Category Archives: Guest Author

Guest Author, Blog

Family in the Endgame

Guest Writer: Eric Anderson, founder of Nerd Chapel

This weekend Avengers: Endgame is re-releasing in theaters. I have teamed up with Scott Bayles and Nathan Marchand to provide content on each other’s sites inspired by the great film. Spoilers!

When we first met Tony Stark (Iron Man), he was a businessman who liked fast cars and lived for himself. Now as we enter the theater for one last big hurrah, and a huge one it was, all we knew is that he is stuck on a planet far away. We knew from trailers he seems to be stranded in space, and that is how we find him at the beginning of Avengers: Endgame. In deep space, he has no hope to give.

Captain Marvel finds Nebula and Tony on the last bit of oxygen and food they had left. Stark has even passed out and could barely look up to see her as she came to assist. His morale, like all of them, was so low, it wasn’t even reachable. They had lost and half the universe was disintegrated by the Mad Titan.

He is essentially carried home to Earth and painfully steps out of the ship dehydrated and barely able to stand. We soon learn how angry he is about everything. This was the man who had risked a one-way trip during the invasion in New York during The Avengers to save the Big Apple and stop an invasion; who tried to build “a suit of armor around the world” in Age of Ultron; who implored Captain America to stay on his side during Civil War. Now, it was time for, “I told you so.” Captain America had left him and wasn’t there to fall with him, even though he did protect Earth while Tony was away helping Dr. Strange. Tony is angry about the separation, but he’s also beaten and almost out of health points. Tony doesn’t even go with the team to face Thanos when they find out where he is. Dr. Strange had given up everything to save him, but when they first go to take the battle to Thanos, he is passed out in a hospital bed.

After finding out that Thanos has destroyed the Infinity Stones, they all come back cope with defeat and loss. Each one in his own way. For Tony, it means starting a family. He and Pepper get a house on a lake and begin raising a little girl named Morgan. Their form of coping is through family and solitude.

Family is an important theme in Scripture right from the beginning. Genesis tells us that Adam does not have a suitable “helpmate,” and so God creates a wife for him. God then tells them to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 2). As we continue reading, we find that many Bible heroes had families. Abraham had two sons, one of whom was born miraculously in Abraham’s old age. This same Abraham rescued his nephew Lot after he and many others were captured. David had many children. Unfortunately, he did not always make good choices, and so not all of them made good choices, either. Gideon had over 70 children and multiple wives.

We are not meant to live alone in isolation. Not all of us need to have five kids, but we should all have family of some form. Family can sit with us even without the words we need and still comfort us. They know what food will calm us down and how to make us laugh. On the flip side, we can fill those same voids for them on their rough days.

The other way Tony copes after all of this is solitude. In Psalm 46:10, we are commanded to “be still and know that I am God.” This means ignoring the five thousand needs to step away and pray. Jesus Himself stepped away and prayed in lonely places on many occasions. He sought a refueling from His Father in isolation. Again, family and solitude together.  

Finally, Tony’s solitude is interrupted by Steve, Natasha, and Scott with a wild idea. Tony blows it off at first, but it lingers. They go back to experiment without him, but he does his own research. Now, in much better health, he reluctantly rejoins the fight. They use Scott’s 12 percent of a plan and, with some more input for the plan, they get the Stones. While Bruce Banner is the one to bring everyone back, in the end Tony pays the high price of his life and a snap to stop Thanos once and for all. The man who started this journey 22 films and 10 years ago as a self-absorbed party animal gives his life to save the world. All he needed was to see the great needs around him and take a break from it with solitude and family before sacrificing himself to save this planet. It didn’t need “a suit of armor around the world,” but we did need an armored knight to accept the winning blow for the world. Nothing is more Christ-like than that.  

Short Stories, Science Fiction, Guest Author

‘House of the Living’ by Nick Hayden

'House of the Living' by Nick Hayden
‘House of the Living’ by Nick Hayden

You may recall a few may recall a few months ago when I did a “writer-ly exchange” with my friend Nick Hayden. We each wrote a story that took place in a world the other created. This resulted in my Christmas story, “The Discarded Gift,” a love story set in Nick’s fictional small town, Vienna. Nick took a little longer to finish his story, which he posted on his own website a few months ago. Now after letting it be exclusive to his site for a while, I am reposting it here.

It is called “House of the Living.” It was inspired by my novella Destroyer (which I co-wrote with his wife, Natasha). Here’s a synopsis:

When scientists stumble across the perfectly preserved body of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, the first question is: How? But as one scientist spends his life studying the extraterrestrial crystals that caused its preservation, his questions become deeper, touching his deepest fears of life and death.

It’s a haunting story, and a great expansion on the world of my novella.

You can read a PDF of it here: House of the Living by Nick Hayden

You can also download it as an eBook from Smashwords.

I like it so much, I may make a special edition of Destroyer that includes it as a bonus.

Guest Author

The kid I tutor made a ‘Modern Warfare’ video

I haven’t been talking about it much here, but about a year ago, some fellow TUFW writers/graduates decided to start our own writing business called Breakthrough Writing Services. One of the things we do is English/writing tutoring. I’ve been working with a homeschooled high sophomore named Alec for several months. Recently, he sent me a paper about what he did for Christmas break. He and his friends decided to make a video inspired by the new video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. It was posted on YouTube. I thought it was so good, I decided to share it with all of you. You can watch it below. Enjoy!

Nice work, Alec!

 

Fanfiction, Guest Author

A friend dreams a sequel to ‘Pandora’s Box’

A month ago, I was talking with my friend, Laura Brooks, a college freshman from Michigan, who told me she dreamed a sequel to my novel, Pandora’s Box, after reading it. I asked her to write this dream down so I could post it here, calling it a “fanfiction” (you know you’re successful when people write fanfiction related to your stories). What follows is a synopsis of that dream, written much like a story treatment for a movie. Now, believe it or not, I have been mulling over ideas for a sequel for a year, although this bears little resemblance to it. Regardless, this dream is entertaining. Enjoy!

(WARNING: If you haven’t read Pandora’s Box yet, there are some spoilers in this).

Pandora’s Box Dream
by Laura Brooks

It started after Hope went to visit the place she was found. After they had used her blood to discover the cure, she left to join to the armed force her mother was in. After one year of training, she could take down any enemy put in front of her despite the fact that she was just a simple recruit.  She went out with her superior officer on a mission. They were attacked by strange black creatures. They took down the creatures and were amazed by what they saw. They looked like people but had pure black skin, and bloodshot eyes. News struck of another infection.

Her commanding officer said that they needed to return to base immediately.  When they got there, they discovered that the base had been attacked, and everyone had been turned or slaughtered. They saw only one survivor, their general. The general told them to escape, but her commanding officer said he wouldn’t leave him behind. Instead he told Hope to run, but she refused and started fighting. With her blade and fists she knocked down or slashed every creature that tried to kill her. Both of the commanding officer and the general shouted at her for staying and kept trying to get over to her to help. That’s when she came across her best friend from training. She had been turned.

Hope didn’t want to fight her, but knew she had no choice. She charged and took down everyone in her path. Receiving wound after wound she looked to her friend and sadly said, “Goodbye.” She slashed at her friend but received a deep cut in the side as a result. She knew the only way she could survive was to kill her so she did what she had to. She stabbed her friend down. She had no time to cry over her friend for her commanding officer was being overpowered. She rushed over to his side and slashed one of the creatures across the stomach with her blade. But just when everything seemed to be going their way they were surrounded. The general said, “Looks like we’re not getting out of this one.” She responded, “I’m not done yet!” The creatures lunged towards them from all sides.  There was no escape. (This is when I woke up).