The Release: Escape from Torment by Ralph Nelson Willett

4/30/2018

Multi-volume author Ralph Nelson Willett introduces us to The Release: Escape From Torment:
Carrie Rhodes must escape the violent rages of her boyfriend. On the run, severely beaten and in pain, fate intervenes when only two hours from Chicago her car breaks down in an unfamiliar town. She is alone and vulnerable. Without hope, Carrie resigns herself to her inevitable death.

Hope returns though, in the form of an extraordinary man with dark secrets and an unusual occupation. For the first time, Carrie finds herself part of an extended family where love is unconditional and freely given. Peace touches her soul. It's peace like she has never felt before. It gives her a new sense of how her world could be.

However, evil refuses to release its grip and darkness rages in many forms. Carrie rejects the light that is shining into her life when she declares that there is no God. Would a loving God allow her to go through the torment that has followed her from father to boyfriend to lover?

A phone call exposes her. Violence follows her. If not for her new friends, she may be forced back into her old way of life and the old patterns of abuse.

Can God’s love, shown through flawed people, be the path of escape from generations of violence and abuse? Can the prayer of a woman that Carrie doesn’t know, point her life in a new direction? To be set free, the generational curse must end. The chains must be broken.
There must be a release, an escape from torment.

This book is really good reading! It portrays people who are real in many different circumstances of life. It also hints at a lot of the spiritual forces that are active in the lives of these people. Different forms of abuse are described, without shying away from the biggie, generational abuse. It gets worse with each successive generation. The escape from torment is very real and clearly delineated in the story.
I really enjoyed this story! The author has done a marvelous job of balancing action, narration and dialog. I found the scene setting to be quite well done also. No words were wasted. All of the characters seemed like people I know or have met. Everyone played their part quite well.
I would have liked more background about Chi since he is so capable of niceness and mayhem. He has an intriguing set of skills. I loved his mom, she is quite a character!
Because this is such a great story and well written, I give it 4.7 stars!

You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Release-Torment-Ralph-Nelson-Willett-ebook
https://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Release-Torment-Ralph-Nelson-Willett-ebook
https://www.goodreads.com/book/-the-release

You can follow Ralph:
https://twitter.com/NorthernOvation
https://www.facebook.com/RalphNelsonWillett
http://northernovationmedia.com

murder, kidnapping, drugs, spiritual abuse, oppression, thriller, Christian, inspirational fiction

Copyright © 2018 Mark L Schultz except for the author's introduction

51 Comments

Ralph Nelson Willett link

5/1/2018 08:10:17 pm

Wow. Awesome review! This happens to be one of my favorite books of the ones I've written. It was a lot of fun. I include gun fights, karate and Jujitsu.
Margret, the mother, was a blast to write. She's a flawed person struggling to do what's right. I've found that people either love her or hate her. When my wife read the story for the first time she said, "Margret is kind of a bad*ss." Yes she is.
Thanks again for the awesome review. I'm glad Grizz is happy :-).
~Ralph

Mark

5/1/2018 08:39:35 pm

Grizz and I are pleased that you like the review. Grizz says it's time for his late afternoon nap.
How old were you when you wrote your first story? Do you remember what it was about?

5/1/2018 10:01:22 pm

It wasn't that long ago when I wrote my first story. Somewhere around 7 years ago. I happened to be sitting in church, rather than sleeping ;-) a had a story go through my head. It ended up being a story called "The White Man", a book I never published. I recorded it in my own voice to turn it into an audio book that I gave away to friends. The story was about a four year old girl that was kidnapped by a man she didn't know and is found by another man on camping on an island. The girl seemed to know a lot about the man and tell the man that it was "the white man" that told her all about him. We find out later that the man who kidnapped her had already murdered three other little girls but downed in Lake Michigan while taking this little girl. Later when her parents asked where the white man went, she told them he went back to heaven because "he has wings".

Theressa Ruppert link

5/1/2018 09:17:28 pm

Ralph,
I also thought the book was well written. Having been in an abusive relationship, how were you able to write from a victims perspective. Did you research a lot? Where did you get your information from?
Theressa

Ralph Nelson Willett

5/1/2018 10:07:50 pm

I did a bit of research for some of the legal stuff. For example, the hero of the story shoots a few bad guys. I went to the Michigan State Police Academy and met with one of the instructors and asked a bunch of question. How the hero (Chi pron. like the tea) acted after he took out the bad guy was a direct result of that.
As for the abuse, unfortunately I've live long enough to hear a lot of stories. Around 1982 I had to intervene one late February night when my neighbor was beating his wife out in the street. The woman needed stitches, refused to go to the hospital and refused to press charges. I remember how mad the cops were because they couldn't do anything without her permission. The laws have since changed so that now they can.

5/1/2018 10:30:42 pm

Child abuse is so common, especially fathers against daughters. Abuse of wives is very prevalent also, but not the whole picture. Why did you choose this theme for your book? Does this theme run in any of your other books?

5/1/2018 11:29:45 pm

The theme started after I wrote the first chapter. A woman is escaping the man who beat her when her car breaks down. At that point she gives up. She expects to die. I don't think I intended to turn it into a book at that time. It was just something heartbreaking that just sort of came out of me. I let a friend read the chapter and she said "you just wrote my life." Until that point I didn't know that about her. Perhaps had I known I wouldn't have let her read it. It broke my heart to hear her tell her story. There is one section in the book, the part where a little black woman ask if she could pray for Carrie, that came right from the story of my friends life. With her permission, I used what she told me nearly word for work. God did a miracle in her life and that was the same miracle that I wanted for Carrie.
Abuse isn't a thing in all of my books. I do try to write things that make me emotional. (I still cry when I re-read my own books, probably because since I wrote about what happened, I am intimately familiar with the pain the characters are experiencing.) Abuse is one of them. In one of my books, The Rose Stone, it was addiction and recovery. In another book, The God Whistle, it's about how people as willing to condemn others when then don't know the whole story. In each of my books I try to show how God intervenes. If there is a common theme, that would be it.

5/2/2018 12:55:23 pm

I have heard some horrendous stories also. When the grace of God enters the situation the healing is miraculous.
I love the concept in The White Man. I believe children can see things adults can't at certain times.
Have you ever used yourself or a family member as a character in a story? How did that work for you?

5/2/2018 02:05:34 pm

Never as a complete character. I've used a lot of my wife in several stories. In my book Brianna I wrote a couple of scenes of things that actually happened to her. (Embellished a bit) That's her favorite book of the ones I've written. She says it's because there's a lot of her in the book. But then when something happens or she says something profound she quick to tell me that I'm not allowed to write about that "That's just between us."
BTW: I turned Brianna into an audio book. I've made the MP3 available for free here if you'd like to hear it. http://northernovationmedia.com/brianna/mp3-dl
The Kindle version is also free on Amazon.

5/2/2018 02:31:54 pm

I should mention to your readers that if they'd like to read preview chapters, it can be read here: http://northernovationmedia.com/giveaway/thereleasedemo1

5/2/2018 02:55:29 pm

Thanks for sharing those links. I am a firm believer in self-promotion, you might have noticed. ;-)
Is writer's block real? Is it something you have ever struggled with? What have you tried to overcome it?

5/2/2018 03:18:04 pm

I have ideas constantly running through my head for new stories. The problem is, none of them ever rise to the level of my last one so I never get it completed. I have multiple books I've started and then abandoned because I want them to be as good as The Release or The God Whistle. I think I've finally broken through that and now have a book I'm only ~three chapters from completing it's first draft. It will be in the thriller genre. I'm really liking the story so it's easy for me to sit and keep writing.

5/2/2018 05:02:11 pm

You are a lucky man, I saw a tweet yesterday, the writer said they had been struggling to get past writer's block for 6 months. Do you have any advice for this person?

5/2/2018 08:46:49 pm

That's a tough one to give advice on. I've done a couple of things to try and keep going. I'll sit down and just start writing whatever comes to mind or, and this is my favorite, I do something a lot like lucid dreaming. I just sit in my chair at my desk, prop my feet, close my eyes and just start thinking through scenarios. It's very relaxing.

5/2/2018 09:24:41 pm

That sounds like good advice to me.
Publishing can be very difficult, I have heard many writers say. What process did you go through after you decided you wanted to publish your first story? Did you consider trying query letters? Did that work or did it force you down a different path?

Ralph

5/3/2018 07:58:33 am

The first story I published, The Rose Stone, is unique to how I came about writing the rest of my books. I mentioned before that I had written a couple of stories that I recorded in my own voice to give to friends. Not long after I created those audio books my wife and I had an opportunity to move back after 38 years to my home town on the eastern shores of Lake Michigan. We began attending a new church. The minister had three young sons. At the time, my son was traveling around the country with Marvel Universe Live (Great show BTW). The show came to Chicago so my son connected me with some free tickets where I could take my wife, our minister, his wife and three sons. It was a great time. We got a tour of back stage. It was awesome.
I had already given a copy of my two audio books to my minister so he was already familiar with some of my writing. On the way home from Chicago we were talking about my plans for my upcoming vacation. We had only planned on staying home and relaxing. He asked, "Why don't you write another story?" I told him it wasn't just that easy. I hadn't written anything in a couple of years at that point. He just told me to give it some thought because he really enjoyed what I had already created.
That was on a Friday night.
The following Monday my wife and I were walking the beach. She likes to hunt for beach glass as a way of relaxing. I just strolled. As I was walking I saw a little reddish stone sitting in the sand. I reached down to pick it up and by the time I stood I had then entire story in my head. It was just that quick. All I had to do was write it. The book is titled The Rose Stone. It was truly a God given story. I still have the little stone. My wife recorded the book. I created a special version for my church. It's on their website here: http://webuildbridges.org/the-rose-stone/

5/3/2018 12:29:04 pm

The Red Stone story was an instant download. I love it! Thanks for sharing the link.
Have there been any books that you thought you wouldn't like but read anyway, and your opinion was different at the end? Do you read books outside of your genres?

5/3/2018 03:23:38 pm

Weirdly, for an author, I don't read as much as I should. But when I have time I like to read Clive Cussler.
I do a lot of audio books. Leadership books, John, C. Maxwell, etc. A few fiction books. As for having a different opinion between when when I started and when I finish, I can't say I do. When I read (or audio book) fiction, I tend to look at how the writer says things. I make a mental note of "I like how that worked" or "I didn't like that." I think it helps me improve my writing.
At the moment I can think of only two books that I absolutely hated. Not because they weren't well written but because the subject bothered me so much. Pet Cemetery by Stephen King was one of those. Anytime a kid get hurt I'm really bothered by it. It was years before I could pick up another one of his books.
Another book that bothered me was about a married couple where the wife left the husband. He thought she was just visiting her sister but in reality she took off with the kids. Then she had an affair. I was really bothered by that one. It was very well written and I'd have no problem giving it 5 stars but it was one of those books that just made me feel sort of sick and helpless. I think any book that can make you "feel" is a good book. It's been a couple of years since I read it and it still haunts me sometimes. (I'm intentionally omitting the title and author) My book, The God Whistle was influenced some by that book. It had a similar theme but went down a completely different path. In the end it leaves the reader with a feeling that they really just connected with someone. A couple of people have told me that they're "a better person for having read it." That's the type of writer I want to be.

5/3/2018 04:55:31 pm

I have heard a number of authors say that reading books after becoming an author is not the same as before. They still enjoy a good story, but they are not as deep into the story as before. Part of their brain is picking the book apart and saving the good stuff.
Have you ever read a book that changed the way you look at writing? Have you ever had a class or seminar that gave you a different perspective on writing?

5/3/2018 07:32:58 pm

That's true. Once you start examining your own writing you can't help but examine how other writers do it. I can't say any one book has changed my style of writing but I do pick out things that I like, words, and how things are said to help me improve my own writing.
I've never attended a class or seminar to get a different perspective on writing. I'm way to egotistical ;-) for that.

5/3/2018 09:33:00 pm

Not just egotistical, wink wink, you are pretty funny too! All the jokes you put up on twitter make me chuckle, if not laugh.
Why do most writers use third person POV, instead of First person or second person?

5/3/2018 11:08:40 pm

I don't know. I know I can't stand writing in 1st person POV. Maybe because it's too easy to think of your character as yourself. I wouldn't really want all that happening to me.

5/3/2018 11:22:19 pm

As a reader, I really enjoy First person POV, it is so intimate.
Do you find it difficult to write female characters as a man? Why or why not?

5/4/2018 06:56:48 am

I find that amusing when people point out that I write from a woman's POV. It's true for all of the books I have on Amazon at the moment.
But there is a reason for that. As I said earlier, I was writing stories that I could turn into audio books to give to my friends. I never intended to do much more that that. I'd write the stories, record them and then give them away. It was a fun hobby.
But then I starting writing The Rose Stone. I did some early test with recording it to see what it sounded like and absolutely hated my voice on it. There were some parts in the story where I wanted the female dialog recorded in a woman's voice so I asked my wife to do some samples. She was so good at it, sounded %1000 better than I did on the recordings that I had her do the entire book. From that point on, when I hear the story in my head, I always hear it in the voice of my wife. So I end up writing that way. It's worked out well.

5/4/2018 01:39:19 pm

That's great! So serendipitous. Has she done any books besides yours?
Do you experiment with your writing or do you prefer to stay in the safe zone?

5/4/2018 03:22:48 pm

She hasn't recorded any books other than mine.
I sometimes experiment with writing different things. My romance books The Summer Tourist came out of one of those times. But usually, I don't put a lot into the experiments. I only want to see how something would work. I'll write a few paragraphs or a couple of chapters. That seems to be the best way to do it for me.

5/4/2018 06:07:39 pm

Do you plan on any more experiments soon?
Have you ever thought about mentoring young or beginning writers? If invited, would you speak in front of a group of students or writers?

5/5/2018 08:35:05 am

I never plan on experimenting. It just happens.
But here's an example of a short drama I wrote as an experiment. I was asked to write a drama to illustrate a sermon about why we put on mask. This is what I came up with. https://vimeo.com/webuildbridges/unvieled

As for public speaking, I don't think I could. I tend to choke in those situations.

5/5/2018 10:50:04 am

That was an interesting drama, I like it a great deal, it was very clear and well done. It reminds me of the most unusual fortune cookie I have ever received, "God has give you a face, but you have chosen another for yourself."
Book reviews are a big topic among authors, Amazon has been trying to purge fake reviews from their system. What do you think about book reviews? How about bad reviews? What do you think Amazon should do differently to fight fake reviews?

5/5/2018 12:01:17 pm

I love a good review. I hate to admit it, but I probably pay too much attention to them. A bad review will bother me. There was one that used a specific phrase that still bugs me. It was probably true. I pay more attention to my writing because of it and try to give each story a "once over" with that lens just to try and make it less true.
I always try and ask my readers to for a review. Even a short "I liked it," is awesome. Reviews really help an author, so if you want to see more books by the same author, giving a book a positive review is a huge encouragement.
The problem with fake reviews is that they elevate books in the rankings unnaturally. This is bad for the reader. I think Amazon is doing a fairly decent job of fighting the problem but I suspect it's a lot like Wack-a-Mole - fix one problem only to have another pop up.

5/5/2018 12:52:56 pm

Would you like to share that phrase with us?
I have seen many authors agonize over one bad review. I like to suggest that the real bad one actually validates all the good reviews. Because every book has a limited audience, there are people that will hate the book because it wasn't meant for them. So I say, treat it like a battle scar and move on in victory.
How do you write? Pen and paper? Computer? What software do you use?

5/5/2018 07:15:06 pm

I'll pass on sharing that phrase, thank you.

I never use pen and paper. It cramps my hands.
I'm at my computer almost 12 hours a day. My wife has to pry me away from it. I use Word now. I've used LibreOffice before that. In some ways I prefer LibreOffice but Word formats for books more easily.

5/5/2018 08:46:55 pm

A lot of authors use word. I have heard some use Scrivner.
Do you think a person can be a good writer without reading books on a regular basis?
Do you think there are classic books that every writer should read? What would be your choice?

5/6/2018 09:33:11 am

I think you have to read books, books of all kinds. I need to actually read more but I do listen to a lot of audio books.
As for classics, I can't say I read any that I can think of other than Tom Sawyer and Huck Fin. (There's a funny story about the Huck Fin book that I can't tell publicly. It resulted in me being asked not to attend my son's parent teacher conferences again.)

5/6/2018 10:44:05 am

Mark Twain was quite a writer. When I needed a good laugh, as a child, I would read a short story of his, "The Cat and The Painkiller". It was a guarantee of bringing me out of whatever funk I was in.
Have you ever had the opportunity to do a reading or signing of any of your books?
What are the worst unethical publishing practices?

5/6/2018 03:00:35 pm

Yes, I've done two book signings. One for my book The Summer Tourist (https://amzn.to/2roXU0d) and one for the book you just reviewed, The Release: Escape from Torment. (https://amzn.to/2rq7QGO)
The one I did for The Release was to raise money for the Domestic Violence Coalition of Van Buren County, Michigan. Sheriff Dan Abbott was there along with Melanie Hooker, chairperson of the Domestic Violence Coalition. You can see a picture of the three of us here: https://amzn.to/2IeYvwb
I don't know what I would consider the worst unethical publishing practices. So far it isn't anything I've had to concern myself with so I haven't given it any thought.

5/6/2018 05:09:40 pm

Sequel. Have you done them before? Have you ever incorporated the thoughts of readers in a sequel? Is there going to be a sequel to "The Release"?

5/6/2018 08:15:35 pm

I've written about 30K words of the sequel. I'm still not sure if I want to move forward with it or now. The release had such a good spiritual message. I'm not sure if the sequel would do it justice. In the case of the sequel, so far, the story is built around Chi, where the first one was written around Carrie and Margret. I brought almost all of the characters back in. I've had to let the project set for a while. I may pick it back up again, but like I said, I don't have a good spiritual theme for it. I think the readers would expect it.
The project I'm working on now is a stand alone story. For this book, I think I will be stepping out of the Christian Fiction genre and just do straight fiction. As I write this, I just finished the 13th chapter. I'm really happy with that chapter. It's very engaging. I can't wait to see how the entire story turns out.

5/6/2018 08:45:27 pm

I am excited to hear that there is more to come from your pen.
Do you participate in a writers' group? Do you have non-writers that serve as a beta-reading group? Do you have a friend that you can bounce ideas off of, whether that friend is a writer or not?

5/6/2018 10:48:28 pm

I don't belong a writer's group here. Locally there aren't any. I'm considering putting together a group. The focus will be on marketing for indie publishers.
I do have several people I use as a beta-reading group. Several friends locally and others I've met on Twitter. Their help is immeasurable. They help me clean things up and see a lot of things I can't say because I'll read what I think should be there and not what it actually says.
I've found that very few people work well for bouncing ideas off of. It takes a special mindset to be about brainstorm about ideas. Questions that start with "What if we..." For me, that's a good way to start coming up with ideas. I don't know a lot of people who can be creative in such a free-form way. I have one person I like to bounce ideas off of. He isn't a write but he's very creative in his own right. It's fun to get together and bounce around ideas with him. You never know where things are going to end up. If I get stuck on something or need to fill out a little bit, he's quite helpful.
As a suggest to your non-writers, if an author bounces ideas off of you, let your mind free flow. Step out of your real world boundaries and ask a lot of 'What would happen if..." questions. It's more helpful than you might think.

5/6/2018 11:03:01 pm

That's great! I have heard a lot of authors use small groups like that.
Was it difficult for you to decide between traditional publishing and self-publishing? A lot of authors seem set on getting a book deal with a traditional publisher. Is that mode of publishing going to disappear?

5/6/2018 11:12:54 pm

For me, I don't think Trad publishing was going to be an option. I don't have the patience enough to submit, deal with rejection and then submit somewhere else.
Trad publishing will never go away. There will always be authors that "arrive" and the big publishing houses handle all the stuff that indie publishers have to do themselves (and do it better). My dream, my fantasy, is to have Zondervan pick me up. At one time in life (early 80's) I ran one of their printing presses in Grand Rapids, Michigan. I printed books very similar to the books I write now. During my breaks I liked to hang out with the editors. To me, they were always more fun. If I were to be picked up by Zondervan's that would feel like coming full circle. But that's just a dream for now.

5/7/2018 12:31:52 pm

Zondervan is a big publisher in Christian circles, so that would be really cool for you! I hope you pursue it.
Have you considered querying a small independent publisher, Christian or otherwise, for a book?

5/7/2018 05:02:35 pm

Not really. I actually like being an indie publisher. I enjoy hacking my way through the process, figuring out what works and what doesn't. The nice thing about it is that everything is under your control. The bad thing about it is everything is under your control. ;-)

5/7/2018 05:26:15 pm

That makes a lot of sense, you get the more of the profits and the problems are your also.
You have 5 books on Amazon, including this one. Do you have any thoughts about tackling a multi-volume series? Sci-fi lends itself to that fairly well as do several other genres.
Is there a genre you have thought about diving into but haven't?

5/7/2018 08:18:55 pm

I've thought about doing a series but so far I haven't thought of anything I'd like to write about. I've started a book two of The Release but set it aside because I wasn't happy with it.
I've written one Christian Romance and four Christian Fiction. My current project will be a thriller. This one wont be in the Christian Fiction genre but except for the violence inherent in a thriller it will be safe to read. Rather than writing an overtly Christian message into it, it will treat Christianity as a normal way of life for the main characters. It will more like knowing that your neighbors go to church every Sunday because it's normal for people to do that in your city. I think that's missing in a lot of secular books.

5/7/2018 08:45:37 pm

You are right, normal Christian life is missing from a lot of books.
You have several books under your belt, plus a couple of audio books. How has your writing changed from the first book to you current WIP?

5/8/2018 08:22:51 am

It's improved! I look back on some of my older stuff and cringe. But that's how it's suppose to work. Your craft should improve with practice. With each book I say to myself "I don't know how I'm going to top that." I always want the next <insert whatever I do here> to be better than the last time. If I can't see how to do that then I may not ever do it again. I recognize that as a flaw in my personality. I've had to make a conscious effort to not let that stop me with my books. If I have a story then I need to get it out, even if it doesn't rise to the level of the last one. At least with my books, I can re-read them and say "I like how I did that." or "That could be improved if I said it this way." It a great way to improve my craft. I can't wait to see the improvement over the next few years.

5/8/2018 12:25:25 pm

That's what life is about, trying to improve your skills and make the next one better.
Any last words of advice for struggling writers?

5/8/2018 01:49:56 pm

If you're a writer, you'll write because that's what you like to do. You have a story and want to put it out there. It's a lot of work but if you enjoy it, it won't feel that way.
Discouragement is going to come. Expect it. Do what you love anyhow.
You might not make a living by being an author but if that's what you love to do, then you'll never regret it.
You'll make a lot of new friends. Both online and in person. That can make it all worthwhile.

5/8/2018 02:39:50 pm

Great advice for writers and anyone trying to follow their passion. Thanks for joining me, I look forward to talking again soon.

The Release: Escape from Torment by Ralph Nelson Willett

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