Writing Motivation: Why I Chose this Genre

Writing Motivation: Why I Chose This Genre by Ron Clark

I’ve loved to read as long as I can remember. Some might call my preferences as eclectic, I prefer to say I prefer variety such as action/adventure, biography, dramatized history, history, epic novels such as those by J.R.R. Tolkien, and even Stephen King.

Which brings me to my choice of writing genre.

For years I tried to read the latest novel by Stephen King, but sometime ago his use of profanity caused me to put down his novels and never pick up another. I’m not a super prude and I spent forty-two years working as a pharmacist, serving the public, the majority of them were great people and others could be really mean. Try telling someone who is abusing a narcotic medication that it’s too soon to refill their prescription. Hell hath no fury like… anyway, I’ve experienced life and its ups and downs.

Since I made the decision to read “profanity free” I’ve had some trouble finding pleasure reading novel, especially action/adventure, because there is no rating system for books and most reviews rarely address this issue. There are good books available, but I decided to make sure my writing qualified for my personal selection list and that was my primary guidance while writing “Israel’s Treasure.”

My first idea came from references to a letter written by Jeremiah the prophet mentioned in the Books of the Apocrypha and the historical writings of Josephus, the Jewish historian. Both state that Jeremiah wrote a letter to the exiled Jews in Babylon telling them that he had transported the original Tabernacle and the articles of worship (the Ark, Table of Shew-bread, and the Menorah, and hid them on the mountain where Moses stood to look over the Promised Land.

That mountain would be Mt. Nebo located in today’s nation of Jordan.

Joshua And Caleb

Of course, I had to name the leading characters and it seemed natural to me to choose two of my favorites from Exodus, Joshua and Caleb, the only two men to spy out the land and bring back a good report. They also insisted that the Jewish people could defeat the giant people because God would deliver them victory. Great heroes and they were still around forty years later to lead in the battles that followed.

While writing I dedicated the characters to family members, with different names of course. I included some stories and events I experienced or were told to me by missionaries and pastors. My intent was to share the power of God, often times protecting his servants. When you hear a missionary tell you how supernatural beings, angels, protected them from attach, well, you get chills.

I suppose the question you have to ask is:

What happened to the Ark of the Covenant?

Nobody knows for sure and there are many rumors and claims. One adventurer declared he found the Ark on Mt. Nebo in a cave just as Jeremiah’s letter stated, but he claimed to have recovered the cave because the time wasn’t right for this discovery (that’s suspicious). Some say it’s hidden in an underground bunker in Ethiopia and others insist it’s in a tunnel under the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

All I know is that Indiana Jones didn’t find it.

“Israel’s Treasure” is a fun read, I hope, based on an obscure reference to the hiding place of the Ark. It is profanity free with Christian characters and some really bad antagonists. It was fun writing it and I hope you will consider taking time to read it, please leave a review it you do so.

God’s blessing to you.

R H Clark

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