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The Christmas sale is off and running. The early morning returns are showing the first few nibbles of interest. I’ll doubtless be checking this every hour or so through till Wednesday to see how things go. I hope those of you checking out the books for the first time enjoy them – especially all you new Kindle owners out there.

In the meantime, I’ve uploaded a new chapter to In The Widening Gyre which you can find here. I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas if I don’t talk to you again before Tuesday.

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This is utterly unrelated to writing, but it’s not the kind of thing that should be left unsaid.

God is an Amazing, mind-blowingly generous God.

Like many people, we’ve had our share of financial struggles these past few years (and while I’m hopeful that my writing might be our ticket to better things, it ain’t happened yet!), not to mention the various health scares since Wendy’s brush with cancer, but today we got blessed.

Mind you, I consider even the trials we face to be a blessing. I know God means them for our good, and that He is producing a weight of glory in us that far exceeds anything we might face on this earth–but the simple fact is, trials suck. They need a defense. It takes effort to see them as blessings, to find the good in them.

Today we got blessed in a way that needs no defense. It was just out and out good things.

Our neighbor is moving.

No, no. You read that wrong. We’re not blessed because our neighbor is moving. We like our neighbor. Really we do. Our neighbor moving has had the unexpected consequence of blessing us.

Wow. This really isn’t coming out right.

Here’s the thing: our neighbor has a large freezer full of really nice meat, chicken, fish, vegetables, and prepared foods and such that they purchased from Swann a while back… and they can’t take it with them when they move, ’cause they’ll just be on the road too long.

So they gave it all to us. We’re talking upwards of a month’s worth of groceries.

Our freezer was full before. Except that it was mostly jugs of ice we use to make the machine run more efficiently. We’ve been using it to store the bread God blesses us with thanks to the ministry partnership a co-op friend has with our local Panera Bread Company. We use the bagels in our church service and give away loaves to those church members who are in need–ourselves included.

But now both of our freezers are full (the one above the fridge and the big one on the back porch that held nothing but ice and bread till this afternoon).

I’m literally blown away by this generosity. I know it’s God’s favor toward us. Let’s face it. Sometimes, you have to take God’s favor toward you on faith, ’cause it just doesn’t seem like it. It’s not that you’re ungrateful, necessarily, it’s just that a lot feels like it’s going wrong.

Like Cancer. Or unemployment. Or ministering for seven years, and only having a handful of people in your church. Or writing seven novels and only selling a couple hundred copies. These aren’t complaints of mine. These are just the simple facts of life as we’ve known it since moving to Rochester.

We’ve been blessed, too. I have a wonderful job now with a great company that gives me the time to write and blog in the evenings (after the work is done and the guys I care for are asleep, of course!). We have a house by the lake with a library room like I’ve always dreamed of having. We even got to go to Disney! Cars that work and warm cats for cold nights. All manner of good things.

Those things kinda balance out the bad.

But tonight I felt the scales tip toward the good, and I’m reminded again that God really does like us (“You like me! You really like me!” – S. Field). Sometimes it’s good not to have to take God’s goodness on faith, because you can see it with your own eyes.

That’s where we’re at tonight. And I’m reasonably confident we’ll need this blessing to hold on to when Wendy faces yet another surgery for the benign tumor on her arm next week.

God is good. No matter what.

My son David’s first film. Hope you like it!

And just like that, the glass ceiling shatters, raining down shards of glittering frustrations and dashed ambitions down upon the floor.

I now have a contract with Ellechor Publishing company for The Lost Scrolls. True, I haven’t signed it yet – that’ll happen this week after I have a lawyer friend take a look-see through it just to be sure everything’s all copastetic, but I’m pretty-well decided on the matter.

Nothing will happen for a few months after the signing. Then, in February we’ll start the editing process to be sure the manuscript is in tip-top shape before going to press. I have a few weeks to paw through the material myself and snip any dangling threads, tie up any loose dialogue or verbage, etc.

It isn’t slated to come out until March/April of 2012, timed to the summer reading season. We’re obviously too late to make it happen in time for 2011. No worries.

In the meantime, this means I can dust off any sequels and other Christian-market works I have and try to get them ready for the next go-around. Ellechor is asking for first right of refusal on any Christian action/adventure stories I develop from here on out for the foreseeable future. I’m down with that. Dance with the girl what bring ya, y’know?

My Jefferson’s Road series will remain untouched by this agreement, because it’s targeted to the general market. Which is fine with me. I’d rather keep JR to myself, for now.

But since I’ve made it as a published author, I’m ready to shatter the next ceiling, and become a successful published author (meaning the book has to sell well) or even a best selling author (meaning sell really well), all the way to multiple best-selling author and multiple best-selling author with film deals.

I know that’s a long way off yet. May, in fact, be the final result of a twenty-five year career at this (assuming I retire at 67, which won’t happen), but that’s okay. This first major milestone has been reached. Actually, I suppose it’s the second, since the first was actually finishing a novel.

Anyway, I’m delighted, excited, and looking forward to a long and prosperous future. God is good!

Check out this five star review on Amazon:

Well written, well researched book! I highly recommend it! It’s nice to see a writer who has the intestinal fortitude to address such topics. Keep up the good work! I anxiously await the next installment! Oh, one more thing! You cannot pass on the price! $2.99?! It’s on my iPhone and kindle!

Now that just makes me feel all warm and excited inside! I don’t know who Jaffy is, except that he/she read my book and thoroughly enjoyed it. This makes me feel great as a writer, and inspires me to keep going on the next installment. I’ve got someone waiting for it!

I had a bit of an epiphany a few weeks ago regarding my previous novel, The Autographs. One of the sticking points for those who’ve read it had to do with the romance between Izzy and Jonathan. Given that Isabel was married to Stephen, who dies early on in the book, any thought of a relationship just felt “distasteful.” And it would be, too.

Unless Izzy wasn’t married to Stephen. Or in love with him that way at all. I finally realized that Isabel is Stephen’s sister, not wife. Thus, Jon going after Stephen’s integrity while they were in college together still calls upon Isabel’s loyalty for her brother, but as the truth comes out, she is able to soften her stand and still have room in her heart for Jon.

This done, there may be one or two edits left (like giving a few lines to Anthony about how he thinks the Autographs would disprove Jon’s belief in the reliability of scripture), but I think I’m ready to seriously start marketing this to agents.

Oh, and I’ve retitled it as well. It’s now called The Lost Scrolls. I’ve worked up some potential cover art for the book, in case I decide to self-pub or go the e-book route. Here is what it looks like now.

I’ll keep you posted as to how it goes.

Click the link above to go to my most recent article, posted courtesy of Linda Yezak.

I’m posting some of the reviews I’ve received so far from the good people at Authonomy. All in all, this is a pretty good showing for the book, given that it’s only been up there for a couple of days.

You have crafted a most intriguing and complex storyline. I like your choice to use the first person narrative voice. This allows you to convey, and you do it well, Peter’s feelings, observations and thoughts. Your character development of Martin and Peter is well done and your descriptive writing makes your work a pleasure to read. Backed.

– Liz, The Cheech Room

Hey all, the first review of Jefferson’s Road is in. I’ve copied it straight from amazon’s website.

From Linda Yezak (pprmint777)

“The reasons were compelling–reasons he’d thought of himself. Reasons he himself had written in cyberspace for all the world to see. Reasons to kill the president.

But his brother wanted him to go beyond writing about it, beyond talking about it.

His brother wanted him to pull the trigger.

Tension builds throughout this novel as discussion segues into action; suspense mounts from the question always dangling in the forefront of reader’s mind: will he do it?

Michael Scott’s masterfully written novel explores what could be the very real, very private thoughts of angry American citizens . . . and what would happen if those citizens acted on their thoughts.

Chillingly realistic; frightfully feasible.”

That nicely sums it up, IMHO. Thanks, Linda!