Tag: Ronald Hera

A Few Quick Questions With…Ronald Hera

A little bit ago, I posted about the novel Bethlehem’s Brothers, and now it’s time for a few questions with the author, Ronald Hera, who was gracious enough to give me a little of his time.

Tell us about your road to publication—was your plan/dream always to become a novelist and your education/other jobs were just to get you to this point, or was this a later-in-life desire?
I wrote technical papers occasionally for the SAE and enjoyed it, but the idea of writing for publication came when I was about to retire and wondered what I would do to pass the time. Writing has been good for me.
Most authors have dozens of ideas bouncing around their craniums at once—what was it about this idea that made you say, “Yup—this is the one for me.”? What kind of research did you do to prepare for it?
I have three books started now. One is a bad idea and I’ll probably not write that one. But two are promising ideas and are going smoothly. They are more like mystery/action novels. Bethlehem’s Brothers came to my head for two reasons. I see people moving away from their Christian roots and that bothers me. I wanted to show the struggles that went into deciding to be a Christian during the first century. In Jerusalem’s Brothers, I wanted to show how difficult it was during the early persecution and finally in Brothers Forever, the fall of Jerusalem and who the Essenes were.

My research comes from The Complete Works of Josephus, Studies in the Life of Christ by R.C. Foster, The Bible, and the internet. I enjoy the research because it teaches me a lot about a subject dear to my heart.

While writing the book itself, what was the biggest surprise about the process? Either, “I can’t believe X is so easy!” or “If I had known Y was going to be so hard, I’d have skipped this and watched more TV”?
My imagination ran WILD! I found it hard to make the book flow and my sentences were awkward a lot of the time. Editing was lengthy for me. Even naming the characters was a challenge sometimes. I wanted them to be real and meaningful names, so I researched meanings on the internet.
As I’ll discuss in my post about the book, I really appreciated how you merged the Biblical events with your material—it seemed like you exercised great care in that. How did you decide which parts of the life of Christ to have your characters directly interact with?
Thank you for the compliment. I think a fiction writer should make the scenes and surrounding events as real and accurate as possible while making the characters and some events purely fictional. That is a delicate balance. An example is when I had Enoch with Cleopas on the road to Emmaus. The Bible mentions Cleopas and “another”, so I interjected Enoch. One must be careful not to add to the Bible. I thought this might be okay.
As soon as I saw a Cleopas hanging around, I figured this is where you were going to go, and you pulled that part off particularly well.

What’s been the response to this in the years since the original publication?

Critics like it. Bethlehem’s Brothers has recommendations from Pacific Book Review and Kirkus. It was also a finalist in the prestigious Montaigne Medal awarded by the Eric Hoffman Award Committee. Of course, I would like more people to read it. Now with e-books, cost isn’t really an issue. Maybe a different cover would help.
There’ve been two sequels to this (and I imagine there aren’t more coming based on the synopses for them), are there other books to come from you?
Certainly. I have a fourth book to add to the series called The Rock of Michael. Michael is an angel who helps the Christians displaced by the destruction of Jerusalem settle in what is now Tel Aviv-Yafo. The other possible novel is another historical fiction piece set on a college campus during protests of the Vietnam war. It has promise.
So much for my imagination 🙂

Thanks for your time and willingness to let me badger you with these questions—again, I really enjoyed Bethlehem’s Brothers and truly hope that it finds the audience it deserves.?

I am confident it will. Perhaps a TV series or a Movie might get the word out to the audience.

Bethlehem’s Brothers by Ronald Hera: First Century Historical Fiction about a Couple of Others Born in Bethlehem

Bethlehem's Brothers

Bethlehem’s Brothers

by Ronald Hera
Series: The Brothers Trilogy, #1

Kindle Edition, 308 pg.
AuthorHouse, 2011

Read: April 12-19, 2020


This historical fiction starts off with a bang—in a small home during the Massacre of the Innocents. One father (probably others, but we’re focused on one family here) tries to prevent the soldier from killing his young son and loses his life, too. Devastated, his widow does the best she can for her two remaining sons—sending one to Jerusalem with a friend of a friend as an apprentice, she takes the other to live with family near the sea of Galilee where the boy will learn to be a fisherman.

After a few chapters where we see them grow up and begin their adult lives, we begin to hear about things like John the Baptizer, and an itinerant preacher surrounded by outlandish rumors. Both boys have been raised quite differently—Simeon, in Jerusalem, was apprenticed to a former rabbi (discharged by the Sadducees for his orthodoxy); Enoch becomes involved with Zealots and was convinced the soon-to-come Messiah would lead a revolt. A few striking events lead them to realize who this Messiah is (although, they’re both pretty shaky about the details).

As the brother’s stories intersect at various points with the Gospel accounts we see John’s arrest, some healings by Christ, the Triumphal Entry, the Crucifixion, and some of those who were raised, the encounter at the Road to Emmaus and more. As they intersect, they, their friends, Simeon’s wife, and others struggle to understand what they’re hearing and seeing.

I was particularly impressed with the way that Hera treated the Biblical material. One of the best ways to evaluate Historical Fiction is based on how it treats actual history and merges the fictional with the fact. I found Hera’s use to be very sympathetic and respectful—it’s a dangerous path in general, but when you’re dealing with Sacred material, it’s even more dangerous.

It is a smooth and easy read, with a pretty engaging text. It’s not perfect, and maybe relies a bit too much on coincidence, but that doesn’t detract from it being a pleasant time. I wanted a bit more out of the dialogue but it wasn’t bad. The focus on this novel is to give an idea—with an eye to historical reality, but not bogged down in the details—what it was like for the faithful Jew to encounter the Messiah. It’s a worthwhile and ambitious goal and it delivers on it. I’d recommend this and will very likely be picking up the next two installments in the trilogy soon.

Note: I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for this post and my honest opinion.


3 Stars

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