Stu Jones's Blog, page 3

ATFOTL Character Spotlight: The warrior boy, Tynuk!

Now it was Neraquassi, “Yellow Horse,” who spoke.
“Yes, he is just a boy. A lying thief who thinks he’s a great warrior. A child
who carries around a stolen Comanche war belt so that he may try to steal the
honor tied to it as well.”

That’s it.

Tynuk stooped low, snagging a handful of red dirt from
the ground, and flung it in the direction of Neraquassi, who quickly
sidestepped the thrown debris and yanked a knife from his belt. Immediately
several warriors stepped forward with their weapons at the ready.

“I bested you, Ugly Nose!” Tynuk said, pointing at
Neraquassi’s flattened, broken nose. This released a few chuckles from the
crowd. Neraquassi scowled.

“Surely you aren’t afraid of an outsider!” Tynuk
called out. “Surely a ‘boy,’ naked and unarmed, is not such a threat that you
bring your weapons to bear against him? Or what if he is?” Tynuk smiled with
crazy intent. “What if I am that dangerous?” He pointed at the young warrior,
their eyes locking for a long, tension-filled moment. “You’ll regret not having
killed me when you had the chance.”

ATFOTL Character Spotlight: Malak, Leader of the Coyotes, Messenger of the Voice.

“Where
are the rest of my men?” Malak growled.

                  The
man wrung his hands together. “They…uh…That giant hit our group just as we left
with the tanker. The guys that were still there—they tried to fight him, but he
tore them apart. Some of the guys say he’s invincible. That he’s a warrior sent
from God—”

Without warning, Malak launched through the air with a
snarl, his body crashing through the sound barrier and crossing the space in a
flash. The unsuspecting man didn’t get a chance to scream before the ferocious
bandit leader slammed into him. In an instant his body was eviscerated, muscle
separated from bone, fluid from vessel, as his corpse came apart in a pink mist
under the force of the cloaked man. The explosive sound of a thunderclap
followed.

All of the men behind the obliterated truck driver
fell on their faces, moaning in dismay as chunks of meat and clothing rained
down around them. The goons stationed at the roadblock let fly a wild,
slur-filled cheer. The cloaked man stood motionless as bits of blood and bone
continued to drip from his garments.

“Beg me for mercy,” he intoned.

A myriad of voices called out from the shuddering,
bowed figures before him: “Please! Please! You are a god! We worship you!”

                  “Let
it be known,” Malak yelled, as the men behind him fell silent, “the next one of
you that mentions the name of God will share the fate of this worm. God is
dead. His warrior Kane and the others are dead. I killed them. There is nothing
left but this wasteland and the darkness of despair that inhabits it. Do I make
myself clear?”

Kane Lorusso Returns! But can he go on after all he has endured?

Frozen
before him, the terrible scene sat emblazoned in his memory. His wife had been
murdered and his children enslaved by a man possessed by a living demon. Kane
had been unable to stop them on his own. He’d thought he didn’t need God’s
help. He was wrong. These evil bandits, the Coyotes, had then tried to kill him
too when they’d shot him and flung him from a seaside cliff—but he wasn’t dead.
He had survived. He had survived for a reason. He always did. The words of his
dear wife clanged like a million iron church bells inside his head.

                  “Save
our children, Kane. Save them. Promise me.”

                  “Susan,
don’t leave me…”

                  “Save
them, Kane. Everything I’ve done has been to spare them. Don’t let it be for
nothing.”

                  As
he heard his own voice speak the words, they sounded lifeless, broken—just a
frail oath hanging by the thinnest thread.

                  I promise.

Read more in the forthcoming “Against the Fading of the Light” - by Stu Jones

ATFOTL Character Spotlight: Meet Ari - IDF Soldier, Jew, Defender of the way.

With
renewed purpose, Ari’s countenance darkened, as she wiped her face and prepared
herself for what was to come. Stepping back into the shadow of a nearby tree,
the moonless night wrapped her in a murky cloak of disguise. Ari checked the
chamber of her AR-15 and the round count in the inserted magazine—two rounds in
the magazine, one in the chamber, and no secondary weapon. She waited, poised,
every inch of her athletic frame staged for action, as her lips moved
silently—the Hebrew words of an ancient Psalm.

                  “Blessed
be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle.”

                  She
took a deep breath to steady her heart and hands as the grungy highwaymen
approached.

                  “Hey,
there! Don’t be afraid; we’ll treat you real nice.” Several shadows laughed
into the darkness as two figures came into view. Ari knew without question
there would be more. These would try to draw her out, and the others would make
their move. She was trapped, but she still had the element of surprise.

                  “Yeah,
just come on out an’ we’ll take real good care of you!” one of the bandits
crooned.

                  Stepping
from the dark of the shadow, Ari raised her rifle and fired two rounds in quick
succession—the muzzle flashes blinding her enemy and illuminating the look of
shock and dismay on his grungy face as he crumpled and rolled down the
hillside. Not missing a beat, she pivoted and dropped to a knee as the second
thug fired over her head. A single round through the teeth froze him in midstep
as chunked fragments of his brain littered the hillside behind him.

ATFOTL Character Snippet - The Mighty Courtland!

In one deft
movement, Courtland
dropped low and assumed his old Crushball lineman stance. The giant bristled with
inhuman power as the vehicle collided with him. From atop the train, Kane watched
in amazement. There was no doubt that the opponents of Courtland “The Sledge” Thompson
had faced a similarly unstoppable force in the famed Crushball arenas of the previous
century. The bandit occupants of the vehicle might as well have hit a bridge support
at eighty miles per hour, their broken bodies melding with the twisting metal of
the truck, their screams cut short. 

Check out the Official Synopsis for ATFOTL!

A savage evil collides with desperate faith in a
perilous battle for the fate of all that remains.

Sinking deeper day by day into a mire of personal
loss, self-loathing, and despair, former police officer Kane Lorusso is at a
crossroads. After all the evil he has endured at the hands of the psychotic
warlord, Malak, and his army of bandits, Kane struggles to physically and
emotionally survive his own worst nightmare. While the forces of darkness
continue to rise against Kane and his allies, their only hope lies in a faith
that refuses to die, and a God who has spared them all for a singular purpose.

As new allies join the fight and old enemies reemerge from the wasteland,
Malak’s savage bandit army gathers in the West preparing to unleash an
unspeakable evil upon the whole of creation. Destinies intertwine in a timeless
conflict as Kane and his friends come to the sobering realization that they are
the last hope of a dying world. Will they lay down and be consumed as every last
ember of hope is stamped out? Or will they stand one last time Against the Fading of the Light?

Volcano hiked. Marshmallows roasted over lava. Box checked. What...

Volcano hiked. Marshmallows roasted over lava. Box checked. What an amazing opportunity this has been to explore as well as provide some desperately needed training and aid. I will dearly miss this beautiful land and it’s wonderfully charming people. #whatsyouractionofpurpose? #Guatemala

Day 5 in Guatemala. So far I’ve trained with the National...

Day 5 in Guatemala. So far I’ve trained with the National Police special “Nucleo” unit, seen beautiful vistas, drank water from a bag, and eaten a fruit that looks like “Animal” from the muppets. Today I think I’ll hike a volcano. #whatsyouractionofpurpose

Decided to go on an unplanned adventure in Guatemala....

Decided to go on an unplanned adventure in Guatemala. #whatsyouractionofpurpose

We are the front line.

(Re-posted from the archives - this one was originally written in 2012. Though a bit dated now, it’s still a thought worth considering).

When I started writing my first novel, Through the Fury to the Dawn, what feels like years and years ago, I set out to do something that I felt had not been
done before – at least not to the degree that I wanted to take it. That
thing was to write a story with strong Christian themes that was chock
full of the grit and grime and general tragedy many of us have seen in
life. Faith isn’t boring - so why should our creative interpretation of it be so? Why is it doomed to be laughable, unrealistic, and cheezy?

We are no longer in the compartmentalized 80′s and 90′s where
Christianity in media was something that needed to mirror “Real” movies,
books, and music. Christian musicians, for the first time, are really
carving into new frontiers with their music instead of trying to be the
“Christian version of” fill in the blank – and they are being respected
by secular and Christian fans as the artists that they are.

Christians and Non-Christians alike are calling out for Christian
media that they can invest in and connect with – not something that
feels fake and full of geared emotion.

More and more the Christian community is wanting to connect with and
experience the struggles of real people who identify with their faith –
not perfect cardboard cutouts. They want to see true evil embodied in
realistic villains – like the ones they see on the six o’clock news –
not paper tigers. They want to be apart of a story that feels genuine
like the secular stories do. Just look at the genre defying success of
books like “The Shack”.

I’m tired of talking about “how far is too far” in terms of content. Yes I’m sure there is a line - but life doesn’t have boundaries for content - our messes are ugly - and our work should reflect
that. Does this mean we will alienate some individuals who can’t handle or
don’t want to expose themselves to the more extreme content? I believe it does, and that’s OK. To each his/her own. But
seeing as the market is already saturated with plenty of options for the
more conservative consumer – I think they’ll be fine.

I’m not saying the message of the Gospel should be altered or tainted
or that we as Christians shouldn’t uphold the pillars of what we
believe – but we have to start showing life in our stories. Real life.
Bad guys cuss, good guys have vices, and everybody is full of sin and in
need of the saving blood of Christ.

They are calling for us – all of us who create – to step forward and
take Christian media to the next level. We are the front line. Where we
go from here is on us.

What are your thoughts?