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Doubt or fith, opposite signs

Having Doubts?

 

Have You Had Doubts? No doubt.

Have you ever been doubtful about something? Perhaps you doubted the guy you fancied would ever ask you out. Maybe you applied for a job, doubting all along that you’d get it. After a large holiday meal, I doubt my clothes will fit right.

But what about God? Have you ever doubted His love for you? Have you ever doubted that He hears your prayers? Have you ever doubted what He was doing and why some things were allowed to happen? Do you have doubts about His very existence?

Doubt has been part of the human condition since the beginning. Job, in what’s believed to be the oldest of all of the books in the Bible, was a man blessed by God with the things that made his life joyful—a loving family, prosperity, integrity, respect, and a place of honor in his community . . . until Satan, the accuser, asked God to test Job. Calamity falls, and Job’s lamentations are a testimony to his losing not just hope, but his faith. On an earthly level, his three friends doubted Job’s innocence, convinced that hidden sin in his life had brought all of his hardship upon him. But Job grew doubtful about God. While he never doubted God’s very existence, his doubts about God’s love are clear in his statements. At one point, he asks God, “Why do you hide your face and count me as your enemy?” [Job 13:24]

Likewise, King David, in many of his psalms, asks “Why . . .?” “Why, O Lord, do you stand far away? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?” [Psalm 10: 1-2] “O Lord, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath. Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord, for my bones are troubled. My soul is also greatly troubled. But you, O Lord—how long?” [Psalm 6: 1-3]

It’s safe to say that all of the Old Testament prophets had times of doubt, and yet they all heard the voice of God and some had personally seen His glory. Did Elijah doubt God when he fled Jezebel’s wrath into the wilderness and prepared to die there? Sounds like it. Jeremiah wrote, “Righteous are you, O Lord, when I complain to you; yet I would plead my case before you. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all who are treacherous thrive?” [Jeremiah 12:1] To me, those sound like questions asked in doubt, not just curiosity about the wicked. Habakkuk, too, in doubt complains to God, saying, “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear? Or cry to you ‘Violence!’ and you will not save?” [Habakkuk 1:1]

In the New Testament, doubt is evident even in those closest to Jesus. John the Baptist, Jesus’ own cousin, had witnessed the Holy Spirit descending and remaining upon Jesus and had heard God’s voice announce the Jesus was God’s own son, in whom He was well pleased: “And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son of God.” [John 1:34] And yet, later, John questioned Jesus’ being the Christ. From prison, he sent his followers to Jesus, asking, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” [Matthew 11:3]

By the time of John’s imprisonment, Jesus’ disciples had witnessed numerous miracles—water turned into wine, the blind given sight, the sick healed, withered limbs restored, and hearts turned to God in repentance. Shortly after John’s death by beheading, they helped Jesus feed 5,000 men (plus the women and children with them) with a handful of loaves of bread and two fish. That very night, as they rowed north on the Sea of Galilee, they witnessed Jesus walking on the water. Peter, beckoned by the Lord to join Him, begins to sink and cries for help. As Jesus grabs him, He says, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” [Matthew 14:31]  These men walked with Jesus, benefited from his teaching personally, saw his miracles firsthand, and witnessed his crucifixion and resurrection. And yet one of them refused to believe in the resurrection unless he personally saw the marks of the nails in Jesus’ hands and placed his hand in Jesus’ side. He had that opportunity eight days later and became known as Doubting Thomas for posterity.

Doubt is defined as a lack of faith. Jesus addressed our lack of faith on numerous occasions, besides his question to Peter. When He first appeared to His disciples after His resurrection, they thought they were seeing a ghost. To Thomas, He said, “Do not disbelieve, but believe.” [John 20:27] After His transfiguration on Mount Hermon, He returned to the crowd below and a man came up to Him, asking that He heal his epileptic son because the disciples could not. Jesus calls them a “faithless and twisted generation” and heals the boy. When asked by the disciples why they couldn’t heal him, He says it was because of their “little faith.” [Matthew 17:17-20] In Mark’s account of that event, Jesus tells the father, “All things are possible for one who believes.” The father, in response, cries out, “I believe, help my unbelief.” [Mark 9:23-24] Isn’t this another way of saying that anything is possible for those who do not doubt.

 To His disciples as a group, after witnessing the withered fig tree that Jesus had cursed, He said to them “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.” [Matthew 21:21] In that episode with the epileptic son, Jesus further tells His disciples, “For truly I say to you, if you faith like the grain of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” [Matthew 17:20-21]

 Notice that Jesus doesn’t continue to harangue the people about their doubt but instead encourages them in their faith. He twice gives them a mighty example of what faith is capable of—moving mountains. In the latter example, the mountain He’s referring to is Mount Hermon, the largest mountain in Israel at over 9,000 feet. Many will recognize the verse in Matthew 17 as saying faith the size of a mustard seed. In fact, the adverb ὡς (hōs) is appropriately translated to “like” or “in the same manner as.” It’s not so much a comparison of size as the fact that this tiniest of seeds grows into a plant that not only can be ten feet tall but also spreads quickly. I think the Lord is telling us that it’s faith that’s rapidly growing that gains the power to move mountains, not that even a tiny bit of faith can do so.

Doubt is one of the biggest obstacles in a Christian’s life. How many of us have moved a mountain lately? I know I haven’t. How many of us have laid hands on the blind and watched them gain their sight? How many of us have multiplied bread . . . or raised the dead? Not me. We hear of such accounts, but they are not common, despite Christ’s assurance that we would perform such miracles in His name. Should we blame doubt, a lack of faith, for our inability to do these things?

We often do. In fact, in the 1970s a number of prominent preachers arose in what is called the Word of Faith Movement. Familiar names such as E.W. Kenyon, Kenneth Hagin, Kenneth Copeland, Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyer, T.D. Jakes, Creflo Dollar, and more became proponents of this “name it and claim it” teaching. Also known as “the prosperity gospel” and the “health and wealth gospel,” the teachings of these people likened faith to little more than a positive confession. If you weren’t healthy, you lacked faith. If you didn’t get that fancy new car, you held too much doubt.

Yet, the Bible doesn’t teach that. If we look at Peter’s walking on water, he didn’t step out of the boat until Jesus called him. Jesus, Himself, told us that He only did those things He saw the Father doing. Following Christ doesn’t bestow “magical” powers upon us to enable us to heal the sick, raise the dead, or move mountains on our own accord. Like Christ’s following the lead of the Father, we can only do those things the Holy Spirit empowers us to do . . . at the time when He wants us to do them.  

One of Christianity’s distinct differences from other religions is its ability to see reality from the viewpoint of the downtrodden. Shortly before his arrest in 1943, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote that our suffering teaches us “to see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the outcast, the suspects, the maltreated, (and) the powerless. . .” He also wrote, “We have to learn that personal suffering is a more effective key, a more rewarding principle for exploring the world in thought and action than personal good fortune.” [Letters, 17] So, why do we doubt God when things don’t go our way? He told us we would be those outcasts and maltreated because we carry His name.

Stuart McAllister, director of training for Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, worked for Operation Mobilization in Austria for 20 years. As an eager 21-year-old he worked to smuggle Bibles, hymnals, and Christian literature into Eastern Europe before the breakdown of the Soviet Union. On a trip into Czechoslovakia, he and his partner were arrested at the border, interrogated, taken to prison, separated, and placed in cells where the lights were on 24/7 and his cellmate spoke no English. He was only allowed to use the bunk when told and their rations were meager. He thought for sure they would be quickly released and expelled from the country. Yet, the days dragged on to the point where he no longer knew if it was night or day and questioned how long he might be held there. His mind became plagued with doubt, and those doubts focused on uncertainty about what God was doing. In his paper, “The Role of Doubt and Persecution in Spiritual Transformation,” he writes, “I can well remember a point of surrender. . . . I might not get out for a long time, so I had to make the best of what was and to rest in God. . . . I think I came to relinquish my sense and need for control (I had none anyway) and simply accept that God would be there as promised, and therefore, to rest in Him.” They were ultimately released and expelled, but he had learned a valuable lesson about doubt and resting in God.

As I write this, we’re a nation split over a presidential election. Dozens of “prophecies” by nationally known “prophets,” church leaders, and even Jewish rabbis had promised another term for Donald Trump. Now, they all have egg on their faces and their roles in prophetic ministry tarnished. Those who looked to these prophets for guidance are now mired in doubt. Even those who never heard of these teachers now have doubts about the future. Will they question God if life as we know it deteriorates and persecution of Christians increases? Will you? Are you prepared to find rest in God no matter what?

I’m going to take this opportunity to go on record and risk having egg on my own face. God has only used me in a prophetic way a handful of times. The first few times were personal prophecies for individuals I knew. All came to pass. Then, in December 2017, God gave me dream about the great falling away that He spoke of in His Olivet Discourse. In part of that dream, we—there were several of us at the feet of Christ—were told to expect a financial crisis, pestilence, and famine. Then 2020 came along. We can all recognize the financial crises and pestilence—COVID-19—aspects of this. In the West, we didn’t face much of a famine, but Africa, the Middle East, India, and China have been hit particularly hard.

More recently, at the end of May 2020, while in a time of praise and worship, the Lord’s voice came through the music loud and clear: “By this time next year, a great earthquake will occur.” At the time, I was focused on singing and following the words, so I knew without doubt that it was God’s voice. Without a doubt? Yeah, right. Of course I had doubts, mostly about my ability to hear God, not in Him. Over the course of the next two weeks, I sought Him in prayer, asking for clarity and discernment. Like Gideon, what I really wanted was a sign. His response was to show me that the physical earthquake would be preceded by a political earthquake and a financial earthquake. The sign I was to look for was that Joe Biden would steal the election from Donald Trump. Not win the election, the Lord said steal it. And that’s what we’re seeing this week.

So, what’s coming? My wife says I’m too much of a pessimist. I prefer to think I’m a realist and that the reality we’re facing is that of the tribulation foretold by the prophets and Christ Himself. I don’t say these things to bring fear, but to encourage you to be prepared. Just as God took Noah through the flood, He promises to be our refuge during these times as well. When this time in history hits us full force, will you let doubt take control and bring turmoil into your life? Or will you find rest in Him?

One of my church’s elders taught on Habakkuk this past Sunday. In his teaching, he made a point about verses 1:5-6. “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.” We often hear this verse used to introduce something positive and wonderful. But in continuing to verse 6, it says, “For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own.” The prophecy was about tribulation that was coming. Sounds like a prophecy for today, as well.

2021 is about to begin. Keep your eyes on Christ. He is our refuge in times of trouble, and I believe it will be a time when we will indeed move mountains.

mask image

One Doctor’s Take on Masks and COVID testing

I’ve been asked on more than one occasion what I thought about masks and the mandates for such. At first, I simply replied with what I knew from my training and experience after 33 years in Emergency Medicine. Yet, as I thought about it, I realized there might be new studies on the topic of which I was unaware. That led me to do a deep dive into the research regarding masks and respiratory illnesses–to find the evidence behind evidence-based medicine. That is, after all, what the CDC, WHO, and Dr. Faucies of the world tout, isn’t it? Evidence-based medicine? If only they practiced what they preached. I’ve read/reviewed over 120 studies, papers, and articles on the topic and came up with a 50+page paper for your review, should you be interested. That page count is likely to grow as new studies come out. It’s a bit long to put on a web page, so the pdf is available for you here:

One Doctor’s Take on Masks and COVID testing

(rev 21 Nov 2020)

(rev 11 Dec 2020 – with additional info on COVID testing)

(rev 28 Dec 2020 – now at 63 pages)

Open-minded?

For the open-minded . . .

Most people see themselves as open-minded. They also see themselves as being correct in their beliefs. So, what happens when those beliefs are confronted by differing facts—not opinion, but facts? Just how open does that mind remain?

You need only observe a Facebook comment thread to see that truly open minds are as rare as common sense these days. The CDC and mainstream media say that vaccines are safe and effective—critical for public health—and no number of scientific studies refuting that will sway your belief. You hear that such-and-such politician is a liar, racist, and morally corrupt, and the lack of factual proof of those claims makes no difference.  Or the reverse—a person you revere remains a “saint” despite evidence of his or her corruption. When faced with reality—again, facts, not hearsay—what does such a person do? Give it critical thought? Seek out unbiased information? Search out other opinions? In the multiple-choice answer, it’s “None of the above.”

In the 1950s, a name was given to this psychological tension caused by conflicting ideas and beliefs: “Cognitive dissonance, the mental conflict that occurs when beliefs or assumptions are contradicted by new information. The unease or tension that the conflict arouses in people is relieved by one of several defensive maneuvers: they reject, explain away, or avoid the new information; persuade themselves that no conflict really exists; reconcile the differences; or resort to any other defensive means of preserving stability or order in their conceptions of the world and of themselves. The concept was developed in the 1950s by American psychologist Leon Festinger and became a major point of discussion and research.”[Britannica.com]

Lawyers deal with this repeatedly in the courtroom. In medicine, we see it daily when someone insists on being prescribed an antibiotic for a viral illness. On social media, the most common reaction seems to be lashing out at the source of such new information with name calling, insults, libel, and other verbal attacks. On many university campuses today, the reaction is disruptive protest or even violence. Forget free speech and civil discourse. Forget being open-minded.

Although the condition now has a “name,” it’s nothing new. Mankind hasn’t changed. In the Bible, we read of this condition in many places in both the Old and New Testaments. Isaiah speaks of men’s idolatrous folly, saying, “They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand.” [Isaiah 44:18] Ezekiel also spoke to this condition, “Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, who has eyes to see, but see not, who have ears to hear, but hear not, for they are a rebellious house.” [Ezekiel 12:2] Moses in Deuteronomy 29:4, Jeremiah 5:21, David in the Psalms, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Paul, and others all speak of having eyes that do not see, ears that do not hear, and hearts that do not understand. Human nature is just that, human.

In each of the situations presented in these scriptures, the people fought to preserve their concept of an orderly world as well as their self images. However, to do so was then described as rebellion because they did not seek God’s answer to the problem. Why? Because God is the answer.

And therein lays perhaps the greatest cause of cognitive dissonance, being confronted by God’s truth, which is absolute, or maybe by the very idea of God’s existence. Evolution? It’s diametrically opposed to God and His creation. You cannot reconcile the two, despite many attempts to do so over the past 160 years. The LGBTQI lifestyle? To live it, you must reject God’s truth. Abortion? Try explaining away the murder of innocent life to God when His judgment comes. Religion? God says there is only one way into His kingdom, not the ecumenical teaching that all paths lead to God. That same way is the solution to the psychological turmoil of cognitive dissonance.

What one way is the answer? Christ. Through God’s grace He not only gives us access to Him through Christ, He offers us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to understand. In Matthew, Jesus tells us, “This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: ‘You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people\’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.\’ But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.” [Matthew 13:13-16] Who is it with eyes that see and ears that hear? Followers of Christ.

So, where do you stand?

If you’re one of those followers, you’re probably saying “Amen” after reading this. If you’re not a follower, you’re likely feeling some agitation and trying to reason away what I’ve written. The good news is that God’s eyes are always seeing and His ears always hear. Maybe you should ask Him for help in finding the truth. I speak from experience. He led me away from agnosticism and opened my eyes and unstopped my ears. Isn’t it time for you to join the truly open-minded?

Why thrillers?

So, I’m asked, why do you write suspense and thrillers? The simple answer is that I write what I like to read. I’ve always enjoyed an edge-of-the-seat reading experience. You know, the kind of book where it’s one in the morning and you have go to work at eight, but want to read one more chapter first. Then, three chapters later you finally give in to your need for sleep. Which genre of books gives you that? For me, it’s suspense and thrillers. But a good thriller isn’t just a string of action scenes. There has to be strong characters with real-life relationships. And there has to be a message of some kind for me to close the book and feel fulfilled. A good book moves you along with the plot while rooting for the characters. A great book has depth and gets you thinking about more than the story line and whether or not the guy gets the girl.

Have I succeeded in writing the kind of book I like to read? I can only say, I hope so. I realize that not everyone enjoys all genres. Those that do are “rare birds.” But I hope that I’m delivering a message that can get every reader thinking, while also giving her a story that keeps her involved, and maybe keeps her up ‘til the wee hours of the morning. I write a mix of thrillers, from medical to political to general police. Most of my stories revolve around issues of social injustice – human trafficking, medical kidnapping, and property rights – or, more recently, looking into Biblical prophecies and how they’re being fulfilled today. (Do you know who sits on David’s throne today?)

As a Christian, I write from my Christian worldview. That doesn’t mean I’m writing my books “for the choir.” My desire is to reach everyone with the message I believe God wants me to impart. After all, these are issues that affect us all, whether directly or indirectly. Still, I honor my beliefs by writing “clean” fiction. You won’t find explicit sex, profanity, or the Lord’s Name taken in vain in my books. Yes, the characters might find themselves in very worldly situations, but that’s the world we live in, the same world Jesus walked in despite our technological advances. As Solomon said, “There’s nothing new under the sun.”

Again, why do I write suspense and thrillers? Maybe my simple answer isn’t so straightforward after all, because the books I like to read are not typically “simple” books. A moving plot. Real-life characters caught up in true-to-life situations. A theme or message that makes you think beyond the story. Not to mention, a story presented from a Godly point-of-view. That’s the kind of book I like to read. I hope I’ve succeeded in writing such books as well.

What if?

What if … that’s the beginning of every story. What? No, I’m sorry. It’s not “Once upon a time, in a land far, far away.” It’s really “what if.” What if … a troll lived under a bridge and liked to eat goats. What if … loving parents on a dying planet shot their baby to Earth, where he had super powers and grew up to represent the American way.

Or, what if … you lost the most important thing in your life. The Bible’s Parable of the Lost Coin tells of the great lengths to which one woman goes to find one lost coin, one out of ten. Yet, what if that “thing” wasn’t an item, but a person? What would you do to find him?

Every story begins with a premise, a “what if.” From there you add the characters and, around the characters, you build a plot and give it a locale. Sometimes those characters are like your children, and head in directions you don’t necessarily want them to go. It’s true. Even though the author creates them, and places them in a world of the author’s creation, they go off on tangents, throw tantrums, or get stuck in old habits. I’m often surprised when one of my characters does or says something I never planned for her to do or say. They do take on a “life” of their own. Sometimes they wander down a path they shouldn’t be on and need an obstacle thrown in their way to “ease” them in the right direction. At other times, it might require a hard kick in the seat. Sound familiar? Is your back side as sore as mine?

So, how does this apply to my story, Indebted? Without giving away spoilers, the story is one of loss, and ultimately, hope and redemption. Young Alice Cummings lost her mother to cancer when Alice was ten, and she was raised in rural, western North Carolina by her alcoholic father. Her search for love and family leads her to get pregnant out-of-wedlock, in an era when that was not socially acceptable, the late 1960s. Upon returning home, her father makes good his earlier threat and takes the baby one night–and “sells” him. That’s where the tale begins.

But every story needs a middle and an ending, too. What does Alice do? How can she find her son when she’s a young, unemployed runaway? What problems will she encounter? While the heart of the story is her search for love and a family, it’s her encounters along the way, and the obstacles she overcomes, that add the flesh, bone, and sinew to a narrative that keeps you reading, wanting to know what comes next.

Still, I wasn’t fully settled with the idea of a single, straight-line narrative. Oh no, I had to make it hard on myself, give myself a challenge, and add a second plot line. In this one, current day, best-selling author, Myra Mitchell has a life-changing complication thrown into her path. She’s the “Diva of Disaster” who now faces a calamity like one she might throw at one of her own characters. Will she have enough time to write one final book to leave as her legacy? She finds … oh wait, I promised no spoilers. So, how will her story intertwine with that of Alice Cummings?

The idea for this yarn came to me in that quiet, half-sleep period just before waking for the day. My wife is continually amazed when I wake up and tell her I just had an idea for a book, or that I figured out how to solve a plot hole. She doesn’t, however, buy it when I tell her I have writer’s block and use that as an excuse to take an afternoon nap. Hmmm… Seriously, a few years back I wanted to enter a short story in Writer’s Digest’s annual contest and couldn’t come up with an idea. Then, voilà, I woke up with one. Yet, as I wrote the short story, I kept feeling like I could never do the idea justice in fewer than 4,000 words. I needed to add the flesh and bones. Since I still practiced Emergency Medicine at the time, it took me a year and half to finish the novel, and another six months to polish and prepare it for market.

I guess after throwing in that reference to Emergency Medicine, I should tell you a bit more about myself. Yes, I am a doctor, but no, after 30 years in the E.R. (with some brief time off in a Family Practice for good behavior), I have not seen it all. Still, my life’s experiences have been varied and in many ways profound. I grew up in the Midwest, where my seventh grade English teacher told my mother I’d grow up to be a writer. However, rebellious teen that I was, I promptly took a path in science that led to majoring in Bio-Medical Engineering at Duke University, followed by medical school at the University of Cincinnati. The U.S. Army, in its finite wisdom, gave me a scholarship for medical school, so I completed my advanced training at Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, WA, and graduated to a world of major trauma, as well as head colds and the injuries of weekend warriors. After running a Level 2 trauma center, I became a research Flight Surgeon where I learned to fly a helicopter and re-designed body armor. (Yes, my engineering did come in handy once upon a time, in a lab far, far away.) As I said, my experiences have been diverse.

My ER tales range from hilarious to those provoking tears. I can still see the nurses rushing to assist me as a 200-pound woman beat me about the neck and shoulders as she insisted she was shrinking and would soon disappear. No, wait. I didn’t see those nurses because they were rolling on the floor behind the nurses’ station, laughing their heads off. Seems I recall they also disappeared from the room when a nineteen-year-old newlywed private asked why he and his bride couldn’t conceive. After all, they’d been sleeping together since the wedding six months earlier. That’s all, sleeping. No explicit, implicit, or even imaginary sex scene there. Goes back to an old ER axiom, “You can’t cure stupid.”

But on the flip side, there have been the cases that sent me home numb. I had a 45-year old man who arrived in ventricular fibrillation, back in the day before ambulances carried defibrillators. He proved the Biblical truth that we all have our appointed time. All seven defibrillators in the ER failed to work on him. Not one would deliver a shock. Yet, they all tested normally the next day. And nothing will ruin your day faster than a father running into the ER with his dead child in his arms. Why, Lord? Why this little one?

So, why do I bring up these examples? It’s all “fodder” for the word processor. These incidents all provoke that “what if” response in me. One quote from Indebted is “nothing in life is wasted on a writer.” Although none of the stories I just mentioned have yet made it into one of my books, they might. My experiences in becoming a Flight Surgeon included learning how to abandon a helicopter that just crashed into water. That became the inspiration for one scene in my book Looks that Deceive.

I should add at this point that Indebted is a bit different from my other books. A bit different? My wife rolls her eyes. I mean, after all, with all of my general science, engineering, military, and emergency medicine training and experience, would I ever envision myself becoming another Nicholas Sparks? My main genre is medical thrillers, with a Christian bent. That said, Indebted remains my wife’s favorite (so far).

Fringe …

On the Fringe of Medicine ...

Have you ever watched a TV show or movie, or finished a novel, and found yourself scratching your head at the end, wondering how that writer came up with such a lame idea? If the story was a medically or technology based one, there’s a good chance the writer was flirting with the edge of good science – not cutting-edge or state-of-the-art, but pseudo-science, fringe medicine, or, as some call it, deviant science – and fell off.

Now, I’m not talking about badly portrayed medicine. Television is full of that. I don’t think a week goes by without some character getting an injection into the neck or just above the elbow, neither of which is medically valid. Or what about those lead characters who get shot in the chest, just below the shoulder, and are back at work, busting the bad guys in a week, or less? Trust me, if you’re a writer, don’t use TV, or the movies, as your source of research. I’m sure you already know that.

I am talking about the actual science or medicine behind a story. Is it reality or something on the fringe of science? In medicine, that fringe is often called “alternative” medicine. Such practices as homeopathy and radionics (psionics or dowsing) fall into the “alternative” category, as does aromatherapy, the use of oils, much of herbal medicine, psychic healing, iridology, reflexology, cupping, and more. To date, these forms of therapy have not been scientifically proven and rely on anecdotal accounts of their benefits alone. Each subjective testimony is fraught with potential bias and error, and double-blind testing of such claims has typically failed to show any advantage. You never hear of the treatment failures, just the stories of those claiming positive results.

Please note that, in this post, I’m excluding “neo-traditional,” or ethno-medicine, which consists of traditional, culturally-based forms of treatment such as acupuncture. While these therapies cannot be explained scientifically, some of them have been shown to work and studies into why they work are on-going.

If you decide to include some form of “alternative” medicine in your story, don’t be surprised to find them explained in technical, scientific terms when you research them. Herbal medicine has renamed itself “naturopathy.” Radionics has its mysterious “black box” that looks like a scientific instrument. One of the trends in “alternative” medicine is to take on scientific trappings to make the modality seem legit and of proven benefit.

Mentioning a character’s use of one of these therapies as simply one more layer of her personality is unlikely to cause you problems. However, the risks of using “alternative” medicine in any significant way in a story are many. You must present it accurately, not just in scientific terms, but as its proponents present it. Even when you do so, you run the risk of alienating readers on both sides of that fence. Disbelieving readers might be turned off by its use, while advocates might get angry if it’s used negatively or presented as fraudulent.

And that gets to the crux of using fringe medicine, or science in general, in our writing. If it’s to be a major part of the story, you must make the idea believable. You, the writer, must get the reader to suspend his or her beliefs long enough to accept the premise. The further out on the fringe that therapy is, the harder that task becomes.

Mammas …

Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow up to be Writers …

With apologies to Ed Bruce, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson, I’d have to say that writers are the cowboys of the creative arts. For (some) writers, it’s a lonely life – immersed in a world of their own creation – and hard on those who love them. We’d rather write you a book than give you diamonds or gold, but maybe that’s because few writers actually make a living by following their passion.  And every night starts a new day … as we often toil long into the wee hours of the morning, in our faded blue jeans.

Yet, have you ever asked a cowboy to give up his lifestyle? The handful I’ve personally met over my lifetime would say “no.” There’s something about working hard in the wide, open ranges of a ranch that permeates their very being and becomes part of them. They’d no sooner give up that sense of freedom and gratification of a job well done than to give up an arm … or their favorite horse.

Writers can be like that, too. Give up that freedom of creating a world full of intriguing characters, wondering what kind of trouble they’ll get into next? Never. Abandon that sense of fulfillment in completing a story that entertains and touches others, perhaps keeping those readers reading well into those same wee hours the author works crafting his next tale? Not only no, but … well, you know. They’d rather give up that arm, as long as it’s not the one they use to write.

I know firsthand how writing can become a passion that seeps into your soul. I can’t say I always wanted to be a writer, but I always wrote. I wrote technical papers, journal articles, and manuals. I even tried my hand at magazine articles. However, the craft of creative writing was never something I had aspired to. I’m not sure why, but I think it had more to do with not having been exposed to it in school than anything else. 

And that’s where my “Mamma” came in. You see, she let me grow up to be a doctor and such. And yet, she kept at me, urging me to write. I guess my seventh grade English teacher first saw that spark of creativity in me and convinced my mother that I could be a great writer. However, I kept rebuffing her suggestions that I write a book. You see, there was med school, military service, getting married and starting a family, starting a civilian career, and all of those “real life” time demands that we all face that limited my view of a horizon that she seemed to see clearly. She eased up on me for a bit, but began to hammer away again when our children went off to college and the nest emptied. After yet one more of her “reminders,” I happened upon a writing contest and decided to give it a go. Placing in the top five was enough to ignite something inside. Seventeen years and multiple novels later, I can honestly call myself an author and not only has that passion for writing soaked in, it now oozes out.

So, Mammas (and  Papas) remember that you can and will influence your children’s lives not just in those “formative” years, but well beyond. There will be times when you can see a hidden talent in your child that you know beyond doubt could change his life. As parents, we’re a lot like God in this way. He sees in us the talents He gave us and He gently pushes us to utilize those gifts. It seems that most of the time, though, that His timing does not correlate to our timing, and sometimes He has to give us a swift kick to get us back on course. So, if your child doesn’t see it right away, maybe the timing isn’t right. Stick with it, just as God perseveres with us. Oh, and it’s okay to let your babies grow up to be writers.

Hunting Your Audience

(This is the second part of Braxton’s post. Read “Audience? What audience? here.)


For many, finding their audience is like a novice out duck hunting. Imagine, up at the crack of dawn, sitting in a blind on a gray autumn day. You’ve thrown out some decoys, hoping they attract the right ducks, and sit—and wait. An hour later, nothing. Two hours, four hours. You rub your hands for warmth and say a quick prayer. Suddenly, you hear them. You look up and there are thousands of ducks heading your way. But then, the flock passes by overhead. They aren’t landing with your decoys. In desperation, you raise your shotgun and shoot into the middle of the flock. Two ducks fall into the water nearby . . . while the rest fly on.

Yep, as an Indie author, finding the right audience has been like that. I started out blind to all things marketing. Branding my book covers? Took three tries. The decoys? Ads aimed at people I thought would like my books. Rubbing my hands for warmth was actually wringing my hands wondering what to do next. And my attempts at advertising? Pretty much a shotgun blast that brought in a fraction of a fraction of the readers the ads went to.

I’ve learned much by doing and a lot more by failing. If only the failed attempts weren’t so expensive . . .

Not all of the failures were my fault. The market keeps changing. What worked last year isn’t working now. When I wrote this, we—I and nine other authors—were about to release a box set of brand new novellas: Kill Zone: Ten Deadly Thrillers. Our goal was simple. Sell enough (at $0.99 on pre-order) to make the USA Today bestsellers list. Jan Thompson spearheaded the effort after a box set she developed last year made the list. Despite the efforts of ten authors, we’re a week away from release and have only 20% of the numbers we need.

A year ago, advertising on Amazon held a good chance of turning a $200/month author to a $10K/month author. Then everyone and his cousin flocked to Amazon ads. Now, you’re fortunate to get your ads to show. Facebook was the same way a year before that. Bookbub, the holy grail of book advertising, accepts fewer than 20% of submissions. They’ve turned me down 15 times. Other promotional venues have shown moderate success, as long as I gave my book away for free. 

So, the bottom line is that you really do need to understand your audience because it will require thinking outside the box to be someplace where they can find you . . . as well as faith and prayer. How do you stand out from the ever-growing crowd? First and foremost, write a quality book. Then, with that knowledge of your audience, find a venue that directly targets them. Don’t go with a certain promo just because everyone else says how great it is. That might be old news. For me, I’ve got a new place to try—now that I have a fresh perspective on my audience. And with faith and maybe more than a little prayer, that effort should pay off.
 

Have you discovered other ways to “stand out from the crowd” to get your book into the hands of your audience?

Audience? What audiance?

We all know what an audience is. A big challenge for many is finding that audience. That’s certainly true for Indie authors, and becoming truer for trad pub authors, whose publishers expect more and more marketing from them.

If you Google the phrase “finding an audience as an author,” you’ll come up with dozens of blog posts and articles on the topic. They all pretty much say the same thing. You might read the first one and your eyes glaze over as you think, Duh! That’s obvious. But had you truly considered it before and acted on it?

A lot of it is just common sense. Geographic: Where do my readers live? Are they urban or rural? Does their climate have them hibernating over long, dreary winters with a pile of your books by their reading chair to brighten the day? Demographic: Age, gender, race, native language, social status, and more. Some bloggers tell you to know your target before writing your book. True, to a point. You don’t want to write for action-oriented males, ages 18-25, if your real audience should be women, ages 25-50, seeking a romantic escape . . . because their own action-oriented male is asleep on the couch. <Ahem>

A branch of demographics has been labeled psychographics. That might include things like readers’ backgrounds/upbringing; their health; their goals, beliefs, and values; and their lifestyles. Then there’s their behavioral traits. Do they prefer paperback or eBook? Are they already loyal to your genre? Do they tend to buy on impulse and throw money at books, or are they Amazonians who struggle to pay $0.99 for a good book? (Yes, that’s a dig at Amazon, the epitome of love/hate relationships for authors.)
 
The answers to some of these questions really are apparent. The USA is the #1 market for books and the native language is English, obviously. But some answers don’t become clear until you’ve established yourself as an author. If you’re just starting out, your demographics are likely to look like . . . you. Makes sense. You’re writing what you like, so it stands to reason that others like you might as well. By the release of book two, you’ll likely have discovered other traits that help broaden your perspective about your readers. Things like Facebook pages and Google Analytics (to track your website) can be a tremendous help.

Having said all this, there is one thing all these blogs and articles don’t mention—our faith. As Christians, we can’t ignore our beliefs when discussing audiences. Are you writing to the choir? Maybe you want to pull fence-sitters back to earth. Perhaps you’re called to reach the fallen, heathen world. Maybe it’s not a task of you finding your audience, but of God’s targeted audience finding you . . . and Christ through you. Knowing this, understanding God’s goal for your writing, is what really counts before writing your book.

So, you’re thinking, Okay. I’m getting a sense of who sits in my audience. What next? Well, stay tuned for Part 2.