What kind of fiction author am I?

TGC25, A Touching Podcast, Biblical Artwork

Jun 26, 2025

Welcome New Followers!

I’ve gotten several new Substack followers over the past few months. Just wanted to say I’m so glad you’re here. I hope you’ll enjoy hearing about my journey as a writer/illustrator. I also like to write about books and movies and other types of media that I’ve enjoyed, as you’ll see below. Comments, questions, or concerns are always welcome. I try to respond to every message that comes my way. Honestly, my audience isn’t that big yet, so that’s not too difficult. That’s why I’m always thrilled to hear from my readers and followers.

Personal Update

Recently, my wife and I got to go to The Gospel Coalition conference in Indianapolis (TGC25). It was 3 1/2 days of incredible Christian speakers and workshops. The teaching, all based on the book of Ephesians, was life-changing. The worship music, led by Keith and Kristyn Getty, was heavenly. And, overall, we had a great time just getting away and enjoying being together.

I am a Christian Author. There, I’ve said it!

I’ve decided to embrace the title of Christian Author rather than simply calling myself a fiction author and trying to play down the Christian label. There are some negative drawbacks that come with the Christian title, especially in the way it limits my audience. However, through several awesome sermons by the Pastor of my church, taken from the book of Luke, God has shown me that my priorities as a writer have been way off. I had to stop and ask myself, what’s more important, selling books or glorifying God? It hit me that I had put my trust in my own abilities and marketing rather than in God. I realized I’d made becoming a successful author an idol in my life.

I know there are many authors who have a strong Christian faith, yet they choose to leave out the Christian title. That way, they can reach a larger audience, including many non-believers. A case can be made for that being the best way to glorify God, because the gospel can be baked into their story in more subtle ways. I think that is awesome if authors are able to do that effectively without it affecting their faith in a negative way.

For me personally, God is leading me to glorify him in another way. Anyone who has read my books will know there are clear Christian messages in them. God plays a part in each of my stories simply because it seems natural. Humans have always sought God, throughout history. Any time I read a book that has a bunch of characters and not a single one of them ever thinks about God it seems very unrealistic to me. Even more hard to believe is when the characters are in life threatening situations and none of them call out to God for help. That to me isn’t real life at all. So, yes I include God in my stories, but I always challenge myself to make the Christian content as natural as possible so that it flows from what’s happening rather than from some personal agenda.

All that to say, I’m adding a line about my Christian faith in my author bio. If that upsets some readers and they pass on my books then so be it. Book sales will come in God’s timing.

Writing Update

I’m still revising and rewriting the Grunts series that I published three years ago. It was a two-book series (Caged Animals and Escaped Animals), but I’ve added enough new content that I’ve decided to expand it into a three-book series with all-new titles. The new stuff includes a new troublesome alien and several new scenes that add much-needed depth to the plot and characters. The story of a group of teenagers being kidnapped and taken to another planet is now richer and has a stronger emotional impact. My hope is to re-release the series later this year. More on that later.

Recorded - Podcast

I listen to podcasts quite frequently. I have a few favorite shows, but my number one by far is called Recorded. Produced by The Gospel Coalition, this show is incredible. The best way to describe it’s content is as documentaries produced specifically for an audio-only format, like podcasting. In my opinion, the format alone is really cool. It feels so much more polished and well-put together than 95% of what’s out there for podcasts. But, the coolest part is what the stories are about. They all focus amazing things that God is doing in the body of Christ, around the world.

Every show is incredible, but I want to highlight the newest episode, simply because it’s that good. It’s called No Chance of Survival: How a Deadly Plane Crash Yielded a Growing Spiritual Harvest. I won’t go into what its about because the title says plenty. I’ll just say, I listened to this show recently on a long commute to my job and I found myself crying and shouting for joy and then crying some more. The next day, I told my wife about it and we listened to it together. She also cried through most of it, as did I for the second time. I can’t recommend this episode enough. The same goes for the show, Recorded. I hope you’ll check it out.

Paintings by Jason Drake

Jason Drake is an artist who lives in my town. I’ve known him for years, as my in-laws used to be neighbors to him and his family. My kids used to play with his kids. In recent years I haven’t seen him all that much but I’ve watched him on Facebook develop into an incredible artist. His paintings are some of the most realistic and thought provoking paintings that I have ever seen. I am on his newsletter list and this morning, I read about his most recent series of paintings called The Redeemed Collection. It’s several portraits of biblical characters, all at pivotal moments of their story in the bible.

The newsletter included a behind-the-scenes video about the paintings. It’s a well-produced video that delves into the what and why of this stunning collection of portraits. I hope you’ll follow the link to learn more about his fantastic art. Feel free to forward his video to others who you think might be interested.

The Redeemed Collection Video

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Thank you for reading!