New Blog #4, Oct. 25, 2020: Some thoughts about the afterlife and FREE BOOK GIVEAWAY of UNDER OLD GLORY on 10/26 and 10/27, 2020

So what happens when we die?  One of the big questions of life.  What is after life?   Are we merely “worm food” as Shakespeare implies, or do we truly go to a transcendent place?   Do we reconnect with God?  And Jesus?  I believed for a long time that heaven was just a given.  Then, in grad school, I questioned the Catholic beliefs I’d been raised with.  Ultimately, I believed that God was at a distance, benevolently watching over us but not directly involved in my day to day life.

Discovering the LDS church changed all that.   I believed from my first lesson as an investigator into that faith that God was real and very close to my spirit.   I physically felt it.   I could not turn my head away, could not deny God and his Son any longer.  They are real and alive in my life.   Unlike some LDS people, I can’t give you a firm, well-constructed logical defense of the Mormon faith.  My faith is based on that warm feeling in my chest, feeling the Spirit, when meeting with LDS people who have the Spirit in abundance.  I am very grateful for this.

And the LDS vision of the Afterlife rings true to me.   I always thought of hell as too ghastly a place, too cruel, for God to banish his beloved children to.    My vision of Heavenly Father was merciful and kind, and he would have us in one of three kingdoms that were of ascending degrees of glory.   I humbly hope, as I atone for sins and pray to be led on the right path, and not stray from the scriptural commandments, that I will be able to earn a place beside Heavenly Father with my spiritual Older Brother, even Jesus the Christ.

 

My first book with overtly Mormon themes came out last year.  It is called Under Old Glory and I am giving away copies for free Oct. 26 and Oct. 27, 2020.   Under Old Glory is a novella that is a prelude to the novel I am working on now.

 

Take care!

Link for Under Old Glory active 10/26-10/27

New Blog #3: Why I Write/Free giveaway

 

Hello, again.   I am happy to share with you why I write.  It might surprise you, some of the reasons I do what I do.   As I’ve explained elsewhere on this blog, I write to explore moral and spiritual topics, but storytelling is also a main reason.   I have told stories, to myself and others, about as long as I can remember.   Before pre-school, I was dreaming up stories about Florida, the place my family eventually moved to.   As I became older, I got interested in cartooning and invented squadrons of fighter planes with interesting characters as pilots.   The cartooning led me into telling my first stories on paper, so that in high school my creative writing was getting interest from my English teachers.   By the time I had finished high school, I had begun a saga about two brothers, Surgon and Turgon, who went on Dungeons and Dragons type adventures.   I really co-wrote this with my friend Jim King.   Sadly, when I left for university in the fall, I no longer worked on the saga.

I love creating characters.   I love history.   I love military history for what it teaches us about being human.   I love learning more about people as I explore the characters’ psyches both my own characters and characters in others’ books.   Story entertains.   It teaches.   It enthralls and at its best, it is magic.

 

I also love airplanes and flying.   My whole childhood I wanted to be a pilot, and then at age 20 I was disabled in Air Force training.   It’s something I can’t talk or write about, but it effectively ended my flying career before it began.   So now I go on a flight simulator from time to time, practice touch and goes, and dream of stories about pilots, like In Love and War.

I love travel.  I love adventure.   I love basing stories on places I have been.   It is a much more satisfying exercise than just taking a snapshot.

I am also doing a free giveaway of one of my books, SWIMMING AMONG THE OLYMPIANS, on October 13 and 14! Click here to get your free kindle copy of SWIMMING AMONG THE OLYMPIANS: 

 https://www.amazon.com/Swimming-Among-Olympians-Collected-Stories-ebook/dp/B088KY23C3/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=chris+mcclelland&qid=1602639844&sr=8-1

Happy Reading!

Chris

New Blog #2: Toward a more spiritual novel; work on A Contrite Spirit; In Love and War, an exploration of moral dilemmas written before my conversion; Swimming Among the Olympians, a secular examination of human spirituality

 

I am currently working on a novel called A Contrite Spirit: A Novel of Faith and Redemption which follows Hyrum, a character in Under Old Glory, with a little overlap with that novella, where he tries to find peace in the years following the war.   The novel asks hard questions, just as my novel In Love and War did.  I wrote that book before I converted, but I am basically still interested in questions of moral and ethical weight, usually regarding questions related to combat.   Now, my beliefs give me (among many other wonderful things) a structure on which to build and explore my questions.

My other book currently available is called Swimming Among the Olympians: A Memoir and Collected Stories.   These stories explore what it means to be human, while again placing characters in morally challenging situations.  This book includes a section of “Under Old Glory” and a preview of some of the material contained in A Contrite Spirit.

 

Happy Halloween!

Enjoy the crisp weather of October,

Chris