by J.A. Webb | Sep 13, 2026 | Blog post
This photo is of a forest path that my buddies and I often explored, hiking along the river and seeking new and exciting camping spots.
Imagine yourself as one of us, tramping through the poison ivy, swatting mosquitoes while trees groan in an overhead breeze that never reaches the forest floor. Birds chatter in the distance, suddenly interrupted by the much closer scolding of a squirrel, balanced on a high branch, feet planted and neck extended as if about to launch himself your way.
And then you stumble to a halt when you come across this, in the middle of nowhere and with no logical reason for being there.
Then, a little further down the game trail, this.
Searching for an explanation, you climb a nearby rise to take the lay of the land. As you part the last willow fronds to peer ahead, this is the scene that is revealed, stopping your breath in your throat.
These current photos are a view of the same area I and my buddies haunted all those years ago, the only difference being that when we were kids, the approach remained intact, allowing us to cross the bridge (however unwisely) on the rotted 120-year-old timbers. Since those days, good sense prevailed, and the approach has been demolished, as you can see.
This is the same bridge that inspired the abandoned railroad featured in the wilderness escape in my book Inheritance, Book Three of The Seekers Series.
And just as I described it in that book, this is indeed a bridge from an abandoned railroad, though not for the reasons purported in Inheritance.
The real story is even stranger.
I won’t go into detail here, though I might at some later date, but the short version of the story is this:
In the middle of the 19th century, two competing railroads wanted to connect the village I grew up in with the adjacent county seat. The regulators, tired of the bickering, told the two railroads that whichever reached the destination first would be the railroad to which the regulators would give their blessing. And the race was on . . . and promptly lost by the builder of the bridge I just introduced to you.
There the ruins remain, lying in wait to surprise and intrigue new generations of intrepid explorers.
If you, like that group of kids who first discovered these forgotten ruins, love intrigue, adventure, and the thrill of an unsolved mystery— then you’ll enjoy The Seekers Series.
Check it out HERE
by J.A. Webb | Jun 7, 2026 | Blog post
Interregnum, Book Three of The Seekers Series,is now live in audiobook!
When I first began work on The Seekers Series, I knew the books HAD to be available in audio.
I’m an avid audio consumer myself, and have been for more years than I’m going to reveal . . . but I will give you this hint. I was so tired of books on cassette and CD that when a new company named Audible opened for business, I was one of the first 500 subscribers. Like I said. Avid.
And among all of thousands of books I have enjoyed since, there were a few precious gems narrated by truly great artists. Among those great narrators, one remained my consistent favorite year after year. His name is Stefan Rudnicki, winner of too many Nebula, Hugo, Grammy, and Audie awards to list, called by some “The Godfather of Audiobooks”.
So imagine my shock when Stefan judged The Seekers Series a project worthy of his talents.
Now- the crowning tale of The Seekers Series- Interregnum– is available everywhere, worldwide, wherever you enjoy your audiobooks . . . the story elevated to entirely new heights by Stefan’s performance.Check it out and please, let me know how you enjoy it!
by J.A. Webb | May 17, 2026 | Uncategorized
The Seekers Series. Hard men for dark times.
And hard times need even harder men—but our culture labels Biblical masculinity as toxic. Accepts nothing less than surrender. Softness. Leads our young men down the wide road of moral ambiguity, and eventually, total depravity.
How are we, as Bible-believing Christians, to fight back?
Several years I accepted the call to enter the fight using the Power of Story in the hope that my books might influence the culture . . . all while thrilling the reader. Filling a lack that I, as a reader, bemoaned every time I searched for a new book. It’s so hard to find exciting speculative fiction that honors our sensibilities. Our worldview.
Thus was born The Seekers Series—a tale of real heros fighting battles that matter. Seeking Truth. Opposing the Powers that seek to eradicate that Truth.
The newest addition to the Seekers Series, Interregnum, is now available in print and ebook, with the audiobook complete and available for pre-order later this month.
And for those of you who were Kickstarter backers, you already have your copies in ebook and audio formats.
The work on the illustrations for the Kickstarter special editions continues, now focused on Fragments and Inheritance. But I’m excited to announce that all the artwork for Interregnum is now complete, soon to enter the formatting phase, after which backers will receive their Kickstarter Special Edition ebooks and print books. Keep tuned to the Kickstarter message boards!
Here is a sample of one of the Interregnum illustrations. Yes, you heard me right. I DID say hard times. And hard men. And battles.
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.
