Reality Check - A Book Review of Eyes Wide Open

Through the exploits of Christy Snow and Austin Hartt, the heroes of Eyes Wide Open, Ted Dekker explores the nature of reality as defined by individual or personal experience.

Diving quickly into the story with an informal but engaging style, Ted Dekker immediately pulls the reader into wondering what will happen to Christy Snow, a likeable but somewhat naïve character. Eyes Wide Open was my first reading experience with author, Ted Dekker, who is not only known as a Christian author, but a New York Times best-selling author as well. After reading his work, I am not surprised. While the book contained numerous metaphors of good and evil, Dekker’s style is certainly not heavy-handed. I could imagine someone, who had not heard of Mr. Dekker, reading Eyes Wide Open without realizing they were experiencing Christian fiction. And I mean that as a compliment. Ted Dekker’s books are described as thrillers, but Eyes Wide Open had a fair amount of dark fantasy woven into the story. 

I was a bit disappointed in the way the story ended, but I would highly recommend the book to preteens through adult readers who love a good story.

                                                                                       – Bob Avey , author of Footprints of a Dancer

Special Promotion -- Footprints of a Dancer

Footprints of a Dancer is now available

The third book in the Detective Elliot series, Footprints of a Dancer is quite possibly the best Elliot novel yet. With its familiar characters and narrative taking the reader into unfamiliar territory, the book comfortably slips out of the envelope, tiptoeing into a world where the ordinary becomes extraordinary, normal blurs with the paranormal, and snippets of Oklahoma history find their way into the present. Footprints promises to be a read you won’t soon forget.

In celebration of the novels release, Deadly Niche Press has enacted a special offer. For a limited time, the price of the first two books, Twisted Perception and Beneath a Buried House, will be lowered to 99 cents for Kindle and Nook downloads. With Footprints debuting at $2.99, all three books can be yours for less than $5.00, less than a trip to a popular coffee shop. Just follow the links below:

http://www.amazon.com/Footprints-Dancer-Detective-Mystery-ebook/dp/B009PFNI3M/ref=la_B002BM2VJ8_1_4_title_0_main?ie=UTF8&qid=1350251497&sr=1-4

http://www.amazon.com/Beneath-Buried-House-Detective-ebook/dp/B003SE7J6I/ref=la_B002BM2VJ8_1_2_title_1_kin?ie=UTF8&qid=1350251497&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.com/Twisted-Perception-Detective-Mystery-ebook/dp/B004C43H32/ref=la_B002BM2VJ8_1_1_title_1_kin?ie=UTF8&qid=1350251497&sr=1-1

Footprints of a Dancer - a paranormal mystery

Not your typical mystery.

Footprints of a Dancer, the third book in the Detective Elliot series was released for publication October 11, 2012. That's 10/11/12, a special date for a special book. The book is now available for the kindle version. The paperback and other e-book versions, such as Nook will follow soon.

To celebrate the book's launch, I will be posting some specials very soon, but I just wanted to let everyone know. I've posted the the link below. Please let me know what you think. If you would be interested in getting a free copy just for posting a review on Amazon, please let me know.

Here's a description of the book:

Most of us come into this world with an inborn need for religion, a higher power to believe in. However, when fear and misunderstanding are the driving forces behind that desire, the result is rarely a good thing.

Eight years ago, Laura Bradford mysteriously disappeared off campus, causing quite a disturbance in the lives of Kenny Elliot and Gerald Reynolds, a journalism student with a fascination for Mesoamerican artifacts. When Gerald calls unexpectedly to tell Elliot he's recently seen Laura then sets up a meeting only to be a no-show, Elliot tracks him down to get some answers. Instead he finds his old friend murdered in ritualistic fashion.

Elliot takes a leave of absence from his job as a Tulsa police detective and launches an unofficial investigation, which leads him into the world of an Aztec diety with an appetite for blood.

http://www.amazon.com/Footprints-Dancer-Detective-Mystery-ebook/dp/B009PFNI3M/ref=la_B002BM2VJ8_1_4_title_0_main?ie=UTF8&qid=1350064071&sr=1-4

Add new comment

I'm Almost There

I apologize for the lack of blog posts lately. I knew going in to this blogging thing that I would not be one of those bloggers who post daily, but I had hoped to put something together weekly. However, I’ve been busy, consumed is closer to the truth, with editing my third novel, Footprints of a Dancer, the 3^rd book in the Detective Elliot series. The book should have been published a year ago, but all kinds of things got in the way, not the least of which is my own procrastination. So a few weeks ago, I started an all-out editing blitz, working feverishly to get through the first editing pass.

It seems that, when it comes to writing, writers fall into two categories – those who outline and those who don’t. I fall into the latter bunch, which means my first drafts are… Well let’s just say the prose, the dialogue, the plot, and even the setting wander all over the place while I try to figure out where the story is going. That makes the first rewrite a nightmare, especially when it takes two years – or is that three – of interrupted starts and stops to wade through the first draft. One tends to lose continuity, which can be frustrating when dealing with a dynamic and quite non-linear beast to begin with.

If there is a bright side to my chaotic, though holistic, style of writing, it would be the tendency of my novels to be unpredictable. It’s tough for the reader to guess what’s going to happen next when I have to do the same while writing it.

But I’m almost there. I’m about 80% finished with the first rewrite. The second rewrite always goes much faster. I hope to have the book out within the next few months.

http://www.amazon.com/Twisted-Perception-Detective-Mystery-ebook/dp/B004C43H32/ref=ntt_at_ep_edition_2_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

http://www.amazon.com/Beneath-Buried-House-Detective-ebook/dp/B003SE7J6I/ref=ntt_at_ep_edition_2_2?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

Buried Beneath Christian Fiction

I’ve always considered myself a Christian. However, changes and events that have occurred in my life in the last few years have caused me to reevaluate, reexamine, and rediscover what being a Christian really means. In the process, I’ve grown stronger in my faith. 

A desire to incorporate Christian beliefs into my fiction grew from this rediscovery, and set me on the path to writing my third novel, Footprints of a Dancer. I’m in the process of editing the manuscript, which I hope to finish soon. My publisher keeps reminding me that the book is overdue. A plethora of reasons exist as to why it has taken me so long to write Footprints, one of which is – I want to get it right. I want the book to be Christian, and it is certainly written from a Christian point of view, but at the same time I want the theme, the message if you will, to be subtle,  an integral part of the story, neither heavy-handed nor just a bit of icing. 

In research of the matter, I’ve been reading more Christian fiction, both on my own and as a book reviewer for Tyndale House, (http://tyndale.com/00_Home/index.php) a well-known publisher of Christian literature. In addition, I’ve sought out Christian writing blogs. Mike Duran, a writer of Christian horror fiction, has a good example of this type of blog. All of Mike’s posts are well written and thought provoking. However, I’ve included a link to a particular post, which illustrates the emphasis of this post: What qualifies a work of fiction as Christian? 

http://mikeduran.com/2012/02/two-things-that-keep-christian-fiction-from-crossing-over/

As with most subjects, opinions are plentiful. However, with respect to what is and what is not Christian fiction, it all pretty much boils down to two schools of thought; those who believe the message should be explicit, and those who believe a work of fiction can have an implicit Christian theme and still be considered Christian fiction. Good examples of the latter would be the works of writers like Frank Peretti, and Ted Dekker, both New York Times best-selling authors whose fiction, which some describe as Christian, crossed over into the mainstream market.

It is this type of blueprint, exemplified by books like those of Peretti and Dekker – not to compare myself with such great writers, but to illustrate a point – that I hope to follow with Footprints of a Dancer.

I believe that both types of Christian fiction – Explicit and Implicit – fulfill a need within the Christian literary arena. 

I discovered something else during my research to determine if I was indeed writing a Christian novel with Footprints of a Dancer. Based on a novel being implicitly Christian, I’ve already written one. The

 second book in the Detective Elliot series, Beneath a Buried House, was written from a Christian world view, and it definitely has an implicit Christian theme. I’d like to know your opinion. If you’ve read Beneath a Buried House, let me know if you agree. It’s only $2.99 on Kindle. Here’s the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Beneath-Buried-House-Detective-ebook/dp/B003SE7J6I/ref=ntt_at_ep_edition_2_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

Twisted Perception -- Serialized Post # 10

Chapter Three

            Elliot grabbed a cup of coffee and a bagel from the break room then went to his desk. Beaumont still worried him. He couldn’t figure the captain’s fondness for Beaumont. Beaumont was sharp on theory, but he was no good in the field. He’d gotten them into trouble a few weeks back. He and Elliot had tracked down a meth lab operator who’d decided to take out the competition, his brother. When the suspect reached for his weapon, Beaumont hesitated just long enough for three of the guy’s associates to come rushing out of a back bedroom. Elliot had been forced to act, killing one of the suspects and dropping another. He wound up with a short hospital stay and a reprimand for using excessive force. He didn’t mention Beaumont’s error in the report.

            Tossing the bagel, Elliot picked up the coffee and leaned back in his chair. He sat in a cubicle that served as an office in the bull pen that played host to the homicide squad. To Elliot’s left was a computer monitor, and in front of him one of the half walls lined with notes he’d stuck there. There was a five-drawer filing cabinet on his right that served not only as a storage area, but a barrier as well. When he leaned back, the action left him exposed, outside the protective mass of the filing cabinet. Beaumont sat across the aisle in an identical, mirror-imaged cubicle. He glanced over only to see Beaumont leaning back as well, staring at him with a blank look on his face.

            Elliot sipped his coffee. Within a few blocks of the department, a victim of murder had been left in the street, but Elliot’s thoughts were elsewhere. The small town of Porter was in another lifetime, but from that murky past a cold finger had reached out and touched him. He closed his eyes, conjuring images of Carmen Garcia. The sight of her in that pale yellow dress with her dark eyes sparkling had nearly taken his breath away.

            My parents are gone, Kenny. Stay with me tonight.

            Nerves crawled in Elliot’s gut at the memory. He drained his coffee and crushed the cup. He looked up to see Captain William Dombrowski leaning against the filing cabinet, staring at him. “You got a minute?”

            Elliot followed Dombrowski into his office, stopping behind the chairs in front of the desk. Dombrowski gestured for Elliot to sit while he studied him with intense gray eyes.

“What’s on your mind, Captain?”

            Dombrowski lit a cigar then watched a stream of smoke curl toward the ceiling. “I hear you were pretty shaken up this morning.”

            “Who told you that?”

            “It doesn’t matter. I need my cops sharp, impartial. If you’ve got a problem, I need to know about it.”

            Elliot didn’t like what he was hearing. Dombrowski’s concern seemed way out of proportion. “I don’t have a problem. Maybe someone else does.”

            “This isn’t the first time I’ve had complaints about your behavior, and they’ve all been recent. This isn’t like you. What’s going on?”

            “There’s nothing going on.”

            Dombrowski pushed back from his desk, his chair protesting from the burden of his weight. “Come on, kid. It’s me you’re talking to.”

            Elliot rubbed his temples. He and Dombrowski had worked a couple of cases together when they were both detectives. Dombrowski had been captain for less than six months and he was probably just as uncomfortable as Elliot was. Elliot glanced at a bookcase by the wall. Alongside an array of law books sat a hand painted ceramic mug and a plaster imprint of a small hand, things Dombrowski’s kid had made him. “I haven’t been sleeping well,” he said. “Nightmares, that sort of thing.”

            “Work related?”

            Stay with me tonight, Kenny.

            “I’m not sure. Probably not.”

            “Well, I’m a little more inclined to think that it is. You had a close call last month.”

            “It wasn’t that bad.”

            “Jeez, Elliot. You were shot. There’s no shame in being shaken up over that. Maybe you should take some time off.”

Book Review -- Courageous, by Randy Alcorn

In Courageous, a novel which appears to be a police procedural becomes much more as the story follows the lives of four police officers who struggle to reconcile their profession with their private lives. The heroes, Adam Mitchell and Nathan Hayes, deal with personal loss as well as drugs and gang members, which, and perhaps for the first time, have leaked from their cop worlds to infiltrate their personal lives.

The strong and vivid characters carried the book for me. I also found it refreshing – perhaps my being new to Christian fiction was a factor – to read a novel where the good guys with good values win out in the end. However, I found parts of the story unrealistic, with characters acting out of character. While the characters hold the story together, the constant and often abrupt point of view changes worked to disconnect the reader. Deeper into the story, this happened less often and at that point the book became a better read.

All things considered, I enjoyed the book. I would recommend Courageous, by Randy Alcorn to Christian adults, at which the book seems to be aimed.

For purposes of this review, I received a complimentary copy of Courageous from the publisher, Tyndale House.

–        Bob Avey, author of Beneath a Buried House

Christian Fiction and Twisted Perception

I’ve read several interesting and well thought posts, concerning the boundaries and purposes of Christian fiction. The posts and comments that follow invariably divide, for the most part, into two schools of thought on the subject:  1) those who believe Christian fiction should follow strict guidelines and be very family oriented and safe, and 2) those who feel the parameters should be relaxed to include stories written from a Christian point of view that might expand the envelope by delving into areas of fantasy.

As a relatively recent born-again Christian, and, therefore, a new arrival in the Christian fiction market, I’ve found myself a bit confused by it all. I empathize with the reasoning behind both points of view. However, I must confess to leaning more toward the expanded envelope crowd. I’ve been a published author in the secular market since 2006, and I didn’t just wake up one morning and decide to switch over to Christian fiction. I’ve always felt that I should use my skills, such as they are, in a positive way, but after my awakening the urge to take the writing further toward this goal increased dramatically. I’ve spent numerous hours praying about it. The message I keep receiving is that I should try to reach people, including those who have lost their faith, or never had it to begin with, and, the way I see it, in order to do that I would have to write outside the currently defined Christian market.

With this discussion, names such as C.S. Lewis, Madeleine L ‘ Engle, and J.R.R. Tolkien often come up as writers who are considered by some as Christian authors whose work falls outside the current guidelines of the genre, if that term can be appropriately applied here. I love Tolkien’s work, but I must admit it’s a stretch for me to think of it as Christian fiction. In his writing, good does triumph over evil. However, the same could be said about J.K. Rowling with her Harry Potter series, which leads to some interesting things I’ve run across.

Rowling’s first Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was based in part on the life of a real person.

More on this in the next post.  

Twisted Perception Blog Post number 5

Chapter Two

As soon as Detective Kenny Elliot stepped out of his car, he knew he’d slowed, stumbled somewhere along the way, for it had finally caught up with him, and like a twenty-nine-year-old boxer who grows old in the third round of a title fight, he would never be the same. It was what he saw in the vehicle, a late model Mercedes left beside a trash dumpster. It was in the parking lot of the Village at Central Park, a bunch of upscale, newly constructed condominiums just off Peoria Avenue.

Elliot silently cursed Captain Dombrowski for dragging him into this on his day off. It’d been 6:00 a.m. when the phone rang, and Elliot had come out of his sleep in a fit, fighting to rid himself of the bed sheets that trapped his legs and torso like some kind of malignant ivy. He hadn’t been sleeping well. It was the dreams; they’d started again. They’d become intense, occurring more frequently and leaving in their wake unsettling thoughts that rambled through his head—burdensome notions that something wasn’t quite right in his world, a problem just below the surface that he couldn’t quite drag into consciousness.

Elliot had a pretty good idea why Dombrowski had called. Cunningham was on vacation somewhere in Montana and Mendez was out with the flu, but there were other detectives. Obviously, Dombrowski knew there would be more to it than a simple homicide, if “simple” can be used when talking about deliberate death. An informal understanding had begun to develop inside the department. Dombrowski had an instinct about unusual cases, knowing which ones would deviate from the norm, and Elliot had a knack for solving them.

Elliot approached the Mercedes, a knot forming in his gut, his usual calm behavior displaced by his progress like the smooth surface of a pond disrupted by gas bubbles escaping from something vile hidden beneath its depths. An image of Carmen Garcia blossomed in his mind.

Don’t do this, Kenny. We can work it out.

He thought about the report. He couldn’t write it up indicating the suspect was a ghost, an unseen demon, but as he approached the Mercedes that thought vibrated through his head. Then, as he drew near and confirmed that it was indeed a necklace dangling from the inside mirror, his legs nearly gave way and for a moment his thoughts were in another time and place.