The Gumshoe - Check it Out!

The Gumshoe - Screenplay by Ray Starmann and Sean King
Fun premise for a series of Private Eye stories:

"Los Angeles, 1947; NICK MCGRAW, 35, a self-employed, hard-boiled private eye is on the verge of cracking the biggest case of his life, the murder of film actress, Veronica Davis. In the middle of the night, during a violent storm, McGraw is called to his office to speak with reporters who were tipped-off about the case. Unbeknownst to McGraw, the U.S. military is running a top-secret intra-dimensional time warp program from the top floor of his office building. The program is a continuation of Tesla’s defunct 1943 Philadelphia Experiment -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Exper.... After dismissing the reporters from his office, McGraw steps into the elevator as the storm rages outside. Lightning hits a series of strategically placed antennas on the roof; causing the elevator to act as a dimensional super-conductor. McGraw emerges from the elevator and stumbles out to an unfamiliar Wilshire Boulevard and the year…2011."

Check out the trailer!  Donations are being accepted but just trying to get word of mouth out there for these writers.  They wrote and produced Generation Gap for the Hallmark Channel, a wonderful heart warming story about a boy learning how to be a man from his grandfather, Ed Asner.  I hope to see much more out of them, they are very talented.

More Short Stories by Ray Starmann

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow Review

Lest We Forget Review

Two new Cole Madison stories by Ray Starmann, both very good.  If you click on the links and are interested in the books, which are currently only out on Kindle, the link to the book itself is on the right hand side.

Review of Double Tap a short story by Ray Starmann

Review of Double Tap by Ray Starmann

Ray is a friend of mine who is an author, screenwriter and producer.  He co-wrote Generation Gap which starred Ed Asner and was shown on the Hallmark channel.    He has also written a few books and is embarking on a series of stories featuring an American Private Eye working in Germany.

Ray served as an army intelligence officer for over five years on active duty. He was serving in Germany when the Wall fell and has an intimate knowledge of Germany that comes through in his books. 

Right now Double Tap is only available on Kindle, but hopefully in the near future it and other Cole Madison stories will be available in print as well.

The Fig Tree

There is quite a bit going on in Mark 11.  Jesus enters Jerusalem on the colt, he shows his unhappiness at what has been done to the Temple by clearing it of those using it as a marketplace and he countered the challenge of  the leading priests and teachers at the time by asking them where John's authority came from, heaven or human?  Very action packed and yet I have to admit, the part of Mark 11 I seem to get hung up on is the fig tree.  

Jesus was hungry, saw the fig tree full of leaves and went over to find figs.  Not finding any, he cursed he tree.  That has always seemed a little on the harsh side to me.  When I read this passage in the NLT, it say "but there were only leaves because it was too early in the season for fruit."  So why would Jesus even think the tree may have fruit on it?  This is one of those things that never quite made sense to me.  So this time I wanted to figure it out.  It was one of those "there has to be more to it than that" topics.

Apparently, on a fig tree, if there are leaves, there is supposed to be fruit.  Early in the season  there  is still fruit but it is not quite fig although still edible.  If there is no fruit at all at this time, there will be none.  This fig tree in Mark 11, had no fruit at all.  Jesus used this tree as a parable. There are a few different takes on this event, but the one that I found that speaks to me is from Joyce Meyers.  "if our lives revolve around the church but we have no fruit, we are not living our faith."   Something to think about.  What kind of fig tree do you want to be?  A productive one or a poser.   I guess what it really boils down to is that unlike the fig tree, we need to walk the talk.  Which sometimes is easier said than done, but definitely worth striving for.

Quote taken from "The Everyday Life Bible" commentary by Joyce Meyers.

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Let's try this again

Last year at this time my church, The First Church of God, was doing a 5x5x5 bible reading plan that went all the way through the New Testament in one year spending 5 minutes a day 5 days a week.  I had started blogging about the readings and my impressions, but I failed to keep up with it.   My small group is going to be doing it this year as our study guide, so I'm going to take another crack at it.  I made it through Mark and part of Acts.  If you want to go back to them, you can click here: January 2010 posts.

I'm hoping I do better this year.  I did complete the reading, just found it hard to post consistently.  I am somewhat sporadic with my blogging so I need to make an effort.