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Looking At The Night Sky
Moonlight Cruise: Murder and Magic follows a woman and her miracle-born daughter who are on the run from a Satanic cult that believes her daughter will grant them divine powers through a blood sacrifice. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Actually Moonlight Cruise is a sequel to my previous book Moonlight Rocks which describes how the miracle-born daughter came to be through her mother’s interaction with a meteorite sent to Earth by God the creator. Meteors and meteorites have long been thought to be messengers from the divine and they feature in many different religions. Anyway, my inspiration came from looking at the night sky (I studied astronomy in college and spent many long dark nights watching the heavens) and seeing a bright meteor streak across that sky. Seeing that bright flash of light triggered a lot of my other obsessions with spirituality and various religions all of which inspired me to write the story.
What are some things that you find interesting about the human condition that you think make for great fiction?
Humans need more than just cold, hard objective reality. Regardless of how strong people think they are, I think that everyone experiences times in their life where they feel the need to pray or to otherwise reach out (sometimes just through a curse) to a divine power for help or for resolution of some situation. What’s happening when they reach that breaking point, who they pray to and what they pray for are key story points.
I felt that Moonlight Cruise delivers the drama so well that it flirts with the grimdark genre. Was it your intention to give the story a darker tone?
The story of good versus evil always carries a darker element so truthfully I had to remain vigilant with my writing to keep things from getting too dark. That is why editing is so important – I let everything flow out, then go back and try to weed out the darkest, scary parts thus saving the more sensitive readers from an excess of horror.
I hope the series continues in other books. If so, where will the story take readers?
Since the Ocean Star sails around the world, the next book in the series takes place in Asia where the story continues with the characters we love while introducing some new friends from my Games series too.
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On the tranquil waters of a luxury cruise ship, Jessica Ascher and her miracle-born daughter Zamzam try to outrun the darkness. But a Satanic cult—rooted in the Mojave Desert and connected to the highest levels of power—is hunting them. They’ve already murdered countless women named Jessica and boys named David, seeking the child foretold to challenge evil itself.
This time, they think they’ve found her.
From blood-soaked biker rituals to high-tech surveillance and chilling political conspiracies, Moonlight Cruise is a pulse-pounding fusion of mystery, horror, and spiritual warfare. As mother and child sail unknowingly into danger, a final confrontation looms—one that pits divine innocence against demonic power.
Will the forces of darkness succeed in snuffing out a miracle? Or will faith, love, and the power of an extraordinary child rewrite destiny itself?
If you loved The Omen, The Da Vinci Code, or Carrie, then Moonlight Cruise is your next must-read.
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