While the final version of the book is still being written, a special edition dedicated to the Lost Dogs is now available!

First off, here's the front cover:


And here's the back:


The book originally had a different front cover, but I ran into some hassles and felt it necessary to do something else.

The book has the four chapters for the four members of the band (Terry Taylor, Mike Roe, Derri Daugherty and Steve Hindalong) that will also be in God's Not Dead (And Neither Are We) when it's completed.  No other content from God's Not Dead (And Neither Are We) is included.  There is content unique to this book: a forward by yours truly, and also some quotes from a couple of band members about the late Gene Eugene who was an original member of the band.

The book is currently available only through my CafePress store at https://www.cafepress.com/diecast_dude.298785252.  Eventually this will change and the book will be available in bookstores and online through retailers such as Amazon.  I'll post information about this as it happens here and at the Goldfish And Clowns blog which is at http://blog.goldfishandclowns.com.

The book is what is called supermarket paperback size, measuring 4.18" x 6.88".  It is a paperback, has 170 pages, and sells for $15.00.  It doesn't include any band photos, as including photos in a book immediately jacks up its price.

I had hoped to have the book available for the band to sell at shows during its upcoming Glory Road tour down Route 66, but the logistics are quite unfavorable and it's doubtful this will happen.  I'll know later this week if copies will be available for purchase at the final show of the tour in Santa Monica, California on Saturday September 27th.  Check here for updates.

If you have any questions about the book, leave me a comment at the blog or drop me a line and I'll answer them as best I can.  Thanks!

It's always been easy to spot the truly godly among us.  They're the ones hated with intense passion.  About the only current exception to this dictum I can think of is Billy Graham, and even he's had an occasional brickbat thrown his way.

Why do the godly arouse such ire?  They stand as living proof to the fallen of their own failure.  The godly are a light shining on the darkness of hearts turned away from God, exposing by comparison the corrupt nature of such beings.  The godly anger the ungodly because they alone acknowledge their failures and failings, stating without hesitation their total reliance on God's mercy, grace, and love for the forgiveness and healing without which they could not live.  The godly are living testimony to the existence of God; examples of His love and perfection.  No wonder they are despised by those who like Stoker's Dracula weaken and fail when exposed not to the light, but rather by the light.

The amount of sheer vitriol hurled at Sarah Palin since John McCain named her as his running mate has made quite clear that her actively practiced faith in Christ is authentic.  She has been accused of everything from faking a pregnancy to cover her daughter's -- more on that in a moment -- to lying about every aspect of her personal and public life.  She has been called every vile name in the book.  Her record and profession of beliefs both political and personal have been assailed with no regard for verifying the charges leveled against her.  Any shred, scrap or whisper of scandal both real and imagined, invariably the latter, has been dredged up and put on display.  One would think looking at it all Ms. Palin is Mephistopheles' Maid Marian.

Actually, she is a blessed handmaiden of God.

Ms. Palin didn't have 'run for national office' on her list of things to do with her life.  She saw a need in her hometown and decided to try and fill it, first by running for city council and then for mayor.  She saw a need in her home state and decided to fill it by running for governor.  She did all this while raising a family, in and of itself a challenge but for her carrying additional burdens.  When she learned four months into her pregnancy with her fifth child he would be born with Down's Syndrome, she didn't disown him or distance herself from him through the most brutal method available, namely abortion.  She said her unborn child would be born and loved, and that was that.  When her teenage daughter did what comes naturally to teenagers, namely make a mistake, she didn't disown her or distance herself from her.  She said the unborn child will be born and loved, and that was that.  Her reward has been being hated all the more by the left's fringe and aggressively disparaged by the media as a hypocrite rendered unable to lead by both her daughter's pregnancy and her own child's special needs.  Strange that an entity which for decades has preached equality of the sexes and that women were capable of doing anything men could should now mount a whispering campaign that this particular woman's place should be at home taking care of the children and nowhere else.  Actually, not strange.  Rather, another example of the media's disingenuousness.

If one wishes to oppose Ms. Palin on political/ideological grounds, fine.  State your case.  Detail your beliefs, document the reasons behind these beliefs, outline the proper course of action based on these beliefs.  Reasoned argument is always welcome.  There has been precious little of this since she was introduced to the nation and the world.  Instead, we have seen pure hatred at its most pathetic.  If this is all the left has to offer, the left has nothing to offer.

For Ms. Palin, my prayer is she will find strength in her faith to not only continue being a witness by being faithful to Christ but a loving mother and devoted wife who sees a need and is doing her best to try and fill it.  Ignore the naysayers; she's doing so quite well, thank you.  As to the haters...

... she can take comfort she's in Good company.

Like most people, I'm not enamored with alarm clocks.  They are a brutal necessity, most definitely not a brother.  The routine of finding oneself half-awake and staring at the clock a few minutes before its scheduled assault on your ears and nerves, wondering as best one can in such a condition whether getting up now and getting it over with or engaging in a futile attempt to seize the five minutes between now and the siren's unholy mechanical song commencing for additional sleep, is one with which we're all familiar.  All too familiar, to be precise.

I mention this because of a moment this morning.  The alarm went off at 6:00 AM.  I turned it off and stared at the clock, it returning the favor.  I spent the next few minutes drifting between slumber and semi-awake, thinking during the moments I was conscious it was time for me to get up and prepare for departing the hotel my wife and I had resided at the previous few days and head homeward.  At 6:15 this was no longer a voluntary decision.

On the sidewalk beneath our room a labor demonstration commenced.  This involved a great deal of shouting and general noise making via beating drums and blowing horns.  The thinking behind this, although it should be noted referring to this as somehow involving actual thought is probably stretching it mighty thin, was apparently raising such a ruckus the guests would immediately petition management to give these people whatever they wanted so they could get back to sleep.  Um, sure.

Irritation factor notwithstanding, it was more than a little amusing to hear one of the call-and-response chants repeated many times: "What do we want?"  "Respect!"  One can almost hear the thought process going into this: "I've got it!  We'll make a huge fuss to inform everyone of our plight!  They'll immediately support our cause!  BRILLIANT!"  Either that, or make staying at the hotel such a miserable experience no one will want to so management's hand will be forced by falling room occupancy to... lay off a bunch of workers.  What, you thought they'd hand over the keys to the kingdom?

I'm not averse to people earning a living wage and appropriate benefits for honest work.  It's how they go about it that's the concern.  At its beginning, the union movement in this country was a needed defense against abuses in the workplace -- wages, working conditions, you name it.  However, as the decades rolled by these abuses were gradually addressed by legislation.  In more nanny state-oriented places such as San Francisco (surprise, I know) sick pay and healthcare benefits are mandatory for most all businesses.  Unions have been rendered irrelevant, yet they persist via their promulgation of the myth that unionization equals strength against 'them.'  It would be nice if both sides would occasionally remember they work for the same company and need each other to do their jobs in order for both to continue receiving paychecks.  Regrettably, this is seldom the case.  And so we have scenes like this morning.

Next time the alarm clock goes off I won't dislike it quite so much.