Abigail my partner in crime. Abby is our 9 months old Sheltie. She helps me write laying under my desk. 

Imagine That

One of the greatest gifts God gives to a fiction writer is an imagination. With it, He enables us to observe shootouts, car chases, births and deaths. To solve mysteries and relate these events to others. We weave stories together with the joys and sorrows of life. We experience the horror of losing a love one. The elation of falling in love, the conflict of everyday life. We sit at our computer and create new worlds and populate it with our characters.  

  Imagination is a wonderful asset. With it, engineers build bridges connecting cities spanning vast chasms and rivers. Architects design buildings reaching for the sky. Before a vehicle appears on the showroom floor, it was in someone’s mind. Without Imagination, we would still be living by candlelight with our only form of transportation, a horse and buggy.

As writers, we transmit what we see in our minds to paper or screen. We may go over it a dozen times or more perfecting and clarifying the story. Some believe they can write the story once and it’s perfect.  If you can, you’re very fortunate indeed. For the rest of us, we labor day and night. We struggle over each word, sentence, and page. Writing and rewriting until the story flows. Or as some have put it ‘sings’.

Finally the story is told, the book is finished.  Then as our final act, we offer our novel to the reader hoping to connect with their imagination. Thus, we continue the story we first saw in our mind.

Adam Wakefield has an ideal life as pastor of the small church in which he grew up. Then he receives a telegram inviting him to become pastor of the largest church in Chicago. He accepts unaware he is playing into the hands of extortionists and murderers. But God has great plans for Adam.  On the train to Chicago he meets and falls in love with Victoria Winters. Together Adam and Victoria face a life of ministering, love and danger.    writersofvision.com
Read for only $1.99

 When he is not writing   Darrell is in jail. Actually several jails or prisons.  And he’s been there for over thirty years. As the co-founder of Souls for Christ Darrell ministers to serial killers, mass murderers’ robbers, drug dealers, and others who have broken the law.
Born in 1945 Darrell grew up on his family’s farm. He spent his summers reading and wandering the surrounding woods. Fishing in the neighbor’s pond and in generally learning to love nature
In high school, he perfected the fine art of hiding a novel behind a text book. While the rest of the class labored over equations he sailed the seven seas, followed a snowy trail in the Yukon. Climbed the Rockies, swim the Amazon and fought wars in foreign lands.  In books he discovered worlds far beyond the hot boring classroom.
At age 49 Darrell put pencil to paper and began recording the stories rumbling around in his head. His first book was a howling failure selling a grand total of 6 copies. Not one to give up, he went back to the drawing board. He has since graduated to computer yet he still makes the same mistakes, however now it is easier to correct them.
Through trial and error more error Darrell learned to write. His books have gained many 5 stars from   those who count –his readers.
Folks who have read his books make such statements as: amazing, Could not put the book down, Awesome, this book kept me on the edge of my seat, a riveting story.
 However this may not be your opinion. Darrell wants to know what you think. Send him your comments. Good, bad, indifferent. He always likes to hear from his readers. 

Send Darrell an email ат   writercase1@frontier.com and tell him what you think.

http://writersofvision.com/

My life of crime

I sit on the bunk with him. We casually discussed life, this life and the next. The door to his cell was locked. The order was no escape even if he took me hostage. They had analyzed the residue on the odor from the barrel in which he burnt his wife’s body. He would be on trial for his life shortly.

Less than two weeks later his girlfriend would attempt to break him out. In the process, she wounded one deputy. She kept firing spraying bullets over the dispatch area of the jail. In the subsequent trials she would receive 16 years he would get life.igo

That was almost 30 years ago, since then I have ministered to what society considers the most dangerous criminals.  Serial killers, mass murderers, rapists, robbers, drug dealers and others. I have spoken to cop killers and cops who have murdered. Where others see those who are helpless and hopeless, I see a potential child of God. One who can become a new person in Christ.

Using my experience in writing is relaxing and enjoyable. While we can’t control the criminal in the real world we can in the world of fiction. A reader became quite upset with Steven King because in one of his books a man kicked a dog to death. King pointed out the book was fiction. Therefore the dog wasn’t real. Yet to a writer while in the throes of the story the characters, the setting and the action is real.

In Sluagh my wife cringed each time a child died. I pointed out to her the child wasn’t real. Therefore no child was harmed in the writing of the book.

While sitting down with a good mystery may raise the Goosebumps on your arms you’re still safe in your favorite chair.   

Like a good christian mystery? Check out my books at writersofvision.com

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