Sneak Peek...

I turned in the second edit of my book to Standard Publishing last week. It is tentatively titled The Basiped Chronicles: The Long Night. Before that, we were calling it A Tale of Two Kingdoms. Regardless of what we call it, here is a small snippet of the first chapter. I can't share much of it online, but it's been such a part of what I have been doing lately, I wanted to share a little. It hasn't been finally edited yet, so even this will likely change some:

A flaming arrow buzzed through his gray stringy beard, barely missing his jugular. Head down and eyes closed, the old man sprinted through the darkening forest. His enemies pursued him on both sides. Guided by an inner quiet force, he blindly hurdled fallen logs and ducked his head just inches beneath low hanging tree limbs. The fiery darts assaulted him from all directions, embedding themselves into the outlying pines and firs as he sprinted past them.

Another flaming arrow reflected off the tail of his patched brown overcoat as if it were made of iron. The man sprinted faster, squeezing his eyelids tightly together as he ran.

He mumbled to himself as he flew along, “C’mon….c’mon. Get here already. I can’t hold on much longer.”

That’s when he heard it.

Tha-thud. Tha-thud. Tha-thud.

The sound grew louder and closer from behind him as he ran.

Tha-thud. Tha-thud. Tha-thud.

The man slowed to a jog. He opened his eyes for the first time in about an hour, turned to face his oncoming deliverer and smiled. As he turned he saw exactly what he had hoped for: his master, the warrior Prince of his Mountain Kingdom, barreling full force on horseback in his direction.

As the Prince drew near, the old man noticed fresh wounds on his master’s hands and arms. Bulging sweaty biceps bore the bloody slices of the enemy’s sword. Even his enormous white stead was wounded in the battle, with several simmering arrows still embedded in her hindquarters. The Prince wore plate mail battle armor, leather gloves and a plated helmet with an iron faceguard hiding his thick brown beard and long hair. He held his double-edged sword, called The Dunamas, in his right hand and the reins of the stallion in his left.

The old man stood mesmerized by his Prince’s approaching glory as another flaming arrow buzzed over his head. It wasn’t until the Prince said the man’s name that he again became aware of his surroundings.

“Pops!” the Prince yelled. He slid his sword in his scabbard and reached out his hand as his horse snorted. She sprinted at full speed toward the man. “Grab hold of my hand!” the Prince yelled.

Pops extended his hand. With one motion, the Prince snagged his friend and yanked him up to the rear of the horse. She never slowed her gallop.

“Hold on,” the Prince warned.

“Ho, Justice! Ho!” the Prince ordered his warhorse to halt and she promptly obeyed.

He intently surveyed the silent dark forest from her back. Then he screamed into the blackness, “Come out! Face your enemy and stop hiding like cowards!” At first nothing happened, but after a few moments the leaves and bushes began to rustle on either side of them.

“C’mon, come out now and show yourself,” the Prince spoke as if he were coaxing a housecat from its hiding place. Suddenly, a dark figure appeared in front of the Prince’s horse and to his right. A tall and menacing creature emerged, so black that he blended in with the night sky. He held a smoldering arrow at his side that lit up his right arm and thigh.

“Basiped?” he blurted.

“No,” said the Prince. “I am not. But I am their guardian.”

The dark figure snorted and kicked. He spat and muttered in an ugly unknown language. He lifted his flaming arrow, attached it to his bow and aimed straight for the Prince’s heart. Pops ducked behind the Prince in fear. With a twang, the arrow shot at the Prince. He quickly drew his sword, and sliced the arrow into two shards inches in front of his face. In a flash, the Prince dismounted and rushed his attacker. He suddenly beheaded his enemy with one arcing slice from The Dunamas.

more to come in March of 2010...

Greenlight.

Three years ago I wrote a screenplay. It took me about three weeks. Three years later, we're making it into a movie. It has been a loooong process, but I'm excited to announce that we will be shooting Hitting the Nuts this August in Cincinnati.

I've saved up enough vacation time to take off three weeks from VCC to make it happen. Friends are coming in from LA, Las Vegas, NY and Chicago to fill out the cast and crew. I couldn't think of a better way to spend my summer vacation this year. The idea of "chasing dreams" gets a lot of lip service out there, but for those who have done it...the chase can get very long and hard. That was the case with Nuts. I've always been excited to tell the story, but it was a long and sometimes frustrating journey to get it to this point. Now the easy part - making a movie.

If you'd like to help out during the shoot, we are looking for some background actors (extras) for day shoots between Aug 10-29. Email our Assistant Producer, Missy Whitis, at missy@housethatjackbuilt.org to get on the list.

I'm sure I'll have more things come up where people can help out as we get closer. I'll post things on here, facebook and twitter as they come up.

A special thanks to those of you who have been supportive over the last three years. It means a lot.

proof we went on vacation

A Decade

A decade ago I woke up, took a shower and got ready to go to work. I put on cargo shorts and a green t-shirt. (I've never really had to dress up to go to work.) As I was getting ready to leave I noticed that Debbie was sitting up in bed. She was having "funny pains in her back." Being a master of logic, I put a few things together and took her to the hospital to be checked out. Turns out my intuitions were correct. She was in labor. By the end of the that day, I was a dad. My young wife was a mom. And Elijah Christopher Douglas was our son.

We are celebrating today by getting a tour of the US Capitol Building. (He seems excited, though he is afraid we will just "look at a bunch of people typing." I'm a little worried be may be right.) He has requested California Pizza Kitchen for dinner. We're about as far away from California as you can get in the USA, but I think we have found one here.

All said, the last decade has been the best yet in my life. Happy birthday, Eli. Six more of these and your driving. Eight more and your graduating. Eleven more and your buying me a beer. But let's not rush to those birthdays. My personal experience is that ten can be even better than those if you give it a chance. We have 365 days of being ten years old together. I couldn't love you more or be more happy to be your dad.

Dollar Car Wash Spreads...

Check out this local news story from River Valley Community Church in Mishewaka, Indiana...

Discuss:

Just posted this on twitter and facebook. Looking for your thoughts:

what are the real american idols? what do we ultimately respect, honor, trust? who/what completely controls our lives? - what do we trust?

Wanna Pray?

I remember sitting down with a notebook about seven years ago and brainstorming everything I'd like to do over the next decade. I wrote things down like "I'd like to be a pastor, filmmaker and author." It seemed so exciting back then to dream about a multi-layered career path that involved many different forms of storytelling. It seemed rather pie in the sky though.

Flash forward to this week and I'm fighting off TMJ, migraines and acne because I'm secretly stressed over all my little ventures. My body tells me when I'm stressed. I rarely feel much different emotionally, but when I start getting strange pains and ailments I know what's going down. It's funny how dreams realized can turn into stress. I'm helping to lead a beautiful church. I'm in the final stages of editing my first book and working to finalize financing on a movie project I've been trying to make for three years. All my dreams came churning up in one month. It's great...and strangely stressful. There's nothing worse than someone who complains when they get want they want. I'm really not complaining at all. Just confessing. If you a person who does that prayer thing, I could use a little supernatural help on all fronts this month - maintaining creativity, integrity and passion in the midst of a busy season. I have a meeting this week to try to wrap up investors for the film project. I'm beyond ready to actually tell that story instead of talking about telling it. I've saved up three weeks vacation to film it in August and just pray that God works it all out to get the green light.

In the mean time, I'm speaking again this weekend at VCC on idol worship. Pray that it comes together. I've also been working today on our August series at church - trying to find the right angle to teach around the issues of being a people who invite, include, and practice hospitality. These are wonderful tasks to be entrusted with. If you could, ask Father to give me a little extra wisdom, energy and clarity this week....and a little less pain in my right jaw.