Two parallel worlds

This is about a tale of despair and hope. Of celebrity superstars at rock bottom struggling to make sense of it all and to recover. It involves a very public media sex scandal that ruined a career. It’s about a clash of cultural expressions. It’s about arguments for and against foreign influence on culture.

Sounds like today, doesn’t it? But it is actually the middle of the 18^th century—1740 to 1742 to exact.

Musick for the King is the story of how superstar composer George Frederick Handel scrapes himself off the bottom of life—battling health issues, poverty caused by professional sabotage, professional jealousies, attacks against his artistic credibility aided and abetted by the Prince of Wales and his cronies who wanted England rid of ‘foreigners’ and their influence on British music. He is being slowly driven from London and Britain.

It is also the story of Susannah Cibber, the ‘Lady Gaga’ of her day. Mrs Cibber was London’s most illustrious singer brought low by a public lawsuit that exposed a sordid sex scandal—including sexual, verbal and physical abuse by her husband. It was covered voraciously by the newspapers of the day and made scintillating gossip for everyone in London, from the Royal palaces to the squalor the slums.

In the midst of all this, an eccentric individual, Charles Jennens, gives Handel an unusual script, or libretto, called Messiah. In this oratorio, there are no acting roles, there are no sets, the words are taken strictly from varied verses of the King James Version of the Bible. It is unique. It is unprecedented.

Intrigued, Handel takes only 24 days of almost non-stop writing, to produce one of the most inspirational and celebrated pieces of music ever. One that even Beethoven later called the finest ever composed. Imagine, over 2 ½ hours of exquisite, complex orchestral and vocal music, composed in less than a month!

That’s a story in and of itself. Never mind the back story of intrigue and opposition.,

Handel debuted Messiah in Dublin where it was declared a triumph and Mrs Cibber was praised for her exquisite and moving contribution.

All of that—and more—is historical fact. Throw in historic figures like King George II, Frederic, the Prince of Wales, and the author of Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift and you have a cracking good story of deception, jealousy, dishonesty and planned ruin.

Not even the wildest fictional plot can match this one. It is why I wrote Musick for the King. All I did was add some peripheral fictious characters to flesh out the story and emphasize the plan to ruin Handel.

My interest began when I attended a performance of Messiah at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto a number of years ago. In the programme notes there was a brief mention of this back story. I was fascinated and began to research it. As I did, I realized that in many ways it was a story that mirrored modern society, proving that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

From the heights of success to the bottom of the barrel and a determined climb back up to the top, Musick for the King is a story for our times. Particularly as we grapple with the ups and downs, social battles, and emotional and financial despair of the pandemic.

Following the debut in Dublin, Messiah and especially its famed Hallelujah Chorus, steadily gained in popularity and fame. It became a London fixture by the late 1740’s and remains so today.

Handel himself became a changed man: from an egotistical, angry, gluttonous man to a generous, giving man (he left the rights to Messiah to a children’s home in London. They still hold the rights to this day).

Susannah Cibber regained her status as a London superstar singer.

And I found a fascinating story to tell, with lessons for our age.

It’s different from my earlier suspense thriller series where I ask ‘what if’s’ about various legends from King Arthur to the discovery of America.

In Musick for the King the plot was already laid. The tensions and the personal and interpersonal battles were there for me.

All I did was tell the very real story of parallel worlds, in what I hope is an entertaining and page-turning way. 

A Magnificent Musical Anniversary

Sunday September 12 2021 marks a significant milestone in musical history. It is the 280^th anniversary of one of music’s most magnificent creations.

On that day, George Frederick Handel emerged from his composing room at 25 Brooke Street in the Mayfair district of London, holding the musical score for Messiah. He’d finished the masterpiece in only 24 days.

Working from a unique libretto produced by Charles Jennens, Handel had at first scoffed at the idea of working a score around a collection of Bible verses. He was used to working with plots and dramatic scenes for his Italian operas and his oratorios.

Messiah was different. It told a story, yes, but it was presented in an unusual way by an unusual man, Jennens. A wealthy connoisseur of the arts—especially Handel’s music—Jennens considered himself not only a patron but a musical genius who provided inspiration to those who created music. And, indeed, he had a point. His libretto for Saul was excellent and Handel composed around it, leading to a successful marriage between the two men.

Where in other librettos, there’d be a clear identity of the hero of the music, Messiah was unusual. The main character around whom the entire masterpiece is based, Jesus, is never named,  never mentioned. Yet it is all about him. That alone broke the pattern of dramas and operas of the 18^th century!

It took Handel some time to get his head around Jennens libretto. And even more time to even consider writing music for it. But when the decision was made, Handel leapt into it and worked day and night for just over three weeks.

And the rest, as they say, is history. But is it?

So many of the elements of Handel’s fight to produce this work is mirrored in today’s society: cultural battles over artistic works, political intrigue and betrayals, sex scandals amongst celebrities and more!

The incredible back story behind this work is all told in my latest novel Musick for the King,

 Handel was beset by a wide variety of issues from health to financial and was dogged by cultural opposition from part of the aristocracy to the musical elite of his day.

Once Messiah was ready for its debut, he ran into immediate resistance from clerical leaders within the Church of England who objected to “sacred” music being done in this fashion and presented in public theatres not churches.

Jennens was shunned by most of society because of his stringent political views. His immense ego would not allow differences of opinion and often led to fractures in his social relationships. His intense religious views allowed little deviation from his set perspective.

Handel’s chosen key performer, the soprano Susannah Cibber, was the centrepiece of an enormous and very public sex scandal in London. Sued by her erstwhile husband for divorce because of adultery, the court case exposed the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse she suffered at her husband’s hand. It was all fodder for the press of the day and the juicy details were sopped up eagerly every day by the London citizenry.

All that began to change with Handel’s twenty-four day stretch of intense composition.

So, 280 years ago Handel stepped out of the room, score in hand, beaming with delight and with a musical masterpiece.

He knew he’d done his best work.

When King George II complimented him on providing such a great “entertainment”, Handel gently chided the King that he had not set out to entertain people with this piece. Rather, he said, he wanted to “make them better.”

I would suggest that he succeeded. Messiah is now one of the greatest English musical masterpieces, loved and performed around the world in thousands of performances each year.

Thank you, Mr Handel.

PS. Here’s a link to part of the audiobook of Musick for the King. Enjoy!   https://vimeopro.com/user10144522/music-for-the-king 

 

A rose by any other name....

Naming characters in your fictional works 

One of the fun things about writing works of fiction is the excitement of meeting my characters for the first time.

Over the period of a year or so, I will meet them, name them, give them bodies and personalities and watch them develop into viable and, hopefully, believable people.

Some, I will like. Others not. Some will have strange quirks. Others will be fairly normal, even bland, people.

All will be wound together into a strange and dangerous situation that will challenge them and perhaps even destroy them. Some will pass the test. Others will fail. Still others will not survive. Some will be major protagonists or antagonists while others will be peripheral but perhaps quirky bystanders who help move the main characters along.

To me, the naming of the character is critical. The name must be memorable, give hints of the character and his or her role or background. Even if the person’s personality is astoundingly normal, he or she needs a name that will stand out for the reader while also not confusing that reader with a similar-named character at some other point in the book.

I find this a tremendously challenging but rewarding aspect of writing.

It became even more challenging when I wrote Musick for the King. This novel revolved around the remarkable creation and presentation of one of the most acclaimed and loved pieces of music, Messiah, by the composer George Frederick Handel. My major characters—Handel, King George, the singer Susanna Cibber, Jonathan Swift and others—already had their names. For me, naming the minor characters that help the plot along was the issue. In an age with too many Georges, Thomases, Williams, Marys and so on, it was no easy task.

The same applies to my suspense-thriller series The Oak Grove Conspiracies. There, naming characters is compounded by the story settings. Wales, Italy, Turkey, the US—all requiring believable yet typical names from those nations.

Compounding this is the Welsh penchant for repeating names (Thomas Thomas, William Williams, Evan Evans and so on) as well as their extreme refusal to come up with different surnames. Everyone, it seems, is a Jones, Williams, Jenkins or Davies!

Indeed, the Welsh came up with a unique way of differentiating various individuals bearing the same surnames. Thus, the storeowner Evans became Evans the Shop, while the preacher Evans became Evans the Bible and Evans the bus driver was inevitably Evans the Bus. Plus, of course, Evans the Post, Evans the Meat and Evans the School. Then too there was Mrs Evans Lamppost (of the four Mrs Evans’s on the street, she was the one who had a lamppost outside her front door). There was even poor Evans Bungalow (he didn’t have too much on top) and Evans Half Step who had one leg shorter than the other.

See my dilemma? Try and come up with some interesting names for a fictional thriller when facing those challenges. Finding ethnic names for characters situated in places like Istanbul or Venice was a piece of cake by comparison!

Sometimes you can create a character and his name just pops out of nowhere but is perfect because it hints at some characteristic or background without being too blatant.

For example, my lead modern-day character in the Oak Grove Conspiracies series is Bradstone Wallace, known as ‘Stone’. The name implies a stalwart character—one who strong, resolute and is a ‘stone wall’, resolute and unmoving in times of danger. Or his intelligence buddy Chad Lawson, whose name quietly invokes a heritage of law keeping.

Sometimes I envy the novelists of earlier generations who named their characters blatantly and somewhat ridiculously based upon their overwhelming distinctive attribute rather than develop names that reflected their era.

Henry Fielding, for example, writes about a character named Mr. Thwackum—a particularly brutal teacher and clergyman. Charles Dickens was the master of such made up but infinitely evocative names. Can anyone top Ebenezer Scrooge, Uriah Heep or Wackford Squeers? Then there’s Fagin, Oliver Twist, the Barnacle family and Martin Chizzlewit. Memorable, if unusual, names. Certainly not the norm in Victorian England.

Naming a character means giving them a cloak of identity. It sets them in a place and in a space that they and they alone can operate in and define. It expresses their personality or attributes in subtle or not too subtle ways and gives them parameters in which they will conduct the business of moving the plot along.

Their name must be a major part of what makes them memorable to the reader. The reader must remember the evil this individual perpetuates, or the compassion they display and the passion they evoke.

The novelist plays with names. You try different first and last names, middle names, or nicknames in order to find the ‘perfect’ combination. In my book The Prince Madoc Secret I had fun with one minor Welsh character whom I named Evan Thomas. He was therefore given the nickname ‘ET” and was the exact opposite of the movie ET in terms of size and volubility.

I am now engaged in creating and naming a series of characters for the fourth installment of the Oak Grove Conspiracies titled “The Dragon’s Legacy”. Some of the main characters will reappear of course, but there is a new set of bad guys, a whole whack of peripheral characters in various eras and a slew of historical characters such as Merriweather Lewis (Lewis & Clark Expedition) and US President Thomas Jefferson, among others. I’ve got my work cut out for me.

There are many memorable characters to be found in novels. People you get to love or admire; people who make you shudder in fear, or who baffle you with their wild actions or decisions. There are characters you meet once and will never encounter again. Others you will come across in a number of books that become your favourites and valued old friends.

What are the names of some of your favourite characters in novels, and why? Sherlock Holmes? Frodo or Bilbo Baggins? Lucy Pevensie, Hercule Poirot? How about Harry Potter, Atticus Finch, James Bond, Mary Poppins, Miss Marple or Winnie the Pooh?

So many to choose from in so many genres—mysteries, fantasy, thrillers, historical, romance—the list goes on,

I would love to hear from you. Please comment.

 

The non-fiction about fiction

 

G. K. Chesterton: Looking back on a worldly and wasted life, I realize that I have especially sinned in neglecting to read novels.

That’s an interesting comment from a man who penned some great fiction, including creating the priestly detective, Father Brown.

I cannot—will not—compare myself with Chesterton, but as one who has worked in journalism and public relations all my career, I am well versed in the non-fiction field. I have covered major stories from air crashes, to Royal Tours, to the return of Vietnam POW’s and (peripherally) the US moon landings. I know non-fiction. I understand that writing it is critical for the knowledge and understanding of people today, despite the naysayers who prefer to stick their heads in the sand, ostrich-like.

But I have learned to love and appreciate good fiction. The great writers have used stories as a teaching tool as much as an entertainment vehicle. The essence of their work is to show human beings in settings that test their internal drivers as well as their external circumstances. Well written stories offer hope even in the worst situations; they provide well rounded protagonists who show character flaws in the midst of their struggles. Good fiction also provides the most evil antagonists with good attributes and show that, from the evil-doers perspective—his or her actions are internally justified.

Let me give an example. In my second thriller, The Lucifer Scroll, I introduce a thoroughly despicable and power-mad killer as the main protagonist. From his ‘religious’ perspective, ordering his followers to massacre people is justified because his intention is to bring what he believes is a better form of leadership to society. After a hard day ‘at the office’ doing sacrifices and the like, he relaxes by sitting at the piano and playing some jazz. He epitomizes the authoritarian who has no problem with believing the ends justify the means, no matter what moral or judicial laws are destroyed. But hey, jazz is cool! Little things, but I think it brings a dash of reality to the table as readers assess this character. We all know someone like this in our workplaces or in our political landscape.

It’s the same with protagonists. One of my main heroes is a workaholic who pushes people away. He doesn’t allow people inside the armour plate that envelops his psyche. He ranges from pride in his work mixed with depression and insecurity. He struggles with his insecurities but he has a determination to do his best; he too likes music, but only as a consumer. And, in contrast with the antagonist in question, he prefers classical. In short, just like all of us he has his ups and downs, his good points and his bad.

All this applies whether you are reading modern fiction, historical fiction, thrillers, westerns, romances, science fiction, fantasy, mysteries or avant garde literature. Well written stories in any of those genres will have the same impact. Bottom line, it will make you a better, more well founded person.

To me, reading fiction is important to my understanding of people and why and how they do the things they do. In fact, researchers in the United States and Britain have shown that fiction contributes incredibly to the reader’s growth as a human. Here are some of their findings:

1.      Reading fiction helps develop empathy. Living through a character’s situation vicariously, stirs empathy for the characters and those impacted by the story’s plot line. Developing that trait is then easily extended to real life.

2.      Reading fiction develops vocabulary. All of us have a general vocabulary for everyday use. Fiction exposes us to new words, their meaning, their implications and their usage. We then incorporate those words into our own vocabulary.

3.      Reading fiction helps relieve stress. Nothing is better to relieve stress in a doctor’s office, for example, than reading a good story while you wait. Your own worries and needs diminish as you get caught up in the story.

4.      Reading fiction is a ‘reality simulator’.  Pilots learn to fly their planes in times of crisis by training in a simulator. They learn about all kinds of scenarios and how to handle them. Same with reading fiction. We see how the characters deal with their situations and we adapt that for our own all too real lives.

5.      Reading fiction keeps us mentally sharp. New worlds, new images, new techniques, new knowledge can be absorbed through fiction. You can read a step-by-step DIY non-fiction of course, but fiction can make learning fun as well as keeping our minds sharp.

There are many other benefits to reading fiction in addition to these.

All in all, reading fiction is nothing more than a technological update from the times our ancestors sat around fires at night and listened to the bards tell tales of great derring-do. We learn about heroes to emulate as our forebears did. Tales of goodness and courage stimulate us now as they did then. Our society was built on the skeleton of story-telling. Jesus spends much of his teaching time telling his followers stories—we call them parables—that taught them how to relate to others and to help strangers and outcasts (remember the good Samaritan?),

My Welsh ancestry tells tales of bards going from village to village, earning their living by singing and telling stories. Such stories related the history, showed how justice should be applied, how people should treat others, and nurtured a bond that pulled people together, linking them with both the past and the future.

I write fiction now. I read fiction all the time. I am richer for it.

As the old cereal ad said: “Try it, you’ll like it!”

How to apologize

 

There are apologies and there are apologies.

 

As more and more organizations and their leaders in our society come under scrutiny for misdeeds, bad decisions, criminal acts, they are finding that the act of apology is a critical piece in moving through a crisis and regaining the reputation they once had.

Reputation management is what organizations must do if they are to continue their existence. Public trust and public will can build or destroy those reputations. It does not matter if you are a celebrity or a small non-profit, your survival depends greatly on the Court of Public Opinion. Famed financier Warren Buffet once said that it can take twenty or more years to build a solid reputation. But it only takes twenty minutes to destroy it!

Apologies to the public for any transgression are, therefore, critical. It might be for statements made by employees or leaders, or it might be for actions or decisions made by corporate entities. Reading or watching the news these days will identify at least three per week from around the world.

Celebrity X apologizes for racist remarks. Company Y apologizes for a decision which led to marketing unsafe products. Nonprofit group K apologizes for not properly supervising an employee who has since been charged with crimes against the non-profit’s clients. We see it in our newspapers weekly.,

But apologies can be tricky things. The aim is to be transparent and reassure the public that the individual or organization has learned from its errors and is taking steps to rectify the situation.

However, too often, many apologies actually do the reverse. They are what I would call ‘defensive’ apologies, as in “I’m sorry you took offense at...”  The message here is, you’re the one with the problem, not us. You are too sensitive. Our actions were justifiable but we’re sorry you feel differently. It’s a common response. We see it on a personal level all the time; an acknowledgement that the other person is upset but the apologizer is also defending and excusing their actions.

So it is truly refreshing when I see an apology that is just that: A heartfelt, deeply contrite apology that clearly indicates the organization acknowledges its failings, apologizes for the hurts to known victims, sets out a plan for restoration and change in behaviour, sets out plans for restitution and opens the doors for other unknown victims to receive help.

One of the best examples I have seen is the response this week of the Board of Directors of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) after repeated accusations against the Christian evangelist and apologist that was brought to the Board’s attention over the past few years by a number of women.

My comments here are not about the accusations themselves. The Board’s response deals with that.

I just want to commend the members for dealing with this issue and apologizing in such a profound and deeply humbling way. I get that it is hard to grapple with such things, especially when accusations are made against your organization’s leader whom you admire, support and respect. It is hard to hear negatives. Every fibre in your being rejects what you are hearing or reading. So when truth emerges, the realities can be a shock.

It takes real leadership to acknowledge the harsh realities and especially your own failings in the process.

I commend that RZIM Board for its forthright and very humble response.

THAT is an apology!

To read the full apology by the RZIM Board, click here: https://www.rzim.org/read/rzim-updates/board-statement

 

 

 

On a quest

In an interview recently, I was asked what kinds of books or authors I like to read.

Since I have an extremely eclectic reading taste, ranging from politics, history, theology, and media in society, to fiction of all kinds from historical to mysteries to fantasy to sci-fi, I was stumped.

What kinds of books or authors Do I like?

Since the question was phrased in the context of my own novel writing (there too, it’s eclectic) I immediately tossed my non-fiction list aside and concentrated what kind of fiction I like.

As I pondered, I listed such authors as C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien among my greats. I toyed with adding Jodi Taylor’s time travel series The Chronicles of St Mary’s or Rachel Caine’s alternate universe series called The Great Library. Others flooded into my mind: Ken Follet’s Pillars of the Earth; Stephen Lawhead’s Byzantium and Patrick. The flood of favourites continued as I considered the many varied takes on the Arthurian legends that I enjoy. I considered my enjoyment of mysteries from Arthur Conan Doyle (no relation) to Agatha Christie and a host of modern-day authors. Then I trolled through the various sci-fi novels I’ve read.

I even considered my own suspense thrillers in the Oak Grove Conspiracies series. I really like them!

As I did all this thinking, I came to a quick realization. Pretty well every one of my ‘likes’ entailed some version of a quest!

I love stories that involve overcoming an insurmountable quest. That’s what The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings entailed. It’s what Lewis was writing about in his Narnia books. Even Homer’s Odyssey, or Hemingway’s Old man and the Sea.

As I thought about that, another fact struck me: My entire non-fiction, reality-based life has actually been that of a quest.

And so has yours.

During that quest we have each met challenges great and small. We have battled giants—financial, employment, relationships—while on our quest. Incredible people and events have changed our course of action. Sometimes for good., Sometimes for evil.

Some of us have a clear idea of what that quest looks like. We see financial goals, retirement, a big house, or travel, as the ultimate end of our quests. Others have more esoteric and fulfilling quests to improve life and situations for our fellow human beings. That encompasses those who aimed for and perhaps created life-changing technologies or medical procedures, or who explored science and space in search of the answers to life’s basic questions. Come to think of it, I’d put the many theologians and impactful preachers into that category as well; people like Lewis (not just his fiction) or Augustine, or the Apostle Paul and the gospel writers.

All were on a quest. To understand their situation and strive toward a goal that would empirically change existing understanding or, more impactfully, change lives for the better.

Even at the simple unspectacular level of life that most of us inhabit, there is still a quest that we are following. It might be for job advancement, education, better parenting, or healthier lifestyles. But it is still a quest. Or, rather, numerous quests. It is what keeps us going day to day, through rain and snow, through ups and downs, through failures and on to success.

Every day we set huge plans for the next day, week or year with zero knowledge of what those tomorrows might bring. Or even if they will happen. But we go on the quest anyway. That is confidence!

I like quests. I like reading about them. They excite me. They invigorate me. They frustrate me. They lift me to new levels. They guide me and challenge me to put the novel down and take on my own quest.

As I read about Frodo and Sam climbing up Mount Doom, I recognize the frustrations, pain, and discouragements of my own quests. But I also see the challenge met and achieved, and it gives me hope and confidence.

In my latest book Musick for the King I write about the great composer George Frederick Handel who was on multiple quests at the same time. He was on a quest for cultural redemption, creative redemption, and financial redemption. His soloist Susannah Cibber was on a quest for career and social redemption. Neither realized it immediately, but they were also on a quest for personal redemption. The libretto for Messiah was the vehicle that would take them along the ups and downs, challenges, failures and success of those quests.

For years I was a reporter and editor and broadcaster. Later I was a professor. Now I am a crisis management consultant.

But always, lurking in the background, was the dream of writing a novel. There were a thousand and one reasons why I should drop the idea. It was daunting. It was a lot of work. It was not fulfilling financially at a time when I still needed to generate income. I had limited time to work on something so iffy. Worse, I had no concept for a plot or characters or situation.

But I absorbed the lessons of my fictional friends and accepted the challenge. I went on a quest. Now, some six years on, I finished my fourth novel and have now embarked on writing a fifth.

What kind of quest lies lurking in your life?

They are there you know. Hiding, waiting for something or someone to ignite them.

Pick up your favourite novel—any novel—and see if there isn’t a quest hidden in the story. Step into the story. See that the protagonist accepts the challenge, strives forward, is battered, disappointed, seemingly fails and then ultimately achieves.

Watch for the spark that ignites a quest. Accept the challenge inherent in pursing your own real-life quest. Embrace it, warts and all, ups and downs, failures and successes.

It makes life worth living.

I know. I followed my quest.

 

On a Quest. You too!

 

On a quest

In an interview recently, I was asked what kinds of books or authors I like to read.

Since I have an extremely eclectic reading taste, ranging from politics, history, theology, and media in society, to fiction of all kinds from historical to mysteries to fantasy to sci-fi, I was stumped.

What kinds of books or authors Do I like?

Since the question was phrased in the context of my own novel writing (there too, it’s eclectic from suspense thrillers to historical novels) I immediately tossed my non-fiction list aside and concentrated what kind of fiction I like.

As I pondered, I listed such authors as C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien among my greats. I toyed with adding Jodi Taylor’s time travel series The Chronicles of St Mary’s or Rachel Caine’s alternate universe series called The Great Library. Others flooded into my mind: Ken Follet’s Pillars of the Earth; Stephen Lawhead’s Byzantium. The flood of favourites continued as I considered the many varied takes on the Arthurian legends that I enjoy. I considered my enjoyment of mysteries from Arthur Conan Doyle (no relation) to Agatha Christie and a host of modern-day authors. Then I trolled through the various sci-fi novels I’ve read.

I even considered my own suspense thrillers in the Oak Grove Conspiracies series. I like them!

As I did all this thinking, I came to a quick realization. Pretty well every one of my ‘likes’ entailed some version of a quest!

I love stories that involve overcoming an insurmountable quest. That’s what The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings entailed. It’s what Lewis was writing about in his Narnia books. Or Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea.

As I thought about that, another fact struck me. My entire non-fiction life has been that of a quest.

And so has yours.

During those quests, we have each met challenges great and small. We have battled giants—financial, employment, relationships—while on our quest. Incredible people and events have changed our course of action. Sometimes for good., Sometimes for evil.

Some of us have had a clear idea of what that quest looked like. We saw financial goals, retirement, a big house, travel, as the ultimate end of our quests. Others have had more esoteric and fulfilling quests to improve life and situations for our fellow human beings. That encompasses those who aimed for and perhaps created life-changing technologies or medical procedures, or who explored science and space in search of the answers to life’s basic questions. Come to think of it, I’d put the many theologians and impactful preachers into that category as well; people like Lewis (not just his fiction) or Augustine, or the Apostle Paul and the gospel writers.

All were on a quest. To understand their situation and strive toward a goal that would empirically change existing understanding or, more impactfully, change lives for the better.

Even at the simple unspectacular level of life that most of us inhabit, we are following a quest. It might be for job advancement, education, better parenting, or healthier lifestyles. But it is still a quest. Or, rather, numerous quests. It's what keeps us going day to day, through rain and snow, ups and downs, and through failures to success.

Every day we set huge plans for the next day with zero knowledge of what that tomorrow might bring. But we go on the quest anyway. That is confidence!

I like quests. I like reading about them. They excite me. They invigorate me. They frustrate me. They lift me to new levels. They guide me and challenge me to put the novel down and take on my own quest.

As I read about Frodo and Sam climbing up Mount Doom, I recognize the frustrations, pain, and discouragements of my own quests. But I also see the challenge met and achieved, and it gives me hope and confidence.

For years I was a reporter, editor and broadcaster. Later I was a professor. Now I am a crisis management consultant.

But always, lurking in the background, was the dream of writing a novel. There were a thousand and one reasons why I should drop the idea. It was daunting. It was a lot of work. It was not fulfilling financially at a time when I still need to generate income. research showed me that it was very hard work that got even harder after publication. I had limited time to work on something so iffy. Worse, I had no concept for a plot or characters or situation.

But I absorbed the lessons of my fictional friends and accepted the challenge. I went on a quest. Now, some six years on, I just published my fourth novel and am now embarked on a fifth.

What kind of quest lies lurking in your life? They are there you know. Hiding, waiting for something or someone to ignite them.

Pick up your favourite novel—any novel—and see if there isn’t a quest hidden in the story. Step into the story. See the protagonist accept the challenge, He or she strives forward, is battered, disappointed, seemingly fails and then ultimately achieves.

I challenge you to go on a quest. Accept the challenge. Embrace it, warts and all, ups and downs, failures and successes.

It makes life worth living. I know. I followed my quest.