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As a writer of fiction I have to get used to reviews. I recently ran a promotion on my novel The Silla Project and a lot of people received copies. As such, I’ve been getting a lot of reviews on Amazon. So far they have been almost 100% positive, and even the few three-star reviews haven’t been bad, but have focused on something specific in the book that the reader didn’t personally prefer. You have to expect that in any sample of people and I am just as thankful for these reviews as any other.

Some people rave about The Silla Project, which I appreciate very much. As with any group there are those with which you connect almost completely. Others also like The Silla Project but felt it was more technical than they prefer. I also appreciate that. Writing a techno-thriller is a tightrope between losing the technical elements that infuse the plot or overwhelming the reader with them. As a scientist you can guess which side I’m going to err on. Regardless, I appreciate anyone who takes the time to leave a review on Amazon. Thank you. However, I did want to address one of the review-topics of which I’ve seen a handful.

Some of my readers complain about the fact that there are elements of Christianity in the story. One even went so far as to call it “Hidden Christian Propaganda.�� While I’m not replying to any review in particular, I can say that none of it is hidden in any way. The main character is a Christian who has lost his faith and is trying to find something in life that matters, a battle we all face in one way or another. But this recurring topic does raise many questions, two of which I’d like to address.

First, why would I make the main character a Christian when the book isn’t a Christian novel? For one thing, the story is set in North Korea. North Korea is one of the most anti-Christian nations on the planet, having executed tens of thousands since their 1948 revolution for the simple act of believing in Jesus. Despite the fact that I am a Christian, I find this to be a humanitarian atrocity of epic proportions, as I would the slaughter of Muslims, Jews, Hindu, Buddhists, blacks, whites, tall people, smart people, whatever. Giving the main character Christian traits helps elevate this humanitarian atrocity since it is relatively unknown.

Additionally, one of my jobs as an author is to make things as hard as possible on the main character. Making him a Christian in a land that is not only godless, but one in which you will be punished for your faith, greatly increases his emotional burden. An American Christian would have far less in common with his North Korea captors than an atheist American and would be forced to rely on his shattered faith providing a wonderful mix of emotions for the author’s craft.

Secondly, why would someone have a problem with a Christian character in a novel that isn’t a Christian novel? Is it because Christianity is ultimately portrayed positively in The Silla Project? Novels are generally praised for characters who are repressed in some way be it religiously, socially, racially, sexually, etc. It is their journey against stereotype and discrimination which at once creates depth and helps us understand that ultimately they are just people.

In modern Western literature Christians are generally portrayed as coming from the ruling class and impressing their faith on others. While this is a popular view it is just another stereotype. Christians are widely panned in the West in virtually all forms of media, so while they may have once been “on top�� that is no longer the case. Moreover, Christians are now the single most persecuted religious faith in the world. In fact, when I decided to write this post I had been reading an article on eight Christians who were crucified in Syria and another on the Sudanese woman who received a death sentence for being a Christian. Religion �� all religion �� is now, and has always been, a major source of conflict between people and so must be one of the writer’s chief tools in the creation of drama. To exclude it, or limit it, is artistically and intellectually dishonest and a monumental disservice to those experiencing persecution.

Finally, I welcome reviews. I enjoy hearing about what people like and what they do not like about my novels. It challenges me and helps inform my decisions in later work. The only review I’ve ever received which I truly disagree with is a one-star review on Multiplayer which rails against the large number of five-star reviews the book had received, written by someone (probably a competing author) who has not read the book. In this brief piece I’m merely explaining why an author might choose to make a character Christian. For those who feel I may be biased or be producing hidden propaganda, I suggest you read Multiplayer in which the hero is a young Islamic boy from Iran. It is neither hidden, nor propaganda. It is just a story.

Ann Coulter

Since we all know who Ann Coulter is I should introduce myself. I’m a 48 year old Aerospace Engineer and Physicist who has been working with our nation’s missile defense program for the last 23 years. My father flew bombers in Vietnam. My grandfather flew F4F Wildcats in World War II. He was an ace. His father, a dirt poor farmer in Oklahoma, was born here along with his great grandfather. While not all of my family members were WWII aces, all eight of my great grandfathers were born in the United States. I’ve played soccer for 40 years and watch it whenever I can.

So much for Coulter’s knowledge of soccer displayed in her entitled Any Growing Interest In Soccer Is A Sign Of The Nation’s Moral Decay in which she said, among other lies, that “No American whose great-grandfather was born here is watching soccer.�� I won’t go into the specifics of her article or rebut each of her points made with the clumsiness of an IRS official on the witness stand, but I will rather concentrate on the overriding theme of her tantrum. Her primary theme is that soccer is un-American, basically because it isn’t football, basketball, or baseball. She provides some truly ridiculous and uninformed data to support this statement that you can read for yourself should you want to click on the link. Trust me, it’s good for a laugh. But let’s look at the truth of her thesis.

Thomas Edison. Born poor.

America, and even Ann might agree with this, is a place where hard work is rewarded. At least that is the idea. It’s a place where people can come (legally) who have nothing special about them and through hard work, make something of themselves. You can be born here with no special talents and through hard work and smart choices, lift yourself from a ghetto. That’s the idea. Or was the idea. Clearly this isn’t Ann Coulter’s view of America.

Football is a sport that can only be played by people with a certain genetic mix. Large bones. Great speed. Lots of muscle mass. Ability to be told what to do and do it exactly as told. There is no room on a football field for creativity. Coaches plan out plays, people learn them, and they execute them. So basically, you can only play if you are a certain type of person who will always do exactly as you are told. And unless you have access to expensive equipment and lots of food you’re never going to get anywhere. Is that what America is all about?

Genetic freak.

Basketball isn’t much better. If you’re not tall you can’t play. Period. Sure, you can run around with the boys in the gym, but you’ll never be more than a weekend warrior. Without the right genetic mix, which a person has no control over, you’re out of luck. I thought America was a place where the circumstances of your birth, or even some genetic disadvantages, could be overcome.

Mark McGuire. Capt. Steroid.

Baseball: Steroids. Baseball is even more full of drugs than football. Maybe even more than cycling. I’m sure Coulter doesn’t understand the mechanics of swinging a bat but basically it goes like this: the fatter you are, the closer the center of gravity will be to your shoulders so the faster you can swing a bat. Just like in the beef industry where steroids are used to increase the size of steers, they are also used in baseball to increase the size of�� steers. So, cheating to improve ones performance, lying about it, raking in the cash, admitting you cheated, and keeping the money sounds more like Wall Street to me than America.

Lionel Messi. World’s best player, 5 feet 6 inches tall.

In soccer size doesn’t matter. Background doesn’t matter. You don’t need steroids. You don’t need any expensive equipment, a field, or even a real ball! Pele learned to play soccer with a ball of rags. And only in soccer is each player truly in control of his destiny. The coach may set up the team and develop a tactical approach, but the decisions on the field are up to the players. Oh, and Ann, soccer matches are 110 minutes, always. There are no commercials during the game like in a 4 hour football game, a 4 hour + baseball game, or the 2 hour last 15 seconds of a basketball game. Sure, soccer tries to sell you crap at halftime, but these other sports try to sell it to you from before the time the match begins to until well after it ends.

Bernard Madoff. Ann Coulter’s perfect American.

So I guess it’s up to my readers to decide which sport really sounds the most American. Sports where the players are told exactly what to do, are rigidly controlled, and punished if deficient? Sports that depend almost entirely on the circumstances of ones birth for participation? Sports that rely on performance enhancing drugs to keep audiences interested? Sports that feel more like an advertisement convention than an athletic event? Or a sport that anyone with a healthy body, through sheer will and determination and practice, despite the circumstances of their birth, can rise to the highest levels of the game? If you don’t say soccer, you are un-American, because the big three sound more like Bernard Madoff than they do like free enterprise*.

Oh, and Ann, I’ve blown my ACL playing soccer, broke my arm, ruptured ankle ligaments, fractured my ankle, and suffered more cuts scrapes contusions, bruises, and injuries than you could cover up even with your extensive makeup kit. I even had a friend die playing it when I was in high school.

So, I guess this really just proves one thing, you really are a dumb blonde, aren’t you. The mainstream media you hate for the un-American way they report things that aren’t true because they don’t care about facts just to make some political point: you’re one of them.

John C. Brewer

*This is not a judgment on if the sport is “good or bad.�� I love football and don’t really care about the other two, but certainly don’t mind if you like them. I don’t even care if you don’t like soccer. Just don’t be stupid about it.

Many today will hear about D-Day and wonder what all the fuss was about. World War II is a war like none that has ever been fought. Over 60 million dead in continents all over the world. The United States death toll, around 500,000 pales in comparison, but we hold days like today in sanctity nonetheless. Somewhere around 5,000 Americans died in the amphibious assault on the beaches of Northern France.

And while today we remember Normandy and the beginning of the end of an evil, fascist regime, the United States faced many Normandys during those horrible four years from December 1941 through August 1945. Names like Guadalcanal (7,100 dead), Bastogne (3,000 dead), Tarawa (1,700 dead), Iwo Jima (6,800 dead), and Okinawa (more than 12,000 dead) are not unfamiliar to those who remember the sacrifice. The European Air War, many forget, resulted in over 35,000 Americans dead. After the war, America said “Never again.��

For the last 70 years The United States has embarked upon a technological arms race. Relying on engineers and scientists who study hard and work even harder, we have conducted millions of hours of research and test to develop weapons that save lives. Yes, SAVE LIVES. When the Allies landed at Normandy, even the pummeling from hundreds of allied battleships, cruisers, and destroyers failed to dent the Axis defenses. Across the Pacific, weeks of bombardment failed to pry the Imperial Japanese Army from their island strongholds. In order to knock out a single German factory that produced weapons, hundreds of bombers would be sent deep into Germany with the loss of scores of aircraft and hundreds of brave crewmen. So great was the carnage that bitterness and hatred lingered decades after the war and old resentments still exist today. Even so, we respect the bravery and commitment of the enemy who resisted us.

It is easy to look at Iraq and Afghanistan and believe our enemies to be incompetent. To think that Saddam Hussein’s Republican Guard was a joke. That would be a mistake. Just because we lost fewer men in the conquest of Iraq than in a small World War II battle, doesn’t mean the enemy can’t fight. What it means is that we now fight a different kind of war. Instead of rolling tanks and troops into the maw of an enemy dug in and concealed, our orbiting satellites determined the position of every bunker and foxhole from Basra to Mosul. Weeks of planning resulted in an operation in which invisible aircraft and missiles simultaneously attacked hundreds of locations while loitering electronic warfare aircraft blinded the enemy’s defenses. What once required a fleet of B-17′s now takes two cruise missiles or a high flying F-117 with a smart bomb. The result, when we roll the tanks, supported by Apache helicopters with Hellfire missiles and A-10 Warthogs packing the General Electric GAU-8 30 millimeter Gatling Cannon, our soldiers are already in the mopping up phase. Iraq was still fighting World War II. We were fighting World War IV.

Normandy. D-Day. A time we should never forget. The sacrifice in men and resources still boggles the mind 70 years after. But more importantly, we should not forget the lessons of Normandy. First, there is no price to high to stamp out tyranny, for tyranny unchecked, like cancer, never shrinks. It only grows until it chokes out everything. Second, a flawed military industrial welfare complex is a small price to pay when compared against the likes of D-Day, June 6, 1944.

So what is the worst crime in America. Murder? Rape? Pedophilia? Corruption? You might be surprised to find that it is none of the above!

In most (if not all societies) murder is the ‘worst�� crime. In many cultures it is punishable by death. Rape and pedophilia, and sometimes blasphemy, are close seconds. Abuse of power can be a biggie too, and has resulted in more than a few dictators hanging from lamp poles by their necks. Punishments for crimes vary and can range anywhere from death, to incarceration, to various fines, and are usually tied to the severity of the crime. In most civilized societies these laws and their commensurate punishments are written down. We’re proud of this. It means we’re civilized.

‘Civilized�� societies have generally moved away from reactionary responses such as lynch mobs and now give convicted individuals the benefit of the doubt. In the United States we call this “innocent until proven guilty,�� a great invention of our Founding Fathers who’d suffered too much of this kind of unfair punishment. Indeed, our Constitution also guarantees people representation and a jury trial by their peers. In most cases, the person is even allowed to go free until the trial, which can be years away. And of course, even if proven guilty, judges have a lot of freedom in sentencing and often cite the circumstances of a crime in reducing a sentence. Of course, those who stand accused are generally offered a plea bargain: to save the time and expense of a trial they plead guilty and are given a lesser sentence. We civilized nations are proud of the way we handle crime and punishment. It proves we’re civilized.

But there is a crime in America so heinous that all these rules become null and void. For those who stand accused there is no trial. There’s not even a judge. Bail isn’t really a consideration because the punishment is immediate. Background is never considered unless to be used against the person who stands accused. While the punishment isn’t death (yet) it is nevertheless swift and comprehensive. People so accused are stripped of their worth and have their assets confiscated. In most cases their means of livelihood is taken away and their reputations irrevocably destroyed. This crime is so bad, even friends and colleagues must make strong statements against the accused lest they suffer the same fate for being loyal. If you think all this shows just how bad this crime is, the very fact that I’m publishing this piece about the crime could leave me accused of it and destroyed! It is that bad!

What is this crime of which I speak? A crime that must stand above all others given the ferocity of response and the complete lack of representation or trial afforded the accused? The crime: an arbitrary arrangement of words spoken by fools and idiots to offend people they usually don’t know. Seriously.

To say something bad about another person because of their color is the worst crime in America. Even worse than expressing a negative opinion about their sexuality. Though there seems to be open season on a person’s religion (which is guaranteed by the Constitution.) The use of a word or phrase, apparently even in private, whether it affects anyone or not, is viewed worse than murder, rape, armed robbery, slander, assault, you name it! It doesn’t even have to be spoken. It can just be a mean look. That’s what we’ve come to. We treat rapists better than this. Embezzlers who steal millions. Murderers who kill the innocent have more rights. An accusation of racism brings out the lynch mob screaming in the street. Many of us are proud of this reactionary response. We think it means we’re becoming more civilized. I think it might mean something else.

If racism has become a crime then it needs to be criminalized by law. Presently, racist comments are protected by the First Amendment so that would have to be amended. The law needs to be well defined and come with distinct penalties based on the severity of the racist action. It needs to apply equally to everyone regardless of race, creed, color, sexual orientation, political alignment, or any other differentiating factor. Until then, it’s just a lynch mob.

If you think a lynch mob is a good idea, go watch or read To Kill A Mockingbird. Do you really want to be like that? Do ya?

A Modern Twist On A Classic Tale��

Once upon a time there was a great nation that had become filled with vain and selfish People whose only goal in life was to be fed and cared for and feel pleasure all the time. They made up stories about this perfect world almost every day and loved to tell them. People who didn’t like the stories were derided and pilloried endlessly and called prejudice and intolerant �� the worst of crimes.

Word of this People’s selfishness spread over their kingdom and beyond. A scoundrel from a far land who had heard of the People’s vanity decided to take advantage of it. He introduced himself at the gates of the nation with a scheme in mind.

“I am a very great and brilliant thinker, and after many years of study I have invented an extraordinary method to weave a cloth so perfect that if you wear it, you will be beautiful, it will provide for all of your needs, and you will want for nothing. However, it is invisible to anyone who is too prejudiced and intolerant to recognize its perfection.��

The chief of the court heard the scoundrel’s strange story and sent for the court chamberlain. The chamberlain notified the prime minister, who ran to the People and disclosed the incredible news. The People’s selfishness got the better of them and they decided to see the scoundrel.

“Besides being invisible,�� the Scoundrel told the people, “this cloth will be woven in colors and patterns created especially for each one of you.��

The People gave the scoundrel a bag of gold coins in exchange for his promise to begin working on the fabric immediately. ”Just tell us what you need to get started and we’ll give it to you.��

The scoundrel asked for a loom, silk, gold thread and then put his expert servants to work. The People thought they had spent their money quite well: in addition to getting a new extraordinary suit that would make all their dreams come true, they would discover which of their neighbors were prejudiced and intolerant. A few days later, the People called the old and wise prime minister, who was considered by everyone as a man with common sense.

“Go and see how the work is proceeding,�� the People ordered, “and come back to let us know.��

The prime minister was welcomed by the scoundrel. ”I’m almost finished, but my workers need a lot more gold thread. Here, Excellency! Admire the colors, feel the softness!�� The old man bent over the loom and tried to see the fabric that was not there. He felt cold sweat on his forehead.

“I can’t see anything,�� he thought. “If I see nothing, that means I’m prejudice! Or, worse, intolerant!�� If the prime minister admitted that he didn’t see anything, he would be discharged from his office for being a racist, or a bigot, or a homophobe as had happened to others. “What a marvelous fabric, he said then. “I’ll certainly tell the People.” The  scoundrel rubbed his hands gleefully. He had almost made it. More gold thread was requested to finish the work.

Finally, the People received the announcement that the  tailor had come to take all the measurements for their new suits. Even as they bowed, the scoundrel pretended to hold a large roll of fabric that would change their lives.

“Here is the result of my labour,�� the scoundrel said. “I have worked night and day but, at last, the most beautiful fabric in the world is ready for you. And you deserve only the best. Look at the colors and feel how fine it is.�� Of course the People did not see any colors and could not see any cloth at all! They panicked and felt like fainting. But luckily their sofas were right in front of their TV sets so each of them sat down. But when they realized that no one could know that each of them did not see the fabric, they felt better. Nobody could find out they were prejudice or intolerant for those were the chief of all evils. And the People didn’t know that everybody else around each of them thought and did the very same thing.

The farce continued as the scoundrel had foreseen. Once he had taken the measurements, his minions began cutting the air with scissors while sewing with their needles an invisible cloth.

The scoundrel came to the people and said, “You’ll have to take off your clothes to try on your new ones.�� The scoundrel draped the new clothes on each of them and then held up a mirror. The People were embarrassed to see that they were naked but refused to say anything for fear of being branded prejudice or intolerant.

“Yes, these are beautiful clothes and they look so safe and sustaining on each of us,�� the People said, trying to look comfortable. “You’ve done a fine job.�� All were horrified of being called prejudice or intolerant.

The scoundrel, now a very rich man, told them, ”You are now beautiful and will feel good about yourselves, and will want for nothing. You should have a parade to celebrate your wonderful new clothes.�� The People were doubtful showing themselves naked, but then they abandoned their fears. After all, no one would know about it except the prejudice and the intolerant �� the worst of evils.

“All right,�� they all said. “We will do this.�� They summoned their carriages and put on their new clothes, and the parade was formed. Everyone wanted to know how prejudice or intolerant his or her neighbor was and, as the People passed, a strange murmur rose from the crowd.

Everyone said, loud enough for the others to hear: “Look at everyone’s new clothes. They’re beautiful! What a marvelous parade!�� And though everyone was cold and embarrassed, no one said so for fear of losing their job or being ostracized.

“And the colors! The colors of that beautiful fabric! I have never seen anything like it in my life!�� They all tried to conceal their disappointment at not being able to see the clothes, and since nobody was willing to admit they were prejudice or intolerant, they all behaved as the scoundrel had predicted.

A young girl, however, who wanted only to see things as her eyes showed them, went before them.

“You are all naked!�� she announced. “You’ve been swindled by this scoundrel!��

“Racist!�� her friends reprimanded, running after her. “Bigot! Homophobe!�� They gnashed their teeth in rage and grabbed her and hauled her away. But the girls’s remark, which had been heard by everyone, was repeated over and over again until many cried:

“The girl is right! We’re all naked! We’ve been swindled!�� And they put their clothes back on.

The naked fools realized that the girl was right but could not admit to that, or admit that they’d been taken. They thought it better to continue the procession under the illusion that anyone who couldn’t see their clothes was either prejudice or intolerant. They stood stiffly and hurled insults and tried to destroy any who said they were naked, or tried to clothe them.

The end.

Story: Hans Christian Anderson, Arrangement: John C. Brewer

Last week, on the opening day of Noah, as the credits rolled, a friend who happened to be sitting near my wife and I in the theater turned to me and said: “What was with that Noah getting drunk and laying naked on the beach? I don’t remember reading that in the Bible.��

Strangely, that scene was one of the few things from Noah that WAS in the Bible.

Genesis 9: 20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.

Okay, so it was a tent, not a cave. I can live with that. But with most Christians, I was somewhat appalled by Darren Aranofsky’s loose interpretation of the rest of the Noah story. In fact, it wasn’t an interpretation of the story at all, it was just flat out made up. The account of Noah is spread through chapters 6, 7, 8, and 9 of Genesis and is one of the most detailed stories in the Bible. There is very little interpreting to be done and DA altered major portions and thematic elements for reasons I can only guess. No less than five times Genesis says “…Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons�� wives…�� You can’t interpret that to be “…Noah and his sons and his wife and his eldest son’s wife…�� Unless you can interpret 2+2 to be equal to five. It isn’t about interpretation, it is about honesty and we know where DA stands on that.

However, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that while Mr. Aranofsky might be in some spiritual hot water for intentionally altering God’s revealed word, it has little effect on anyone else. Altering the story doesn’t change the story. And if it causes even one person who doesn’t read the Bible regularly (me included) to read the actual account of Noah in Genesis (which I did following the movie) then I call it a win for God. Aren’t we constantly trying to get people to pick up a Bible? Well done DA!

It also gives Christians a chance to distinguish themselves from their Islamic counterparts. Christians often get called out for hating homosexuals and being hard on adulterers and the like. For some reason, though, Muslims get a pass even though they put homosexuals and adulterers to death. It’s been hundreds of years since Christians did that but it happens every day across the Middle East. Salman Rushdie had to live in exile for years because he called elements of the Koran into question. Over the past few years numerous writers and cartoonists have received death sentences for infractions as seemingly innocuous as drawing a cartoon of Mohammed. How have Christians responded to DA’s butchery of the Noah story? Criticism. Blogs. Refusing to go see it. Way to go Christians!

In the end, though, this all does shine a light on a major problem with modern Christianity. As a faithful Christian I am surrounded by, and often participate in, a lot of handwringing about the Godlessness that has enveloped our society.  We fear our way of life will end. We fear God will destroy our nation. After all, he’s done it before. But is that really where our focus needs to be?

First off, God said he would have saved Sodom for ten righteous men. Even in the worst of U.S. cities there are more than ten righteous men. In our nation as a whole there are millions of faithful men and women. Do you think God’s forgotten us? Where is your faith?

And THAT is where the drama in Noah should have come from. The story didn’t need an evil king or a lack of resources to have dramatic tension. Noah and his family were the last people on Earth! They were adrift in a planet-wide sea. Millions had just perished. No evil king is needed! Can you imagine how terrifying that would be? If DA can imagine rock creatures (which I didn’t really have a problem with) certainly he could have imagined what it would have been like on the Ark. That is my problem with the story �� Darren Aronofsky missed the entire point. And if we aren’t careful, so will we.

So as we think on Noah, and what it would mean to be lost at sea as the sole remaining element of humanity, lets remember what I think might be the single most powerful element of the story of Noah and one of the most powerful verses in all the bible. An enduring trait of God that remains as applicable to us today as it did to Noah, our greatest of grandfathers, some 5,000 years ago.

Genesis 8:1

But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.

John C. Brewer

One of my favorite movies, and a film I prefer over the written version is, The Shawshank Redemption*. If you’ve not seen it, you should. One of the recurring motifs in the film is hope. The movie is set in prison and there are few men who are more desperate than those locked up unjustly.

*Spoilers below

Andy is a former banker locked up unjustly for a murder he did not commit. Red is a hardened criminal incarcerated for a murder he did commit. At one point, after Andy gets out of the hole, he says to his fellow inmates that hope is what kept him going. His friend Red warns him, “Hope is a dangerous thing. Hope can drive a man insane. It’s got no use on the inside. You better get used to that idea.�� Red, now just as much a victim of his own crime as the person he killed, is looking at prison from the perspective of a victim. He is stuck inside and there is nothing he can do to get out. His fate is entirely in the hands of others. It is sometimes hard not to feel this way in our lives, is it not?

As writers, we all hope that our work will be appreciated by others. We hope that we’ll write a best seller and become rich and famous. Most of us know that it’s a pipe dream, and ultimately most of us write not to get rich, but because we love it and we have something to say. But in the back of our minds is this hope that our work will take off. Many writers, myself included, spend a lot of time courting agents and editors in the hope of licensing our work to a major publisher. Some of us don’t like our day jobs. Some of us are poor and need money. Others crave fame or fortune. Whatever the motivation, we spend countless hours researching industry professionals and writing letters to them. We read books and attend conferences that promise to make us better at querying. Then, we send these letters off and hope.

A very bad habit, and one that I got in to a few years back, was daily hoping for a reply. Checking your email every thirty minutes can become a very destructive thing. Like Red said, “Hope can drive a man insane.�� And it can! I’m here to tell you, it can!

Recently I was forced to stop writing. My job became very intense with a lot of travel. Not only did I stop writing, I stopped querying. How can you query when you’ve written nothing new, right? And besides, I hated waiting for those query letters to come back as rejections. I was like Red, waiting for the prison board to parole me for good behavior, and trying to do whatever I could to grease those skids. I was sick of querying and, quite frankly, sick of writing. Little did I realize what I was giving up.

Lately, after a bit of a break, I’ve begun writing again. I had forgotten how much I enjoy it. But with the writing came the specter of querying again. After all, there’s little point in writing if I have no hope that anyone will ever see it. But this time, the thought came differently. I realized I actually missed the excitement of sending queries. Even though most of them do result in rejections, each one does have the possibility of something greater. And quite honestly, how often in our lives do we really get to experience the hope of something greater? (Christians, of course, have a different kind of hope that I’m not talking about here. ) Upon graduation from high school and college perhaps? When we marry? How often do ‘promotions�� really lead to something better? Outside of that, what is there? People buy lottery tickets by the $millions in the hope that something will happen. We want hope. We crave hope.

Later in the movie, after Andy has escaped from prison, Red is finally released on parole and follows a series of cryptic clues until he finds a note left by his friend Andy telling Red how to find him. In the note Andy tells Red, “Hope is a good thing. Maybe the best thing. And no good thing ever dies.�� Red now understands why Andy was able to have hope even in the darkest of their times in prison. Andy, despite being innocent of his crimes, did not take Red’s view that he was simply a victim at the whim of others. All throughout their incarceration, Andy was working on an escape plan. And even though the chance of escaping was always slim, it was always there. Andy was generating his own hope. Red’s hope had no foundation and so really wasn’t hope, but just a dream. A baseless, whispered wish. I have often confused hoping and dreaming. Hoping and wishing. They’re not the same thing at all.

As authors, as people, we can either dream, or we can hope. Like Andy told Red in the prison yard after some very tough time in solitary confinement: “Get busy living, or get busy dying.�� Andy’s outlook remained hopeful because he was creating his own hope. As authors, and indeed anyone in life, we can do the same thing. In the story it took Andy over twenty years to tunnel out of his cell. And while escaping was the goal, the plan itself is what provided the daily dose of hope that kept him going. So, I’ll write my books and then write my queries. Because it isn’t the answer I get from someone I have no control over that is important, it is the excitement of knowing that with each blow of my tiny rock hammer, I might just break through that wall.

So what is it with zombies? Why the fascination? From movies to books our culture is fascinated with zombies.

Pretend zombie.

From the standpoint of story I don’t see the appeal. Outside of mowing down and gruesomely killing lots of people whether zombified or not, there’s nothing there. No plot. No tension. Nothing to be learned. Nothing of artistic value �� whatever that means. Just carnage. So perhaps the draw is the idea that it could actually happen; that some virus or pathogen could infect humans and result in the Zombie Apocalypse. I guess kids like that sort of thing. Heck, when I was young I thought surviving in the aftermath of a nuclear war sounded exciting. I know better now. I know better because we are in the beginning of the Zombie Apocalypse and it isn’t going to be fun.

What is a Zombie Apocalypse? The standard Zombie Apocalypse �� ZA for short �� occurs when most people become infected with some pathogen that turns them into a zombie. Generally just a few (well-armed) uninfected people remain to fight against the hoards. Originally zombies were slow moving but as audiences have become ever more jaded on death and destruction their attention span has waned so directors had to speed the zombies up. Now they are faster than Usain Bolt.

Pretend zombie.

Other than being fast, zombies haven’t changed much over the last few movie-going generations. I guess the hallmark of a zombie is that it is a reanimated dead body �� but that’s really just a gimmick to explain their actions. Zombies are defined by what they do regardless of whether they are reanimated by a Voodoo priest, infected by a virus, or inhabited by spores from outer space. Zombies kill (healthy) people, eat their brains, and infect others. The ultimate end of the ZA is the extinction of humans to be replaced by this brutish, violent creatures from which all humanity has been stripped. And that’s why I maintain that we are at the beginning of a ZA. The only thing that is different from say, World War Z and the USA is the speed of infection.

Real zombie.

Modern culture claims to be centered around tolerance but that’s a lie and everyone knows it. What it is really centered around is “gettin�� off.�� Pleasure. From sex, to drugs, to hedonism, our movies, books, past times, and even our laws have come to reflect this. Despite life-altering damage ranging from unwed pregnancy to lingering attachment to life-threatening disease, kids and adults have been encouraged to participate in unregulated sex because it feels good. Despite the health risks of drugs and alcohol and the obvious damage to neural abilities, drug use by kids and adults is on the rise. Oh, and it is still a Federal and State crime in most places. Despite obvious deleterious emotional effects including PTSD, ADD and other disorders, kids and adults regularly observe ritual slaughter of fellow humans for entertainment. Anyone who claims these activities have no negative effects is engaged in and addicted to them. In fact, the first thing a budding drug user “realizes�� is that drugs have no health risks! Just ask a 17 year-old pot smoker.

Real zombie.

Real zombie

Ultimately you wind up with what is emerging in the Unites States and the West in general: people who contribute little or nothing to society yet use every available resource to recruit others and consume their brains. Isn’t this where a lifestyle of gettin�� off leads? How is this different than a zombie? In fact, it is worse. Zombies, like ebola, tend to burn out quickly. The truly dangerous diseases are the ones that take a while to manifest like AIDS and tuberculosis. Before you even know you’re sick you’ve infected hundreds. And now zombies are passing laws that make it easier to make more zombies.

Think this is a ridiculous premise? One of these pics is from a ZA video game. The other is from a US city and is not the result of a natural disaster. Can you tell which is the real one?

Real ZA

Still unconvinced? Left unchecked a real ZA does have an exponential phase that looks pretty much like a movie ZA. How do I know this? Because it has happened before. The Sack of Rome. The Rape of Nanking. Nazi Germany. Communist Russia. The Chinese Cultural Revolution. The Khmer Rouge. The French Revolution. Look at any of these events �� and these are just a tiny sampling of all that are there �� and you will see that they were all preceded by a collapse of cultural values like the collapse we are experiencing right now, followed by the passage of laws that hasten the fragmentation of society, just like the ones being passed right now. And just in case you’re  confused, World War II wasn’t fun or desirable for the winners or the losers. Living in Soviet Russia sucked, unless you were a zombie in which case you didn’t realize it sucked because you had no brain.

Fortunately, just as there are differences in the onset of a real ZA and the pretend kind, there are also differences in how it can be stopped. Here’s a hint: unlike in a pretend ZA were you can be infected against your will, in a real ZA you have a choice, and that will be the subject of part two of this series: Beating the Zombie Apocalypse.

I feel sorry for A&E. I really do. Phil Robertson expresses some deeply held beliefs in public, they suspend him, and the Christian right becomes unhinged. I really don’t understand it, and there is no way A&E could have seen it coming.

“But he was quoting the Bible!” you say. Well yes, yes he was, but what has that got to do with it? Would it surprise you if I said that A&E did the entirely appropriate and logical thing if I also told you that I’m probably one of the most conservative Christians you’re going to find? In fact, I am a member of the conservative Church of Christ, of which Robertson and clan are a part and I agree with everything he said.

I was born and raised in the Church of Christ, memorized scripture from the time I was an infant, worked hard to serve God in the best way I knew (know) how, and to this day hold the teachings of Jesus close to my heart. Sure I make mistakes and ask for forgiveness, but I do try hard to live my life by the Bible. Robertson’s quotation of scripture was accurate, his assessment of the active homosexual lifestyle was entirely Biblical, and A&E still made the most logical choice.

I mean, why wouldn’t they suspend him? Christians never fight for what they believe. Prayer gets yanked out of school and Christians just stop praying at school. The Ten Commandments are removed from public buildings and Christians sob and yell and then walk away. Movies, books, television, and media of all kinds show all manner of depravity and Christians not only do nothing, they pay money to go see it! Or smoke it. Or drink it. Or screw it. I’m sure A&E is scratching their collective head right now trying to figure out what is happening. Either that, or they’re saying to themselves, “Give it a week or two, it’ll die down. These Christians like to bark but they don’t bite.”

And you know what? They’re probably right. If you’re a Christian and are reading this, let me ask you, “What have you been watching?” Besides Duck Dynasty, what other media do you consume? Breaking Bad? But you say, “That’s good drama! The acting is awesome!” Well, yeah. But are you going to sit on the couch with Jesus and watch it? Because if you are a Christian he’s sitting there next to you. Or worse, for him, trying to live in your heart. You think Jesus is going to sit in your heart while you watch Breaking Bad? Or Walking Dead? Or How I Met Your Mother? Or listen to music with vile lyrics? What else are you doing? What movies are you seeing? What video games do you play? How do you treat people? How do you drive? What do you do with your money? What do you do with your spare time?

You know, I’m not perfect, and all this just shines a light on my own sinful nature. I watch movies I shouldn’t and enjoy them. I read stuff I shouldn’t read. I’ve even been to websites I have no business visiting. And if my observations are even the least bit accurate, I’m pretty sure the majority of Christians are doing the same things I am. Some might be a little better, some maybe a little worse, but very few of us are sacrificing for our Lord and Savior who sacrificed his very life for our redemption.

So I have to say, I feel sorry for A&E. Given the information they had, Christians appear to be spineless, whining saps who make a lot of noise publicly but in their private lives they aren’t quite so prudish. Non-Christians generally know what’s in the Bible and they know we aren’t following it – at least not in ways that are inconvenient to us. Or that cause us to miss out on fun. Or that keep us from indulging in our hard-earned materialistic rewards. Or that might put us in the spotlight. We’ve bought their products, we’ve voted for their candidates, we’ve turned our back on our Christian brothers and sisters, we’ve embraced the materialistic lifestyle, we drink the Kool-Aid and we like it!

Question is: what are we going to do about it? It is within our power to change this nation. We Christians could change this nation in one year. We could get Miley Cyrus and her tongue out of our faces, drive the production of vile products back underground where it belongs, begin to reinstate the sanctity of marriage and the family, and our world would be a better place. Opportunity would return along with decency and we would remember that ‘love’ isn’t two men doing each other, but two people working together for the common good. To make this happen, we only have to do two basic things, neither of which even requires us to say anything to anybody.

First, don’t support wickedness. “Wicked�� is a word that’s fallen out of vogue but I think it’s time to bring it back. Whether movies, books, TV, news, internet sites, games, drugs, activities, candidates, materialism… whatever, if you pull your time and money from these wicked things they will shrink. Yes, you will have to actually read your Bible so you will know what these things are, but it really isn’t hard and if you’re a Christian, you’re supposed to be reading it anyway.

Second, support wholesome things. Whether they are products, ideas, businesses, activities, or just people, if someone’s product reflects decency, and you are in a position to do so, support them. If you put your time and money into these things they will grow. If even ten percent of Christians made these changes the ripple effect would fundamentally alter our economy. You don’t even have to tell anyone what you are doing, the effect would be unmistakable�� if enough people did it.

And don’t forget, as you contemplate the main stream media’s reaction to what Phil Robertson said, the World has a long history of reacting violently to those who speak truth.  Jesus’ enemies didn’t murder Him because of who he was, they murdered Him because of what He said.

Small countries can cause big problems.

Kaizer Frans Hoseph Habsburg

There are few left living today who remember World War I, but it leaves an indelebile stain in our history books. It was the first global war and estimates place the body count at over 40 million. The events that brought about the horror of trench warfare and gas attacks are well documented and involve all of the world’s “Great Powers�� at the time. Several of them no longer exist at all, the Ottoman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and some still exist but are no longer Great Powers. Regardless of how World War I redrew the world’s political boundaries, the trenches of Europe and the Middle East swallowed an entire generation of young men and led directly to The Great War’s bigger, meaner older brother �� the Second World War.

Gavrilo Princip, Serbian Nationalist

The catalyst for the war is generally recognized as the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg in Sarajevo. While these names sound strange to us today, Ferdinand was next in line for the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire which covered most of Eastern Central Europe at the time. He was murdered by a Serb named Gavrilo Princip who was part of a pan-Slavic movement that preached unification of all Yugoslavs in a nation independent of Austro-Hungary. Following the assassination the Austro-Hungarians delivered an ultimatum to the Kingdom of Serbia that basically put Austro-Hungary in charge of The Kingdom of Serbia for the purposes of eliminating anti-Austro-Hungarian sentiment and rooting out the political opposition that had planned and carried out the attack

While the Sarajevo Outrage, as the assassination was called, supplied the catalyst, conditions were ripe for war. European imperialism was making a resurgence and the traditional powers were growing overly bureaucratic, top heavy, and were becoming increasingly saddled with debt. They had been building their armies for years and the Balkan Peninsula had already been a flashpoint for decades. It is surprising how many conflicts originate on the geographical confines of peninsulas with their limited space and valuable ports. So, when the engine got started in Sarajevo, there was ample fuel and nationalistic pride to keep it running for years.

Kim Jong-un

Jump forward a hundred years and the situations are chillingly similar. North Korea occupies the northern part of the Korean Peninsula and provides a buffer between Communist China and the Capitalist West in the form of the Republic of Korea. China, the dominant power in Asia for 3,000 years has, for the last 100 years, been quiescent as a result of Ming Dynasty abuses that opened the gates first to European, and then to Japanese imperialism. They are only now recovering from World War II in which deaths were as high as 20 million along with the utter destruction of their economy. They are flexing their muscle at the exact time that the West is weakening from its own towering bureaucracy, debt, and bumbling governments. And of course Japan, always a player in the Far East, has been seeking to secure resources and reacquire traditionally Japanese islands since the end of World War II.

And then there’s Kim Jong-un sitting in the middle of it all, just like the Kingdom of Serbia, calling for unification of the Korean Peninsula. That’s what they want, after all. Just like the Serbs. Not world hegemony under the Kims. They want Korean Unification as an independent state. Everything they have done since being rid of Japan’s colonization in 1945 has been geared towards Korean unification. The Serbs didn’t want to control Europe, they wanted their homeland the way they wanted it.

North Korean missiles are not the danger. The Unha-3, which carried their Kwangmyongsong-3 into orbit late last year, is basically just 4 Scuds strapped together with another Scud, or an equally inaccurate missile, stuck on top of that. The primitive actuator technology and low-grade IMU ensure that targeting accuracy after an intercontinental flight will be on the order of 40 or 50 miles at best. Whatever target they are aiming for would likely remain unaffected. Even a city would be tough for them to hit. A terror weapon, but one they would use only once, and which would likely be intercepted by America’s missile defense system.

North Korean nukes are not the danger. Their weapons are probably of a Fat Man-implosion or Little Boy-gun design which means they are large, heavy, and low yield. The mass of the Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite they orbited is on the order of a few hundred pounds. Their nukes are probably ten times heavier, at a minimum �� if they even have them which my analysis leans against. North Korea cannot shoot a nuclear-tipped missile at the United States, and probably not even Japan, with any reasonable success. And if they did, they know that they would cease to exist. Fanatical yes, stupid, no.

The danger in North Korea is Gavrilo Princip. Our armies are arrayed and ready to fight. The tanks are in place. The aircraft are armed and in the air. The artillery already pointed. The missiles targeted. The ships stationed. A West weakened by corruption and inefficiency. A Russia seeking to reassert itself and reclaim some of its former glory. A China emerging from a century of irrelevance. A Japan hoping to rise above its defeat in World War II. A very fragile ‘peace�� held together by the world’s lone remaining Super Power. A status now nearly as fragile as the peace which it seeks to sustain. You never know when or where Gavrilo will emerge. And unfortunately, we are making all the same mistakes that the Habsburg’s did a hundred years ago, starting with lampooning the North Koreans in our media, for the fate of man is always the same: those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it.

John Brewer is a physicist, rocket scientist, and expert on nuclear weapons and North Korea. He is author of the North Korean nuclear suspense novel , finalist for the 2013 Eric Hoffer Awards, Montaigne Medal.