Jonathan Munro Adventures

This took a little longer than I thought…

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Here’s the next installment of In The Widening Gyre.

Chapter Ten

My goal was to have chapter ten done as of yesterday, and be finishing chapter eleven today. Obviously, that didn’t happen. Part of it was the family’s insistence on watching a double feature last night, but the biggest reason was, I think, just being tired. The double shift I worked on Tuesday didn’t help matters. The overtime will help, of course, but not as far as the story is concerned.

Some days I just can’t wait till I’m earning QYJM from all this. I don’t really want or need to be rich. I just want to earn enough to do this full-time.

I suppose, in a way, this is a discipline. Paying my dues, that sort of thing. If I can learn to crank out the volume needed to make it as a writer, then I’ll have acquired the discipline needed to make doing it full time a worthwhile investment. It’s not like I’ll ever take a full year to write a novel again. My goal now is one every two months (assuming I can even pull that off!). This way, I’ll be able to progress on all six series I’m currently writing.

My wife pointed out to me the other day that I’ve already released three books this year. True, the sequel to The Lost Scrolls had to be submitted to my editor at Ellechor, but I did finish the edits and release it to her. And, of course, I finished both Spilled Milk and Eye of Darkness this year as well. This means that I only have to complete three more and I’m on target.

If I can wrap up In the Widening Gyre by May (and I hope sooner than that!), then I can take two months to finish Topheth (July), and two more to finish The Tree of Liberty (September), which will give me the last part of the year to start work on the next installments of the Spilled Milk series, The Dragon’s Eye Cycle, and the third Jonathan Munro Adventure. None of them will be due until 2013, either.

I think, once I get the Spilled Milk series done (and I expect only three titles in that set, at most), I’m still gonna resist doing any more series until I wrap up at least two more. I really want to finish off Jefferson’s Road and The Dragon’s Eye Cycle, since both of these series have a clearly defined end point. New World Order (of which In the Widening Gyre is just the first installment) does as well, but the anticipated series is nine books long. That’s a major investment of time, so I can’t really focus all my energies on finishing the series just now. By contrast, both Jonathan Munro Adventures and Janelle Becker Books are somewhat open-ended. I can write as many books in those series as I can think up. And since each novel stands alone, it’s not like I’m gonna have people breathing down my neck like I do for the others.

I think, in the future, I’m might steer away from sequential series. At least, I’ll stay away from this many! Maybe one or two at the most, with some stand alone novels and series thrown in the mix. Still, by the time I’m done with what’s currently on my plate, I’ll have written 33 books.

Don’t think I can complain about that at all, actually.

Earliest Gospel of Mark found?

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Just when you thought The Lost Scrolls was only fiction! Check out this article from WND: I’m including the story below in case the link doesn’t work.

Earliest Gospel of Mark found?

Would be oldest fragment of New Testament known to exist

Published: 11 hours ago

 by Joe Kovacs, executive news editor for WND, an award-winning journalist and author of the No. 1 best-selling book Shocked by the Bible: The Most Astonishing Facts You’ve Never Been Told.

A New Testament professor is setting the world of Bible scholarship on fire with his claim that newly discovered fragments of early Christian writings could include a first-century version of the Gospel of Mark, from the same century in which Jesus and the apostles lived.

Daniel B. Wallace of the Dallas Theological Seminary made the stunning announcement during a Feb. 1 debate with Bart Ehrman at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill on whether we have the wording of the original New Testament today.

“If this Mark fragment is confirmed as from the first century, what a thrill it will be to have a manuscript that is dated within the lifetime of many of the original followers of Jesus!” Wallace said. “Not only this, but this manuscript would have been written before the New Testament was completed.”

Wallace says seven New Testament fragments written on papyrus had recently been discovered – six of them probably from the second century and one of them probably from the first. He expects further details to be published “in about a year.”

“These manuscripts now increase our holdings as follows: we have as many as eighteen New Testament manuscripts (all fragmentary, more or less) from the second century and one from the first. Altogether, more than 40 percent of all New Testament verses are found in these manuscripts. But the most interesting thing is the first-century fragment.

“It was dated by one of the world’s leading paleographers. He said he was ‘certain’ that it was from the first century. If this is true, it would be the oldest fragment of the New Testament known to exist. Up until now, no one has discovered any first-century manuscripts of the New Testament. The oldest manuscript of the New Testament has been P52, a small fragment from John’s Gospel, dated to the first half of the second century. It was discovered in 1934.”

Wallace’s interest is focused on the portion from Mark’s Gospel.

“Before the discovery of this fragment, the oldest manuscript that had Mark in it was P45, from the early third century. This new fragment would predate that by 100 to 150 years.”

Craig A. Evans, professor of New Testament at Acadia Divinity College, says the find may indeed be of very great importance.

“If authenticity and early date are confirmed, this fragment of the Gospel of Mark could be very significant and show how well preserved the text of the New Testament really is. We all await its publication,” Evans told the Christian Post.

Others agree.

“Any find that gets us a quarter-century or so closer to the time the original gospels were written would be highly significant, even sensational,” Andreas Kostenberger, senior professor of New Testament and biblical theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological in Wake Forest, N.C., told Baptist Press.

“Of course, in part the significance of the discovery depends on the size of the fragment, not to mention the verification of the date. There have been previous reports of discoveries of early Mark or other gospel manuscripts that did not check out at closer scrutiny, so it is certainly appropriate to maintain scholarly caution until the full data are known and available to public scrutiny. For example, some scholars got burned when they prematurely accepted so-called ‘Secret Mark,’ which turned out to be a forgery.”

When asked about the trustworthiness of what Mark really wrote if we don’t possess an actual original copy of his manuscript, Kostenberger said, “The fact is that the earliest manuscripts of all or parts of Mark that we do have show remarkable consistency and stability. And none of the minor variations between different manuscripts affect any major doctrine of Christianity at all.

“Of course, there is no way to prove positively one way or another what might have happened during the period between the original writing of Mark and the first available copies. Knowing what we do know about the care with which ancient Jews as well as early Christians took to preserve the original wording of what they believed to be authoritative and sacred writings – in fact, the very words of God – inspires a high degree of confidence. First the apostles, and then those after them carefully guarded the reliability of the eyewitness testimony to Jesus contained in the four canonical gospels.”

Just like I maintained in the book: the manuscript authority for the New Testament is untouchable and impeachable!

You can pre-order a copy now from Amazon. The book is slated to come out in June.

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All good things must come to an end, and finally, Eye of Darkness has done so! Woohoo! I have finished the book. 106,662 words and 55 chapters long. Now all that remains is to finish the map (and it’s a little different building one electronically than drawing it from hand) and drop it into the text. And a little editing, too, of course. Cover art needs a little TLC yet, too.

But it is relieving to be done, finally. I’ll wrap up these items in the next few days, and should be able to release it via Createspace, Amazon, and Smashwords shortly thereafter. Of course, the fun part will be learning how to incorporate images into e-books. Not something I’ve done before, but it’ll be a good experience.

In the meantime, I’ve decided to plunge ahead with Topheth rather than Tree of Liberty. Given that The Coppersmith is outselling both Jefferson’s Road books, it seems to make sense. I’ll still get TOL done before summer, I’m sure. Topheth already has 26k words or so and a pretty complete outline of where to go, so I should be able to ramp up the speed needed to finish it by the end of March. That’ll give me about three months to work on TOL before the end of June. Worst case scenario: TOL waits for a September release. Regardless, it’ll be cool to have these books and The Lost Scrolls coming out around the same time.

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I’ve spent the last several days going through Eye of Darkness with a fine-toothed comb, clearing out some of my more problematic little “hobgoblins” and rewriting a few scenes that just didn’t click for me. And the good news is that I’m back on track with the novel, and rapidly closing in on the end. Whew!

In a way, this book has been a bit of a lesson in humility for me. I started it in April, and the goal was to churn it out as quickly as possible. Now, I suppose I could give myself the time off for NaNoWriMo (which I finally won this year for Spilled Milk), meaning I pretty much took off November and most of December. But that still means that it’s taken me about eight and a half months to write this book. Hardly the ten weeks I was hoping for.

It’s not that I can’t write fast (Spilled Milk only took seven weeks). It’s just that this story has turned out to be far more complicated than I’d originally thought. And bigger. About 25% bigger.

Oh, I almost forgot: I took a significant break from it to edit both The Lost Scrolls as well as The Elixir of Life (which I’m still working on). So maybe seven and a half months. About three times what I’d estimated. Stats like that, I should work for the Defense Dept.

Anyway, I’m going to stick with the plan and keep working on finishing books as quickly as possible. The sheer number I have to write has not lessened a bit. In fact, I just came up with two more Janelle Becker book ideas just yesterday: One is called No Honor. In it Janelle has to investigate a serial killer in Dearborn, Michigan who is disguising his kills as “honor killings” among the more fundamentalist Muslims there. The other book is untitled at the moment, but has Janelle infiltrating an environmentalist terror group that functions like a cult. That provides me with six Janelle Becker books. And if I want to get any of these written before I die, I’ve got to get cracking. Oy!

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I received a glowing review from Janet Dimond over at Christian Books Today for The Lost Scrolls. I’m not sure if it will link correctly, so I am sharing it in its entirety here.

“The fact something has never been found does not mean it never existed.”

An edge-of-your seat page-turner that will lead you across Turkey, Syria, the U.S. and elsewhere in a cat-and-mouse search for a scroll revealing the location of the missing autographs (original manuscripts) of the New Testament. Finding them, and being able to date and compare them to other ancient copies already in existence, would prove the accuracy and authenticity of the New Testament. But there is another mystery to solve and protect – a strange artifact – a fifth gospel written in Greek on what has become known as the Egerton papyrus. The scroll holds the key to everything.

In this spy vs. spy meets James Bond meets Indiana Jones quest, Dr. Jonathan Munro is reluctantly dragged into the chase to find the scroll before a private collector, professors, monks, priests, mercenaries and police on several continents, each with their own motivation – money, fame, research, knowledge, the contentment of knowing the scrolls are with their rightful owner.  Who that turns out to be will shock you.

We’re immediately hooked as we’re dropped into the midst of the race with a stabbing and a strange key. Jon’s ex-friend, archaeologist Dr. Stephen Kaufman, has been seriously injured in an attempted murder, and has sent Jon a clue and a message that he needs his help. Add Stephen’s sister (Jon’s ex-girlfriend) to the mix, and you have a recipe for adventure and issues of trust/mistrust that move the story forward at a frantic pace. Don’t rest or daydream during this one – you’ll miss key clues as you try to unravel the mystery yourself behind the location and meaning of the scroll.

Several stories intertwine in this mystery-suspense with holy and unholy alliances, twists and turns and unexpected outcomes. Intrigue grows as the story is told from several points of view, all mixed together, like viewing a movie through different cameras and angles. This makes perfect sense as the book could easily be made into a screenplay. It reads like one of those movies where you’ve bought the popcorn, but forget to eat it because you’re so wrapped up in the storyline and what’s happening in front of you.

Michael’s writing is brilliant. The facts are not handed to us on a platter. We are shown just enough evidence at the right time to link events that later make sense. And just when things seem to be calming down enough to take a breath, or rest your eyes, there is another shadow in the dark waiting to take you somewhere else. Your mind is never left idle. Characters and locations are drawn in vivid detail, and we are transported through the action without thinking much about it. We are simply “there.”

Jon Munro has devoted his life to providing evidence for the faith, even though he at times struggles with his own. It’s a refreshing honesty. And the fact he says science proves the Bible accurate, time and again, and has never been disproven, is a comfort to those seeking the Word of God as truth in their lives.

As an ancient history buff, and former translator, I was instantly drawn to the story and found it hard to put down. The Egerton papyrus really does exist, and it was interesting to think about the real-life quest that must have taken place to find and keep it. Michael has blended fact and fiction seamlessly. Well worth the read, this is fast-paced, non-stop action and intrigue at its best.

Janet Dimond is a freelance editor, proofreader, corporate and technical  writer with over 25 years’ experience in writing and editing for various  audiences. Several of her authors have won Word Guild awards. Some of Janet’s clients include Faith Today Magazine, Tyndale University College & Seminary, and Augsburg Fortress/Castle Quay Books. She believes the author’s voice should prevail, not hers, and can help take you from rough copy to published material. Easy to work with, Janet offers positive, concrete solutions at reasonable rates.

Please visit her website for additional services and information.

So there ya go! If you want to read the book (and who wouldn’t after a review like that!) you can pre-order a copy now from Amazon. The book is slated to come out in June (about three months earlier than we thought!).

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So I’ve had to take a break from writing for a little while. I could feel myself just really burning out, trying to crank out that many words with no real break. I’ve found that it’s helpful, every now and again, to read some fiction when I get like this. It’s kinda like refilling the tank. This week I’ve been enjoying Raymond Feist’s Flight of the Nighthawks. I haven’t picked up fantasy in awhile, so it’s been quite a treat to revisit one of my favorite authors. Given that I’ve been writing one of my own, it seemed a wise choice.

And I think it’s already paid off. I realized what’s been hanging me up about Eye. It had to do with how I was characterizing the fey in the book. I didn’t like it. Now, I’ve got a better plan that’ll require a little rewriting, but I think it’ll make the story stronger overall.

In the meantime I queried my editor about the next Jonathan Munro Adventure, and I got this as a response:

Please do send your manuscript! We give our authors preference for immediate reviews and feedback. Plus, we are working on the 2013 lineup.

So, with that in mind, I’ve been busily incorporating the edits my good friend Linda sent my way awhile back, and I hope to be sending on the manuscript in a week or so. But now, I’ve got to take the kids to their scouting meetings.

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Heard back from my editor yesterday with the final edits for The Lost Scrolls. So, rather than working on Eye of Darkness, I’ve been re-re-re-reading (probably are a lot more “re’s” in there) my manuscript with a pen and a fine tooth comb, looking for little imperfections. An out of place comma. A word that should be capitalized. A missing hyphen. If I can get this done and back to her by Thursday, we’ve got a good shot of getting the book out earlier than the August/September date she’d told me about. Instead, we might be able to make May or even April. I don’t know how much more there’ll be to do once this is done, but it’s pretty cool nonetheless. At any rate, I’ll git ‘er done and back.

There is still something to be said for traditional publishing. For one thing, it feels more “real,” to me than indie pubbing (not that there’s anything wrong with indie pubbing). Just knowing that my book has been accepted and that someone else is willing to invest money into getting it into print is pretty amazing.

Both my friend Linda and my wife think I shouldn’t give up on traditional publication so easily (did I mention this already?). In truth, I haven’t. I’m all for any means necessary to claw my way to the best sellers’ list. There are some books of mine I know I will indie pub – sequels, for example, to works that have already gone through the submission mill and didn’t make it (but which are still selling. Go figure), like the Coppersmith or Jefferson’s Road. Others, like EoD, I might give traditional pubs a shot. If they take it on, great. If not, that’s what indie pubbing is for.

On a related note, I’ve joined the site IndieAuthors.com, so if anyone wants to check it out or chat, give it a go.

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It is mid-October already! I can’t believe how quickly this season is flying by. Of course, it might have something to do with the fact that I’m teaching four courses, working full time, part time, preaching, and just trying to survive. Yeah, that might have something to do with it.

At any rate, the reason I haven’t posted in a while is because I’ve been writing – in addition to the aforementioned thieves of time. But since I had a comment to respond to and a book cover to upload here anyway, thought I’d bring you up to speed.

UPDATES:
Eye of Darkness is nearly complete. I found that I had to go back and add a chapter somewhere in the middle of the book, which is now complete, and I’m plugging away toward the end – which, if I haven’t mentioned just yet, had eluded me for some time. I think I’ve got it figured out now, though.

The Lost Scrolls now has a cover approved, and it is slated to come out in September of 2012. It isn’t the March publication date I’d hoped for, but I’d rather take the time and get it right than rush into market before it’s time. My publisher tells me that the book will be available in March for endorsements, which will then be added probably in the front matter and in marketing efforts.

I haven’t heard anything yet from my friend Linda about The Elixir of Life. She did send a couple of thoughts early on, but nothing since. I can only assume she’s busy, what with her own books coming out and all. It isn’t a high priority at the moment anyway, since it’s another book to offer to Ellechor rather than one I’m releasing on my own.

And for fans of the Jefferson’s Road series, you’ll be happy to know that I’ve restarted work on The Tree of Liberty. I know, I know: I’m only supposed to work on one book at a time. Maybe it’s the Occupy Wall Street protests or the ramping up of the election cycle – or all of the above – but I found that, yet again, I have to write this series. I’ve always enjoyed writing books, and have done so largely for amusement. I’ve never actually felt compelled to write a book until I started this series. At any rate, I guess I can thank the poor little commies in NYC for the protests. I’m sure I can use one of the images in the cover of God and Country or one of the next books. I’d been relying on an image from the Vancouver riots, but now I can pick something a little closer to home, I think.

At any rate, the story is moving forward nicely, and I’ve got enough sense of what happens immediately next to write several chapters ahead of me.

The Coppersmith continues to be my bestseller. I’m not making as much money from it (only $.99 compared to $2.99 for the Jefferson’s Road books), but I’m selling a lot more copies. Roughly half of my sales totals so far.  I’d like to work on Topheth toward that end, but I don’t think I can justify going back to working on three projects at a time again, much as I’m tempted to do so. Of course, I confess I have tinkered with it a little bit. I think, once Eye of Darkness is finished, I’ll be able to give a little more time to it. Priority will be The Tree of Liberty, of course.

And that’s about it. Gotta get back to work now. Peter is about to cause some trouble.

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Well, here it is October already, and I haven’t gotten nearly as far on Eye of Darkness as I’ve wanted to. I neglected to calculate in the time I’d be spending writing lessons for our home school co-op classes, but the real reason is that I haven’t come up with an ending.

Until now.

Sometime early this morning, in that marvelously creative “dream state,” I stumbled upon the sufficient twist which will solve the mystery and reveal everything–as well as how to bring it all to a successful conclusion and tie it up with a bow. As it stands, I’m probably at least 10 and 12K words away from that moment. Maybe more. Regardless, I know now that I can finish the book. Usually, when I start a novel, I have a much clearer sense of how it ends than this, and that may be why I got stuck. Oh well. At least now I’ll be able to concentrate on writing toward the finish line.

Speaking of finishing, I received the first draft of the cover for The Lost Scrolls from my publisher today. They’re pretty close to what I was thinking when I pictured it, with a few changes here and there. I expect I’ll be able to show you the cover soon (but not until it’s ready and I get the “okay” to do so.).

We haven’t started editing the text yet, but I think that will be happening shortly. I’m so looking forward to seeing this book out there!

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Well, I didn’t get to start back on Eye of Darkness as quickly as I expected, but I did finally get back to work on it. I’m closing in on 60K words, and will break past it today, I expect. The story is progressing nicely, though I think when I’m done I’ll have to go back through and do two things: a) ensure that I’ve dropped appropriate “foreshadowings” for later events early enough, and b) tie up all lose threads. I found I had to do this a bit with The Elixir of Life as it is – in fact, this formed the bulk of my effort to beef up the work. I can’t imagine not having to do it for something I’ve composed so quickly.

I’ve also realized that I want to add an afterward to both The Lost Scrolls and The Elixir of Life: something that will highlight the factual elements in each story and offer readers an opportunity to explore further. It’ll probably be something similar to what I’ve composed on the pages here for the books. I have to discuss this with Ellechor first, of course, but I’ve encountered two authors who do so, and it’s interesting (to me, at least) to read that stuff.

James Rollins, one of my fav’s, does this at the end of his books, as does Terri Blackstock (just finished reading her book Predator the other day).  And I started doing something similar for the Jefferson’s Road series. I think it’ll be a nice tie-in for the Jonathan Munro stories.

Naturally, of course, as soon as I finished Elixir, I started plotting out the next adventure for Jon while in the shower. Meanwhile, I came up with an idea for an urban fantasy based here in Rochester. Basically, the story transforms the Rochester metro into a fantasy world for those who can see it (it involves the geography, history, and architecture of the city). There are two sides (good and evil, naturally), of which the good side is composed mostly of homeless people, and the bad side of those who are attempting to control the average citizens of Rochester, who remain blissfully ignorant of the magical war going on around them. Yes, it’s a total rip-off on Harry Potter’s Muggles, but that’s about as much influence as Rowling has had on the idea so far. The story will touch on the drug-use of the homeless (a device designed to keep the magical ones “burned out” so they can’t rise in defense of the city. Something like that), as well as the history of this city when it comes to spiritualism (The history of the Fox sisters starting the spiritualism craze back in the nineteenth century will give a partial justification as to “why here.”). Oh, and since there’s a large white tower and black tower downtown – that’s kind of important, too.

Of course, I can’t even start to work on it until I wrap up my current projects, so I guess I’d better get cracking. So many stories, so little time (that’s starting to be a theme for me).

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