Ian Fallis's Blog

[image error]I feel like I’ve been insulting Raymond Chandler.

Not deliberately. But given his tough-guy persona, I’m pretty glad he’s no longer alive to hear my insult.

What insult?

I’ve been telling people that when I write the Nascent Payne mysteries (The sort-of Murder of Fiona Galloway, The Man with Two Eyes and the upcoming The No-Good Book), I’m channeling my inner Raymond Chandler.

But I’ve been reading the Kindle version of Chandler’s The Lady in the Lake and I feel put to shame. Here’s a sample...

Want to get a taste of the 30-day devotional, The Focus of Prayer? The Author’s Foreword is designed to do just that — and let’s face it, you’ll probably just skip over it in the book. So here it is:

I’d like to think that discovering an important yet overlooked fact about prayer would change a person’s life.

Unfortunately, it does not.

Years ago, I learned something significant about prayer. But when I started to write this book, it was truly ironic that I was writing about prayer. I had the...

Sometimes this is what writing feels like. (Photo courtesy of Bundesarchive)

Yes, I’m back.

I did not just stop posting. And I certainly didn’t give up on writing. I’ve been writing and editing for something like a thousand years (at least it feels that way sometimes), so I’m not about to stop now. But for about three months, I wasn’t posting, I wasn’t writing fiction, and none of my books were available.

What happened?

Let me start at the beginning.

It was brought to my attention that at lea...

Cover — can you tell I had to look inside already?

The inside layout … and a hint of humor.

Today I received the first “proof” copy of the print version of The Focus of Prayer. I have a couple of minor changes to make, and then the book is ready to be printed. But we’re not quite ready to have it printed yet. We have a few things to sort out still.

The print version integrates the devotional and the study guide. Retail price is expected to be $4.99.

The ebook version is already available free...

New Tribes Mission is giving away my book!

But I’m good with that. I wrote it for them. And for you.

The book is called The Focus of Prayer, and it’s a 30-day devotional on, of all things, prayer. It explores three topics that are often overlooked in our prayer lives, and then examines how we can bring those together in a balanced prayer life.

It’s all packaged into 30 brief daily readings. And for those who want more, downloading the book will also give access to a free study guide. The book...

A crack of thunder punctuated the patter of rain on the roof. I walked from my office to our conference room to look out on the darkened afternoon. I watched the wind whip rain, leaves and small branches through the air. Now and then, lightning blazed and thunder roared.

It seemed fitting to observe the power of an afternoon thunderstorm that rolled in as I worked on the final draft of the study guide for the devotional, The Focus of Prayer.

I have completed editing the devotional itself. Las...

I still have one of these, though I haven’t shot medium format in a long time.

This might seem like quite a leap.

I’m finishing up a young-adult fantasy series, and fleshing out a science fiction/Western/paranormal/romance/hard-boiled detective/humor series … and now I’ve written a devotional on prayer.

But the devotional is tied to my “day job” with New Tribes Mission.

The Focus of Prayer: a Balanced Prayer Life takes a look not only at praying for yourself – which we all do and should do –...

Take a look to the left, and a look to the right. See something twice?

Yes, it’s The Man with Two Eyes, now available for Kindle and in paperback.

The second Nascent Payne mystery sees our eponymous hero investigating the death of the daughter of his former commander, only to find out he’s been here before.

What’s that mean? Well, you’ll have to read it to find out. Get your copy

Two books are still in editing.

In late November, I completed the final drafts of The White-Silver House, which is the fifth and final book of the fantasy series, The Day Magic Died. Soon afterward, I also completed The Man with Two Eyes, the second Nascent Payne mystery.

I turned those over to my team of critical readers for their input. I have not received input from even half of them yet.

I don’t blame them, however. For one thing, they’re all volunteers. They’re doing this to help me.

It’...

Photo by Daniel Mayer

I’m headed back to the place where everything changed.

Two years ago I was well along in drafting my series, The Day Magic Died. I just had no idea what I would do with it.

It seemed it would be problematic for publishers. I was a first-time novelist, and it’s tough to break into book publishing. It’s also not so much a series of five books, as it is a single huge story in five volumes. I was thinking I probably had to at least have a couple of the volumes written, and all...