Into the Fire

Mark Dawson brings John Milton (aka "Eric") to the Outer Hebrides in the amazing 19th book Never Let Me Down Again in the A John Milton Novel Series. 

John meets an older woman at an AA meeting while he's still in Japan. They go to eat and talk, and she reveals she's dying and desperately wants to know if something has happened to her son because his regular phone calls have come to an abrupt halt and she can't reach him. Even after contacting his girlfriend who reported him as missing, there is no information. Since Milton wants to take care of some unfinished business with his old CO in Scotland, he volunteers to try to find him for the woman. She's shocked at his kindness and gives him a photo and all the information she has which is very little. 

You know this isn't going to be an easy find – it never is in Milton's adventures – but he is able to locate a very drunk "Flash", his former CO, who seems to hate the sight of John and implies he knows he's there for a different reason than he actually is. There's no convincing Flash so he departs from their brief unpleasant meeting without settling anything between them. 

He snags a job at a renovated hotel so he can work at finding the missing son on the side. The hotel manager (Chrissie) is a feisty, untrusting sort, but somehow John manages to get the job which lasts until the lights go out on the celebratory crowd at their re-opening gala. The local schlub who did the rewiring won't be back to fix it anytime soon. 

John is able to make some inquiries and finally convinces the girlfriend of the missing man to speak with him, and she brings a journalist with her to their meeting. Things have gotten mysterious in a hurry, and John's investigations are turning up suspicious information and eventually dead bodies. 

When he's finally able to convince Flash of his true intent, they figure out a plan to make things right. 

The result of their plan surprises both of them but perhaps John most of all. The sort-of cliffhanger will lead into the big plans for the grand 20th book in this fabulous series with the working title Bulletproof.  

John Milton is the character every woman who desires a real man's man wants to love. Mark has given him such unique qualities from Milton's personal past as a boy, a young man, a soldier, an operative, a highly trained assassin in the elite Group 15 of British Intelligence where he became Number One in the Group. But the life finally got to him and he dropped out. The former leader of Control wanted him gone but no one could accomplish it, and he's been on the run for years and fighting the by-product of those years when he succumbed to alcoholism just to cope. Milton keeps himself away from romantic commitment because he doesn't want anyone special in his life to be in danger and used as leverage. He's already witnessed some people he cared about suffer the consequences of knowing him. John Milton is right on the Top 5 list of great heroes in the thriller genre. You won't be wasting your reading time if you start at the beginning and read them all including the prequels. You can find the reviews of those previous18 books on this blog. 

Profanity present. 

Father, please continue to bless Mark's hands as he writes his stories. You've gifted him and may he know that's where his talent originated. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 
     

". . . So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed."

John 8:36 (NIV)

                                                God Bless The USA.

                    Which road are you taking? 

Father, thank you for leaving us with your beauty, adventures, places that won't harm us. Apart from you, we can do nothing. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

. . . in a love song is a quick read for e-readers and portrays two individuals who've never experienced real love. Their attraction is instant, their goals not the same, but there's something intangible that makes them want to pursue each other to see where it takes them. Love is rarely easy, but these two realize they need more than their sizzling attraction to keep them together. 

The price is right at $2.99. Order an e-copy and see how you feel about Dale Rivers and Patricia Edison's story. 

Father, thank you for this story and each one before and after. You are the inspiration-giver and apart from you, I can do nothing. Thank you is never enough. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

No, it's not Mars. It's western Washington. Or it could be. For us on this side of the Cascade Mountain Range, it's cookin'. Summer brought the heat. Normally, for us, June is wet and the average temperature is about 70 degrees, definitely not in the 100s. It's joked about around here that Independence Day is the marker for when summer finally arrives – after the 4th. And that summer lasts through August and fall arrives in a hurry. Well, not this year, although one never knows what's going to happen from now on.  

But for those who moved to this area or choose to live here because you love the rain, well, no doubt you're sweating it out with the rest of us and probably not really happy about it. 

We cannot say that this year summer took its time getting here or failed to arrive at all. Nope. Not this year. 

Have a great summer wherever you are! 

Father, thank you for it all. Words don't do the gratitude justice. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

Another oldie but goodie. There were a lot of them back in the day. 

Father, you knew the times, you know the times, and all that they entail. And, still, the most important thing remains: Jesus: the Savior of the world. Thank you is never enough. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

Imagination is a wonderful thing. It spawns creativity. No one can compete with God's imagination – which is probably a foolish thing to say because His "imagination" creates reality. Mankind is blessed with gifts and talents from our Creator who has given us the abilities to create realities from that imagination. Some use it to engineer incredible machinery or mathematical formulas or escapades into outer space. Others of us use it to write stories based on images, topics, people we've known or met or want to meet – even if they're not real. 

Authors of novels must make fictional realities that reveal something relatable to those who read them. No matter what genre – be it fantasy to sci-fi, love story to women's fiction, thrillers to mysteries – no matter what, there has to be some identiable "thing" or emotion within the story to grab a reader's attention and allow them to insert him or herself into that pseudo reality. By so doing, that "story" becomes life-like to the reader. 

One of my favorite compliments is that my characters are relatable. That means I've accomplished one of the goals in presenting the story. So. I thank every reader of one or many of my novels who has "related" to one or more of my characters, and know this because I can't say it often enough: Apart from the Lord, I can do nothing. 

Father, you give me inspiration, stories, determination to present you in the midst of all the goings-on in this sin-stained world. May I never fail to do so. Thank you is never enough. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

. . . 

He does not treat us as our sins deserve

   or repay us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

   so great is his love for those who fear him, 

as far as the east is from the west,

   so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

Psalm 103:10-12 (NIV) 

My new novel, my WIP (to the writing crowd), is turning out to be enormously fun to write. My last three novels produced some tough transitions. First, Race became strenuously tricky to compose. Even with the superlative help from a wonderful LEO, I froze up on the story so many times I could've produced a writing glacier. What resulted from those frigid writing interruptions was the beginning of the novel Seeing . . . and then, surprising to me, another start of a novel which developed into . . . in a love song. All three novels finally made it into publication but it proved to be a genuine struggle to get them finished. Considering I enjoyed the way all three of them survived and turned out in spite of the challenges, it's sometimes amazing to me that I did in fact complete them successfully – and by "successfully" I mean I truly loved the stories/characters/plots. You gotta love your stories or why write them?

So here's the "conundrum" for my new one. As you know, I write Christian fiction, love stories with the exception of Race, my solo mystery/police procedural which of course included a slim romantic thread in it. The tagline for my fiction is Raw Romantic Redemptive. "Raw" is the first word of the three because as those of you who've read my work know, my books are not your typical Christian fiction fare. 

The reason I use the words "not your typical" is because I deal honestly with sexual tension, temptation, attraction, desire, and in some cases sexual sin. I stress that my novels are not graphic, no soft porn, but they are realistic in every aspect of male/female sexual concerns. Secondly, you will find the occasional words used which are not swear/cuss words although come Christian readers believe them to be: i. e. hell, damn, ass (slang usage). There are sentences which point out a character cussing but the word is not written. There is an occasional reference to the "f-word" being used by a character but it also is not written out. This is why I have chosen "Raw" to be the first word used to describe my stories. All of those choices are absolutely considered to be irreverent, wrong, "un-Christian" to some readers. Fortunately, the whole gamut of romance novels from Bethany House and other Christian publishers are available to those readers. 

The last two words of my tagline are self-explanatory. Romantic is real and evident and Redemptive is clear, available, and present  in each story. There's a choice to be made. The contrasts are obvious. 

In my stories the worldly lifestyle is accurately portrayed just as the contrasting lifestyle of living for God is exemplified. 

So what's the conundrum? I don't enjoy the thought of offending readers or potential readers. I know that some readers are not my "audience". Yes, it would be "easy" to eliminate those simple words, but, for me, it would not demonstrate authentic characters or environments for my stories. Reality isn't always "clean" even for Christians – even when it appears to be. My goal is to portray life in this world with its challenges, temptations, failures, and successes. Reality. Christians struggle in spite of having the right answers. Life's often hard. The wonderful solution is holding onto God's Truth in all things and seeking forgiveness for those failures with heartfelt repentance. Jesus longs to forgive. The Holy Spirit counsels and comforts. 

It's a conundrum, but I know what the answer is for me. 

Father, please help me to write the stories you've given me with all the honesty and reality you've chosen for me to communicate. May my stories give you pleasure. I thank you for each one. Apart from you, I can do nothing. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

These are the new (above) and old/original (below) covers of Vince Flynn's first published novel. It's the only one of his that doesn't feature the incredible character Mitch Rapp. If you've never read Vince's novels, he writes the best political thrillers you'll ever read. Having had great sources for his characters and stories, his novels set the stage for many other thrillers. Of all the heroes throughout the thriller genre – and there are truly some great ones – I've yet to find one to equal or surpass Vince's Mitch Rapp. 

If you want to read incredible thrillers that feature politics, the CIA, and covert operatives, start here and finish the long series begun by the late Vince Flynn now with author Kyle Mills continuing this amazing series. 

Father, Vince is now in your care. Please let him know he's truly missed by many of us. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.