Crazy stuff that turns out to be true...sort of...

So I'm editing book two right now and I've come across a character who chastises Michael for 'not knowing the true face of God'. Now Michael does know the true face if you will. That of love, forgiveness, charity, hope, goodness, joy...I mean, come on, you get the picture. But the bad guy is involved in a religious order that has twisted the truth and he sees no sin in killing if it furthers the goals of his god. And he believes it is the true God because he quotes from a 'holy scripture'. And then it hit me...it's sort of what is going on with the radical Muslim movement. I know, I know, it's not politically correct to say that some Muslims are violent. However, the terrorists who are flying planes into building, destroying the holy relics and temples of all religions (including their own), killing innocent Muslims (that would be women, children, old people...etc), screaming for the death of all Americans and Jews, demanding the Pope apologize for, I don't know, wearing a funny hat, and going absolutely ape poo over cartoons are, well, Muslim. And they claim to be doing this in the name of God...my villain seems rather tame next to these vile creatures who believe themselves to be human.

Now I don't hate Muslims. I've worked with and known many. I helped a young woman cope with the fasting of Ramadon (I think that was the one…and I think I spelled it correctly). She had been Catholic and had married a muslim and and she REALLY liked food. We both taught at the same school and she was worried she wouldn't be able to go through with the day long fasting. So I sat and talked with her during lunch (not eating my own lunch) and helped her keep her mind focused on other things. I'm not sure if she was doing this out of a love for God or a love for her husband, but she was doing it out of love and was a beautiful woman for it. I saw none of the hatred for the 'infidel' in her or her family. What a contrast to the screaming mobs we see on TV and the papers demanding that people be killed for thinking differently.

Entropy Gate

It's raining...and I mean RAINING! Anyone who knows me knows of my 'condition'...and I've blogged about it before. When there are long periods without rain, I get REALLY depressed. Fall is my favorite time of year and nothing makes me happier than to hear rain pouring down outside while the leaves are turning...okay, the sound of my son laughing or my other son playing the trombone (hang on...another story re: that soon to follow) or my wife's voice...those moments are totally cool...but the rain...I need it too...last summer we had a NO RAIN...okay...we had some, but not much. It depressed me so much (I'm serious, too much sunshine makes me really depressed) that my lovely wife (I'd honestly die with out her) bought me a CD of thunderstorms and told me to listen to the sounds with the blinds closed in my studio...it helped. This year she bought me a fountain that sounds like rain...So...where was I going with this? Um...Oh, yeah...the drawing I'm working on for the University of Saint Francis Faculty/Alumni show is almost done. I'll post it here when it's ready to be framed. The rain was a real inpiration this evening as I was finishing it up. Okay...time to head on down stairs and watch my wife master LEGO STAR WARS for PLAY STATION.

Why the sandwich?

Many, many months ago I posted an image of a sandwich I made that almost killed me. It's the closest thing I have to a decent photo of me right now...plus, like the sandwhich, I am big and full of cheese...sort of.

How much violence is too much violence in a Christian novel?

I am currently reading Ted Dekker’s novel blink. In the third chapter, he dedicates more than a page to describe a muslim father drowning his teenage daughter because she would not have relations with her husband. It was shocking and painful to read. But was it over the top? I’m not sure. Book two of the Entropy Gate series has its fair share of violence. However, the more intense scenes (nothing so horrifying as a father drowning his daughter in the family pool…I mean, come on, the people who ‘bite the bullet’ in BEYOND are THE BAD GUYS FOR CRYIN’ OUT LOUD!!!) are all carried out off camera as it were. When Silla ‘relieves’ some of the baddies who were tortured by even worse baddies (and she does it with a knife) I wrote it as, “Michael watched in horror as Silla ended their pain”…or some such thing. So, why am I moaning? Because some of the same people (some even related to me) who carped about the violence in my story have praised Dekker’s work.