VMPR: 12 Dec 25 - Spellbooks, Demonology, Witchcraft, Magic... (video title)

Reflecting on the Feast of St. Juan Diego & Our Lady of Guadalupe (videos)

I have a special devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe. Yesterday was the Feast of Saint Juan Diego and Friday (two days from now) is the Feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

This IS a miracle with pieces for the Aztecs of that time and for our modern age. The color is NOT manmade paint or ink of any kind, as stated. Anyone who claims otherwise is lying. In fact, people will lie about any number of factors of the tilma and other miraculous images because they do not want to believe in God or the holiness of the Blessed Virgin Mary. I pity and pray for conversion and repentance from such coldness and blasphemy in the obstinacy of disobedience to the creator. God serves us in pure humility because he loves us deeply; we owe Him our obedience not only for that but also for giving us life and the opportunity to know Him and his pure love.

Fr. Reehil gives a brief breakdown of the story in the video above. However, I recommend the videos below for more detailed information:

The Immaculate Conception explained... kecharitomene

Hail, Mary, full of grace!

"Ave, Maria, Kecharitomene!"  =  "Hail, Mary, she who has been made full of grace!"

For a former protestant's explanation, please see this post on X by Joshua Charles:

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION: HOW GOD SAVED MARY

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was a doctrine that, like most protestants, I deeply misunderstood.

I used to think it was a doctrine focused entirely on elevating Mary at the expense of Christ, as if She was somehow… pic.twitter.com/7vCkX0slm2

— Joshua Charles (@JoshuaTCharles) December 8, 2025

To put it as simply as I can,

1. God is outside time and space. (He created time and space, all things in existence; to try to limit him to our--the creation's--understanding is an act of pride and denial of His majesty.)
2. Because of 1, God can apply any grace at any time He wants. (To deny this is to deny His omnipotence and omniscience and supernatural nature.)
3. Following on the second point, God can apply the grace of Christ's (Mary's savior, her son) salvation prior to her conception.
4. Therefore, Mary could be, and was, made sinless, that is, immaculately (purely) conceived. This is why she is the Immaculate Conception. Only a pure vessel would be worthy of the divinity of the Word of God (see prior points). He didn't randomly select her; He created her for that purpose, and she accepted because she was perfectly obedient, faithful, and perfect in every virtue so that she never considered sinning.

But, if you want more detail, others have already done the work:

She is named Kecharitomene, by the angel Gabriel. Name change means something;

Kecharitomene

05 Dec 25 - Interesting Facts About Angels and Demons (video title)

I've always had a fascination with angels and demons, and it's influenced my writing. That should be obvious with my primary series, the only one I keep published--Starfire Angels. It's worthwhile understanding the preternatural truth.

Book 1... rewrites finished

It took a whole week, but I really buckled down on this. The new version of A NEW BEGINNING is uploaded. 😌 I added a net of 4,000 words, pushing it over the minimum word count to qualify as a novel by SFWA standards. Now, all the books in the series so far are novels. In those new words are more detailed descriptions, cleaned up narrative, some changes to dialogue, filled holes, and a much better foundation for the rest of the series and what it has become.

With this update, you don't have to buy a new version. I overwrote the old version.

You can download the update from Amazon by going into your digital orders and following the steps to replace the old version with the new version. I could not find an "update available" but I did discover that if I cleared the furthest page read, in a few minutes, the new version appeared for me on my Kindle.

With other retailers, I don't know how that happens. I assume that the book just updates.

The book is MUCH better now! It's the same story but cleaned up and more meaty.

Now, back to writing Book 23 with those fixes that came to me this past week!

Thanks for reading!

Book 23... back on track

This short break from Book 23 to fix Book 1 is proving to be exactly what I needed, along with the meditation and contemplation of a good Holy Hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament.

On the drive home from my regular adoration time at my local parish, the answer I needed for Book 23 came to me. I want this book to explain a key (and final) missing piece of the history of the Feri not yet revealed. Although the characters do speculate on it, the truth has some gaps that I want to fill in, and I was waiting to reach this point before providing that final piece of the puzzle.

The Lord provides when we seek Him with all our heart and are willing to surrender to His will over ours. It could only have been Him piercing the brain fog with the explanation that came to me on the drive home (and keeping it in today's otherwise fleeting memory so that I could remember to write it down) to make the story work the way I hoped. My idea wasn't working. His always works best. I gave it up to the Lord and waited for His time, ready to listen. He provided what I need to give you a great story.

Once I wrap up this rewrite of Book 1 (and register a new copyright for it), I'll jump back into Book 23. I expect to finish the rewrites by Saturday and upload the updated version. This new version is longer (now a short novel--yay!) with more depth and more consistency and less freneticism. The narrative doesn't bounce around and the characters, especially Nya, will have more depth to them.

It'll be the same story but be much smoother and easier to follow. Some of the dialogue has changed and internal narrative is more thoroughly explained. Details have been added and some pieces removed that didn't add anything but confusion. This will replace the current version.

The new version isn't a completely new story but a more developed story, and it'll be better matched to the rest of the series. When I wrote Book 1, I had a slightly different vision of the series. If you've followed me through this, you may recall some posts where I expressed surprise at new characters and unexpected situations or details (like the Book 23 situation above) that altered the original vision.

Now, while working on the homestretch of the series, I have a fully developed vision and can go back and give the first book the treatment it needs without taking away from the rest of the series. It happened in God's time, not my time. I built the series on that first book, so I can't change it completely, but I can make it a better reading experience.

Thanks for sticking this out with me one book at a time! (20 published, five more to go! This is actually 22 written and three to finish.)

God bless!

Rapture isn’t what you think it is

 

Book 1... update

Three thousand words. That's the net difference added to Book 1. It is officially a novel (40K words or more by SFWA standards). And it is much MUCH better than it was. The story is the same, but the details are much more fleshed out and consistent with the later books.

I honestly don't know what happened. I can only guess that I had such a vision for the series that I got ahead of myself with Book 1, which feel like an introduction and is probably what was going on at the time I wrote and edited this. These updates will make a huge difference in the flow of the story. It feels more meaty now and not so thin.

It also doesn't feel agitated and clunky like I had ADD in the original writing and editing. The story is still fast and there, but the details and dialogue are much smoother in transitions and characters more consistent with what they settle into in books two and three.

I will be uploading the new version this weekend, along with updating a new print omnibus of Collection 1 of these books. I'm just getting into a final pass tonight, so it'll take a couple of days to finish.

Book 1... revisited

I knew book 1 of Starfire Angels: Forgotten Worlds was rough, but I never could get my mind into how to fix it. On a whim, I reread it this weekend, all in one day, and suddenly, I knew. The binge read made it clearer than a slow read. The answer came to me--it was thin and a bit clunky/rough in the narrative.

*sigh*

Almost seven years since I published this one and I finally see more clearly. It's not the story so much as the details. That first book was the foundation, and the excitement and rush of the first of a new series carried me away. I didn't know yet quite how the series would develop. I had my plan with the series arc and plot ideas for each episode, but the details and style had to develop, along with the characters.

Now, I'm cleaning it up in a way that I see more clearly after getting stuck on Book 23... again. It isn't really cleaning so much as completing what's there. Book 1, as I mentioned, feels to me clunky and rough, but this will smooth out those rough edges and help it flow more naturally. It'll also bring it more into the style of the rest of the series.

It shouldn't take long, but it will push the word count over the 40K novel minimum length. I'll be able to say that all the books are short novels. 😁 It's getting close already, and I'm not quit halfway through the second pass (if you count that binge read as the first pass) with lots of clarifying details added and removing odd thoughts that break the flow.

Edits on the nineteen other books published in the series has helped me see things more clearly. In fact, reading book nineteen has shown me just how much better the writing and editing became throughout the series. I thought the first was good--and it wasn't terrible, imo (I'm biased, though)--but it will be much better when I finish this little side project.

Now, the challenge is not to add something that's not there until later in the series.

Stay tuned!

The origins of the Christmas Tree

God bless!