My Bible Fellowship Class was studying the book Nehemiah during the summer of 2014. I had taught it several times when during my years working as an associate pastor. More importantly, I enjoyed the leadership princip00les that filled the book’s thirteen chapters.
About the same time, I was getting rejection after rejection on a book manuscript; I was shopping. Agent and editors were saying my post civil war historical fiction was well written. However, my civil war/post civil war books just don’t sell. I was told there was a best a small niche market and at worst no market. The simply couldn’t take the risk.
Their suggestion was I use the book as a learning experience. It did prove I could write a full novel. It showed I had the ability to see a project through to completion.
The question became, what would I write?
I always loved science fiction. I also love the Bible and the great stories of faith. I thought why not combine the two? What about a loosely based retelling of the book of Nehemiah set in the future. Let me emphasize this is not a strict retelling of the book of Nehemiah, but using some of the events and plot line plus imagination to create a story of Christianity’s demise, revival, Mars colonization and first contact with an alien human race. Rebuilder has thirteen chapter just like the book of Nehemiah.
Can a race of human beings from another planet be alien? Great question that I am still answering as I continue to write the series.
I’ll write more about the book in the days ahead.
Jimmie Aaron Kepler is a novelist, poet, book reviewer, and award-winning short story writer. His work has appeared in over twenty venues, including Bewildering Stories and Beyond Imagination. When not writing each morning at his favorite coffeehouse, he supports his writing, reading, and book reviewing habit working as an IT application support analyst. He is a former Captain in the US Army. His blog Kepler’s Book Reviews was named a 100 best blogs for history buffs. You can visit him at http://www.jimmiekepler.com.
