by J.A. Webb | Apr 12, 2026 | Uncategorized
This is where I find the magic that inspired The Seekers Series.
Oh, by the way? If you were wondering what the magic system of the Seekers Series is? Hint: read your Bible. There’s more incredible . . . and incredibly REAL . . . magic there than any other book in the world! In The Seekers Series, I try to bring to life the same awe and wonder that those Biblical stories inspire, and the God whose movements those stories tell.
As a kid, I loved exploring the wild places, and was lucky to live in an area consisting largely of farm fields, but which still had a lot of wilderness for a kid to explore . . . and at a time it was still safe for a kid to wander.
Sad that subsequent generations had no such privilege.
The above photo is of a place not far from my childhood home, a long-abandoned chain of sand pits dating from the 19th century. They were dug during the construction of the railroads at that time- then left to the wilderness ever since.
I always found the place . . . well . . . magical. The wonder of the history of the place, and that it was left unknown and unattended for all the decades after, lit my imagination.
And this place, which we kids called Burr Oak after the predominant species of tree that grew there, is the very same Burr Oak that is featured in both Book two and Book Three of the Seekers Series, Inheritance and Interregnum.
Here’s a sample from Inheritance:
Leif lifted his face to the sky, the sun warming his skin, penetrating deep to loosen long-tensed muscles around his eyes and jaw. He stopped and basked in the sheer joy of it. Then he laughed and spread his arms wide as if to embrace all creation.
This terrain was so strange, these conical hills like some mysterious fantasyland, rising as if by magic from the surrounding plains. Who’d expect to see such here, and only scant miles from his hometown? Who’d have thought he’d be paid to hike such an idyllic landscape, the Burr Oak Moraine?
What he now walked through was primordial forest, dark and green, full of life, his footsteps cushioned by thick loam, fingertips playing along rough trunks awaiting his soon-to-be logging crew. The nut-producing trees once planted here now offered thousands of acres of prime hardwood. They’d harvest these marvelous specimens, enabling his family millwork to transform them into prized heirloom furniture.
This deal of a lifetime would save his family’s generations-old business, one sorely in need of saving. Advisor Haman already threatened to seize the enterprise, along with Leif’s parents’ home, if they didn’t produce dramatic results—and soon.
With the stakes this high, he refused to fail.
He crested a hilltop, stopped, and leaned his back against the warm rugged hide of an oak. Far below, the blue of the sky, the white of the clouds, and the greens, yellows, and reds of the foliage reflected in the sparkling silver bowl of an abandoned sand quarry, the multitude of hues broken into a shimmering kaleidoscope. The breeze carried crisp air, redolent of earth, sunshine, and growing things. He laid his head against the massive old bole as the sky peeked through gaps between its dappled leaves. With the green glow of sunlight shining through so inviting, he lost himself there, rising as if on the breeze now lifting those leaves, ruffling his hair.
An arrow slammed into the tree, vibrating its ominous note mere inches from his neck, and a clear, high voice called out from his right. “Don’t you move, or the next one’s between your eyes.”
Hey- how’s this for a mission? What say we gang together and make the world safe for kids again? Of course, that would require a complete reset of culture and morals . . . which would require a wave of national repentance and revival . . .
Okay! You had me at revival. Let go!
For my part, it’s my (admittedly unwritten) mission statement to join the battle for our civilization, and for the Kingdom, through the Power of Story. Small steps, admittedly, one person at a time, but that’s how organic groundswell movements happen.
Doubt it not. The Power of Story is not without influence. As I heard Seth Ring mention on Thomas Umstattd’s recent podcast, trends in narrative stories generally precede cultural movements—AND HELP SHAPE THEM!
So will you be joining the battle?
One way you could do so would be to share great stories with the people in your life. Stories that promote a Godly worldview, that help shape a healthy culture, that illustrate the good, the beautiful, and the true. Help those stories be discovered by the people they were written for!
The other side is promoting their worldview. Powerfully. Effectively. They own the corporate media, flood the world with their message. But we outnumber them- if only we’d join our voices to shout them down!
Will you help?
by J.A. Webb | Nov 30, 2025 | Blog post
Announcing the release of the new book covers for The Seekers Series!
Do I feel a little silly, you ask?
Yes. Of course I do.
Launch three books, not to mention a novella, share the cover images far and wide- only to then do a complete one-eighty? Scrap the old covers? Admit they were all a mistake? Publish all new covers?
It’s the kind of thing anyone with an ounce of pride would never do, much less admit. Good thing I have so little left 🙂
But seriously- why would I do such a thing?
Because I love you, the reader, more than I love appearances. And because I learned the old covers had been driving so many of you away, and I didn’t even know it.
Until a good friend had the courage to tell me, “You have a bad cover.” Thanks Thomas!
And another told me, “Your book didn’t look like one I’d enjoy, but then I read it. And couldn’t put it down.” Thanks Darlene!
What I’ve learned is this: the old covers were beautiful. I loved them, and will always be so very grateful to the illustrator who designed them, for all of the hard work she put into them. But they communicated the wrong impression of the books.
They didn’t, for instance, make it clear at a glance that my books are decidedly Christian fiction, among so many other things.
So, after hundreds of hours work, and no small expense, I hereby announce the release of the new covers for The Seekers Series! I think with these new covers, the Christian nature of the books is immediately obvious. They evoke a sense of the mysterious, of adventure, of epic stakes, of suspense, of light overcoming darkness in a future, oppressive world. Let me know what you think of them by replying to this email or commenting on the blog!
And keep in mind Interregnum: Book Three of The Seekers Series is now available for pre-order on Amazon– don’t forget to grab your copy and please, please, leave a review! Let me know what you think.
by J.A. Webb | Nov 3, 2025 | Blog post
Last week I was honored to be invited to appear as a panelist for the 2025 Faith and Fellowship Book Festival- and was even more honored . . . and shocked . . . to learn that Inheritance was awarded honorable mention for the 2025 Angel Awards in the Mystery/Thriller/Suspense category.
Thanks so much to FFBF for the privilege, and congratulations to all the winners of the 2025 Angel Book Awards!
Here is the FFBF official announcement for the 2025 Angel Book Awards:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 1, 2025
The Faith & Fellowship Book Festival Announces the Winners of this year’s Angel Book Awards.
Nonfiction
Honorable Mention – A Trustworthy Anchor: God’s Hope & Encouragement in the Storms of Life by Shirley Quiring Mozena
Third place – 25 Symbols of Christmas: Finding Jesus—A Devotional by Annie Yorty
Second place – Reclaimed: A Course to Guide You Through Betrayal & Infidelity Trauma by Stephanie Broersma
First place – Stitching Your Story Piece by Peace: A 13 Week Devotional Pursuing the Peace of God by Naomi Fata
Children’s ages 2-8
Honorable Mention – Little Sprout Says Yes! by Jennifer E. Terrell, Illustrated by Lissette Blanco
Third place – Phooey Kerflooey vs. The Fancy, Fancy Teacup: Phooey Tales, Spring #1 by Kristin Joy Wilks
Second place – I Don’t Like Kindness (Picking the Fruit (of the Spirit)) Book #3 by Dawn Caldwell De Wulf, Illustrated by Jen Grafton
First place – When I Talk to God, I Talk about Feelings
by Chrissy Metz & Bradley Collins, Illustrated by Lisa Fields
Children’s ages 8-12
Honorable Mention – Just a Piece of Stone by Mary Ann Hake
Third Place – Disaster! Around the Bend by P. Lynn Halliday
Second Place – Road Trip Redemption, Book 3 in Road Trip Rescue, by Becca Wierwille
First Place – Paws-itive Inspirations: 90 Devotions for Kids and Dog Lovers by Michelle Medlock Adams & Wendy Hinote Lanier
Young Adult
Third Place – The Painted Fairytale by Lara d’Entremont, Illustrated by Ellie Tran
Second Place – Ride a Summer Wind by Ann Cavera
First Place – The Revelation of Emery Audubon by Ann Roecker
Historical Fiction
Honorable Mention – Heidi’s Faith, Rugged Cross Ranch, Book 4 by Jill Dewhurst
Third place – Whatever it Takes: A Split-Time Sisters in Arms Novel by Sarah Hanks
Second place – A Song of Deliverance, The Singing Silver Mine, Book 1 by Donna Wichelman
First place – What I Left For You, Echoes of the Past, Book 3 by Liz Tolsma
Mystery/Thriller/Suspense
Honorable Mention – Inheritance, The Seekers Series, Book 2 by J.A. Webb
Third place – Waterfall, The Waterfall Mysteries by Linda K. Rodante
Second place – Death Under the Ice, Trouble in Pleasant Valley, Book 4 by Deborah Sprinkle
First place – Lethal Standoff by DiAnn Mills
Contemporary
Honorable Mention – Every Life Filled with Purpose, A Weldon Novel, Book 3 by Shelia Stovall
Honorable Mention – Take My Hand by Ane Mulligan
Honorable Mention – Love’s True Home, True Calling, Book 2 by Lori DeJong
Third place – Escape to Whispering Creek by Barbara M. Britton
Second place – Love’s True Measure, True Calling, Book 3 by Lori DeJong
First place – New Creations by Sarah Hanks
Speculative
Third place – Bronze Circle by Becky A. Little
Second place – Starry Starry Night, Time Passengers Novel by D.K. Till
First place – The Root of the Matter, The American Puritans, Book 1 by Lynne Basham Tagawa
Novella
Third place – Heart of Honor, Hearts of the West, Book 3 by Patience O’Brien
Second place – Nazar’s Journey, Time Passengers Novel by Paul T. Mascia
First place – Jingle Bell Matchmakers, from A Match Made at Christmas by Lori DeJong
The purpose of the awards is to promote excellent books with a Christian worldview. The fees help support the Faith & Fellowship Book Festival, whose purpose is to connect readers with Christian authors. The judges are independent avid readers and not affiliated with the Faith & Fellowship Book Festival. FFBF is an activity within the Mordecai Brown Legacy Foundation, a registered 501c3 charity.
by J.A. Webb | Sep 21, 2025 | Blog post
The above photo is the view from one of our pastures, and this is the exact place where Fragments: Book One of the Seekers Series was born. It was this very spot I had in mind, that I was in fact looking at, when I wrote Lars’s first solo scene in that book.
And do you want a behind-the-scenes tidbit? This was originally the opening scene of what was going to be a much different story . . . but as I wrote this passage something happened that completely blew me away . . . and forever changed the entire trajectory of the book.
And yes, before you ask, I’m the most discovery of discovery writers. It’s such a thrill to watch a story take shape as I write it- because, like you, when you’re reading the book for the first time, I, too, am seeing it for the first time as I write it, and have no idea what’s about to happen, what God has in mind for me.
What incredible fun!
So here it is- that very scene, excerpted From Fragments: Book One of the Seekers Series
Lars looked out over the farm, sighing with the satisfaction of a productive day’s work. The green hillsides shone verdant in the late summer sun while sweet, clean air filled his lungs, his heart swelling along with his chest.
It was such a joy to come here, soaking up the peace and the wide-open spaces, spending the day with his grandparents and soaking up the love, there, too. Besides, Not much he could do at the mill, shut down for inspection as it was.
He stood over Grandpa’s garden beds, holding Grandma’s vegetable basket in one hand while with the other he was just about to pick the reddest, juiciest tomato when a convulsion, something like a shiver, but deeper and more disturbing, shook him. A shadow passed over the sun.
Shading his eyes, he tilted his face upward, but the sky spread out as bright as ever, no cloud in sight. Not even a bird.
He rubbed those goose-pimpling shivers from his bare arms. From somewhere yet distant, there came the bark of tires on pavement. Beyond the eastern fence and far down the hill, a line of three official vehicles sped bullet-like toward the farm. At their passage, the tall grasses bordering the road shuddered in a long, rippling wave which reached even past the field fences, the crops there bowing beneath the blast.
The basket forgotten and left to fall bouncing among the bordering marigolds, he sprinted toward the house and slammed through the front door . . .
Want to read more? Fragments is on sale until Monday 9/22/25, or free to read on Kindle Unlimited, at least for a short time. Don’t miss out!
by J.A. Webb | Aug 10, 2025 | Blog post
I have some exciting news about both Fragments:Book One of the Seekers Series and Interregnum: Book Three of The Seekers Series
But first- recently, my wife took this photo overlooking one of our pastures. It so reminded me of a passage from my upcoming book, Interregnum, that I just had to share the photo with you . . . and that passage.
Well, to be perfectly truthful, this is two passages, both happening simultaneously but in two locations, and in both our intrepid Seekers are in grave peril, under siege, and harried by unseen, unnatural forces.
Now- these are both from the original rough, unedited draft- so no fair critiquing the small details!
So here they are, and I hope you enjoy reading them a much as I enjoyed writing them:
Robinson tread soft and silent through the dark, still forest.
The sole source of light overhead flickered in and out of sight as the skeletal fingers of bare branches clawed their way across the thinnest sliver of a moon-face, that illusory motion keeping pace with his progress through these unnaturally silent woods.
Ahead, the open forest floor spread out, striped with silver light and moonshadow. The black tree trunks marched into the distance until they merged, became one, a solid wall of darkness that neither moonlight nor vision could penetrate.
He raised one hand in signal to his team, then stopped to listen. Phillip and Thaddeus’s training had been good, and his team moved nearly as silently as those lads could. Nearly.
But not as silently as whatever were those things ahead.
It had been just a feeling, a glimmer of something out there, just beyond sight. The barest hint of a form melding from one shadow into the next. But it had been no illusion. There was something there.
Because now more movement appeared, flickering, rippling in the far distance, a line of march moving this way, as wide left and right as he could see. The advancing front was so massive it had to be dozens. Hundreds, even.
But hundreds of what?
With one raised finger, he again signaled. Presaged only by a barely felt air current, stirred by unseen movement, one of his men appeared to his right.
“Chief?” came the barely audible whisper.
He put his hand to the man’s ear. “Take a gander forward. Tell me if you see anything.”
“Don’t have to take a gander. I saw ‘em , too.”
“Yeah,” Robinson peered ahead, his eyes beginning to ache as he strained to focus on something that simply refused to reveal any definable form. “But what, exactly is it you see?”
Before his scout could answer, one of the tree shadows directly ahead, not two paces distant, began to unfold. Something massive pounced. Whatever was wrapped in that flowing shadow, it was so big and so heavy, moving so incredibly fast that it knocked him off his feet, airborne and whiplashed, then landing to skid backward a dozen feet on the leaf-strewn forest floor.
Where only a moment before he’d been standing, darkness thrashed and there came a gurgling cry.
[…] attempt to swim across would leave huge vee-shaped ripples in their wake, easily seen on such a glassy surface, so strangely still, as was the air. So still and heavy it made the hairs on the back of his neck rise, as if disturbed by the building electrical charge of some impending storm.
Far to the north, there came a kind of roaring rumble, as if that very storm was birthed in answer to that thought.
A storm wouldn’t be a bad thing, right now. Uncomfortable, certainly, and cold. But a bank of clouds to blot out the thin light of the moon, rain masking any movement in the resulting deeper darkness, would be well to their advantage. And would likely make the patrols all the less diligent.
Phillip searched for the source of that rolling thunder, echoing anew even now. But the sky above, and to the far horizon, was clear of any storm clouds, the stars sharing the deep, black expanse with only a handful of nearly motionless, scudding vapor trails, thin wisps of shadow across the face of the sharp-edged moonsliver.
Strange. From where could such thunder arise? Now with it this shuddering vibration in the air, just below the threshold of the senses?
And then began the whispers, trailing through the sky above like those vaporous clouds, swirling, searching, carving great racing circles through the heavens. And growing louder.
He shot a look at Thaddeus, whose own eyes had grown wide in alarm. “We must go now, no time.”
He waved Thaddeus to follow and began running, bent low, toward the trestle. It was the only way, the only place they had any chance of passing without being detected.
Though a thin chance that was.
No for the news. It’s midsummer and work is progressing well on Interregnum, scheduled to be available for pre-order by November of this year. It’s been such fun writing this series, and if you think the stakes ramped up in Book Two, Inheritance, then you have a real treat coming in Book Three.
But I don’t want to ignore the first book of the series, Fragments, an installment in the story near and dear to my heart, and to many of yours, judging by your emails.
So now I have two announcements about Fragments.
First, we’ve gotten a ton of market feedback, and a great deal, as well, from all of you. The current series covers, created by Jenneth Leed of Inkmarker Design, are gorgeous, and I truly love them . . . so dark and mysterious.
But that feedback has reinforced my own initial reaction to that design- that the icon evoked a sense of the occult. As you might imagine, that’s not a good thing for a Christian book. And because of it, people looking for a Christian-made story often get the wrong impression of mine.
So we’ve decided to do something about it.
I’ve put out a call for new cover concepts, and for the next few months, I’ll be giving the most likely candidates a trial run.
The first of these is currently up on my website, and also graces the ebook on Amazon. A sneak peek can be seen below.
Let me know what you think.
The other big news is also related to feedback I’ve gotten from you.
It’s probably no surprise to you when I tell you I’m no fan of big tech in general, or of big online platforms. In my stories, I do write about a freedom-killing worldwide tyranny in my stories, after all.
Many of you who read print books or listen to audiobooks (like me), prefer to support a variety of independent platforms, like Downpour.com, as do I, and print and audio will remain available wide- anywhere you buy books.
But I’ve learned that’s not true of those of you who prefer ebooks. Well over 90% of the ebooks I’ve sold are are purchased through Amazon (you really love your Kindles, don’t you!), and many of you have reached out to me, requesting that I make the books available through Kindle Unlimited.
So . . . your wish is granted!
Fragments is now available in Kindle Unlimited, and you can read it FREE with your subscription.
Be sure to let me know if you like it, and leave a review!
And keep your eyes peeled, watching this newsletter for the announcement when the other books in the series become available on KU, as they certainly will be.
