This is Book 2 in the series, The Making of a Preacher. Life in a preacher's home is real. |
1. Setting: The bulk of the story takes place on ZoNed4, the new mission field-planet for Matthew Marks and his family. However, chapter #1 could have the feel of the Chris Pratt & Jennifer Lawrence movie, Passengers, but I should take that under advisement, not choosing that route lightly because I don't want to be accused of plagiarism. Something should probably be said about the Marks' three-year journey through space, and since it is a relatively short journey the crew and the passengers, who share the trip with the Marks Family would, no doubt, enjoy the same sort of circadian rhythms as on Earth. Is the journey on the space ship important? Could it be written in a sentence or a paragraph? It might be more important to spend the bulk of the story building the new world in the mind of the reader, focusing on the characters, their lives together, and their preparation for Eternity in much the same way as people on Earth are called upon to consider everlasting life. 2. Protagonist: Matthew Marks, the preacher, who wants to serve the Lord, shepherding the immediate flock of his family, his wife, and his twin daughters to the Lord and through the Lord to the eternal Home of Christ Jesus. a. Flaws: Matthew has doubts about his relationship with the Lord as a result of his sinful past, and his present, which is overwhelmed at times by his low self-esteem. b. Goals: To win this new world to Christ, leaving one world in the universe, that is wholly given to the Lord at the time he passes away. Yet, much to his chagrin, he learns the lesson of Noah, that humans carry Sin with them. Even one human and a godly family can sire an entire world, that is eventually, completely given over to Sin. 3. Conflicts: Self-doubt continues to plague Matthew. This is compounded by the fact, that his daughters don't seem to embrace his belief in the One True God at different times in the story. The hope of successfully bringing his family and his world to the Lord Jesus always seem to be just out of reach, like the many cliff-hangers of a Stephen Spielberg movie, specifically Back to the Future. (Again, this needs to be a feeling, not a copy in order to be above reproach.) 4. Antagonists: Artista Carpenter, (Matt's wife,) and Pansy and Aurora, (his twin daughters,) can't seem to decide which side of the fence to be on with Matt. a. Artista is not completely sure she wants to be a pastor's wife, so she gives her half-hearted support as often as she can "snore up" the courage, but her caustic tongue gets her into trouble as a dragging weight upon the spirit of her dear sold-out-to-Christ husband. b. Pansy starts out for her dad as a child, but then turns hard against him as an adult. Ultimately, she is saved on her deathbed, bringing great sighs of relief from her dad. c. Aurora gives her dad many grey hairs as a child but is saved and becomes sold-out to Christ as an older teen. 5. Description: Family is the training ground for true and unwavering faith, since it is a fact, that anyone, who can stand for God at home, can stand for God anywhere. |