Jeremiah - ProfilesArchive

About Me

My relationship with this world...
...is that of a victim who is living inside his parasite.
I'm married, in my mid-twenties, and doing my best to get published. My novel Cold is finished. I'm working with an agent to get it to a publisher. Updates will follow in blog-form.
Resolutions For 2007?
I don't know that I've ever made a New Year's Resolution, and I don't think I'm going to start now. What I have prepared, however, is a list of topics that I'd like to learn more about during this year. It's my syllabus of study for the year, I guess.
First off, I want to learn everything I can on the man named Pelagius. He was a theological opponent of St. Augustine, but in more recent times, it's turned out that maybe he wasn't the heretic that Augustine and Jerome claimed he was. For most, this sounds like the beginning of a very boring list, but recreational theology is my thing. I don't pick on you for all your hours spent on myspace.
Secondly, I want to understand the why's and how's of universal salvation (everyone goes to Heaven). Is there a scriptural basis? Does it mean that everyone goes to Heaven eventually? Do only most people go to Heaven, with men like Hitler and Saddam Hussein as the exceptions?
Thirdly, besides semantics, what's the difference between a Trinitarian and a Unitarian? If you read Servetus, the Antitrinitarian, he comes across as believing in a Trinity, and only attacking strawmen that aren't representative of any mainstream theologies.
This is a quote by a friend of mine. I'm placing it here because it's so pertinent to my life, but also because it's something that I think most people need to hear:
"What happened to depth and brilliance in Christianity, particularly in regard to the arts? Why we have abandoned the arts to such a large extent eludes me. I am left without answer. And I know at the core of my soul that this abandonment has brutalized me. I am a victim; a bastard child of the Christian artistic ghetto.
Care to see my scars? They are deep, written on my heart. . . . I have forgotten how to worship. I have forgotten majesty and wonder and glory and horror and dread and joy and sorrow and the profound meaning of faith. This amnesia is cultural and corporate, cutting to the very heart of our identity: glad worshipers of the Creator of all things."
Just something to think about. Thanks, Lamp.
Jeremiahâ€™s Thoughts
Jeremiah is not a doctor, but he is an avid reader and writer, publishing a weekly blog, working on several novels, and fleshing out a popular culture-style systematic theology.

Some of my blogs have earned me a fair amount of feedback. Because I treat everything I write like a loved one, I've put links to some of my favorites here.
Let's Ask My Friend, the Pope (PART I)
Let's Ask My Friend, the Pope (PART II)
Six Degrees of Global Warming
Too Damned Clean
Before & After
God's Aristocracy
Boycott Christian Media
Christians, Lesbians and Other Outcasts
"The New Stream-lined Calvinism..."
"Literalist Taboos"
"Discernment, or Christian Cop-out?"

Best-selling author, Ted Dekker, has posted a thought-provoking blog entitled Jesus is a girl . It's a bit controversial, as you can guess by the title, but well worth reading. Christianity has forgotten the power of the metaphor, and would do well to remember.
I just switched out pictures (again). My dear, sweet, loving, computer-saavy, sister Megan sent me this one. I swear, I'm giving her credit for the photo without her ever once suggesting that I do so. Anyway, I like it better than the others I've had. Additionally, in the first few minutes this photo was up, I've already been told that I look like someone else. Go figure. Maybe we should switch MySpace photos.
This is a blog that I read this past week. It's rare that I find something worth passing along, but this is a MUST READ for all aspiring novelists . It concerns fictional symbolism and how it relates to sacraments in religion. Find it HERE .
Thanks.
Bible Commentary to Date:

Romans 1-5 Romans 6-9 Romans 10-16 I Corinthians 1-4

I Corinthians 5-10

I Corinthians 11-15

II Corinthians 1-7

Galatians 1-3

Galatians 4-6

My Interests

FOR THE MOST PART, my interests consist of writing, reading and my spiritual life, but to be honest, these three things turn in on one another so often that they're almost completely indistinguishable. When I write, I write about life and all the comes with it. That includes, to a great extent, spirituality. The human mind needs something greater than itself. That's simply the way it's wired. To write a good story, one must address those life issues, otherwise, you're not being true to reality. People have questions, therefore fictional people must also have questions. As for reading, a writer can only rarely write better than he or she reads. This means we must look for the best. Read the best.

Me!
Current Works Novels:
~Cold (seeking publisher)
~Opaque (Written)
~Tinker (outlined)
~Reunion (outlined and being written)
I'm also working on a commentary of the bible that uses historical, contextual and logical perspectives to determine proper interpretations. You know, for fun.
Read .. (non-fiction):
~ Benford's Law and Free Will
~ Ecological Factors of the End Times
~ Patron Saint of All Things Blue
~ Aristocracy and Election
~ The Tricky Thing About Religions
~ The Age of Good Soil
~ A Reply To A Statement Of Stephen Jay Gould, By An Amateur
~ The Exorcism of the Christian Family
Read .. (fiction):
~ Dmitri's Puzzle
~ The Fairfax Hourglass
~ Lazarus And Demas
~ Peter Furst
~ Anger Misplaced
Read .. (book reviews):
~ Comes A Horseman, by Robert Liparulo (DancingWord.net)
~ Expiration Date, by Eric Wilson (DancingWord.net)
~ Forever Odd, by Dean Koontz (Infuze Magazine)
~ Monster, by Frank Peretti (DancingWord.net)
~ The Slumber of Christianity, by Ted Dekker (DancingWord.net)
~ Thud!, by Terry Pratchett (Infuze Magazine)
FAQ Usually, in order to get questions, you must first have fans. I have no fans, and the only question I frequently ask myself is, "What am I doing?" If I knew the answer to that, it would cease to be frequently asked.

But, on occasion, I get into a discussion about writing. Within the writing circles that I frequent, there are many questions about publishing. I'll give my answers to those until I have something more substantial to add.

New Question!!! (3-9-06)
Q. Characterization is undoubtably one of the most important pieces in the puzzle that is good writing. How do you go about making your characters unique? In what order do you build them? Do you use people you know and make adjustments as necessary? Do you create them from scratch?
A. Your character will shape your story, so you want to use someone that will naturally act in a way that leads your novel along a believable but original path. They shouldn't be so normal as to be indistinguishable from every other character in your story, but they shouldn't be so bizarre that they distract the reader.

I try to use quirky characters. They have habits, frequently-used phrases, attitudes, and a personal style.

Names are important, too. If your story takes place in the modern world, take time to think about the name you give them. How does their nationality, region and age play into it? And how has their name effected them? In my novel Opaque my protagonist's name is Sioux. His parents were hippies. Such a name would not go without comment in the real world, nor would it allow you to blend into a role call.My character is used to puns, tired of them, even. This came from my own life. Do you know how many times people have sung that darn Bullfrog song to me?

Q. What is the minimum number of words most publishers will accept for a novel
A. Usually, 80,000 is the minimum, but it wouldn't hurt to shoot for 90 or 100K.

Q. What books do you recommend before submitting a manuscript?
A. Evan Marshall's The Marshall Plan to Getting Published.

Q. Where do you get your ideas?
A. I start with an idea that's completely off the wall. Something that's too bizarre to see print. Then I work it back to reality.

Q. How do you prepare to write a synopsis?
A. Spend a lot of time reading book jackets to get in the mode. Here's another suggestion: check with the agent you plan to submit to, and ask their preferred synopsis length. I had been told one page of synopsis for every twenty-five pages of manuscript. That comes out to about eight pages for a 90,000 word novel. When I checked with my prospective agent, he asked for three. That was a huge time saver.

More later...
Favorite Authors
Ted &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&n bsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbspEri c Wilson

TL Hines &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbspMelani e W..

Got Extended Network?

I'd like to meet:

I'd like to meet Ted Dekker, Dean Koontz and the pope...but hey, if someone's taking orders, I'd also like to meet a bunch of wealthy generous individuals, looking to finance an unpublished author.

Meet the rest of my friends...

Leave me a secret message...

Heroes:

Jesus. No, seriously. And C.S. Lewis. Dean Koontz. Terry Pratchett. Ted Dekker.
WebsitesTedDekker.com Dancingword.net WilsonWriter.com

My Blog

Starting a newsletter...

I wanted to announce that I will be publishing a monthly newletter starting in August. It'll be a bit of a variety show until I figure out exactly where I want to go with it and what people want ...
Posted by Jeremiah on Sun, 22 Jul 2007 11:29:00 PST

Powmians: I can't remain silent any longer

Sometimes in this blog, I'm forced to wander into territories with which I'm not completely familiar. I try to do it as infrequently as possible, only occasionally touching on political topics wh...
Posted by Jeremiah on Mon, 09 Jul 2007 05:16:00 PST

Fossil Hunt PART III

This week marked my third trip to Calvert Cliffs for fossil-hunting. Each time, it seems I learn a little more. On my first trip, I found only a few teeth, all but one were tiny. This was due to the f...
Posted by Jeremiah on Mon, 11 Jun 2007 09:50:00 PST

PROOF! That I don't know everything...

A few months back, I mentioned in a blog that, in high school, I was often in trouble, sometimes for things that I had nothing to do with. The mastermind behind this blame game--for the sake of a...
Posted by Jeremiah on Sun, 03 Jun 2007 10:55:00 PST

And the results are IN...

Last week, I posed four questions to tax your biblical knowledge and to determine, for myself, the extent to which tradition, free from a biblical foundation, affects our knowledge. Drawing from three...
Posted by Jeremiah on Mon, 28 May 2007 09:30:00 PST

An Experiment

Here's a little bit of data about the blogs I write: Many of them are actually self-contained rewrites of chapters of a theology book I'm working on. It's a little offbeat--especially for systematic t...
Posted by Jeremiah on Sun, 20 May 2007 11:02:00 PST

Let's Ask My Friend, the Pope, PART III

Because I have no other topic for tonight, I'm going to give you a sneak peek into the next two subchapters in my essay, Let's Ask My Friend, the Pope. Both are incomplete in detail, but the skeleton ...
Posted by Jeremiah on Mon, 07 May 2007 06:27:00 PST

Hello Hellfire; Good-bye Good News

In 1741, Jonathan Edwards (not the hopeless presidential hopeful), preached his famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God . It fell squarely in the midst of the Great Awakenin...
Posted by Jeremiah on Sun, 29 Apr 2007 10:04:00 PST

My Evil Plan to Save the World

Firstly, to clear the air: Yes, the title is stolen from a Five Iron Frenzy song. I couldn't find a link to the song, but their myspace can be found HERE. The lyrics to My Evil Plan to Save the World,...
Posted by Jeremiah on Sun, 22 Apr 2007 10:19:00 PST

Because I love my wife...

...I'm going to throw in an extra blog this week and tell you ten things about me. If you have been tagged, here is what you do: Post ten things about yourself that people probably don't know.&n...
Posted by Jeremiah on Fri, 20 Apr 2007 08:02:00 PST