It has been almost a month since I’ve posted anything substantive on this blog.  That is, perhaps, the longest silence since its founding in 2006.  Some of you have probably been wondering where I’ve been.  Or, crossing your fingers that I left the blogging game for good, another casualty in cyberspace moved on to better things.  Like real life, for example.

Not the case.  Sigh in relief, or facepalm, depending on which camp you were in.  I’ve just been shifting the focus a bit, writing more fiction rather than apologetic-related material.

I was first inspired to write in seventh grade, when my dad introduced me to the old Twilight Zone series.  Its creator, Rod Serling, wrote over three-quarters of the original episodes.  They are exceptionally well-written, and I had never before considered that there were real people behind the books and the TV shows that I loved.  For the first time I thought that I might be able to turn some of the stories circling my head into a book.

So I wrote bad fan fiction, because I think that’s where everyone starts.  I wrote a first-person account of adventures through my favorite video games with me recast as the hero and the girl I crushed on at the time as the damsel in distress (a mark of bad fan fiction called the self-insert).

I also adapted several ghost stories I found in spooky anthologies.  I created some of my own, always with Twilight Zone twist endings.

That, by the way, gets old fast.  The more you try to do Twilight Zone endings, the harder it gets to come up with original twists and original stories to support those twists.

I continued to write stories throughout junior high and high school.  Some for school credit, most just for fun.  Mercifully, it has all been lost because I’m sure it was terrible.

When I became serious about writing seven years ago, I wrote nothing but nonfiction until about six months ago.  Then, inspired by the dark reboots of my childhood favorite series on the big (Transformers, GI Joe) and small screen (Thundercats), I thought, “Why couldn’t I do that?”

So, I went back to writing fiction.  Some fan fiction, some original.  A sampling:

• Inspired by The Avengers, I’m working on a 12-issue comic book series that weaves all of my kids’ favorite Disney characters into a single story
• My wife was interested in a crossover episode of the TV shows Without a Trace and Criminal Minds
• Four slackers try to win a radio contest asking for incontrovertible proof that aliens exist, but the kids get more than they bargained for with government assassins on their trail
• A gaming group that always talked about one more campaign is reunited after 20 years at their DM’s funeral; and his will has them running through a four-part real-life campaign
• Some kids hack the cloud back-ups of their favorite screenwriter’s unfinished screenplays and read a well-planned terrorist attack against a large city in one recent entry; imagine their surprise when the exact attack happens two days later!
• A couple of Christian inspirational fiction stories
• My own dark reboot of an 80s cartoon series in virtual seasons format (I’m not saying which cartoon — I haven’t made my final choice, but I have a few in mind that were likely forgotten by all but the geekiest among us)

As for this blog, I still plan to write material for it.  I will return to more frequent updates soon.  Meanwhile, I am also recycling some old or unpublished evergreen material for the Christian Apologetics Alliance blog, so you might want to follow that.  If not for me, then for the other exceptional minds that contribute.  God is truly blessing that ministry, and I’m happy to be a part of it.

So that’s that.  If you’re interested in the fiction (and hopefully you are), stay tuned.  I will keep readers abreast of where that stuff might be appearing (it won’t be here).  And more apologetic material is coming soon!