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The audience is a quiet mix of respect, sleepiness, and note-taking. Carpious listens intently without blinking as does Sydney who is sitting beside him. Solomon has fallen asleep in his mother’s lap as she strokes his hair.

“Who are you? Brother? Father? Mother…sister… son…daughter? When you look in the mirror, when no one is around, who are you? Who does God see? Are your actions driven by what others see or by who you really are?”

Carpious looks down and away as if absorbing and processing what Pastor Russell is saying. He then glances at Sydney to see if she is likewise convicted in any way. She continues to look ahead, listening intently but stopping on occasion to jot down notes in a notebook that is on top of a bible that sits open in her lap.

“My family, I challenge you to do two things this week, starting now. One: Look in the mirror of your soul and ask God to show you who you really are. Do away with the noise and the obligations of the day and listen. You can’t love others without loving yourself. Two: Tell someone you love that you love them without using the word love.“

Laughter fills the auditorium and fades back to silence almost as quickly. Sydney looks at Carpious this time, but he’s looking straight ahead.

“Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with using the word love, but we often times simply use the word as a crutch and we never demonstrate love as a result. So tell someone you love them through action. Now go in peace. Amen.”

(excerpt from PIOUS, a novel by Kenn Bivins)

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Reserve your copy of PIOUS, now available for pre-order at amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.

Your insincere sincerities
Are as a window cooling pie
While an ugly truth is better
Than the most beautiful of lies

Your insincere sincerities
Bring sincerities to shame
Cut and paste some random sentiment
And fill in the blank some random interest’s name.

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(excerpt from PIOUS, a novel by Kenn Bivins)

Today is August 10th and the original, proposed release date of PIOUS, my first novel. In the past few months, I’ve learned so much about the publishing industry and how intricate its workings are. To think that all I wanted to do was write stories and assume it was that simple. Silly me.

The release date of PIOUS had been moved to August 31 but yesterday, my publisher told me that this is a pre-order date and inventory is not likely be in stores or available for immediate shipping yet. To be frank, this news depressed me because I’ve been swelling with anxiety to share my creation with you.

A female friend of mine who has experienced childbirth said that my anxiety is similar to a woman in labor who just wants the baby “out of her.” I’m comfortable enough in my masculinity to accept what she was really trying to say but all the same, I’m saddened that I must wait a bit longer for my “baby” to be born.

Furthermore, PIOUS was to debut September 3 at the Decatur Book Festival, the largest independent book festival in the nation. With yesterday’s news, I may not have my own inventory by then. I hope that I’m wrong.

I share all of this with you, my loyal reader, to be both transparent and human. I know that a couple of months from now, this inconvenience will be a dim recollection and PIOUS will already be with you and thousands of other happy readers. So a little bit longer we must wait while today PIOUS remains unreleased.

There are those rare days where discouragement sneaks up on me and the hope that has been coursing through my veins has mysteriously bled out. It’s hard during that time to be positive or feel thankful without some clouded film of negativity blocking my view. As I said, I’m imperfect.

Somewhere in there, just as mysterious, a reflection, a stray word from a stranger or a friend, a prayer, or a conversation can yank me from my dismal spiral. When brought back into consciousness, I am inclined to listen to a song to mark my new found direction and lease on life. That song has often been “For Once in my Life” by Stevie Wonder.

“For once, unafraid, I can go where life leads me and somehow I know I’ll be strong.”

And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart. (Ecclesiastes 4:12)

*author unknown