Today I welcome author and professor David Parks as he shares a new insight into an old story.

Donna@LiveByTheWord.com

I’m Dave Parks, an English teacher at colleges in Michigan, California, and China. I write to show how ordinary people in the Bible grapple with challenges.

My first book is The Boy Who Closed the Sky, a novel about Elijah the prophet.

I thought Elijah was old, as in the painting below by Tilemann (the second image, not the guy in the hat :)) Then I noticed he needed thirty-six years to deliver messages to three kings.

·      King Ahab reigned 22 years – “neither dew nor rain”

·      King Ahaziah reigned 2 years – “die in your bed”

·      King Joram reigned 12 years – “bowels will drop out”

In 866 BC, most people died before their fiftieth birthday, so I started him at twelve.

If Elijah could build a world, he’d make one where little boys threw wicked slave traders over cliffs then ran to the edge and watched them bounce on the rocks.

Light played off a blade lying next to the hammer and tongs. He ran a curious finger across its bright edge then slapped his long, skinny waist. How cool to strap on a sword for their next trip to the King’s Highway.

Dad frowned. “Not for my son.”

Elijah shrugged. Maybe twelve was too young He would ask next year. - p. 11, The Boy Who Closed the Sky

The Idea

 I was reading Kings and Chronicles, fascinated with Elijah and Elisha, Ahab and Obadiah, when I remembered “Elijah was a man with passions like ours.” (James 5:17)

Did he have a temper?
Get discouraged?
Notice the ladies?

First Words

 I opened my laptop and wrote my first words of fiction.

Twelve-year-old Elijah tries to rescue a slave girl. A few years later he challenges the king: “Neither dew nor rain until I say so.” (1 Kings 17:1)

He thinks anger motivates him, so the Lord’s “Hide at the brook” must mean he’s hearing things. Not until Moloch thugs have him hiding under a thorn bush does he pay attention to the Lord’s voice.

His brother Nathan keeps Elijah focused. “What did the Lord say? Exactly.” When Elijah returns from three and a half years hiding in Zarephath, does Milkah still live next door, or has she married the tanner’s son?

The story follows the Biblical outline, ending with a chariot of fire and the mantle falling on Elisha.

The first page:

Chapter 1. Wind and Fire

866 BC

The King’s Highway, Gilead

A shrill scream shot through the trees.

Elijah recoiled.

The wineskin slipped from his fingers, bounced off Nathan’s knees, and burst.

A robin fluttered up from the forest floor.

As purple wine puddled in the leaves, the camel puller sniveled.

“

Supposed to last to the Sinai.”

Elijah turned his back on the puller and raised a hand to shield his eyes from the sun. Thin clouds dusted the top of a light blue sky over an endless line of camels splooshing through puddles from yesterday’s shower.

Where the path climbed onto the plateau, a child stirred bees and locusts as she crept through the grass.

A long line of children lifted faces to follow the girl as she pulled herself along on hands and knees.

Behind the child, a thick man with red hair sauntered through the grass. His headscarf and cloak shared the cut and color of Elijah’s.

A leather belt like Nathan’s closed the man’s cloak. Except for his straight red hair, he could pass for a Gilead farmer.

Click here to read the entire Chapter 1. Wind and Fire

Click here to buy The Boy Who Closed the Sky.

Next Book

If the Lord wills and I live, the sequel comes out in the fall of 2022.

Friend of the King. Enemy of the Queen

Obadiah bloodies Ahab’s nose when they are kids and races him on stallions as they are growing up.

The adult Obadiah defends the land beside his friend, King Ahab. Yet Queen Jezebel is killing the prophets. The Lord challenges Obadiah to wake up and protect these good men from the evil queen.

Will he retreat into business-as-usual or defy Jezebel?

Fiction which follows the Bible.

About Dave:

·    I taught English at colleges in Michigan and California.

·    Delphine, my wife of 39 years, died of cancer in 2000, and I miss her every day.

·    Two years later, I married Vickie. Every day I thank the Lord for Vickie. See our smiling faces below.

·    2002-2010, we taught English at universities in China then retired ten miles from the Alabama Coast.

English Professor

·    Tsinghua University 清华大学 2007-2008

·    Chongqing Technology and Business University 重庆工商大学 2004-2007

·    Alliant International University 1984-1988

·    National University 1984-1988

·    Phoenix University (Jordan College) 1976-1980

Visiting English Professor

·    Yunnan Normal University 云南师范大学 2010

·    Sichuan Normal University 四川师范大学 2012

·    Chongqing Normal University 重庆师范大学 2001

Degrees

·    Bachelor of Arts - Greenville College, 1963

·    Master of Arts - Michigan State University, 1976

·    Doctor of Philosophy - Michigan State University, 1987

And now? A fiction author!

Connect with Dave online:

Stories from the Bible