G. Allen Mercer's Blog, page 2
May 4, 2015
I Love When The Press Wants to Tell You Something Scary
Okay…what they were discussing on ‘Happening Now’, one of the Fox News early afternoon shows, is the reality of an EMP attack and what it could do to the national power grid.�� For those that do not know, an EMP, or electromagnetic pulse is a pulse of intense power that would/could melt computer transistors and electrical wiring…basically anything that runs on electricity could be rendered useless.�� IE: No more nightlights or Internet, etc.
As you know, I just wrote an entire series of fiction books about a family facing this very situation, called ‘Worst Case Scenario.’ I kind of get what the potential is, not only with the immediate impact, but the potential breakdown of social order that could come with a population that is not ready to his ALL STOP on digital life!
But, back to Fox News…during the interview, the expert actually used the title of my book, ‘Worst Case Scenario’ to paint the picture of how vulnerable the US civilian population is to this kind of threat.�� I COULD NOT HAVE ASKED FOR BETTER ADVERTISING!!!
Now, as a public service, in an attempt to educate your friends on how real this potential threat is, and that it is something that you can prepare for, please share this blog around!�� Each of the links has bits of info about an EMP and what it could do.�� There is also a really great story, with a few pointers, that you can enjoy dowload from Amazon!
Here are the links:
Worst Case Scenario: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00USONRLW
Fox News Video: http://video.foxnews.com/v/4215635438001/experts-warn-emp-attack-could-cripple-infrastructure/?playlist_id=930909808001#sp=show-clips
Wall Street Journal article: http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-threat-to-melt-the-electric-grid-1430436815
Thanks…be safe!
GAM
Books by G. Allen Mercer:
Worst Case Scenario: Bug Out, Book 2
Worst Case Scenario: Invasion, Book 3
Follow G. Allen Mercer:
www.facebook.com/GAllenMercer ��
Blogging at: www.allenmercer.wordpress.com
April 22, 2015
Character Assassination
Death of a character…help me decide. If you had to kill a character from the Worst Case Scenario series, which one would you whack?�� Respond to my Twitter account: @GAllenMercer�� or on FB at http://www.facebook.com/GAllenMercer�� If you have not read the series…they are only $0.99 and the first one is here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00USONRLW
April 3, 2015
March 26, 2015
Midnight Writer: Don’t Quit Your Day Job
Are you working for your passion?Don’t quit your day job. You’ve heard this advice before.
Should you take this advice? Perhaps, then again, perhaps not. You see, creative writing is my passion. Publishing stories about people and events that only exist in my mind is how I deal with the pressures of the day job. So, should I quit my day job to be a full time writer and kiss those pressures goodbye? Well, let’s look at some things, because you might be asking yourself a very similar question.
Time: I’ve been asked this question repeatedly through the years, ‘when do you find time to write?’ My answer is rooted in the timelessness of the answer. Since writing is my passion, I make the time.
I wrote most of my first published book at the kitchen table after the family had turned in for the night. Sure I was tired too, but when you are doing something that you are passionate about…it’s just not work.
Now, numerous years later, I have several books published with three separate series crossing three different genres. I consider myself a professional author, as well as an industrial corporate sales executive. Call it a dual identity if you like, but in reality I could not have one career without the other.
Process: I have approached this transition from midnight writer to trending author by applying the lessons I learned in the business world to the art of writing. I use my marketing skills, honed by working with large public manufacturing companies, to creatively stay ahead of the market and craft what I think people want to read. Apparently corporate process has a place next to creative expression!
Rewards: As I have progressed, both in job title and book titles, I can easily see that one career calls to me above the other. But, make no mistake; I have no expectation of ditching my corporate career. In fact, I find myself working harder than ever. I am very good at what I do and enjoy outstripping my competition on a regular basis. I also appreciate the experiences of working with diverse people and, of course, the financial rewards allow me to sit at the kitchen table after everyone has gone to bed.
Sounds like, in my case, I have my answer.
So, should you quit your day job?
Not up to me to decide.
But, perhaps the question is, should you find ways to turn your passion into the job you love? I would have to say, if it’s your passion, then you might want to figure out how to burn a little midnight oil.
Books by G. Allen Mercer:
Worst Case Scenario: Bug Out, Book 2
Worst Case Scenario: Invasion, Book 3
Mighty To Save: The Underlying Grace Series (June 2015)
Justin Flowers and the Orb of Time (Re-release August 2015)
Follow G. Allen Mercer:
Blogging at: www.allenmercer.wordpress.com
Midnight Writer: Don���t Quit Your Day Job
Are you working for your passion?Don���t quit your day job. You���ve heard this advice before.
Should you take this advice? Perhaps, then again, perhaps not. You see, creative writing is my passion. Publishing stories about people and events that only exist in my mind is how I deal with the pressures of the day job. So, should I quit my day job to be a full time writer and kiss those pressures goodbye? Well, let���s look at some things, because you might be asking yourself a very similar question.
Time: I���ve been asked this question repeatedly through the years, ���when do you find time to write?��� My answer is rooted in the timelessness of the answer. Since writing is my passion, I make the time.
I wrote most of my first published book at the kitchen table after the family had turned in for the night. Sure I was tired too, but when you are doing something that you are passionate about���it���s just not work.
Now, numerous years later, I have several books published with three separate series crossing three different genres. I consider myself a professional author, as well as an industrial corporate sales executive. Call it a dual identity if you like, but in reality I could not have one career without the other.
Process: I have approached this transition from midnight writer to trending author by applying the lessons I learned in the business world to the art of writing. I use my marketing skills, honed by working with large public manufacturing companies, to creatively stay ahead of the market and craft what I think people want to read. ��Apparently corporate process has a place next to creative expression!
Rewards: As I have progressed, both in job title and book titles, I can easily see that one career calls to me above the other. But, make no mistake; I have no expectation of ditching my corporate career. In fact, I find myself working harder than ever. I am very good at what I do and enjoy outstripping my competition on a regular basis. I also appreciate the experiences of working with diverse people and, of course, the financial rewards allow me to sit at the kitchen table after everyone has gone to bed.
Sounds like, in my case, I have my answer.
So, should you quit your day job?
Not up to me to decide.
But, perhaps the question is, should you find ways to turn your passion into the job you love? I would have to say, if it���s your passion, then you might want to figure out how to burn a little midnight oil.
Books by G. Allen Mercer:
Worst Case Scenario: Bug Out, Book 2
Worst Case Scenario: Invasion, Book 3
Mighty To Save: The Underlying Grace Series (June 2015)
Justin Flowers and the Orb of Time (Re-release August 2015)
��
Follow G. Allen Mercer:
Blogging at: www.allenmercer.wordpress.com
January 9, 2015
A Close Moment with God on American Idol?
Often times you don���t know that God���s about to do something to you until after it���s happened.
I meet with this great group of guys every Friday morning over breakfast. We discuss how we���re trying to live a life centered around God by our actions and what we study. One of the highlights of the discussion usually focuses on our ���closest moment to God.���
Typically, a ���closest moment��� involves a charitable act, the experience during a worship service, or an encounter with someone special where faith or love was discussed. My closest moment was different; it involved American Idol, social media and a giant extended family.
Last night my family gathered around the TV to watch the Nashville auditions of American Idol. We knew exactly which contestant we were looking for. We were looking for a young man in a cowboy hat and dark sunglasses; we were looking for my cousin, Garrett Miles.
We had already seen the video of Garrett���s audition, and knew that the outcome was favorable, but to actually watch it on the show was phenomenal! Garrett did a fantastic job of just being himself. He���s a supremely talented young man with a country voice that is pure and a guitar talent that is graceful. Oh, yea, he is also blind; but that���s not what this blog entry is about.
My closest moment to God came in the minutes and hours after Garrett���s audition aired. It was incredible to see all parts of my extended family focus on one individual, one event and one purpose. Social media exploded with all of us cousins, brothers and sisters, mostly from different cities and states, coming together to drive awareness about a man that is not afraid to say that his blindness is not a barrier, or that his talent is God given.
In a past blog posts from 2014 I wrote about one of my other cousins on the other side of my family that is deaf���I discussed the common languages of love and laughter, but I was reminded last night that I should have also included song and music as common languages.
Psalm 40:3 says, ���He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our Lord.���
So, a blind 25-year-old man, through music and song, made three entertainment superstars and the rest of America, love, laugh and find a common language. I���d call that a hymn of praise!
After watching Garrett sing and then seeing him embraced by the love of his family after he received the ���Golden Ticket,��� I am pretty sure that God has ways of bringing us all together for close moments; even on American Idol.
#teamgarrett #americanidol #garrettmiles
Peace,�� G. Allen Mercer
G. Allen Mercer is an author with a ���heart on fire��� to write about God���s grace in a factual and fiction genre.
Learn more at:���� http://www.GAllenMercer.com
http://www.facebook.com/GAllenMercer (Please LIKE)
Get the book: Underlying Grace here: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IDL4KQ8
Book 2 News: Might to Save, the sequel to Underlying Grace will be released February 2015
Also, the first three (3) books of the new action adventure series; Worst Case Scenario will be released March 2015.
September 16, 2014
Where am I in line with God?
Everyday we are in some sort of line. When we commute to work we sit in lines of never ending traffic. We queue up to buy our first, or second cup of coffee. And, if you have been to a sporting event, concert or your kid’s school play, there is inevitably a line for the bathroom. Our society is ruled by fake velvet ropes that traverse us back and forth until we reach some destination.
So, do you think you’re judged by where you are in line?
Where are you in GOD’s line?I guess it depends on what you’re doing, where you are in the line, and why you are there in the first place. Also, should we expect something for our patience, or should we be willing to give something once we reach the end of a line?
Matthew talks about this a little, when he relates a parable by Jesus. In essence, a vineyard owner hires people throughout the day to work in his fields for a day’s wage. At the end of the workday, he pays the workers that he hired last, first…and at the same wage as the workers that have been toiling all day in his field. They are lined up and told that the last will go first and the first will go last. (Matthew 20:1-16)
Can you imagine what the guy at the end of the line, who had been breaking his back in the hot sun all day, thought about this arrangement? I can.
Can you also imagine what the first guy was thinking? I can too.
What about the guy in the middle? Is he just happy to be there, and wants the guy behind him to pipe down? I don’t know?
What I do know is that, after tossing this scripture around at our bible study this morning, it really got me thinking about where I was in God’s line.
Am I last? Am I in the middle? What do I have to do to move up or down in the line? I really don’t know where I am in His line. These questions concerned me as I sat in a line of traffic.
And then, as I tried to put myself in the minds of all the characters of this parable, it hit me. This ‘daily wage’ that the workers were waiting on was not money, or things, or cups of coffee. It was God’s grace.
I had missed it at first, but God’s grace is central to my beliefs and my worship; and that was the missing piece. Here it is.
God’s grace, or ‘daily wage’, is given through worship, or a ‘day’s work’.
Every Sunday, I kneel with my fellow Christians, hold out my hands and receive the Sacraments of Christ. And you know what, we’re in a line…not a line of depth and length, but a line of equality. We are left to right and right to left, all receiving the same ‘day’s wage’ of Christ’s sacrifice for us.
Christ has already waited in the line for us. His line was a means to an end. His line showed us the way. Like we Christian’s stretch out along the altar rail, so did Christ stretch out his arms and accept us through His actions.
I challenge you to read that scripture today, or tonight and ask yourself some of the same questions. See what you come up with.
So, back to my original concern…where am I in line with God?
Thanks to Christ, I think I am in front, with you, and everyone else. Not bad for a ‘day’s work.’
Peace,
Allen
G. Allen Mercer is an author with a ‘heart on fire’ to write about God’s grace in a factual and fiction genre.
Learn more at:
www.facebook.com/GAllenMercer (Please LIKE)
September 4, 2014
Customer Service is Slang for���
So, a priest, a race-car driver and a customer service representative all die in the same bus crash. They���re all standing at the gates of Heaven, waiting to talk to St. Peter, when the Priest strikes up a conversation with the racecar driver and the customer service rep.
God and Customer Service
���Ahhh, who am I kidding? This joke isn���t real! No one actually thinks the customer service rep is going to make it to Heaven?
Actually, yea, I do.
I know that these people endure the brunt of our frustrations in their profession. And, I know that, for the most part, they seem to take it in stride. Think about this. They have no idea why your boss chewed you out today, why one of the kids threw up in the back seat on the way home from school, and why your spouse decided that tonight, of all nights, they were going to work late!
For the most part, customer service reps (CSRs for short) are answering the phone hoping to talk to a sweet grandma who wants to share her recipe for chocolate cake made out of sugar���and then topped with more sugar, which is coated in a layer of melt in your mouth, warm chocolate. Yummm���. Don���t we all want that call?
Instead, they get us. They get angry, kid puked in my purse, dog chewed my original foam 1991 Braves Tomahawk, why in the world is my cable TV gone out again���call.
Here is the funny thing about all of this, somewhere between chocolate and a foam filled Fido, there is God.
���What?��� You are probably thinking? ���Mercer, you���re out of your mind! This was such a good, sarcastic, chocolate filled blog, and then you had to go and bring God into it! You might���ve just as easily made a Star Wars pun instead!���
Well, you might think this, but let me tell you how I see it.
CSRs go into this job for a few reasons:
They need a job, and who in their right mind would want to take a telephone job where people are inclined to yell at you?
They have some sick sense of power and feel that they can see eye to eye with the Gatekeeper from Ghost Busters.
The job is an entry into the company that they want to work with in another capacity.
They actually feel that they can make a difference in peoples lives, and this is the best use of their ���people person��� skills.
They actually need to provide for their family, and this is the only way they can find to do just that.
So, how does God fit into this? Well, the way I see it is that God wants us all to succeed. He wants us all to find our own path; and somewhere along this perfect timing thing that He has, he wants us all to have this human interaction, this level of emotion, this sense of dependence, this hope and even this sense of disappointment. And perhaps, the person on the other end of the line can help us with all of these.
Hummm���those things sound a little bit like the adjectives of Jesus���interaction, emotion, dependence, disappointment and finally hope.
Crazy correlation, I know, but, after my wife was just told by a CSR with our cable provider that we should leave our TV on so that we would know when the TV service had been restored, we decided to laugh. Laughter is the building block for hope���sound familiar. Don���t you think Jesus laughed at the absurdity of some of the people He knew���talk about a guy in the ultimate roll of a CSR!
So, yes, I missed the opportunity to spin a great Star Wars pun in my blog. But, I think I can use one in reverse.
���Fear is the path to the dark side���fear leads to anger���anger leads to hate���hate leads to suffering.��� Master Yoda, The Phantom Menace
So, is God all around this?
Press 1, to speak to a Customer Service Representative.
Press 2, to Laugh.
Press 3, for Hope.
��
Peace,
Allen Mercer
PS: I know several CSRs in real life. They are awesome, hardworking professionals that take a great deal of life���s ugliness and disappointments and turn it into chocolate cake covered in sugar. They do NOT get the credit that they are due.
Allen Mercer is an author with a ���heart on fire��� to write about God���s grace in a factual and fiction genre. Learn more at:
http://www.facebook.com/GAllenMercer (Please LIKE)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IDL4KQ8 (Get your book here!)
Customer Service is Slang for…
So, a priest, a race-car driver and a customer service representative all die in the same bus crash. They’re all standing at the gates of Heaven, waiting to talk to St. Peter, when the Priest strikes up a conversation with the racecar driver and the customer service rep.
God and Customer Service
…Ahhh, who am I kidding? This joke isn’t real! No one actually thinks the customer service rep is going to make it to Heaven?
Actually, yea, I do.
I know that these people endure the brunt of our frustrations in their profession. And, I know that, for the most part, they seem to take it in stride. Think about this. They have no idea why your boss chewed you out today, why one of the kids threw up in the back seat on the way home from school, and why your spouse decided that tonight, of all nights, they were going to work late!
For the most part, customer service reps (CSRs for short) are answering the phone hoping to talk to a sweet grandma who wants to share her recipe for chocolate cake made out of sugar…and then topped with more sugar, which is coated in a layer of melt in your mouth, warm chocolate. Yummm…. Don’t we all want that call?
Instead, they get us. They get angry, kid puked in my purse, dog chewed my original foam 1991 Braves Tomahawk, why in the world is my cable TV gone out again…call.
Here is the funny thing about all of this, somewhere between chocolate and a foam filled Fido, there is God.
“What?” You are probably thinking? “Mercer, you’re out of your mind! This was such a good, sarcastic, chocolate filled blog, and then you had to go and bring God into it! You might’ve just as easily made a Star Wars pun instead!”
Well, you might think this, but let me tell you how I see it.
CSRs go into this job for a few reasons:
They need a job, and who in their right mind would want to take a telephone job where people are inclined to yell at you?
They have some sick sense of power and feel that they can see eye to eye with the Gatekeeper from Ghost Busters.
The job is an entry into the company that they want to work with in another capacity.
They actually feel that they can make a difference in peoples lives, and this is the best use of their ‘people person’ skills.
They actually need to provide for their family, and this is the only way they can find to do just that.
So, how does God fit into this? Well, the way I see it is that God wants us all to succeed. He wants us all to find our own path; and somewhere along this perfect timing thing that He has, he wants us all to have this human interaction, this level of emotion, this sense of dependence, this hope and even this sense of disappointment. And perhaps, the person on the other end of the line can help us with all of these.
Hummm…those things sound a little bit like the adjectives of Jesus…interaction, emotion, dependence, disappointment and finally hope.
Crazy correlation, I know, but, after my wife was just told by a CSR with our cable provider that we should leave our TV on so that we would know when the TV service had been restored, we decided to laugh. Laughter is the building block for hope…sound familiar. Don’t you think Jesus laughed at the absurdity of some of the people He knew…talk about a guy in the ultimate roll of a CSR!
So, yes, I missed the opportunity to spin a great Star Wars pun in my blog. But, I think I can use one in reverse.
“Fear is the path to the dark side…fear leads to anger…anger leads to hate…hate leads to suffering.” Master Yoda, The Phantom Menace
So, is God all around this?
Press 1, to speak to a Customer Service Representative.
Press 2, to Laugh.
Press 3, for Hope.
Peace,
Allen Mercer
PS: I know several CSRs in real life. They are awesome, hardworking professionals that take a great deal of life’s ugliness and disappointments and turn it into chocolate cake covered in sugar. They do NOT get the credit that they are due.
Allen Mercer is an author with a ‘heart on fire’ to write about God’s grace in a factual and fiction genre. Learn more at:
http://www.facebook.com/GAllenMercer (Please LIKE)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IDL4KQ8 (Get your book here!)
July 23, 2014
Book giveaway: Underlying Grace (3 signed copies) – enter now!
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Underlying Grace
by G. Allen Mercer
Giveaway ends August 13, 2014.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
