Divine inspiration–something!–caused me to go outside within the beauty of star-surging sky around midnight in the early 90s and receive a “message” to finally get those rock band characters out of my head and onto paper, and then computer. God? Angels? Spirits? Because it was not the devil or demons–the devil or demons would not want me to create a trilogy about a rock band fighting evil (and, after a miraculous event in 1997, accept Christ as Savior!).
Now my characters could not be goody-two-shoes-types or boys who could never do wrong or only sin occasionally. They could not be boys like we have out here in far west Texas that claim to strictly follow the Bible and wear jeans or regular pants and button-down shirts, having sisters and mothers that wear nothing but long skirts and their hair up in a knot…Mennonite, but not Mennonite. Folks, does a Christian writer have to write fiction only with “God-fearing” (or not) characters?
Now, a Christian writer can write what he or she wants and however God guides them, but darn it, before I truly became a believer in Christ I was a sinner. Period. I cussed like my characters do. I had sex out of wedlock, which is defined as fornication, I think. I also dabbled in the occult for a short time (until the occult scared the living daylights out of me!). I also dabbled in atheism, but, again, God made sure this wasn’t going to become a permanent mind set! I could spend all day telling how and what and why God gave me messages and events that set me straight.
And I will say again why my main characters make up a rock band–because growing up in the 60s, rock music was one of my main connections to the world and my friends and classmates and generation. Listening to the Beatles and others, watching shows like Ed Sullivan and music-act shows I cannot even remember the names of, reading in pop culture mags about this or that rocker, buying LPs–you know, vinyl records–learning and playing guitar and being for a short time in an actual rock band that didn’t accomplish much, but still…and having friends who dated other rock band members that also didn’t accomplish much… If not for that, my teen years wouldn’t have amounted to a hill of beans! I would have been a depressed teen-aged girl with no hope of ever fitting in. Being a non-conformist is fine, but being a non-conformist exclusively is never a good idea for a teenager. It is the teen and early twenties years where one must explore the world around them, and then make decisions–hopefully the right ones.
And my books follow that proper narrative: six teen boys discover their music abilities and talent and, given a lack of prim and proper upbringing, more or less, take advantage of that talent and aim at rock and roll stardom, fame and fortune, not realizing that stardom, fame and fortune are double-edged swords and can lead to evil. And, mirroring the reality of evil in the music business that I have done extensive research on starting in the 70s, especially as relates to the hidden agendas of those who ultimately run the business and still do today, I can honestly say that my characters and the story lines and plots of the Prodigal Band Trilogy accord with this research and truth regarding the business of recording and performing the music that has influenced young folks from the late 1950s onward.
These three novel works are partially based on factual events of which I will state in future posts on this site as well as my OmegaBooks blog.
I will now bring up one truth that appears in the Free e-book The Prodigal Band, as relates to ‘prayer rituals’ performed as the ‘master disc’ is produced–the master disc, both in the pre-digital age and today’s digital master age, is ritually ‘prayed’ over by the makers of the disc (recording artists, producer, engineers, and record label personnel, for instance). The link to the video below features John Todd, who, in the 60 and 70s before he became a believer in Christ, participated in these rituals as a big shot with Zodiac Productions. Zodiac Records, a major label in the 60s and 70s, had several top rock band acts. The link is below.
John Todd exposes master disc prayer rituals.
There are more videos on this topic as well on YouTube.
