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Speculative Fiction; Visionary and Metaphysical; Christian Fiction
Date Published: September 17, 2025
Publisher: Acorn Publishing
Derek Hollinger has walked a long, hard road since a fateful encounter with an Indigenous shaman woman turned his life upside down. Now married to Kendal, his angel and savior, Derek desperately wants to be the man she deserves. But his obsession with his tattoos—what they mean and how to get rid of them—is tearing down everything they’ve built together.
Paralyzed by depression and self-loathing, Derek is convinced that only one person can help him now: the granddaughter of the shaman whose power inked him from head to toe. Enlisting the aid of his loyal friend and spiritual advisor, Father Mike, Derek treks deep into the heart of the Amazon jungle, where a final reckoning between good and evil awaits.
But God’s plan for Derek isn’t what he expects. And coming back alive—whole in mind, heart, and spirit—will require every ounce of his fortitude and faith.
But then, one morning, the tattoos appeared after he had a vivid
nightmare of a swirling spiderweb that seemed to move and change as he tried
to escape. He had awoken with a start, his heart racing and his body drenched
in sweat. He remembered every detail—the grotesque spider with its
sharp, black legs and beady eyes, looming over him as he struggled to free
himself from its web. In his dream, he had been half-paralyzed with fear,
unable to escape the creature’s grasp as it taunted and tortured him.
Now, as he lay in his bed, still trembling from the intensity of the recurring dream, he realized that the spider was not just a figment of his imagination. It was a manifestation of his deepest fears and insecurities, a symbol of the overwhelming challenges and struggles he faced in his waking life.
The tattoos covered his body from head to toe—even his face.
He had tried to subconsciously resist the spine-chilling transformation, to hide by going back into a deep, fitful sleep that night, hoping it was only a nightmare. But the tattoos seemed to have a mind of their own, and soon, his entire body was covered in a symphony of ink, intricate and detailed, each telling a story he could not understand.
Derek became a spectacle, a mystery, and a work of art. People would point and gawk at his tattoos. He nearly lost his medical practice.
He could not explain the disturbing dichotomy, but he felt an intense connection to these markings. He intuitively realized they were a part of him and he would never be alone again. After experiencing the vicious beating when he was a teenager that almost took his life, Derek struggled with feelings of unworthiness, believing that he somehow deserved what had happened to him. He had been selfish that day, not listening to his mother and not wanting to visit with his grandmother. Then she died suddenly; he never saw his grandmother again. It felt like there must have been something inherently wrong with him if the universe was willing to use its power against him in such cruel ways.
As a prominent plastic surgeon, he performed each reconstructive procedure with as much focus and precision as if working on his own body. His attention to detail and excellence in each procedure were an extension of the reconstructive surgeries performed by Dr. Christopher Casey on him as a child.
When he performed craniofacial surgery, it was, in his mind, a repetition of the one performed on his face so many years before. A reconstructive microsurgery on the delicate bones of a hand that might someday perform life-altering procedures.
In his dreams, he relived moments of profound regret and insecurity. He had told himself it was for the best when Kendal had left him for a short time before they married. He was protecting himself from the disappointment and hurt that inevitably came with a relationship’s dissolution. He had been able to rehabilitate himself in her eyes.
But now, in this vivid dream, he gripped the steering wheel of his parked Bentley and felt the familiar explosion go off in his head. He could not deny the truth any longer. He was a lonely and lost man. The realization was like a punch in the gut, and he could not help but feel a wave of sadness for what might have been.
About the Author
Writer, speaker, and certified life coach Monica Broussard is passionate about writing fiction that contains fantasy elements and keeps the reader intrigued about the lead character’s motives. She also writes an occasional article for her hometown’s magazine, SeaCliff Living. She belongs to American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and enjoys attending national writers' conferences.
Born in North Carolina on a Marine Corps base, Monica now lives in “Surf City,” Huntington Beach, California, with her husband of thirty-nine years. She has enjoyed various occupations, but her favorite job is the one she’s doing now—writing.
The 6th Heaven is book 3 in the 21 Tattoos Series.
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