About Guy
Author • Counselor
After attending DiAnn Mills' writing critique group, Guy got the writing bug and took Jerry Jenkins Christian Writers Guild Master Fiction class. His feedback encouraged him to start on his first novel, Return With Honor. For ten years, he frequently met with DiAnn Mills, his writing coach, who gave him brutal word-for-word editing experience that sharpened his writing skills and finished the novel.
He has been a Christian Counselor for thirty years. His passion and love for speaking truth into people's lives came alive when he attended Dallas Theological Seminary for his Masters in Biblical Studies. After graduating, he was accepted to Colorado Christian University, where he earned another Master's degree in Biblical Counseling and founded The Legacy Center for Christian Counseling.
Guy can usually be found in his therapist chair, but when he is not counseling, he likes creating characters with deep psychological complexities who navigate fear, betrayal, unrequited love, and sacrifice. Agent Michelle Lazurek represents him at Wordwise Media Services. He has already received endorsements from best-selling authors.
He is a Licensed Clinical Pastoral Counselor and an ordained minister. When Guy is not counseling, writing, or speaking, he loves motorcycles, hiking, and long-distance ocean swimming—except for jellyfish.
WHy I wrote
Return with Honor
Cole and Dewey (Former Navy SEALs, now Homeland Security Agents)
Emotional Resilience
I’ve always been intrigued by Navy SEALs, Delta operators, and the whole Special Forces community in every military branch, who overcome incredible odds because of their emotional and psychological resilience.
I studied them for years to find out what makes them tick. What makes one person quit when another, who, in some cases, is not as athletic, stays in the fight and overcomes? I wanted a story where the hero and heroine experience excruciating pain, and there is a “no quit” attitude. I wanted Cole and Maggie to push past their pain instead of being ruled by their emotions and wounds for the sake of giving their lives for something bigger than themselves.
Cole, Maggie, and First Love
There is just something about first loves. Everyone remembers their first love, whether it is thrilling or ends in heartbreak. I wanted to write Cole and Maggie’s story, a tapestry from thousands of stories in my counseling practice that included friendship, camaraderie, passionate love, heartache, misunderstanding, broken trust, and steeling their heart against sorrow.
Then, they are courageous enough to risk giving their heart again and making it back to each other. I wanted their relationship to be a picture of redemption based on both choosing to love through their hurt. That takes courage in real life.
Complex Psychological Characters and PTSD
I also wanted to write my characters, Cole, Maggie, Katie, and Mac, and my antagonist, Warren, with complex psychological features and how pain impacted their lives and relationships. I wanted to show the effects of PTSD and how people choose to manage the emotional pain through their choices, both good and bad.
I wanted to show how failure to deal with emotional wounds can make people vulnerable if they don’t work through their stories. They have a choice to learn from it and gain strength or live less than who they were created to be. Either a person sabotages through their choices or authentically struggles well and trusts God to heal them from the inside out.
Trauma Bonding
When they experience something traumatic like Cole and Maggie as teenagers, it strengthens the bond but can also rip it apart. From that day forward, they are forever changed and often set the course for their life, occupation, and who they choose to reject or love later in life—the same with grief.
People choose to live based on how they handle sorrow, regret, and the potential of getting hurt again. Their internal vow is, “I will never experience that pain again. I will do anything it takes to avoid it.” Unfortunately, it leads most of the time to a life half-lived with little joy and great mental anguish.
A Web of Deceit and Betrayal
I wanted to write a complicated web of deceit, betrayal, and false accusations and how a hero and heroine overcome incredible odds to keep their love even when they struggle internally with trust and use their combined talents, skills, and intelligence to take down those bent on evil.
The Wise and Grizzled Mentor
Lastly, I wanted to write a wise, godly, tough, courageous, and grizzled character. I didn’t want a spiritual mentor to be weak and lacking masculine strength. I wanted a mentor willing to sacrifice his life and speak truth into Cole’s doubting faith.
I didn’t like the cheesy, Christian cliche character that is pristine and white-washed. I’ve read too many Christian fiction novels that were not based on the reality of how someone would respond to traumatic events. I wanted Cole dirty and doubting, yet moved to a higher calling of trusting God while sacrificing his life for others and his country.
Fighting for Our Country
I also wanted a believable story about what could happen to our country if steps are not taken to secure its future. The story needed to be patriotic and inspiring. I needed it to give people hope of good overcoming evil. That our hope is not in ourselves but God, who works through us.