Pray for your Demons: An Anime Devotion

31 May 2021 2 Comments

by C.O. Bonham in book tours, Theological Musings Tags: , , , ,

You may remember last week when I did two posts in a row because of a release getting moved up. That release was for the devotional, Finding God in Anime: A devotional for Otakus. You can find that original post here.

The devotional is available on amazon and other retailers as a free ebook. It was hard to come up with a compelling blog post for this tour. How would you even review a multi author devotional anyway? So then I thought about featuring a devotional. But it’s a free ebook. You can just download it for $0.00.

Then it struck me, the perfect way to show you what an anime devotion was like, without spoiling any of the ones in the book.

Write an entirely new devotion that isn’t featured in the book. Scroll down for an exclusive devotion based on the anime Demon slayer.

Otakus have found the God of Wonders within the pages of manga and the twists of anime. These are their reflections on how truth can intersect with animated fiction.

I repeat this is not part of the Finding God in Anime devotional this is just for my readers.

Pray for your Demons

A Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba devotion

By C.O. Bonham

Demon Slayer is a show easiest understood if you replace Demon with Vampire. Demons, in this show, have eternal life, but will die in sunlight. Humans can become demons by being given demon blood, they then must feed on human blood to sustain their new existence. So yeah, basically vampires.

Tanjiro Kamado returns home one day to find his entire family slaughtered by a demon. Save for one, his younger sister Nezuko is not dead but turned. He sets out to both find a way to return his sister’s humanity and to learn how to prevent others from ending up like his family.

Tanjiro is a talented student and learns to become a powerful demon slayer. That the demons used to be human, never quite sits right with him. He will spare those who do not kill humans. But those who take human life, he sees it as his duty to destroy them.

The weird thing is, even after killing a murdering demon, Tanjiro prays for their soul to find peace in the next life. This show uses Japanese Shinto religion, so the next life is reincarnation. He’s not praying that they go to heaven. After telling a demon that he can never forgive his murder of another human, he still wishes him to live a good life on the next go.

It seems counterintuitive to us. Why would you wish peace on a demon? Let me reiterate, these demons are not fallen angels who have no hope. These demons are twisted humans. Tanjiro is just doing what he does best, caring for others.

This is an authentic example of loving your enemy to me. Yes, he kills the demons, but only to preserve the lives of others. He does not hunt the demons out of revenge for his family.

In fact, the demon who killed them, the one who turned his sister Nezuko, Muzan Kibutsuji, Tanjiro hunts him, only hoping to restore his sister’s humanity. Not for revenge.

Take heed of Tanjiro’s lesson, do nothing out of revenge, but only for the good of others. Pray for the demons in your life, even the ones you have to slay.

 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

 — Matthew 5:44 (New International version.)

So that’s what an anime devotion is like.

If you enjoyed it then download Finding God in Anime: a devotional for otakus.

My other anime devotion is available inside and it’s based on My Hero Academia. Read it to discover Deku’s True Quirk.

About Finding God in Anime

Being a Christian can be tough. Being an otaku can be tough. But being both at once?

Sometimes it seems easier to become Hokage rather than explaining your faith and passions to others. That is why we otaku have united in this devotional: To encourage otaku like you spiritually and through a medium we all cherish.

In this devotional, you will find God in the animes you know and love. Each devotional presents spiritual lessons found in animes ranging from the world-famous Attack on Titan to fan-favorite Haikyu!! to beloved classics like Cowboy Bebop. Each piece will feature a different theme such as:

  • Human Will vs. The Holy Spirit in Yona of the Dawn
  • Choosing to be Free in Free! Swim Club
  • Not by My Might in My Hero Academia

…and many others! We believe that God can be seen throughout His creation—even in places where people might not intend! So pull out your cosplay and snuggle close with your plushies as you join us in Finding God in Anime.

Purchase Links

Amazon – Other Book Retailers

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/58045420-finding-god-in-anime

About the Organizers

Laura and Moriah’s life consists of giving each other manga recommendations until they see whose TBR pile will fall on them first. Rest assured they’re both still safe…until another manga releases. In the meantime, they enjoy sharing beautiful pictures of Japan and trying to make each other laugh with anime memes. They both have an appreciation for cute stickers, samurai, and pins. If they’re not chatting about all things otaku, you can find them trying to write their next story or surviving on ramen and pocky after their latest manga order. 

Finding God in Anime Webpage Link: https://www.lauraagrace.com/findinggodinanime

Manga Photo Challenge on Instagram

Link: https://www.instagram.com/p/CPBFyKmLApY/

Celebrate the release of Finding God in Anime by participating in the manga photo challenge on Instagram! During the month of June, the organizers will be spotlighting a variety of manga that have had an anime adaptation by showcasing them using  #MangaFestival in their posts. Each title prompt is an anime that is featured in the devotional. Grab your favorite manga and get ready to celebrate!

If you would like to follow the blog tour you can start by checking out Laura’s kick off post here: https://www.lauraagrace.com/blog

FANtastic Interview about a Diverse Universe

22 Dec 2019 Leave a comment

by C.O. Bonham in book tours, FANtastic interviews, Theological Musings Tags: , , , , , , ,

I hope you are ready for the annual, “Hey it’s winter, have every holiday smashed together,” week. I am just ready for it to be over. Honestly I look forward to having my hours slashed. I need more time to read. So that I can keep up my weekly goal of bringing you more awesome things to read.

speaking of awesome things to read: I really recommend the Diverse series. It’s great for fans of Star Trek. The second book releases the 26th of December. Just in time to use your amazon gift cards. In honor of this release I’m interviewing Sharon Rose about a special twist that makes her series really stand out in the science fiction world.

But first a little about the book.

DiverseDemands coverDiverse Demands 

 by Sharon Rose

 She could use forbidden telepathy to prevent an alien war. But will her own people call her a hero or a criminal?

Kena, a lone human among aliens, forged a truce with her enemies by promising a controversial telepathic link with their future leader. They claim this is the foundation of lasting peace. But what are these obscure problems they now hide? Why is TarKeen, her strongest supporter, suddenly missing? Will their future leader be executed before Kena can reach her?

When another human joins Kena’s crew, he creates as many problems for her as he solves. Dissension sparks among her allies. Despite his interference, Antony does have a form of wisdom—unwelcome, though it is. Now, her decision is that much harder.

If Kena succeeds in fulfilling her risky promise, will anything be left of her career? And what about her and Antony?

Diverse Demands, the sequel to Diverse Similarity, is packed with adventure, intrigue, and rich alien cultures. The story explores just how far a person will go to solve the unsolvable. If you like classic science fiction merged with a Christian worldview, this book is for you.

Diverse Demands – book two will release Dec 26, 2019.

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B082BJQN93

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B082BJQN93

Previous book:

Diverse Similarity cover

 

Diverse Similarity – book one:

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BC5ZX35

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07BC5ZX35/

 

Both books are also available in Kindle Unlimited.

 

 

Did that description sound like your standard sci-fi plot? So what is this twist that set’s this book apart? Well it’s no secret that I feature a lot of novels by Christian authors on my blog. Well Sharon has done something astounding with this book she doesn’t just have Christian characters. She set her novels after the return of Christ! And she did it so subtly that I read the first book and had no idea.

(For those who need context: The Christian Bible ends with the book of Revelations that foretells a time of trials and hardship. It ends with Jesus Christ returning to Earth to rule for a millennium. This series takes place during that time span.)

To me the idea of having space travel and first contact after what we would think of as the end of human history is so mind blowing. Because it isn’t really an end. It’s the true beginning. As you can imagine I just had to ask the author about it.

FANtastic Interview with Sharon Rose:

CO: Why set a sci-fi novel after the return of Christ?

SR: Two entwined reasons:

If God created other races, then it follows that we would eventually meet them. I doubt that God would allow that contact while humankind is still in deception and turmoil. But after Christ returns and Satan can no longer deceive, the field changes dramatically.  Plenty of room for “What if…?”

I’ve always wondered about those who survive the trauma of the 7-year tribulation. Like us, they will have a lifetime of choices. Will they all agree? Humans? Not! I think life will be much better than today, but not without challenge.  And that drives a story.

CO: Was this twist part of the series from the beginning or did you decide one day to add it? 

SR: Always intended. I once experimented with removing this aspect. It didn’t jive with Kena’s character. She is who she is because she has always known her God’s deep love for her.  (By the way, that same knowledge is possible for all of us, right now.)

CO: Can you tell me what hints there are in the first book to this post-Revelation future?

SR: In chapter 18, one of the Grfdn skews Human history to insult Kena, and she sets him straight. Kena is relating  historic events to a non-human, so she doesn’t use our prophetic terminology.

CO: Why don’t your aliens know about God or worship a creator?

SR: A creator is mentioned in book one, and Kena wonders about their apparent lack of interest. She actually has limited knowledge of what they believe. I speculate that every alien race is different. What they know or care about could vary. Timing, need, willingness, purpose…many issues could play into this. Kena didn’t find an answer in book one. Book two… I’ll just say that desperation and purpose crop up.

CO: Were there any resources that were especially helpful in writing about the end times and the millennial kingdom?

SR: I have found very little about survivors of the tribulation or their descendants. From the Bible, I know they exist, they still have choices to make, and not all choose well. That gives me plenty of room for fictional descendants, such as Kena and Antony.

CO: Why does human telepathy in this series, differ from other representations in sci-fi, including your own Agents of Rivelt novel?

SR: I can’t help but chuckle over this. Ever since I saw Spock do a mind meld, I have been fascinated with telepathy. I’ve imagined it dozens of ways and considered all sorts of ramifications. For me, the story’s purpose drives the flavor of telepathy. Alas, Kena and Tracy (of Rivelt) can never meet.

Telepathy’s purpose in the Diverse series is to show the intrinsic differences between the alien races. Those differences create tremendous potential, but also challenges. I tucked an allegory into this, which refers to the uniqueness of every person. If only we could see past our surface variations, and recognize the amazing potential within each individual.

I want to thank Sharon so much for taking the time to answer my questions. I highly recommend her books. Great for fans of Star Trek, a clean alternative to the Orville, readers of Left Behind will be thrilled, and anyone who says that Revelation means there will never be deep space travel, need this book.

Author bio:

Sharon Rose photo I started writing when I was seven years old. Okay, My Life as a Flying Squirrel may have had a couple spelling errors, but my classmates loved it.

 Plenty of life has happened since that first story, and I’ve come to realize the things that fascinate me. People. Communication. Culture. Personality. Viewpoints. Beliefs. Anything that makes each of us beautifully unique. Small wonder that my art spills out in story form.

 It was only a matter of time before I just had to share my stories. I’ve published science fiction and have some fantasy novels coming in the future.

 When I’m not writing or reading, I may be traveling, enjoying gardens, or searching for unique coffee shops with my husband. We live in Minnesota, USA, famed for its mosquitoes—uh, I mean 10,000 lakes and vibrant seasons.

 

Realm Makers 2019: Recap

11 Aug 2019 1 Comment

by C.O. Bonham in Behind the keyboard, Random Musing, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , ,

Part of being a Writer means socalizing with other writers. Even though we can do so much of that online, it is still important to go to writing conferences, for learning and fellowship.

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My Name tag, note the 7 marking my attendance streak.

Last month I was at Realm Maker’s seventh writers conference for Christian speculative fiction authors. (Curious about year one? Click here.)

Why has it taken me so long to  get a post up about it? Recovery. It is hard for me to be around so many people for so long. It is also hard to put an event like realm Makers into words. (I’ve tried in past years)

For me the highlight this year was meeting bestselling authors Brent Weeks and Terry Brooks.

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For bestselling authors they were both very down to earth. Terry Brooks even stopped to chat with a group of us sitting in the lobby on Sunday evening, after the official conference was over.

Once again I did not have a novel to sell or to pitch to an agent or publisher. But this year I resolve to fix that.

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WTB teaching about balance. 

I learned from Wayne Thomas Batson on how to balance my life and writing. I think it helped. I have been making slow but steady progress which is better than no progress at all. He mostly just drilled into me that books don’t write themselves and if you want to do it you need to make time for it.

Then of course there was the costume banquet. It’s the best reason to go to Realm Makers over any other writers conference. That and Friends.

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Steampunk DC villains!

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I found a doctor!

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And fought a TARDIS

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Steampunk Justice league. I was Batman.

After the conference I went with a group to the City Museum in St. Louis. It is crazy amazing there. It’s like a giant art installation, and it’s never finished they are always adding to it. If you are ever in St. Louis you must go.

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The last great thing about Realm Makers are the book hauls. So many great books and so many great authors, ready to sign them. I had to take an empty suit case just to pack all my books in to take home. 

 

 

Giveaway:

I won some books this year that I already owned. So I got them signed and now I’m giving you a chance to win them.

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Just tell me how many books I have in my suitcase and if you are the closest then I will send you one of the two books pictured above.

Mark of the Raven by Morgan Busse or Breakwater by Catherine Jones Payne.

The first right answer gets to pick and the second right answer gets the left over.

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If it helps the suitcase is 13″ X 21″ X 8″

Email your guess to dolphin18cb@aim.com by August 18. Please put, Realm Makers Suitcase guess, in the subject line so I know it’s an entry.

Legal disclaimer: This giveaway is solely on me and is not sponsored by Realm Makers, WordPress or any of the authors pictured.

 

 

Marley was dead, Jesus was born

25 Dec 2016 Leave a comment

by C.O. Bonham in Shakespeare, Theological Musings, Victorian Fiction Tags: , ,

SAMSUNG CAMERA PICTURES

Merry Christmas everyone!

I absolutely love, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. This little book is written by a true word smith a master of story and it’s short.

I love the story, a classic tale of the changing of a human heart, but the absolutely best, most entertaining part is the first page and a half. I loved it so much that I memorized it. Dickens has this lovely moment where he wonders about the actual dead-ness of door-nails. To the point that he proposes that Coffin-nails might actually be deader. To this day my family can not let the phrase Dead as a Door-nail slid without goading me into repeating it.

“Marley was dead, to begin with.” Isn’t that a great opening line? Within that first page and a half Dickens reminds the reader exactly five times that Marley is dead.

“(1)Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.. . .  (2)Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. Mind! I don’t mean to say that I know of my own knowledge what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. . . You will therefore allow me to repeat emphatically that (3)Marley was as dead as a door-nail. (4)Scrooge knew he was dead. Of course he did. How could it be otherwise? . . . (5)There is no doubt that Marley was dead. This must be distinctly understood or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate.”

Marley was not a figment of Scrooge’s imagination, he did not fake his death, time travel, get caught in a extra dimensional limbo, or get stuck in the teleporter for fifty years. He was dead. He was a ghost. This story is about life and death and afterlife.

Chilling.

How many other stories could benefit from persistent reminders?

Dickens own example is Hamlet. “If we were not perfectly convinced That Hamlet’s father died before the play began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night, . . . literally to astonish his son’s weak mind.”

I know right! The Shakespeare nerd in me smiles at this reference. How little would the play Hamlet have mattered if we hadn’t known for sure that his father the king was dead? You must admit Shakespeare really liked the whole missing person restored plot a lot. If the king had only been missing then how could Prince Hamlet have placed any stock in the words of a wandering spirit?

What about the story of the first Christmas?

Jesus was born, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.

There is no doubt that Mary was a virgin. This must be distinctly understood or nothing wonderful can come of the story I am going to relate.

The Shepherds knew he was God. Of course they. How could it be otherwise? ( What with the angels telling them and all.)

On his first page Dickens gives us a life lesson and a lesson in writing:

Make sure your reader, and everyone you meet, understands what they are in for.

Dickens wanted to make sure that everyone knew there would be no trick ending, fantastical revelations, and most of all, no doubt that Marley was dead.

If Dickens could state five times that Marley was dead, then Christian’s shouldn’t be afraid to state that Jesus was born, at least five times. Then five times state that he died. Then Five times state that he rose again.

Again I say Merry Christmas, and to quote Tiny Tim: “God bless us everyone.”

 

To the Realm of Makers and Back Again

12 Aug 2015 5 Comments

by C.O. Bonham in Random Musing Tags: , , , ,

I am back from another year of Realm Makers, the only place to go if you are a Christian, fantasy and science fiction writer.

But, before I tell you more I’m going to update you on my last post. The Escape anthology contest is over and I can now tell you which story was mine.

I wrote the one titled “Raised in Captivity.” It was number eight on the list. I did not win the readers choice award but thank you to anyone who voted for mine. “Raised in Captivity” will still be published in the anthology so it’s all good. The publishing industry is not for the impatient, however, as the anthology publication date is almost a year from now.

The conference was last weekend, August 7 & 8, 2015, in St. Louis, Mo on the UMSL (University of Missouri at St. Louis) campus. This is the same place it was held in 2013.

The Keynote speaker was Robert Liparulo author of the Dreamhouse Kings series. He gave inspired talks. The first one was about the need to, stop worrying about what others think, and to stop doubting that you’re good enough. The second one was the opposite, GO was the message. Go start writing, go do what you need to do.

I did not have time for any sightseeing this year because the conference tried something new, an extra workshop on Thursday afternoon. The Irresistible Novel: by Jeff Gerke. In this class he talked about the brain chemistry of the reader and literally how to make your writing addictive. All this to plug his new book, of the same title; which naturally, sold out. I loved it, Jeff Gerke is an engaging speaker, and he writes exactly how he talks. Every author should have a collection of his books.

Beyond that though, this Early Bird class really helped to extend the Conference experience. It felt like three days instead of two and a half.

This year continued the tradition of the Splickety critique pre-party. During which I was mortified when my submission was read aloud. Some of the feedback was helpful, but 500 words isn’t really enough to get a good critque.

Another new feature this year was the addition of a third track of classes. Though I like having options I will always miss that first year with only one track, everyone went to the same classes and you didn’t have to worry about missing anything. This year featured three main tracks: World building, Editing, and Marketing. In addition to the main tracks there were also electives that also ran in groups of three and ranged in topics from book cover design to dealing with magic in Christian fantasy.

I feel like Editing is where I am in my writing Journey so I chose this course. David Farland was an entertaining speaker, who was very informed on his topic. He even threw in a lecture on what to do when your book is optioned for a movie. However, his anecdotal teaching style made it hard for me to take notes. This is a course where I think I will benefit from purchasing recordings. (Yes recordings are new this year too.) Also I missed a lot of his talk because I was busy attending mentoring appointments.

The highlight, for me at least, was meeting Donita K Paul the author of The Dragonkeeper Chronicles. I love her books so much, that I spent most of my one on one meeting with her, being star struck. I understand that the mentors set aside time in their schedules to talk to me about my writing, but it’s hard for me to talk about my writing, even with people I’m close to. Put me in front of someone I admire and whose own work has been a big part of my life, I freeze up.

One option I am glad I took advantage of was the opportunity to have a mentor critique the opening of my novel. It was an extra fee but worth every penny to be able to sit down with someone who already had feedback for me. I selected L.B. Graham for my mentor, and I would recommend him to anyone looking to do this next year. He is easy to talk with and his critiques were all very constructive, not to mention, absolutely right.

Every year there is a costume/ awards diner on Friday night. This year I dressed up as a Hogwarts student. I had to stand up front when they announced the winners of the anthology contest. You can imagine how uncomfortable I felt.

Saturday night there was a game room in addition to a Nerf war. I chose the game room. It’s easier to talk over games anyway. This was also the night I went around trying to get the rest of my books signed.

My Realm Makers tradition is to always buy more books than I can afford but never as many as I actually want. Sometimes I just have to say maybe next year to a certain book, or author. But yeah, if the Author is there, why not get it signed? In previous years actual book signings had been held. But this year was a giant game of stalk the author.

Thoughts on the conference experience:

After three years you’d think this would be easy for me, but I am very introverted, and I get crowd anxiety. So the first year was great for me, it was small and easy to navigate. The second year was also good, more people but still manageable. This year, attendance exploded. I am happy for the conference but I felt overwhelmed most of the time. Thank you to everyone who was ok with standing in out of the way corners with me.

I always feel torn, I enjoy the experience and I learn a lot, but honestly I feel better after I get home and start reading all the books I bought. I also like the after conference motivation. I have all this feedback to work with, and ideas to try. The hard part is keeping that drive going. I started my novel after the first conference. I finished the first draft after the second one. ( They were less than a year apart, so it’s not as bad as you might think.) After this one I am going to try for a presentable second maybe third draft before next year. My goal is a book to sell at conference five. Ok, maybe conference six.

In the Beginning, there was human cloning

13 May 2015 Leave a comment

by C.O. Bonham in Random Musing, Scientific Musing, Theological Musings Tags: , , , ,

Eve was Adam’s clone. Think about it, it really does make sense.

So here’s Adam. He’s perfect. He has all perfect chromosomes, perfect genes, no mutations, no disease, no defects at all. Everything needed to father the entire human race. He just needs one thing. A woman.

The Bible has two accounts of the Creation. In chapter one we get a very fast summery of what was created on each day. This is what it says about humans:

    So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.             Genesis 1:27 (NIV)

 Nothing about cloning you say? Well lucky for me chapter two is more detailed:

    So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and       then closed up the place with flesh. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he       brought her to the man. Genesis 2:21-22 (NIV)

 Eve was created from Adam’s flesh. A new biological entity was formed from a single set of genetic information. A clone.

“But Eve is female” you say, “if she was a clone there would have been two Adams.”

Not so. The only difference between men and women is a small piece of information called the Y chromosome. Men have it Women don’t.

Everyone has X Chromosomes. Men have XY, Women have XX. Some people have Turner’s Syndrome in which they only have one X chromosome. These people are noticeably female. Sadly this syndrome is marked by heart problems and infertility. Interestingly there is no syndrome in which someone has only a Y chromosome. It’s X or nothing.

The Mother of all humanity can’t have a Y chromosome, and she can’t populate a planet with Turner’s syndrome either. What’s a creator to do?

Remember those perfect chromosomes that Adam has. His X Chromosome is as perfect as an X Chromosome will ever be. Perfect enough that Eve can have two of them. God just made the Universe; cloning an extra chromosome is nothing.

It mind blowing to realize that every person on the planet is descended, not just from two people, but from one set of Genetic information. The great Geneticist knew what he was doing, because Adam had a truly diverse set of Genes.

I am in no way condoning human cloning. Our genes are not perfect anymore. Plus once God made Eve, reproduction became a viable option. God is the ultimate scientist, science was his creation after all, the best we can do is study his work and try to learn from it. Repeating his work is too far beyond us

Blood is Blood, DNA not Required

19 Mar 2015 2 Comments

by C.O. Bonham in Random Musing, Scientific Musing, Theological Musings Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Sorry for the long wait, but random thoughts come rather sporadically. So to motivate myself I started with a prompt:

 Moses and Aaron did just as the Lord had commanded. He raised his staff in the presence of Pharaoh and his officials and struck the water of the Nile, and all the water was changed into blood. (Exodus 7:20) NIV

I remember as a young Sunday school student listening to the story of the ten plagues and wondering, “When the Nile turned to blood whose DNA did it have?” When I asked this foolish question aloud, I got a foolish answer. “It must have been God’s DNA.”

This answer may have sufficed, save for a funny fact that I learned while reading Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. I have since confirmed it and now know that human red blood cells have no nucleus. They do not contain DNA. Blood is just blood. It’s the white blood cells and platelets in our blood that allows scientists to collect DNA from a blood sample. This is also why oral swabs are used when a comparison test is preformed. More nuclei to pull DNA from.

It is entirely possible that God turned the Nile river into a river of pure hemoglobin. Thus making it a true river of blood.

But there is the possibility that it wasn’t human blood, it could have been reptile blood or fish blood. There are those who theorize that it wasn’t even blood but rather red algae. To that I say, no. Ancient men might not have had microscopes and computers, but everyone who has ever scraped a knee or bit their tongue knows blood. The smell of the iron, the texture, the color, the way it flows. The thing is all humans have blood. Human blood would have been recognized and understood. They would have known it as human blood. Human blood would have had the most impact for the purpose God intended.

Naturally I can’t expect everyone to be a cellular biologist, but it seems to me that a better understanding of science could go a long way to helping keep the faith strong in this scientific world we live in.

Instead of, “It was God’s DNA.” How about this answer, “It didn’t need to have DNA, because it wasn’t in a body, so there wouldn’t have been any white blood cells for defense or any platelets to induce clotting. So you see it was just red blood cells.” Or the even more simple answer, “Lets look it up,” naturally smart phones were not in production back then but my outdated encyclopedia from that era still has the correct answer.

The point of all this? Well if you were or know of someone who started off strong in the faith and found yourself tempted away by scientific logic, think for a minute. Maybe it wasn’t your faith that was wrong, maybe it’s your science. God is the creator of all. That means he’s the creator of Science too.

The Mortal Deity

25 Dec 2014 Leave a comment

by C.O. Bonham in Random Musing, Theological Musings Tags: , , ,

Merry Christmas readers,

This year I want to muse on what makes Christmas so important.

Yes Jesus was born. But think about that – he was born.

Here is what separates Christianity from the many gods and mythologies of our past. None of them were both God and Man. True there are myths of demigods, but those are the offspring of gods and humans. Jesus is the one true creator, God incarnated in flesh.

Odin never went through puberty. Zeus never had to deal with paper cuts or sprained ankles. Jupiter never had to hold boards in the carpentry shop when he’d rather be at the temple arguing philosophy with the teachers.

Can’t you just imagine a gangly teenage Jesus popping a zit saying, “Seriously, ugh puberty, what was I thinking?”

Standing up to a bully, listening to the taunt, “Make me Carpenter’s kid.”

Jesus standing his ground, the power of creation flashing behind his eyes, saying, “I could, but never forget that I won’t.”

Or watching the blood well up after pulling a splinter, the enormity of what he was doing suddenly coming to him and thinking, it’s not time for this to spill yet.

Some people might think it’s blasphemy for me to humanize the savior so much but that is the point of Christmas. God humanizing himself is the reason for the season.

God the Creator in the form of his creation. He must have been a genius. Think about it, Jesus must have been able to look at a glass of water and know each of the individual oxygen and hydrogen atoms. He could look at the night sky and know the ages and the distances of the stars. He must have been spouting numbers all the time. Angles and measurements in the workshop, Distances and times while traveling.

Do you suppose that Man was created in the image of God because God knew that one day he would take on the Image of man?

That is what so many people forget. The religious are worried about the forgiveness of sins and spiritual blessings. The secular are worried about gifts, food and the trappings of this world. But Christmas is about both. The spiritual and the Human becoming one. So rejoice, be merry, and read your Bible. Merry Christmas—God was born.

NaNoWriMo Fail

03 Dec 2014 Leave a comment

by C.O. Bonham in Random Musing Tags: , ,

My last post was about how I was going to rewrite my novel during National Novel writing month this past November. Well it’s now the third day of December and I only got 23,369 words written. The goal as you recall was a 50,000 word novel. I failed at just shy of half way.

It gets worse. I also said I was going to cheat. Of the 23,000 odd words, probably only four to five thousand are new writing, the rest are cannibalized from my first draft. I was cheating and I still couldn’t finish it.

My excuse: I work retail and this time of year I work a lot of hours, and when I get home I am worn out physically and emotionally drained from having holiday shoppers blaming me for them not making it to the store in time to get the last eighty dollar tablet or ninety dollar TV.

The truth: I think I may have fallen out of love with the story. I sit down to work on it and I get kind of overwhelmed with the idea of re-structuring a novel that took me so long to work on the first time around. And then I start thinking about what to change and my brain gets flooded with all of these what if’s and then I go through the plot and think well if I change event A then event B can’t happen as is. Which leads to the question of whether I really need event B in the story or if should cut A&B and just skip to event C.

I want to keep working on it, I really would hate for Julian Random to never be published. But maybe I need a break. I need to focus on some short story ideas I had and publish something. It’s been way too long since I’ve had a publishing credit. And I need to get paid this time. Especially since I just solved my biggest problem and quit my job.

NaNoWriMo

01 Nov 2014 1 Comment

by C.O. Bonham in Random Musing Tags: , , ,

For the uninitiated, the really confusing title you just read stands for National Novel Writing Month. I have been contemplating whether I wanted to try this challenge to write a fifty thousand word novel in one month. I have never tried it before. But this might be the year.

Fifty thousand is a lot of words. I would need to write at least 1667 words a day. Almost a thousand words more than my current goal of whatever will fit on two double spaced pages a day. And with the holiday season officially started I will have to do it with forty hour work weeks on top of that. But I think I found a way to do it.

I am going to cheat.

You see I already think of myself as having written a novel. But in retrospect it might just be 300 pages of character development. The truth is I love reading, probably more than I love writing, and even I think my book is boring. So I want to use this challenge to rewrite my book. I want to tighten it up, add more action and define the plot better. And I want to do it in less than the year and a half it took me the first time around. The hardest part is behind me right?

Isn’t that why we have this huge fanfiction market? Because it’s easier to write with an established character than to make up your own. It is, it really is. I confess to being tempted by the siren call of Fan fiction. But I resisted because I realized that even if I had the best plot line ever I could never really know a character I didn’t create. As much as they tell you not to write yourself I think every author puts a piece of themselves into their characters.

So now I have all these characters that have a piece of me. I can write my own fan fiction with my characters and it should be awesome. That wasn’t the most narcissistic sentence ever right?

The best part is that if I get behind on the word count I can just cut and past from what I already have written. 300 pages it can’t all be bad writing, can it?

Anyway that’s the plan. Maybe I can count this post towards my first word count goal. If I can’t today’s word count is zero. Oh well I guess I have to decide what to keep from my current manuscript be cause at this rate I have a lot of cheating to do.

Feel free to leave a comment. Do you think this is a good strategy or is it as bad as cheating on a mid term?

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