About the Book
Book: War Songs
Author: Brett Nelson
Genre: Contemporary Christian Fiction/Spiritual Warfare
Release Date: February 6, 2022
Trigger Warning: WAR SONGS is free of profanity and sexual situations (There is some mild slang terminology spoken by fallen angels and certain human characters, ex: c**p, w**re, etc). Also, there is one short scene in the book that depicts violence with very minimal graphic details that could be triggering and/or upsetting for some readers.
There is an invisible realm around us that we can neither discern with our eyes nor hear with our ears. This invisible realm is where the powers of darkness and light reside. They can see and hear us, but we cannot see and hear them.
Jenner Alekson is a leader in his praise and worship band that travels extensively in the tri-state area of Cape Kennington, North Carolina. He makes little money in his chosen profession, yet the rewards he reaps in obedience to his call of ministry are eternal, and that’s enough for him.
Always happy with all aspects of his existence, Jenner is blindsided when his life suddenly catapults into turmoil, and he is thrust into a crossroads where discontentment, anger, and loss of desire to carry the gospel with his song takes root in an otherwise sheltered and stable life.
Unbeknownst to Jenner, his wife Hyacinth, and best friends Camden and Lucas, a spiritual war rages around them. The powers of darkness will try their best to derail Jenner’s spiritual walk, his marriage, his ministry, then ultimately his life.
Meanwhile across the country, rough and gruff long-haul trucker Arnold Collins leads a different kind of life. He’s a recovering drunk who chases women and is unhappy with an unloving, belligerent wife who could out-cuss any man who ever dared to challenge her. Without a warm and inviting place to call home, Arnold prefers the wide-open road before him.
As he rumbles across the terrain of small-town America one lonely night in his eighteen-wheeler, grumbling about his unfulfilling lot in life, he happens upon a radio preacher. Not interested in religion, he flips past the station with mutters of disdain, but for reasons he cannot explain, he is compelled back to it and hears a sermon he doesn’t understand but can’t get out of his mind.
Will the schemes of the powers of darkness pull Jenner away from the faith that means everything to him? And will the same powers prevent Arnold from finding the faith he needs but never wanted?
Heaven and Earth, light and dark, good and evil, are about to collide in ways Jenner and Arnold and those they love could never imagine.
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About the Author
Brett Nelson is an Amazon TOP 5 BEST-SELLING author. “When Raindrops Fall” and “War Songs” hit #4 and #2 respectively in the Christian fiction genre, and “A Christmas to Live For” hit #9 in Christian Fiction. He lives in Arkansas, where he was born and raised. He wrote his first novel in 2012, just to see if he could. His goal is to write stories of fiction that are clean, easy to read, fun, and that injects a layer of his faith into every novel. In short, he desires that his readers would finish every novel having experienced a tapestry of emotions from a good healthy cry, fits of amused laughter, soul-splitting inspiration, and everything in between. He has published five novels to date. Book #2 to “War Songs” will publish in Spring 2024, and he is also currently working on Book #2 for “When Raindrops Fall.”
His novel “A Christmas to Live For” won the Readers’ Favorite Gold Medal in Christian Fiction in 2021, and “War Songs” won the Global Book Awards Silver Medal in Christian Fiction in 2022.
Other than writing, reading is one of his favorite things to do on a lazy, rainy day (or a sunny day, or at the beach, or…well, you get the picture).
He enjoys reading the novels of lesser known authors, because you never know when you’ll uncover a new favorite.
More from Brett
“War Songs” was my fourth published novel, and I wrote it because I love books about spiritual warfare. The few that I’ve read, though, lean more on the occultic side than biblically based, which was what I wanted. Spiritual warfare isn’t pictures falling off walls for no reason, or seeing a shadow in the corner, or things that go bump in the night, which is how books that I’ve read tend to depict the subject of spiritual warfare. So, I decided to tackle the subject for myself and write a novel that I would want to read. I’m blessed to have received amazing email feedback about the book from all over the country and even from readers in Pakistan, Germany, the UK, and Canada.
One question that I’m asked a lot is how I came up with the unique angel and demon names (ex: Animi, Mataio, Roga, and Mortol, just to name a few.) In the book, I gave each demon a specific job and/or specialty (discouragement, anger, etc) then I researched the Hebrew/Greek root words for the emotions that the demons represented and created a name based off the root word. It made for some great demon names, even if I do say so myself.
As an author, I rarely use the names of people I personally know in my books. I like to use unique character names that no one in my life has, hence the names of my main characters in “War Songs,” Jenner and Hyacinth. To help find character names, I often go to baby name websites and search until just the right unique name comes along, and the minute I see it, I just know that will be the character’s name. That said, I have given a few special people in my life a shoutout in the books by using their name for a smaller secondary character then giving the character an outlandish personality that is nothing like the person whose name I used.
Author Interview
Are you a plotter or a pantser?
Sarah – Thank you for inviting me onto your blog.
I’m not as rigorous of a plotter as some writers, but New York Times Best-Selling inspirational author Katherine Spencer gave me a little friendly advice once when I asked about how she combats writer’s block, and I’ve always kept her answer in mind. She said something like this: “If you find yourself constantly getting stuck in your plot and don’t know where to take it, then you’re not plotting your book well enough BEFORE you start writing.” I’ve learned that it’s among the best advice a writer can receive.
There are two types of authors: Plotters and Pantsers. Plotters plot every aspect of their book before they start writing. As they write they don’t have to stop and think for long periods of time about what’s coming next because they’ve taken the time to plot properly.
Pantsers, on the other hand, “fly by the seat of their pants.” They don’t plot and make up their story as they go.
For me, I land somewhere between plotting and pantsing. I’m not as vigorous with plotting as some but before I start a new novel, I like to know how the story starts, how it will end, and all the major plot points I want to hit throughout the story. I also want to know all subplots and how they will eventually weave into the main story.
It takes a lot of time to plot before you start writing, but it really does speed up the writing process and reduces the risk of a major writer’s block down the road. It’s my goal to become a better plotter.
Do you have a favorite or special place to write?
I typically write from home, though I love today’s technology that allows authors to write from anywhere. I live in the South, which means it’s too brutally hot for nine months out of the year or too cold for two months out of the year for comfortable outdoor writing, so most of my writing happens indoors.
I’ve tried writing from a local coffee shops/other small businesses a few times, and I took my laptop to the beach once and once on a cruise, thinking that the change of scenery would be a cool way to invigorate my creativity Plus, there’s the whole Hallmarky feeling of writing in a quaint local coffee shop, don’t you think? I found, though, that none of that worked for me.
In the coffee shop, there was just too much chatter and the constant flow of customers coming in and out. I found out quickly that busy public places aren’t ideal for me. I need a quiet space to write that’s free of distraction. At the beach and on the cruise, I was on much-needed vacations and there was, again, too much distraction to get considerable writing done. I finally realized that my mind needed the vacations and the mental downtime more than I needed to write a few pages.
So, in short, writing from home is where all the magic happens for me.
Describe your book in five words.
Oh, goodness. Do you know how difficult it is to describe a book in five words? But I’m up to the challenge. The five words I would use to describe War Songs is:
1) Spiritual Warfare (okay, that’s TWO words, but I don’t know how that say that in only one word). I’ve had so many people, especially at in-person author events, who think War Songs sounds like an interesting premise yet they’re nervous to read it because it’s spiritual warfare. I don’t totally understand the hesitation of Christians to read spiritual warfare books. As Christians, we’re best equipped to handle what the enemy throws at us if we understand how it operates. For some reason, people seem to think that spiritual warfare is a type of horror book since it contains angels and especially fallen angels (aka: demons). Once I explain that its not a horror book and what it really is, most people are excited to pick it up and give it a try. So, for anyone on the fence, give it a try! War Songs is a family drama and most Christians, male or female, would enjoy it, I think.
2) Drama, but not in an overdramatic way. It’s a family drama that focuses on a worship leader in a non-famous regional worship band. Jenner loves worshipping God through music, yet he finds himself in a season of discontent which impacts his behavior and attitude in sometimes negative ways. Unbeknownst to him, he is under a spiritual attack. In War Songs, he and the other characters don’t get to see what is happening around them in the spiritual realm, but readers get to watch as the spiritual realm interacts with the humans in the physical realm.
3) Salty – Arnold and Alice are secondary characters in War Songs, and unlike Jenner and his wife Hyacinth who are Christians, Arnold and Alice are not. They are in a crumbling marriage and are more than a little snippy and “salty” with each other. Alice is bitter and wants nothing to do with religion, but Arnold finds himself drawn to it in subtle ways and he finds himself questioning why he suddenly wants to believe in God but can’t. A series of events and people are instrumental in drawing him in. (NOTE: Book Two in the War Songs series will publish in Spring of 2024, and it focuses on Alice and Arnold and why are the way they are. It’s a dual timeline novel that splits between their lives in the current day and flashback to their lives in the early 70s).
4) Relevant – War Songs is relevant to today’s Christians because more than ever it is pertinent that we be aware of the schemes of our enemy (Satan). Time is getting short. The Lord is calling us home soon, and Satan and his evil army knows it. I don’t want to be “one of those people” who thinks that everything bad that happens to us happens because Satan did it or because we’re under spiritual attack. We must be careful not to give Satan too much credit for the bad things that happen in our life. Sometimes God allows bad things to happen to us—we may not always understand, but He’s always in control and knows what He’s doing even when we don’t (think of Job in the Bible). Sometimes bad things happen to us because of poor decisions we make. Sometimes bad things happen because we live in a fallen world, and God never said that we Christians would be immune from bad things happening. We also need to understand that there is a spiritual realm that operates around us. Discernment is crucial in all aspects of a believers’ life.
5) Accurate to scripture. I’ve read a couple of spiritual warfare books written by smaller, no-name authors, and I was very unimpressed with their books because of the way they portrayed spiritual warfare. It’s not things that go bump in the night, like pictures falling off the wall for no reason or shadows flickering across the room but nothing is there when you turn to look. That’s an occultic version of spiritual warfare. Since I find the topic of spiritual warfare interesting but couldn’t find anything worth reading, I decided to write one myself that aligned more with what scripture says it is. To be clear, I do take some literary license in writing certain scenarios (hierarchy in the spiritual realm, and how angels and demons interact with humans) because the amount of information available to us in the Bible is limited. I did my best to write it in a way that aligns with Biblical precepts as I understand them, but as with anything, some scenarios may require readers to keep an open mind and remember that with fiction novels, even Christian Fiction, authors usually take certain liberties to propel a book forward and make it more interesting. At the end of the day, I wanted to give readers a thought provoking and entertaining read.
Do you prefer traditional books, ebooks, or audiobooks?
It kind of depends. For my very favorite authors whose books I collect (Mary Higgins Clark, Katherine Spencer, John Grisham, etc) I like to read hardback books. In general, I’ve always preferred physical books, but I’ve learned to appreciate eBooks, and for the past few years I’ve actually read more eBooks than physical books.
I like eBooks because I enjoy reading Indy authors and trying new-to-me authors, and eBooks are a great way to do that because, for one thing, eBooks are usually cheaper, so it’s not a huge drain on my finances if I shell out a few bucks on an author I’ve never read and end up not caring for the book. Also, I tend to read several books a month and I just don’t have enough storage to accommodate the volume of books I read in a month’s time, so eBooks take up a lot less shelf space.
As for audiobooks, I’ve tried them but I’m not a fan. My mind can’t concentrate on them, and I wind up listening to the same chapters over and over because my mind wanders. Plus, I’ve never listened to an audiobook where I enjoyed the narrator’s voice. The only way I can enjoy an audiobook is if I read a physical book along with it, which defeats the purpose of an audiobook. But, who knows. Maybe with time I’ll grow into a fondness for them like I did for eBooks.
If you could live inside a book, which one would it be?
If I could live inside a book series, it would be Katherine Spencer’s Cape Light series. It is an inspirational series that takes place in a small coastal Village called Cape Light. I love the atmosphere of the coastal village and the characters are charming. I would love to live there.
What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
For aspiring authors who want to write a book, the biggest piece of advice I could give is to stop procrastinating, and just do it. Stop wondering if you can, and just do it. Honestly, you’ll never know if you can write a book until you sit down and try.
I would recommend finding some writer’s conferences. They can be time and financial investments for an author, but I’ve learned so much, both from the writing aspect and from the business side of things, at conferences. If an author is serious about writing, especially if you want to make it a career, it’s an investment worth making.
Also, there are lots of free resources on YouTube where you can get great writing information. As with anything on social media, you have to be careful who you follow and listen to because not everyone who releases a video is as much of an expert as they want you to think they are, so use discretion. I also recommend doing online research. Go to Google and type in “how to be a better writer” and other similar searches. You can find great articles on things you should eliminate from your writing, or things you should start doing, in your work to make it better.
Finally, this will sound like a crazy piece of advice, but it has helped me so much with improving my own writing, at least from the technical aspect. Read non-popular, no-name Indy authors’ books and take notice of any writing styles that annoy you (the more of them you read, the more of their annoying writing styles will pop out at you) and then don’t make the same mistakes in your own books. (The things that annoy me in Indy authors’ work, traditionally published, popular authors also make the same mistakes, so no one is immune). The weird thing is, the things that annoy me, I used to make the same mistakes in my own books, but they didn’t annoy me until I started recognizing it in everyone else’s work. Strange, right?
Some of the things that annoy me in novels are: character’s constantly rolling their eyes (because if a character rolls their eyes once in a book, it’ll happen fifty times in the same book), overuse of passive voice (eliminating this one thing from your prose will make it flow SO MUCH BETTER and sound so much less amateur), overuse of adverbs (rookie mistake that even famous authors make), overuse of exclamation points (exclamation points should be used very sparingly in your novel (like no more than once, or twice tops. Instead of exclamation points, use your words to convey emotion!!!), characters constantly laughing at things that aren’t funny, and character’s constantly smiling (authors often make characters laugh or smile to give them an action to perform and/or to break up the dialogue. Like eye rolling, this can become an annoying redundancy when overused, so find more ways than laughing or smiling to give your characters an action to perform.
Blog Stops
Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, February 8
Artistic Nobody, February 9 (Author Interview)
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, February 9
Texas Book-aholic, February 10
Fiction Book Lover, February 11 (Author Interview)
Locks, Hooks and Books, February 12
Guild Master, February 13 (Author Interview)
Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, February 14
A Reader’s Brain, February 15 (Author Interview)
Through the Fire Blogs, February 16 (Author Interview)
Becca Hope: Book Obsessed, February 16
Lily’s Corner, February 17
Pause for Tales, February 18
Blossoms and Blessings, February 19 (Author Interview)
Splashes of Joy, February 20 (Author Interview)
For the Love of Literature, February 21 (Author Interview)
Giveaway
To celebrate his tour, Brett is giving away the grand prize package of a $100 Amazon Gift Card, an autographed hardback copy of the book, and a bookmark!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.
https://promosimple.com/ps/29c51/war-songs-celebration-tour-giveaway
For the Love of Literature 