AuthorsDen.com  Join (free) | Login 

 
 Visited by 1,400,000+ people monthly.
 Popular! Books, Stories, Articles, Poetry
Where Authors and Readers come together!
Signed Bookstore - Enjoy!

Signed Bookstore | Authors | Books | Stories | Articles | Poetry | Blogs | News | Events | Reviews | Videos | Success | Gold Members | Testimonials

Featured Authors: Auntie Val, iGreg Razran, iPeter Merry, iGary Caplan, iGean Penny, iTia Stewart, iHelena Harper, i
  Home > Literary Fiction > Articles
Popular: Books, Stories, Articles, Poetry     
Steven Cleaver
• Become a Fan
• 16 titles
• 11 Reviews
• Share with a Friend
• Save to My Library
• Add to My Favorites
• 
Member Since: Apr, 2008

   Sitemap
   Contact Author
   Read Reviews

Books
• Dear God or whatever your name is now

• Saving Erasmus-The Tale of a Reluctant Prophet


Short Stories
• The Front Porch Goose


Articles
• Film made of Saving Erasmus

• Saving Erasmus Trailers 1-4

• Saving Erasmus-Trailer Four

• Saving Erasmus-TrailerThree

• Saving Erasmus-TrailerTwo

• Saving Erasmus-Trailer One

• Interview about Saving Erasmus


Poetry
• Laundromat Love

• The Memory of Dust

• In Footsteps

• God Was Here First, Mrs. Davenport

• Mrs.Patricia Nokrombe

         More poetry...
News
• An IPPY for a Hippie-Saving Erasmus wins Gold Medal

• Saving Erasmus Named Finalist for Book of the Year from ForeWord Magazine

• Saving Erasmus is named a finalist for a 2008 Independent Publishers Award


Events
• Special Sale at Paraclete Press...$3 for new hardcover books

• Leave it to Cleaver Radio Show

• Leave it to Cleaver TV Show

• Brooklyn Book Festival

Steven Cleaver, click here to update your web pages on AuthorsDen.



Recent articles by Steven Cleaver
• Film made of Saving Erasmus
• Saving Erasmus-Trailer Four
• Saving Erasmus Trailers 1-4
• Interview about Saving Erasmus
• Saving Erasmus-Trailer One
• Saving Erasmus-TrailerTwo
• Saving Erasmus-TrailerThree
           >> View all 8

Literary Fiction

Share    Print   Save  Become a Fan


Excerpts from Saving Erasmus
By Steven Cleaver
Last edited: Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Posted: Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Two short excerpts from Saving Erasmus, named Best Christian Fiction of 2007 by Publishers Weekly and Library Journal

In Which I Meet the Angel of Death  

I did not expect to meet the Angel of Death while he was extricating himself from a washing machine. Actually I wasn’t really expecting to meet the Angel of Death at all. Not this soon. Not in this place. Yet there he was, slowly unwinding himself from the open door of Dixie Manufacturer’s finest front loaded commercial washer, twisting and turning and pulling his full body up over the rim and out onto the Laundromat floor.

I guess no one really expects to see the Angel of Death in a Laundromat, let alone climbing out of one of the machines. I suppose we all fantasize about something a bit more extravagant. The scene in Bergman’s The Seventh Seal where Death is playing chess always resonated as realistic to me. In that scene, Death is dressed in black and hovers with a stark face over a very serious chess game. The surroundings are dark, and Armageddon appears to be looming on the horizon. It is quite ominous. I had always visualized the situation more like that; expected there would be a little more edge to it. But expectations are tricky when it comes to Life and even I suppose to Death.

 

In Which I am Commissioned

I have to pick someone,” he said. “They get one last chance. I get to call one prophet.” Death’s voice became very serious. “You’re the one I selected.”

“Is this because I went to seminary?”

“No, Andrew. That was just part of your path.” He paused. “Actually I picked many. But,” he said as he pointed to the empty Laundromat, “you are the only one to show up.”

Great, I thought. A dying man gets a last phone call and I’m it. Thanks Death. Publishers Clearing House randomly selects Mary Beth Finster from East Albatross, Kansas to win a million dollars and what do I get? Death and the promise of unemployment.

“I never get picked for anything.”

“No, Andrew. You never get picked for what you think you should have. That is different.”

“But I’m not a prophet,” I said. ”I mean, I really don’t think I have the proper training.”

I’d been called many things in my life, some of which I would rather not see in print so I will let you ascribe your own colorful and descriptive adjectives and nouns. Prophet had never been thrown out in any kind of verbal exchange. There are no more prophets, I thought, but even on the remote chance that there were, I was certain I was not one.

“Anyone can be a prophet,” Death replied.

 

 

 


f

Want to review or comment on this article?
Click here to login!


Need a FREE Reader Membership?
Click here for your Membership!




Popular
Literary Fiction Articles
  1. Robert Frost-Langston Hughes and Adrienne
  2. The Lessons of Fiction and How It Affects
  3. Suspense Fiction Novel: How to Write a Gre





You can also search authors by alphabetical listing: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z


Bookmark this page to your Favorites

Featured Authors
| New to AuthorsDen? | Add AuthorsDen to your Site
Share AD with your friends | Need Help? | About us


Problem with this page?   Report it to AuthorsDen

© AuthorsDen, Inc. All rights reserved.