Brian Cox: 7 Knights

My friend (and Brother Master Mason) Brian Cox published his long-awaited book earlier this week 7 Knights and it's available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble (amongst others).  I got my autographed copy last week when I went to see him speak at a local lodge.  I just got started into reading it last night, but I can tell you it's difficult to put down once you get started.  I'll no doubt have more to say about it once I get done.  In the meantime--congratulations to Brian on the publication of his first novel!

From the Publisher:

Recent West Point graduate Walt Tyler has nearly everything in life: respect as a successful quarterback, the affection of an attractive doctor, and a well laid-out military career. But Walt is plunged into the fight of his life when terrorists begin killing off the hidden network of Templar Knights, led by seven vital figures. Walt's grandfather, newly elected U.S. President Preston Tyler, one of the seven, holds the key to protecting the knights. He reveals to Walt the clandestine establishment intended to protect Christians during the last days. Having existed since the inception of the Knights Templar, the cryptic order of the Seven Knights has remained veiled for centuries. Brought up through history under the blanket of the Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, the Seven Knights maintain an exclusive membership of only seven men, powerful individuals including politicians, military leaders, corporate geniuses, and financiers from around the globe.

The sudden attack on the knights can only mean one thing: the antichrist is coming. In Brian Cox's gripping novel, Walt and Preston's desperate escape leads them along a modern underground railroad through the long-established safe havens of the Biltmore and the Hermitage as they attempt to discover by whom their death is being sought and how their centuries-old secret has leaked. Can Walt and Preston stop the terrorists before all Seven Knights are murdered?

Great Quote: Albert Einstein

"We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality."

~Albert Einstein

Todd's New Website

My author website at toddcreason.org just got a huge facelift.  Every year or two, we got through the tedious task of revamping and reinventing my website so it doesn't get stale.  It seems like we just did that, but actually it was nearly two years ago. 

You'll never believe this, but it's true--I did it all by myself this time.  It looks a lot cleaner, and not as dark and foreboding as the last one was.  I like it, but it still needs a few tweaks here and there, and I don't have all the content on there .  It is way less complicated now, and I can update it myself.  The only reason I started the blog was that putting anything on my website was such a nightmare it wasn't worth it. 

The last phase I'll finish up this weekend.  I need to finish tweaking the blog--and I really need a different name.  I've got nothin'.

Any ideas?

~TEC   

Famous American Freemasons: Volume III

I think I finally got it!  I've had a breakthrough!  It looks like this project is a go. . . finally.

It always starts the same way.  I start with about a hundred and fifty names of worthy Famous American Freemasons written on business cards, and a bulletin board.  I've sometimes spent weeks narrowing that list down to just thirty names.  I'll change up the categories, I'll take a few names out of the mix, sometimes I have to go back and find some more names. When I finally get those names and categories finalized, I tack those names down, and hang the bulletin board on the wall in my cave--but the names and the categories often continue to change even as I'm researching and writing the book. 

It's not as easy as you might think, because there are a few things I like to do in each section of the book.  I like to include a couple names in each category everybody knows well, a couple most people are familiar with but don't know that much about, and maybe one name few people would know--but should.  And I also like to cover several different eras in American history in each category too.  So basically, I make it as difficult on myself as possible.

I've had a terrible time getting this volume to work out to my satisfaction, and had pretty much given up on the idea there was ever going to be a Volume III.  In fact, I've made it widely known there wouldn't be another one. That's part of the reason I took some time off the midnight shift.  I decided to take a little time to sit back and try and decide what I was going to do next.  Another novel?  Take up another Freemasonry topic to write about?  Or finally finish the the Famous American Freemason series I started back in 2006? 

The decision is made.  I'm going to finish the Famous American Freemason series next.   

But that won't be the next book out.  I've got one done now.  I finished a novel over Memorial Day, A Shot After Midnight.  It's a sequel to One Last Shot.  We're just beginning the editing process on it.  It will be out in Spring of 2012.  So I'm shooting for a Fall 2012 release for the final volume of Famous American Freemasons. For some reason, I seem to finish fiction in the spring and non-fiction in the fall. 

So within the next month or so, my sunny blog will go dark again, the moon and stars motif will return, and the midnight shifts will resume.  I should be well rested, energized, and ready to tackle it by then. 

If you have a favorite Famous American Freemason I haven't written about yet, please feel free to email me at webmaster@toddcreason.org.  As I said, that line-up will go through some changes--it's just a starting point.  In fact, a suggestion a friend of mine made was the key to getting this line-up to finally work--it lead me to a whole new category I hadn't explored in the series yet. 

~TEC