The Fleece at the Door

June 8th, 2010

Well, I’ve all but made up my mind. The morning of Wednesday last week, I prayed that if self-publishing was not part of God’s plan, for Him to send all the crows that visit me somewhere else. Later that morning, I was on the 2nd floor, looking out the window. The sun had just come up and there, on the grass beside post 2, were all seven crows that visit me on the towers. I had never seen them all together so early in the day. The next day, as I was in my car leaving work, two crows were beside the entrance road. Never before had I seen them there leaving from work.
When I was getting my lunch ready this morning, I asked God if He could send more proof—to really cement it. I had to take 68 cups of drug test pee to Charlotte and I saw one fly over as I drove down I-485 and another one once I got on Harris Blvd. Then, I came back and I’m doing my first round of security checks. I just happen to look out the window toward the yard and there were three sitting atop a light pole.
I know what some might think—that crows are too common. They’re everywhere. Okay, if they’re everywhere, then answer me this—I was on Post 1 for four hours in the afternoon the day I saw all seven on the grass. In those four hours, I didn’t see a single crow. Now, you’re saying, ‘Well, there’s your sign. He sent them somewhere else.’ I say no. If He had removed them in answer to my prayer, I would not have seen them that morning. God is not a halfway kind of guy. Nor is he a slow starter. What He did do was, after answering my prayer by letting me see crows, prove to me that it is possible for an area to be free of crows for an extended amount of time. If He had just removed them for the four hours I was on the tower, that’s confusing. He put all seven on the grass as soon as the sun came up. No confusion from where I stood at the window. As far as I was concerned, that was my answer—my fleece at the door, dry as a bone.
Now, I still can’t get online until the 14th, so, what I’m doing until then is making sure the people closest to me are willing to be my marketing team. I’m using the word ‘marketing’ very loosely here. It’s more like guerilla marketing. Some, I will ask to go to every bookstore they know and ask if they have Lost Gods by Kenn Phillips, even before it’s released. Others, I will ask to wear a t-shirt from my Cafepress shop sporting an LG logo. I will ask everyone to spread the word however they are able about Lost Gods. I will put images in a photo album on my Facebook that you can save to your computers and put on fliers and post them wherever you want to.
I’ve decided that, in order to make it black and white, crystal clear, I’m going to ask God for one more day. When I come to work on Friday and I get a tower, if I’m blessed with even one crow, then self-publishing it is. If I get a dearth of crows, then I’m supposed to contact Comfort Publishing in Concord—first on my list of small publishers. Either way, I will be responsible for the majority of the marketing, so, that will not change. The main thing that will change will be the printer and how copies of the book can be purchased.

“All that I wanted were things I had before. All that I needed I never needed more. All of my questions are answers to my sins. All of my endings are waiting to begin.”
From Circle by Slipknot