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Just Published by Quinpinnacles Press
The Zealot
Book one of the Anvil Trilogy
a novel by R. LeRoy Green
Paperback: 408 pages
Quinpinnacles Press (Sept. 30, 2019)
ISBN 13: 978-1-947415-00-3
Price: U.S $16.95
When your most deeply held
convictions come into conflict,
they can tear you apart . . . .
The Zealot, a debut novel by career journalist R. LeRoy Green, is a story of faith challenged—a powerful psychological drama to which anyone can relate who has ever become disenchanted with a creed, a cult, an ideology, an organization, or an individual once held in high regard.
Calen Woodridge is a young missionary born in the faith and steeped in the rigid doctrines of his church—including the proclamation that its leaders spoke for God and were to be obeyed. Gifted and zealous, Calen seemed destined for a rapid rise to leadership until false rumors of misconduct reached the mission prelate. Without giving Calen a hearing, Prelate Garvey demoted him.
Dazed but undeterred and even more determined to make his mission a success, Calen worked to regain his unjustly tarnished reputation. Then a new prelate arrived who was quick to assume the worst about him.
When Calen refused to go along with other missionaries in his group on an excursion that was in direct violation of church policy, he was shocked by the new prelate’s reaction. Rather than commend him, Prelate Boyden made unfounded assumptions, censured him, refused to allow discussion, and reassigned him to mundane tasks at mission headquarters where he could be watched and kept out of trouble.
But Calen’s troubles continued to compound, his clashes with Boyden escalated, and his spiritual anguish intensified.
Upon facing a difficult personal decision, Calen made the decision prayerfully and acted as he believed the Spirit directed. But Boyden was outraged. He impugned Calen’s motives, questioned his devotion, and demanded that he recant or be sent home in disgrace.
How was it possible, Calen wondered, that a church leader could command him in the name of God to disobey the Spirit of God?
Which directive would Calen obey?
Could his faith survive the dilema?
And would he ever be able to face his family and friends again?
Excerpt from the Author's Preface
THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION. The characters are fictitious. The religious organization, Emissaries of the True Faith of Christ Jesus, described herein, is a fictitious church. The Epistles of Barnabas to the Anatolians and to the Nicomedians, as well as the Third General Epistle of Barnabas, quoted herein, are a product of the author’s imagination; no such manuscripts are known to exist.
The narrative of this novel, however, is based on a true story; the plights and conflicts encountered by the protagonist (as well as many of the story threads involving minor characters) are drawn from real life.
The reason for my decision to set The Zealot within the framework of a fictitious sect is simple: The story is not about a church. It is about the internal conflict, spiritual and psychological anguish, and character growth of a young man who confronts seemingly irreconcilable incompatibilities between his deeply held beliefs and his real world experiences….
On another note, in the course of writing this book, people who knew I was working on a novel would often ask me, “What genre?” That is a tough question. While the book has elements of several genres—literary novel, faith fiction, Christian drama, psychological drama, young adult, romance (the love story is a major thread in the book’s tapestry)—The Zealot does not fit neatly into most definitions of the standard categories. That is to be expected, because I did not write to a genre. I had a story to tell, and I have told it unconstrained by canon or convention, creating fictional characters placed in whatever real or imagined settings seemed appropriate to the telling. I will therefore leave it to readers and critics to ascribe a genre or generic hybrid to this or any of my works if they are so inclined....
— R. LeRoy Green
Aug. 15, 2019
To preview the first chapter of The Zealot, click HERE and scroll down.