Blog Archives
God Almighty: The Beginning of the End — Special Edition
In God Almighty, the first book in the Our Yahweh series, Benjamin Nieves Carrasquillo Jr. brings biblical history, Christian theology, and visual storytelling together in an ambitious exploration of Scripture. This revised and expanded edition reflects the author’s deep personal faith and years of studying biblical history, ancient languages, and religious traditions. The book combines richly illustrated biblical narratives with educational sections designed to help readers better understand the people, events, and theological ideas found in the Bible. Carrasquillo approaches his subject with genuine reverence, encouraging readers to develop a closer relationship with Yahweh through thoughtful engagement with Scripture. His use of Hebrew names, historical references, and carefully selected biblical passages gives the work a distinctive identity. From the opening pages, it’s clear that the author’s purpose extends beyond presenting familiar religious stories. He wants readers to become curious about the historical and spiritual foundations of their faith.
Carrasquillo uses elaborate digital illustrations to bring biblical settings and characters to life, creating scenes filled with dramatic lighting, expressive faces, and impressive architectural detail. The illustrations give the book a cinematic quality, making it easy to imagine the ancient world and the extraordinary events described in Scripture. The narrative sections explore the birth of Yahusha, the Hebrew name used for Jesus throughout the book, as well as the spiritual conflict depicted in the Book of Revelation. These subjects allow Carrasquillo to move between intimate human experiences and grand supernatural imagery. The quieter scenes are particularly effective at conveying emotions such as uncertainty, devotion, compassion, and hope. The heavenly sequences, meanwhile, embrace the visual possibilities of biblical imagery on an enormous scale. Because the story unfolds through illustrations accompanied by concise passages of text, the reading experience feels similar to moving through an illustrated biblical epic.
The book also offers substantial educational material that adds depth to its visual presentation. Two biblical mini-studies examine the significance of God’s name and the doctrine of the Trinity, introducing readers to Hebrew terminology, scriptural interpretation, and theological questions that have occupied scholars for centuries. These sections reveal Carrasquillo’s interest in connecting his Christian beliefs with the cultural and linguistic world of ancient Israel. Readers interested in biblical scholarship will appreciate the references and explanations, although the specialized vocabulary and occasional density of information may require some additional attention. The character profiles are another engaging feature, offering historical context, personality descriptions, and scriptural references for important figures. Carrasquillo also includes personal reflections on his creative process, explaining how the project developed over many years and how modern digital tools helped him realize his artistic vision. These reflections add a welcome personal dimension, revealing the persistence, creativity, and spiritual commitment behind the finished work.
God Almighty: The Beginning of the End will appeal to Christian readers who enjoy visually immersive presentations of Scripture and want to explore biblical teachings in greater detail. It’s especially well suited to readers interested in ancient Hebrew terminology, theology, biblical history, and illustrated religious storytelling. Those who appreciate graphic novels, biblical art, or supplementary materials for personal Bible study may also find plenty to enjoy. The book’s combination of storytelling, scholarship, and striking imagery makes it a useful starting point for conversations about faith and scriptural interpretation. Carrasquillo’s enthusiasm is evident throughout, and his willingness to share both his research and his personal journey gives the work an inviting sincerity. For readers who enjoy seeing familiar biblical passages presented through a thoughtful artistic perspective, this book offers an engaging experience that encourages curiosity, reflection, and further exploration of Scripture.
Rahul
Jamal Merchant’s Rahul is a lively and unpredictable novel about ambition, survival, friendship, and the complicated business of finding your place in the world. At its center is Rahul Saxena, a 27-year-old Londoner whose life has hit a frustrating dead end. He’s lost his banking job, suffered a romantic rejection, and grown tired of watching his dreams slip away. Convinced that his future lies in filmmaking, he leaves the comforts of his family home in Wimbledon and heads to Mumbai, hoping to build a career in Bollywood. What follows is a colorful, frequently humorous adventure through a city where opportunity and danger seem to occupy the same streets. Merchant captures the excitement of starting over, along with the uncertainty that comes from discovering just how complicated a fresh start can be.
Merchant brings Mumbai to life through crowded markets, noisy streets, bustling restaurants, and an enormous variety of people. There’s a genuine affection for India’s culture, food, history, and traditions, even as the narrative explores corruption, poverty, exploitation, and social inequality. Rahul’s encounters introduce him to people from different religious and economic backgrounds, creating an engaging portrait of a remarkably diverse society. His friendships with Irfan and David are particularly enjoyable, offering humor, loyalty, and welcome moments of warmth amid the complications of his new life. PP Auntie, his outspoken landlady, is another memorable presence. These relationships give the novel much of its personality and reinforce the importance of human connection when circumstances become difficult.
The storytelling has a distinctly cinematic quality, which suits a protagonist fascinated by the movies. Many chapters borrow their titles from famous films, including The Graduate, Pretty Woman, and Psycho, adding a playful connection between Rahul’s experiences and the stories he admires. The first-person narration is energetic, filled with witty observations, dramatic encounters, and colorful descriptions. At times, Merchant’s enthusiasm for elaborate comparisons and expressive language makes the prose feel crowded, particularly when several images compete for attention in a single scene. The narrative also moves through sharp changes in mood, shifting from comedy and romance to suspense and serious social commentary. Still, that larger-than-life approach gives Rahul its distinctive character and reflects the protagonist’s tendency to experience everyday events as scenes from a movie.
Readers familiar with Vikas Swarup’s Q & A, the novel that inspired the film Slumdog Millionaire, will recognize some interesting similarities. Both books follow young men navigating the complexities of Indian society, where chance encounters, personal relationships, and unexpected hardships shape their journeys. Both authors also explore the enormous contrasts between wealth and poverty while celebrating the resourcefulness of people trying to improve their circumstances. Swarup builds his story around an ingenious narrative structure and the mysteries of his protagonist’s past, while Merchant follows a more straightforward, episodic journey driven by Rahul’s ambitions and the colorful personalities he meets. Where Swarup often uses irony and suspense to sharpen his social observations, Merchant favors exuberant humor, emotional openness, and the dramatic spirit of popular Indian cinema.
Rahul’s British upbringing and Indian heritage give his journey an additional dimension, particularly as he learns to navigate cultural differences and reconsider his assumptions about success. The novel also has a generous emotional streak, visible in its affection for friendship, romantic possibility, and the people who offer kindness during difficult times. Merchant clearly enjoys his characters and the world they inhabit, and that enthusiasm carries through the story. Rahul will appeal to readers who enjoy character-driven adventures, richly described settings, unexpected twists, and a generous helping of humor. It’s an entertaining, heartfelt story about chasing a dream in a city that seems capable of changing someone’s life overnight.
Pages: 291 | ASIN : B0HMRPYPSV
The Fourth Courier
Timothy Jay Smith’s The Fourth Courier is a politically alert crime thriller set in Warsaw in 1992, as Poland negotiates the promises and disruptions of life after communism. FBI agent Jay Porter arrives to assist with a series of murders whose connection to radioactive material raises the possibility of nuclear smuggling. The investigation unfolds within a society where old allegiances retain their usefulness and new freedoms have created profitable openings for criminals. Smith establishes the atmosphere immediately: “A seagull fished the gunmetal river.” That opening image sets the temperature for a city of icy pavements, exhausted infrastructure, and guarded exchanges. The setting supplies both the practical obstacles of the investigation and the social pressures that make its dangers plausible.
The novel’s strongest writing often concerns the families living alongside its international intrigue. Through Lilka, an airport lounge employee, and her sister Alina’s household, Smith makes economic upheaval tangible in shared apartments, unreliable cars, rising food prices, and carefully rationed meals. These details give individual ambitions their urgency. America represents possibility, though family members differ sharply over what leaving Poland might cost them. Alina’s anxiety receives an especially precise formulation: “All her hopes, it seemed, were only her worries reversed.” Smith understands how closely anticipation and dread can coexist, particularly for parents trying to secure their children’s futures. Music, food, and affectionate teasing give these domestic scenes warmth, allowing the reader to understand what security means to people who’ve had so little of it.
Jay’s work with Polish detective Leszek Kulski provides a persuasive foundation for the procedural elements. Their conversations develop through professional curiosity, cultural misunderstandings, and a shared concern for their children. Kulski’s patience and decency give the novel an appealing moral presence, while Jay’s personal troubles complicate his confidence as an investigator. CIA operative Kurt Crawford introduces a more audacious style, bringing wit, sexual confidence, and an appetite for improvisation to the partnership. His presence also expands the book’s examination of secrecy: private desire and public authority repeatedly intersect. The treatment of sexual repression sometimes becomes schematic, however, and descriptions of bodies occasionally rely on racial and gender stereotypes. These choices can narrow characters whose conflicting loyalties and ambitions already offer substantial material.
Smith structures the suspense through shifting viewpoints, giving readers access to competing plans and the mistakes that threaten them. The effect is an accumulating sense of danger as personal appetites collide with institutional responsibilities. His descriptive prose is particularly effective when it connects physical surroundings to emotional conditions, and his dark humor finds fertile ground in bureaucracy, diplomatic vanity, and the uneven arrival of consumer culture. Some explanatory dialogue slows the movement, and repeated accounts of certain obsessions make their significance overly explicit. Still, the novel sustains interest through the interplay of its investigation, romance, and family relationships. The Fourth Courier offers an absorbing account of a precarious historical moment, with its most convincing insight residing in the distance between political liberation and the daily experience of feeling free.
Pages: 322 | ASIN : B07HY7S1FH
Real-World Counterpoint
As a counterpoint to the “epidemic of loneliness” among American Men, The Wilderness of Friendship is a narrative account of how four men, friends since their days together at Vanderbilt Divinity School in the 1980s, have intentionally pursued and deepened a collaborative relationship of love and joy through sharing success and failure, gain and loss, life and mortality.
What is The Wilderness of Friendship about?
Forty years ago, we became friends as students at Vanderbilt Divinity School. Today, we count ourselves as brothers to one another, the result of intentional decisions to share the experiences of wilderness together, both literally, the wilderness outdoors (lakes, rivers and mountains), and the metaphorical wild places of life (grief, loss and failure). In our book, we take turns telling the story of our friendship and exploring the intellectual, spiritual, and mental health terrain upon which it is built.
What prompted you to write The Wilderness of Friendship?
For more than twenty years we have gone into the wilderness for a week together each summer and, upon returning home, have been met by friends and neighbors with curiosity and, occasionally, envy. Then, in 2017, an article in the Boston Globe alerted us to what is often called the “epidemic of loneliness” in American men. We realized that by drawing on our experience, we could offer a real-world counterpoint to traditional, isolating modes of stoic masculinity.
How do you go about this?
By telling stories from our own experience, we hope to inspire open conversations about how intellectual hospitality to new ideas, shared emotional vulnerabilities, and lifelong reciprocal interdependence can offer an alternative understanding for how men might form and keep friendships. Able to blend male mental health awareness, spiritual and theological reflection, outdoor adventures, and what we hope is good humor, we’ve shared a narrative of forty years of deep platonic relationship with one another that we hope might be an inspiration to others to seek friendships in their own lives that take advantage of their own unique strengths and experiences.
Why are you uniquely qualified to write this book?
The most important qualification is, of course, our forty years of sustained commitment to and caring for each other. But each of us also brings unique educational training and vocational experience to the work. Bill Harkins is a licensed therapist, an Episcopal priest, and a retired professor of pastoral theology. He’s written dozens of articles on mental health and healing, and for a decade taught a course on Men in Ministry. Bob Victorin-Vangerud has a PhD in philosophy and brought his wisdom to thirty years of teaching men in prison who have been bruised and broken by trauma and flawed understandings of what it means to be men. Bill Friskics-Warren is a successful advocate for justice for the unhoused populations of Nashville and has a deep passion for listening to voices that are not like his own white, straight, cisgender, privileged one. Paul Shupe has been a pastor in United Church of Christ congregations for nearly forty years and has a lifetime of experience with men’s groups across the lifespan.
What is new in your book that might make a unique contribution to the topic?
Rather than offering theories or advice, we offer a real-world narrative account of a multi-decade friendship. We share reflections on interpersonal experience, rather than offering instructions or principles. Included are examples of the power of vulnerability, showing that male bonds grow powerful when men drop their emotional guard in order to share experiences of masculinity, family relationships, aging, and mortality. We describe a lifelong commitment to intellectual and spiritual hospitality, which we believe opens doors to growth and new relationships. By contrast, assuming that in order to fully belong, all must agree, keeps doors closed and men isolated. Perhaps most important, collaboration, compassion and cooperation emerge as viable alternatives to the standard notion that competition is at the heart of every male action and interaction. Finally, embracing wilderness, both the literal outdoors and life’s metaphorical wild places -like grief, loss, and change- reveals deep meaning.
What do you think are the root causes of our “epidemic of loneliness” in American men?
We certainly do not believe that our experiences offer a definitive diagnosis of what is surely an immense and complex and multi-faceted problem. But it has been our experience and our observation over four decades that men are surrounded by a culture that equates masculinity with independence. We’re taught to need no one and to expect nothing other than what can be won with our own efforts. Showing vulnerability, on the other hand, often feels like an invitation to be hurt. In such a climate, men can bind together for any number of reasons: to climb mountains, fight wars, meet sales quotas, root our teams to victory and so forth, but when the task is accomplished, we tend to disband and go back to our separate ways. None of this is conducive to lifelong, mutually caring, compassionate friendships that endure.
The four of you are in some ways very similar: white, straight, cisgender men, privileged educationally and comfortable financially. Can those who are not like you form friendships like yours?
It’s truly not our place to say. While we try to be as open as we can to the experiences of others, ultimately, we can only know what it is like to be ourselves, and we would not offer our experiences as a prescription for anyone else. What we do hope is that our experiences might inspire others to think about their own experiences, their own friendships, looking for ways to seek and create for themselves in their settings something akin to what we have sought and created in our own. And we’d love to hear the stories of how it happened for them.
Why should people read this book? What will the reader carry away with them?
We believe our narrative reveals that remaining intentionally committed to your friends, over years and decades, in good times and in hard ones, deepens trust and significantly enriches daily life. Doing so changes neural pathways and strengthens the intellectual, emotional and spiritual capacity for processing events, inspiring courage, vitality and wonder. We hope that readers come away persuaded that sharing life’s struggles with trusted friends – disappointments, failures, worries – is just as precious and important as celebrating individual and shared triumphs or accomplishments. We hope that people realize that friendships can be built through intention, commitment and compassion. This is what makes friendships endure beyond happy accidents of shared interests or enforced proximity. And finally, it may be obvious, but it bears noting: Friendship must be fun, perhaps not always funny, but deeply joyful.
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
Consequences of Our Dysfunction
In your memoir, In the Shadow of Many, you confront generations of family trauma, addiction, and buried secrets as you break destructive cycles and reclaim your life. When did you first realize that sharing your experiences might help others facing similar struggles?
Finding a place where you feel like you’re not alone is a good first step. For me it was 12 Step meetings. Understanding that I didn’t have to know what to do, there was always someone who did because they went through it themselves. I realized early on that I didn’t have to have it all figured out to help someone. That maybe, for example, I only had a hundred days clean and sober, but to the person who has one day, those hundred days are huge.
How did examining your family history change your understanding of the behaviors and relationships that shaped your upbringing?
Each person has to find sources that resonate with them, but for me, it was John Bradshaw’s The Family that articulated what I observed but could not explain about my family. I was a living embodiment of the consequences of our dysfunction but felt powerless to change it until I could see the whole picture. What I appreciated about it most was that he wasn’t blaming anyone. It was an honest look into my family dynamics that looked at our collective traumas as a reason, not an excuse, for why my family was the way it was. Once I could see it differently, I could see what I needed to change about myself.
What practical tools or approaches have been most meaningful in helping you develop healthier relationships, boundaries, and ways of responding to difficult emotions?
For myself, I was willing to grab onto anything that could help me see the truth about myself. I had only survival skills and few living skills. I went to seminars, self-help books, 12-step meetings, therapy, and watched a ton of documentaries. It wasn’t enough to tell me to just change; I needed to know how to change because I honestly didn’t know how.
What would you say to readers who recognize their own family dynamics in your memoir but feel uncertain about where to begin making changes?
The change happens the minute you choose to do something different. Families are so complicated that there’s not just one thing that fixes it; be open-minded. Some people will need to separate from their families, and some are just waiting for you to come home. Some things can be worked out in small increments, and some will need major changes. It’s not going to be easy; the more dysfunctional it is, the messier it could get, but it only takes one person to decide they can’t do it anymore that changes the whole dynamic. Some families are waiting for someone to come along who has the strength to call it out, and some people will have the fight of their lives to change it. I had the fight of my life, but it was worth every struggle.
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
My brother and I lived through Hell and abuse. I turned to addiction until I had a nervous breakdown when I was nineteen years old. I was forced to make a decision; change or die. I didn’t have the heart to kill myself, but I heard it said that we’ll change when our last resort seems like a good idea, and my last resort was change. But I had to do something because I was so broken and my life was so out of control that I had to find a different way of looking at the world. I start with my experience, so you understand that I mean it when I say, I understand your pain.
I have over thirty fife years of being clean and sober, have read countless self-help books, been to seminars, and therapy. I found many things that explained what I could not, and I found a sense of something Greater than Myself. I tried anything to feel more at peace with me. I can’t tell you how to do it, only to support you in your efforts. I’m not a professional but at the beginnings of Alcoholics Anonymous it was becoming understood that only an alcoholic could help another alcoholic, I’m saying only a broken person can help another broken person find genuine peace in your heart. Only you can fix it but know you’re not alone.
My hope is to help as many people as I can before I leave this world. I have a lot of wisdom to give but the only way I know how to express it is through my words. I have all the needed permissions from the Anonymous books I quote, it’s been professionally edited, and I am only writing in my first name, so you don’t look at my life as you read this, but your own. It’s not about me but about us all. This is my first book, but I have many in my head. Many things I would like to share to bring us to peace and happiness, something I never thought I’d have. I found a person that loves me for who I am, and we’ve been together for close to thirty years, I have found peace and happiness, I have repaired relationships, and I only want to share with you how I did that.
Occasional Absurdities of Modern Life
Night’s Stillness transforms everyday moments, cherished memories, humor, and faith into a heartfelt poetry collection celebrating life’s unexpected beauty. What does the title Night’s Stillness represent to you, particularly in relation to the quiet moments that inspire your writing?
There seem to be fewer quiet moments for people to enjoy. Today’s world is infiltrated with day-to-day “living necessities” that rob us of precious time for thought, reflection, and fostering relationships. Being able to enjoy a special moment for oneself calms the rough seas of Today’s lifestyle.
What role does humor play in your writing, particularly when reflecting on relationships, frustrations, and the occasional absurdities of modern life?
People appear to be taking things more seriously, as happens when they are confronted with additional stress and worry. I try to promote enjoyment through the sharing of humor that exists in life’s simplicity.
How would you describe your poetic voice, and what influences have shaped your conversational and often humorous approach to writing?
Poetry is not merely what we write upon paper; it is the quiet awareness with which we inhabit the world. To “Be Poetic” is to listen closely enough to hear the universe speaking through the mundane.
How has writing poetry influenced the way you observe the world and appreciate experiences that might otherwise seem insignificant?
Through my books and poetry presentations I hope to share “emotions, experiences, and a little humor through poetry.” I promote Be Poetic. Reference my website: www.bepoeticinkansas.com
Author Links: Redfern Booksellers | Website
Believing in Yourself
The Wall is centered around a young girl navigating sensory overwhelm and social anxiety while longing for friendship and a sense of belonging. Was there a particular moment that made you realize this story needed to be told?
My daughter has autism. When she was younger, I found anytime we went to a playground, a social event, a friend ‘hangout’, etc., she was really struggling with social interactions. She would repeatedly have what we call ‘shutdowns’. She stopped talking, silently cried into my shirt, and went physically limp. When removed from the environments, she recovered fast and told me that she wanted to have friends. The sensory overwhelm caused in social interactions, paired with her autism, made it very hard to regulate, thus making it harder to form friendships. When I looked for picture books to see if I could help teach her about these situations, to uplift her, I couldn’t find a story that matched what I wanted to say. It was then I decided, “Fine, I will do it myself.”
How did you approach illustrating sensory overwhelm for young readers?
My daughter does not experience sensory overwhelm in the way that is often depicted in children’s books. She does not scream, run, hit, or tantrum. I wanted to illustrate exactly what I saw in my daughter. In situations of sensory overwhelm, my daughter sometimes has word-finding difficulty. I wanted to reflect and honour that by making a mostly wordless book. I think this can be appreciated by disabilities other than autism and in children who are non-verbal.
When did the wall become the central visual symbol of the story?
From the moment of the book’s conception. When I watch my daughter in times of social overwhelm, it is as though I can see a wall come up; a barrier that can prevent or limit her and what she is able to accomplish in the moment. Though a wall can be seemingly present, I see her for the strong young lady she is: persistent, driven, funny, courageous, and unique. This book is a conversation about social challenges, but it is also a story about resilience, patience, and believing in yourself.
How can caregivers use the book to help children describe their own sensory or social needs?
Caregivers can ask the reader questions about characters in the story to prompt conversation about what is happening. I believe that by opening conversations about the illustrations and the story, it can teach compassion, empathy, kindness, and inclusion.
Some sample questions might be:
What do you think this character is feeling right now? Why do you think they are feeling that way?
What are ways you might be able to help someone in a situation like this?
Do you ever feel like this?
How do you treat yourself with kindness?
What do you do when you aren’t able to do something on the first try?
Author Links: GoodReads | Facebook | Website | Amazon
She just doesn’t know how.
At the playground, everything feels too big, too loud, and too much. When a wall rises between her and the other children, connection feels impossible.
The Wall is a gentle, powerful story about sensory overwhelm, courage, and the quiet ways children reach for one another. With sparse, lyrical text and a deeply relatable emotional journey, this book offers a window into the experience of neurodivergent children. It is a mirror for anyone who has ever longed to belong.
Because sometimes, the smallest step forward can change everything
Reaping the Consequences
Collin O’Daurc follows a sarcastic hairstylist who, after suffering a stroke, awakens in a bizarre dreamworld where eccentric companions, impossible adventures, and inner demons challenge everything he knows. How did the idea of sending an ordinary hairstylist into such an extraordinary fantasy world first develop?
Collin was a real hairstylist in the 1970s, in the beauty parlor my mother visited every Friday. I always found his arguing on the phone with his girlfriends while he styled someone’s hair amusing, but the bulk of the Collin-story came from a dream, where I saw in a photo-realistic freeze-frame a young man and woman lost at sea, the lifeboat they were in drifting on stormy seas at night with a fishnet bundled over its rail. I also saw the book’s title, which was, of course, Collin’s name, and its rather peculiar spelling. Why I connected this artwork-type scenario with the real Collin, I have no idea.
How does Collin’s understanding of himself change as he develops relationships with people whose personalities challenge his own?
I think Collin’s most dramatic challenge and change is learning to think outside the “confines” of his head, so to speak —and to realize that even thoughts can have physical consequences in his “bounce existence”. We often conjure fantasies of what should be the “reaping process” resulting from others’ actions, events, and so on; it’s quite another thing to see that tasteless idiot who lives next door and acts like a warthog actually be one when you next run into him at the post office. Collin learns, in a roundabout way, that even his thoughts can have physical repercussions, which requires a dramatic adjustment in his assessment of the true motives behind people’s actions. And that sometimes the best course isn’t trying to change or even understand those whose philosophies differ from his, but simply roll with them and do his best to get along…without falling into the trap of judging by appearances.
What interested you about exploring faith, karma, and the possibility that Collin’s experiences have a purpose beyond his immediate understanding?
Sowing and then reaping the consequences of various actions is a part of nearly every religion and philosophy; but that even thoughts can dramatically affect his reality is a major revelation for Collin, whose past has hardly been introspective. Snap judgments and reactions can cause a world of hurt and set in motion sometimes long-drawn-out ordeals as a result. Collin’s impulsive thought-life had better give way to a more disciplined way of thinking, or he and his exotic buddies may truly be in for it…at least, when the next “bounce” is triggered!
How has writing Collin O’Daurc influenced your understanding of the relationship between visual art, storytelling, and the imagination?
If anything, it’s inspired me to be more aware of the necessary balance between creativity that’s spontaneous and the creative process, which is quite another thing. I’m an instructor and curriculum designer who’s taught everything from floral design and silversmithing to electrical theory, publishing, and 3D CAD, and understanding the components involved in the process is the core base in any subject. Once those components are identified, what one does with them can either be wildly spontaneous or a structured progression, depending on the subject. That’s the way it is with storytelling, and the mental-then-manifested and recorded elements that comprise it.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Amazon
