I’m excited to let you know I’m going to be one of the featured local authors at Kona Stories bookstore at the monthly “Words & Wine” event on Tuesday, August 6, at 6 pm. I’ll be talking about and reading from “Quest for a King” and “Exile of the King.”
Kona Stories is located in Keauhou Shopping Center. If you are local on Hawaii Island, come by and say “hi”!
Comments closedI recently posted some background on my research for the books in the Age of the Kingdom series, but recently I’ve found a great new source that I wanted to talk about here.
In a piece of timing that was more than coincidence, in my opinion, I discovered the Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archeology (AIBA). They are having an especially good deal on membership right now and I took advantage of it. Imagine my delight when the first issue of the organization’s publication Let The Stones Speak arrived and the topic was “David and Solomon’s Monumental Kingdom”!
To say it was just the perfect time for me would be an understatement. I am now working on The Eternal Kingdom, Book 3 of the Age of the Kingdom series, which covers the first half of King David’s reign and this magazine is full of the latest archaeological discoveries and scholarship by people who have had their hands in the dirt in Jerusalem.
The issue is a special issue to coincide with a special David/Solomon exhibit in the organization’s museum located in Edmond, OK. They also have a location in Jerusalem. The magazine spends a lot of time on the excavations by Dr. Eliat Mazar on what is now believed by many to be David’s palace in Jerusalem.
As I have noted before, the conventional wisdom for many years was that King David, if he existed at all, was a minor local tribal chieftain and not the monarch of a major, extensive kingdom like is pictured in the Bible.
But there have been many major discoveries since the first archaeological proof of King David’s existence was discovered in 1993. In fact, the AIBA journal mentions many paradigm-shifting discoveries that are less than 10 years old.
So if someone tells you that scholars don’t believe King David existed, they are working off old information; they do not have any idea about the most recent scholarship.
It should be noted that the more is excavated by archaeologists, the more the Bible is confirmed, unlike the broader conventional wisdom, that scientific discoveries will eventually disprove the Bible.
That’s why in the books of this Age of the Kingdom series I take the Bible as history, because what has been happening for a couple hundred years is that the science of archaeology has piece-by-piece, supported the story the Bible tells.
Comments closedThe first presidential debate was this past Thursday. 51 million people watched. For some, it was a revelation. It revealed, not just how much worse President Biden’s cognitive decline has gotten, but also how much we had been lied to by his campaign, his administration and the “main-stream” media.
Just days before the debate, we were told in no uncertain terms that the videos we saw of Biden having to be guided back to his mark or off stages was right-wing “cheap fakes” and the president was as sharp as a tack in private. It was apparently only in public where he reminded everyone who has an older parent or grandparent of when they had to take away the car keys.
Continue reading “You’ve Made Your Bed…” Comments closedPhoto by Polina Zimmerman: https://www.pexels.com/photo/red-and-white-happy-birthday-print-textile-4108510/
This article was suggested by my wife and I agreed it was a good idea. You see, Donald Trump was not my first choice for the Republican nomination for president in 2016 and he wasn’t in 2024, but it quickly became obvious that he would be the nominee during both primary seasons.
I was never a “Never Trumper” mind you; I just saw good options in other candidates. But now that he is the presumptive nominee, I am supporting him. Even after the efforts of the Democrats to sully him through impeachments, investigations and legal smears, I still support him; in fact the “lawfare” being waged against him makes me want to vote for him even more. I don’t think I’m alone in that. Here’s my reasoning.
Continue reading Why I’m (Still) Voting for President Trump. Comments closed(Image public domain from Wikimedia Commons)
The story of David and Goliath is an iconic underdog story and “David and Goliath” is applied as a catch-phrase every time there is an underdog pitted against a gargantuan foe.
But how well do we know the story in the context of the stories on either side of it? Did you know that there’s a problem with the story that some skeptics have used to inspire doubt in the Bible?
It has to do with the question: Did King Saul know David BEFORE he killed Goliath?
Continue reading Did King Saul Know David Before He Killed Goliath? Comments closedGary Ivey’s books make great Father’s Day gifts, especially the newest ones from the Age of the Kingdom series. Some women have felt like the battle scenes are too intense, but men say, “That’s why I like them!”
Just in time for Father’s Day, you can get 25% off on any of Gary L. Ivey’s books. Just enter the code “Dad25off” to get 25% off your entire order!
(Image created in Dall-E AI and extended using Adobe Photoshop Generative Extend)
In my previous post, I began with generalities about my research for writing the Age of the Kingdom series. Now I’ll share a little of the source material I leaned on in my research.
Of course, my starting point is the Bible, and because I believe the Bible is a book of truths for life, I’m not going to stray too far from the events that are described there. I reread not just First and Second Samuel, but also the books that went before, Judges, Joshua and the Pentateuch. These books and their stories are inseparable from the events in Samuel and Kings, because it’s all one continuous narrative.
Continue reading How To Research 3,000-year-old Historical Fiction (part 2) 2 CommentsI was not prepared for what I got when I gave Quest for a King to a company which offers feedback to authors (for a fee). I never talked to the reviewer; we only corresponded through email, but from the tone and content of the review and counsel I received, I’m pretty sure the reviewer was a female recently graduated from a decidedly secular university.
One thing that gave it away was that she said she wasn’t sure who to root for: Israel or the Philistines. In fact, she had to look up Philistines on Wikipedia! She didn’t know ANYTHING about them.
Continue reading How To Research 3,000-year-old Historical Fiction (part 1) 1 CommentThere has been a lot of hand-wringing and hyperventilating about “threats to democracy” coming from the left side of the aisle in our country, ever since Trump supporters got upset on January 6, 2021. I still think they were egged on by Fed plants in the crowd and it might never have happened without them.
But as I’ve often said, Democrats are not self-aware and don’t know the meaning of the word “irony,” because ever since January 6, they have been doing everything in their power to threaten democracy. It was the most inept insurrection in history; no one even brought guns.
Continue reading Regressive Progressives and Democrats Against Democracy Comments closed
I’m publishing the Age of the Kingdom series through IngramSpark, Ingram’s print-on-demand service, because Ingram has been THE source for books for bookstores and libraries for decades, which means you can go into any bookstore and they can order the print copies for you.
However, for some reason, when Ingram submitted Exile of the King to Amazon.com, they posted the print book, but NOT the Kindle book. So I created a special deal for the eBook.
So, to my friends and followers, I’m offering the eBook for download from Book Funnel for
$1.99 (reg. $2.99)
for a limited time when you order Exile of the King at GaryIvey.com available for iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle, Nook, Computer, ePub or Mobi.
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