by Jason Joyner | Mar 23, 2011 | Blog, cba king for a day, Mike Duran, speculative fiction, writing craft
Day 3 dawns on the CSFF Tour, leading into Part 2 of my interview with Mike Duran, our feature author for March.
Yesterday he talked about his debut novel,
The Resurrection, and today he shares writing lessons learns and the one big change he would do if he were in charge of the CBA for a day.
Yes, I set him up.
See what the others in our CSFF crew are saying on Becky’s blog,
where she tracks all the posts. I’ll post once more with thoughts about the tour and
The Resurrection.
5. Your blog draws a lot of interest when you discuss the CBA and the issues around it. Many people on the tour are aspiring authors, obviously with a love for speculative fiction. What advice would you have for them in this journey?
MIKE: I believe that Christians should be the most wildly creative community on the planet! Our craft should be impeccable, our ideas lavish, our wit sharp, our humility great, and our perseverance unwavering. (How’s that for rallying the troops?)
I am not convinced that speculative fiction and the Christian market are a great mix. That said, there is so much great craft and market advice out there. With a little research, the aspiring author can have a lot of great info at their fingertips. My advice would probably revolve around three things.
First, resolve your calling. The devil will always attack us at the level of our calling. If we are unsure whether God has “called” us to write, we will be vulnerable to depression, defeat, and doubt. That would be my first suggestion: Are you writing as a hobby or for publication? Do you believe God wants you to really dig in – as in “career” digging in – or are you doing this recreationally? That perspective is important to your approach.
Second, develop a thin skin. That’s right – a THIN skin. Too many writers are too defensive. We hedge against critique, rejection, and advice. We develop chips on our shoulders and spout about artistic liberty and subjectivity. Of course there is a time to ignore the critics and press on. But sometimes, especially when interest in our material is waning, we need to ask, “What am I missing? What do I need to work on?” A thin skin will help us learn from our mistakes, readjust, grow, and heed the advice of others.
Thirdly, find a good critique group. I can’t stress this enough. Other writers who can review your material and provide tough critique are THE MOST IMPORTANT factor in your growth. We cannot be so beholden to praise that we do not allow others to dislike our writing. Finding a good critique group, those who will critically evaluate your stuff, will take time. Nevertheless, it is one of the most aspects of growing as a writer.
6. You are king of CBA for the day, and you are allowed to make ONE change to the industry. What would that be? (Pushing you out on a limb here…)
MIKE: I would start over.
7. Can you tell us about your next novel? How is the process different than writing the first one?
I was thrilled to learn that my publisher included the first chapter of my next book in The Resurrection. It is tentatively entitled The Telling. It’s about a disfigured modern-day prophet who must overcome his own despair in time to seal one of nine mythical gates of hell. The story includes a llama ranch, a black cherub, a roadside attraction, a haunted mine, and cactus jelly. Not necessarily in that order.
Writing the second book has been hugely different than the first. Most notably… I now have a deadline. I would encourage all aspiring authors to ponder this word and what it means: DEADLINE. This deadline has produced consternation and self-doubts. Am I a fluke? Am I a one-hit wonder? Can I do this again? About half way through the second novel, I had a meltdown of sorts. Between blogging, working full-time, family, and the next novel, I hit a wall. When I finally peeled myself off, I realized I had a good thing going.
All that to say, time management has become awfully important for me. I no longer have the luxury of perusing blogs and lounging on the sundeck like I once did (okay, the sundeck thing isn’t true). Things have become really busy, really stressful, and kind of exciting.
—
by Jason Joyner | Mar 23, 2011 | Blog, cba king for a day, Mike Duran, speculative fiction, writing craft
Day 3 dawns on the CSFF Tour, leading into Part 2 of my interview with Mike Duran, our feature author for March.
Yesterday he talked about his debut novel,
The Resurrection, and today he shares writing lessons learns and the one big change he would do if he were in charge of the CBA for a day.
Yes, I set him up.
See what the others in our CSFF crew are saying on Becky’s blog,
where she tracks all the posts. I’ll post once more with thoughts about the tour and
The Resurrection.
5. Your blog draws a lot of interest when you discuss the CBA and the issues around it. Many people on the tour are aspiring authors, obviously with a love for speculative fiction. What advice would you have for them in this journey?
MIKE: I believe that Christians should be the most wildly creative community on the planet! Our craft should be impeccable, our ideas lavish, our wit sharp, our humility great, and our perseverance unwavering. (How’s that for rallying the troops?)
I am not convinced that speculative fiction and the Christian market are a great mix. That said, there is so much great craft and market advice out there. With a little research, the aspiring author can have a lot of great info at their fingertips. My advice would probably revolve around three things.
First, resolve your calling. The devil will always attack us at the level of our calling. If we are unsure whether God has “called” us to write, we will be vulnerable to depression, defeat, and doubt. That would be my first suggestion: Are you writing as a hobby or for publication? Do you believe God wants you to really dig in – as in “career” digging in – or are you doing this recreationally? That perspective is important to your approach.
Second, develop a thin skin. That’s right – a THIN skin. Too many writers are too defensive. We hedge against critique, rejection, and advice. We develop chips on our shoulders and spout about artistic liberty and subjectivity. Of course there is a time to ignore the critics and press on. But sometimes, especially when interest in our material is waning, we need to ask, “What am I missing? What do I need to work on?” A thin skin will help us learn from our mistakes, readjust, grow, and heed the advice of others.
Thirdly, find a good critique group. I can’t stress this enough. Other writers who can review your material and provide tough critique are THE MOST IMPORTANT factor in your growth. We cannot be so beholden to praise that we do not allow others to dislike our writing. Finding a good critique group, those who will critically evaluate your stuff, will take time. Nevertheless, it is one of the most aspects of growing as a writer.
6. You are king of CBA for the day, and you are allowed to make ONE change to the industry. What would that be? (Pushing you out on a limb here…)
MIKE: I would start over.
7. Can you tell us about your next novel? How is the process different than writing the first one?
I was thrilled to learn that my publisher included the first chapter of my next book in The Resurrection. It is tentatively entitled The Telling. It’s about a disfigured modern-day prophet who must overcome his own despair in time to seal one of nine mythical gates of hell. The story includes a llama ranch, a black cherub, a roadside attraction, a haunted mine, and cactus jelly. Not necessarily in that order.
Writing the second book has been hugely different than the first. Most notably… I now have a deadline. I would encourage all aspiring authors to ponder this word and what it means: DEADLINE. This deadline has produced consternation and self-doubts. Am I a fluke? Am I a one-hit wonder? Can I do this again? About half way through the second novel, I had a meltdown of sorts. Between blogging, working full-time, family, and the next novel, I hit a wall. When I finally peeled myself off, I realized I had a good thing going.
All that to say, time management has become awfully important for me. I no longer have the luxury of perusing blogs and lounging on the sundeck like I once did (okay, the sundeck thing isn’t true). Things have become really busy, really stressful, and kind of exciting.
—
by Jason Joyner | Mar 22, 2011 | Blog, CSFF, mesos called jar-jar binks, Mike Duran, reading, speculative fiction
Heya! The Christian Sci-fi and Fantasy tour is witnessing The Resurrection. Well, we’re discussing the debut novel by Mike Duran with that title, at least.
The book is generating some good buzz with a lot of the other tourmates. Becky Miller keeps a running tally of the posts for the tour
right here. Check them out for varied responses and thoughts.
Mike has been kind enough to answer some questions for me in an email interview. I’m running the ones dealing with
The Resurrection today. Tomorrow I will post the rest dealing with writing in general, along with some final thoughts on the tour and the book by yours truly.
1. The Resurrection is a deep book with a lot of ideas. Where did you get the idea for some of the Mesos (pagan gods) and what type of research did you do? (There is an anthropology professor who studies pagan religions, and these Mesos play a key role in the book – Jason)
MIKE: Jason, the concept of the Pantheons, which the Mesos are a part of, is one of my favorite parts of the book. I have a pastor friend who has started several churches in the Peruvian Amazon. He always returns with wild tales of superstition, witchcraft, curses, and Indiana Jones style adventure. That vast area is home to some of the world’s only unreached people groups. In those parts, religion is not monolithic, but tends to be an amalgam of beliefs, from animism to Catholicism. And there are many, many gods. It presents a real challenge to Christian missionaries.
Pagan worldviews often construct a “pecking order” of powers, invisible entities vying for allegiance and demanding obeisance. It is somewhat paralleled by the biblical concept of “principalities and powers.” Scripture describes a world where false gods and hierarchies of malevolent beings wrestle for Man’s fate. In this sense, the Mesos are the pagan corollary to a biblical reality. They are “…the powers of this dark world…the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:12).
Of course, we Americans are too sophisticated for such nonsense ;-). Or are we? My thought, when conceiving the book was to speculate what an intrinsically pagan system would look like if it had taken root in a specific American locale. What effects would it have on dull, materialistic Americans? And how would such a “system” reveal itself?
2. What themes did you see when you first started writing The Resurrection? What theme or idea surprised you as you wrote?
MIKE: The initial theme was that of miracle versus materialism. I had long pondered the idea of story that pivots around a bodily resurrection and the various effects it would have on different groups (as miracles often had in Scripture). However, you’re right. As I wrote the story, certain ideas “surprised” me.
One of those ideas was simply “faith.” Ruby became this icon of simple faith to me, someone who does not have all the answers but who still limps forward, refusing to abandon hope. In chapter 3, Ian Clark watches Ruby and ponders, “She’d been through a lot—more than he could imagine—and still she clung tenaciously to her faith. Some would probably call it naiveté, even obstinacy. In a world where science pushed the boundaries of human knowledge, where progressive philosophers ran circles around religious conservatives, how could one continue to believe in a two-thousand year old creed? Ruby Case was evidence enough that those people existed.” Like Clark, I puzzle over, even envy, people with simple faith.
What some people may miss in the story is the role that faith played for evil. In fact, my initial title for the story was “What Faith Awakes.” In a sense, Benjamin Keen had as much faith as Ruby Case. Ruby’s faith literally “awoke” someone who was dead. But Keen’s faith – faith in his system, faith in logic, faith in the gods – also awoke something. Something hellish (which is one reason we should not look lightly upon the varieties of occult belief). So, clearly, one of the themes that surprised and inspired me through the story was this sense of how powerful even the smallest acts of faith can be, and how huge of an impact they can make.
3. In the book Reverend Ian Clark struggles with his faith even as he leads a church. As a former pastor, how much of Clark’s battle comes from your own walk?
MIKE: There’s no doubt that my experience as a minister has seeped into Ian Clark’s struggles. Unlike Clark, however, I have never considered agnosticism. However, I have been shaped by several tragedies (like Clark) and am tremendously sensitive to the plight of pastors and their unique struggles. I just learned this week about an old pastoral acquaintance who is no longer a Christian. He and his wife were on staff at a local mega-church. They have since divorced and he now denounces what he once believed. How does this happen?
I believe the average church member would be surprised at how many of our pastors harbor secret struggles, whether theological or emotional. Of course, they must appear to be strong. Like Ian Clark, they must stand and deliver every Sunday morning, only to return to their office and flog themselves. And sometimes our churches are more guilty of wanting a good sermon than wanting an honest, healthy minister. Which is why in The Resurrection, Canyon Springs Community Church is really as complicit as Ian Clark.
4. Spiritual warfare becomes an issue for Ruby and Rev. Clark. What experience have you had with this?
MIKE: From my perspective, the term “spiritual warfare,” is kind of loaded. Yes, there are accounts in Scripture of demonic possession and the clash of supernatural powers (think Moses and the Pharaoh’s magicians or Elijah and the prophets of Baal). And we are warned repeatedly about the devil’s devices and deceptive strategies. However, most spiritual warfare is hardly as dramatic as we like to conceive. At least on our end of things.
In my novel, both Ruby and Reverend Clark spearhead some dramatic spiritual events. Nevertheless, it was their simple steps of faith that triggered those events. Ruby traveled to Aida Elston’s, climbed the hill to the cemetery, and refused to let Oscar take his own life. And Clark pursued Ruby and then confronted Keen. In both cases, it was their obedience or determination that set things in motion. The same is true for us – small steps of faith have tremendous power.
Several people have compared my book to Frank Peretti’s “This Present Darkness.” While I’m flattered by the comparison, I took great care to NOT show the spiritual realm in the way Peretti did. Though I reference angels and demons, they remain behind the scenes. Rather, the actions of the characters are front and center. This is intentional.
When people ask me about spiritual warfare, they seem to be wanting stories about exorcisms, deliverance, and miracles. I have some stories like that. However, I believe the most important instances of spiritual warfare are the ones that are unannounced and unseen. Loving my wife and sharing God’s grace with my co-workers may have more prolonged effect upon the cosmos than anything I ever do. The biggest victories are probably the ones no one will ever see. I really hope that that concept comes out in The Resurrection.
—
by Jason Joyner | Mar 22, 2011 | Blog, CSFF, mesos called jar-jar binks, Mike Duran, reading, speculative fiction
Heya! The Christian Sci-fi and Fantasy tour is witnessing The Resurrection. Well, we’re discussing the debut novel by Mike Duran with that title, at least.
The book is generating some good buzz with a lot of the other tourmates. Becky Miller keeps a running tally of the posts for the tour
right here. Check them out for varied responses and thoughts.
Mike has been kind enough to answer some questions for me in an email interview. I’m running the ones dealing with
The Resurrection today. Tomorrow I will post the rest dealing with writing in general, along with some final thoughts on the tour and the book by yours truly.
1. The Resurrection is a deep book with a lot of ideas. Where did you get the idea for some of the Mesos (pagan gods) and what type of research did you do? (There is an anthropology professor who studies pagan religions, and these Mesos play a key role in the book – Jason)
MIKE: Jason, the concept of the Pantheons, which the Mesos are a part of, is one of my favorite parts of the book. I have a pastor friend who has started several churches in the Peruvian Amazon. He always returns with wild tales of superstition, witchcraft, curses, and Indiana Jones style adventure. That vast area is home to some of the world’s only unreached people groups. In those parts, religion is not monolithic, but tends to be an amalgam of beliefs, from animism to Catholicism. And there are many, many gods. It presents a real challenge to Christian missionaries.
Pagan worldviews often construct a “pecking order” of powers, invisible entities vying for allegiance and demanding obeisance. It is somewhat paralleled by the biblical concept of “principalities and powers.” Scripture describes a world where false gods and hierarchies of malevolent beings wrestle for Man’s fate. In this sense, the Mesos are the pagan corollary to a biblical reality. They are “…the powers of this dark world…the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:12).
Of course, we Americans are too sophisticated for such nonsense ;-). Or are we? My thought, when conceiving the book was to speculate what an intrinsically pagan system would look like if it had taken root in a specific American locale. What effects would it have on dull, materialistic Americans? And how would such a “system” reveal itself?
2. What themes did you see when you first started writing The Resurrection? What theme or idea surprised you as you wrote?
MIKE: The initial theme was that of miracle versus materialism. I had long pondered the idea of story that pivots around a bodily resurrection and the various effects it would have on different groups (as miracles often had in Scripture). However, you’re right. As I wrote the story, certain ideas “surprised” me.
One of those ideas was simply “faith.” Ruby became this icon of simple faith to me, someone who does not have all the answers but who still limps forward, refusing to abandon hope. In chapter 3, Ian Clark watches Ruby and ponders, “She’d been through a lot—more than he could imagine—and still she clung tenaciously to her faith. Some would probably call it naiveté, even obstinacy. In a world where science pushed the boundaries of human knowledge, where progressive philosophers ran circles around religious conservatives, how could one continue to believe in a two-thousand year old creed? Ruby Case was evidence enough that those people existed.” Like Clark, I puzzle over, even envy, people with simple faith.
What some people may miss in the story is the role that faith played for evil. In fact, my initial title for the story was “What Faith Awakes.” In a sense, Benjamin Keen had as much faith as Ruby Case. Ruby’s faith literally “awoke” someone who was dead. But Keen’s faith – faith in his system, faith in logic, faith in the gods – also awoke something. Something hellish (which is one reason we should not look lightly upon the varieties of occult belief). So, clearly, one of the themes that surprised and inspired me through the story was this sense of how powerful even the smallest acts of faith can be, and how huge of an impact they can make.
3. In the book Reverend Ian Clark struggles with his faith even as he leads a church. As a former pastor, how much of Clark’s battle comes from your own walk?
MIKE: There’s no doubt that my experience as a minister has seeped into Ian Clark’s struggles. Unlike Clark, however, I have never considered agnosticism. However, I have been shaped by several tragedies (like Clark) and am tremendously sensitive to the plight of pastors and their unique struggles. I just learned this week about an old pastoral acquaintance who is no longer a Christian. He and his wife were on staff at a local mega-church. They have since divorced and he now denounces what he once believed. How does this happen?
I believe the average church member would be surprised at how many of our pastors harbor secret struggles, whether theological or emotional. Of course, they must appear to be strong. Like Ian Clark, they must stand and deliver every Sunday morning, only to return to their office and flog themselves. And sometimes our churches are more guilty of wanting a good sermon than wanting an honest, healthy minister. Which is why in The Resurrection, Canyon Springs Community Church is really as complicit as Ian Clark.
4. Spiritual warfare becomes an issue for Ruby and Rev. Clark. What experience have you had with this?
MIKE: From my perspective, the term “spiritual warfare,” is kind of loaded. Yes, there are accounts in Scripture of demonic possession and the clash of supernatural powers (think Moses and the Pharaoh’s magicians or Elijah and the prophets of Baal). And we are warned repeatedly about the devil’s devices and deceptive strategies. However, most spiritual warfare is hardly as dramatic as we like to conceive. At least on our end of things.
In my novel, both Ruby and Reverend Clark spearhead some dramatic spiritual events. Nevertheless, it was their simple steps of faith that triggered those events. Ruby traveled to Aida Elston’s, climbed the hill to the cemetery, and refused to let Oscar take his own life. And Clark pursued Ruby and then confronted Keen. In both cases, it was their obedience or determination that set things in motion. The same is true for us – small steps of faith have tremendous power.
Several people have compared my book to Frank Peretti’s “This Present Darkness.” While I’m flattered by the comparison, I took great care to NOT show the spiritual realm in the way Peretti did. Though I reference angels and demons, they remain behind the scenes. Rather, the actions of the characters are front and center. This is intentional.
When people ask me about spiritual warfare, they seem to be wanting stories about exorcisms, deliverance, and miracles. I have some stories like that. However, I believe the most important instances of spiritual warfare are the ones that are unannounced and unseen. Loving my wife and sharing God’s grace with my co-workers may have more prolonged effect upon the cosmos than anything I ever do. The biggest victories are probably the ones no one will ever see. I really hope that that concept comes out in The Resurrection.
—
by Jason Joyner | Mar 1, 2011 | Blog, christian fiction, Mike Duran, one coffin slightly used, speculative fiction
What happens to a pastor who may be losing his faith when a resurrection happens in his town?
Last week we had another interesting Christian Sci-fi/Fantasy Tour with the book The God Hater. This book was based around a specific message, with the story enveloping it. It was overall popular with the tour, with me in the minority view that the story didn’t carry the potent message.
I did a little compare/contrast with the book I read just following The God Hater, Mike Duran’s debut novel The Resurrection. Mike’s blog is one that I frequent, and have often linked from here for his thought-provoking articles on Christian fiction. I promised a review of Mike’s book afterwards, so here we go.
Reverend Ian Clark is ready to resign his post at Canyon Springs Community Church, being haunted in multiple ways by failures in his past and by his rising doubt. Ruby Case is a young mother with a lifelong limp, a steadfast faith, yet a weariness that there is not more life in their church.
Little does Ruby know how she will help bring life back to Canyon Springs.
When she visits the funeral of a friend’s young son, she isn’t expecting a miracle. But when the boy sits up after she touches him, a firestorm is lit in this quiet California town. Some people come to Ruby for their own miracle. Some denounce her and the resurrection as a fraud.
Rev. Clark must wrestle with his questions, while both he and Ruby find that other forces do not take kindly to invasion of their dark territory. As the back copy of the book states: When the dead come back to life, someone must pay the price…
Mike Duran is a pastor who has hit the place of burnout in ministry, something I’m realizing comes all too often for a profession that doesn’t get allowance for struggle or failure. Moved to minister through the power of fiction, he has written a dynamic and haunting first novel that is an excellent exploration of faith, doubt, and the collision between the two.
The story carries an ominous tone throughout, keeping the suspense high as the reader always wonders when something bad might happen. We know books are supposed to have happy endings, but Mike manages to keep the outcome in question up until the climax, which isn’t an easy feat. The characters have real struggles. Ruby didn’t want to become a miracle worker, and she is challenged when others’ expectations are that she can turn the power on at will. She wants to help people, but doesn’t have “the formula” handy. Meanwhile young Rev. Clark wrestles with powers both worldly and spiritual as he’s forced to confront his doubt instead of nursing it to a full denial of his beliefs.
Ruby is a well-rounded person. I felt a lot of connect with her. Rev. Clark was a little distant, without quite as much depth of character as I would have liked. There’s not much on his life outside of being a smart but conflicted minister. Still, he is honest in his queries, and he probably represents a lot of pastors with his concerns. Other characters in the book are vivid and unique, keeping the fictional Canyon Springs grounded as a real place.
There are a lot of ideas in this book. Mike does a good job of bringing them into the story organically. Little seems forced, although there are times when the explanation of the religious theories undergirding the plot get a little too thick. Otherwise, he has a gift for description, and I felt like I was in California with the pictures of local flora and the atmosphere of the town were evocative. There’s a few glitches in the craft, like any new author would face, that are minor and shouldn’t distract from this enjoyable fiction escape.
I’ve followed Mike’s blog for a long time, and I was excited to see him get a contract. My curiosity could finally be satisfied whether his fiction talents matched his thoughtful blogging style. I’m happy to say that The Resurrection sucked me in, made me think, and has stayed with me after two weeks of finishing. The book is a suspenseful exploration of deep questions of faith, while giving hope in the power of Jesus to touch lives today, even in the darkest night.
—
by Jason Joyner | Mar 1, 2011 | Blog, christian fiction, Mike Duran, one coffin slightly used, speculative fiction
What happens to a pastor who may be losing his faith when a resurrection happens in his town?
Last week we had another interesting Christian Sci-fi/Fantasy Tour with the book The God Hater. This book was based around a specific message, with the story enveloping it. It was overall popular with the tour, with me in the minority view that the story didn’t carry the potent message.
I did a little compare/contrast with the book I read just following The God Hater, Mike Duran’s debut novel The Resurrection. Mike’s blog is one that I frequent, and have often linked from here for his thought-provoking articles on Christian fiction. I promised a review of Mike’s book afterwards, so here we go.
Reverend Ian Clark is ready to resign his post at Canyon Springs Community Church, being haunted in multiple ways by failures in his past and by his rising doubt. Ruby Case is a young mother with a lifelong limp, a steadfast faith, yet a weariness that there is not more life in their church.
Little does Ruby know how she will help bring life back to Canyon Springs.
When she visits the funeral of a friend’s young son, she isn’t expecting a miracle. But when the boy sits up after she touches him, a firestorm is lit in this quiet California town. Some people come to Ruby for their own miracle. Some denounce her and the resurrection as a fraud.
Rev. Clark must wrestle with his questions, while both he and Ruby find that other forces do not take kindly to invasion of their dark territory. As the back copy of the book states: When the dead come back to life, someone must pay the price…
Mike Duran is a pastor who has hit the place of burnout in ministry, something I’m realizing comes all too often for a profession that doesn’t get allowance for struggle or failure. Moved to minister through the power of fiction, he has written a dynamic and haunting first novel that is an excellent exploration of faith, doubt, and the collision between the two.
The story carries an ominous tone throughout, keeping the suspense high as the reader always wonders when something bad might happen. We know books are supposed to have happy endings, but Mike manages to keep the outcome in question up until the climax, which isn’t an easy feat. The characters have real struggles. Ruby didn’t want to become a miracle worker, and she is challenged when others’ expectations are that she can turn the power on at will. She wants to help people, but doesn’t have “the formula” handy. Meanwhile young Rev. Clark wrestles with powers both worldly and spiritual as he’s forced to confront his doubt instead of nursing it to a full denial of his beliefs.
Ruby is a well-rounded person. I felt a lot of connect with her. Rev. Clark was a little distant, without quite as much depth of character as I would have liked. There’s not much on his life outside of being a smart but conflicted minister. Still, he is honest in his queries, and he probably represents a lot of pastors with his concerns. Other characters in the book are vivid and unique, keeping the fictional Canyon Springs grounded as a real place.
There are a lot of ideas in this book. Mike does a good job of bringing them into the story organically. Little seems forced, although there are times when the explanation of the religious theories undergirding the plot get a little too thick. Otherwise, he has a gift for description, and I felt like I was in California with the pictures of local flora and the atmosphere of the town were evocative. There’s a few glitches in the craft, like any new author would face, that are minor and shouldn’t distract from this enjoyable fiction escape.
I’ve followed Mike’s blog for a long time, and I was excited to see him get a contract. My curiosity could finally be satisfied whether his fiction talents matched his thoughtful blogging style. I’m happy to say that The Resurrection sucked me in, made me think, and has stayed with me after two weeks of finishing. The book is a suspenseful exploration of deep questions of faith, while giving hope in the power of Jesus to touch lives today, even in the darkest night.
—
