a youth.  His life back then is filled with death, deamons, spiritual encounters, teen sex, and pretty much "the desires of the flesh" type stuff.

At long last, about halfway through the book we finally get to "now".  The first stuff was a little bit tedious, but here it begins to get good.  (Basically, don't expect to put the book down from here on out!)

Here we see Trevor do what he is best at -- being a criminal defense attorney.  I felt like I was right there with him every step of the way from here on out.

I love how this story is written from Trevor's point of view.  You feel like you are with him every step of the way as the story unfolds.

The author's law background really shows, what with vivid descriptions of judges and jails, etc.  You get the impression he knows what it is like, and he is taking you along into that world.

I loved the suspense and the exceptional mystery woven throughout with so many double meanings and red herrings, that you don't know who the real bad guys are until it all comes together in the end.

Cautions:

This is a crime fiction story, so if you are looking for a sqeaky-clean Christian book, this ain't it!  On top of the teen sex, slash, demonic stuff mentioned earlier, there is also violence and drug abuse.
Probably not suitable for teens.

The good news is that there is a definite separation of light and dark with good and evil choices that have to be made, so all that darkness makes a valid Christian point.

Conclusion:

If you love suspense and mystery and do not mind reading about the darker side of the world, this is a great story!  I, for one, can't wait to read more about Trevor Black and what trouble he finds himself in next!

Author's Promo:

(This is pretty good.  You probably ought to watch it.)

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Journal Update: Lots going on

Hi everybody!

Just thought I'd check in and do a brief journal update.  So what's going on around the Fletcher farm?
Lot of stuff really.  Been working hard all summer on the house to get things ready for baby. 

The workshop looks like a hurricane hit, but I've got both rooms 90% finished and I just need that track-and-field burst of speed to make it across the finish line.

Unfortunately, the opposite happened.  I got heat exhaustion last Thurs/Fri and I'm still suffering the after-effects of that.  I'm trying to get a lot done in the cool of the morning, because once it reaches a certain temperature, my body crashes like a dollar store hard drive!

As far as the blog goes, the next book review will be on a Frank Peretti-esque supernatural thriller.  We'll see if that's any good.

Concerning the Juggernaught storyline (which I really hope you guys are enjoying) I accidentally missed an installment in there somehow.  Sorry about that, but there is a pretty good stretch of chapters ready to go.

Unfortunately for me, this also means not much left until section 2 hits, which is proving a difficult one to write.  There are a lot of moving parts and things get pretty intense.  I want to make absolutely sure how I treat content like that.

As far as the first print book, I've gotten some great feedback on the three finalists for cover designs.  (Thanks to everybody who participated in that!!!)

Some publishing blogs I've read have said "You don't want to do that!  Not before the election!".  I don't know.  What do you think? 
Will a book release get lost in the noise of the political hullabaloo?
Or is that an apples/oranges thing?

I'm also hoping to get in some guest blogging and other publicity up and rolling on that.  We'll see.

Lots of irons in the fire.


Live YOUR adventure!
  - E.L. Fletcher

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Juggernaught: Chapter 6 - New Recruits

Out of the many prospective candidates, the Bible Study finally narrowed it down to a short list of those able and willing to join their group.  Though names were still coming in, there was significant enough interest to justify getting started.  Michael began separating the new recruits into two teams. 

Together these would become one other's greatest allies and fiercest rivals.  Throughout their training they would spar against eachother in combat and wage intellectual warfare with eachother over grades.  As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another! 

It may not be the most creative naming system, but the teams were always called, "Team Alpha" and "Team Beta".  The implied precedence only heightened their natural rivalry.

The first recruit of Team Alpha was Wendell St Frank, a kid that Michael'd had some dealing with in the past.  No, that probably doesn't go far enough.  The boy was like Michael Moast's own shadow and practically begged to be let into the group.

To all appearances, the kid looked like he was of Japanese descent, but his exceptional height seemed to indicate other genes at work.  This was impossible to confirm or deny, however, since he was also an orphan.

It was through volunteer work with these orphans that Michael had first met the lad.  From the first moment Wendell began looking up to teenage Michael Moast and over time developed into his virtual side-kick.  When Wendell was a teen himself, he stood beside his mentor as ring-bearer at his wedding.

Through many years of association, he gradually learned the secret dealings of the Bible Study and now that there was a vacancy, he desperately wanted in.  All the wild horses in Wyoming couldn't have kept him away.

At the same time Wendell was recruited for Team Alpha, a boy named Kurt was assigned as the first member of Team Beta.  He scored top marks on all the tests, even to the point that Dr Puttery suspected him of cheating. 

More and more stringent precautions were taken against this.  Soon, all of the latest equipment was put to work and he was forced to take all tests in a brilliantly-lit white room, on a clear plastic desk, and with surveillance cameras watching him from three separate angles.

Dr Puttery was livid when he still didn't miss a single question, demanding even more safeguards.  Instead of granting this request, Michael Moast called an end to the game. "If the kid's that good, then he's exactly what we need."  Michael declared.

Over the next few months, others of equally varied skill-sets joined both teams.  The trouble was, Team Beta collected its members rapidly, where Alpha had a very high drop-out rate.  Wendell was still the only member.  The situation got especially dire when the lack of recruits even began delaying the start of training.

That October, however, all of Michael's searching finally paid off. 

They first came across the daring and handsome Jack Savage.  He was the son of an associate of Ms McCready.  Though the old woman held a carefully guarded past in the secret ops, she would allow that, "He's the spittin' image o' his father -- in more ways than one."

Though he didn't have any frame of reference for what she was saying, Michael decoded it to mean, "He's got what it takes."  (And that was a high compliment from her!)

Once they brought him in, Jack Savage did not disappoint.  An adventurer from a family of adventurers, he was strong and tough as the leather jacket he always wore.

Later the same month the team was introduced Misty Carlisle.

She came as more of a shock to them.  While Jack was pretty conspicuous with his wind-blown sandy hair and leather flight jacket, Misty seemed more like the last person they would ever consider.

She was very small and petite, almost a dwarf by some accounts, but some of the evidence from her past gave weight to her small frame.

Her first high school in North Carolina seemed like a pretty average place.  That is, until the Principal and key players from among his staff were found gift-wrapped on the front steps of FBI headquarters and wailing to be let in.  The officers didn't take long to discover that they were using the school basement as the central distribution hub for all illegal narcotics in the Southern United States.

Due to an anonymous tip, the reporters made it to the school before the police.  Even the most sensationalistic couldn't use the footage they got.  The school hallways were littered with bodies.

Misty Carlisle silently left town that night.

The following school year her name sprang up in a prestigious all-girls prep school in Roseville, Virginia.  She disappeared again her last semester, when the school burned to the ground and came under investigation for having connections with certain ancient secret societies.

The allegations soon evaporated, and young Miss Carlisle denied any involvement in the incident.

As to the drug cartel, she only smiled and shrugged. 
"Accidents happen." was all Michael could get out of her. 

Needless to say, that was exactly the kind of person he was looking for.

Her admittance exam was set up in wing of the mansion that housed a simulated dark alley.   Wooden bad guys that were designed pop out of the shadows and blast an unwary combatant with paintball guns.  To add another layer of threat, other Bible Study members and recruits were lurking in the arena as well.

Misty incapacitated all of the targets, broke two, and accidentally fractured Wendell's arm in the process.  Even though Michael's stealth allowed him to "beat her", she claimed, (and rightly so), that the paintball mark on his back probably would have killed him in real combat.

Unknown to them at the time, Misty had gotten involved in Karate as a preteen as a form of exercise.  Since then she had taken it to the extreme and now held a black belt or equivalent in nine different martial arts.

Three members was enough to constitute a team, and at once the new generation began training together.  Where many other highschool students get release-time to take on apprenticeships or take trade school classes, these ones spent their alternative education on analyzing foreign affairs, training with the latest combat technology, learning enemy evasion and tracking...

Some kids were learning plumbing repair while others were learning how to safely ditch a Chinook helicopter in the rolling ocean while under enemy fire.

Some people might call this "strange" or even "wrong", but these were the kids that the system had already rejected.  You could call them the misfits, but is there truly anything wrong when a person simply doesn't fit into the norm?  Or is there a special place for the square pegs in a world of round holes?

If truth be told, perhaps the Bible Study aspect of the organization might be less of a false-front and more of a ministry than they thought.



The preceding has been a chapter from Juggernaught: A Moast Unusual Bible Study
(Copyright 2016, Edmund Lloyd Fletcher.)

For more on this story, please visit its main page.

Also, don't forget to subscribe to the email list so you never miss a thing!