It's my birthday weekend, and to celebrate, World-Mart and Myths of Gods will both be available absolutely free at Amazon's Kindle store January 13-17.

World-Mart is a modern, corporate dystopia that follows one family's struggle to hold together while the world around crumbles all around it.  World-Mart recently received a 5-star review from the Kindle book review and also finished in the top 10 in this year's P&E Readers' Choice Poll.

Myths of Gods takes a critical look at religion through an infant God's eyes in a dramatic, dark, science fantasy satire spanning from the Big Bang to present day.

Get them while they're free--and don't forget to tell your friends!

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New Trailer! 08/30/2011
 
A different kind of myth. . . .
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Myths of Gods paperbacks are currenly on sale at Amazon for
$7.91--a total steal!  Kindle copies are still $2.99.

About the book:

Explore religion through an infant God's eyes in this dark 
science fantasy satire that spans from the Big Bang to present day.

"From the very opening of the book you find yourself captivated
and don't want to put the book down...."
--Keepers of the Underworld Magazine

From reader reviews:

"A fascinating thought provoking story."

"[T]hose who think outside the box will love this book."
"The story was really good, lots of neat twists. I'm glad I took a chance on this book."
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Making MYTHS 06/05/2011
 
My inspiration for Myths of Gods came one warm northern California day, when I went out into my yard to admire the year’s first real day of spring.  The yard was lush from the recent heavy rains, birds flew overhead, and fragrant pollen filled the air.  Like all transcendentalists, I couldn’t help but relate the scene to God finally waking from the slumber of winter.  Like any writer, ideas began to spin through my mind about a character that might embody that sentiment.

When I first wrote Myths of Gods, nearly fifteen years ago, it was in screenplay format.  The storyline was crude, there were twelve prophets instead of five, and the theme covered vague abuses of religious power.  It hadn’t known what it wanted to be back then, so I filed away the manuscript and set it aside for several years.  During that time, I worked on my craft, writing numerous screenplays and short stories, taking classes, and exposing myself to books of all genres.  I knew there would be a time when I would revisit Myths of Gods, but only when I was genuinely ready to take on the feat.
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About seven years ago, I finally decided to adapt my old Myth of Gods screenplay into a novel.  I ended up scrapping over half the characters and rebuilding the story from the ground-up with a stronger sense of theme and satire.  I condensed the “gods” to five people embodying five condensed properties: Mind, Matter, Time, Life, and Death.  I purposefully blurred the lines between good and evil, inviting the reader to redefine the two, as one character determines, “she of all people knew better than to divide the values of gods and devils.”

The good and bad in people can be just as difficult to define.  Myths of Gods takes place in a society where religious leaders govern with great wealth and power over the people.  They are opposed to the prophecy that states five virgins will give birth collectively to God, mainly because it discredits their longstanding theocracy.  This results in religion, in effect, waging war against God.

The aspect I had the most fun with was balancing the mind of God, Jeza Khess, with her fallible human mind:

Jeza thought back to when she was the unbodied consciousness, and how God had not considered the possibility that the manifested beings would be so wholly human and unforeseeably flawed.

Jeza’s struggles between her human mind and the universal consciousness it struggles to process were ideal for speculating her limits and attributes, which allowed me to take a close, critical look at faith, belief, and consciousness.

Myths of Gods has come a long way since its first incarnation, and I can say with great enthusiasm that the years have done it well.  My thanks to all who helped to make it what it is today.  It’s been a long and treacherous road, but the journey has been well worth it.

Myths of Gods is now available at Amazon in Paperback and eBook.
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Rapture 05/21/2011
 
When I first heard about a fringe Christian radio host’s rapture prediction, which claimed that the end of the world was to come on May 21, 2011, my initial response was to laugh it off.  There have been numerous predicted doomsdays in my time, and this was just one more.  However, the more I thought about it, the more it upset me.  This was real to the people who believed it—and that was no laughing matter.  Good people with great faith, even faith misplaced, do not deserve our ridicule.  They deserve our compassion—and they deserve a society that would not take advantage of their willingness to believe.

People have given up their life savings, their personal belongings, and their pride over this most recent religious debacle.  One must question not only the personal impact this is going to have on people, but the moral one.  One must question how much money Harold Camping was able to make off desperate, scared believers through his supposed doomsday awareness campaign.  According to CNN, he has received over eighty million dollars in “donations” since beginning the campaign.  One must consider what is going to become of all those who gave up all they had, only to learn that they had been misled.  I think of the people who will struggle financially now, while Camping is off living the good life with their money, and I shudder.

My upcoming release, Myths of Gods, takes a critical look at those who use religion as a means of controlling the masses or accruing wealth.  I respect people who practice religious beliefs, but I also think it is important for all religious people, no matter who they are or what they believe, to take a closer look at their dogma—and their leaders.  Faith is not a bad thing, but faith used as an excuse to commit wrongs against others is immoral on so many levels.  There are too many examples for me to choose one or two (and I don’t want this thread to turn into a religious bashing party), but they exist on every religious front.  No exceptions.

I know atheists who put down religious thought, saying that belief in anything so farfetched as any dogma warrants their scorn.  I say belief is personal, individual, and an aspect to being human.  I think it is something that should be respected—as long as no one is getting hurt.  Of course, that’s just my personal belief.
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