Welcome

I am about to enter a totally new phase of life. When I started writing "Community of Promise" several years ago, I never dreamed that I would end up creating my own publishing company to print, distribute and market the novel.

I plan to write in this blog about the process that I am going through. I will include what it is like to receive 1000 copies of the book next week, my upcoming experiences of speaking, selling, and marketing, and perhaps I will include some comments on what it was like to write the novel in the first place.

Right now, I want to welcome you to this blog and invite your comments and suggestions. If you are an author also, please send me your website information so I can include it in my links. I hope you will reciprocate and put this my address on your site, also.

Right at the moment I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by the whole process. In the last month I have pre-sold about 100 copies and I think I have a good marketing plan for the rest (only 900 more to sell!). We'll see how it goes.

If you click on the link at the right, it will take you to the website for "Community of Promise." I welcome your comments about that site, too.

But for now, let me tell you how I got the idea for the story. In my dual professional role of minister and pastoral counselor, I have worked for many years with clients who suffered under a variety of addictions. Making use of that experience and my background, I designed a workshop about "Addiction and Spirituality" in which I made use of the Biblical story of the Exodus as a metaphor for the addiction, recovery, relapse prevention process. I learned through that workshop that addicts who are recovering often experience the proverbial "Promised Land" more while they are in treatment than after they have returned to their "regular lives." I began wondering if the most profound experience of the "Promised Land" might actually belong more to the time in the Wilderness than to the geographic Promised Land.

A few years ago, well after the creation of my workshop, I was serving as the interim minister in a church. A parishioner asked me this question after services one Sunday:
"Why was Moses not allowed to enter the promised land after all he had done for the Israelites?" It seemed unfair to her. I heard myself answer: Well, perhaps rather than being prohibited from entering the Promised Land, Moses was actually allowed not to go. Perhaps he feared that the people were about to lose touch with the important lessons of the Wilderness when they began the conquest and governance of this new land across the Jordan River.

My answer to her in concert with my thoughts on the wilderness experience quickly turned into the beginnings of a story. I call it the "Community of Promise."

Thanks for reading so far. Please come back again - there is more to tell.

Wayne