Beatitudes and Woes

NEW STORY INCOMING

Click to order now!

I've actually got quite a bit I should update you on... (It's been almost a year and I've had about half a dozen stories published in the meantime... ahem.)

But today we're just here to talk about "The Meek Shall Inherit", a new superhero story I created for the "Beatitudes and Woes" anthology, which is a collection of speculative (sci-fi and fantasy) stories based on two teachings of Jesus, the beatitudes, or "Blessed are" verses in Matthew 5:3-11, and the "Woe to" verses in Luke 6: 24-26.

The story of how it came together is remarkable in and of itself. Author CW Briar threw out the idea to write a speculative anthology based on the Beatitudes on a Facebook group I'm a part of, and Travis of Bear Publishing took the idea and ran with it, assembling a team of authors right there in the FB thread as people expressed their interest in the concept. Over the next five months or so we wrote and edited our stories, and here we are!

This was one of those stories that almost wrote itself. I had this idea pop into my head of a superhero riding a motorcycle, whose power was the ability to swap things around, and I knew he was going to... well, let's just say I knew exactly how the story would end right from the get-go.

The biggest challenge was making sure it properly represented the Bible verse I was given without letting it turn into preaching or a morality lesson, a fine line to walk and one better authors than me have been foiled by.

My verse, by the way, was "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth." (Matt 5:5) My main character, Thomas (jokingly referred to as Flipper) is the opposite of meek. He's loud, brash, selfish, and irreverent. The Meek Shall Inherit gives him the opportunity to run into a character that embodies meekness. A superhero called Justice Lord shows Thomas the person he could be, and as Flipper examines himself he undergoes a transformation into a true superhero.

It's hard to say much because I don't want to spoil the story. Please consider checking it out tomorrow! You can pre-order at the link above. I'd love to talk to you about the story, leave me your thoughts in the comments below or drop me a line on social media. I've been moving away from being on the internet as much as I used to be, but I read and reply to most everything eventually.

I'll wrap this up by thanking Gen Gavel, Travis, and Cindy for their help in editing the story! This certainly would have been a more confusing tale without their help.

I've also got ANOTHER anthology appearance coming soon... and that story is actually set in the same world as this one! More on that next week.