Edgy, Christian, Fiction.
That’s how I would describe:
THE DIARY OF DANIEL
SHEPHERD.
For years I have become
increasingly alarmed by the relentless barrage of filth being targeted toward
teen and young adult readers through the fiction they read for school and pleasure.
Over the past six months I have discovered that the online fiction writing
community is overwhelmed with authors who have agendas. And those
agendas increasingly involve seducing, manipulating and otherwise brainwashing
teens and twenty-somethings into sinful, harmful, godless, self-destructive lifestyles
by glorifying and promoting characters who are bold and proud of their sin and corruption.
These writers actually brag about what they’re doing in order to garner the
attention of literary agents who are actively seeking out such Sin-inspiring storylines
for the big publishers who, in turn, push those tales out to market as fast as
they can print them.
This is genuinely
frightening, because there are shockingly few Christian
literary agents who are willing to represent Young Adult/Teen Christian fiction. Most Christian publishers carry shockingly few teen titles. The large Christian bookstore near me does not carry any and I would not consider the selection online to be very encouraging. How ironic, since the secular industry caters to
youth and targets teens.
This is why I feel it
is urgent to write for this genre and for this age group. Never fear, my work
is YA crossover. It’s for grown-ups too, but it is written out of love for the
next generation.
Fiction provides us with the opportunity to walk a mile in a
character's shoes, to experience what they do and feel what they feel.
Christian fiction, like "My Utmost For His Highest," can inspire
change by showing us what the church could be like. Books like "The
Shack," help us to ponder deep and troubling spiritual questions, but for
that to occur, true evil has to happen first. In my books, you can expect to
explore vivid descriptions of the beauty of God's creation, to empathize with compelling and real-to-life characters, to go on grand adventures and sleuth into perplexing mysteries. The evil we encounter along this journey will be realistic, but when churches and families respond in both correct and incorrect ways, this allows us to ponder themes of forgiveness, redemption, and God's ultimate justice. Buckle in. It's going to be a bumpy ride, but the destination will be worth it.
Parental Advisory: PG-13.
This book is going to be…different…edgier…than
what you might expect from the genre because the villains in this story all too
closely resemble real life. This isn’t lit for little kids, it is for those
coming of age in a world full of traps set for them to fall into. The series THE
SHEPHERD CHRONICLES won’t shy away from controversial topics. We’re going
to go there… But we’re going to do so from a Christian worldview at the heart
of compelling and intriguing storylines. There will be NO foul language or
descriptions of sexual activity. There WILL be deep theological discussions between characters as they wrestle with issues. There will be no gratuitous violence or
goriness. At no point will sin ever be glorified. But there will be blow by
blow fights. There will be kissing. There will be crime. There will be acknowledgement of married
love occurring in the bedroom. There will be real villains who commit
real evil and realistic characters who have to deal with the aftermath. There will be mystery, fun, adventure and love. But there will also be serious, ugly, realistic evil, harm and criminal behavior. This
series will not shy away from addressing any and all of the major issues of our
day in organic and believable ways. The difference is that instead of glorifying sin, this series will clearly maintain the line between right and wrong, good and evil and redemption will be a major theme.
Imagine a mash-up of Wednesday and Footloose. You’d have a spooky, small-town mystery with lots of adventure. Welcome to Lost Valley where there’s a wicked secret hidden behind their righteous façade. Actually, there are LOTS of secrets… I invite you to come undertake a literary journey with Benny Shepherd and Lucy Wheeler as they go on thrilling adventures and solve chilling mysteries in a sometimes spooky, always spectacular Ozarkian setting while pondering deep spiritual truths.
Ten years after a catastrophic crash, Benny Shepherd discovers his brother Daniel’s diary, revealing the hidden dark side of their town and launching Benny into a series of autumnal adventures in the beautiful and perilous Ozark highlands. Guided by the secrets disclosed within the diary, Benny teams up with Lucy Wheeler to investigate the past, hoping to secure a future for their outcast families, but when they unearth a secret some worked so hard to keep buried, their very lives are endangered. The resolve of the unlikely sleuths will be tested, forcing them to wrestle with difficult spiritual questions as they retrace their sibling’s footsteps, searching for clues. Friendships are forged and shocking discoveries made as the mystery crescendos toward an ending no one could have foreseen.
Thanks for taking the
time to read to the end. Here is a link to the official BOOK TRAILER for THE
DIARY OF DANIEL SHEPHERD, Volume I of THE SHEPHERD CHRONICLES:
BOOK TRAILER: The Diary of Daniel Shepherd
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