Sins of Our Fathers | Author Blog

Howdy.

A note for my readers. I just updated this blog to the latest version of WordPress: 2.3, codenamed “Dexter”.

Installation went easily. If anyone finds any quirks, please let me know. On the administration side things look good.

In my novel, Sins of Our Fathers, pornography plays a part in both the life of the serial killer and the life of a member of the church.

Folks, pornography destroys lives and families. Scripture tells us that sin is ever increasing.. So when I saw this headline yesterday evening I was deeply troubled:

Pentagon okays sale of certain porn magazines at military exchanges.

I know from speaking with people in the military that pornography is a terrible problem in the ranks. In fact I know of someone who, trapped in the sin, could not get enough and felt that he “needed” it. His sin increased in perversity and he was booted out of the military and spent time in a federal prison. But, sadly, his story is not uncommon. How many times do we read about a pastor or church member caught in a child porn sting? Or a teacher discovered with a computer loaded with pornography?

All too often.

And now the military is giving mixed messages to those it needs to be morally upright to fight for our country’s very existence.

Pat Trueman serves as Special Counsel to the Alliance Defense Fund and he says it appears that the military is far less forgiving to those who access porn on the computer, than those who buy it at a store.

“We have actually heard of some individuals being bounced out of the military for having pornography on their computer and looking at it at work,” he states. “Well if that’s conduct unbecoming of an officer, which we understand they’ve said, why is it the military can sell those officers pornography in the PX.”

I encourage you to let your congressmen and women to do what they can to overturn this new “double-minded” policy of selling impurity and debasement to their military. Instead they should be encouraging righteousness and purity.

I caught a headline today on the Drudge Report that reminds me that vigilance is needed when it comes to the safety of our children.

It also reminds me just how depraved the human person can become when they allow sin to freely reign in themselves.

The news item is:

Federal Prosecutor Arrested In Child Sex Sting.

The Federal Prosecutor is a US Attorney in the northern district of my home state, Florida. I guess we get all the deviant personalities. That aside this man is, if the reports are true, deeply mired in a pit of sin. He was caught by an undercover agent posing online as a mother of a five year old girl offering her daughter up for sex.

Prosecutors said Atchison flew from Pensacola, Fla., to Detroit on Sunday intending to have sex with the 5-year-old girl.

He was arrested at Detroit Metropolitan Airport.

He is charged with enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity.

It’s been my observation in such incidents that this terrible behavior and abuse didn’t just happen overnight but was fostered by an addiction to adult pornography that led to more deviant forms of pornography which includes child pornography.

I will not be surprised in the least if this man owns a sizable collection of such material.

It’s sad to me that such people exist and allow themselves to get mired in such sin. It’s also sad to me that many marvel at such a thing. The recent Senator Craig episode comes to mind because I found this news item that reports that people are treating the bathroom where he was arrested as a tourist site now: Tourists flock to Minneapolis airport men’s room

The only way to stop such behavior is to stop it at the source. The only one who can do this is Jesus. He is the atonement for the sins in our lives. Those sins need to be recognized, confessed, and turned away from in the salvation that Jesus offers. Otherwise such sins will be handed over to the next generation and that generation will only find themselves more deeply mired in sin.

That was probably the fastest turnaround time on a inquiry I’ve every had when it comes to my work.

Last night while watching “Monk” on TV with my family, I received an eMail reply from the acquisitions editor on my short proposal. Yeah. I was sitting with the laptop while watching TV. I was trying to catch up on some other stuff.

Anyway it was a very encouraging eMail. She did tell me that she would have to turn the book down because it didn’t fit their publishing house. My novel is “too dark” for them. But she said that wasn’t a bad thing that it fact her latest novel was “too dark” for a publisher she first tried and that it she was having to seek elsewhere with it too.

She let me know that my book was definitely ready to shop around for a house and that I probably should consider getting an agent. She also encouraged me to get working on writing my next book.

She also mentioned the possibility of a cross-over for it, which another author mentioned to me as well. Come to think of it my dad also mentioned that some time ago and he hasn’t yet read the book.

So there I am. My first effort of find a house for Sins of Our Fathers did not work out. But it was immensely encouraging.

Now, I just need to figure out where the Lord wants me to journey next with this creation He’s given me.

Well, for your’s truly anyway, today was a big step for me and my novel.

In between work this week – the cash earning kind and the church volunteering kind – I eMailed off a short book proposal today.

It went on it’s way through the Internet ether a little over three hours ago to an acquisitions editor who was willing to take some time and give it a peek.

I must admit that I stared a bit at the send button before clicking it.

There is a swirling mix of emotions within my writer’s psyche at the moment.

Now the waiting begins. It’s a good thing I’m not a nail biter.

Well, in the mean time I need to turn to fixing up my short story, Wounds, and taking care of some review material I’m doing for my other blog, The Great Separation.

Big Boy is back home.

And so are Phil and I.

It’s nice to be home.

We actually made real good time. Of course not stopping for a real lunch helped, but all in all I think the trip took about 7.5 hours. Aside from that, the traffic was pretty good with the exception of a couple of times where things drew to a crawl on I75. It continues to amazing me how much traffic is on I75 whenever we drive it.

We even got home fast enough to make the last session of a DVD seminar we’ve been doing at church.

Well, now to work at getting back into the normal swing of things.

We and Big Boy are eating up Florida blacktop today with our compass direction set for home.

The trip so far is rather muted. Or perhaps solemn or somber would be the better word choices. I guess I just didn’t want it to come to an end. I particularly didn’t want to leave behind Hannah and Noah. Of course I didn’t have to change any diapers or get up in the middle of the night in answer to hunger or nightmares.

But still there’s something special to seeing a little face light up and those tiny, pudgy arms lifted up in desire of being picked up and hugged.

I wonder if that’s why we Christians raise our hands to our heavenly Father? A fitting image I think. One that makes my heart yearn for home. Not the home in the Tampa Bay area, but my home which Jesus left here to prepare for me. That home we, who are in Christ, will know someday soon when Jesus returns for us.

Wow. I just looked up to a beautiful sky full with row rafter receding row of white puffy clouds. I love Florida clouds. I snapped a picture with my cell but I know full well it will not do the scene justice. Particularly the depth.

We decided not to stop anywhere for lunch, being that we brought some soynuts from Walmart along. Big Boy enjoyed them at the rest stop. Okay, soy wasn’t the only thing in our diet at the rest stop. A banana and an apple added to the pyramid. The mood is picking up to eagerness level.

Don’t let the smile fool you. He’s pretty ticked with me today.

I walked out the door this morning with my camera (which I didn’t use) and the rest of my posse. But I forgot and left Big Boy behind. Again.

Not that he would have a great time or something. All we did was drive and get some lunch at an overpriced wing house. I won’t mention the name but you can read about it at Phil’s blog. I don’t believe he’s posted about it yet, but we took a GPS reading so I’m sure he’ll get around to it. But it was overpriced to me, though I must admit their mango habanero sauce was great. It’s just that after I left the tip, my twelve wings, and sweet tea came to $12 and some change.

After that we made our way to WallyWorld (aka Wal-mart) and did some shopping for tomorrow’s long drive home. Oh, and I bought a coffee cup for my mom.

Let’s see…. After that it was pretty much just a day of leisure.

Tomorrow we are on the road early and making for home. That amounts to around seven hours of Florida blacktop.

Then it’s back to the grind.

Along with grinding my nose in the Florida heat, I’ll be sending out my [tippy title="Sins of Our Fathers"]My first complete, fascinating, suspense/thriller novel. Which I’m sure you will love.[/tippy] proposal which I worked on some on this week in between destinations.

Big Boy isn’t very pleased with me today.

Phil and I went GeoCaching.

And I forgot my little buddy.

Five hours later I returned to find him standing on the kitchen table with his hands on his hips and a sour look on his face. And the sour look was not a result of the previous night’s activities:

I’ve had no success working on writing projects during the last two days. That is apparently a result of some incompatibility between “working” and “vacationing.” If I can sort that out at some point I will probably have a story to tell. Is it something you’d be willing to pay for? Yeah, I didn’t think so either.

Well, now that I think about it I did discover one means to working while on vacation.

Driving.

Be sure to bring along someone else that can do some driving. Thus, while they drive you can work with the laptop seated on top of your… umm… lap.

Of course even then the miles that speed by have a way of sucking one’s attention from the glowing LCD.