No man can know the hour of Christ’s return. But what would you do if you knew what week He’d come back? What if every Christian suddenly knew? When two combat veterans receive the message they are thrown into a war beyond anything they’ve ever experienced. It’s the ultimate battle between good and evil and they have been personally targeted – along with their whole church – for annihilation.
WHAT LED YOU TO WRITE HEADING HOME?
Many years ago I heard a radio preacher (it might have been the late Bill Bright of Campus Crusade for Christ, but don’t hold me to that) say, “the Bible is clear no one knows the day or the hour of Jesus’ return. But oddly, it doesn’t say we won’t know the year, month or week. So if you knew without a doubt Jesus was going to rapture His people sometime in the next seven days, how would you redeem that time?” That planted the seed for Heading Home, and so far no one’s called me a heretic (yet!).
STARTING OUT, WHO WERE THE AUTHORS WHO INSPIRED YOU? WHO INSPIRES YOU NOW?
I started reading a lot of SF when I was a boy, by such masters as Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clark, Andre Norton, Isaac Asimov, all the giants. Their prose fired my imagination, and set my course. Nowadays I still read a lot of speculative fiction, but I’ve expanded that into works by writers such as Lawrence Block, Robert Crais, Dean Koontz, James Scott Bell, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, and others.
HOW DOES YOUR FAITH INFLUENCE YOUR WRITING?
Truth to tell, I write mainly for a much-underserved segment of the CBA market, Christian men. Because let’s face the truth: the CBA is chock-a-block with romances and relationship treatises and bonnet books, but not a lot of grim, hard-edged action novels, especially ones penned by men. I think I was as shocked as anyone when the distaff side seemed to like them as much as the males. For some reason they struck (and strike) a chord with the ladies, but I’m not complaining.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU KNOWN YOU WANTED TO BE AN AUTHOR?
I’d always liked to write, from my early teen years on, and when I was in college I was student affairs editor for the school paper. But the years passed, and with a wife and three children and working out my salvation with fear and trembling, that love seemed to fade. A dozen years ago, though, God brought it back in a big way, and I’m still going strong.
WHAT DO YOU MOST HOPE THAT READERS GET FROM READING YOUR WORK?
The best way for me to answer is with a story (imagine that!)….
“The time was either the late fifties or early sixties when former British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill was asked by the provost of a large English university to give the commencement address. Although quite elderly by then, Churchill agreed.
The day came, and the auditorium was packed with students and alumni wanting to hear strong words of wisdom from the man who’d basically saved Britian during the darkest days the country had ever known. Slowly Churchill took the platform. Standing behind the podium, he peered out at the sea of faces with rheumy eyes.
Then setting his famous bulldog jaw, he ground out the following: “Never give up. Never, never, never, never give up.” He fixed them with a gaze of iron. “Never.”
And then he sat down.
A beat passed, and the place erupted in praise.
That’s what I try to tell people: in today’s times of peril and crazed uncertainty, “never give up.” Just that.
And great is the joy therein.”