Nightmares with the Bible has been submitted.Those of you who read this blog regularly know that it is my fourth book and that it is a kind of sequel to Holy Horror.Nightmares looks specifically at demons.I was inspired—if that’s the right word to use for it—to write the book because the chapter on possession movies in Holy Horror was clearly overflowing.Not only that, but at the time I started writing the book not many resources were out there on demons.Almost nothing, certainly, that asked the big question of what they are.To answer that we need to go to the movies.People get their information from popular culture, especially when it comes to trying to understand the arcane and even esoteric field of theology.
Movies, studies have shown, often participate in the reality our brains conjure.Back when Reagan was president—is it even possible to believe those seem like halcyon days compared to these?—he was caught occasionally citing events from movies as historical realities.We all do it from time to time, but then, most of us, if pressed, can tease movies apart from facts.Church attendance has been going down for some time (and on Zoom you can tune in and tune out without having to “stay in the room”), and so people have to get their information on demons somewhere else.Reality television and the internet also play into this as well, of course, but Nightmares sticks with movies because I’ve only got so much time.The message is pretty straightforward though, we must consider where people get their information.
After you submit a large project, if you’re anything like me, you’re mentally exhausted for a while.I’ve been working on this book for nearly five years—I started it before Holy Horror was submitted to McFarland.I had already begun work on my next book, but I yet have to decide which one it will be.I have several going at any one time.Hopefully this next one won’t be coming out with an academic publisher.I’d like it to be priced in the realm where individual buyers might consider it worth the investment.I know from experience that even books just over twenty dollars are a stretch for most people, especially if they’re on academic topics.Nightmares will come back, I know.There will be proofs and indexing and all kinds of further work to be done.I’m hoping that by that point I will have the next book nearly done.If only I could decide which one it will be.
