Why I Write Stories

Only 6 Days Left

Hey folks! I just wanted to chime back in and share an update and a more meaningful message about why this project means so much to me.

First off, I’m happy to announce that we are officially over 80% funded!! This is huge, and I’m so thankful to every single person who has backed, liked, and shared the campaign on Kickstarter and social media. I know money is tight right now for a lot of people, so I don’t take it lightly that folks have used it to help us bring this book to life. It genuinely makes me want to be a better storyteller and deliver something really special to you all. I promise you I will continue to do my very best to make this book great.

Speaking of which.

I’m a firm believer in the fact that if you’re going to be a storyteller, you need to have conviction. And those convictions need to come through the stories you tell—not in a cliche, preachy way, but in a way that speaks to the reader and makes them think about things in ways they haven’t before. I don’t ever want people to feel ostracized while reading my work, but I do want to help push people a little into putting themselves in someone else’s shoes. The reason for this is that I believe we are very much storytelling and story-consuming creatures. We were/are made to communicate, learn, and grow through stories.

That exact reason is why I am really proud of The Mysterious Adventures of Eula McDowell. Like with Memoirs of an Angel: The Grey Pilgrim, the themes of this book are intentional and meant to make you think about not only who you are as a human and as an image bearer, but also how other people are as well.

In this book, we cover many themes as the story progresses, and we get to know the characters. Suffering, family dysfunction, finding your tribe, finding yourself, finding God, and learning to understand others from their perspective are all crucial parts of The Mysterious Adventures of Eula McDowell.

In Trestle By Moonlight (the second story of the novel), my award-winning co-author Clyde Hall came up with one of the most meaningful and horrifying tales of the entire novel.

In the story, we bounce back and forth between two time periods. In 1991, Louisville, Kentucky, we follow Eula and Anglican priest, Fr. Steffon, as they attempt to uncover the murderous mystery of the Pope Lick Goatman. And in 1938, Denton, Texas, where Oscar Washburn and his family were horribly lynched for simply existing. Throughout the story, we see how intimately and tragically connected these two timelines are.

I think, now more than ever, we need a story like this. We need to remember that the terror that plagued Oscar and his family was a normal occurrence in this country, no more than 60 years ago. And let’s be honest...it’s still happening today to some degree. It may not look like a hanging (although it very much does from time to time), but people of color are being “lynched” through legislation. Through limitations on their right to vote. Through food deserts, crime, and redlining. These things are not new. They’re a tale as old as colonial slavery.

We need to be reminded that when brown and black families try to better themselves, white supremacists strike them down and make sure they cannot do so, either through laws or through physical violence.

My attempt in this is not to “go woke” or anything. It’s to honor many of my black and brown friends whom I now call family. This is very much their haunted heritage in this country, and the story being told here isn’t propaganda being pushed; it’s a story that represents real lives that were stolen. It also represents a very real spiritual war burning through the generations of our nation—one spearheaded by hate. Because you can be sure that what is being acted out in the physical realm has a direct cause and effect relationship with the unseen realm.

In Trestle By Moonlight, Clyde and I explore the mysteries of what violent death does to the “soul” of a place and how the demonic take advantage of such things. This story also really delves deep into spiritual manipulation, both from evil unseen forces as well as human beings.

Trestle By Moonlight is just one piece of the thematic puzzle that is The Mysterious Adventures of Eula McDowell. But it is an extremely important one that changed me as a writer and as a man. I do not doubt that if you give it a chance, it will do similar things for you, as will the rest of the book.

Friends, as I write this, we only have 6 days left in the campaign, and we still have $1,038 to make up before we can call this book funded. I implore you to jump in and help us make this a reality. I promise you, you’re going to find something great to hold on to in this story and in this campaign.

Head here and check out the Kickstarter campaign for The Mysterious Adventures of Eula McDowell.

This is an all-or-nothing campaign. So if we don’t fund, we cannot publish this story in the way it’s intended. So please consider partnering with us and grabbing a book and some fantastic rewards while you’re at it!!

I hope you’re all having a spectacular week!

Be Good People,

-Brian