Over the years, as I have both read and written a great deal, I compiled quite a collection of quotes from a wide range of people. These quotes and this collection of people ranged from great scholars and leaders, to simple ordinary people whom I knew personally. These quotes served as a Blast of Trumpets to me and as such I assembled them into a manuscript that while seemingly self-indulgent, also was intended to serve as a reference point from which the bedrock of my attitude and character was formed, it was also intended to hopefully serve as part of my legacy. After completing Another Last Day and its sequel The Advocate, two very personal stories reduced to fiction, I also realized that I wanted to share more of myself with my growing progeny.

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I was very excited about the concept of the collection contained within Blast of Trumpets, and with great anticipation, shared it with my regular publisher who also was excited with the project. Imagine my surprise when after submitting the completed manuscript, the review team indicated that they wanted me to dilute the content of that collection by adding a lot of my own original thoughts! While there were no issues with copyright laws or attribution, an internal company rule about originality content reared its ugly head. In other words, even though the vast majority of the quotes contained within these pages are part of the public domain and free of copyright issues in their utilization, the publisher wanted more “original” content from me before they would set it to print. It was my choice as to whether to delete material and/or add that much more of my own.

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For this reason, and this reason alone, I was forced to go back to journals, e-mails, and other correspondence in which I may have shared what I hoped would serve as a bit of inspiration. I actually started to merge these words into the original manuscript and was very unhappy with the result. I didn’t want Blast of Trumpets to be about me. So, after getting fairly deep into another draft, I realized that I had done nothing but dilute the very purpose of the original work, so it was back to square one, and off to an alternative publisher with that project in its original format.

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As a result, and looking to make lemonade out of lemons, I reviewed this new collection of “original” quotes and writings, and a thought began to germinate and some excitement built within me. The only question was could I really publish a book of my own thoughts and observations without having my kids think that I had become a total narcissist or at a minimum pretty full of myself?

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When a few of them either shrugged or said that it might be “kinda cool for the grand kids” I felt like I had been granted the necessary license to proceed with the project. So with a  different perspective and renewed energy, it was once again back to the personal journals, archived e-mails, church talks, and scraps of paper under paperweights on my desk and even a notebook or two of original writings, and this is the result…an independent collection of my own thoughts. I hope you like it and that some part of it even resonates with you.