Tuesday, November 14, 2023

New Book! Stories from the Psalms, Volume 1

Stories from the Psalms, Volume 1 (Coffee Shops & Spaceships), Release Date November 26th!


I posted this on Facebook, but of course not everyone resides in that bastion of randomness, and it is high time I send anew email! Because I have writing news!

For as long I can remember, I was always drawn to stories that dealt with faith, either on my favorite TV shows or in books or film. I would seize upon anything that even remotely reflected back my own belief in God and oft-failing attempts to follow Jesus.

Eventually, after a number of wonderful years getting my chops as a writer in the horror industry, I noticed my long form (aka novels) invariably dealt with theses of faith. Sometimes subtle; sometimes very overt. Opportunities at some of my past churches allowed me to write devotionals - short, essay-style pieces which look at a verse of scripture and share what it means to me personally. Mini written sermons, in a way.

For the last couple of years, I'd been getting this nagging feeling I was supposed to write something that brought all of this together. What that should be was pretty clear, as was the risk of spending time on a project that, in my LOGICAL mind, might not have an audience.

I finally relented, treated the experience as a tithing (look it up) of my writing and dove in. What resulted was the new book being released in a couple of weeks:

Stories from the Psalms, Volume 1.

It has got a much longer title if you add all the subtitles but be happy you didn’t have to be around me as I worked it all out. ðŸ˜Š

Stories from the Psalms will be a series of short story collections based on the biblical book of Psalms. I would prayerfully read a Psalm, then write a story around whatever image popped in my head. Devotionals using fiction, in short. No particular genre (in fact, I cover a few different in this one), just whatever came to mind.

Is there anything like this out there now, one might ask? Nope, I checked. Does that mean there’s no audience for it? Hah, MAYBE NOT. I don’t regret creating this book, and look forward to releasing the remaining volumes in the future, because this has been one of the best experiences I’ve ever had creating fiction. Seriously. Maybe there’s a couple of people out there that might benefit from seeing how scripture might be interpreted by this lowly writer. If so, I’ve done my job. I enjoyed it, and I am my own best audience if nothing else.

Book Release Party!

The book officially releases Sunday, November 26th pretty much everywhere, and we’ll be celebrating with a book release party at Chaffin Church, 155 Shrewsbury Street in Holden MA around 11:30/12 noon. I’ll have copies of this and past books to sign and share. Maybe I'll read from the new book. Do they do that? I've never actually done a book release party. 

For anyone reading this who might be a writer themselves and would like me to send them an Advaced Reader Copy (either print or epub, I have both) for possible (but not mandatory) review or blurb, just ask. I'll be glad to send one along.

That's the big writing news for the moment. Nice to be in the saddle (speaking of which, last year I did write a book, but it was a ghostwriting gig so I actually can't tell you anything about it!). 

I am working currently on the sequel to Plague of Locusts, tentatively titled Morningstar. So far I'm liking what's getting vomited onto the page! More as it develops (the book, not the vomit). 

Thanks for reading!
Dan Keohane
www.dankeohane.com