writing experience – OmegaBooks

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!

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!

Leaving Spiritual Emptiness Behind: Another Reason I Was Inspired to Author The Prodigal Band Trilogy Novels

Happy Resurrection Day, aka Easter. And sorry, trannies, I am not honoring Brandon’s “Transgender Day” or whatever he’s calling it… I do Christ, not politics!

But in honor of my Lord and Savior and Redeemer’s arising from the dead or grave days after His crucifixion and burial, I will state another reason I was inspired to write the three novels that make up The Prodigal Band Trilogy. Having been laid spiritually empty on some occasions beginning in the early 70s when I was trying to ‘find myself,’ and also having experienced some spiritual emptiness in the 90s (dealing with New Agers had something to do with that), I had to incorporate spiritual emptiness within my main characters—the band members as well as their women—because they had to overcome this spiritual emptiness as I was overcoming it. Thus, the novels aren’t just about the journey of the band and women out of spiritual satanic-like darkness into the Light of Christ based on the Gospel of Luke Chapter 15 Parable of the Prodigal Son, but are also based on my own journey from spiritual emptiness to spiritual fulfillment and happiness and without fear (think of that line from Dune here: “fear is the mind killer.” © 1965 Herbert Properties LLC).

I do not remember the exact date some spiritual entity ‘spoke’ into my mind that I had to begin the novel series—get the characters I had created in the late 60s out of my head at last—but it was in October, and I think the year was 1993. So, while mothering a baby girl and also raising a toddler boy, I began writing what I knew of the story of my rock band characters. But, as I was writing the book that would later be called Battle of the Band, I realized the plot and theme were, well, spiritually empty! Yes, they were into the ‘sex, drugs, and rock and roll’ lifestyle, but that rock star lifestyle would, by the mid-90s, drag them and their women as well into addictions, alcoholism, sexual perversion, and personalities that were empty shells of their former selves. In other words, spiritual emptiness and even suicidal behavior. The climax to end the novel has two of the band members nearly dying of heart attacks as the rest of the band and women live in fear of their passing—until God’s spirit beings dispense with the evil ones and guide the two out of death spirals and guide also their watchers: the novel ends with them realizing they have to change their ‘riotous living’ ways! This event takes place in the second novel, The Prophesied Band, where, at the climax, they were given their ‘missions of God,’ because they were ready for these missions…well, almost. In The Prodigal Band to end the trilogy, they do ‘missions on themselves’ so-to-speak: they accept Christ as Lord and Savior, which guides them into completing their missions they were given. The spiritual emptiness had been overcome, first by witnessing and partaking in a miracle, and then later witnessing another life-saving miracle.

So that, in completing the trilogy, spiritual fulfillment took a hold of me beginning in late February, 1997, when I witnessed my own personal ‘shining’ so-to-speak, which inspired me to complete my own authoring ‘mission.’ That is why, on this day, Resurrection Day, I wish spiritual fulfillment on all who read this post. Blessings!

Putting Together The Murder Rule….and the Fun of It!

I am nearly finished with the final edit of The Murder Rule, and, when the edit and any other info that needs to be included is complete, it will become a downloadable FREE PDF and will also become copyright registered with the Library of Congress. That way, no AI mechanism can “re-write” this novel, and hackers, beware. When a literary work is registered with the Library of Congress, one can sue to copyright violator.

Update: The Murder Rule has been finalized and registered with the Library of Congress as a published work. The finished FREE PDF novel will be uploaded soon, and the menu above will link to where it can be downloaded.

There is some Biblical scripture in The Murder Rule, but the scripture is from the copyright-free Authorized King James Version, so no copyright violation issues there.

And another thing—a couple of parts of this novel have sections of previously copyrighted manuscripts; two parts are featured in Battle of the Band, and one part, Chapter Two of Part Three of The Murder Rule is (with some changes) featured in The Prodigal Band. This is already copyrighted material I have authored in the original trilogy novels, so I will have to mention this within The Murder Rule. After all, The Murder Rule is a “spin-off” novel from The Prodigal Band Trilogy novels. But since I own the copyright to these sections (most of which were revised somewhat in The Murder Rule), no issues there.

Let me explain why I chose certain “spin-off” scenarios from the trilogy when I could have chosen other parts.

Continue reading “Putting Together The Murder Rule….and the Fun of It!”

Why I Will Just Keep On Writing No Matter What: A Short Statement That is Part of My Mission to Promote Good and Expose Evil

Having just finished editing Part One of The Murder Rule, I am wondering about the course of action I should be heading toward after I finish editing the entire novel—just turn it into a FREE PDF? Just post it by chapters on this site? Post it on Kindle? And then what?

Further, while book sales are fine, I’m not really concerned about book sales, and, having reached well over one thousand downloads of the FREE PDF The Prodigal Band, I’m not really concerned about downloads either. Now, visits to this site have been down a bit lately, so I am wondering if some sort of censorship algorithm (or bots) are in play here, and the down-visits started right about the time I posted that post regarding ChatGPT, basically mocking the notion that some bot or even person would use ChatGPT to “re-write” my novels, which, BTW, are copyrighted and registered with the Library of Congress. Coincidence? After all, the so-called (Ephesians 6:12) “rulers of this world” and “wickedness in high places” don’t like the fact that Christ is my Lord and Savior and these evil forces do not want me to get this word out with the message that acceptance of this is by free choice and I would never force anyone to do this acceptance. But too bad. The forces of evil, spiritual or otherwise, are not stopping me.

And, having said that the forces of evil are not stopping me… One reason I am writing The Murder Rule is because I believe that the minions of the forces of evil—the evil governments and the evil leaders of them, oligarchies run by evil people who want to control you (which is why they crave money—control), leaders of evil ideologies (and I’m not just referring to ‘wokesters’ here…remember, the evil plays both sides using the “both sides of the same coin” control mechanism) —anyway, these evil leaders want to reduce the world’s populations as well as “transhumanize” us, as well as use the notion of transgender to confuse us, especially young people who may regret later their gender-changing “therapies,” as well as driving fear into our hearts and minds. And what better way to try to convince “the masses” that killing off millions of people is a ‘good idea’ than by murdering those opposed to their evil agenda or those who won’t toe their line or those who speak truth and spiritual goodness? (Example: think Tucker Carlson’s ‘dismissal’ from Fox News here, then ramp it up a few notches!) Thus, the whacked (or ‘dismissed’) truth-tellers cannot blog or video or report this evil to help the masses understand the truth so that the masses can resist the evil agenda and overcome the fear instilled in them.

But they have not “whacked” me yet, so I will continue to expose them, using fiction. After all, if George Orwell and Aldous Huxley and Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Kurt Vonnegut (“Harrison Bergeron” author) and others can do it…

Timeline Construction Within The Prodigal Band Trilogy

This post will not be a ‘snippet’ post, but a post about the creation of the three novels within The Prodigal Band Trilogy–the fact that this trilogy does not follow the usual timeline construct. Most trilogies have the first novel representing the beginning time period, and the time moves forward in line into the second novel and then ends the timeline within the third novel. This is how Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, as well as The Hunger Games trilogy and the Divergent trilogy are fashioned—beginning, middle, end. And many others as well…and also series novels such as J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series. The Prodigal Band Trilogy certainly does not follow that scenario!

The first novel, Battle of the Band, begins (after the ‘before time’ spiritual part) in 1986 and ends in 1996. The second novel, The Prophesied Band, begins in 1982 and ends in 2000. The third novel, The Prodigal Band, begins in 1976 and ends in 2004. So that while each novel itself starts in an earlier year and ends in a later year, the time frame is not continuous from the first novel to the third novel.

Before I state why this is the case let me say that I didn’t exactly plan it this way. The second novel was supposed to take up where the first one left off. But the first one didn’t play out as originally planned either, and the first book wasn’t even supposed to spearhead a trilogy.

Then an inspiration came to me to subtitle Battle of the Band with this subheading: The Saga of the Prodigal Band Begins (as can be seen on the original book cover). In other words, the ‘Parable of the Prodigal Son’ within Luke 15 of the Biblical New Testament had to seal this burgeoning trilogy’s fate, as the first part of this parable is about how the son takes his inheritance, leaves his father, goes far off into another country and spends the fortune on ‘riotous living,’ leaving him financially and spiritually destitute. While the prodigal band isn’t financially ruined they are ‘destitute’ spiritually but discover there is a way out of this ‘poverty.’ So I had to re-do the novel with this theme in mind, which changed pretty much everything, including the time frame construction.

When beginning the second novel, The Prophesied Band (subtitled The Saga of the Prodigal Band Continues…implying this would be the second book in a likely trilogy), I had to construct a scenario whereby the band in question, Sound Unltd, would be ‘the prophesied band.’ So I began this novel (after a spiritual part in what would be the prologue in the original book) with a rock band from the same city, Walltown, as the prodigal band, and the narrator, pop culture pundit Jay Elliot seeking that particular career upon high school graduation in 1982, interviews the creator of the song—which was given to him by angels called the Tooters for the purpose of ‘announcing’ a future band of prophecy. The band of prophecy that would carry out a ‘mission of God’ as the novel ends at a trade and music festival headlined by this prodigal band.

Thus the timeframe of the first novel is wrapped within the time frame of the second novel: 1986 to 1996 falls between 1982 and 2000, correct? Further, for the final novel, it made sense to begin that one in a year prior to 1982 and end it in a latter year after 2000.

The final novel was originally going to be called ‘Band of Glory,’ as indicated on the back pages of The Prophesied Band, which was supposed to have the subheading The Saga of the Prodigal Band Concludes. But that was not to be. If it would be called ‘Band of Glory,’ it would have to end in Heaven with God, somehow. But again, inspiration had other ideas…for one thing, what would happen to the entity allied with evil, Corion? And would the band, carrying out the mission given to them, deserve to be in Heaven? Would they stick to the Plan, so to speak? And what events would cause them to choose to stick with this Plan?

The Parable of the Prodigal Son ends with the errant son returning home to his father, feasting on ‘fatted calf’ and being ‘found.’ His brother, of course, questions the sincerity and worthiness of his ‘lost’ brother—just like many Christians today question the efficacy of a wealthy rock star even coming close to accepting Christ a Savior (since they are all ‘devil worshipers,’ right?). Thus, not only did I have to author a novel as to how and why the prodigal band converted to belief on Christ and carried out their missions, but I also had to explain how and why the band was even formed in the first place, including parental and otherwise guidance: how and why were these six band members able to develop such talent and songwriting abilities in the first place? Since these boys grew up beginning in the late 70s, that is why the third novel begins in 1976, into 1980 and 1982 and 1985, with two new band members. Aspects of the first part of the parable and then the second part where the band discovers the way forward into the final ‘found’ part are focused in the first six chapters of this third novel. The ‘way home’ final part of the parable is the focus of the rest of the third novel.

So, thanks to inspiration and keeping to a script based on a biblical parable, this time frame construct of The Prodigal Band Trilogy doesn’t follow ‘the usual trilogy script.’

The next post here will take place in a couple of weeks. Next week’s focus will be on updating my blog with links to newer snippet posts here, since I have not updated the blog in months and this blog is an easy way to link to posts here without constant scrolling down the site to find them. Plus the main menu here also needs updating somewhat. Plus I need to figure out a new ‘snippet category’ to ‘snippet’ about! And more…

Cheers!

My Interview Hosted by Esther Rabbit

Several months ago when the Corona Virus event began I had posted in a Goodreads comment on the Author-Reader Forum regarding ways authors could advertise their books for free, saying to post links to your book site on websites that would attract possible readers of the novels the author writes. Esther Rabbit, who is an author, mentor to indie authors, interviews authors of all kinds of novels and non-fiction books, and promotes indie author books on her Esther Rabbit site, asked me to choose seven interview questions from her site and answer the questions for an online-interview.

Here is the link to the interview. Enjoy!

Questions include how I came up with the books in the Prodigal Band Trilogy, the publishing history, the inspiration, as well as (to use author-speak) the ‘plotter vs. pantser’ issue…I am both, especially pantser. So that makes me a ‘plantser’!

When you go to the site you’ll see that funny-looking ‘old lady’ at the beginning…that’s me. I sent in a portion of a picture taken on my son’s cell phone. I do not have a cell phone and do not want one. I do not like being tracked and traced if you know what I mean–I am a very private person. And because I have no cell phone I have very few photos of myself, and I am 67 years old, that’s the best of the most recent photos I had access to. Believe me, I was not prepared for my son’s decision to take that photo! Hopefully that goofy looking lady in the picture does not discourage folks from reading the interview!

Thanks, Esther! Blessings!

Note: Esther also has a YouTube author-mentor channel and Goodreads channel as well.

Inspirations from Reality: Truth Snippets Within The Prodigal Band Trilogy–The Series

My original inspiration to author the books of The Prodigal Band Trilogy was divine, or divine inspiration, my ‘mission of God’ so to speak, a term I use within the novels. But that was not the only reason for the content of these books: Battle of the Band, The Prophesied Band, The Prodigal Band.

Through years of research into popular culture, various brainwashing programs based on eye-witness stories, New Age philosophy and cult practices–I’ve known several individuals who belonged to New Age cults as well as bogus Christian ones, and of course occult groups as well–effects of drug use on various rockers and others including overdoses leading to death or near-death, supposed ‘suicides’ by famous rockers that may or may not have been suicides and were perhaps even murders (the ‘27 Club’ and all that…and now famous young rappers also appear to be caught up in that)… And then there has been research into Satanism, the so-called ‘Illuminati’ and other evil groups in that the power these evil ideas have on popular culture especially these days with all the symbolism shown in VMA shows and whatnot…devil horns, eye-covering ‘one eye symbol’ photos that seem to be everywhere…and the various websites exposing this stuff. Seemingly what began as my research began in the late 60s before I even considered writing these novels is now the norm. Back in the 60s and 70s, it seemed a bit extreme. Yet the most popular bands of that era, and their handlers, may have set those occultic scenarios into motion. I know that because I, too, dabbled into the occult for a short time.

I will say this, however. Without the divine inspiration, my novels would likely have played out differently. The journey of my six-member band, the ‘prodigal band,’ would have ended up on a different course.

Beginning next week this series of reality events and truths that caused me to write what I wrote will be posted, one truth at a time.

And, while fiction is fiction, there is likely not one fiction novel of any genre or kind that has not been inspired by some real event or truth in the life of the author.

As to the picture at the top of this post–“pearls of wisdom,” so to speak.

Snippets of The Prodigal Band Trilogy: Comedy

Everyone has their definition of “comedy” because everyone has their own sense of humor and everyone has their own idea of what is “funny” and what isn’t, which could also include satire (which I will deal with later…in my opinion there is more satire than comedy in these three books that make up the trilogy.)

The first example also includes some slapstick…well, that’s my opinion anyway. This example is found in the final chapter of Battle of the Band and comes right before another category I just added to the series, Tragedy.

Continue reading “Snippets of The Prodigal Band Trilogy: Comedy”

The Prodigal Band Trilogy: The Why (Originally Posted on Blog in 2018 in Five Parts)

Read the rest here

For the original blog posts, they are here at the Blog.

Since Lulu.com is now in production mode of my “three-e-books-in-one” The Prodigal Band Trilogy, now is a good time to rehash “the why” I created these books beginning years ago.