​I know that for most of its history, Halloween has been a popular "holiday-that’s-not-an-official-holiday." It is recognized for many reasons, not least of which is children (of all ages) dressing up as whatever they desire and associating a sense of fun with varying degrees of dark, horror and even macabre themes. Little of it is meant to be taken seriously. I remember it well, as I celebrated Halloween from childhood through my late teens.

Before I proceed, I want to make it clear that I have nothing against anyone who engages in Halloween festivities. That is an individual decision and it means different things to different people. Consider the rest of what I’ve written here food for thought.

I stopped participating in Halloween when I became a Christian in 1996. I know that some believers still do  celebrate the occasion; that’s their choice. However, I did not change my mind about it just because of my faith. As time has passed, I’ve come to better comprehend what Halloween accomplishes: it gives people a reason to play with something that many of them either do not truly believe in or understand -- the Spirit World.

Imagery of and costumes evoking ghosts, goblins, vampires, werewolves and murdering ghouls (whether zombies or deranged psychopaths) are fair game for a day. Far from angels, these things actually represent demons. But since people see them as fictitious, they’re harmless, right? Isn’t it just make-believe?

And what about people who dress up as superheroes, other heroic characters or some cartoon character? Is it okay to dress up as a TV/movie character that has nothing to do with horror? Where’s the harm?

​If one is celebrating Halloween in any form, it is giving silent acceptance to all of Halloween, including the harmful and evil representations.

Presently, many people do not believe in spirits -- or anything they can’t identify with their five senses. That’s understandable from the society we live in. We are used to instant access to plenty of things we can experience through our mobile devices, computers or in-person. 

But we all have faith. I’m not talking about religious or spiritual faith. I’m talking about believing in something. It could be family, friends, education, politics, science, entertainment, social justice or any number of other areas. One has to have faith to trust in anything. And we can’t see faith, we only experience it.

There’s literally a universe worth of things we don’t know, realize or understand yet. No matter how long we live, as individuals or as humanity itself, we will always be learning. We cannot see gravity but it’s what keeps us from floating away into the cosmos. With rare exceptions, we can’t see the wind; we can only see its effects.

All that said, I will state that we live in a dual universe: one physical and one spiritual - both inhabiting the same reality. We are alive both biologically and because we have living souls. When we are conceived, our bodies are biologically created and our souls enter in to occupy them. When we die, our bodies cease to function and our souls leave them.

Likewise, as we walk this Earth, we see people, animals, vegetation, land, water, sky and all things constructed. But occupying the same space are other things, spiritual in nature. There are angels and demons, incredible wonders and unspeakable terrors. Most of it is beyond our ability to comprehend. Still, it exists.

As a teen, I walked between both worlds in ignorance. It’s something I’m not ready to expound on, as such matters are not easily shared. Most would probably find it unbelievable. But it occurred. I’m grateful that the Lord Himself had mercy on me. He allowed me to break free of that ordeal. Someday, I will properly write or speak of it.

Today, I see Halloween as linked with all the darkness and wickedness I left behind. I truly believe that most people don’t see the fullness of what they’re associating with in Halloween. They think it’s harmless fun. I saw its true face and I wouldn’t wish that on anyone. 

By 1996, the Lord led me down a path to Salvation. My own changed life is a witness to God’s power. As an adult, I have seen and experienced miracles.

​There is no comparison between the Dark and the Light. The Dark can seem  attractive. It has things to offer and there’s a power behind it. But the Light has already conquered it. There is hope and peace in God’s perfect light through His Son, Jesus Christ.

No matter how you feel about the opinions I’ve expressed here, I thank you for reading this.

Below is to my interview on The Authors Show podcast. During these fifteen minutes, I discussed MINDFIRE and my perspective as an author.

So, my first book signing went well! It happened on Saturday, August 31, 2019 at the Barnes & Noble at the Arboretum in North Austin, Texas.

My wife and I answered questions about both Mindfire and Jordan's World. We sold numerous copies of each book and I signed them. We were there for about four hours. The customers and store staff were wonderful. We had a great time and it was an awesome learning experience.

I look forward to doing more of these in the future!

I don't have a release date on the second book in the Jordan of Algoran series but I should know something soon. In the meantime, here is the cover to Jordan's Arrow!

I have been invited to Barnes & Noble in Austin, Texas to hold my very first book signing event! It will be held on Saturday, August 31, 2019 in the Arboretum location of Barnes &Noble. That is located at the following address:

10000 Research Blvd #158
Austin, TX 78759

You can call them for more information at 512-418-8985.

The event has also been placed on that B&N store's website HERE!

​I will be representing both Jordan's World and Mindfire at this event. Please join me there, I'm really looking forward to this! I'd love to meet you and sign your copy of my books.

To begin with, I want to thank Allen for the opportunity to come onto his blog and share about Bane of Ashkarith. He and I had a great conversation about writing and how being a Christian coincides with writing fiction. I’m glad we had the opportunity to connect, and I look forward to reading more of his work. I’ve already started Mindfire, and I’m liking it even though I’m not a big superhero fan. Needless to say, I’ll be looking at some of his other works too.

As far the questions and answers go, I’m going to answer some of the key questions I’ve been asked about Bane of Ashkarith and about myself as an author. I also have a few things Allen asked me to include specifically since they’re interesting points for the novel and about me as a Christian author. So, let’s start with those points.

Q: What are the deities in Bane of Ashkarith and how do you reconcile your faith with having systems of gods or goddesses in your work?

A: Great question! With Bane of Ashkarith, the deities aren’t deities in the traditional sense. They’re beings from another universe and the first creations of those beings. All of them are long dead and gone, though they did have really long lifespans. When it comes to reconciling my faith with systems of gods or goddesses in my work, I usually stick to a set of rules for those.

First, the gods or goddesses are typically not actual deities. They’re usually people with long lifespans and supernatural abilities and magic. Secondly, these so-called deities don’t directly impact anything in society once they’re gone since they aren’t actual gods. Any impact they have is only through what they did during their lives and the ramifications of it.

They serve more as a cultural addition to make the world come alive in a more realistic way than anything. After all, people have beliefs no matter where you go, right or not. So, it makes sense that cultures on another world would to, even if they aren’t true.

Q: How does Bane of Ashkarith fit into the rest of the series in the Alcardian Universe?

A: Bane of Ashkarith is the first in the Legends of Alcardia series. It and the other books in the series take place at varying points in Alcardian history before the events of the main series, Annals of Alcardia. For Bane of Ashkarith in particular, the book takes place roughly seven-hundred years prior to the events of Pathway of the Moon, the first in the Annals of Alcardia series.

Q: How did you handle planning and world-building to allow for so many connections between the worlds and the various series you’ve written?

A: The short answer? A lot of careful thought and note-taking. Seriously, though, that’s exactly how I did it. I thought through all the places I wanted to take the various novels and the series they went with, and then I figured out how they all fit together. I built a timeline too so that I’d know which worlds started when and how.

Q: How did you give your worlds a sense of cohesiveness as you started pulling together the clues and threads leading to the connections you plotted out?

A: This one is two-fold. First, I created an overall system for the connections that would allow for a logical overlap between the universes. Many of the worlds I’ve created aren’t even in the same universe, so that required me to find a way to jump the hurdles the distance provided. The second thing I did after I had the system was to create a shared history. This included both the history for the race that created the Gates or Pathways that made inter-universe travel possible and a history that would lead to the connections between characters in various universes.

To accomplish that, I used the villain from Bane of Ashkarith. Sedra doesn’t make too much of an appearance in the book, but she’s a common theme throughout all the Alcardian novels because she’s the goddess of the main religion. Not that she deserved the devotion she got, but that’s another story. She offered me a way to connect the worlds’ history and continue it forward since she came from a planet in one of the universes where the series, Chronicles of Eclesia, takes place. The story of how she ended up on Alcardia and where she ended up after, causing trouble everywhere she went with her crazed experiments, forms a thread that ends right back where it began on her home planet. And with that thread, I was able to connect the worlds and their histories in unexpected ways.

Q: How do you weave that kind of extensive world-building into your stories?

A: This requires a lot of planning and thought. It’s easy to slip in a new creature from a world here and there or use words from languages I’ve built within a context where readers can easily figure out what the new object is. But including the vast history and the clues necessary to let astute readers figure out how things connect before they actually do is much harder. I’m not always sure I’ve managed it, but it usually involves dropping brief mentions of something that will come into play much later down the road or showing a brief glimpse of a character crossover without really spending any time on it.

Other times, it’s more obvious than that. Prophecies and the curses that sometimes accompany them make for good ways to give some of that foreshadowing. Other times, characters who can see the future may not write it down as a prophecy but may instead directly share what they’ve seen. Overall, though, it’s a great deal of work and planning. Despite that, it’s one of my favorite things about writing within the worlds I’ve created, and I know at least some readers get excited about hunting for the clues to those connections.

Q: Where did you start writing?

A: I started when I was pretty young. As a kid, I loved drawing and writing, so my mother would have me work with the Draw Write Now books to combine my love of drawing with writing. Mostly, she did it to improve my handwriting and to keep me busy, but it got me started on the writing side of things.

Q: What sparked your interest in writing?

A: The thing that really solidified my desire to start writing was my dad. He used to tell me and my younger siblings stories that he made up on the spot for us while we waited in the car for my mom to run errands on a Sunday or while we waited to be seated in a restaurant. I loved hearing his stories. He always told the best tales, and they usually contained some fantastical element, whether it was two children finding a secret portal in the roots of a tree or a hero fighting a dragon. That combined with listening to him read or reading on my own sparked my own desire to write.

Q: With the release of Bane of Ashkarith, where are you headed next in terms of publishing?

A: I’m currently working on a major revision to my first published work, In Darkness Lost. This fantasy novel is one of the ones meant specifically for younger children and teens. The plan is to pre-release it sometime at the beginning of September and then release the book itself at the end of November. With that done, the next goal is to finish up and release the first book in the Chronicles of Eclesia since it occurs in the cosmic timeline before Pathway of the Moon and about fifty years after Bane of Ashkarith.
 
Here is the Bane of Ashkarith synopsis:
Kaidan Tadegan is working on a new site trying to prove the myth that two armies of the gods clashed there. While on the dig site, he discovers the evidence he's looking for, but he gets more than he bargained for when he discovers a woman's bones in a section of the dig site where no other remains have been found.
As he digs the bones out, he discovers a journal with the woman's body, which tells a story that, if true, will turn the myths of the old world and the established concepts of good and evil on their heads. Startled by the find, Kaidan sets out to discover whether the diary's claims have any validity.

But when the diary leads to a city that's supposedly long gone, Kaidan's journey becomes more difficult than expected. Things become even more tangled when he discovers that the city isn't gone, but it's no place for the living.

Unable to give up on his quest, he forges ahead. What lies ahead is uncertain, and even more uncertain is whether Kaidan will survive this quest. He has only two questions in his mind. Will he find the truth in this city of the dead? And will the world accept the truth?

Buy links for Bane of Ashkarith:
Pre-order on Kobo
Pre-order on Amazon