Chuck Black has written six books since 1999, which form a series that sets the Bible in allegorical form, as a Christian knight's tale.
Black refers to himself as average, “I'm really just an average guy with a heart for my family. The Lord has just really blessed me with opportunities to serve him - and my family.”
An average guy who sometimes stayed up until 3 a.m. writing adventure novels while he maintained a professional career, and helped his wife Andrea with home school.
He said he did it because he was searching for a way into his children's hearts and minds that would inspire them to read the Bible with zeal, to understand their Christian faith. To do that he needed to get beyond the occasional glassy eyed stares and bored responses he was getting with the usual methods. Black's six children were between the ages of two and 12 when he began writing. The usual methods were reading the Bible outloud during family devotion time.
Black went to bed one night searching for a fresh way to connect Christianity to his children's daily reality. “It came in the middle of the night,” he said. “I got up and wrote for hours.” He wrote in allegory about knights, and princes in a mythical kingdom. After that first night he said he wrote in spurts in a basement office, mostly between the hours of 11 p.m. and 3 a.m.
Setting his tales in the middle ages was a natural fit, said Black, because there is a lot of sword and armor imagery in the Bible that stems from the time of the Roman Empire. But today, “Medieval is what we think of when we hear words, such as double-edged sword, or put on the full armor of God,” said Black.
But how does one reconcile a religion based on love with a series of books of warriors and war, especially when the Catholic Church has itself apologized for the tragedies of the crusades of the middle ages?
Black embraced the question and said, “It was the single most challenging thing for me to resolve in this. I thought long and hard about it. I asked the Lord to stop it a hundred times, and to bless it, only once.”
Then Black said, “The way I dealt with it was by having the character of the Prince, who represents Christ, never kill anyone. And the other characters, well, the war and battles are more with evil, than with people.”
Black also said that the battle scenes are handled tastefully, with no gore. “I wrote them so they could be read to a six year old...to minister to young families.”
Another personal guideline Black gave himself was to avoid any use of magic, or sorcery. The miraculous or mysterious powers of tales told in the Bible he gave to the Silent Warriors or Secret Knights, forces who represent angels, said Black.
Black was born and raised in Williston. He has a degree from North Dakota State University in electrical and electronic engineering. He spent nine years in the U.S. Air Force as a communications engineer, and an F-16 fighter pilot.
By day Black works with his three older brothers at their Williston company, Stringliner, as a product-design engineer. And according to his book jacket biographical notes, his name, along with those of his brothers, is on eleven U.S. patents.
That first book he wrote of the Kingdom Series is called “Kingdom's Edge,” an abbreviated version of Jesus Christ's life, said Black.
The response from his children to the book was hard to measure he said. “However, it clearly opened their eyes to the reality of the war between good and evil and their role in God's work.” He added that the initial response was amazing. “Allegory works,” he said.
“Kingdom's Edge” ended up becoming the third book of the series because when he was done with it he turned to the Old Testament, and produced two more books set in the same mythical kingdom of Arrethtrae. They are called, “Kingdom's Dawn” and “Kingdom's Hope.”
Black continued to write to bring readers, young and old, fresh insight into Christian love and compassion. Next he did a fourth book called “Kingdom's Reign” that covered the story after “Kingdom's Edge,” through the book of Revelations.
The Blacks self-published the books through a Web site they created, and they also placed the books in all the Bible bookstores in North Dakota. “My wife Andrea was an English major, so I was lucky, she did all my editing,” said Black. They also sold the books to resellers at home school conventions.
“It started out very small, but every year sales have doubled,” said Black, who estimates that a total of 6,000 copies to date have been sold of the original self-published edition.
The books and the publishing grew to become more than he could manage. Black said, “I couldn't maintain my full-time job, and home school responsibilities, so I prayed.”
He also took action and with some research and help from a friend was able to interest Multnomah Press in the book series.
Black said, “They were wonderful to work with. They bent over backwards to accommodate an inexperienced writer.”
Having a publishing house like Multnomah, which focuses on Evangelical Christian books, behind the series made a difference in sales. According to Liz Johnson, Multnomah publicist, “The Kingdom series has sold more than 60,000 copies since the first three titles went on sale in May 2006.”
Black asked them to hold off on publishing the fourth book, even though it was already written because, “I felt there was a hole in the story - it was the life of Paul. I wanted a book focusing on him.” Paul's story inspired Black to write two more books to fill that hole. He called the books “Kingdom's Call” and “Kingdom's Quest,” giving the series six books altogether. The final three books were released this month.
Local artist Marcella Johnson did illustrations for the books. Black said she was instrumental in helping him depict some of the creatures in the stories.
The Blacks believe in this project. They retained the audio rights to the series and have produced an audio version using voice actors from Cheltenham, England, his daughter Emily to compose music, daughter Brittany to help with production and editing, and a nephew-in-law to produce.
The entire Kingdom Series is available locally at Books on Broadway, or through the Black's Perfect Praise Publishing's Web site, www.kingdomseries.com, or Christian bookstores in the region, or from the publisher Multnomah Books, www.mpbooks.com.
The series is enjoyed by children and adults said Black, and his audience is asking for more. He would like to do more and has ideas for another series in the same setting telling stories of the missionary work of spreading the message through individual knights.
All this from an average guy. If Black is an average guy than he's seriously affecting the curve.
Cheryl Sanderhill can be reached at life@willistonherald.com
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