Goals for my books

It's interesting the way we sometimes become aware only gradually of our own desires and motives. I've just recently crystallized the following goals for the book I'm almost done with and its sequel, which I'm just beginning.

For both books, my top goal is that they be a good story, because otherwise it doesn't matter what else they are. I also want both to earn the sobriquet 'well-researched' which is critical to historical fiction being, well, historical!

Of course, I also hope to include the gospel in an attractive manner, although the first will do that more strongly. I have another goal, which is harder to quantify. In both stories, I hope to encourage believers to live a life more, as Paul put it, 'of sacrifice and service.' Jesus called it self-denial, although most Americans shamelessly live lives of self-indulgence.

And in the sequel, I have another goal: As Proverbs says, 'Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.' Who knows how long the freedom for the fat and happy church in America may last. If our generation or our children's generation were to face serious persecution and martyrdom, I hope that there would be something in my sequel which would be memorable enough to stay with the reader, and encouraging enough to help them endure it. I know the research has had that effect on me.