We have another special guest post by author Heath Daniels. This time he talks about the inspirations behind his book Day of Judgement. Make sure to check it out on Amazon, and add it to your GoodReads reading list. Most of all, keep reading and find out how you can win a copy! Take it away Heath!
Three Kisses was finally published after I moved on to another job in another country. Naively I felt a sense of accomplishment and was ready to get on with the rest of my life.
No such chance. Characters in Three Kisses tapped me on the shoulder, figuratively, and said “You aren’t through with us yet.” Again, inspirations came with no peace until I wrote about them.
The characters told me the setting was Washington, D.C. You’ll see why early in the story. A second location was also needed. It had to be a mostly rural area within an easy drive or short flight from Washington. Another synchronicity, the Appalachian mountain area of Southwest Virginia that I knew very well. You will see the benefits of this location when you read the story.
Again, coming up with a title was frustrating. Then in the story a Muslim imam leading the funeral of a young Muslim man in southwest Virginia spoke the words “on the day of judgment”. The inspiration came to me, a double meaning. The day of judgment in the realm of Allah from the Koran as spoken by the imam. Also the day of judgment in the federal courts. You won’t be taken to the realm of the Divine, at least not in my book, but you can visualize the stairway to heaven Muslims climb as shown in many drawings like the one on the left. You will be inside the federal court, this time in the Poff federal building in Roanoke, Virginia, on the right. The day of judgment before the Divine is also a major part of Christianity in its Bible and in other religions thus enhancing the double meaning.
Action moves along the eastern Appalachians, into New Mexico, and into four countries on three continents. As usual, there were many bizarre coincidences and synchronicities. Read to participate in the action and adventure and discover them.
The most amazing coincidence of all occurred when two characters each individually ended up in Sulaymaniyah in Kurdistan, Iraq. One was an unwilling guerrilla fighter who was injured and needed cosmetic surgery. The other was a plastic surgeon in charge of a clinic secretly cooperating with the CIA to gather intelligence. While I was writing this section of the story, circumstances actually took me to Sulaymaniyah. The thought occurred to photograph a building at random and identify it as the cosmetic surgery clinic in the story. A walk on the very first day took me right in front of an actual plastic surgery clinic with a sign in three languages, Kurdish, Arabic, and English.
Look at my recent interview on YouTube https://youtu.be/0sZ8nRvRdjE. There you learn of a character in Day of Judgment, a Christian minister, who comments that just because people say they are Christian doesn’t mean they are; the first religious terrorists in the world were Crusaders who called themselves Christian. (I could add that there is the KKK in modern times who claim to be Christian.) By the same logic, just because people say they are Islamic or Muslim doesn’t mean they are. Islam explicitly prohibits violence and killing others.
Reviews of Day of Judgment yielded a lesson about writing. A couple of reviewers criticized the book saying the characters were blatant stereotypes. The people of southwest Virginia are very familiar to me. There are no stereotypes. All characters in my books are people I’ve known directly or indirectly — most of the less-than-charming ones, indirectly. This criticism taught me to add a caveat to my writing. Now I explicitly explain that descriptions of characters in my books are based on people I have actually met or known personally, never stereotypes.
What do you think? Are they stereotypical to you?
Day of Judgment continues to bring life to locations that are not well known, such as Roanoke, Virginia. Roanoke is a prosperous industrial city in an otherwise economically depressed area. Glass fiber optic cable was invented and is still manufactured there. Roanoke is referred to as the “Star City” because of the Mill Mountain neon lighted star overlooking it. The luxurious Hotel Roanoke still operates as described in the story.
Now for your GIVEAWAY and SPECIAL OFFER
The first two persons to reply to this post with a BRIEF description of why you want to read Day of Judgment will receive your choice of paperback or ebook version. Outside the U.S, only ebook.
Ask me about a special offer on a bundle of all four books. You will receive them at a reduced price reflecting a giveaway of one of them. Again, outside the U.S. an ebook bundle.
All four books are current events fiction with legal drama. All have underlying messages of respect, acceptance, and appreciation for all persons, whatever their religion, orientation, or other characteristics.
About Heath Daniels
Heath Daniels is mostly retired from a successful academic career as a professor and researcher in international business issues. He has written and edited books and many articles on the subject. He is often invited to present papers at research conferences in the U.S. and other countries.
He has lived in and traveled to many countries world-wide. These experiences exposed him to many cultures and situations. He developed appreciation, respect, and empathy for all persons everywhere, their cultures and traditions.
During the New Year transition going from 2005 to 2006, inspirations came into his mind to write a book. They would not stop until he sat at the computer and started writing.
This was the start of a parallel career as an academic living and working in various locations and an author of international novels of action and intrigue under a pseudonym.
Now that he has mostly retired from academia, he has continued writing. He has written and published four novels with a fifth still developing in his head.
He grew up and went to a university in a small city in the heartland of the U.S. During his academic career in the U.S., he lived in mostly semi-rural areas in the Eastern part of the country. His international career took him to big cities, small towns, and locations in between.
Upon semi-retirement, he moved back to his original home town which is now a larger, urban, cosmopolitan city that still has heartland roots. He continues to travel whenever possible, most recently returning from a four-week visit to southeast Asia.
Almost all locations in his books are places where he has lived or visited for a long enough time to be able to bring them to life through the books. The vast majority of characters are fictionalized depictions of actual people with whom he has interacted, not always under pleasant circumstances. There are no stereotypes.99
His novels feature current events, adventure, and intrigue that are designed to entertain, as well as inform and foster acceptance, tolerance, and respect for all people.
Visit his website at HeathDanielsBooks.com
Very informative!
It looks like a good read.