SCL launch date: October 30, 2026
Seeing the Crooked Lines, the prequel to Great Purpose and the first book in The Modern Miracles Series, will be launched on Friday, October 30th!
I’m proud of this book. A couple early readers told me it is a better novel than Great Purpose. They liked the close third perspective focused on Father Karl Becker, the more introspective tone, and the more consistent theme.
I’m not sure I agree, but I’ll take the compliments, thank you very much. I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for Great Purpose, since it was my first published novel. Still, my opinion isn’t what’s important — it’s how readers relate to the stories that really matters. And if people like SCL better, I can live with that.
I’ve been listening to a lot of videos on YouTube about how to be a better author. There is some good advice to be found there, as well as a lot of useless chatter designed to get one to pay for a course or a guide. One video listed several things that authors should absolutely not do. And as I was listening, I realized that SCL violates some of those rules. For example, one expert says: “Chapters should not end with the character going to bed.” SCL ends a lot of chapters at the end of a day of investigation, with Becker retiring for the evening. I understand the reason behind the rule — you don’t want a chapter ending with no clear action in play, thus discouraging the reader to turn the page. Ideally, every chapter ends on a bit of cliffhanger. I didn’t do that, and maybe that will make the pacing feel slower than it should. As I edited the book, I thought it moved along fairly well, so I didn’t change it. I’ll be interested to hear what readers think.
The book is still shorter than I had originally envisioned. It now 72,200 words, not including a short appendix, which is more than Great Purpose but less than the 80,000 words I had planned. But as I edited the prose, I decided to leave it lean. In fact, I cut a little here and there, to keep the text tight.
I will be interested in what people think of the ending. It certainly sets Becker up for the later events in Great Purpose, but it doesn’t exactly wrap up with the same kind of clearly defined resolution. I could have done that, but it felt dishonest to Becker’s character, and to the story. I think it gives Becker a very interesting character arc — the man we see at the beginning is quite different than the one we read about at the end. I think people will appreciate his journey.
Special pricing!
I’m happy to announce that Seeing the Crooked Lines will be sold permanently at a very low price: just 99 cents for the eBook version and only $9.99 for the paperback version. My intention is not to get rich on sales of the book, but to provide people with an opportunity to start reading The Modern Miracles Series at a very affordable cost. So, I have set the pricing at low levels and plan to keep it there.
What’s next?
I’m working on Book 3, the sequel to Great Purpose, which is tentatively titled The Fire We Carry. It will be about what happens to The Group after the events at Our Lady’s University and the Rose Bowl. It will introduce some new characters, a new spiritual mystery, and some new questions that will challenge readers. And, I’ve also been working on Book 4, tentatively titled Twice Present — I’m especially excited about this one. It has some very interesting plot engines that will be unlike anything I’ve written so far. More information to come soon on both books, I promise!
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Take care!
