Fusce sed justo. Vestibulum eget pede. Pellentesque venenatis nisl et nulla. Nulla malesuada tincidunt nunc. Praesent erat diam, sollicitudin nec, egestas a, tempor et, felis. Aliquam ante lectus, vehicula ac, commodo sed, luctus a, turpis. Aliquam vehicula quam porttitor felis. Quisque metus ante, molestie sit amet, adipiscing sed, vulputate scelerisque, arcu. Nunc suscipit sem e.
Posted By admin on January 23, 2012
The title says it all. Thanks, Ed! 
(see his comment on his last post…Ed Shuman is not only the most excellent artist of TEoNA’s cover, his level head managed to keep me from making a complete fool of my myself on multiple occasions when we were students together at Steubenville, back in the day. 
Posted By admin on January 22, 2012
Aaaaannnnnnnd….Aimee’s vote last post ties it up again! Folks, yer killin’ me here!
Naw, I’m having a great time, actually! I’m getting folks posting I never knew would!
So: It shouldbe Frances, because…Gilbert promised, twice in Emperor! No doubt!
Plus, Anne’s too dangerous! Good point…you’d trust her with your life, but with a shrieking baby? HmmmmmmmM!
Looking forward to the next post, folks!
God Bless,
JDM
Posted By admin on January 21, 2012
Okay, maybe it’s running its course, but still.
Here’s some of the art I used when writing these characters. I found them on the net when I was writing about Anne and Frances. All pictures, artwork, etc are copyright the artist. If I made you mad by posting them, let me know and I’ll take ‘em down.
Anne...when she was in the floating city, wearing the flying harness.
...Or Frances; the wealthy girl turned adventuress on the Martian sands...
…Time to vote, folks! Argue, if you want: Frances or Anne, and why?
God bless,
JDM
Posted By admin on January 21, 2012
Heh! Heard from one of my favorite ideal readers on Thursday, one of my school Moms…score is now Anne 3, Frances 2. Thoughts, people?
Latest news flash: Had to reassure the only & most wonderful woman in my life for the last 20 years (yes, my wife!) that, no, the character of Frances is NOT based upon her! So, anything that happens to her in Where The Red Sands Fly is NOT intended to reflect my subconscious view of her…
Sheesh! And just after I thought I’d convinced every redhead I’d ever known that, no, the character of Anne is NOT based upon her! Now I gotta do it with Frances… 
I remember Stephen Carter talking about this when he came to Portland a few years back. He mentioned how people he worked with, were related to, or had other wise been in contact with thought they were the inspiration for any of his characters in The Emperor of Ocean Park.
And, no, THAT wasn’t the inspiration for the Emperor of North America. That one came from my friend Colin, back when I was in High School in the 80s, when I joked how I was going to install myself as king of America one day, and Colin upped that by saying what he’d do once he was Emperor of North America….
I liked that one so much, *I* started using it. My friends who went to college with me at Steubenville from ‘88-’92 may remember me pontificating about what I’d do once I was Emperor of North America….
So, now, it’s tilted towards Anne JUST a little…looking for thoughts like we got from Sam a little ago…
Posted By admin on January 19, 2012
They’re tied, folks! Vote, Vote, Vote!
Maybe I need to put a few pics up…maybe a photoshop of Anne w/the new (ahem) makeover she got at the end of TEoNA?
So, lemme know, folks! Would Gilbert be better off with Anne or Frances as his loving wife? I’ve had folks suggest reasons from historical accuracy to character depth to just “I Like Anne/Frances better!”
God bless,
JDM
Posted By admin on January 19, 2012
Hey, all!
Check this out (if you can’t see the picture, click the little box below):
This made my day! One of my younger reader’s parents sent me this picture. It’s the gyrocopter that Johnny Brainerd, Herb and Gil use to fly through the NYC skyline, pursued by the giant Steam-Lincoln. Amazing, eh?
Made MY day, I tell ya!
Now, look at the post below, and vote!
God bless,
JDM
Posted By admin on January 15, 2012
….So, I’m 3/5 of the way through the 3rd Gilbert book, titled Where the Red Sands Fly.
A conversation with a school parent recently gave me a little idea:
About 1/2 my readers want Gilbert to marry Frances.
The other half want him to marry Anne, [aka the Redhead, the RHG, and other names].
So, let’s try a little Team Frances/Team Anne thing here: Who do you say?
See, I have my own thoughts, but sometimes…well, let’s just say the ending in Tripods changed in 2 very important ways, as a result of conversations with 2 people: my lovely wife and my editor at the time, Todd Agliloro.
So, thoughts, people?
Team Anne? Or Team Frances? Or….is there a door # 3?
Oh, and congrats to Daniel Negri. He just got to be a Red Shirt in the sandskiff battle on Mars b/w Lt. Belloc’s Sanskiff crew and a bunch of nasty Tharks.
Posted By admin on January 14, 2012
…Okay, all you new people flooding my “new user registration” box recently…are you real people, or just spambots? Me wants to know!
And, for those so inclined, another lovely quote from the Benificent Bomb himself:
”I am very glad that our fashionable fiction seems to be full of a return to paganism, for it may possibly be the first step of a return to Christianity. Neo-pagans have sometimes forgotten, when they set out to do everything the old pagans did, that the final thing the old pagans did was to get christened.”
-Illustrated London News, 3/20/1926
Posted By admin on January 12, 2012
Posted By admin on January 7, 2012
….Yet another wonderful, five star review for Emperor just hit the Amazon.com website! Check it out!
…hmm! Not only does the reviewer show excellent taste in books, but a very deft understanding of science fiction as well! I’m looking forward to seeing who he reviews next, in fact…
[no, it's not me. I don't review my own stuff, so don't ask!]
What a good day!
Posted By admin on January 5, 2012
Doing 11th and 12th day today, ’cause yesterday was a little too nutty…
It’s a longer one, from a lovely essay called Christmas and the First Games:
“I have sometimes been haunted with a vague story about a wild and fantastic uncle, the enemy of parents and the cause of revolution in nurseries, who went about preaching a certain theory; I mean the theory that all the objects which children use at Christmas for what we call riotous or illegitimate purposes, were originally created for those purposes; and not for the humdrum household purposes which they now serve. For instance, we will suppose that the story begins with a pillow-fight in a night nursery; and boys buffeting and bashing each other with those white and shapeless clubs. The uncle, who would be a professor of immense learning and even greater imagination and inventiveness, would proceed to make himself unpopular with parents and popular with children, by proving that the pillow in prehistoric art is obviously designed to be a club; that the sham-fight in the night nursery is actually more ancient and authoritative than the whole institution of beds or bedclothes; that in some innocent morning of the world such cherubim warred on each other with such clouds, possibly made of white samite, mystic, wonderful, and stuffed with feathers from the angels’ wings; and that it was only afterwards, when weariness fell upon the world and the young gods had grown tired of their godlike sports, that they slept with their heads upon their weapons; and so, by a gradual dislocation of the whole original purpose of the pillow, it came to be recognized as having its proper place on a bed.”
-GKC
Merry Christmas, Everyone! Hope you had a great one!
JDM
Posted By admin on January 3, 2012
“The best way to shorten winter is to prolong Christmas.”
~ G.K. Chesterton
Posted By admin on January 2, 2012
“The great majority of people will go on observing forms that cannot be explained; they will keep Christmas Day with Christmas gifts and Christmas benedictions; they will continue to do it; and some day suddenly wake up and discover why.”
– On Christmas, Generally Speaking
Posted By admin on January 1, 2012
“If a man called Christmas Day a mere hypocritical excuse for drunkeness and gluttony, that would be false, but it would have a fact hidden in it somewhere. But when Bernard Shaw says that Christmas Day is only a conspiracy kept up by Poulterers and wine merchants from strictly business motives, then he says something which is not so much false as startling and arrestingly foolish. He might as well say that the two sexes were invented by jewellers who wanted to sell wedding rings.”
-GKC, “George Bernard Shaw”, 1910
Posted By admin on December 31, 2011
“The Catholic Church is the only thing which saves a man from the degrading slavery of being a child of his age.” Have a Happy New Year, all!
Posted By admin on December 30, 2011
..On the 6th Day of Christmas, GKC Said to Me:
“When we were children we were grateful to those who filled our stockings at Christmas time. Why are we not grateful to God for filling our stockings with legs?”
~G.K. Chesterton
Posted By admin on December 29, 2011
“You look ill, Father Christmas.”
“I am dying,” he said.
I did not speak, and it was he who spoke again.
“All the new people have left my shop. I cannot understand it. They seem to object to me on such curious and inconsistent sort of grounds, these scientific men, and these innovators. They say that I give people superstitions and make them too visionary; they say I give people sausages and make them too coarse. They say my heavenly parts are too heavenly; they say my earthly parts are too earthly; I don’t know what they want, I’m sure. How can heavenly things be too heavenly, or earthly things too earthly? How can one be too good, or too jolly? I don’t understand. But I understand one thing well enough. These modern people are living and I am dead.”
“You may be dead,” I replied. “You ought to know. But as for what they are doing, do not call it living.”
Posted By admin on December 28, 2011
On the 4th day of Christmas, GKC said to Me:
“The more we are proud that the Bethlehem story is plain enough to be understood by the shepherds, and almost by the sheep, the more do we let ourselves go, in dark and gorgeous imaginative frescoes or pageants about the mystery and majesty of the Three Magian Kings.”
- Christendom in Dublin, Ch.3
Posted By admin on December 27, 2011
…well, we were busy on the 25th, (duh!) but I’ll be putting out a number of quotes over the 12 days to do my little bit & spread GKC cheer!
…oh, and the 2nd and 3rd day are here simultaneously, since I have trouble keeping up with the FB page and this one some days.
On the 2nd day of Christmas, GKC said to Me:
“Christmas is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the homeless should be celebrated in every home.”
― G.K. Chesterton, Brave New Family: Men and Women, Children, Sex, Divorce, Marriage and the Family
AND,
…On the third day of Christmas, GKC said to me:
“What life and death may be to a turkey is not my business; but the soul of Scrooge and the body of Cratchit are my business.”
– Christmas, All Things Considered
…God bless, all!
JDM
Posted By admin on December 21, 2011
Christmas Poem
G.K.Chesterton
There fared a mother driven forth
Out of an inn to roam;
In the place where she was homeless
All men are at home.
The crazy stable close at hand,
With shaking timber and shifting sand,
Grew a stronger thing to abide and stand
Than the square stones of Rome.
For men are homesick in their homes,
And strangers under the sun,
And they lay their heads in a foreign land
Whenever the day is done.
Here we have battle and blazing eyes,
And chance and honour and high surprise,
But our homes are under miraculous skies
Where the yule tale was begun.
A child in a foul stable,
Where the beasts feed and foam;
Only where He was homeless
Are you and I at home;
We have hands that fashion and heads that know,
But our hearts we lost—how long ago!
In a place no chart nor ship can show
Under the sky’s dome.
This world is wild as an old wife’s tale,
And strange the plain things are,
The earth is enough and the air is enough
For our wonder and our war;
But our rest is as far as the fire-drake swings
And our peace is put in impossible things
Where clashed and thundered unthinkable wings
Round an incredible star.
To an open house in the evening
Home shall all men come,
To an older place than Eden
And a taller town than Rome.
To the end of the way of the wandering star,
To the things that cannot be and that are,
To the place where God was homeless
And all men are at home.
(Gilbert Keith Chesterton)
Posted By admin on December 18, 2011
Hey, all. I was reading John C. Wright’s blog. He’s a convert to the faith, and thus far my favorite author whose books I have yet to read.
He was being uncharacteristically lighthearted today; usually he deals with deep subjects with a disarmingly lighthearted approach. But recently, he was asking who his readers would cast in a movie made about one of his series.
I do an exercise like this for my students to help them remember Roman Emperors, or characters in A Midsummer Night’s Dream (C’mon, former students! Do you remember ‘Casting Call?’)
So, I put it to you today: Who would YOU folks cast in a movie made of either The Tripods Attack or The Emperor of North America?
Me, I already said a while back that I have a young Jude Law in my head as I’m writing the character of Herb Wells. But who would YOU pick in the movie roles?
Some ideas to get you started:
Casting needed for:
-Gilbert Chesterton
-Herb Wells
-Anne/the Redhead
[could I drop something here? I've had more than one real-life redhead from my past get all futzy over wondering if Anne in my books is based on her, along with other folks wondering if my characters are based on them.
Please listen carefully if you are one of these people:
no.
I wasn't thinking of you when I wrote Anne. Or Frances, or Herb, or the Emperor, or anyone else in my novels.
I did not hink about you as I wrote about Gilbert having a crush on her, defeating him in a fight, nor have any of my characters' interactions with Gilbert been an attempt to resolve issues from my own adolescence.
The lady I had in my head when I wrote Anne in Tripods and Emperor was from a Pizza Pizza commerical in the mid-80s, a commercial now so obscure that I couldn't even find it on Youtube. It's a 50's themed piece where the guy is singing the '967-11-11' jingle known to all Torontonians, and a lovely blond lady walks out from stage right and gives the fellow a hug.
Yes, I had a blonde lady's face on the redhead. Go fig. I don't control these things, really, people.
Oh, but I will say that Herb is based on 2 buddies of mine from high school. They'll know who they are if they read my stuff. :)]
Getting back to whom you’d pick for the movie:
-Father Brown
-The Doctor (No, not Tom Baker:
.
Nope. Na Ga Do it! Too cheerful, did Puddleglum too well in the BBC Narnia series, and as the 4th Doctor he took on the Nazi-Daleks too effectively for me to picture him as an evil Eugenecist. Sorry. Besides, my character is not based on that ‘Doctor’ anyway.)
-Francis Blogg
-Emperor Norton
-Aiden “The Black Dog”
-Wiggins the pnacker
-Father McGiveney
-John Strock
_….and the Li’l Inklings, of course! Jack, Tollers, and Johnny Brainerd.
God bless; looking forward to your responses! And say ‘Merry Christmas’ to someone today!
JDM
Posted By admin on December 15, 2011
JOHN CARTER OF MARS! IT HAS A TRAILER! CHECK IT OUT!!!!
Click here to see the trailer!!!!!!!!!
….just saw this! Amazing! See, I’ve been hard at work on the 3rd Gilbert book…which takes place on Mars….John Carter is a secondary character, traveling with Elwin Ransom…Hilaire Belloc fights off an attack by the Green Tharks….heck, I just got done with a sequence where Anne saves Belloc from being strangled by a white Martian ape…..AND IT’S ALL HERE! HOW COOL IS THAT??????
…it’s like when I was writing the 1st draft of the 1st book, and I found out that War of the WOrlds was being re-filmed with Tom Cruise! It’s going to BE in the public imagination, people! This is GREAT! Whoo Hoo!
Okay, back to work…..
Posted By admin on December 8, 2011
Hey, all! Hope the folks I usually talk to are reading this…seriously, I realized it’s gotten so hectic the last few weeks I haven’t even linked to my own columns and other stuff lately. Where’s the synergy, I ask you?
Anyways, inspired in part by a blurb about Skippy who kept on getting into trouble in the army, I present for your viewing pleasure:
THINGS I CANNOT DO IN MR. MCNICHOL’S CLASSROOM:
1) I may not join the sith lords.
2) May not join the jedi
3) May not use the force to make Mr. McNichol’s ears turn red.
4) May not strangle myself with the sleeve of my own sweatshirt.
5) May not marry Justin Bieber or Taylor Lautner until legally of age.
6) Marrying Selena Gomez is ok, so long as Justin Beiber is eliminated beforehand…………
7) Not allowed to make fun of how small my classmate’s head is without Mr. McNichol’s permission and/or participation.
8 ) Not allowed to refuse betrothal to Mr. M’s sons without a darned good reason.
9) Mr. McNichol decides what constitutes “a darned good reason.”
10) Not allowed to play paintball in the classroom as part of my WW2 demonstration/project.
11) Not allowed to have parents Mr. McNichol can remember as high school students.
12) Not allowed to hand in assignments in ancient Sumerian cuneiform without Mr. McNichol’s permission/participation…
13) Not allowed to speak Elvish to answer questions to Mr. McNichol.
14) Not allowed to talk like Elvis either.
15) Not allowed to catch personal Keebler elves during classroom time.
16) Not allowed to have flash mobs in my room without my participation.
17) Not allowed to entice Kindergarteners into the homemade solar oven I made for Science class.
18) Cannot genuflect, bow, or otherwise offer worship to any teacher who agrees to take us out to recess.
….yeah, yesterday was a little challenging. At least I shut down the flash mob before things got too out of hand.
Still writing the sequel to The Emperor of North America, currently titled “Where the Red Sands Fly.” Gilbert and Herb end up back on Mars, in what will be the final chapter int he Gilbert series.
God willing.
JDM
Posted By admin on November 5, 2011
Thank you, Jennifer Fitz, over at Riparians at the Gate, for a wonderful review of Emperor! [dances around the room. In a staid, manly fashion, of course...]
Now, back to writing pages. I’ve realized I’ve been doing more writing about the promotion of my stuff than writing the stuff itself, lately.
God bless,
JDM
Posted By admin on November 3, 2011
Hello, all!
For those who don’t know, I’m a schoolteacher by trade. To discourage the stalkers a bit (and I’ve only had one of those thus far, and thanks be to God that one found someone else to bug…) I won’t tell you which one, but I will say it’s by far the most functional school environment I’ve worked in in the last decade.
Love it, love it, and just *why* I love it is another story unto itself:
Among the zillions of reasons I believe I teach at the coolest school in the universe: I had a radio interview yesterday with the good folks from Salt+Light TV, over in my hometown of Toronto, Ontario (”Bow your head when you say that name!”, as my big brother Steven once said) For the ‘Maricans: Salt+Light is the Canadian equivalent of EWTN.
The only time I could get the piece done over the phone was during my lunch break, since Wednesday is my busiest day, and lunch was the only time my room woulda been quiet.
Well, unfortunately, the students had to have lunch in the classrooms that day, the cafeteria being used during that time for a surprise function.
I was set to reschedule, but one of my students piped up: “We’ll be quiet, Mr. McNichol! We wanna see you get interviewed!”
…and they were! A class of the most good-hearted, sometimes hyperactive pre-teens you’ve ever met were dead silent for ten whole minutes while I took a call from Toronto and talked about my book.
Man, alive. If you’ve ever had to teach Middle School, you know just how long and precious ten minutes of silence can be…
things went well, the interview is done, and will be heard on The Catholic Channel on Sirius/XM radio Friday night at 8pm, and can be downloaded after that date on the Salt+Light website.
What a great day God has given me, what a wonderful place to work He’s given me. May I always be truly thankful for all I’ve been given…..
Posted By admin on October 29, 2011
Hey, all! My latest column is up at the Catholic Writer’s Guild. Check it out and enjoy!
God bless; can’t wait to see some more reviews of Emperor [jumps up and down, clapping hands, looking expectantly at friends who picked up copies)!
JDM
Posted By admin on October 11, 2011
Great news, People! The reviews are starting to roll in for The Emperor of North America! Julie, the wonderful proprietor of the Happy Catholic website, has just written a glowing report on the further adventures of Young Gilbert Chesterton!
Whoo hoo!
God bless,
JDM
Posted By admin on October 1, 2011
Hey, all.
Click here to go to Barnes & Noble-dot-com to get yours!
If there are any folks, esp Librarians who would like to have a copy of The Emperor of North America in their libraries, please make a request! Sure, I’d love to have a million books sold, but it’s also about changing the culture, one person’s heart & mind at a time.
Emperor is going to be displayed at the Virginia Library Association Annual Confrence, in Portsmouth, VA, on October 27th to th 28th, 2011.
Virginia fans are cordially invited to storm the place, stage sit-ins, show up dressed as Gilbert, Herb, the RedHead or Martian squids, or anything else simialrly effective until about ten-thousand copies of The Emperor of North America are ordered for the State’s libraries from my most excellent publishers at Bezalel Books, or at the Barnes & Noble website.
Excelsior!
JDM
Posted By admin on October 1, 2011
Hey all!
Barnes & Noble is carrying The Emperor of North America and giving free shiping, apparently. Drop on over; they’re also not butchering the description of Emperor the way *ahem!* SOME other bookselling sites are doing today!
Plus, I like hanging out at our local B&N. Support your local chain bookstore! Good people work and hang out there, folks.
God bless,
John
Posted By admin on September 23, 2011
….it’s official, folks! I have my first booksigning on Sunday, the 2nd of October at noon in the Cafeteria of St. John the Apostle Catholic School!
Please pray as I work on the third and final book, and work to promote and sell The Emperor of North America for my most excellent publishers at Bezalel Books!
Those who acted as consultants or Ideal Readers get a free book, so come on down! Otherwise, they’ll be for sale there, or you can scoop one up at Amazon.com.
And away we go!
God Bless,
JDM
You Can find my first novel here:
and the sequel here:
Whoo Hoo!
Posted By admin on August 28, 2011
Hooray, everyone!
The Emperor of North America, sequel to The Tripods Attack, is officially on sale at Amazon.com now!
You can order the Paperback version by clicking—–> HERE
And get the Kindle version by clicking ——> HERE
Got to run off to Mass, now. But buy your books, folks! Just in time for school!
God bless, and thank you Lord,
JDM
Posted By admin on August 18, 2011
Hey, all! John here again.
Well, life keeps rolling on! I think I mentioned that I’ve got a new monthly column over at the Catholic Writer’s Guild. Good bunch of people, and I’m looking forward to a long and happy future with them. The link I have on their name above goes directly to their site, not my column..yet, which will start appearing at the last Friday of the month.
Thanks go out to my most-excellent former-college roomie, and now most recent cover designer, Ed Shuman, for a few points on how to ditch the spammers that seemed to be flooding my comment boxes with ads for cheap drugs & other sundries. Thanks, Ed!
In other news today: Well, I really enjoyed hearing during a meet a few months ago from one of my favorite ideal readers that the book The Tripods Attack and now The Emperor of North America serve another purpose for its readers:
Education.
No, guys…fans…14 year old boys….really, it’s not a textbook! No, really! Siddown! Just…hold it! Moms, stop looking like you’re *happy* your sos are reading this! Just hear me out!
Ok, really? Boys who are reading: Your dads really are repositories of wisdom, especially about young men. At worst, they know a good ten-thousand strategies about handling life that didn’t work for them.
So as a result, it might be a good idea to hear them out and not roll your eyes when they tell you that the way you’re going leads to a train wreck, with you as the latest entry on darwinawards.com. Usually, they aren’t saying that to wreck your fun; they’re saying it because
a) Dad OR a friend of his tried it and it didn’t work for them, or
b) Dad OR a friend of his tried something DIFFERENT that did work.
…so, as it is, I have some folks give advice to Gilbert in Tripods and Emperor.
Some of it’s good (ie. most girls don’t want to talk philosophy on a first date- and yes, I saw a guy try this at a pizza place when my oldest boy was just two), and…
some of it’s bad (Herb telling Gilbert that all the white race has a scientific justification for dominating the other races- a belief called Eugenics, and considered irrefutable, scientific dogma in its day, opposed then as now only by that evil enemy of science, the Catholic Church. Hee, hee, hee! Go team!).
I do hope though, that folks will remember something: no one is perfect. Not even your dad. There’s only been one person in history who was perfect on His own, and we nailed Him to a tree.
…but, since He’s perfect, we can trust whatever advice He gives us.
Okay, ’nuff of that. I’m fighting a cold, but for some reason I’m wide awake tonight. Last bit for now before I get my next coupla pages done on Where The Red Sands Fly, the third book in the Young Chesterton Chronicles series:
When I was a teenage boy, before I turned 16, the most importantthings in the world were:
1) girl chasing
2) buddies, either flesh & blood or my computer buddies at the Lost In Space BBS in Toronto.
3) The Toronto Blue Jays
4) video games, preferably on my Commodore 64
5) ….School?….nah….
….but then, when I turned 16 and went to my first Steubenville conference.
Things changed. Slowly.
Then, I at least tried to make it:
1) God
2) Pro-life concerns
3) Girls
4) Buddies, either F&B or LIS
5) The Blue Jays…who finaly won the pennant a few months after I moved to the West Coast. Moseby, Bell, Oliver, seriously, guys, doesn’t that keep you up at night that you all did that to me?
6) …School….nah…..well, maybe more. Especially when I started going to school at Steubenville.
Anyways, what I can say is that, like many my age, I watched TV and read books, and…I got a lot of bad advice from both.
And I shoulda listened to my Dad more.
So, in Tripods and Emperor, I try to show what happens when both Gilbert and Herbert face temptations that all teenage boys face; temptations from girls, fights, popularity, laziness, anger, jealousy, and a whole host of other sources.
Most important, I try to show, not just tell, the results of bad choices, as well as good ones, and logical consequences that follow each choice, good and bad.
Will it mean the end of America or the world if you make a bad choice? Likely not.
It could be worse.
Our souls hang in the balance with the choices we make. And one human soul is worth more in the eyes of God than any country or planet.
And, hopefully, you, gentle reader, if you’re in a position to make those choices yourself, you’ll make the right ones.
Well, there are many folks who say this kind of thing from the pulpit better than me.
Of course, I like to think I say it better with giant robots and blood-sucking aliens.But that’s just me.
Oh, and my oldest and I finished making the Batcave playset for my two younger sons tonight. Cool stuff. It’s been a good summer.
God bless, and please pray for the series and everything else I write, that I do so with wisdom and not embarrass myself too much.
JDM
Posted By admin on August 16, 2011
Hey, all! Just a note: I am getting SO tired of all the spam on my site here! If anyone can show me (as a near technophobe) how to fix the problem, I’ll send ya a free, signed book of The Emperor of North America, due out from Bezalel books in just a couple of weeks!
Other than that, me am getting ready for:
a) Our annual beach cabin trip, in which my generous in-laws give the McNichol brood the use of their lovely beach cabin on the Oregon Coast for a week every year-ahhhh! I *am* disappointed that my favorite band, the Red Elvises, will be in town the very night we’re gonna go to the beach, so I’ll hafta miss them again, but oh, well!
b) Returning to my classroom the following week & getting ready for the wonderful kids I’m slated to have this year, and
c) Getting ready for the start of school, 3 weeks from yesterday.
Yep, funny thing is, this year, I really looking forward to the groups I’m getting! I have a truly good bunch of kids and parents, not to mention my usual great group of colleagues & admins to look forward to this year.
So, for the folks who subscribe to this blog (click on the icon shaped like a fan near the top, I think), or just peek in now and again, drop on by the Catholic Writer’s Guild, since I now have a column there that I’ll be penning on the last Saturday of each month.
Please pray for the series, both Tripods and Emperor, as well as Where the Red Sands Fly, the concluding volume of the Young Chesterton Chronicles series, which I’m penning each day as we speak. I want it to be enjoyable and accessible to its target audience, and most of all, to point its readers in the right direction, illustrating realistic risks, rewards and consequences for the choices we make in our youth.
Most of all, I pray I never need the kind of humbling so many in the Catholic media fields have apparently had to undergo for their poor choices in life, lately.
May you always love God by following His Church and Commandments, and please pray for me.
JDM
Posted By admin on August 12, 2011
Hello, all!
>I’ve selected August 25th as the date of publication because of St. Louis IX. It just seemed fitting and we’ll pray he’ll intercede for what I hope will become a huge success!
The GREAT news is that it looks like The Emperor of North America will be hitting the shelves earlier than expected!
If you’d like to get on board now, go to my publishers at Bezalel:
www.bezalelbooks.com <———————Click here!!!!
…if you have the ability to generate some buzz, please do so! Email, advertise on blogs, Otherwise, please pray that:
a) the book does its job, giving a lesson in & reinforcing Catholic morality to young men in a format they’ll find enjoyable and engaging, AND
b) we sell a boatload o’ books [ideally enough to give the folks from Scholastic nightmares about their dwindling market share, but one dream at a time...]
Thank you all, again, for your advice, assistance, prayers and other forms of support. And keep praying! A number of you know the twists & turns Gilbert’s taken to get this far, and I attribute it solely to the prayers of good fans of the Young Chesterton Chronicles series.
Plus, keep monitoring this blog if you live in the Portland area, as you’ll be able to attend my 1st booksigning as soon as I get copies in my happy, happy hands.
Don’t stop praying, though! I’m back to work on the third volume in the Gilbert series…Where the Red Sands Fly! Gilbert’s just met up with Hillarie Belloc (google his name- fascinating fellow…)
+<:)
God bless,
John D. McNichol
Posted By admin on July 25, 2011
“Darwinism can be used to back up two mad moralities, but it cannot be used to back up a single sane one. The kinship and competition of all living creatures can be used as a reason for being insanely cruel or insanely sentimental; but not for a healthy love of animals. On the evolutionary basis you may be inhumane, or you may be absurdly humane; but you cannot be human. That you and a tiger are one may be a reason for being tender to a tiger. Or it may be a reason for being as cruel as the tiger. It is one way to train the tiger to imitate you, it is a shorter way to imitate the tiger. But in neither case does evolution tell you how to treat a tiger reasonably, that is, to admire his stripes while avoiding his claws.
“If you want to treat a tiger reasonably, you must go back to the garden of Eden. For the obstinate reminder continued to recur: only the supernatural has taken a sane view of Nature. The essence of all pantheism, evolutionism, and modern cosmic religion is really in this proposition: that Nature is our mother. Unfortunately, if you regard Nature as a mother, you discover that she is a step-mother. The main point of Christianity was this: that Nature is not our mother: Nature is our sister. We can be proud of her beauty, since we have the same father; but she has no authority over us; we have to admire, but not to imitate. This gives to the typically Christian pleasure in this earth a strange touch of lightness that is almost frivolity. Nature was a solemn mother to the worshippers of Isis and Cybele. Nature was a solemn mother to Wordsworth or to Emerson. But Nature is not solemn to Francis of Assisi or to George Herbert. To St. Francis, Nature is a sister, and even a younger sister: a little, dancing sister, to be laughed at as well as loved.” ~GKC: ‘Orthodoxy,’ VII.
[thanks to the GKC group on FB for posting this today!}
Posted By admin on July 22, 2011
…folks on my Facebook page (John Coleman McNichol, Author) have already seen this, but because I still don’t know exactly how to fiddle with this thing properly, I haven’t been able to show this until now.
Presenting, the cover art for the sequel to Tripods,
The Emperor of North America!
Art by Ed Shuman for the cover of The Emperor OF North America, by Bezalel Books. Click the image to go to Ed's website!
Yippee! Release date is October, 2011! Mark it on your calendar and check out the site for Bezalel Books if you want your copy early!
God bless,
JDM
Posted By admin on July 14, 2011
Hey, all!
A well meaning-person asked me in the mid-90s:”Could you branch out a little, and write something without Catholic stuff in it? It might play wider.”
I couldn’t quite articulate my answer, but if I could make that a do-over, I like the way that Benedict XVI put it:
“Once one discovers Christ it is very difficult to keep Him to yourself.”
Preach it, Holy Father.
…It’ll make a great Christmas gift for the young man in your life (or going to school while living in your basement?) who likes a good story of Steampunk SF/Alternative History, and can stand a bit ‘o Catholic values thrown in besides.
Posted By admin on July 4, 2011
AhhH! Hot Dogs, Barbeque, fireworks, and….the Declaration of Independence?
Yes, folks, that’s why we *have* the 4th of July…this is the day that the United States officially adopted the Declaration of Independence of the United States From Britain.
As a good Canadian, I was taught in multiple ways both overt an subtle to hate the USA. Americans were gun-crazy, arrogant nutjobs, who went to bed at night scheming on how to make our beloved home country of Canada into the 51st State.
Hey, we saw it all the time in the Toronto Star and the Globe & Mail.
America was a terrible, evil place, where a person catching a cold would send them to the hospital ,and run up such ginormous bills that their parents would have to enter into the shadowy world of organized crime in order to pay the enormous hospital bills!
Hey, we saw it all the time on Miami Vice.
But when I actually came down here to the USA on the way to my 1st Steubenville Conference back in 1986, we stopped off at an A&W in Warren, Ohio.
And on the wall was the Declaration of Independence.
I realized it wasn’t so much like the Constitution as it was a list of grievances agains the (then) king of England. But what struck me the most was the second sentence:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. ”
…sums up the philosophy of the pro-life movement, right there, for me.
Along with the concept of liberty (being able to do what you ought to do),
and the pursuit of happiness (go as far & be as prosperous as your drive and talent will take you)
We are endowed by our creator with the Right to Life, and this is something that is self-evident. Like a belief in God, children understand this, and it’s adults (often starting in middle-school health classes) who have to convince them otherwise, and to do things like ‘forget’ to say the word ‘creator’ when reciting the declaration.
Well, enough of that. Go off, now, to project Guttenberg, folks, and download a copy of GKC’s What I Saw In America. It’ll be a great read, whatever side of the border you’re coming from.
God bless, and happy 4th of July!
John McNichol
Posted By admin on June 28, 2011
…No, not really. She’s just a character I had Herb reference in Tripods, and (God willing) she has a cameo appearance now in the latest edition of The Emperor of North America. Aldonza the Magnificent is a street-level performer and thief, the kind of person gamers and writers alike love to craft characters off of.
I like having a bag of folks like that to play with, and they sure do come in handy when you need someone to help keep the continuity going!
God bless,
JDM
