I'm Back!!

Sorry for the long delay in posting to my blog. There is so much time needed to prepare for a television spot (6:20 a.m. RMT Foxnews - Channel 12 locally) My three minutes of fame. I have an interview to discuss my book and describe the Book Signing that will occur on September 26th at Hastings (Boise, Fairview and Cole roads). My wife set up a round table discussion with four other authors who will be at the book signing. This was recorded for local transmission over channel 11 (Community TV) seven times before the Saturday of the signing (next Saturday).

I am also still processing the novels for POV and Omniscient (there's a lot of work in going through 2700 pages). At the same time I'm creating artwork for the books and the signing.

Punching through all of this is one full-time job and one part-time job, and life in general.
But! I am almost finished with artwork, and only have six more novels to update. There is light at the end of the tunnel and it's not a train coming toward me.

I have gotten many comments about all of the above and the books in general. I have had people reading most of the novels and they are enthusiastic about the action and the spiritual involvement for the characters.

I promise to be more frequent in my postings from now on.

The beat increases

There are so many things to do in order to attend writing conferences, write new novels, prepare for the book signing while at the same time maintain work and life at home. But, it will all work out as we move through time. I keep praying for direction and guidance and frequently am led to do one thing rather than another. I also find a lot of the answers in God's Word. Only four times have I actually been told what to do. One time led me to be born again, one time saved my life, one time changed my life completely, one time gave me direction for the last fourteen years of my life.

You know the source of your leading by analyzing the fruit of the leading. All four direct leadings have turned my life direction in positive ways and brought me more into the Father's will for my life. Service for the Kingdom's sake has eternal rewards which so far outweigh the brief rewards for advancement in this life as judged by men. An example would be: You have a choice to make a great deal of money by being callous of the results for other people (selling faulty insurance, selling a known bad vehicle without telling the buyer, cheating on your income tax, etc.)

All of these may give you momentary gain but move you out of the Will of God for your life (sin by going against God's laws). The efforts also color your view of your character in a negative way (I did it/got away with it before even though I knew it was wrong, why not do it again?) The enemy of your soul delights in leading you away from God but remember, the short time profit/advantage the enemy provides always has the seeds of death in it. Beautiful on the outside, not so on the inside.

It our choice for our life after this one. Smoking or Non-Smoking?

Israeli Crossfire Book Signing

The third novel in the Crossfire series is "Israeli Crossfire" and was published in June of 2007 by PublishAmerica and is available through the publisher>(http://www.PublishAmerica.com.) or through order at Barnes and Noble. (search for: Israeli Crossfire in the home page search box at the top of the page).

I will be doing a book signing for this book at the Hastings Book Store at

7500 W Fairview Ave (at Cole Avenue)
Boise, ID 83704
(208) 375-3151

The signing will be in conjunction with other local authors of Action/Adventure books on September 26th 2009 between the hours of 11:00 am and 3:00 pm MST. I will add more information as the date nears. It would great to meet all of you.

Cast of the Crossfire Series

After reviewing the requirements of placing artwork (photos) on this blog, I am comparing the benefits of placing the character bios on my website rather than directly on the blog. As soon as I can determine all the pluses and minuses of either method I will start bringing them out so that others can see them. If the followers of this blog have any suggestions I would be glad to hear them.

When I start profiling the characters I will do them in the following order.

Jack Malone
Laura Malone
Mark Connelly
Sarah Connelly (nee Cohen)
Bob Wexler
Alexis Hutton
Sensei Grady
David Zahavy
Carol Nolan
Joe Miland

Again, these are the accurate biographical information about a fictional character along with images that represent my concept of each character.

Cast of the Crossfire Novel Series

I am going to profile each of the main characters (good and bad) of the entire series. I will include images of what I think the characters might look like as well as their biography/history.

After thirteen novels there are many characters involved but I will start with the core team of the Crossfire Team, beginning with Jack Malone.

Oregon Christian Writers Conference

The next step in developing the Crossfire Series. We are planning to attend this conference and increase the exposure for the novels in the Crossfire series. The conference runs between Monday, July 27 through July 30. There will be many agents and editors at the conference and we intend to meet and confer with as many as we can between presentations.

Writing Again

My wife was gracious enough to give me a break in our re-nesting process so that I could have sufficient time for novel writing. I have completed the rework of the first novel in the series, "Colorado Crossfire" and half of the second, "Children's Crossfire".

I have had a revelation from the other authors and soon-to-be authors in the local branch of the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) group. The local group is Idahopewriters.com and I was able to attend their first annual conference in January of this year. Learned a lot and hopefully have grown more proficient in my writing. For those of you who are in the writing world I am tweeking my novels (13 in the series so far) for POV and show-don't-tell.

The POV (point-of-view) aspect helps to clarify who is speaking and prevents any omnicient text (where I tell the reader of things that the character could not possibly know). The Show-Don't-Tell reduces the amount of descriptive text that isn't generated by a character in the novel.

I am working up a "Crossfire Series Cast of Characters" which will include my idea of what the main characters in each book look like and a bio of their history. This is a lot of fun and adds to the storyline. Eventually I am going to encourage enough readers to submit photos of themselves (if they think they are a good representation of a character) so that I can actually present a real cast of characters. More on that later.

Settled at last

I'm glad to announce that our move has been completed and we are in our new digs. Of course taking a four-bedroom, three-car garage home and downsizing it into a two-bedroom, one-car garage townhome is a challenge. At least I will be able to concentrate on writing the seriess rather than worrying about lawn care and upkeep. Not that I did much of that anyway, but it still worried me.

My article to the editor (Idaho Statesman) ran today and I'm going to be interested in any comments I get back from that. More on that later.

Having joined the American Christian Fiction Writer's association has been a great input to me on the novel series. I'm refining my point-of-view (POV) for each of the novels (Colorado Crossfire - first one in the series) is just about finished and it does improve the readibility of the book by more positively placing the character that is active in charge of all the thoughts until a scene change or a chapter change.

I have also joined the Idahope Writer's chapter of the ACFW and have met many interesting and positive writers locally.

Movin' On

All activity on my blog, website, and facebook have to go on hold for a few days. I am relocating to a new dwelling and am in the last days of packing, etc. I will get back on line by this time next week and the email addresses remain the same, as does the phone number.

Crossfire Action

One of the reasons this series of action/adventure novels differ from the normal secular and Christian novels is that it includes both the human realm and the Biblically-based supernatural realm as well. This does not mean that there are werewolves or vampires described. Those imaginary bad-boys don't hold a candle to the supernatural enemies of God's people.

In my novels, which are set in current times, a team of ordinary people find themselves being assembled as a force of cutting-edge warriors for God to oppose the increasing level of attacks by the enemies of freedom. They are especially comissioned to counter a new tactic by the enemy which has forces of darkness physically entering the human dimension to accomplish their evil goals.

This added dimension allows for more realistic action and counter-action. The readers of these novels have commented very positively on the bigger stage this provides in showing the two dimensions in conflict. I hope that it will interest all who read the books of this series. There is a link on my website (www.crossfirenovels.com) where you can post your comments which I look forward to reading.

Moving On

I'm glad to be able to blog today. I am in the process of relocating locally and that has severely impacted my ability to write on my novels until it runs it's course. I do have a gripe that I want to put out there for comments. I am about to write a letter to the paper with an article entitled "People that are too bright are selfish". I don't mean that I don't like Mensa applicants, what I'm referring to is the driver's that drive with their 'driving lights", "road lights", or even, "accent lights" on against on-coming traffic. Driving lights add 30% to 50% additional illumination out in front of your car. While this is usually helpful to the driver with the extra lights it is totally un-helpful to the on-coming drivers!

Case in point, coming down a highway through the mountains (I live in Idaho) on a dark night with a slight mist obscuring the roadway (even with good wipers) and a car pops up coming at you with their extra driving lights on. Even without the mist your vision is reduced significantly and that can be very dangerous. Not even considering the deer and elk that are committing suicide by impact the glaring light can make a person miss a curve or anything on the road.

Come on people! We're all in this together and it is not only inconsiderate to add extra lights against on-coming traffic Idaho law states that a vehicle should not blind the oncoming driver.

I have a pair of 100-watt driving lights for my car. I only use them when I am alone on the road or on a place where there are no on-coming vehicles. I also have a Commercial Driver's License and drive vans and buses all over the western United States. The problem is not only in Idaho, it's widespread and according to police records it is causing accidents.

Common courtesy or even respect for other drivers would keep a person from using extra lights that could blind and on-coming driver. At least think of your own safety. If that doesn't interest you then notice how other inconsiderate drivers blind you when they come at you with their driving lights on.

If you don't care what problems you cause for on-coming drivers then expect to subjected to more cars using their high-beams or real driving lights to see pass your inconsiderate use of your driving lights.

Lastly, the only drivers that are more inconsiderate (on purpose) than the driver that leaves their driving lights on when facing traffic is the dolt that has four lights (2 low beams and 2 high beams) and switches the wiring so that they run with their high beams on all the time. Thanks a lot!

Creeping into Blogdom

This is my first blog. I am a published author in the field of Chirstian Action-Adventure and have a web-site with thirteen novels in the Crossfire series on it. (http://www.crossfirenovels.com)%20you/You can view or buy (download) all of these novels except for the third one (Israeli Crossfire) because it's publishing rights belong to others. If you click on "Buy Now" on that novel it will direct you to Barnes and Noble to acquire it. Also, if you click on "Read More" on the other twelve novels you can read the entire first chapter of the book to determine if you are interested in getting that book. (Hint: my prices are half of B&Ns).

I am in the process of publicizing the series for the first time as I complete the 14th novel. I also have the first book of a Christian Science-Fiction trilogy completed but it is on the back burner at present while I concentrate on the action series.

The Crossfire series of novels follows a couple who are selected by God to battle the enemy's of mankind. As I say in my Foreword:

To my Christian readers –
The Crossfire series of action/adventure stories include depictions of violence which are unusual in Christian literature. It would be nice if there were no conflict or violence in our world. But we live in a time when evil is increasing instead of diminishing, when some men seem to be controlled by selfishness, madness, or evil forces. When the enemies of decent mankind are bent on subjugation of other men and women, righteous men and women must stand against evil. The yoke of oppression is not lifted by prayer alone. God is our shepherd and we are his sheep. As long as there are wolves about, God will use some of us as sheep dogs to defend the rest of us. These stories are about people like that and the forces they fight against. The stories describe violence because it occurs in the real world and it is active in the lives of all people whether they recognize it or not.

To my non-Christian readers –
The Crossfire series include depictions of spiritual warfare and spiritual activity with which the non-Christian may not be familiar. These stories describe the realms and activities of both God and satan because they are real and active in the lives of all people whether they recognize it or not.

Steve Thompson