Raconteur published their first anthology with one of my stories in it nearly two years ago. Space Cowboys 404: Cow Not Found is a rip roaring collection of tales from one end of the galaxy to the other. Including the Guns of Liberty by myself, if you haven’t checked them out, go and give it a look. You might just like it.
I posted my news that my Veiled Guardians story was accepted across my social media yesterday, and I did so in some of the “celebration” venues some of the writer communities I’m in maintain for that purpose. And I noted that they asked for no real world religion stuff, while my story was very religious in time period. My main character is a straight up paladin of the Almighty God who fights otherworldly creatures in His name.
I ended up meeting up with another author who got selected for the same anthology, who said they had religious aspects to their story as well, and then the person who wrote the open call stepped in. Said that they really needed to rewrite that. What they didn’t want was bashing real world religions, which some people seem to want to do in their writing. And further said that the religion in the stories submitted was tasteful. Which made me feel good, because I was shooting for tasteful use of the Indian religious elements next to the Puritan Christian religious elements I had going on.
What is the moral of this story? Write something good and tasteful, and people will often take it. And the writing community is small. You never known when what you say or post anywhere will show up on the screen of a person you are talking about. And they may respond, which could start a very interesting discussion.
I have long since maintained a policy of never saying anything with my online persona that I would not be willing to say in person as my real name. If I wouldn’t say it to a person standing in front of me, I shouldn’t say it online. I’m not saying I’ve always succeeded in following that policy. I don’t always live up to my standards, but that is the standard I seek to keep.
It is a standard that I think would serve everyone well to seek to follow.
I just received a notice that the Veiled Guardians has been selected for the gargoyle anthology I wrote it for.
Yes, it features gargoyles. And the Gothic Church on the New Haven Green.
The funny thing is that they asked for no real world religious stuff. I write Captain William Carter as a straight up son of Puritan Connecticut and a paladin of the Almighty God who calls on the archangel Michael for help when he is fighting otherworldly monsters. I was wondering if that would quality as a real world religion or not. It appears it did not. 😉
The really interesting bit to me is that this make three different publishing houses that have agreed to publish my short stories. And each company has taken Wyrd West stories where a Texas Ranger in the 1800s is fighting otherworldly creatures while praying to the Almighty God, and in some of the stories that each house has picked the archangel Michael appears in some way. Sometimes just flashing lights and an encouraging nudge. Sometimes full manifestation of the angel in the world. There is a real market out there for Christian-friendly fantasy and science fiction. Where the hero is a faith-based Christian. And I’m so happy that multiple publishing houses see stories like that and take them and publish them.
Note that I write my Captain William Carter stories as if they take place in the real world, just with monsters and otherworldly creatures that never made it into the history books. Maybe the folk lore, but we all know the folk lore is fiction, right? 😉 All of the stories I’ve written with him so far take place in the past, and I research to try to make everything in the story historically accurate when it comes to the roads or other infrastructure. The weapons common at the time of the story. Vehicles. Telephone technology. The slang that I use. I write my stories for modern people to read, so there is a lot of words used that wouldn’t exist at the time, simply because language drifts, but I usually try to put at least a little bit of easily-understood period slang in my stories. The one that was just selected as a warning in it. “Anyone on the road tonight, they’re not Simon Pure.” It’s an easy bit of period slang, that is easy to understand even from a modern perspective. And I try to make the religion in my stories the same way. As accurate as possible to the period, while also being clear that this is a guy who prays for the blessing of the Almighty God to fight monsters that every credible source in the world says do not exist.
I’m just doing another happy dance over here, as I await the contract for another story of mine to be published. Yes, I know nothing is nailed down until the contract is signed and the story is published and I start getting checks, but just hearing that they liked my story enough to include it is another little occasion where I get to bust out my happy dance.
We’ve learned a fair bit about the shooting in the last twenty-four hours.
The shooter was a 40-year old Marine who deployed to the sandbox as part of logistics.
Explosives were found on site.
Two people were killed by gunfire. Two more people were found dead after the fire was cleared.
We already knew the police engaged him in seconds and stopped him quickly. Had they not done that, the death toll no doubt would have been much worse.
First we should congratulate the police who stopped him.
Second we should grieve for those hurt by the attack.
Third we should all hope we find out the real reason he committed this attack.
A man attacked a Mormon church today.
He drove his vehicle into it and then opened fire on anyone who came to help what they thought was an accident victim.
He set the church on fire.
Police were literal seconds away though, and then engaged him in seconds and took him down in a minute or two.
We will learn more as time goes by. For now, this is what we know. And because police were there and ready to engage, he killed far fewer people than he wanted to kill.
The Martian Affair on Amazon
Forge of War on Amazon
The Audacious Affair on Amazon
Angel Flight on Amazon
Angel Strike on Amazon
Angel War on Amazon
The Family Affair on Amazon
The Thunderbird Affair on Amazon
Wolfenheim Rising on Amazon
Wolfenheim Emergent on Amazon
The Gemini Affair on Amazon