Violet Dawn by Brandilyn Collins

This Christian Fiction Blog Alliance (of which I'm a member) is blogging this week about Brandilyn's new book, Violet Dawn. Since Brandilyn writes murder mysteries, I guess the title could have been Viole[n]t Dawn. Anyway, it's good stuff. This link will take you to the blog alliance site and you can read the reviews and order a copy or two. Also, Brandilyn has a great blog called Forensics & Faith. I have a link to it on the side bar.

Jerome

New Supreme Court Term

I only have time for a quick post today but the Supreme Court will start its new term next week. The court will hear cases on significant issues including abortion. Decisions like the ones the court will face in the upcoming term are exactly why we continue to need people with Christian worldviews in national offices. If Senator Kerry had been president, he would have appointed someone other than Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito, I assure you.

Jerome

Should Pro-Lifers Support Democrats?

Robert (Robbie) P. George has a juris doctor degree and a doctorate in philosophy. He is the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and Director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton. To say that he is a very intelligent man would be an understatement. He is the author of numerous books (I have an autographed copy of one in my bookcase -- The Clash of Orthodoxies and, self-servingly, I sent him a copy of my recently released novel, The Election, in hopes he might mention it sometime) and I have heard him speak on a couple of occasions. He sits on the President's Council on Bioethics. His views are sought often on issues of morality and ethics. When he speaks, people sit up and listen. That's why I thought an article written by him that was published yesterday was interesting.

Can -- or more accurately should -- pro-life Christians (are there any Christians who are not pro-life?) be members of or affiliated with the democratic party. I think Professor George succinctly addressed that question and gave an unqualified answer -- No.

Until the democratic party changes some planks in its platform -- particulary the pro-choice plank -- how can any God-fearing Christian be associated with it? I think Professor George is right on target with his assessment.

Jerome

Presidential Politics

First a look forward. Over the weekend the Values Voter Summit was held in D.C. Several 2008 republican presidential hopefuls were present. One was Governor Huckabee from Arkansas. Huckabee has consistently held firm on issues that are important to Christians -- supporting traditional marriage and protecting the lives of the unborn -- and did so again this weekend. I've mentioned Huckabee in this blog before. He is a longshot for the nomination at this point but I hope he gains traction over the next 18 months.

Now a look back. Secretary of State Rice rebutted former President Clinton's angry statements on Fox News Sunday. If you recall, Clinton angrily defended his inaction to capture/kill Osama bin Laden and claimed he left behind a comprehensive plan for the Bush administration for dealing with Al Qaeda. Rice says that simply isn't true. I'm sure Rush Limbaugh is having a huge time covering this on his radio show this week.

Jerome

Rantings From Clinton

Not Hillary --- Bill. Anybody see the interview Chris Wallace at Fox had with former President Clinton? With due apologizes to the Bard (and paraphrased poorly), "I think the man doeth protest too much." For those of you uninformed, here is a link to the interview and another one to a post interview comment by Chris Wallace. Of course, we all know that President Clinton had ample opportunity to capture or kill Bin Laden during his presidency but failed. I should say that we all know except Clinton. Byron York has a good rebuttal to the former president's assertions.

Speaking of Hillary, Jerry Falwell hopes she wins the democratic nomination. He thinks that a Hillary Clinton nomination would incite (and excite) Christians to get out and vote moreso than if satan himself were the candidate.

And liberals were unable to prevent John Roberts confirmation as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court so they simply attack his decisions at every turn. The politics of personal destruction.

Mid-term elections are about six weeks away. The murmur among the media has turned from claiming the democrats are going to retake congress; to the democrats are going to retake the house but not the senate; to now the talk is that perhaps the republicans can hold both branches. We can only hope.

Jerome

Christians Disenchanted With Republicans

I'm back and wanted to post about an article I read this morning. Are republicans loosing their conservative Christian base? I hope not but I also think that it is important to remind the republican party that it wouldn't be where it is without evangelical Christians in its camp. I agree whole-heartedly that the republican leadership would do well to pay more attention to value issues that are important to Christians if it hopes to retain control of the congress and the White House.

Jerome

Out of Office

I will be out of the office most of this week and will not be able to blog. Some of the previous posts and comments are worth reviewing as the mid-term political campaigns begin to swing into high gear. Beginning the first week of October things should really begin to turn interesting in national politics and we'll follow all of the events on this blog. Democrats will seek to take one or both houses of congres and republicans will do all they can to hold on. It should be an eventful few weeks.

Jerome

Today's Religious & Political Headlines

I've been scrolling through the internet today looking for interesting headlines to highlight for you. You may have noticed the furor over the Pope's comments about Islam. Here is a link to an article today about this issue. I think the Pope has made it abundantly clear that he was quoting from the words of a 14th century emperor but Muslims around the world continue to protest the Pope.

Larry Sabato is a respected academian on political issues. I don't always agree with his predictions or his analysis but I found this article about the power of angry politics interesting.

Lastly, here is a view that I haven't heard many people discuss. It seems that some believe conservatives procreate better and therefore will takeover the culture debate by sheer evolution. I guess everyone has an opinion about every issue.

Jerome

The Religious Middle?

The "Religious Right" rose to prominence in the 1980's, lost some footing in the 1990's, but was sufficiently strong enough to elect President George W. Bush to two terms in the White House at the turn of the century. Now some believe that a new generation of religious leaders will move the political conversation more to the center. I posted recently about the democrats efforts to court Christians. Mark I. Pinsky has an article today that I picked up in the Los Angeles Times about what he describes as "kinder, gentler" leaders and dubs them the New Evangelicals. One of the sources Pinsky cites in his piece is an upcoming article co-authored by David Gushee. David is a fellow church member of mine and a professor at Union University, my alma mater.

I'm all for more conversation about issues that are important to Christians but not at the expense of sacrificing what I believe is an appropriate Biblical worldview. We'll have to see what impact these "New Evangelicals" have on the political landscape.

Jerome

Andrew McBride

Andrew is a young man in my church. He is a senior at one of the local high schools, in the Sunday School class I co-teach and is an aspiring musician. I told him that I would put a link to his myspace site on my blog so here it is Andrew. You can click on this link and listen to some original songs by Andrew and order a CD.

Andrew and I are at a similar stage in our entertainment careers. I'm trying to break into the publishing industry and Andrew is trying to break into the music industry.

Jerome

Marketing Fiction

If I really knew how to effectively market fiction I could probably make billions. But for new authors like me there is no tried and true method that anyone can point to and say "Do this and you'll be on the New York Times bestseller list." Believe me I've looked for it. The bottom line is that you do everything you can possibly think of to get the word out that your book is in print and then hope like crazy that someone buys it. There are a couple of resources, though, that I found helpful.

One of those resources is Pyromarketing by Greg Stielstra. I think Greg's book could have been shorter. There's good stuff in it but also some fluff. Be that as it may, the concept he describes is excellent. You can read more about Greg's theory in his blog. The basic idea is to give the people who are most likely to enjoy your product (in my case The Election) a sample and then use them to spread the word about your book like wildfire.

I've utilized this to some extent in my own marketing for The Election. In the last three weeks Howard Books and I have probably given away 200-250 copies of The Election. If I could afford it, I'd like to give away 1000 copies. You might ask, "Why give away copies?" The answer is simple. I want as many people to read my novel as quickly as possible. How long would it have taken for 200-250 people to actually purchase copies? Weeks? Months? This way I've gotten copies into the hands of 200-250 people within the first week of the release. And these are not just random people. They are friends, family, media, associates, etc. that I think would be the most likely to enjoy my novel and begin spreading the word. Stielstra describes these people as the "driest tender." The people who are the most like to catch on fire. And I think it's working.

I have no idea at this point how many copies of The Election have actually scanned through at a point of sale. Hopefully I can talk real numbers in future months. But many of the people who received free copies have called or e-mailed that they simply couldn't "put it down." That's what I want to hear. And when they tell me this my reply is "I'm glad you enjoyed. Please tell all your friends and family." The driest tender needs to set the surrounding grass and trees on fire until a wildfire is spreading.

So how do you effectively market fiction? For me, as a new author, I've got to get the flames burning as quickly and as hot as I possibly can so that word spreads rapidly.

Jerome

How Politics Are Played In Tennessee

How judges are selected to state supreme courts is certainly different in every state. Some judges are elected by popular vote. Others are appointed by the governor of the state and confirmed by the state legislature. In Tennessee, when there is a vacancy, the governor appoints someone to fill the vacancy and then at the next general election the citizens have the opportunity to vote to retain the appointed judge (and all other appellate court judges). However, the governor doesn't get to pick anyone he wants. He has to select from a panel of three submitted by a judicial selection committee.

In recent months we have had two vacancies on the Tennessee Supreme Court because of retirements. The first vacancy was filled quickly. The second has been a little more interesting. A friend of mine, Houston Gordon, was probably the first person to apply when the vacancy occurred. Houston is an excellent attorney from Covington, TN. His initial fame came from handling the appeal of Lt. William Calley regarding the My Lai massacre in Vietnam. Houston was a JAG officer at the time. When he entered private practice he immediately established himself as a great trial lawyer and became politically active in the democratic party (are you surprised we're friends? I'll get to that in a minute). He ran for the U.S. Senate but lost to Fred Thompson. He counts among his friends none other than Al Gore and Bill Clinton. When I saw that Houston had applied for the supreme court appointment I assumed he was a shoe-in to get the appointment.

I've talked recently with Houston about the appointment and I won't divulge the content of our conversation. But I simply can't understand why Governor Bredesen (a fellow democrat and someone who Houston supported for governor) has refused to appoint Houston to this position. Houston was on the first panel submitted by the committee to the governor and the governor rejected all three. The governor said he wanted more "qualified minority candidates." So the committee submitted a new panel which included Houston, a former aide to republican governor (and current U.S. Senator) Lamar Alexander and a minority candidate whose credentials are less than stellar. Anyone see what is going on here? The governor's not going to appoint a republican and the minority candidate isn't supreme court material. It seems to me that the judicial selection committee is trying to force the governor into selecting Houston. And for some reason that escapes me the governor thinks that it is in his political best interest to not select Houston. It is interesting the politics that is being played and you can read about it in this link, this one and here.

I mentioned that Houston Gordon is a friend of mine even though we are on different sides of the political fence. I met Houston several years ago when we worked on a case together (the case lasted 6 years by the way) and I found him to be a Christian. I've never asked Houston where he stands on issues like abortion, gay rights, etc. but I believe he would be a great supreme court justice. If a republican can't get appointed to that position then a God-fearing democrat is the next best thing.

The race for the U.S. Senate between Bob Corker and the democratic candidate has also created some interesting political shananigans. A lawsuit regarding some environmental issues was conveniently filed recently and Bob Corker (former mayor of Chattanooga) was subpoenaed for a deposition. Corker asked for the deposition to be delayed until after the November 7 election but a judge said no. I have no doubt that the democrats are pushing for the deposition so that they can (1) disrupt Corker's campaign activities; and (2) hopefully find some campaign fodder.

You can see from these separate events that it is politics as usual in Tennessee.

Jerome

Busy Weekend

It was a busy weekend at the Teel household with baseball games, a book signing, church, etc. I haven't had time to hardly breathe, much less post, since Thursday. We hosted a Launch Party for The Election on Thursday night and it was a huge success. Probably between 80-85 people and photographers from a couple of local media outlets. On Saturday I had a book signing at the local LifeWay store with a large turnout. So far everyone who has read The Election has had positive things to say. I've had a couple of comments like this: "I couldn't put it down and stayed up until 3:00 a.m. trying to finish." That's what I like to hear.

At the book signing I had a couple of people tell me they wanted to write a book (or had written a book) and wanted some advice on how to get published. As I always do, I pointed them to Terry Whalin and his Book Proposals that Sell. Terry just recently posted his 500th entry to his blog. Now that is a commitment!

I've posted previously about articles written by Matt Friedeman. I don't know Matt personally but find his articles on faith and culture very interesting and engaging. Here is a link to his latest article. Matt maintains a blog with a tremendous amount of insight at Evalngelism Today. And another reason I like to read Matt's articles is because he's from Mississippi --- like me.

Today marked the 5th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Contrary to most of the main stream media and the democratic party, I believe that President Bush has done an outstanding job of protecting us. I haven't watched the ABC special that has former President Clinton in an uproar (too many football games during the same time slots!). I don't like the politics of blaming someone (anyone) for the 9/11 attacks or trying to get political mileage from the attacks. But I do agree with the position that we must continue to take the fight to the enemy rather than waiting on them to attack again.

Jerome

Credit Card Debts Over Tithing

Although I enjoy writing fiction it will be a long time (if ever) before I'll be successful enough at it to quit my day job -- practicing law. My office handles a wide range of cases including personal injury, workers' compensation, real estate transactions, social security disability and bankruptcy. As part of my bankruptcy practice I belong to a couple of professional organizations and routinely get e-mails with late breaking information. I received an e-mail today from the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) and wanted to share the content of the e-mail with you.

A federal bankruptcy judge in New York has ruled that people who file bankruptcy cannot make tithe or other charitable contributions if they do not payback their creditors. If you want to read a press release from NACBA regarding this court decision then click on this link.

I understand that some will agree with the judge and argue that people who file bankruptcy shouldn't give money to their church if they can't pay their bills. Others will argue that Christians shouldn't file bankruptcy to begin with. I appreciate both arguments. But sometimes events take place -- serious illness, loss of employment -- that cause financial ruin for even Christians. I've seen it hundreds of times. And when these people are faced with financial difficulty they genuinely don't want to file bankruptcy. They offer to work with their creditors to pay their debts but the creditors are unwilling to make any concessions. They continue to charge usurious interest rates, call at all hours of the night threatening legal action or worse, and generally drive people to the point that they have no other option. So they have to file bankruptcy and in that dark hour of having to deal with the humiliation of bankruptcy a federal judge tells them they can't continue to be obedient to God and tithe to their local church. That simply amazes me.

Jerome

Iranian President Coming to U.S.?

If you've read Joel Rosenberg's book Ezekiel Option you will remember a passage where the U.S. government, particularly the president, struggles with whether to grant a travel visa to the person some perceived as the anti-Christ so that he may speak before the United Nations. The Drudge Report has a "flash" that Iranian President Ahmadinejad is preparing to travel to New York City on September 19 to speak to the U.N. I wonder if anyone in the White House and/or the State Department is nervous about this possibility?

I've blogged about Rosenberg's book before and how it related to the recent mideast past. Here is another example of how prophetic Rosenberg's writings can be. Perhaps President Bush should hire him full time.

Jerome

Teaching the Bible in Public Schools

I heard on the radio this morning that the school system in Wilson County, Tennessee, is considering a proposal to teach the Bible as an historical subject or as literature. Here is an archive article from the Tennessean that covers a similar class in Hickman County, Tennessee.

There are two separate organizations that promote the teaching of the Bible in public schools. One is the Bible Literacy Project. The other is the National Council on the Bible Curriculum in Public Schools. This latter organization is endorsed by the American Family Association. The difference between the two organizations is that the Bible Literacy Project has developed a separate textbook to be used to teach the Bible while the National Council advocates the use of the Bible itself as the sole textbook. I tend to favor the National Council's approach.

Getting the Bible back into our schools would be a tremendous step in the right direction.

Jerome

Democrats Push for Religious Voice

While I was being interviewed on Family Net Radio one of the co-host asked me about a push within the democratic party to include more Christian voices. I wasn't familiar with that article so I did some research. Here is a link to an interesting Associate Press article about a new website that Scott & Lorri referred to.

Over the last several years conservative Christians have been associated with the Republican party. I welcome any news that the Democratic party is reaching out to evangelical Christians. Unfortunately I doubt that the Democratic party will change its platform on issues like abortion, gay rights, etc. sufficient enough to merit any significant exodus by Christians from the Republican party.

Jerome

Release is Today!

Today is the official release date for The Election. It is an exciting day and the culmination of a lot of hard work by many people. I appreciate everyone's support and only time will tell whether it sells through well or not.

I've had what I believe is reasonably good media coverage. A local television interview, two local radio interviews and an interview on Mornings with Scott & Lorri on Family Net Radio (Sirius 159). There will be a podcast of the interview in their broadcast archives beginning this afternoon.

The Election is now available in most brick and mortar stores and particularly in Christian stores like LifeWay, Berean & Parable. I would appreciate your comments and reviews after you've had a chance to read it.

Jerome

Becoming Pro-Life

What makes a person proclaim to be pro-life or pro-choice? I believe that those who are pro-life carry that mantle because of their religious beliefs and faith in God and the pro-choice crowd are in that camp because of politics. I could be wrong.

I enjoy listening to Fred Barnes' commentary on Fox News and often read his articles. He has been in Jackson, TN, in the past to speak at a fundraiser for my alma mater, Union University. He has an interesting article today in the Weekly Standard (actually it is a condensed version of a speech he gave at the National Right to Life convention in June). Barnes describes his move to pro-life from apathy as something akin to a conversion experience. He describes other similar conversions.

I appreciate that he had an event in his life that forced him to get off the fence and he fell off on the side of choosing life. I suspect, however, that deep inside him he had already chosen life -- although he may not have voiced it -- because of his faith in God. His decision to take a stance wasn't politically motivated. It was motivated by his belief in God created life.

Where are you on this issue? Are you apathetic or do you firmly take a stance to choose life? We can't change our culture -- and the law -- by being apathetic and expecting someone else to fight the battle.

Jerome