The Writing of My Novel

This week, I finally did my last revisions to The Righteousness of Our Cause and published it with Amazon.com as an e-book.  The novel had been screaming to escape from my word file for five years.   I began it in 2006 and finally had it copyrighted in 2008.  Over the years, I had proofed and rewritten, and finally discarded it as obsolete, trite, too full of clichés, and badly written.    I have often said that the only thing worse than reading a bad novel is writing one!

Finally, in the middle of my medical leave of absence from the church where I am interim pastor,  I came to the conclusion that any novel has something to say or to express.   I had started writing the novel during a time of anger with my church denomination and then tried to take a fictionalized journey in the novel with two characters, Eric (a seminary student) and Beka (a medical resident) in their attempt to save their Church and their country from a group of power mad people.  This plot became a metaphor to what I felt was (and still is) an incipient but real infringement on the principle of separation of Church and State. 

The plot may be thin, but the moral of the story is as thick as the present problems we find in the religious political terrain of our country today.  Some who read it will find the killings, violence, and diabolical actions of Church leaders too fantastic to believe.  Those of us who have watched and experienced the religious turmoil and battles in the last few decades will see them as metaphors for what has happened to many people of faith who have left the denomination or  faith altogether.  Happy reading!

The Writing of My Novel

This week, I finally did my last revisions to The Righteousness of Our Cause and published it with Amazon.com as an e-book.  The novel had been screaming to escape from my word file for five years.   I began it in 2006 and finally had it copyrighted in 2008.  Over the years, I had proofed and rewritten, and finally discarded it as obsolete, trite, too full of clichés, and badly written.    I have often said that the only thing worse than reading a bad novel is writing one!

Finally, in the middle of my medical leave of absence from the church where I am interim pastor,  I came to the conclusion that any novel has something to say or to express.   I had started writing the novel during a time of anger with my church denomination and then tried to take a fictionalized journey in the novel with two characters, Eric (a seminary student) and Beka (a medical resident) in their attempt to save their Church and their country from a group of power mad people.  This plot became a metaphor to what I felt was (and still is) an incipient but real infringement on the principle of separation of Church and State.

The plot may be thin, but the moral of the story is as thick as the present problems we find in the religious political terrain of our country today.  Some who read it will find the killings, violence, and diabolical actions of Church leaders too fantastic to believe.  Those of us who have watched and experienced the religious turmoil and battles in the last few decades will see them as metaphors for what has happened to many people of faith who have left the denomination or  faith altogether.  The novel can be found by going to amazon.com and entering "Dennis Herman" or The Righteousness of Our Cause.  Happy reading!

Words for Recovery--Tomorrow Can Be Better

I’m a balcony person for a couple months.  The numbness in feet and legs compelled me to do what I had avoided so long:  surgery on the back to replace a disc and to correct the badly aligned vertebrae which caused the issues. That meant leaving my interim ministry for at least two months.  The experience has given me a few insights that are worth sharing (hopefully):

1.  Listen to the stories of others.   As soon as you say “I’m having back surgery,” you open yourself  to the gift, or curse, of hearing many stories of  others.  Most of those stories are inspiring, such as Dave’s, whose medical history could fill volumes, who said “When it is really painful, just say to yourself  tomorrow can be better.  I like his advice better than the person who told me “back surgery did not help my pain, and my toe nails eventually fell off!”
2. No BLT’s—That is an acronym for no “bending, lifting, or turning.”  I am glad I can still eat BLT sandwiches and do so without bending, lifting, or turning.
3. My wife is patient but appropriately slow.  Bless Betsy’s heart, she took two weeks off from her work at the hospital to be my nurse at home.  I will not complain if she does not get what I ask immediately.    I think that nurses learn in school that there should be a minimum time of fifteen minutes between a patient’s request and its delivery.  That helps build my patience when I have to wait a little for something I could do in two minutes IF I could only bend, lift, or turn.
4. There are some side effects from surgical anesthesia. One is short term memory loss.   There are also some side effects from surgical anesthesia.  One is short term memory loss.
5. Every chaplain or pastor should have surgery and experience the pain of surgical recovery before entering the ministry.  I now have much greater compassion and understanding of those who have any kind of surgery—minor or major.   And by the way it is true that there is no “minor” surgery when you’re having it!  It is also true that “minimally invasive surgery” is not minimally invasive.   It just means that they stuff a camera, scalpel , harvested bone fragment, prosthetic disc cage, titanium screws and rods and a few other things inside a smaller than usual incision.

7.   Another side effect of surgical anesthesia is temporary confusion.   Now what was I saying and which point am I on? Is this a sermon?  If so, I have exceeded my three points, but have yet to include my poem.  So here it is: “…to sleep, perchance to dream; ay, there’s the rub…”    This is from either Shakespeare, Bishop Will Willimon, or Governor Christie.  Not sure which right now.

8.   Be thankful.  I am thankful to be in a place where there is excellent medical care.  I remember living in third world countries where patients had to bring their own bed linens to the hospital, then go across the street to purchase medicines (if available), and ask for friends or family in the United States or Europe to send needed medicines as they were unavailable  in that country. I am glad for accessible and affordable  health care in our country,  and for the many who dedicate so much of their own time to be healers and menders. Sure they are paid to do this, but at a cost, quite often, of much they must give up personally in order to bring others the care they need.