James Alan Anderson
.
I am presently 77 years old, long since retired, and I still possess most of my physical and mental faculties. I developed a passion for electronics and radio communication in the early 1960s, and that led to a career as a professional engineer in the field of telecommunications after graduation from university. I have been married to my wife Julie for nearly 40 years and we have three adult children and three grandchildren: Michael, Vianne and William. I am an electronics hobbyist, I hold an amateur radio license, and have been on the air for over three decades. I used to scuba dive in my younger years and my wife and I made a number of trips south to a few exotic locations so that I could engage in that passion. I try to keep in shape by taking some extended cycling outings whenever the weather is favourable. We also did a fair bit of canoeing and camping when our kids were younger.
I began The Threefold Cord Series in June 2015 after reading a portion of an e-book account of one person’s trials and tribulations he suffered as a youth due to the toxic family environment brought about by his parents’ membership in the Worldwide Church of God. His account resonated strongly with me as my wife and I had been long-time members of that radical religious sect. Then out of the blue something suddenly occurred to me: perhaps I could write a fictional story based on somewhat similar circumstances as that particular author had described in his book.
I had previously written numerous articles and manuscripts, mostly about abuse in high-controlling religious sects, and how my wife and I had been duped, lied to, and financially exploited by the Worldwide Church of God. After we exited that church in 1998, I engaged in a process of extensive research into the inner workings of both our former church and other high-controlling religious organizations. What I wrote as a result of that research was never published, and only one of my writings was long enough to be classified as a full-length book. After that, I wrote comparatively little until the first book in what would become the Threefold Cord Series got under way.
All of my previous written endeavours were non-fictional accounts, and it was a bit of a stretch for me to think that I could successfully undertake writing a fiction story. But as I had the inspiration, plenty of background material and experiences from our many years in a cult-like church environment, I was confident that I could pull off my ambitious writing project. I had no idea where this writing project would take me, and I most certainly didn’t foresee the eventual creation of multiple sequels to the original story.
Some of the events depicted throughout the story series were inspired by real happenings, including a few of my own childhood acts of mischievous behaviour. The fireworks incident in Part 1 (Book 1) actually happened albeit with somewhat less dramatic effect than what is depicted in the story. The air rifle “ass-assin” episode in a later chapter also has a real-world equivalent. And one of my characters in Book 4 reenacts one of the stupidest things I ever did as a child - a bizarre incident that involves a clothesline.
While it is best to read the books in sequence, each of the sequels can be read on an individual basis, in particular Book 4 - Breaking Point, and Book 5 - Menace From the Past. Both of the latter sequels incorporate a detailed Prologue that puts the reader completely in the picture as to past happenings.
The Threefold Cord series contains several story threads, the most predominant of which is the subject of religious cults, and specifically, the damaging effects of such religious organizations on young people. However, since the series is also a coming-of-age saga, I have had to balance the subject of religious cults with the everyday happenings that all young people experience as they mature into adulthood. It can be a tricky balancing act indeed to weave together the mundane components of everyday life with the traumas that some of my characters have to deal with due to their troubled past lives, as well as including some humour, suspense, mystery, tragedy, and even some magical realism. Fantasy and reality often co-exist throughout the series as telepathic communication and psychic phenomena are featured.
One of the more perplexing aspects of the publishing process was determining the design of the book covers. For the Threefold Cord Series, I wanted something radically different from the norm when it came time to submit designs for the cover art. I noted that many books employ striking graphic cover imagery, so I decided to take the opposite approach with my “blue book” motif, namely a sky blue cover and simple graphics. Those graphics consist of a three storey house that was modelled after an actual turn of the century house in Winnipeg where my aunt and uncle used to live (Book 3), as well as AI computer generated portrait images for Books 1 and 4. However, I decided to depart somewhat from the designs for the first four books for Book 5, and I will be doing an equivalent cover design for Book 6.
As I am resident in Canada, I have used Canadian spelling for certain words such as humour instead of humor, honour instead of honor, favourite instead of favorite, and so forth.
Regardless of future sales figures, the creative writing endeavour has been very rewarding for me personally. Since the manuscripts had already been written (six of them) prior to publication, publishing at least a few of them has been a measure of success in itself.
I am presently 77 years old, long since retired, and I still possess most of my physical and mental faculties. I developed a passion for electronics and radio communication in the early 1960s, and that led to a career as a professional engineer in the field of telecommunications after graduation from university. I have been married to my wife Julie for nearly 40 years and we have three adult children and three grandchildren: Michael, Vianne and William. I am an electronics hobbyist, I hold an amateur radio license, and have been on the air for over three decades. I used to scuba dive in my younger years and my wife and I made a number of trips south to a few exotic locations so that I could engage in that passion. I try to keep in shape by taking some extended cycling outings whenever the weather is favourable. We also did a fair bit of canoeing and camping when our kids were younger.
I began The Threefold Cord Series in June 2015 after reading a portion of an e-book account of one person’s trials and tribulations he suffered as a youth due to the toxic family environment brought about by his parents’ membership in the Worldwide Church of God. His account resonated strongly with me as my wife and I had been long-time members of that radical religious sect. Then out of the blue something suddenly occurred to me: perhaps I could write a fictional story based on somewhat similar circumstances as that particular author had described in his book.
I had previously written numerous articles and manuscripts, mostly about abuse in high-controlling religious sects, and how my wife and I had been duped, lied to, and financially exploited by the Worldwide Church of God. After we exited that church in 1998, I engaged in a process of extensive research into the inner workings of both our former church and other high-controlling religious organizations. What I wrote as a result of that research was never published, and only one of my writings was long enough to be classified as a full-length book. After that, I wrote comparatively little until the first book in what would become the Threefold Cord Series got under way.
All of my previous written endeavours were non-fictional accounts, and it was a bit of a stretch for me to think that I could successfully undertake writing a fiction story. But as I had the inspiration, plenty of background material and experiences from our many years in a cult-like church environment, I was confident that I could pull off my ambitious writing project. I had no idea where this writing project would take me, and I most certainly didn’t foresee the eventual creation of multiple sequels to the original story.
Some of the events depicted throughout the story series were inspired by real happenings, including a few of my own childhood acts of mischievous behaviour. The fireworks incident in Part 1 (Book 1) actually happened albeit with somewhat less dramatic effect than what is depicted in the story. The air rifle “ass-assin” episode in a later chapter also has a real-world equivalent. And one of my characters in Book 4 reenacts one of the stupidest things I ever did as a child - a bizarre incident that involves a clothesline.
While it is best to read the books in sequence, each of the sequels can be read on an individual basis, in particular Book 4 - Breaking Point, and Book 5 - Menace From the Past. Both of the latter sequels incorporate a detailed Prologue that puts the reader completely in the picture as to past happenings.
The Threefold Cord series contains several story threads, the most predominant of which is the subject of religious cults, and specifically, the damaging effects of such religious organizations on young people. However, since the series is also a coming-of-age saga, I have had to balance the subject of religious cults with the everyday happenings that all young people experience as they mature into adulthood. It can be a tricky balancing act indeed to weave together the mundane components of everyday life with the traumas that some of my characters have to deal with due to their troubled past lives, as well as including some humour, suspense, mystery, tragedy, and even some magical realism. Fantasy and reality often co-exist throughout the series as telepathic communication and psychic phenomena are featured.
One of the more perplexing aspects of the publishing process was determining the design of the book covers. For the Threefold Cord Series, I wanted something radically different from the norm when it came time to submit designs for the cover art. I noted that many books employ striking graphic cover imagery, so I decided to take the opposite approach with my “blue book” motif, namely a sky blue cover and simple graphics. Those graphics consist of a three storey house that was modelled after an actual turn of the century house in Winnipeg where my aunt and uncle used to live (Book 3), as well as AI computer generated portrait images for Books 1 and 4. However, I decided to depart somewhat from the designs for the first four books for Book 5, and I will be doing an equivalent cover design for Book 6.
As I am resident in Canada, I have used Canadian spelling for certain words such as humour instead of humor, honour instead of honor, favourite instead of favorite, and so forth.
Regardless of future sales figures, the creative writing endeavour has been very rewarding for me personally. Since the manuscripts had already been written (six of them) prior to publication, publishing at least a few of them has been a measure of success in itself.
