Hello

What's the story behind your latest book?

"Through Your Eyes Lord" is the personal testimony of my addiction to viewing porn and my recovery from it. My addiction started at a very early age and continued to grow as I grew older. When I finished my years of college education and entered into my God given profession of a teacher, everything was just wonderful. I had great success as I entered into my early years of teaching. However, it all got ripped away, in 2002, when the FBI arrested me for ordering pornographic pictures off the internet.

The question I like to ask people, to spark their own examination of conscience, is to ask, "If ALL your Internet Browsing was made Public to your family, friends, co-workers, community, and to the Prime Time News, how would that affect your life?" That is what happened to me. This happened a week after I prayed a prayer I hadn't prayed before. I told God that I knew what I was doing was wrong, but I had become so desensitized to it. I asked God to show me my sins through His eyes.

This book is informative to those entrenched in their own battles. I wrote the events as they happened. All this took place in 2002, when internet porn was just starting out... Now, almost 20 years later, internet porn has grown exponentially. A priest recently told me that 8 out of 10 men that show up to confession, have this sin of pornography addiction to confess... That accounts for those that actually "show up" to confession... This book covers my court-ordered rehabilitation program, as well as my grace filled spiritual rehabilitation experiences. I consider all my experiences beneficial to those who are immersed in their own addiction, as I have been freed from that addiction for almost 20 years.

 

Your book has a lot of Mary's Messages given in Medjugorje. Explain why these are in your book?

The night of my arrest, I grabbed a rosary I had hanging on my wall, which was nothing more than a wall decoration. It was a rosary that my sister gave me when she went on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje, where our Blessed Mother had been appearing to six children, giving monthly messages for the world. In my spiritual journey, and conversion story, Our Lady's messages in Medjugorje played a huge role. I have included those messages that were powerful to me in my journey. There were also personal testimonies of the apparitions in Medjugorje that played a big influence in my recovery, which are also included in the book.

I wrote as the events occurred, but then the book sat for about 15 years. I have had prodding here and there to get the book finished and published, but I kept putting it off... Then, during the end of the year, 2020, I began to question whether the apparitions in Medjugorje were a hoax and some humans taking us for a make believe ride. I struggled with this for months, even though our Lady of Medjugorje had a huge impact on my spiritual journey and conversion. Then on New Year's Day, 2021, after attending Mass, and before the Blessed Mother, I had a divine experience, leading me to finish writing my book; to show the final chapters of how God made all things new in my life, beyond anything I could have dreamed up on my own, which is a tear-jerking love story in itself. You will have to read that book to learn about what that divine experience was.

Actually, my book is chalked full of divine experiences, from crossing paths with a snake in the adoration chapel; to physically meeting my guardian angel. You'll just have to check out the book to take it all in... It is a definite "Grace Filled" life with obvious "Grace Filled Moments" that at times could be considered miraculous.

 

 

What are you working on next?

I am still working on more "Scriptural Rosary" booklets, with different themes. I wrote the "33 Days of Rosary Meditations", which can be found for a free e-book download at Smashwords, Apple, Barnes & Nobles, and other places. But it is also available in print at www.rosarybooks.com. It has been a huge hit for many people that I have decided to start working on a new Rosary Meditation book of "40 days of Rosary Meditations".

 

 

Why did you publish your rosary books before your personal testimony?

Early in my spiritual journey, shortly after being arrested and losing everything, my mother introduced me to Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. I started off by taking a 3am hour on Fridays. It was actually a 30 minute drive to the church, and a 30 minute drive back home. That hour of driving also consisted of a lot of mental prayer time with God, let alone my hour before Him in the Blessed Sacrament. It was a powerful form of prayer for those early years in my journey. It was so powerful I decided to take on another hour at 2am, on Wednesdays, at another church, which was only 15 minutes away.

I did all forms of adoration at those hours for my first three years. From partaking in the reverent adoration prayers to bringing my guitar and singing praise and worship songs to our Lord. From copying quotes from the Bible as I read through it, to sitting in silent prayer. One of the things I also found myself doing was writing in notebooks, almost like journal entries, but it was more of a prayer activity, in which I just wrote what came to my heart and soul. Once a notebook filled up, I set it aside and started a new journal... Over the early years of my adoration, I had filled up several journal books.

Years later, I went through another suffering event in my life, this time a physical experience, which is also included in my personal testimony. It was during that time that I came across those journal entries, and was spiritually motivated to write my rosary mediation books, and learn how to make my own website were I could distribute them.

I guess you could say my "personal testimony" was not quite finished yet; and thus not ready to publish, as it was still in the making, in the years to come, as God made all things new. Actually, that chapter in my book, "God Makes All Things New" is a chapter that is quite powerful, and is a tear-jerking love story in itself. God made all things new for me, beyond anything I could have wished for, dreamed up, or prayed for; on my own... Boy, God is good.

 

What are some of your favorite books?

I would say one of my favorite books is a book in the Bible. Of course, the whole Bible is the ultimate book there is. And for me, the book of "James" in the Bible is one of my favorite books. It is a good reminder on what is important. It is a great examination of conscience. And it just hits home for me.

Another book I love is "The Dolorous Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ" by Anne Catherine Emmerich, in which Jesus and Mary revealed to Sr. Emmerich parts of Christ's passion that is not well known; the details. It was very powerful for me. Shortly after reading that book, Mel Gibson came out with his "Passion" movie, which was largely based off the details in that book. This was another divine experience that was very powerful for me, in my spiritual journey. Imagine, finish reading that book as part of your spiritual reading, and then to have Mel Gibson's Passion come to the screen just weeks after finishing the book, only to find out that his movie was largely based off that book.

Finally, another set of books I love; which is influenced by me and my wife having five children together; are the comic books, "Calvin and Hobbes". And I love the Bernstein Bears books... One children's book that I absolutely love is "The Seed that was Afraid to be Planted", published by Sophia Press. Being a children's book writer of two children's books that also offer a moral teaching, this book hits home with me, as it is a seed that loves being in the seed drawer, and is very scared of the Farmer who comes to the drawer every now and then, and takes some seeds away, never to be seen. It is a great story of that seed's journey.

 

When you're not writing, how do you spend your time?

It is now 2021, and my wife and I have been married for 14 years, and we have five children under the age of 11. My free time is spent in family time. Parks, Picnics, Hikes, Backyard Capture the Flag, front yard Badminton. I actually got a family wide email that was giving the detailed updates on the brackets of the college basketball games going on, and whose bracket was winning. I actually do not remember the last basketball game, or football game that I sat down and watched on my own. Maybe 7 years ago, when we only had two kiddos. I do like watching sporting events, but at this busy point in my life of playing tent fort and hide and seek, I will leave it up to my Dad to get me caught up on those exciting games that came down to the last 30 seconds, as he shows me the highlights during our visits. And that is one other thing we love doing in our free time; which is spending time at Grandma and Grandpa's house.

 

How do you approach cover design?

I absolutely love photoshopping. I am actually well known in some scrapbooking blogs and pages. I love photoshopping. Every year I make a scrapbooking yearbook of our family events; and I also make a scrapbooking digital yearbook of all our video clips. I love that kind of stuff. And so, when publishing my books, all the publishers say that you really need to hire a professional to create your cover. I guess I am my own professional.

The cover of my rosary books is a picture I took of my own Bible, my own candle, and my own rosary, sitting on my table, in a dark room, and then I photoshopped from there. It is quite personal to see your own belongings, which have had a profound impact in your life, on the cover of your books.

As for the cover of my personal testimony, "Through Your Eyes Lord", I wanted to symbolize the cave in one of my chapters, and how many are on that highway to that dark cave. Instead of putting an obvious blurry porno picture on the screen, which might be embarrassing for the reader to have the book in public, I went with the symbolic. The prayer I prayed the week before being arrested, "Lord, please show me my sins through your eyes" had to be incorporated into the cover, with the eye of God in the hazy cloud above the man looking at the computer screen.

I just love being artistic in my nature, and making my own cover is one of my favorite parts in self-publishing.

 

What do you read for pleasure?

My Personal Testimony is very powerful to me, and I believe to others. I also get totally hooked into other people's personal testimony books. Everyone has a story. Knowing this helps me to not be so judgmental, although that still continues to be one of my greatest weaknesses. But anyhow, I know everyone has a story; and I enjoy reading those personal testimonies in which God brought people out of their own darkness, and into the light, whether through suffering, bad life living, or out of enlightenment. I enjoy reading other people's testimonies.

 

Describe your desk

I used to have a desk. But now, married, with five children; and each one of them has a desk of their own; in a three bedroom home, we are crammed together. My desk is now the top of the microwave. If there is something on the microwave, that is for me to get accomplished, and so I now have my "to do" desk as the microwave, and my "writing" desk is the kitchen table.

 

Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?

I grew up in the foothills west of Denver. I grew up on nearly a 20 acre plot of land, in the foothills. Growing up, my activity time was spent outdoors. We didn't have technology to keep us busy. We had hills to roam, tree forts to build, creeks to explore, a basketball pad to play family games on, and tons of paths to go biking on. This was very influential on the building of my creativity in my life. I had to create my own fun, my own activities, my own creativity; with the assistance of my four other siblings. Good Times.... Good Times....

 

Where is your favorite place to go to relax?

Anytime I get a week off from work, I go on little vacations, but it always seems like when I am on those vacations, I am still thinking of home, and returning to work, so I really don't get truly relaxed and refreshed. However, when I go to my wife's stomping grounds of the Philippines, I am in total relaxation. I don't think about home or work even once. When I get back, I am totally refreshed, and totally relaxed. The Philippines has the most wonderful people, so peaceful and loving, so humble and charitable. Everything just slows down there. It is a little taste of the virtues of heaven. A very beautiful people and a very beautiful place.