The Lost Testament?

It's official.

After some prayer and careful consideration, I have come to the conclusion that renaming "The Last Testament" to "The Lost Testament" is the right thing to do.

Another fiction work recently released called "The Last Testament" has a "Da Vinci Code"-style plot and, according to the synopsis on Amazon.com, very little in common with my novel, except the archetype of a hidden scripture authored by Christ. "The Book of Love" is close too; same archetypal hidden scripture and action packed.

And, there is actually "The Lost Testament," written about 14 years ago with, you guessed it, a plot surrounding a hidden scripture by Christ.

It happens. Someone comes up with a hot plot, genre, or topic and everyone jumps on it. Perhaps, if I had stayed the course, you'd be reading my Last Testament years ago instead of "The Lost Testament" this summer.

I believe it had to happen this way. Only a few people saw the early drafts of this book, and trust me, they were not good. One of my good friends and former co-workers Bob Yost said the original version was detestable and, he being a former minister at the time, called me onto the carpet as a Christian for writing such filth. I've always carried that with me, Bob, as a motivating tool to write a book free of much of the garbage in books today.

Besides, none of those books are Christ-centered or African-American, which I believe will prove to be the difference. I believe some Christians are tired of reading how Christ supposedly didn't rise from the dead and that the church is some large, multi-media, secret society-laden conglomerate bent on controlling the world through intimidation and secrecy. This "Lost Testament" is evidence Christ did rise. . .and while there's no explicit secret society involvement, it leads one to wonder: what REALLY happened to Violet October and who did it?

I'm a little nervous, as I replaced a character with another villain, upped his villainy, and added the interesting-to-write character of Violet October. But hey, isn't that what editors are for? See you soon.