Tim Capps's Blog, page 5

Judging Angels Sequel Stats

SO FAR...

48,500 words, or over 1/4 of original Judging Angels competed in first draft.

30 scenes in four general settings: Washington D.C., Washington D.C., Cascade, WI, and Other.

Approximately 30 characters depending on what constitutes "a character" sufficient for counting - here an actor with lines - but of course only a few of those are major characters.

TO COME...

Additional major new characters are already planned I think you'll enjoy.

There is a high probability of piracy on the high seas.

The original narrative continues three weeks after the first book ends and blasts through one action-packed week involving familiar characters and answering questions left over from the previous book. Well, most of them. Some of them, but the really, really big ones.

Then there is a flashback that begins on the original Christmas Eve, 28 days before the end of the original book involving new characters and bigger plots.

The two timelines, with their own sets of characters and plots, collide 28 days after the original book ends, or one (action-packed, remember?) week after the opening scene of the new book - the one that is three weeks after the end of the original one.

Got that?

Trust me. It will be all make perfect sense.

Unlike LOST.

From just about where the novel is in its first draft as it stands, the action will all take place in the same time period with characters old and new interacting for new reasons as additional themes related to the Catholic faith and humanity in general are explored.

But be forewarned.

Things are much, much worse than you think.

Tim Capps on Fiat Ministry Show

Here is Tim Capps's splendid interview yesterday on the Fiat Ministry Show with Kent Kuholski. Listen to Tim as he discusses his death penalty defense work from a thoroughly Catholic point of view, as well as his newly-released novel Judging Angels which presents the broadest readership with a full-throated defense of traditional sacramental marriage in the face of temptation.

Departed for a Season - Book II in the Rubricatae Chronicles

A very short prologue to Book 2 takes you to the beginning of the Rubricatae Chronicles -1952. The Dante Project makes its first move. It is referred to only as "The DESS File," a public triumph covering a disaster that makes it a nation's most closely guarded secret.
The narrative proper starts three weeks after the end of the first book. The cozy little family drama of Judging Angels is broadened to show how one flawed man's decisions can have consequences beyond what he can possibly imagine.
The little things make headlines in Heaven. Also, it turns out, in Hell.

In fact, a Hell of a lot has happened in those three weeks. Mysteries left over from the ending of Judging Angels are answered, but overwhelmed by new and deeper ones. 
Characters old and new people a chessboard spanning two worlds. The squares seem to dissolve into a gray and uncertain moral battlefield. Characters will need unusual discernment to stay true to their colors. In Judging Angels, they were largely on their own. With the stakes so much higher, will they find the guidance they so desperately need?
In the tradition of Judging Angels, no piece is safe, rules are meant to be broken, and anything can happen. In this chess game, any move may end with an abrupt splash of blood.
Exactly 28 days after the end of the first book, pieces have hastily been positioned for the end game. Two old allies will stand side-by-side to change history.
The Other 28 Days
Then, it is time to reveal a different tale that took place during the 28 days of the original novel. It begins on the same Christmas Eve, but in New York City, and concludes with a bright-eyed agent ending a 65-year-long manhunt on her very first mission.
However, her coup threatens to destabilize a complex detente and stir into action the one person who may be a match for even the very best there are. The Able family must decide, once and for all, just who they are, and what - if any - lines they will not cross to accomplish their goals. Yet they are once again divided - this time by recriminations, pride, and the reappearance of an old temptation.
The God of Crows
Twenty-eight days after the end of Judging Angels, the unforeseeable collision of these two Christmas Eve missions - the one you know and the one you didn't - throws the different stories and characters together into another secret war for the Able family. Only now a new and ruthless leader has emerged.
His mission has not changed. Twenty-eight days after the end of Judging Angels, a handsome blond kid with a shy grin and the eyes of a hunter joins the game's ancient players.
Chess is not a game for three.  He will do anything to protect the ones he loves. His opponents will do anything to protect their power and pleasures.
And in the middle of the black and white pieces on their black and white squares, there stands a familiar solitary piece with her own set of moves.
A Red Queen.

TONIGHT! LIVE! On Fiat Ministries Show Discussing Judging Angels

I will be appearing live on Fiat Ministries  Thursday TONIGHT June 1st at 9 p.m. EST. we will be discussing the stealth Catholicism in my new novel Judging Angels and saying "yes" to Christ. Hope to meet you there!

Bear on Fiat Ministries Show

I will be appearing live on Fiat Ministries Thursday June 1st at 9 p.m. EST. we will be discussing the stealth Catholicism in my new novel Judging Angels and saying "yes" to Christ. Hope to meet you there!

Five-Star Reviews, Catholic Information Control Failing

PULL QUOTE - You could not pay me money to do this. But I would do it to help a book that is a missile aimed at every prince of the power of the air, throne, dominion and goofball with a mic in his hand who can't stand sacramental marriage and who laughs at what you and I know to be the reality of unseen warfare.

Information control is ugly no matter what form it takes.
Readers Love this Long, Challenging Catholic Page-turner; Catholic Media Stick Fingers in Ears and Yell, "nah, nah, nah."
All the Amazon reviews are enthusiastic "*****" by folks who have obviously grappled with and mastered the grownup themes of Judging Angels. Add to that nationally-known legal experts who have praised it and you have a better-than-usual release by a first-time novelist. The consensus is that Judging Angels is a genre-bending masterpiece of moral exploration at a challenging time in history; one in which Catholics are feeling unusually on their own.

A Catholic novel that tackles current problems within the culture and the Church and that constantly reinforces the sanctity of marriage. You would think the Catholic Media might be interested in an effective departure from the usual solemn procession of Catholic books.

And you would be right. They are interested. There can be no doubt they are interested in strangling Judging Angels in its crib. They know how hard it is to compete against the usual Catholic formula books and the "Legion" of supernatural teenage romances from which I must somehow distinguish Judging Angels. And they know the only point at which they can stop Judging Angels is when it is a mewling cub it its crib. Let this thing get its four paws under it and they will be looking at a very different beast.

I don't blame them, except for the cowardice and hypocrisy part. If I were them, I would do everything in my power to suppress the Bear. Personally, I would probably at least have the guts to make up some lie like, Sniff, "We are afraid this... prose comic book does not meet the high standards historic in EWTN's programming and personalities." On second thought, maybe that would't be such a good idea.


Fit Our Mercy Agenda or We Will Kick the Crap Out of Your Catholic Fiction in the Back Alley
We do not live in a time when the Church and its organs are likely to get behind a vigorous defense of marriage. Write a book for children about the beauty of same-sex parentage and the Vatican itself will give you a letter to promote your book. Write a book where a man attempts to deal with extraordinary temptation and insists that what he does is more important that how he happens to feel at the moment and the Church will hate you. Expose the real methods of temptation and the Church will do everything possible to keep that information out of your hands.

Kind of weird if you think about, huh?

You don't fit the Mercy narrative. Throw darts at Pope Francis' Insult Board until you have enough papal insults to piece together your own authentic-sounding Vatican review.


The Index of Forbidden Orthodox Books
It used to be the Church put heretical books on The Index. Now the Church puts orthodox books on the unofficial index. This just tells me how weak they fear their position is, if they are afraid of a trifle like Judging Angels.

On the other hand, right now, none of this helps help Judging Angels. Does anyone imagine it's all about the money? That's not the way things work except for the very, very few lightning strike first-time novels. No, it is about getting pages in front of eyeballs, and thoughts behind those. That is all it has ever been. I hope you knew that all along.

Ah, the days when all an aspiring stage star had to do was sleep with Addison deWitt as in All About Eve. Now they're not satisfied with your body. They want you to give up your soul by helping them deny inconvenient truths of the Faith while the Church struggles to stay relevant in a non-supernaturalist world.

There are some brave souls that get it and who will give us interviews. (Couple coming up soon, so keep an eye on this page.) But the EWTNs of the world - the Catholic big shots who see themselves as the gatekeepers to Catholic Culture and fire brigades for Rome's very own merry incendiary all-male chorus are doing their best to throttle this cute little brown Bear cub with huge, moist eyes. Dinosaurs, meet mammals. We may not look like much now, but we're more adaptive, infinitely more efficient, a lot more entertaining, and - here's the weird part - more faithful to the Catholic Faith.

If I had had my characters finding the answers to their marital problems from a leaf-through of Amorous Laetitia they'd love Judging Angels. Perhaps I might have George and Alice just part ways and form new unions that make everyone happy (or at least some of them rich). Kids? Eh, they get over such things, no?


EWTN Won't Say Why it Hates Bears - But Make No Mistake, that is what it is All About
The experts who "know" it is really this or that issue irrelevant to the book itself don't know what they are talking about. Let's say for the sake of argument Catholic Media thinks my publisher has gone off the deep end against Trump. It is hard to explain the chilly silence from Trump-hating elements of Catholic Media, then. No, this is all about the Bear.

You may wonder why a coalition of Catholic bloggers don't outweigh the EWTNs of the world. God bless us, that's not the way we roll.

Judging Angels would be on oxygen - if they let it have any oxygen. And, like I said, there are brave and independent reviewers who will do the job EWTN is scared to. There is one thing Catholic Media can't control. They can't stop readers who liked Judging Angels from giving it good reviews.


Our Only Hope; Reviews
This, friends, is our only avenue of attack. It seems like such a tiny thing. Frankly, I would rather have 25 four- or five- star reviews from readers on Amazon than ten minutes with some yuk-it-up hosts on an EWTN morning show. That's my one chance - good reviews. Get enough of those and maybe Judging Angels can overcome the hostility from Catholic Media and getting hobbled by its wildly inappropriate "Catholic Fantasy" category.

There are ways Judging Angels can survive long enough to crawl out of  out of its crib and start to defend itself. It's largely up to you. Let me just say this: It is not easy to flat out beg, even for a Bear. Try it sometime. Now try it after giving people a million reasons to make fun of you ("he thinks he's a Bear; he talks about his own novel; he adds little stories; and tries to be funny") and then put yourself as a public figure out there at even 36.000 views a month.

That is why I am so happy to sacrifice my profit by providing free shipping, a.k.a. my cut. It makes me happier to imagine people enjoying my novel rather than pocketing a few bucks. (I won't gouge you until Volume IV of the Rubricatae Chronicles.)


Not About the Money - About Showing Them We Don't Need Them
I want the books in people's  hands. Heck, read one, then pass it around and generate a few more reviews. I would rather have reviews than sales. (I am happy to generate sales for my publisher, except we are in slightly different positions here: she having taken all the risk, with me just doing the fun part.)

For four years I have written a nearly daily blog without charging a penny. It has always been about the content: whether desperate Morse-code intercepts, gentle Lenten fables, in-depth analysis, or cutting satire. And I don't think I've gotten bitter, for all of that. I will leave the quality of the Bear's corpus of work for others to judge. And I'm proud of my commentators, some of the best in the business. They have come, and they have gone, and every one that has gone has been missed.

And those, ladies and gentlemen, are my bona fides for putting message above money. I am not laying sole claim to that, either. Most bloggers are similarly generous.  And you may see a donate button, but I'll be damned if I ever block your access to the content you came for for as much as a tenth of a second. Yeah, my ads are on the sidebar, but you can look at them or not. And notice how I have mostly finished separating the writing content here (where I might actually sell some books) from the Bear's main page with tens of thousands more views. Please repay the favor once in awhile, if you don't mind, by checking out this blog.

You could not pay me money to do this. But I would do it to help a book that is a missile aimed at every prince of the power of the air, throne, dominion and goofball with a mic in his hand who can't stand sacramental marriage and laughs at what you and I know to be the reality of unseen warfare.

Maybe we won't break the code with this novel. If even we learn something for the next guy, I'll take it.

Book Signing for Afternoon Shipment

Book signing for afternoon shipment.

Hello, my name is Buster. How may I help you?Everything Y...

Hello, my name is Buster. How may I help you?


Everything You Need to Know About Judging Angels andHow to Get Your Autographed Copy
Right now, the 500-page trade paperback edition of Judging Angels is available through St. Corbinian's Bear's ephemeris at the cost of $29.99. That is the same price one would pay through Amazon Prime for a non-autographed version.

As part of the roll-out promotion, the Bear will not charge U.S. customers (only) shipping costs for orders placed between now and June 30th, 2017. In other words, the Bear will eat the shipping charges (i.e. his profit) for a limited time to put the book into your hands. The Bear would love to extend the same offer to all of his friends, but international shipping costs can be outrageous.

Purchase through the regular yellow Buy Now button in the sidebar. Please tell the Bear to whom and how you would like him to autograph your copy of Judging Angels. The idea is to fill out the box above the Buy button before sending. I have noticed PayPal seems to have dropped one or two. I will not ship if there is any question, so you might preempt potential confusion by going ahead and emailing the autograph instructions separately, too, to st.corbinians.bear@gmail.com .

Just make sure I can connect the PayPal order with your email address, i.e. use the same email for both.

It should automatically handle price and shipping address. If something seems amiss - and, since this was designed by a small dog, it probably will - please let Bear know so he can fix it.

If you do not use PayPal, please send a personal check in the same amount, enclosed with a letter detailing all the same information. (Until we get a P.O. box, just email Bear at st.corbinians.bear@gmail.com for the address of Bear Compound.)

*If you are viewing this page on a phone and not seeing the sidebar, please find "view web version" at the bottom and click. Then you may maneuver around on the sidebar.

********************

INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING

Bear can assure you that Buster will be severely punished for this oversight by increasing his sales quota. And he has to gather his own straw.

International shipping costs may be as much as or more than the book itself. Some buyers have nonetheless opted to incur the additional charge The Bear suggests two options.

Email the Bear at st.corbinians.bear@gmail.com and ask how much shipping will be to where it is you want it sent. We will assume cheapest cost unless instructed to use a specific, faster method. When you receive back the shipping cost, buy the book through the normal PayPal buy button for 29.99, then add the shipping cost separately by the Donation button. 

In the alternative, the Bear has in mind light card stock sized-insert or bookmark, possibly with artwork, with the autograph done just the same, and mailed. 


*******************
If You don't Mind, Would You Please Consider an Amazon Review?
As the Bear has mentioned before, today's world of publishing places a lot of importance on Amazon reviews. The Bear hopes his book makes his friends laugh, think, and sleep with the lights on for the rest of their lives. If you like it, please do the Bear a favor by leaving a four- or five-star review over at Amazon. If not, please consider dropping him a quick email, instead, telling the Bear what you did not like, so that Volume II of the Rubricatae Chronicles may better meet your expectations.


Buyer Notes
The Bear has said this before, but there is very sparse, mild profanity, some adult situations, scenes of violence, and adult themes including adultery, divorce, suicide, the harmful effects on children of bad choices made by parents, and confusion over mixed signals that seem to be coming from the Roman Catholic Church today. There is nothing explicit or gratuitous, and the novel takes strong implicit moral stands in line with the magisterium of the Church. It is intended to be a thought-provoking novel for grownups. It is not a novelized version of this ephemeris (although friends should recognize the style and a phrase or two).

That said, the overt Catholicism is limited for a Catholic Urban Fantasy (etc.) novel. Religion plays some role in the lives of some but not all, characters, just like in real life. For some it plays none whatsoever. It is always taken seriously, though, even when taken seriously wrong. In other words, there is no moralizing, no proselyting, and non-Catholics should be more intrigued than overwhelmed. It was the Bear's hope to reach a larger potential audience with a novel built on Christian bones with Catholic DNA. However, any person who must deal with temptation might find it a useful study.

And, then, of course, there are always redheads and guns in this C.S. Lewis - Raymond Chandler mashup. (How did the Bear manage to forget to put a Bear in?)



The Afterword: Tying Real-Life Legal Elements to the Novel
One thing that always gets missed in discussion is the afterword that relates legal elements of the novel to the real world. Some are accurate, some are exaggerated for illustrative purposes, humor or good-natured malice. Most fall under the category of  "do not try this at home." However, if you are interested in some of the more arcane aspects of the real criminal justice system you might not see on CSI - especially when it comes to the death penalty - you might learn a few things.

While it is (among other things) a crime novel, it is not a courtroom drama. It has very little to say about the death penalty per se and what few comments there are are simply true to the characters' making them. In other words, this is not an anti-death-penalty argument the Bear is trying to slip beneath your nose. Two of the main characters are death penalty defenders, and one of them has suffered spiritually from the way he views himself in that role.

The Bear thanks you for your support and patience during this incredibly busy and stressful time for him. He understands that this has caused a disruption of your regular programming. The Bear is no longer sure he even had regular programming. He hopes that those of you who get a copy of Judging Angels in your paws enjoy it.

Our Shipping Department is Now Ready to Serve You

Hello, my name is Buster. How may I serve you?
Everything You Need to Know About Judging Angels andHow to Get Your Autographed Copy
Right now, the 500-page trade paperback edition of Judging Angels is available through St. Corbinian's Bear's ephemeris at the cost of $29.99. That is the same price one would pay through Amazon Prime for a non-autographed version.

As part of the roll-out promotion, the Bear will not charge U.S. customers shipping for orders placed between now and June 30th, 2017. In other words, the Bear will eat the shipping charges for a limited time to put the book into your hands.

The Bear will also, for the same limited period, include an original Super Fun Happy Bear Doodle on the autograph page, unless you tell him not to. He has spent hours mastering this and other Bear doodles to district his editor from, well, editing his markups.

Purchase through the regular yellow Buy Now button in the sidebar.* Please tell the Bear to whom and how you would like him to autograph your copy of Judging Angels. (You probably do not want to give a Bear too much latitude unless you want dismembered ponies scrawled all over the first several pages in red magic marker.)

It should automatically handle price and shipping address. If something seems amiss - and, since this was designed by a Bear, it probably will - please let Bear know so he can fix it.

If you do not use PayPal, please send a personal check in the same amount, enclosed with a letter detailing the same information.

*If you are viewing this page on a phone and not seeing the sidebar, please find "view web version" at the bottom and click. Then you may maneuver around on the sidebar.


If You don't Mind, Would You Please Consider an Amazon Review?
As the Bear has mentioned before, today's world of publishing places a lot of importance on Amazon reviews. The Bear hopes his book makes his friends laugh, think, and sleep with the lights on for the rest of their lives. If you like it, please do the Bear a favor by leaving a four- or five-star review over at Amazon. If not, please consider dropping him a quick email, instead, telling the Bear what you did not like, so that Volume II of the Rubricatae Chronicles may better meet your expectations.


Buyer Notes
The Bear has said this before, but there is very sparse, mild profanity, some adult situations, scenes of violence, and adult themes including adultery, divorce, suicide, the harmful effects on children of bad choices made by parents, and confusion over mixed signals that seem to be coming from the Roman Catholic Church today. There is nothing explicit or gratuitous, and the novel takes strong implicit moral stands in line with the magisterium of the Church. It is intended to be a thought-provoking novel for grownups. It is not a novelized version of this ephemeris (although friends should recognize the style and a phrase or two).

That said, the overt Catholicism is limited for a Catholic Urban Fantasy (etc.) novel. Religion plays some role in the lives of some but not all, characters, just like in real life. For some it plays none whatsoever. It is always taken seriously, though, even when taken seriously wrong. In other words, there is no moralizing, no proselyting, and non-Catholics should be more intrigued than overwhelmed. It was the Bear's hope to reach a larger potential audience with a novel built on Christian bones with Catholic DNA. However, any person who must deal with temptation might find it a useful study.

And, then, of course, there are always redheads and guns in this C.S. Lewis - Raymond Chandler mashup. (How did the Bear manage to forget to put a Bear in?)



The Afterword: Tying Real-Life Legal Elements to the Novel
One thing that always gets missed in discussion is the afterword that relates legal elements of the novel to the real world. Some are accurate, some are exaggerated for illustrative purposes, humor or good-natured malice. Most fall under the category of  "do not try this at home." However, if you are interested in some of the more arcane aspects of the real criminal justice system you might not see on CSI - especially when it comes to the death penalty - you might learn a few things.

While it is (among other things) a crime novel, it is not a courtroom drama. It has very little to say about the death penalty per se and what few comments there are are simply true to the characters' making them. In other words, this is not an anti-death-penalty argument the Bear is trying to slip beneath your nose. Two of the main characters are death penalty defenders, and one of them has suffered spiritually from the way he views himself in that role.

The Bear thanks you for your support and patience during this incredibly busy and stressful time for him. He understands that this has caused a disruption of your regular programming. The Bear is no longer sure he even had regular programming. He hopes that those of you who get a copy of Judging Angels in your paws enjoy it.

Judging Angels Book Club Questions

Tell your doctor that Adapt is right for you. Remind him
to expect the thick envelope on the usual day.
It's bound to happen. Badgers, bunnies, lions, tigers and Bears will be gathering in clearings, dens and Starbucks to discuss their kind's novel, Judging Angels. To get the discussion going for book clubs, here are some suggested questions.

Q: After reading the book, which of the weapons in the story would you choose to defend yourself (it's your story, so you can tell it however you want) from a village of heavily armed rednecks high on Nazi meth?

Q. Can you accurately recite from memory the directions for making Nazi meth? (That isn't covered in the book, so you might want to keep quiet if you can. Book clubs are all infiltrated by the FBI.)

Q. You have asked your doctor for a prescription for Adapt, haven't you? If not, why not? It's pretty cheap through informal channels if your doctor has not yet been sufficiently... educated on its benefits. [Bear discloses he is a paid spokesanimal for Hermes Pharmaceuticals and the world's number one drug, Adapt. "Adapt: the only medicine you need because there is nothing wrong - with you."]

Q. A blond, a brunette and a redhead... wait a second. That's a joke, not a question. You've heard it anyway. But the answer is the redhead.

Q. If you break up with someone you shouldn't be seeing in the first place do you (a) make him/her give back the key to your apartment; or (b) give him/her the key to your apartment if he/she doesn't already have it?

Q. Name the effects of 25 blunt instruments on a human head. (Actually, pretty much one answer covers all of them.)

Q. Are violent videogames for children (a) harmful; or (b) good training?

Q. According to St. Thomas Aquinas, is it okay to do evil in order to accomplish a good result?

Q. Describe the difference between a search warrant and a writ.

Q. Who was the star of the 1925 silent version of Ben-Hur? Elaborate.

Q. You walk into a bar on Christmas Eve. An odd but very attractive member of the opposite sex is determined to go home with you. Do you say (a) "What the Hell, sure!" (b) "Poor thing, this is clearly a Good Samaritan situation;" or (c) "No." Now let's say you're married. Does that make a difference, or do you shrug and say, "I heard somewhere they're changing the rules in this area."

Q. Which member of your family should you be most worried about being kidnapped? Your spouse? Your oldest son? Or your adorable six-year-old daughter who has just been given her first pony (under questionable circumstances but never mind)? (See trailer at top right corner for hint.)

Q. Describe polymerase chain reaction and its use in (a) forensic science; and (b) replication packages with regard to the local corvid typus and that of any passengers or revenants.

Q. Who can have identical fingerprints? (a) twins; (b) clones; (c) no one; (d) thanks, you just destroyed the entire criminal justice system.

Q. What do you think was the most questionable element of a book sold under Amazon's "Christian Fantasy" category?

Q. If "a brush ax" is the answer, what is the question?

Q. What is the working title of the next volume in The Rubricatae Chronicles?