Author: deborahlagarde

Born on Long Island, NY, in 1952, now live in the mountains of far west Texas. Began writing fiction stories at about 8 years old with pen and loose leaf paper, and created the characters in my Prodigal Band Trilogy as a teenager. From the 70s to the 90s I created the scenario which I believe was inspired. While bringing up and home schooling my two children I continued to work on the novels and published "Battle of the Band" in 1996 and "The Prophesied Band" in 1998. Took off the next several years to complete home schooling and also working as an office manager for the local POA. In 2016, I retired, then resumed The Prodigal Band, a FREE PDF book that tells the whole story to its glorious end. Hint: I'm a true believer in Christ and I'm on a mission from God, writing to future believers, not preaching to the choir. God gave me a talent and, like the band in my books, I am using that talent for His glory, not mine (and, like me, the band is on its own journey, only fictional.) I also wrote for my college newspaper and headed up production, was a columnist in a local newspaper in the early 2000s, and wrote for and edited "Log of the Trail," the news letter for the Texas Mountain Trail Writers, and wrote for and edited it's yearly catalog of writings, "Chaos West of the Pecos." OmegaBooks is my self-publishing sole proprietorship company founded in 1995. Other jobs included teaching secondary math, health aide, office worker, assembly line work, and free-lance writing and bookkeeping,much of it while home schooling.

A Future Novel? Hmmmmmm….

It has been a few weeks since my last post, but that is because I have not been able to decide what the next post would be—another snippet post, or something completely different?

This will be something different, because over the last couple of weeks (while busy with other stuff), thoughts or inspirations have entered my mind regarding a possible new novel, but related to previous novels (most likely, another spin-off of The Prodigal Band Trilogy, as The Murder Rule is).

After completing the third novel in the trilogy, The Prodigal Band, I considered writing an “aftermath” type novel explaining what happens after the climactic events of this novel—after the band rescues keyboard-synthist Bry’s wife Mo from the evil satanically possessed Mark Besst who was about to impale her, the satan-figure, Corion, captures Besst within the evil red crystal the evil one uses to capture human souls. Further, the good spirit being used by God’s angels, the Tooters, called Morwenna, returns “home” to heaven, her missions having been accomplished, as she lets her employers, singer Erik and his wife, Ger, know via a note she left for them.

But, then what? Is there more to this story? The narrator of this novel, pop culture pundit Lloyd Denholm, surmises at the end of the novel that the prodigal band members, given “missions of God” by the Tooters, will complete their missions and spend eternity in Heaven, being “good and faithful servants.”

Thus, I have been thinking how this “aftermath” plays out. The six band members complete their missions, and pass on at some point, souls in Heaven. However, what is Heaven really like? Is it that “void” I’ve had them in, a white, timeless, soundless, sight-less, void that contains “dots” or “lines” as they move through the void? (Note: refer to Chapter Eleven of The Prodigal Band.) The Bible mentions “streets of gold,” “crystal seas,” and other beauty, but still…what does it look like for sure? What does God look like…after all, the Book of Genesis says God made man in His—actually, “our” image—while the Gospel of John Chapter One says “the Word” (Christ) was with God and was God. Thus “our” image…but still, what do these “images” look like? What does the Judgment Seat (Book of Revelation) look like? What does the “accuser,” Satan, look like…and does he have “devil horns”?

The other possibility is an “aftermath” predicting the “end times” narrated by one of the novel characters, possibly one from The Murder Rule, with a scenario of how the next few years historically and spiritually plays out, for we do seem to be entering what looks to be very dangerous times, wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes in diverse places…for instance, several in my area north of here, possibly due to oil fracking (after all, north of me is the Permian Basin, where the oil producing industry is huge, likely the largest in the US). And all those preachers predicting end-times events (such as the timing of ‘the rapture,’ and more…only God knows, right?).

So that, hopefully soon, I will be inspired, somehow, to begin writing the next novel, for it seems to me that time is getting short.

Use the menu above to read snippet posts of the novels, download the FREE PDF The Prodigal Band as well as the FREE PDF The Murder Rule, and more. Cheers!

Happy Resurrection Day, Easter, Passover…Call It What You Will

Or what God wills…

This will be a short post, but I wanted to tell the reader the message in the title of this post. Because the message really is this: look to the Man who died on the cross and then rose from the dead for salvation, in a world where any other salvation is hard to find, where depression is rampant, where sickness abounds, and where there are many who need a guiding hand. Where politics seems to screw everything up, because politics will not save you. US president Trump is doing some good things…seems all presidents and national leaders do some good things, but they also do bad or wrong things and maybe a wrong spirit is guiding them. A fanaticism, and religious fanaticism is part of that as well. That’s one reason I do not support “Christian nationalism.” And was our Lord and Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ political? He was anything but! That could be a reason Roman governor Pontius Pilate found no wrong in Him, but King Herod and the religious leaders of the day, the Sanhedrin Pharisees and Sadducees, found lots of wrong in Him…which was why He was crucified instead of rebel leader Barabbas.

I will pray for the readers of this post and any other post on this site, and I will pray for anyone who has bought and/or read any of my novels, as well as the “guide for Christian authors,” Talent for a Mission, which I have posted chapter-by-chapter on this site.

Of course, I have my doubts as to the righteousness of the national, state, and local governing bodies, executive, legislative, or judicial, for corruption is rampant, but I will pray for these folks anyway.

And the media as well, the same media that is pushing the notion that Trump will go to war with Iran even though he is supposedly meeting with Iranian officials. War with Iran? God forbid! We’ve lost only God knows how many young men in these God awful wars for no reason other than to enrich the military-industrial complex. Some in the media say Trump will go to war against Iran on behalf of Israel, Iran’s main enemy.

My opinion? If Israel wants war with Iran, let them go to war with Iran, and leave us Americans out of it! They don’t need us, and they have nukes. And, oh yeah…the memory of what Israel did to the USS Liberty in 1967, murdering 34 American sailors and admitting this crime in their media in 2011 (while the US govt. continues to cover this up…I guess this truth is “antisemitic”….) And, while I cannot support Iran’s theocratic radical Shiite Muslim govt. which persecutes Christians there, guess what? Iran, due to its theocracy and persecution, is turning to Christ! Underground, of course, and the same with North Korea. Would be nice if Israel did as well, but those Talmudic extremists have too much fun spitting on Christians…and not just Palestinians ones, either… Go to former Israeli-now-American Jewish extremist-turned-Christian Stephen Ben Nun at his YouTube Israeli News Live channel for proof of this. And regarding Israel, I pray that these folks and especially their far-right govt. turn from their Talmudic anti-Christ ways and seek His salvation…and all the world doing the same thing!

So, Happy Resurrection Day…or Easter…or Passover…and blessings to you and yours!

The Influence That the Prodigal Band’s Women Had in the Repentance of the Prodigal Band, Part Five: More of the Likely Conversion of the Band’s Wives, Continued

As stated in the previous post, Part Four of the influence that the band’s women had in the repentance of the band and accepting Christ as Savior, this post features snippets where synthist Bry’s wife Mo has her say in this influence and also guitarist-producer Mick and drummer Tom discuss this issue. The snippets, also from Chapter Ten of The Prodigal Band, © 2018 Deborah Lagarde, are below.

Meanwhile, walking along Altuna Beach near Jack’s in the moonlight

“Are you still queer, Mick?” Tom asked.

“No.”

The drummer and guitarist planned to leave for their respective homes the next morning.

“We all have a lot of things we need to ask forgiveness for.” Mick stared straight ahead. “Not just me, you know.”

“I know that, but some sins are harder to deal with than others.” Looked at Mick who was still staring ahead. “And mine is thinking I’ve committed fewer sins than the rest of you.”

Pordengreau stopped. “Really, Tom? I think each of our sins are equally bad. That’s because most of our sins were against ourselves.”

“Yeh, but the greatest sin was us thinking we were gods and being idols to millions. I’ve glanced through the Bible from time to time, and the sin God really hated the most was when people worshiped other gods. I mean, whole nations were destroyed because of it.”

“You really, really think even one of our fans actually worshiped us? And even if they did, that’s their problem, not ours.”

“Mick, Mick, Mick, we promoted ourselves as ‘the greatest band ever.’ If that’s not actually promoting ourselves as gods, it’s pretty bloody close. I’d say close enough to incur the wrath of God.”

“What ‘wrath of God’? Don’t you think that would have happened by now?”

“The crisis Mick, remember?”

The other rolled his eyes. “For bloody sake, we got through that one, eh, without death and destruction. In fact,” Mick got in Tom’s face, “why would God give us a mission if he thought we were some kind of abomination?”

Tom thought a minute.

“I think we were close to becoming something close to the worst thing, but because through all the ‘greatest band ever’ shit, we kept our perspective. Every time it looked like we’d act like gods, we did something to screw that up. At the height of our fame and fortune, we went into seclusion and then everything went to hell.”

“Yeh, Tom,” Mick sighed, “but we still have a lot to answer for.”

Then Tom stopped though Mick walked straight ahead. “Yeh, but I have a question that needs answering now.”

Yet Mick, though hearing him, kept on walking, not wanting to hear it.

“And that question is,” Tom went on, “are we really doing this mission or are we just gonna go through the motions?”

No answer.

The following morning, at the McClellan ranch house, Texas

Mo McClellan strolled out of the ranch house to meet Bry, who was exiting the SUV he’d driven home from the airport.

“How was it?”

He slammed the door. “It sucked, actually. But we did get the song.” Sarcastic grunt.

Wonderful, she thought as he briskly passed her by. Followed him into the house where she saw him thrash the overnight bag onto the leather couch halfway across the thousand-square-foot living room, nearly knocking over a spittoon.

“Guess what, Mo?” he yelled out in disgust. “Now we’re gonna have to be Jesus freaks.” Another grunt. “Let’s see now,” knocking over furniture, bounding to the bag that he was preparing to toss into the nearest hallway, “we’ve gone from totally irreligious to pagan religion to heretics to ‘unless we accept Christ as our Savior we have no business doing this song that we have to do because some stupid statue gave us a mission of God and some stupid witch told us to do the song as part of the mission.”

“Bry—” Mo tried to calm him.

“And the rest of the band is in denial. They’re all thinking of ways to get on with this mission without having to become Christian. They,” turning to face Mo, “they really think that it’s okay to do a song that just might convert a few million fans to Christianity, and not do it themselves. Do you know what that makes us?”

Mo answered, half in jest, “Hypocrites?”

“Right.” Bry then stomped over to another couch and flung himself on it. “I mean, the whole trip sucked. We were hiking up this trail to Bobby’s, and the first thing you know Erik collapses from exhaustion. What a weakling! So Bobby has to bring him up in a four-wheeler—well, actually, he brought us all up!” Laughs. “There we are, six of the richest guys on the planet, and none of us in shape. None of us is healthy enough to make a one mile hike at an altitude of about six thousand feet. We might as well be Chinese Empress Dowagers being hauled around in a litter all day!” Another loud laugh as he threw his arms out to her. “We are such bloody fat cats, eh?”

She sat down opposite him, holding back a laugh of irony.

“So we get to his place, dying of thirst, and he tells us a witch—oh, and, by the way, that witch is now working for Ger.”

”Morwenna? A witch?” Mo was more shocked than surprised.

“Right. Morwenna. She told him to get his song to us any way he could do it, and that we have to perform this song as part of our so-called mission, which we agreed to do. Erik—who may have had a slight heart attack on the hike yesterday for bloody sake—says he really wants to do it, but he for one doesn’t sound like he’s converting to Christianity any time soon. And neither is anyone else in the band. I don’t want to, either, but at least I don’t think we can get by not doing it.”

All Mo could say was, “Then you do have a problem, eh?”

“Yeh,” he smirked, then went upstairs to the master bedroom, thinking. It’s gonna take an act of God to get us to believe.

The next post is undecided, and when it will be posted is also undecided, but I hope I have something to post before Easter, aka Resurrection Day, April 20.

Use the menu above to read snippet posts of the novels, download the FREE PDF The Prodigal Band as well as the FREE PDF The Murder Rule, and more. Cheers!

The Influence That the Prodigal Band’s Women Had in the Repentance of the Prodigal Band, Part Four: The Likely Conversion of the Band’s Wives Continues

The previous snippet post from Chapter Ten of The Prodigal Band features singer Erik’s wife Ger admitting to accepting Christ as Savior. The novel does not state that the other women converted, but it can be implied that they have considered it, what with them trying to get their men to fully accept Christ to do their ‘missions of God.’ The snippet post below, also from Chapter Ten, begins with the ending of the previous post, with Ger telling Erik she has accepted Christ. This is after he and the rest of the band return from a trip to now-Christian Bobby, a former band roadie and occultic cult member, who had composed a song for the band to help them begin their missions, called “He is the Way.” He being Christ.

Continue reading “The Influence That the Prodigal Band’s Women Had in the Repentance of the Prodigal Band, Part Four: The Likely Conversion of the Band’s Wives Continues”

The Influence That the Prodigal Band’s Women Had in the Repentance of the Prodigal Band, Part Three: The Conversion of the Band’s Wives Begins

As stated in the previous post, the conversions of the wives of the members of the prodigal band begins in Chapter Ten of The Prodigal Band with Morwenna, formerly a Godly spirit being, now human, influencing the women to accept Christ. This begins with singer Erik’s wife, Ger, who had hired Morwenna as her personal assistant. While Erik (as well as the rest of the band) was away meeting with a former roadie who composed a song for the band to perform, Morwenna is meeting with Ger after she and the rest of the band’s women had met in the atrium of Ger’s estate, as posted in the previous post, Part Two. The snippet related to this is below:

Continue reading “The Influence That the Prodigal Band’s Women Had in the Repentance of the Prodigal Band, Part Three: The Conversion of the Band’s Wives Begins”

The Influence That the Prodigal Band’s Women Had in the Repentance of the Prodigal Band, Part Two: The Prodigal Band’s Women Consider Accepting Belief on Christ

Before I can post how the band’s women began considering believing on Christ, since their men were given ‘missions of God’ by God’s angels during the final singing note from a song those same angels gave them years before, I must remind the reader of the circumstances surrounding these missions given to the band members as well as how the singer of that note reacted to being given his mission during a conversation with pop culture pundits Jay Elliot (narrator of the first two novels of the trilogy, Battel of the Band and The Prophesied Band) and Lloyd Denholm, narrator of the third novel, The Prodigal Band. All snippets in this post are from The Prodigal Band, © 2018 by Deborah Lagarde.

The short snippet below, from Chapter Seven, relates to the local music festival finale early Sunday morning, July 16, 2000, when God’s angels, the Tooters, spoke to each prodigal band member what would become their individual ‘mission of God’ as singer Erik sang the mission song’s final note.

Continue reading “The Influence That the Prodigal Band’s Women Had in the Repentance of the Prodigal Band, Part Two: The Prodigal Band’s Women Consider Accepting Belief on Christ”

The Influence That the Prodigal Band’s Women Had in the Repentance of the Prodigal Band, Part One: Princess Tina’s Reference to Her Secret Lover, Drummer Tom, About Reading the Bible

This new series of posts deals with how the prodigal band members’ women, whether wives or lovers, influenced the band members to consider repenting of their sinful and debauched lifestyles, giving up “toeing the line of the masters of the music industry,” and ultimately, turning to Christ and the forces of Good, renouncing the forces of evil. This Part One post features prodigal band drummer Tom and his lover and future wife, Princess Tina, a member of a royal family within the fictitious principality of Leandro, set within Italy.

At a secret meeting between Princess Tina, who was forced to marry the evil Duke of Effingchester, but who loves band drummer Tom, Tina informs Tom that her husband and others are meeting with band guitarist and recording producer Mick, who also heads the band’s indie record label, Foray. They wanted to get Mick and the band to sell the record label to one of them. Tom believes that if the label is sold to one of them and controlled by the conglomerate he owns, the band would then be a ‘slave’ to the owner of the conglomerate and would have to produce music the owner demands instead of producing what they choose to produce. The meeting takes place at a London park in the summer of 1999. From Chapter Seven of The Prophesied Band, copyright © 1998 Deborah Lagarde). The snippet is below:

Continue reading “The Influence That the Prodigal Band’s Women Had in the Repentance of the Prodigal Band, Part One: Princess Tina’s Reference to Her Secret Lover, Drummer Tom, About Reading the Bible”

When Reality Gets in the Way: Too Busy to Post What I was Going to Post

One never knows what events one will have to deal with while planning to post a new set of posts related to my novels. The new posts would have been about how the prodigal band’s women influenced their decisions to repent of their debauched lifestyles and take the ‘salvation through Christ’ route. Or maybe a more Bible-oriented post.

But reality and real events got in the way…

I had not stated in the previous post when the next post would appear and had said I would be “away from computer” for the holiday season and likely after that as well. And I was correct in my predictions.

The previous post on December 18, 2024 was posted on the exact day my son and his family including three grandkids came out to see us, as would our daughter and her fiance`. Shortly after that I developed a sinus infection; I even missed the Christmas service since I did not want to make anyone sick. Then in early January, hubby and I flew to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to purchase a used vehicle that we had to get….to go on a camping and fishing trip with our son in deep south Texas near the Gulf of Mexico. Never mind that it was much cooler than usual and rainy at times. But I did catch couple of fish; I had not gone fishing in almost fifteen years! I had forgotten how to cast the fishing line! This trip lasted over a week. I got back home a couple of days ago. Such that over a period of about a month (30 days) I was “away from computer” more than I was not “away from computer”!

Next week a huge “arctic blast” is heading toward us here in far west Texas–temps reaching low ‘teens at night and highs in low 40s…a “big freeze” of sorts and hopefully the power stays on so our water pipes don’t break. So, hopefully, I will get to post sometime next week…and then a trip to El Paso to get my own twenty-year-old vehicle fixed…

Use the menu above to download the FREE PDF The Prodigal Band, buy any or all the trilogy novels using the Bookstore link, or visit any of the snippet posts, character posts, or any other posts in the menu above. Cheers!

The Importance of Using Fiction to Tell the Truth and Expose Evil

This post will likely be the only December post, for the Christmas holidays are coming and I will be away from computer for most of these days and afterwards as well.

I have written and posted four articles over the last few years related to using fiction to tell the truth and expose evil, as using fiction will less likely bring about the kind of censorship and level of censorship that is rife these days. While using non-fiction seems to make more sense for empowering the truth about what is happening in the world today, the doers of this evil rife in the world today, the deceivers, the scoundrels, and the ‘woke’ crowd that gaslight, bully, and turn against the truth-tellers, will do whatever is necessary to stop the truth-tellers that use non-fiction. It is likely harder for these evil doers to prevent fiction writers from exposing evil while telling the truth because, after all, it’s “fiction,” right? But here’s the thing—truth is NOT FICTION! Even if the truth is within fiction!

Continue reading “The Importance of Using Fiction to Tell the Truth and Expose Evil”

The Prodigal Band’s ‘Missions of God’: Snippets On How the Prodigal Band Carries Them Out (Part Six): Keyboard-Synthist Bryan’s Mission (Part B)

During the final singing note of the final song at daybreak at the local music festival mentioned in the previous post, keyboard-synthist Bryan McClellan was given two separate missions by God’s angels, the Tooters. The first one given was to preach to bikers to consider accepting Christ as Lord and Savior, which was featured in the previous post, Part A. The second mission is more complicated and more difficult to deal with as it concerns a loved one, his wife, Mo, whom he had been trying to take back from the New Age cult leader she was living with along with their three sons, and was with the day before the concert ended as agreed to get back together again. Below is his missions, from Chapter Ten of The Prophesied Band © 1998 Deborah Lagarde:

Just as Tooter Two instructed Keith to lead the working and gang youth, the angel told Bry to lead the bikers and free-spirits, then added what the bulky synthist wanted to hear. “Further, only you can deliver your only love from the hand of Evil.”

McClellan smiled as he thought, “So you want me to get Mo away from Cole Blessing? That’s easy enough now.”

“No, Redbeard. Compared to what the others have to do, your mission is the toughest, because you will be pitted directly against the harbinger of sin. Don’t even think he will let you take his number one disciple from him. I just hope you are made strong enough to handle this vilest spirit.”

So that, while he had won her back, he was told that the evil forces that would inhabit another person as the satanic Corion would take over a third person after having murdered both Swami Negran and then Cole Blessing (whom had taken her from Bry and who would be ‘taken’ by Corion as the song mentioned above was concluding). This third person featured in the final trilogy novel, The Prodigal Band (© 2018 Deborah Lagarde), is named Mark Besst and is a tech mogul as well as the new leader of the Circle of Unity cult Swami had founded and previously led by Blessing, a fake physician healer.

Continue reading “The Prodigal Band’s ‘Missions of God’: Snippets On How the Prodigal Band Carries Them Out (Part Six): Keyboard-Synthist Bryan’s Mission (Part B)”