Soapweed
Well-known member
Usually I'm not much into fiction or novels, but I found this book to be fascinating and hard to put down. It is written by a very world-knowledgeable cowboy from Ogallala, Nebraska.
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Redemptive Guilt by William Earl McBride, 2012, Creekwood Publishing, Amarillo, Texas
When Alexia Klien is sent overseas on assignment prior to a U.S. Presidential election, she sees someone in Paris she thinks she has seen before, someone whose identity could change the outcome of the election. Perplexed by who she has seen, the attractive broadcast journalist contacts a Frenchman she once had a serious relationship with in hopes of uncovering a mystery that is quickly forming in her curious mind. With the fate of the nation hanging in the balance while Alexia battles with what she will do, the American media celebrity discovers a part of herself she didn't even know she had lost. Her conscience.
This is only the start. With seemingly unrelated happenings occurring on several different locations across the globe the weekend before the people of the United States go to the polls, the consequences of these events could influence the course of current history. Redemptive Guilt is a story that is too real to be missed. It is a novel that will shape history. If not for a country or a nation, it will for those who read it and take to heart its message of the importance that guilt can play in a person's life. Guilt is not always a bad thing.
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About the author
Born and raised in Ogallala, Nebraska, I grew up on a horse with a rope in my hands most of the time. If not a rope, a football or a hammer, or a BB gun, that last one got me in more trouble than the others. I was pretty good at getting in trouble, too—as a kid that is—lots of energy they say. As aggressive as I have always been about things though, even back in childhood, I can always remember that I looked deep into just about everything around me. At the young age of eleven in 1976 I can remember sitting all by myself and watching an entire thirty-minute non-commercial political speech on TV by a man named Ronald Reagan. It was in his bid against President Gerald Ford for the Republican nomination for the race for the White House that year. I carefully listened to and absorbed every word that then Governor Ronald Reagan spoke. After that, he was my man for the Presidency, then in 1976 and four years later in 1980. He made sense. I was eleven years old and I understood Reagan. At that time in my life, I would also hang on every word I would hear preached from the pulpit of church whenever we went, which was probably about half the time. These are things I remember that I do really think helped to shape who I am and what I write. I was then, as I am now, interested in things of depth, real depth.
If you would have asked me in high school or in college, and I spent eleven years obtaining a four-year degree (I took some time off more than once in that venture), if I would someday write a book or be an author, I would have probably laughed at you, I'm sure. So would others who knew me then, just as some who know me now may do the same. But, I have written my first novel and I am well into writing another. I love writing, more than anything else I have ever done. It took me over forty years to figure out what I wanted to be in life. But, at least I have figured it out. Not just what I want to be, but what I am supposed to be. This I know and in a very humble way. It was not of me.
In 2008, with my life upside down in many ways including financially, I landed a job in Kuwait in the middle of the Middle East with a military contracting company. It was in Kuwait in 2008 where I found out I do so truly love to write. And it is there where I first really started writing and writing a lot. In the few years since those seven months I spent in the Middle East, there have been moments when I wished I would have paid more attention in my high school and college English classes. I was not a real big fan of English back then. How was I to know God would someday want me to become a writer? If you are still in school and reading this—pay attention. Pay attention in school, that is.
I went to Kuwait with three main goals. I wanted to make a large sum of money, get in better shape physically, and also improve my computer skills. Especially, I wanted to get better at typing on the computer. Typing was another class in high school that I didn't like. I hated it, more than any other class. That was back when we had them old typewriters though. Kids today don't even know what I am talking about. Now it is funny that I spend sometimes ten or twelve hours a day typing and trying to figure out the English language. You have got to admit God has a special sense of humor, least I think He does from where I am sitting behind this computer as I type my mini-autobiography.
In Kuwait, while sending home emails to friends and family of all the funny things I saw, the serious things I saw, and the things which were both funny and serious (most things are or can be when looked at properly), I found out that I just absolutely love to write and to tell a story; not just a story, but stories. Stories with truth. Some of the people who I sent my raw and rough renditions to, of the things I saw in Kuwait, began to enjoy what I was sending them, or at least that is what they said. Some of them may have just been being nice though. But that's OK, too. It is better to be nice than to be 'NOT nice'.
Anyhows, and yes I did mean to write anyhows, the kid who grew up roping calves and playing football and shooting small birds and rabbits with a very weak daisy BB gun in the 1970's, and tearing things up with a hammer or an ax or a crowbar, now hopes to make a real difference in the world we all live in today—and to do this with the written word, one of the most powerful forces available to mankind. I hope to help people in their lives and their relationships. Especially in their relationship with the One and Only God, the God of the Bible through His Son Jesus Christ, this is my strongest desire. He took me to the middle of the Middle East to show me what he wanted from me for Him and what He wanted me to do for Him. First though, before I could see it, I had to surrender myself to Him. As I type this, I realize that is all God really wants from any of us, is to surrender to Him.
I hope if you read anything I have written or will write in the future, that you will find that I write more with my heart than I do with my mind. That is what I hope you will find in my writing.
William Earl McBride
*************************************************************
Redemptive Guilt by William Earl McBride, 2012, Creekwood Publishing, Amarillo, Texas
When Alexia Klien is sent overseas on assignment prior to a U.S. Presidential election, she sees someone in Paris she thinks she has seen before, someone whose identity could change the outcome of the election. Perplexed by who she has seen, the attractive broadcast journalist contacts a Frenchman she once had a serious relationship with in hopes of uncovering a mystery that is quickly forming in her curious mind. With the fate of the nation hanging in the balance while Alexia battles with what she will do, the American media celebrity discovers a part of herself she didn't even know she had lost. Her conscience.
This is only the start. With seemingly unrelated happenings occurring on several different locations across the globe the weekend before the people of the United States go to the polls, the consequences of these events could influence the course of current history. Redemptive Guilt is a story that is too real to be missed. It is a novel that will shape history. If not for a country or a nation, it will for those who read it and take to heart its message of the importance that guilt can play in a person's life. Guilt is not always a bad thing.
*************************************************************
About the author
Born and raised in Ogallala, Nebraska, I grew up on a horse with a rope in my hands most of the time. If not a rope, a football or a hammer, or a BB gun, that last one got me in more trouble than the others. I was pretty good at getting in trouble, too—as a kid that is—lots of energy they say. As aggressive as I have always been about things though, even back in childhood, I can always remember that I looked deep into just about everything around me. At the young age of eleven in 1976 I can remember sitting all by myself and watching an entire thirty-minute non-commercial political speech on TV by a man named Ronald Reagan. It was in his bid against President Gerald Ford for the Republican nomination for the race for the White House that year. I carefully listened to and absorbed every word that then Governor Ronald Reagan spoke. After that, he was my man for the Presidency, then in 1976 and four years later in 1980. He made sense. I was eleven years old and I understood Reagan. At that time in my life, I would also hang on every word I would hear preached from the pulpit of church whenever we went, which was probably about half the time. These are things I remember that I do really think helped to shape who I am and what I write. I was then, as I am now, interested in things of depth, real depth.
If you would have asked me in high school or in college, and I spent eleven years obtaining a four-year degree (I took some time off more than once in that venture), if I would someday write a book or be an author, I would have probably laughed at you, I'm sure. So would others who knew me then, just as some who know me now may do the same. But, I have written my first novel and I am well into writing another. I love writing, more than anything else I have ever done. It took me over forty years to figure out what I wanted to be in life. But, at least I have figured it out. Not just what I want to be, but what I am supposed to be. This I know and in a very humble way. It was not of me.
In 2008, with my life upside down in many ways including financially, I landed a job in Kuwait in the middle of the Middle East with a military contracting company. It was in Kuwait in 2008 where I found out I do so truly love to write. And it is there where I first really started writing and writing a lot. In the few years since those seven months I spent in the Middle East, there have been moments when I wished I would have paid more attention in my high school and college English classes. I was not a real big fan of English back then. How was I to know God would someday want me to become a writer? If you are still in school and reading this—pay attention. Pay attention in school, that is.
I went to Kuwait with three main goals. I wanted to make a large sum of money, get in better shape physically, and also improve my computer skills. Especially, I wanted to get better at typing on the computer. Typing was another class in high school that I didn't like. I hated it, more than any other class. That was back when we had them old typewriters though. Kids today don't even know what I am talking about. Now it is funny that I spend sometimes ten or twelve hours a day typing and trying to figure out the English language. You have got to admit God has a special sense of humor, least I think He does from where I am sitting behind this computer as I type my mini-autobiography.
In Kuwait, while sending home emails to friends and family of all the funny things I saw, the serious things I saw, and the things which were both funny and serious (most things are or can be when looked at properly), I found out that I just absolutely love to write and to tell a story; not just a story, but stories. Stories with truth. Some of the people who I sent my raw and rough renditions to, of the things I saw in Kuwait, began to enjoy what I was sending them, or at least that is what they said. Some of them may have just been being nice though. But that's OK, too. It is better to be nice than to be 'NOT nice'.
Anyhows, and yes I did mean to write anyhows, the kid who grew up roping calves and playing football and shooting small birds and rabbits with a very weak daisy BB gun in the 1970's, and tearing things up with a hammer or an ax or a crowbar, now hopes to make a real difference in the world we all live in today—and to do this with the written word, one of the most powerful forces available to mankind. I hope to help people in their lives and their relationships. Especially in their relationship with the One and Only God, the God of the Bible through His Son Jesus Christ, this is my strongest desire. He took me to the middle of the Middle East to show me what he wanted from me for Him and what He wanted me to do for Him. First though, before I could see it, I had to surrender myself to Him. As I type this, I realize that is all God really wants from any of us, is to surrender to Him.
I hope if you read anything I have written or will write in the future, that you will find that I write more with my heart than I do with my mind. That is what I hope you will find in my writing.
William Earl McBride
