Red Bike Publishing Books

Sunday, September 25, 2011

Why Not Me? How God Chooses His Missionaries

Paul was a powerful advocate for Christ. In his letters, he helped the early Christians Jew and Gentile understand their relationship to Christ. His writings still help us to understand that as sin multiplies, so does grace.

So, how does one get called out of a murderous rampage into one the most effective evangelists the world has ever seen? It's called opportunity and preparation meeting a "calling". God created Paul for what he was going to ask him to do.

But why Paul? If you are like me, sometimes how God calls others out of their sinful lifestyle to be His missionaries, ministers and lay leaders while leaving you behind. You are sure that you could be used as well as anyone else and feel God may be ignoring your willingness to serve.

In Paul's case, he was perfect for God's use, he just didn't understand. Paul was a Jewish leader, lawyer, Roman, and Jew among many things. He knew God's law, Roman law, and was very well educated. He just didn't know Jesus.

As soon as Jesus revealed Himself, Paul believed. The same zeal he used to lock up Christians, he now used to free sinners. Paul knew Jesus and he realized grace.

What did God make you for? How is he using you? If you don't know, make it a point to study his word, pray and ask Him how you can serve.


Jeffrey W. Bennett, ISP is the owner of Red Bike Publishing. Jeff is an accomplished writer of non-fiction books, novels and periodicals. He also owns Red bike Publishing. Published books include: "Get Rich in a Niche-Insider's Guide to Self Publishing in a Specialized Industry" and "Commitment-A Novel". Jeff is an expert in security and has written many security books including: "Insider's Guide to Security Clearances" and "DoD Security Clearances and Contracts Guidebook". See Red Bike Publishing for print copies of: Army Leadership The Ranger Handbook The Army Physical Readiness Manual Drill and Ceremonies The ITAR The NISPOM

Friday, September 23, 2011

An Excerpt from Commitment-A Novel

“What'd you do that for?” Angus yelled.

“He was going to eat me,” the overweight Bart whined a little too loudly. He still had his shotgun poised over his head.

“No he wasn’t, you fool. He probably heard all the commotion you made and came to investigate,” said Charles.

“What in the world was this aborigine doing up at this time of night?” Bart complained, laboring for air.

“Probably guarding the camp from lads like us,” Charles chided.

“Keep it down! Did you have to hit him so hard? I think he’s dead,” Angus chastised.

“I said I didn’t mean to. You shouldn’t have brought me here. You should’ve left me to guard the camp instead of Roger,” Bart continued to whine. “This stuff scares me and I hate walking through it. I can’t believe you made me come.”

“We needed someone competent to stand by at camp. We didn’t think you could cause trouble under supervision,” Charles continued.

Angus dug into his back pack and pulled out an ornament he took from an Asmat warrior he found long dead, and dropped it where the body lay. “This should clear us of any suspicion. C’mon, we’ve got to move the body.” Angus’ mind was working now. “You two, take an arm and follow me.”
***

Jeffrey W. Bennett, ISP is the owner of Red Bike Publishing. Jeff is an accomplished writer of non-fiction books, novels and periodicals. He also owns Red bike Publishing. Published books include: "Get Rich in a Niche-Insider's Guide to Self Publishing in a Specialized Industry" and "Commitment-A Novel". Jeff is an expert in security and has written many security books including: "Insider's Guide to Security Clearances" and "DoD Security Clearances and Contracts Guidebook". See Red Bike Publishing for print copies of: Army Leadership The Ranger Handbook The Army Physical Readiness Manual Drill and Ceremonies The ITAR The NISPOM

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Sample of Chapter 1 from Commitment-A Novel

 Chapter 1
     Papua, New Guinea, looked serene from 12,000 feet above sea level. Even from thirty miles away, John could make out the rain forests beyond the strand of the southern shore. Light wisps of steam hung over the island, revealing the high humidity common to this area of the world. The changing waters of the Arafura Sea and the Gulf of Carpentaria graduated beautifully from light green at the tip of Cape York Peninsula, Australia, to a beautiful azure and back to light green in the billowing waves on the shores of New Guinea.
      So this is home. John pressed his forehead against the cool cabin window. The island in view was roughly the size of Greenland with the tall Puncak Jaya, rising 5,030 meters above the ground. Neighboring peaks perched above the haze like pyramids.
      Instinctively, he reached for his flight bag as he had done five times throughout the flight. He unzipped it and sighed with relief at the two familiar slim books. Approvingly, he nodded as he flipped through page after page of his first flight log, recalling his hundreds of hours of experience behind the controls of planes and helicopters. He tucked it back into his bag then pulled out the second book. The pages he flipped through were blank reminders of experiences yet to come. Just a thousand more hours, that should do it.


Jeffrey W. Bennett, ISP is the owner of Red Bike Publishing. Jeff is an accomplished writer of non-fiction books, novels and periodicals. He also owns Red bike Publishing. Published books include: "Get Rich in a Niche-Insider's Guide to Self Publishing in a Specialized Industry" and "Commitment-A Novel". Jeff is an expert in security and has written many security books including: "Insider's Guide to Security Clearances" and "DoD Security Clearances and Contracts Guidebook". See Red Bike Publishing for print copies of: Army Leadership The Ranger Handbook The Army Physical Readiness Manual Drill and Ceremonies The ITAR The NISPOM

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

I heard a good Labor Day message this past weekend. 2 Thessalonians 3: 6-13 described ways to make my work effective and I reflected on ways to apply it to my life. I also realized that I could be lacking in my work ethic if I did not use the principals raised in Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians. Now, this message could apply to our Christian walk as well as how we perform our daily jobs or interact in our communities. Using the two principals can help you make your work more effective as well.
               
  1. Inventory the reasons you work. There are two reasons to work:  earn an income and to provide meaning. Earning income helps you meet the needs of yourself and your family.  Creating meaning includes providing for others and honoring God. Consider that whatever you do, as a Christian, you should be doing it to please God. These two realities should provide motivation and desire to do your best and provide resources for your employer, a means for your families and give honor to God. Taking a look at those who count on you to provide for them, write them down and reflect on it.
  2.  Establish the right attitude. Working isn’t just punching the clock and meeting the bare minimum. That would conflict with part of the first principal of creating meaning. Demand excellence of yourself and give your best effort. If you are a supervisor, provide this motivation to your employees.

People who have good work ethics learn to manage time, limit distractions and provide great products and services. They don’t waste time in vain arguments about politics, religion or other distractions. They focus on good relationships and contributing to the organizations vision. This ethic can be applied to all aspects of community and profession. Doing otherwise may indicate that you take advantage of your work and coworkers. You get pay (not earn) that you do not deserve. Strive to earn your keep, make your way, do an honest day’s work or whatever proverb you might be familiar with. Directly apply the concept of working for your pay and food and dedicate your volunteering, profession, hobbies or other activities to doing the right thing. Your reward is your pay, meaning and having the right attitude.


Jeffrey W. Bennett, ISP is the owner of Red Bike Publishing. Jeff is an accomplished writer of non-fiction books, novels and periodicals. He also owns Red bike Publishing. Published books include: "Get Rich in a Niche-Insider's Guide to Self Publishing in a Specialized Industry" and "Commitment-A Novel". Jeff is an expert in security and has written many security books including: "Insider's Guide to Security Clearances" and "DoD Security Clearances and Contracts Guidebook". See Red Bike Publishing for print copies of: Army Leadership The Ranger Handbook The Army Physical Readiness Manual Drill and Ceremonies The ITAR The NISPOM

Monday, September 5, 2011

5 Steps to Creating a Great Book Trailer

How to create a book trailer video

I’ve seen some great video ideas and am recently joining the many who post videos about their books or companies. So far, I’ve really enjoyed the fun and adventurous videos I’ve created that feature an idea and not books. These videos include Zombie vs. Ranger and How Not to Get a consulting Job. These videos are meant to be fun and entertaining and don’t even mention my products until the end.
However, I still can’t discount the effectiveness of a good old fashioned (well recent fashion anyway) video featuring a specific product or book. Great graphics and the right type of music can combine to create a compelling reason for a viewer to take action. This action could include buying a product, visiting a website or signing up for a newsletter.
Whatever call to action you want from your video, make sure to make the video worthy of watching. Here are five great tips for making a video trailer:
1. Invest in video software. There is great software that turns your pictures and videos into well organized, packaged and presented products. They also offer free versions. However, I recommend investing some money on the entire package. You can get a good one for under $60. The free versions only allow a minute of video, hardly enough time to get the job done.
A good video package will allow you to perform graphic tricks like zooming, create text right in the video, highlight important parts, add soundtrack or voice over and package the video for presentation in many formats. It’s all simple to do without having to invest in training. You can learn it as you go.
2. Download great pictures for your video. A video doesn’t always mean you will have motion. Sometimes it’s composed of a collage of images. I recommend creating an account with Istockphoto.com and buying high definition photos. You can search images and videos by subject and category. Find the ones you like and pay from $2 to download them.
3. Create a Youtube.com account. You will need a platform to host your videos. Once you create a video, upload it to youtube.com . From there, you can share it with the world. Make sure you create relevant keywords for search engines to find. Here’s a bonus. Consider using an ejunkie.com account not only for pay carts, but to insert videos into your websites and social networks. If you have an ejunkie.com account, you can “brand” your video and embed it into your websites by copying the code from ejunkie.tv and pasting into your blogs, websites and Facebook pages.  
4.  Post your videos on Facebook, blogger and website pages. This is a great way to make your videos known to people who would not otherwise know about it. Don’t wait for folks to use keywords to stumble across your video. That could take decades. Instead, take matters into your own hands and upload the videos to your sites.
5. Share your video with the world. Post to your wall and share on Twitter, LinkedIn, email, Google pages, Blogs and everywhere you have contacts and friends. If you are luck and depending on the effectiveness of your network, they will share as well.
Videos are a great way to showcase your work. They can be created in an hour or two and can feature your product in many different venues.

Take a look at these two blog posts for an example of videos you can shoot. http://www.redbikepublishing.blogspot.com/ if you scroll down, you will see a video called, Don't Be This Consultant. I filmed it to publicize Get Rich in a Niche.

The next video is called Zombie vs Ranger. I put this video together to sell the Ranger Handbook. I filmed both videos myself using my Droid II Verizon Motorola phone.