Assault on Saint Agnes: Look For It November 11th!

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After much consideration and prayer, my agent and I have decided to go the independent publishing route and bring Assault on Saint Agnes to the Amazon platform.

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We did have serious interest from a number of publishers, and one offer. But after weighing the numbers and what we wanted to do with follow-on works we have made the move to go indie.

Right now we’re doing the cover, gathering endorsements, and the final edit. If you watch this space Wednesday we will have a link to a poll. That poll will help determine the winning cover art.

So, stay tuned, lots more to come!

Day Seven: God Help Me.

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It was a quiet Friday afternoon in the local Caribou Coffee. I was working on the Santa website for the North Star Santas, and sipping something hot and caffeinated. The woman down the bench from me said, “When will men ever stop this?”

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I knew it couldn’t possibly be my behavior, and I suspected I’d have to listen to a rehash of the whole sordid Ray Rice escapade. I was wrong. It was worse.

Adrian Peterson has been indicted for child abuse. There is a picture at the site I just linked, and it’s not the worst one by a long shot. But it’s horrific.

At first I thought she’d said the boy was twelve years old. Not that that would make the abuse any more palatable, but I’m pretty sure my parents wanted to kill me a time or two when I was twelve. Looking back, I’m lucky to be alive – hormones kind of got the best of me. But this child is four years old. The age where they come and sit on Santa’s knee and are too shy to do anything but whisper in the old man’s ear about their hopes for the toy pile.

I ran across the pictures by accident. I didn’t go looking. I was too busy updating our background check policy and insurance page. And I almost laughed at the irony of the whole thing. Until she asked another question, “Why won’t men speak up about this stuff? I don’t understand it.”

My answer was to come later. “It’s because they stand to lose too much. Because they’re invested in the team. Because it would be … expensive.” At that moment I knew that I was either going to speak out about the incident or I was going to be a coward and say nothing. Since I pride myself on not being a coward, I guess I better say something. So, here we go:

I, Joseph Courtemanche, abhor and condemn the person who abused this little boy. I understand spanking, it’s the fear and shock factor that has the beneficial impact. But when you leave broken skin and marks behind, it’s abuse. Same goes for men who hit their women. Punks. Swine. Chickens. You might think it’s just fine, but the cold fury of punching your wife in an elevator and then dragging her out into the hall is unjustified.

Yes, there is mutual combat on occasion. I understand that fact. I don’t like it, but it does happen. And I condemn women who cheap shot their men from the blind side as well. It’s all bad.

Where does that leave me? As a guardian of children I’m going to make this my policy:

If you beat your woman, abuse your kids, or torment your dog you are not welcome to sit on my knee. You are not welcome to be in the picture with me. You are welcome to a pair of handcuffs and a trip to the booking desk. You are in line to take whatever punishment your employer has for your actions. You are not in line for the family photo. This is not a proper method to form discipline in your children, gain respect from your wife, or train your dog. It is torture.

So to my friends that are defending Mr. Peterson based on being fans of the team, racial identity, or any other misguided basis, I’d like to point out that I don’t give a rip what your skin color is when you beat a kid, woman, or a dog: you’re a loser.

In answer to Mari’s question earlier tonight of “When will men speak out on this issue?” the answer is today. And for the rest of my life.

Abuse is not going to happen on my watch. You are not welcome to be around me until you get help, serve your time, pay your penance. I will eventually forgive you when the Heavenly Father does. But until that time, I am setting my boundaries and you are outside the circle.

Santa Out.

Day Six: For All The Broken Ones.

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We all know broken people. Many of us are numbered among that group. Today I’m asking you to set aside some of your prayer time for the ones who are not quite right, off at a kilter, missing a chunk, and broken.

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You don’t have to be physically wounded to be in great pain. A dear friend of mine is watching her life spin out of control as she and her husband drift apart. It’s not a quick drift, it’s spurts and jagged pieces of wreckage poking out of the dark. It’s not controlled: neither knows what’s coming next. But she’s broken just the same.

The greatest service I can provide is prayer and an ear. We’re many miles apart, and I wish I could buy her a brownie and a cup of coffee. I’d even hold her head while she cried into my shoulder. I would do anything to keep her aware of the fact that she is loved from above, and that her life is important to God.

So much of our misery and brokenness is due to our own action. We wonder why God doesn’t fix it for us. Well, we broke it, we can ask for help fixing it, but it isn’t always going to be fast, and it almost never is what we expect it to be. I used to have a job with a utility in the credit department. People would call in to pay their bill once they were disconnected and then get angry when I’d tell them it may take up to 72 hours to get the service restored.

“Why, all you have to do is flip a switch?” was the usual response. I wanted to say (but didn’t dare) “Look at the bright side: it took us three months to disconnect you for non-payment. It’s only going to take us three days to restore it. Seems like a good trade to me!”

We expect God to just flip a switch as well. That’s natural. We don’t always look at what led to our troubles. Sometimes we did nothing to get in the bad place. Other times we did it all by ourselves. There’s hard work there that needs to be done to be healed but we want Him to fix it immediately. I wish it were so.

Since it isn’t like that, today is a great day to pray for your friends who are broken. Pray that God gives them respite and healing. Pray that they can muster the strength to do the hard work of healing. Pray that you can support them in this journey. Most of all, pray that God heals your broken parts enough so that you can help others.

That’s the best healing of all: healing others.

Day Five – Nah, September 11th.

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I broke the fast on the 10th. My body wasn’t having any more of it and I needed calories to get through my challenges. I’m still praying, will pick up the fast in a few days, but needed physical strength to go with the prayer. I was never cut out to be a monk – but I do look the part.

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Today marks a day in our history that many will describe as tragic, a terrible incident, and a day of great sadness.

I’d like to think of it as a day of rage. Rage that barbarians from the 7th century came to my homeland in larger than usual numbers and slaughtered my countrymen in an act of war. Rage that our political class is so quick to abandon the drive to exterminate the threat. Rage that we are more politically correct than prepared.

Savages.

Savages.

For those that say Islam is not about these barbaric acts, and that ISIS is not Islam, (yes, you Mr. President) I’d like to give you one book to read. The Quran. Read it and the commands to the faithful to pursue the growth of the religion at the tip of the sword. The statements that infidels do not deserve to live. Not to befriend infidels. Not to tolerate them in the midst of good Muslims. It’s in their own book. It’s in plain view. If you deny these facts you are a fool. And the next victim.

Today may, or may not, bring large attacks against this nation. But they will resume in the near future. I was listening to a talking head on Wednesday who spouted the line that we’d had no foreign attacks on our soil during the past 13 years. Really. Fort Hood? Times Square? The Underwear Bomber? And the list goes on. If you are attacking the United States on behalf of Islam, you count. I don’t think it’s work place violence.

What shall we do to prevent it next time? Darned good question. One thing I know is that being tolerant of our enemies in our midst is not the answer. This does not mean that you should run to the nearest Arab restaurant and break their windows. Let’s be honest: most Muslims are like most Christians in that they follow some tenets of the faith but aren’t members of the hard core. The average guy who came here from Lebanon thirty years ago isn’t building bombs in his basement.

But others are here to wreck and destroy. We can’t fight them if we cover up their activity and ignore the radicals. David Cameron had that part of the equation right in his speech last week. We should not tolerate those who would kill us in our midst. It is time for the government to get serious about protecting our borders. We have no clue who’s coming in at this point.

But they are here. They are here in large numbers. They are in your city, your state, your children go to school with their children. And unless we wake up to the threat, another day in the near future will replace September 11th, 2001 as the worst day in our history.

I can promise you that without a single doubt in my soul.

Pray, America. Pray for courage, guidance from above, and strength. This war has been going on for 1400 years and it didn’t end just because we killed Bin Laden.

Day Four Of A Week Of Prayer And Fasting.

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Sometimes being a bit hungry can focus you. Our nation needs to be a bit hungry and get focused.

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We’re coming up to the anniversary of September 11, 2001. All I heard today was about some slimy football player who beats women. And the women who let slimy football players beat them. And then apologize for them.

Much as I abhor domestic violence, today’s a great day to focus on the real world. I have noticed, for decades, that the media machine presents us with many distractions to draw us away from the truly great issues facing us as a people. Today it’s a jerk in an elevator. Last week it was golf. Next week?

I hope next week it isn’t the horrific attack that some insane Jihadist group made against an American target.

It was just two years ago that Benghazi was attacked. Regardless of your current state of hero worship, I’d like to point out that this administration violated what I consider to be a sacred trust and abandoned the people on the ground to the hordes.

The attack in Benghazi went on for 13 hours. In that time you could easily have brought in armed drones, aircraft from Italy (it’s really close to Libya – go look at the map,) and started moving forces to rescue the Americans in Libya. Instead the president took a nap so he’d be fresh when he got to Las Vegas for a fundraiser. The Secretary of State? Well, what difference does it make at this point. (Her words…)

I am disgusted with our media for brushing this off over the past two years. The fact is that we may not have been able to save a single life in Libya even if we’d mobilized and gotten everyone ready to react. But since we sat on our hands, and our president was absent from the situation, we’ll never know.

Here’s an intel tip for the clown squad in the White House: Jihadists like anniversaries. And every other day as well. Perchance this would be a good week to have extra forces on standby to go to the Middle East? Embassies on heightened alert? Extra assets on the ground, either in uniform or plain clothes? Maybe even a dash of extra security at major facilities in our country that are vulnerable to attack would be in order.

No, instead I fear that we will get none of the above and so it will continue. Our feckless leader will ask, in prime time, for us to join in a coalition with Arab states to combat ISIS. We will talk about aid, training, perhaps even outreach to the Islamic world.

Let’s review history – yeah, that stuff is all a waste unless we have a leader who leads from the front.

But we’ve got “Back of the pack, Barack.”

Skip a meal, America. It’s time to be a little hungry. I hope I’m wrong, but the magic 8-ball says no.