Robert Roush's Blog, page 8

We Have Winners

In The Image of Man
The giveaway for Book One of the Unseen Dominion series is officially closed and we have our winners.

Not to fear, you can still pick up the eBook or order your copy of the book at Amazon.

Book Review - The Road by Cormac McCarthy

I must say this is one of the most unique reads I've encountered in a long time. Cormac possesses considerable skill in weaving a believable apocalyptic story in a setting of little hope. The author exhibits an outstanding ability to get the reader to fall in love with characters who have experienced such disheartening trials.

As an author, I love the fact that this story was so successful, while breaking some of the most substantial "rules" of writing. For example, I think there are more quotation marks in this paragraph than the entire book. Whether the choice to omit such basic elements of writing is intended to emphasize the dire situation of the story, I can't say. What I can say is that it isn't missed. It stands as proof that story triumphs over form or expectations.

As might be expected of an apocalyptic themed story, this book contains some disturbing imagery and descriptions that would not be suitable for young readers and the faint of heart.

Thanksgiving with Daryl and Marilyn Williams

© Brent Hofacker - Fotolia.com Two red candles burned in the center of the dining room table. A feast-for-two sat between Daryl and his high-school sweetheart. A small turkey, golden-brown and food for a week for the two of them. Cranberry sauce, green-bean casserole—complete with French-fried onions, mashed red-potatoes, and two glasses of egg nog. A presentation matched only by the aroma of pumpkin pie, for later.

“Wow,” he said, “how many people did you invite to join us today?” The presence of only two chairs at the table made it a rhetorical question.

A glimpse of pain flashed across her face before the olive-skinned smile returned. Nary a day passed when she did not reflect on the quickly approaching thirties. To her, an inevitable proclamation of her barrenness.

He reached across the table and took her slender hand. He looked deep into her hazel eyes. “You are what I am truly thankful for—today and always.”

Tears welled in her eyes. “I just want to give you a family.”

“Marilyn, no. We are a family. We’ve been a family since we said ‘I do.’ Kid’s don’t make a family.”

She squeezed his hand. “Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.” She swept a stray patch of her long black hair behind her shoulder. Her elegance and beauty seemed to grow with each year.

He was hungry. A hungry man seated at a table full of food. Truly something for which to be thankful. “Shall we eat?” He smiled and winked at her. “’Cause I’m anxious for desert.”

The food tasted as sweet and luscious as it looked. In just minutes, they polished off their fabulous meal. She spent hours preparing it.

He helped her put away the leftovers. He’d be able to taunt his fellow officers with his lunches for the next week.

Dishes done, they cuddled together in front of the fireplace and enjoyed feeding one another pumpkin pie.

To say he didn’t want children would be a lie. But, he couldn’t imagine being more content than with the life he possessed. Just him and his precious beauty.

He couldn’t live with himself if he ever hurt her.

Get to know Daryl and Marilyn better . . . Read In The Image of Man - an Unseen Dominion Novel and be on the lookout for Book Two coming next year.
This Thanksgiving story takes place in 2014, six years before In The Image of Man.

Thanksgiving with Ima

© SergiyN - Fotolia.com Would Uncle M come to see her today? The last time she visited his office, she noticed a special square on his desk calendar. The month of November. Months didn’t mean much in that place. Every day like the last, every year gave way to the next with little fanfare. Yet, she noticed a typed description on Thursday, November-Twenty-Seven. Thanksgiving Day.

She had little for which to be thankful. The other children teased and taunted her for her emotions. She didn’t understand why no one else ever felt sad, trapped, or sorry for the momma mims—just years older yet forced to spend their lives giving birth to other mims. Her mom was a mim. A surrogate. That is what Uncle M called her when he invited Ima to his office.

He had tears in his eyes. Something about the pain of seeing his creation suffer. “Ima, I’m sorry to tell you, love. Your mum died giving birth to her sixth mim.”

She should have felt sad. Her mom. That should mean something to her. Shouldn’t it? But, she and the others were raised as a group. Sure she’d seen the dark-haired mim known as Evelyn around. More than anything, she felt relief for her. She was now free. If she now was, at all.

Thanksgiving? She investigated the day in the electronic encyclopedia she had access to for school.  Not that she got to go to school. Like everything else in her life, it took place within the facility.

It was a holiday. Apparently, many people took certain days to celebrate each year. This one was a celebration of the harvest. She read about Pilgrims, and President Lincoln declaring the last Thursday of each November a celebration of thanks to some Father in the Heavens.

She didn’t have a father. None of the mims did. They didn’t really have mothers either, but the surrogates at least gave birth to them. No, from the day she could understand what the nurses were saying, they told her that she was the product of science. A slush of bio-material, called DNA.

Despite intense year-around schooling, at the age of six, she still didn’t understand much of what she was told. The other mims seemed to grasp things much quicker than her.

One thing she definitely didn’t understand—a holiday dedicated to being thankful for all she had.

What exactly might that be? Get to know Ima better . . . Read In The Image of Man - an Unseen Dominion Novel and be on the lookout for Book Two coming next year.
This Thanksgiving story takes place in 2014, six years before In The Image of Man.

Thanksgiving with Doctor Wilhelm M'Gregor

Inverness, Scotland Wilhelm wrapped his knuckles against the ornate walnut door at Jurek Mirinov’s. Anytime the doorbell rang, Jurek would go on a rant about pesky sales people. Knocking always proved the better option.

Shadows flittered across floral-etched glass. Click. Click. The door swept open. “Vilhelm, come in my friend.” He took Jurek’s outstretched hand and exchanged a firm handshake.

“Aye my friend,” said Wilhelm. “Yer hospitality is much appreciated.”

They stepped inside and Jurek pushed the door shut behind them. He reached up and snapped two deadbolt locks.

“Is she here?” asked Wilhelm. He hadn’t seen Maiya, Jurek’s twenty-year-old daughter, since she left for college. She had come home for the first time during spring break, but Jurek failed to adjust to her newly acquired look and values. It took several weeks for him to calm back to his normally jovial self.

“In the kitchen,” said Jurek. He shot a can-you-believe-that grin. “Shall we head into my study? I got a great Macallan Scotch on the rocks for you—straight from Scotland.”

“Aye, a great brand indeed. But, I’m afraid those days are behind me.”

“Your loss my friend.” Jurek shook his head. “The vorld is changing around me and I don’t know how to adapt.”

“Says one of the two men responsible for changing the creation of mankind.” The sassy Maiya Mirinova sauntered into the room. “Hi, Uncle Mac.”

“Maiya, how is my favorite Ivy Leaguer?” He opened his arms wide. Memories of Maiya jumping into his arms as a tween spiked his pulse.

Maiya stepped up to him, put her hands on his shoulder, and kissed him on both cheeks. She turned and walked back to the kitchen.

Ice snaked down Wilhelm’s spine when he saw the white swath of hair cascading down the back of her raven black hair. The visual reminder of the tension between her and Jurek last spring.

“Can you believe she claims that just appeared one day,” said Jurek. “A gift from her spirit guide.” He snorted held out his hand toward the dining room. “Shall we devour some turkey?” Get to know Wilhelm better . . . Read In The Image of Man - an Unseen Dominion Novel.
This Thanksgiving story takes place in 2014, six years before In The Image of Man.

Thanksgiving with Chris Davis

© Yuri Arcurs - Fotolia.com Tires squawked on the blue-and-white as Chris slid it into a spot at Metro. He glanced at the clock on the dash.

“You got a hot date or something?” asked Officer Young. He slapped Chris on the shoulder. “Guessin’ Leilah wasn’t too stoked about you having to work today?”

Four o’clock in the afternoon on Thanksgiving? “She understood.” They met at the academy and while she went into forensics, she still knew what it meant to start at the bottom. “I think.” His schedule was probably the one area they were seeing eye-to-eye these days.

“Go on. Get out of here.”

Chris showered and ditched his uniform for some dinner date style. He and Leilah had known each other for a couple years and dated for several months. Still, he felt the need to impress her—something his newfound faith did not augment.

Twenty minutes later, he pulled his Jeep into Leilah’s drive. He walked past her Jaguar and up to her back door. He rang the bell.

No answer.

If it were anyone but Leilah, he’d think she was just getting ready for their date. No, not Leilah, she was always prepared, on-time, early, in-charge.

He took a deep breath and pressed the button once more.

The door crept open. A bright glossy-lipped smile greeted him. She curled the corners of her lips up just a touch. “Hey there handsome. You been there long?” She pulled the door a bit wider to reveal a royal-blue dress complete with low-cut V-neck.

Chris felt as if he’d just run a 5K.

Definitely, prepared. She swung the door the rest of the way open and turned to saunter to the dining room. The bottom of the dress cut across her muscular thighs as her hips beckoned him to join her for dinner. Definitely in-charge.

Candles illuminated the small table in the center of her dining room. Light danced with the tiny bubbles in two glasses of sparkling white wine. He had a fight ahead of him, if he desired to preserve the type of relationship he knew his new lifestyle required.

What did he desire?
 Get to know Chris better. . . Read In The Image of Man - an Unseen Dominion Novel.
This Thanksgiving story takes place in 2014, six years before In The Image of Man.

Thanksgiving with Sarah McIntyre

© nyul - Fotolia.com Another November and with it another meaningless year drew to a close. How many times in the past week had she answered the well meaning question? “Big plans for Thanksgiving, Sarah?”

Such an ironic holiday. A time for people to put on airs and pretend they had so much for which to be thankful. She could almost remember the days of her childhood—when she had a family with whom to celebrate. They acted so grateful. Grateful to a God who blessed them so richly. “What are you thankful for, Sarah?” her mom would ask. Followed by expressions of family, food, housing, peace, oh and one couldn't forget health.

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, someone had said at the funeral. She wasn't really sure she owed such a God her thankfulness. She supposed she could be thankful she still had food and a house. Though they primarily served to sustain a hopeless, no meaningless, life. Even the house from those happy Thanksgivings she had sold a year earlier when she moved away from St. Louis to the small town of Arrow Springs, where at least she didn't have to be thankful for everyone’s better-you-than-me sympathies.

She tucked her feet under her as she settled on the couch with her Thanksgiving-turkey-TV-dinner. She glanced at the end table where her glass of  Pinot sat next to the at-the-ready box of tissues. Yep, she was prepared for a Hallmark Thanksgiving special, which would remind her of just how little she had for which to be thankful.

Perhaps, she would find some meaning in her new career. Mayor Johanus had agreed to give her a job at the library at the request of her neighbor Mrs. Freeman. Sarah liked children. She needed something to keep her from the suicidal path she flirted with in the early days. She suspected the reality of the attempt would be more like the mush on her TV tray trying to replace the feasts of old.
Get to know Sarah better. . . Read In The Image of Man - an Unseen Dominion Novel.
This Thanksgiving story takes place in 2014, six years before In The Image of Man.

What Is Your Reading Personality?

I recently found a great tool for assessing personality by a company called Traitify. They provide an image-based yes/no style survey that is supposed to be highly accurate in determining your personality in various contexts. Based on their research and the visual nature of their assessment, I can understand this accuracy.

First, I took my Career assessment. No surprises here. I'm an Analyzer/Inventor. This helps explain the various endeavors I am involved in. Here is a snapshot of some of the info it returned for me. Anyway, this got me thinking--how does personality affect the types of books that readers like? In talking with one of the individuals associated with Traitify, he mentioned that they also have a personality profile to analyze your Movie/Entertainment personality. While they have not applied their technology directly to books, I have to wonder if there could be a relationship between personality and what books a person reads. Obviously, things like quality of writing and story come into play, but the foundations being equal, I suspect people with similar personality traits may also like the same books, especially in regards to fiction.

So, I took the Movie assessment and came up with the results below. An interesting assessment that for the most part seems pretty accurate, though probably not as much so as the career assessment. This does explain my appreciation for stories that weave deep thought, science, and a romantic thread together. I would love to dig deeper into this connection between reading/genre preferences and personality. But, I could really use your help. If you would be willing to take the Traitify Movie assessment and pass along the results, I would like to begin building a correlation with reading preferences. Traitify also offers a few other profile types including a core profile. It is possible that some of these others could be just as applicable.

If you are game to take part in my research, you can email your survey results and Goodreads display name to me at rob@heartspublishing.com. I will not share any of your information with anyone. Either way, I'd encourage you to check out Traitify for yourself as the knowledge and understanding of one's personality can be a great personal insight.

'Til next time!

Book Signing This Thursday

This week Thursday, I will be at Baker Book House signing my book, In The Image of Man. This supernatural thriller is book one of the Unseen Dominion series. I will also share my writing journey and explain why God has led me to donate all of my proceeds from the book to compassion-based ministry Living Water International.

Where:  Baker Book House
             2768 East Paris Ave SE, 
             Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

When:  Thursday, October 16, @ 7pm

Info: www.facebook.com/events/654188021346084/

The eyes are the window to the soul…

                     …but what if the eyes are empty?

When Officer Chris Davis, of Arrow Springs, Missouri, rescues a young woman from a mysterious attacker, he steps into the center of a spiritual showdown. Following his heart, and a trace of circumstantial evidence, he embarks on a collision course with a government research facility and an unseen foe.
----
One year before Dolly the Sheep, three humans were cloned in a small town in Missouri.

Twenty-five years later, THEY'RE READY!


ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert lives in Holland, Michigan with his wife and five children. He has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, and has taken several Master level classes in religion, including theology.
God has blessed him with the spiritual gift of teaching and a creative personality type. For over twenty years, he has brought this creativity to his professional career as a manager of software developers, and a creator of leading-edge technologies for a global high-tech electronics company in the automotive and aerospace industries.
For nearly five years, he wove creativity and a passion for teaching together as a pastor of worship, adult discipleship, and outreach. In this role, he designed and scripted several outreach events and dramas, created unique video presentations, developed discipleship curriculum, and led corporate musical worship. Since then, he has developed his public speaking skills and has had the privilege to preach at multiple churches.
Several years ago, he turned his creativity and writing toward the pursuit of teaching through story. He has refined his fiction writing craft through conference sessions, critique group involvement, online and book study, writing, and plenty of rewriting.
Robert is the founder of Hearts of Compassion Publishing (www.heartspublishing.com), a company devoted to providing readers with quality stories and the comfort of knowing that the proceeds from those stories go to support compassion-based ministries.

The Month of the Paranormal

It's interesting watching the focus of an entire country shift every year to the paranormal for one month concluding with Halloween. You don't have to spend long looking at the TV shows and movies in the month of October to realize something has changed. Whether it is the fabled Headless Horseman, an evil doll, blood-sucking deals for power, or treating interaction with the spirits as child's play, people are drawn to the scary and downright wicked.

Should this fascination with the paranormal surprise us? Probably not. Scripturally speaking we are spiritual beings with physical bodies, not the other way around. On the other hand, the Bible speaks quite strongly against witchcraft, sorcery, charms, fortune-telling, consulting the spirits or the dead, and enchantments. See Deuteronomy 18:10-11. And this isn't just an Old Testament teaching, in Galatians 5, sorcery is listed along with things like sexual immorality, dissension, outbursts of anger, drunkenness, etc. which are the contrary to the fruit brought about by the Spirit of God.

Personally, I think we need to think more often about the world around us which is unseen. This is why my book series is called Unseen Dominion. We often like to treat the paranormal as either non-existent or something to be toyed with. This couldn't be further from the truth. Remember according to Ephesians 6:
We are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.
It is a battle and the easiest foe to defeat is the one that sticks their head in the sand and pretends there is no battle.

I an not one to argue that we should completely isolate ourselves from the world. We cannot avoid the battle, God says we are in it. I just want us to be aware of what we are truly dealing with. Ghosts, vampires, werewolves, even the ancient gods of mythology, don't really exist. But, are they harmless stories with which to obsess? Scripture is pretty clear about the existence of angels and demons, spiritual entities. We need to be careful that we are not deceived either to believe that there is no battle or that the enemies are harmless.

Ephesians 6 tells us what armor is required for the battle. That is a topic for another day. But, as I've attempted to convey in my book, In The Image of Man, some of the necessary tools are Faith, Prayer, and the Word of God.

If you're in the Grand Rapids, Michigan area, you can stop over to my book signing at Baker Book House on Thursday, October 16, at 7pm to hear a bit more about my motivation for writing this particular story. Oh yeah, and get your signed copy of In The Image of Man.

'Til next time!