Friday, September 5, 2014

God Is Writing His Story! by Bruce Hennigan



Bruce Hennigan
We may often struggle with wanting to be in charge of our writing careers. Yet, God tells us to not worry—he’s still in control. Author Bruce Hennigan knows this firsthand. Enjoy as he shares how God surprised him with an answer to prayer. ~ Dawn

God Is Writing His Story!

On dark, rainy weekend afternoons, I often find myself writing about demons and angels. My character, Jonathan Steel is facing another demon from the Council of Darkness and, once again, lives are at stake and evil will soon prevail.

But, on this particular weekend afternoon I found myself in Orlando, Florida with my good friend and co-author, Mark Sutton. Our main focus was on our 2001 non-fiction book on depression. For years we had begged B&H Publishing to update our book but they had shown no interest. Now, our agent suggested we develop an entirely new book and find a new publisher. What made our current book work was the format, a 30 day plan and the LifeFilters. Rather than develop a new approach, we updated to 60% new content and kept the same format realizing a new publisher wouldn’t touch it!

The next day I attended the 2012 International Christian Retail Show to appear at the Charisma booth and promote my second book in the Jonathan Steel Chronicles. As I made my way down the exhibit hallway I noticed a huge sign outside a meeting room for B&H Publishing. I stopped. Yes, I was going to walk into that room and tell them we were looking at new publisher! That would show them! No! I started to walk on and turned around. I should give them a piece of my mind! Why wouldn’t they want to update our book? No, Bruce, just walk away.

Rarely in my life, God speaks to me through the Holy Spirit and He told me to simply walk into the room. I was soon speaking to a young man in a nice suit asking for a bottle of water when his face paled, his eyes widened and he stared at my name tag.

“Oh, my gosh, you’re Bruce Hennigan!” He exclaimed.

I was shocked and looked at my own nametag as if to make sure I really was Bruce Hennigan. “Excuse me?” I mumbled.

“You’re Bruce Hennigan. Co-author of Conquering Depression.” He continued. “We’ve been looking for you and Mark Sutton for three months!”

My knees were getting weak. “You’re looking for me?”

“Yes. We want you to write an update to your book. And, a book series.”

I managed to collapse in the chair. “Can we sit down?”

The man introduced himself as the head of sales for B&H and told a story that was too good to be true. B&H had a new editorial team and their first day on the job they decided to get us to update our book.

“You won’t believe this, but Mark Sutton lives here in Orlando and just yesterday, we worked for 8 hours developing a new updated version of our book.”

The man blinked. “You’re kidding! Same 30-day format? Same LifeFilter concept?”

“Yes.” I said hoarsely. I was weeping. “This is a God thing, isn’t it?”

He smiled. “You bet you.”

A stunned Mark Sutton and I met the next day with the new editor and by the end of that thirty minute meeting, we had a new book on the docket with B&H.

Fiction or non-fiction, to see God take a book and work in such a shocking manner serves to remind me that He is still in charge and He is working around us, inviting us to be part of His Story; His grand design. Our book, “Hope Again: A 30 Day Plan for Conquering Depression” comes out on September 15th. Just when I was about to give up, God steps in and reminded me to never surrender, never give up. Which reminds me. I need to get back to my fourth book in the Jonathan Steel Chronicles, “The 10th Demon: Children of the Bloodstone” if I’m going to have it ready by the end of the year! Now, if it would just start raining . . .



Tweetables:

Author Bruce Hennigan walked into a room and received an answer to prayer. Click to tweet.

God is still in charge and He is working around us, inviting us to be part of His Story; His grand design. Click to tweet.

Just when author Bruce Hennigan was about to give up, God stepped in and reminded him to never surrender, never give up. Click to tweet.





Third Book in the Chronicles of Jonathan Steel

JONATHAN STEEL, A DEMON HUNTER BY TRADE, MUST ONCE AGAIN FACE A SUPERNATURAL FOE AS A NEW, EVIL CULT RISES FROM THE DARKNESS AND THREATENS TO ENGULF THE WORLD IN CHAOS.

Jonathan Steel is a demon hunter by trade, taking out demons with revenge as his motivator. The demons have taken away people he has loved, including the one woman who could have revealed his past to him. He has already defeated two demons, but he knows there are eleven more out there. If he does not go after them, they will come for him.

Meanwhile, Vivian Darbonne, Steel’s bitter enemy, embarks on a desperate search for a mysterious artifact called the Ark of Chaos— just as a new evil cult rises from the darkness and threatens to engulf the world in chaos. As seats of power are covertly altered within the government, Steel knows that in order to defeat the cult, he must first find an ancient chest that holds the secret to defeating the eleventh demon and, most importantly, power over the Council of Darkness.




Bruce Hennigan grew up in Northwest Louisiana and became a physician practicing in the field of radiology. He was a church drama director for 15 years and wrote over 150 plays. He is a certified apologist, or one who defends the truthfulness of the Christian faith and speaks on this topic on a regular basis. With Mark Sutton he co-authored “Hope Again: A 30 Day Plan for Conquering Depression” from B&H Publishing. He is also the author of the supernatural thriller novels in the “Chronicles of Jonathan Steel”: “The 13th Demon: Altar of the Spiral Eye”, “The 12th Demon: Mark of the Wolf Dragon”, and “The 11th Demon: The Ark of Chaos”. He has two grown children and lives in Shreveport with his wife, Sherry.

To connect with Bruce and learn more, please visit:

Bruce’s Blog: brucehennigan.com
For Jonathan Steel Chronicles: 11thdemon.com