We keep writing books, and often run eBook or audio serials. Here is a summary of Bible Tales – work in progress.
Last updated May 21, 2026 @ 1:39 pm.
This page includes a progress bar for each of our current projects with some expected milestone dates. These dates are given in the knowledge that God is in control of our lives and everything else – things do not always work out as we expect. As far as it is up to us, these dates are important targets.
News of progress and further releases is included in the Bible Tales weekly newsletter. Sign up now and you will hear the news first.
If you have any more questions about the books and can’t wait to hear answers through the newsletter, please ask through our Contact form.
You may also be interested in our publication history.
We're working on...
To learn about Bible Tales’ work in progress, click on one of the tabs below to see what we are working on in that area.
A speed-writing novel
A novel on the life of Joab, the son of Zeruiah, commander of King David’s army.
First attempt of speed-writing (Target 50,000 words)
A sad loss in November 2024: Laptop needed fixing. Did a full backup. Worked on the book while travelling by train to Melbourne. Forgot to attach a copy to an email. Laptop needed motherboard replacing including the disk. Quite a few hours work lost because of carelessness and being in a hurry…
Total number of words achieved 6,602 out of 50,000. Failure.
Recommenced in a speed-writing format in the 30 days 24 November to 23 December 2025. Progress is shown below.
Second try of speed-writing (50,000 words starting from 6,602)
Finished one day early on 22 December 2025 at 56,712 words. Overall target length is 100 to 120 thousand words which requires approximately 55,000 extra words to be added now that the speed-writing is complete:
Further content (55,000 words)
Progress: 56,712 words
Currently, direct writing has stopped as I work on a detailed chronology of the life of David which requires some re-ordering of the scriptural records in Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, but it’s not always easy to tell which ones or in what order!
Target completion time, if we live and God is willing, about Sep/Oct 2026.
Fiction Favours the Facts – Book 4
Update 25 September 2025: This collection of micro-tales is now back in business as a Bible Tales – work in progress after the publication of “Upside Down with Paul”.
These micro-tales are included in the Bible Tales weekly newsletter. Sign up now to read new ones one by one as they are written and published. In most cases the stories in the newsletter and the book are just the same.
Notes:
- These micro-tales are included in the Bible Tales weekly newsletter and the progress bar above shows how many have currently been published in this way. Sign up now to read them one by one as they are written/published. In most cases the stories in the newsletter and the book are just the same, except that corrections are sometimes made.
- “Fiction Favours the Facts – Book 4” contains only 11 micro-tales and is only being released as an audiobook, not a standalone eBook or paperback. These micro-tales contain about 50,000 words, so the audiobook will be about 330 minutes long.
- God willing, the next 11 micro-tales will make as another audiobook called “Fiction Favours the Facts – Book 5” of a similar length.
- Also, if the Lord wills, the 22 micro-tales included in Books 4 and 5 will then be published as a combined eBook called “Fiction Favours the Facts – Books 4 & 5”, possibly containing about 100,000 words.
Stories completed so far…
Old Testament
- Zipporah
- Between the living and the dead
- Soldier versus Shepherd (Parts 1, 2 & 3)
- A snowy day
- That Wicked Woman (Parts 1, 2, 3 & 4)
New Testament
- We’ve lost him! (Parts 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5)
- Nicodemus (Parts 1, 2 & 3)
- Mary Magdalene (Parts 1, 2 & 3)
- Son of Encouragement (Parts 1, 2 & 3)
- Behind the speech of Stephen (Parts 1 & 2)
Story still in progress…
- Escape to Egypt (Parts 1 (complete), 2, 3 & 4)
Fiction Favours the Facts – Book 4: Weeky audiobook serial
Now that 10 longer micro-tales are completed, we have decided to include these (and one still in progress) in an audiobook called Book 4 and the bars below display progress.
Writing and editing (10 of 11)
Production/recording (10 of 11)
Audio post-production (8 of 11)
And then…
At the conclusion of the serial, subscribers will receive the entire audiobook of “Fiction Favours the Facts – Book 4”.
Daniel, Man of Light
A NaNoWriMo novel
Synopsis
A youth with royal blood in his veins, growing up in Jerusalem during the religious revivals of King Josiah.
The hopes of a nation crumble as Josiah dies in battle and his revival dies with him.
Daniel continues to follow Josiah’s ways until his ability is recognised by the attacking king, Nebuchadnezzar, and he is taken away to Babylon.
As exiles in a land of strange customs, Daniel and his friends are to be educated in all the wisdom of Babylon. But first, they must decide whose rules come first: God’s or Nebuchadnezzar’s.
Which will Daniel choose? And what will the king do if Daniel rejects his laws?
It doesn’t take long before Daniel establishes himself as a man the king can’t do without, but jealous rivals ensure that danger is never far away.
Book 1
NaNoWriMo began on 1 November 2018 at 00:00:01 and finished on 30 November at midnight.
(Book 1) NaNoWriMo content (50,000 words)
When the clock reached midnight on 30 November 2018, I had already validated my novel earlier in the evening, so it was not quite as close to the deadline as last year. This time, large amounts of time spent travelling at the end of November fueled a frenzied rush of story-writing, with 35,000 words being written in the last week!
The story had not progressed far through the life of Daniel, with him only having spent 8 years in Babylon. Not only so, but some parts of that time period were still unfinished. An estimated 35,000 extra words were required to tie up those loose ends.
With a view to compelling progress, (since everything was taking too long!), the book was released as an eBook serial on 17 May 2022. It worked. The extra content was written and the serial finished on 20 December 2022.
Further content (35,000 words)
Book 2
A second volume began during NaNoWriMo 2022. However, once again, it didn’t get as far as I wanted…
NaNoWriMo began on 1 November 2022 at 00:00:01 and finished on 30 November at midnight.
(Book 2) NaNoWriMo content (50,000 words)
An estimated 35,000 extra words were required to tie up more loose ends.
Once more the pressure of deadlines proved productive and the second book was also released as an eBook serial.
This serial began on 14 February 2023 and finished on 31 October 2023.
Further content (35,000 words)
Publication in one volume…
As far as I was concerned at the time, the manuscript of the combined book was then complete (about 170,000 words). I tried to publish the story through a traditional publisher. However, during the presentation of the manuscript to publishers, I decided that expanding the involvement of one important character would improve the story significantly. Editing is still in progress, and the overall improvement to the story makes the small increase (about 1%) to the overall manuscript length well worthwhile!
Combined manuscript character refinement
Publication – whether in one or two volumes – hasn’t been achieved yet, so it’s still a Bible Tales work in progress.
Writer's Diary
We also send out a – sometimes daily – Writer’s Diary. Searchable archives are available here.
Speed-writing History
Shorter speed-writing project(s)
Paul in Snippets (about 9,800 words; written in 24 hours)
November writing projects
Initially, my November speed writing projects (writing 50,000 words in November) were undertaken with the former National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), but over the years, NaNoWriMo took to openly promoting political, moral and religious directions with which I could not associate. In 2022, I had learned enough of this to wish to avoid any connection with their annual challenge. NaNoWriMo is now (as of April, 2025) defunct. However, I have continued repeating the concept each year since I find it helpful.
Speed-writing history…
- 2016 “Paul in Snippets” (released September 2016)
- 2017 “Joseph, Rachel’s son” (released December 2018)
- 2018 “Daniel, Man of Light” (Book 1) (eBook serial May-Dec 2022)
- 2019 “The King’s Armour-bearer” (released December 2021)
- 2020 “That Broken Reed” (released February 2023)
- 2021 “Beyond the Western Margin” (Released June 2024)
- 2022 “Daniel, Man of Light” (Book 2) (eBook serial Feb-Oct 2023)
- 2023 “West to Moora Moora” (eBook serial Jun-Nov 2025)
- 2024 “Chief and Commander” (unsuccessful – try again later)
- 2025 “Chief and Commander” (second attempt 24Nov-23Dec)
Publication History
- BibleTales.online website – began June 2016.
- Weekly newsletter – first issue 28 July, 2016.
- Terror on Every Side! Volume 1 – Early Days: released as eBook serial (18 July, 2016) and audiobook serial (5 September 2016).
- Paul in Snippets: released as PDF eBook (19 September 2016).
- Terror on Every Side! Volume 1 – Early Days: released as eBook (12 December 2016), paperback in 9.5ot and 10.5pt body text (12 December 2016) and audiobook (January 2017).
- They Lived! – 11 Bible-based micro-tales: released as audiobook (25 January 2017).
- Terror on Every Side! Volume 2 – As Good As It Gets: released as eBook serial (30 January 2017), audiobook serial (20 March 2017), eBook (18 July 2017), paperback (18 July 2017) and audiobook (11 May 2018).
- Fiction Favours the Facts – 22 Bible-based micro-tales: released in paperback (6 September 2017), eBook (6 September 2017), audiobook (28 December 2017).
- Terror on Every Side! Volume 3 – Darkness Falling: released as eBook serial (4 September 2017), audiobook serial (23 October 2017), eBook (11 May 2018), paperback (11 May 2018).
- Terror on Every Side! Volume 4 – The Darkness Deepens: released as eBook serial (23 April 2018), audiobook serial (11 June 2018), eBook (7 December 2018), paperback (7 December 2018).
- Terror on Every Side! Volume 5 – No Remedy: released as eBook serial (3 December 2018) and audiobook serial (21 January 2019).
- Joseph, Rachel’s son: released in paperback (4 December 2018), eBook (4 December 2018).
- Fiction Favours the Facts – Book 2, Another 22 Bible-based micro-tales: released in paperback and eBook (10 April 2019) and in audiobook (26 May 2019).
- Terror on Every Side! Volume 5 – No Remedy: released in eBook, paperback and audiobook on 19 July 2019.
- Joseph, Rachel’s son: released as a 25-part audiobook serial (14 October 2019 – 30 March 2020).
- Paul in Snippets: PDF updated and eBook also released in EPUB and MOBI formats (4 December 2019).
- Terror on Every Side! Volume 5 – No Remedy: released in hardcover on 12 December 2019.
- Fiction Favours the Facts – Book 3, Yet another 22 Bible-based micro-tales: released as a daily audiobook serial in 32 episodes (30 March – 20 May 2020).
- Terror on Every Side! Volume 1 – Early Days: Supplement: released in printable format and in eBook format on 24 April 2020.
- Terror on Every Side! Volume 1 – Early Days: Second edition with extra resources, released as eBook and paperback (28 June 2020).
- Terror on Every Side! Volume 1 – Early Days: Equivalent of second edition released in hardcover on 20 July 2020.
- Fiction Favours the Facts – Book 3, Yet another 22 Bible-based micro-tales: released in paperback, eBook and audiobook (20 October 2020).
- Terror on Every Side! Volume 2 – As Good As It Gets: released in hardcover on 25 October 2020.
- Terror on Every Side! Volume 3 – Darkness Falling: released in hardcover on 25 October 2020.
- Terror on Every Side! Volume 4 – The Darkness Deepens: released in hardcover on 25 October 2020.
- Terror on Every Side! Volume 3 – Darkness Falling: released as an audiobook on 3 December 2020.
- Terror on Every Side! Volume 4 – The Darkness Deepens: released as an audiobook on 3 December 2020.
- The King’s Armour-bearer: released as eBook serial (18 January – 30 August 2021).
- Joseph, Rachel’s son: released as audiobook (20 May 2021).
- Terror on Every Side! Volume 6 – That Broken Reed: released as an eBook serial (21 September 2021 – 11 October 2022).
- The King’s Armour-bearer: released in eBook, paperback and hardcover (14 December 2021).
- Daniel, Man of Light: eBook serial (17 May – 20 December 2022).
- Daniel, Man of Light, Book 2: eBook serial (14 February – 31 October 2023).
- Terror on Every Side! Volume 6 – That Broken Reed: released as an eBook, paperback and hardcover on 28 February 2023.
- Terror on Every Side! Volume 6 – That Broken Reed: audiobook serial (18 April – 17 October 2023).
- Beyond the Western Margin released as eBook serial (31 October 2023 to 19 March 2024).
- Terror on Every Side! Volume 6 – That Broken Reed: audiobook released 8 May 2024.
- Beyond the Western Margin: released in eBook and paperback on 24 June 2024.
- West to Moora Moora (sequel to Beyond the Western Margin) – released as eBook serial (16 June to 24 November 2025).
- An expansion of Paul In Snippets including 36 sketches from the life of Paul was published in 28 episodes and two articles in the Bible Tales Newsletter between 12 June 2021 and 21 June 2025.
- Upside Down with Paul – an expansion of Paul In Snippets to include more of Paul’s background and 41 sketches from his life. Hardcover released on 24 July 2025. Paperback and eBook released on 12 August 2025.
- West to Moora Moora (sequel to Beyond the Western Margin) – released as paperback and eBook 19 January 2026.
- Fiction Favours the Facts – Book 4, 11 more Bible-based micro-tales: released as a weekly audiobook serial in 11 episodes (11 May – 20 July 2026).
Interested in purchasing?
Most of these books are available in the
Bible Tales Online Store or from other online book stores.
Publications coming soon (God willing)...
- Fiction Favours the Facts – Book 4, 11 more Bible-based micro-tales: released as an audiobook.
- Joseph, Rachel’s son translated into Hindi.
- Daniel, Man of Light (Released in serial form as Books 1&2 with a total of 170,000 words): seeking a traditional publisher for individual volumes or the combined book.
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