Another unfinished novel of mine, this one also exploring similar themes of theocracy.

It also comes from a very deep and personal place for me, exploring my own cognitive dissonance.

I had sort of hoped to turn Tom into a reformer character who offers dangerous and subversive ideas about God and is very publicly tried for heresy before being expelled from the religious community where he lives; my plan was to describe a caravan of cars following him out of the city the same evening, describing their headlights like a string of pearls.

Thing is, I couldn't sort out the heart of Tom's message without sounding sanctimonious.

This was begun in 2006 or 2007 and last updated in 2008. I have made minute tweaks to the text to make this novel fragment more palatable.