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AR Horvath's Fidelis Book 1 One of Birth Pangs Series AR Horvath's Birth Pangs Spero book 2 tolkien potter lewis Role Playing Game RPG Stage of Game After the Desolations

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"Spero is an imaginative fantasy that subtly instructs, entertains, and intellectually provokes the reader. It is fascinating reading. I'm definitely hooked on this series." Jean Heimann at Catholic Fire.

"...intelligent as well as inspiring..." Terry Barga at whattodoabout.com.

The first book in the Birth Pangs series, Fidelis, is Latin for faithfulness. The second book, Spero, is Latin for hope. Spero is an exploration, in fiction, of what hope is and why we need it. It is an exploration of what things are good to put our hope in and what things aren't. In the America of the future portrayed in the Birth Pangs series, all of the things that people have traditionally put their hope in have been brought low. There are no government agencies, no schools, and not even churches. In the face of daily perils, people have to figure out how where they are going to place their hope in dealing with them.

In the end, there is one daily peril that surpasses them all: death.

Spero is about people- even good people- putting their hope in lesser means to tackle lesser problems and being confronted with the consequences. Spero is a 'discussion' about our chief problems and what solutions, if any, are available to resolve them.

Interview Questions: The Writing of Fidelis Q 1.

February 28, 2008 in announcements, interviews by ARH

A while back I was given some interview questions and then had the interview only to have the audio lost.  (It was stolen in Argentina.  Seriously).  I still thought the questions were fun, so I’m going to answer them in text. Book 2 is 70,000 words long and I’m making decent headway.

Here is the first question:

“You have an educational background in theology, you’ve taught in high schools, you’ve been a truck driver for awhile, and you’ve even delivered pizzas for a short time.  With such a diverse background of occupations, how is it that we find you now writing fiction?”

Well, circumstances changed so that I came off the road to watch my children.  It is hard to write with all that noise, but I did manage to scare up some free time.  During one stage of the writing (the end) I had to get up at 5 in the morning for about 2-3 weeks in order to finally bring it to an end.

Fidelis really tracks with my background of experiences.  For one thing, I conceived of the book (and in fact, the whole series) while driving truck.  The thing almost came into my head fully formed.  Fidelis covers a guy traveling back to find his family.  He begins in New Mexico and has to journey to Indiana.  That is a trip I made by truck on numerous occasions and I began imaging what life would be like if I had to make the trip on foot.  Also, when you’re out on the road away from your family on a regular basis you really feel the pain that Fides (the main character) endures frequently.  Basically, my life has been doing what has to be done because it has to be done or my family would suffer… thus the truck driving, thus the pizza delivery.  That is what Fides is about, too.