For the First Time in Blogging History ...

My publisher has given me the go ahead for my second book so I am going to put the planning, execution and completion of it online. I have no reason for doing this. It is has just gotten to the point that the only time that I have for myself what I spent on this blog. Since I inevitably set aside an hour or two a day for this I know that I will actually complete this book. And since I have set forth a little over 1600 posts in 8 months I have a lot of material to chose from.

A lot of people ask me why I don't chose an academic publisher as opposed to an outfit that publishes 'popular' but not best-selling titles. The answer is simple - they are the only ones that will have me. It isn't perfect but it is a step up from self-publishing and they pay an advance.

So what should I write about? Well, the truth is that I have wanted to write a screenplay about the real Dr. Seuss for a while (it is a fascinating story and a well known figure). But this isn't the time for that.

The question now is what should I do with this opportunity to write another book? I don't think I want to write about the Mar Saba document. When I look at all the most read posts that I have written over the last eight months there is only one topic that I can see being developed into a viable book project - the connection between the Imperial court of Commodus and the development of the Roman Church. The only problem is that I don't want to write a book which bashes Christianity, which necessarily means I don't end up with any readership.

I really think that in a 280 page book I could prove that Irenaeus and his associates had it in for the Alexandrian tradition of St. Mark. Yet there isn't a market for a book which argues that Christianity came from Egypt (or Africa for that matter). If I was black, yes I could have a best seller. But in order to do that I would have to 'fudge' the truth. I'd have to pretend that there is a possibility that Clement was black (lol). You know the kind of stupid book I mean.

Truthfully, I have nothing against writing a book so even stupid people can follow it. The problem is that the only market that would be interested in an expose of the origins of the Roman Church would be the Christianity-bashers. You know the people who infer that Christianity can be 'disproved' or 'debunked.'

I have never understood this any more than those who say that you can 'prove' the truths of Christianity.

So the question is - how do you speculate about Commodus, his mistress Marcia, his chamberlain Eclectus having a role in ensuring that the older Alexandrian tradition lost out to the new 'understanding' being established at Rome through Irenaeus's handiwork without it ending up taking cheap shots at the faith as a whole? Is even if this is possible the question remains is there a way of doing this and attracting an audience of 10,000 readers?

I don't know.