Welcome to my Website

I am a writer with an Evangelical background who writes literary fiction about people in religious settings.
My passions are philosophical, social commentary and to express my own religious experience through popular fiction. I believe I have written story that is dramatic, satirical, real and surreal and, hopefully challenging and insightful.

My characters are free to be "flawed" and I would that you, the reader, interpret their story through your own experience. I have a message, but it's tucked in between the lines, and you'll have to dig to find it. But only if you want to. Feel free to be just entertained. Quality-wise, I've worked very hard to give you an enjoyable reading experience.
I am an American who is presently living in Norway. I grew up in the Mid-west and attended Wheaton College where I majored in philosophy.

I invite you to read my presentations and the reviews of others, some notable, who have read my work. Try out the sample chapters.

L.D.Wenzel
Høvik, Norway

[email protected]

Unfortunately, the book is not yet on the market. I am looking for a publisher.

Read Chapter One
of Caught in the Winds

 

A new student at an Evangelical college comes of age by encountering his
deepest aspirations..

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HOME PAGE
General synopsis of Caught in the Winds:
This is the story of a young, traditional Christian young man in 1994 who is "caught" in the throes of mixed conventions and personal identity at a Evangelical fictional college in Wisconsin.

On the first day of school Morrie Schiller romantically befriends a female student, Tracy. Both have grown up in protected evangelical environments, and neither has had to look at life beneath the surface. Unpretentiously, they (in Part 1) struggle to adjust to each other and the confines of the school's traditions, he wanting a romance, she needing a friend. Morrie's intense feelings for Tracy seem to ignite "irrational" longings to return to the Catholic Church. (His parents had converted from Catholicism to the Baptist faith when he was a little boy.) Unable to cope with the fervor, their relationship eventually breaks down. Tracy drops out of school and leaves Morrie "caught" in an identity crisis both emotionally and spiritually.

In Part 2, Morrie meets the mystical, Mephistopheles-like philosopher, Jack Joplin, who would expose Morrie's "Evangelical presumptions" and evoke his "transcendental self". Through a satirical "philosophical method" called the AMORE ASCENDES, the larger-than-life Jack teaches Morrie success with the opposite sex through "phenomenology", especially with Emily, a posh art student from New York. (Alert readers will recognize many amusing allusions literary classics and to thinkers like Kierkegaard, Sartre, Descartes and Goethe) By sedating Morrie's Catholic yearnings, Jack's method seems to have hidden powers that work more like magic! These surreal adventures that include Morrie liberation from an "unholy pact" and his rejection of Jack's nihilistic influences are major thrusts in this coming of age drama.

This is not a religious novel in the generic sense. The author addresses a general audience and narrates in the spirit of Chaim Potok's writing. The rise of a right-wing political/religious activism is the novel's constant backdrop and an essential part of the plot. Though 1994 was more innocent time, the setting foreshadows the religious right's political prowess today. In Part 3, Morrie and a feisty but likable fundamentalist, Frank Blachford, renew a broken friendship. They come in the crossfire as moderate and fundamentalist Christians battle for the heart and soul of the college and must confront dangerous right-wing activists.

With today's media focus on Christian fundamentalism, Caught in the Winds focuses on current events with sympathetic characters who dare challenge Evangelical conventionality. While directed toward a mainstream readership, the novel should be of particular interest to reflective Evangelical Christians. As a campus novel, it will also appeal to students and give it many promotional possibilities on colleges and universities.


 

 

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