Dale Amidei's Blog, page 13

The Curious Case of Morihei Ueshiba

The nature of faith is seeped with intrigue. What Paul called “the evidence of things unseen” is a motivator in every life, and our success or failure hinges on the ability to extend the primary premise of what we believe. The deceived may believe passionately in any number of things that have no foundation in any actuality, and the longer they hold to a false premise, the farther they have to fall, as seen in the Germany of the 1930s and 40s.

As an intellectually convicted Christian, I believe that four logically derived evidential pillars defined personally some years ago support my faith. That the God of Abraham exists, that Jesus was actual and divine rather than imaginary or delusional, that His mission was necessary, and that I personally needed to do something about it. ‘Doing something about it’ for me means many things. One of them is to continuing to extend from the premise, to test what I believe to be real against the framework of other truths. So, ultimately, the nature of faith itself must be examined and understood.

Faith, it seems, is what prevents despair in those who choose awareness in a fallen world. It is the antithesis of cynicism in the same way that life opposes death, and it is the characteristic of those who endure instead of perish. Life is, after all, the work of the Craftsman, the same as the faith that leads us home. Salvation by grace, through faith, is the foundation of Christianity in the studied opinion of Paul, himself an accomplished student of Judaism under Gamaliel. Ergo, belief in things “actual” will lead to life instead of death.

It is a common—and I tend to use that term rather derisively—position that people outside of mainstream Christianity are irretrievably lost, though many of them irretrievably are. I have pulled at some of those trying to get them to the shore, and watched them swim away into the sea instead, often enough to accept salvation as something that God accomplishes far better than we can. But there is life to be found wherever God plants faith in the things that are real, and sometimes it blossoms elsewhere of its own accord.

Morihei Ueshiba is one such case, a life originally studied in the context of his founding of the martial art of Aikido. His legacy includes acknowledgment by some as “the best priest in Japan,” due to the spiritual content of his outlook. Ueshiba sensei experienced several personal revelations that convinced him of the existence and motivation of a Creator as a worker in life, founded in love, and was able to channel his understanding of things that are real into an incredible legacy of philosophy and technique.

As happens with every man, O-Sensei came to his inevitable doorway. It came in the form of liver cancer in 1969, and in evidence of his faith he declined surgical treatment. He defied despair, rising from his bed in seeming immunity to the pain of the disease to instruct a nearby gathering of young people practicing martial arts. Some time later, the man passed though a death from cancer with a dignity and serenity that amazed its observers and spoke very well of his spiritual condition.

So, I think that Ueshiba found his way home, through the path of what I have come to call the Christ Concept, and suspect that it is the innate ability of every human being. No matter their exposure to conventional Christian doctrine, for those that pay attention the work of life is a beautiful thing, and the appreciation of its beauty and fragility foster love: the wish and hope for life in abundance. Connecting backward to the Craftsman as the Source is as natural as the sunrise. A small voice that arises then, whispering that we are less than what produced us, and that He can balance the equation between what we are and what we should have been, as a gift, free for the asking.

We are all living the time given, riding the rails that brought us out of the motivation of God in creating those who can choose to love Him in return. You may move to a car farther back in the train. You may even run backwards atop the roof looking for a caboose, but the station is approaching, and the whistle will sound eventually. Morihei Ueshiba did not go gentle into that good night, he went singing, and evidence that he truly understood makes me glad.

Edgy Christian Fiction Summer 2012 Blog Tour

Thanks to all for taking the time to stop by. I feel blessed to be the final stop on the ECFL 2012 Summer Blog Tour.

Without further ado, let me show you around!

My debut novel, published in December 2011, is of this writing currently ranked #27 Political Fiction on Amazon as sorted by average customer rating. It has achieved a perfect five stars held across more than twelve reviews.

“A doctoral candidate in Theological Studies accepts recruitment by a friend in the U.S. State Department for an initiative to the most troublesome province in 2006 Iraq. The many challenges of nation building expand the mission from diplomacy to a survival situation as local and international interests position themselves to oppose a State Department initiative: one vital to progress in an uncertain theater.

Terrorism and counter-terror operations threaten to keep the team from leaving the relative safety of Baghdad. Until, that is, a former USAF Special Tactics operative hunting the men who want to kill them draws duty as their protector. The simple questions posed during a tribal council threaten provincial and regional stability; the conclusions reached explode into a clash of faith, loyalty, schism and betrayal that will help shape the future of two nations.

The Anvil of the Craftsman, the debut novel by author Dale Amidei, will be appreciated by fans of a broad range of fiction; from aficionados of the haunting themes of Ernest Hemingway to readers of the tightly woven plots of Tom Clancy and popular titles of authors like Vince Flynn, David Baldacci, W.E.B. Griffin and Richard Marcinko.”

“Anvil” builds slowly to a crescendo of action, on the way exploring the three basic orientations of the human spirit: love, hate, and indifference. As I have said before elsewhere, graced to produced but a single novel, I would gladly have it be this one.

My latest release is The Britteridge Heresy. Heresy is a sequel to my 2011 debut The Anvil of the Craftsman and the second title of the Jon Anthony trilogy.

“As the 2008 troop surge fully engages the insurgency in Iraq, a vengeful terrorist intends to take the fight to America. He begins with the State Department team who helped turn the tide in Al Anbar Province. Simultaneous strikes on targets abroad and stateside deliver the message that nothing is forgiven.

Rumors surface of pending attacks intended to influence the will of a wavering public. The State Department and military personnel closest to understanding the intent of the attackers come together in an attempt to find and stop those already responsible for wreaking domestic havoc. A terrifying plot of revenge is uncovered that targets not only individuals, but the sense of security and public will of a population at war.

Jon Anthony is disturbed to discover the only thing that may distract his pursuers from the plot is an intense desire to see him die. The momentum of a nation’s war effort may hinge on offering himself as bait for a vicious enemy.”

What makes either of these a hot summer read? My mission as an author is to present faith and traditional values in mainstream fiction. That mission, which began with Anvil, continues and gains momentum in Heresy. If you are looking for a novel that will not only keep you on the edge throughout the adventure, but edify your mind and spirit on the way, you are getting warm. By the end of these works I think that you will agree with those that have said Anvil is Mozart when compared to Heresy‘s Aerosmith.

Please check my website for the most current information on all my titles, both in full release and as works in progress. And once again, thank you very much for taking the time to visit!

Celebrating a sequel with the Beach Book Blast!

Thanks to all for taking the time to stop by. I feel blessed to be a part of the effort during the first of our New Release events.

Without further ado, let me show you around!

My latest release is The Britteridge Heresy (Genre: thriller). Heresy is a sequel to my 2011 debut The Anvil of the Craftsman and the second title of the Jon Anthony trilogy.

“As the 2008 troop surge fully engages the insurgency in Iraq, a vengeful terrorist intends to take the fight to America. He begins with the State Department team who helped turn the tide in Al Anbar Province. Simultaneous strikes on targets abroad and stateside deliver the message that nothing is forgiven.

Rumors surface of pending attacks intended to influence the will of a wavering public. The State Department and military personnel closest to understanding the intent of the attackers come together in an attempt to find and stop those already responsible for wreaking domestic havoc. A terrifying plot of revenge is uncovered that targets not only individuals, but the sense of security and public will of a population at war.

Jon Anthony is disturbed to discover the only thing that may distract his pursuers from the plot is an intense desire to see him die. The momentum of a nation’s war effort may hinge on offering himself as bait for a vicious enemy.”

What makes this a hot summer read? My mission as an author is to present faith and traditional values in mainstream fiction. That mission, which began with Anvil, continues and gains momentum in Heresy. If you are looking for a novel that will not only keep you on the edge throughout the adventure, but edify your mind and spirit on the way, you are getting warm. By the end of this work I think that you will agree with those that have said it is Aerosmith when compared to Anvil‘s Mozart.

Please check my website for the most current information on all my titles, both in full release and as works in progress. And once again, thank you very much for taking the time to visit!

Be sure to check out our other great offerings at the Beach Book Blast Summer Launch Event, August 15-18, 2012, and register to win a Kindle Fire helping to spread the word. Also keep track of the action by following the #BeachBookBlast tag on Twitter, and stop by the Facebook Party from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m CST on Thursday night!

Milestones

Today The Anvil of the Craftsman is rated #33 of 3,612 titles in Amazon’s Kindle Political Fiction category as sorted by average customer review. This places my first novel in the top one percent, and I am celebrating the accomplishment.

Over 6,600 copies of the Kindle book are now in the hands of potential readers, with two very successful KDP Select promotions resulting in a respectable number of free downloads. These were enough to propel the novel each time to the coveted #1 Free ranking in Political Fiction and inside the Top 100 Free Overall, peaking its first time out at #93.

Currently “Anvil” retains a perfect five-star rating with eleven customer reviews, some of which are fairly glowing. Every one of them is appreciated, and the readers who took the time to compose them are treasured. Good news is meant to be shared, especially with a sequel on the way! The Britteridge Heresy remains on track to be published on August 29, 2012 if not before.

Keep reading, and keep reviewing, please. It is the difference between visibility and obscurity to your favorite authors.

Choose to Love, -DA

The Sequel

As the main edit for The Britteridge Heresy nears completion, I find myself compelled to compare and contrast my debut and second novels. Heresy features returning characters from The Anvil of the Craftsman, plus a new cast of its own.

Perhaps my Single Candle Press editress put it best when she observed that Anvil is Mozart to Heresy’s Aerosmith. We look forward to beta reading for the sequel, as she is of the opinion that my second effort will be impossible for its readers to put down.

My favorite aspect of The Britteridge Heresy is the opportunity to feature strong female characters. The first novel, largely set in a Muslim country, did not realistically allow for the placement of significant women actors in the storyline. The Assistant Secretary of Near Eastern Affairs played the most prominent role, other than Farrah, in whose house the State Department team sheltered during their trip to Anbar.

Largely, Heresy takes place in the United States. It features Mary Kelly, who is Jon Anthony’s neighbor, Deborah Vosse, a liberal news anchor, and returning character Christie Wilt, Jon’s college friend, among others. Rest assured that none of these are women with whom you should trifle.

The characters established in Anvil, U.S. Army General Peter McAllen, as well as everyone’s favorite U.S. Air Force alpha male and the State Department’s Bernie Schuster, return to the fore. With their help, Heresy moves more quickly toward “An Evening to Remember.” I guarantee this to be one chapter that will live up to its title.

My mission as an author, reflected in the stated goal of Single Candle Press, is to present faith and traditional values in mainstream fiction. Once again, we have done that neatly through the main narrative character, Jon Anthony. He deals with questions of sexuality and social definition that arise during the course of the novel. In addition, he continues to bring the power of his faith to bear against the forces of hate that target him.

The Britteridge Heresy is an adventure, and a testimony to the power of integrity and character in a world that often seems to despise both. It is indeed rock and roll, a non-stop ride through a landscape of counter-terror operations and intrigue. Along the way, you will meet new characters and see familiar ones in a different light. In the end, I hope that you will find it difficult to imagine life without them, just as I have.

Choose to Love, -DA

The Ellipse

Your life and mine began under a point of brilliant light. All else that we perceive had the same genesis. You life is not an accident of nature. It has a purpose, and that purpose is within the plan of a loving God.

Most living things know this intuitively. They grow and beget, and when the end comes, the natural creatures accept it with peace. What is, is. What has passed ahead is waiting. Existence need not be more complicated than that.

Complication arises from denial. Opposing a process that will occur in any event only wastes energy any creature could more productively harness. Denial is one such opposition, and the realization of this has led to my image of the Ellipse.

Anything that exists in the physical plane does so for a finite amount of time. It begins under the Right Hand and the Eye of the Craftsman and proceeds from the Light. It will return, as that is the engineered purpose in being. We are works in motion, while the Craftsman is eternal. To be separate and apart from Him is a temporary condition. We travel an elliptical path, cast on our way. We reach apogee and begin our return. Every created work will do the same.

The Ellipse has an inside and an outside. One can face the Light traveling his circle, or face away. One can look forward to the journey ahead, or peer backward trying to regain that which has fallen irretrievably behind. It is not difficult to perceive the more beneficial attitude.

Why turn away? All you will see is a shadow. A starkly defined silhouette against a temporal foreground is a poor image to keep of what you actually are. Facing away from the Light, you deny yourself all warmth, comfort, and hope. You can pretend that the Light is not there, but it is a reality, and your not believing will not make it go away.

Turn yourself to the inside of the Ellipse, toward your Source. Reach out your arms in gratitude and praise. Feel the light on your face, the Glory so rich that you cannot see anything beyond. Let the warmth of that love hit you head-on, penetrate you, and justify your existence. Keep it in front of you all through the journey of your circle, and you too, like all natural creatures, will have no fear of closing the arc.

When it is over you will be complete. Your time will be done, and your eternity will begin. The Light need not come as a surprise when the outside of the circle turns to face it in any event at the end of days. The Craftsman was and always will be there. It is our greatest comfort as works in His portfolio.

Choose to Love, -DA

KDP Select promo—final results!

Well, the Beach Book Blast is over. I have learned so much concerning the power of collaborative marketing!

The event May 23-25 exceeded expectations from the start. AOTC appeared on the Amazon.com Free Bestsellers list for Political Fiction in the Top 10 at No. 8. The number of downloads by readers climbed steadily through the first two days of the three-day promotion. On Thursday morning, I awoke to find the title at No.1 Free Political Fiction, and No.118 Free overall. This last ranking eventually peaked on Wednesday at No. 93 Free overall.

Readers continued to download at a brisk pace through Thursday, thanks to the myriad coordinated marketing efforts of the wonderful authors on the WG2E Street Team. I was also blessed, as was Alicia Street, to be featured in the May 23rd daily bulletin by Ereader News Today. A fast mover with a great cover and a feature on another of the major ebook websites, Pixel of Ink, knocked AOTC out of the No.1 slot on Thursday. I spent the majority of the remaining time at No. 2 Free Political Fiction, just outside the Top 100 Free. The title seems to have retired at No.3, in the 250-range Free overall. I could not be happier.

Over 4,600 readers chose to try AOTC. I hope that every one of them enjoys it. If you are a new fan, please stop by the title’s Goodreads page and add your thoughts to the discussion forum linked there. I certainly look forward to hearing from you!

If you are on Twitter, please follow this great group of authors: @DDScottRomCom @DebraBurroughs @GregoryCarrico @KristineCayne @DanaDelamar @ketadiablo @LCGiroux @AliciaStreet1 @RoyStreet4 @KiruTaye @Rhonda_Hopkins and the irrepressible @AuthorTWard

If you would, please also check out the websites of Meredith Bond, Cate Dean, Stacey Joy Netzel, PJ Sharon, and Tracy Sumner. They are all worthwhile.

The effects on paid sales rankings, according to my scan of the various titles involved in the promotion, have not yet gone into effect as we appear to all be yet unranked after transitioning out of free pricing. I anticipate that those numbers will be the subject of a future post. A super-sized Thank You to everyone who helped this happen! I appreciate every one of you.

Choose to love, -DA

KDP Select promo—final stats!

Well, the Beach Book Blast is over. I have learned so much concerning the power of collaborative marketing!

The event May 23-25 exceeded expectations from the start. AOTC appeared on the Amazon.com Free Bestsellers list for Political Fiction in the Top 10 at No. 8. The number of downloads by readers climbed steadily through the first two days of the three-day promotion. On Thursday morning, I awoke to find the title at No.1 Free Political Fiction, and No.118 Free overall. This last ranking eventually peaked on Wednesday at No. 93 Free overall.

Readers continued to download at a brisk pace through Thursday, thanks to the myriad coordinated marketing efforts of the wonderful authors on the WG2E Street Team. I was also blessed, as was Alicia Street, to be featured in the May 23rd daily bulletin by Ereader News Today. A fast mover with a great cover and a feature on another of the major ebook websites, Pixel of Ink, knocked AOTC out of the No.1 slot on Thursday. I spent the majority of the remaining time at No. 2 Free Political Fiction, just outside the Top 100 Free. The title seems to have retired at No.3, in the 250-range Free overall. I could not be happier.

Over 4,600 readers chose to try AOTC. I hope that every one of them enjoys it. If you are a new fan, please stop by the title’s Goodreads page and add your thoughts to the discussion forum linked there. I certainly look forward to hearing from you!

If you on Twitter, please follow this great group of authors: @DDScottRomCom @DebraBurroughs @GregoryCarrico @KristineCayne @DanaDelamar @ketadiablo @LCGiroux @AliciaStreet1 @RoyStreet4 @KiruTaye and the irrepressible @AuthorTWard

If you would, please also check out the websites of Meredith Bond, Cate Dean, Stacey Joy Netzel, PJ Sharon, and Tracy Sumner. They are all worthwhile.

The effects on paid sales rankings, according to my scan of the various titles involved in the promotion, have not yet gone into effect as we appear to all be yet unranked after transitioning out of free pricing. I anticipate that those numbers will be the subject of my next post. A super-sized Thank You to everyone who helped this happen! I appreciate every one of you.

Choose to love, -DA

Find summer reading at the Beach Book Blast!

I’ve blogged before about the 99-cent price point. Yes, I still think it sucks. But what about free?

Have no doubt, I think that free sucks harder. But so does selling nothing, which is what had been happening lately to AOTC. No one is buying because no one knows the title exists. Neither have I had any takers on the book blog circuit, more than likely because over eleven thousand novels a month are uploaded to Amazon and bury my title further into the stack of available reading.

Advertising is a possibility, but advertising costs money, and my objective is to make it instead of spend it. Once I have three or four titles in the marketplace, advertising will be a viable option, but not now. I have one route toward getting the word out, and that is to leverage KDP Select’s free promotion days through Amazon. How many titles are in free promotion at any given time? Thousands.

There’s a optimum strategy to free promotion. Websites exist that cater to letting their readers know about free selections available, and they understandably have quite a lot of them. I have done all that, plus added another element to the marketing push: cross promotion.

Enter the WG2E Street Team, the brainchild of author Alicia Street. In addition to website promotion, we are able to access each other’s Twitter follows and Facebook friends to amplify the reach of our announcements.

I pondered the best time to use my five free promotion days (that are the main benefit of joining KDP Select as an Amazon-exclusive author) when Tamara Ward posted a suggestion on the WG2E Street Team message board about teaming up for a free promotion. I threw in, and so did a bunch of others.

Over a dozen authors (so far) and more than twenty titles are being offered for free (which sucks) or at a reduced 99-cent price (which also sucks). Money is not the objective however. Readers are the objective. Reader’s become fans if what you write is good enough, and I trust the uniform opinions of the six readers who so far have left 5-star reviews on the AOTC feedback page.

The sequel to AOTC, The Britteridge Heresy, is halfway through main edit and is on schedule to be published this summer. God willing, there will be total strangers who have digested AOTC by then and are eager to see “what happens next”. Reviews are another possible benefit. I highlight what reviews can mean to an indie author in the end matter of AOTC, as I will in every novel. More reviews mean more visibility on Amazon, and it appears that in the new publishing paradigm, this is how one obtains them.

So, check out the Beach Book Blast May 23 through the 25th. You will see a variety of titles and genres, and a variety of hopes from authors who work every bit as hard as I do. Help them out if you can. We all deserve it.

Choose to love, -DA

KDP Select debut

Well, the day I anticipated for quite a while has come. I am now an Amazon exclusive author, at least for the next 90 days.

April is the first month since release that my novel has not sold a copy. The title’s ranking, once outpacing 97% of Kindle books, have now fallen to the middle of the pack. Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads and Kindleboards promotion does not seem to have much impact on that trend. It seems to me that it is time to try something new.

I mentioned previously the horrid results of the Smashwords “Meatgrinder” eBook-generating engine as the basis of my decision to unpublish at that website. Barnes and Noble at least allowed me to present a top-notch product in the form of an .epub edition of “The Anvil of the Craftsman.” Sales unfortunately have been running at less than one-twelfth of the Kindle book, and that is no longer enough to hold my interest in supporting the Nook device. Sorry, B&N, but you are a whole lot of doing nothing for me.

Now that the Amazon page for AOTC has caught up to my changes, Amazon Prime members are able to borrow my debut novel. Borrows will generates less income than a sale, but will also count toward my Amazon ranking, and allow me to promote the title as a free download on 5 days of every 90 that it will remain enrolled. These will hopefully generate more positive reviews, and those in turn will make the title more visible to browsing patrons. Re-enrollment is automatic, and if it proves worthwhile I will stay on.

I will announce those free days here as well as on several websites that cater to the Kindle audience. I have accepted that free promotions are part of the price a less widely known author pays for attention. Constant observation of the results that other independent authors have had with the program confirm a good chance of a positive result. These have led me to believe the effort has enough of a chance of paying off to be worth giving away a novel that I love so much.

Stayed tuned—not only may you have the chance to read a five-star Kindle book at no cost, but also witness the emergence of a best-seller. There is nothing for me to lose except a dark room full of crickets.

Choose to love, -DA