This place inspired the upcoming Book 4 of The Seekers Series

This place inspired the upcoming Book 4 of The Seekers Series

by | Sep 13, 2026 | Blog post

The Bridge from a scene in The Seekers Series Book Four by J A Webb

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.

The Bridge from a scene in The Seekers Series Book Four by J A Webb

Then, a little further down the game trail, this.

The Bridge from a scene in The Seekers Series Book Four by J A Webb

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.

The Bridge from a scene in The Seekers Series Book Four by J A Webb

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.

The Bridge from a scene in The Seekers Series Book Four by J A Webb

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

Did Edgar Rice Burroughs, author of Tarzan, also create an anti-hero?

Did Edgar Rice Burroughs, author of Tarzan, also create an anti-hero?

by | Apr 20, 2025 | Blog post

The mucker edgar rice burroughs heroic stories for christian men

After writing the heroic tales of Tarzan and John Carter of Mars, did Edgar Rice Burroughs slip up and write an anti-hero?

As a kid, I sampled what was, even then, a set of dusty antique tomes with titles such as Tarzan of the Apes, The Jungle tales of Tarzan, and The Beasts of Tarzan. Though they never earned the top shelf in my bookcase, I enjoyed the books- rousing tales of heroic adventure and unabashed male chivalry. At least the earlier books in the series were, though I remember a few scenes from later books . . .

At any rate, one day while perusing the precariously stacked and mouldering offerings in a musty old used bookshop, I found another of Burroughs’s novels. One I’d never heard of. And likely one you’ve never heard of, either, though in the opinion of my teenage self, this story outshone the rest of the Tarzan and John Carter books combined. I still agree with that estimation, even today. This is the best of Burroughs’s works, and one you shouldn’t miss.

The Mucker was originally published as several separate stories from 1913 to 1916. The very large novel I happened upon was what we’d now call the Omnibus, including the entire series, and an epic tale it was.
My young heart thrilled at the adventure, and if it’s not too much of a spoiler, at the progression of the main character from nave to nobleman, from predator to protector. The kind of tale a man of any age can appreciate.

And even though my tastes lean toward the Speculative, there’s still something about this tale that draws me, even now, to revisit it. Perhaps it’s the epic scope of the story, perhaps it’s the non-stop action, but more likely it’s owing to the happily and unrepentantly extreme testosterone level- which is so high from first page to last that, even now, it’s oozing, running like molasses down the tattered old leather spine where it sits on my bookshelf.

Maybe it’s time to pull it down again, though several outlets now offer it in audio. Choices, choices.

So- our search for great fantastical fiction that Christian men can enjoy, though yet lacking a plethora of modern offerings, can as always, find satisfaction in the greats of the past. Like The Mucker.

May we soon bring you many new releases equally great.