John Fergusson – Time Travel Mystery

A 20th century scientist time travels back to Ancient Jerusalem in John Fergusson’s dual time line mystery King Solomon’s Deadly Legacy, a faith-themed story which combines murder, betrayal, and corruption in business with deeper questions of healing and redemption. Hi there, I’m your host jenny Wheeler and today John talks about how he came to write this challenging thriller and what King Solomon might be able to teach us in a time of pandemic. We’ve got three E-books of King Solomon to give away to three lucky readers.  Enter the draw on  The Joys of Binge Reading.com or on our Binge Reading Facebook page. Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode: Why John is fascinated by King SolomonWhat Israel's early kings can tell usHow John got started in fictionA healing ministry to the nationsThe writers he admires mostWhere to find John online Where to find John Fergusson:  Website: https://johnfergussonbooks.com/blog/ AND www.jfm.org.nz Or johnf@jfm.org.nz Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JF-Ministries-254398031318206/ What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions. Jenny Wheeler: But now, here’s John. Hello John and welcome to the show. It's great to have you with us. Introducing Author John Fergusson John Fergusson: Hi, Jenny. It's good to be with you. Jenny Wheeler: You've written this book, King Solomon's Deadly Legacy. People love to hear what the genesis of a book is and how it came to be. I gather that your time travel novel has quite an interesting story behind it. Could you tell us about how it came to be written? John Fergusson - Time Travel Author John Fergusson: I've been a Christian for many years. I've always been fascinated by King Solomon. At the beginning of his life he obviously loved the Lord and he heard from the Lord and by the end of his life he was depressed, he was writing Ecclesiastes and he'd backslidden. He was committing idolatry, building idols and worshiping idols for wives. I always wondered how the man who is supposed to be the wisest man who ever lived could have fallen into that trap. A few years ago I realized that our Western culture, since the two Wars, has been making the same mistakes. I wanted to investigate that and present it in a way that that would make people think about it. That's been in my mind for a number of years. Then we were in a meeting with my team at church, and the pastor said if something has been in your heart for a long time, it's probably gone. That stirred me to say, I need to write this book rather than just be thinking about it. So it all started. King Solomon research trail Jenny Wheeler: How long ago did you start seriously getting down to writing it? John Fergusson: That was eight years ago. It's taken a long time. I spent five years on research and then having got a few facts under my fingertips, wrote it and then rewrote it. Then I learned how to write, and I tried to get it published and that didn't happen. You know the story. Jenny Wheeler: Yes, I do. You've got someone with a 21st century sensibility, Simon, who’s a scientist and he gets catapulted back into King Solomon's time. It's a daring choice to have such a big time travel gap. For those not familiar with the story, I wondered if you could outline when exactly this is,