Smolder

Oleevaba is a pampered breed representative. She's tried and tried to do whatever is expected of her, but she keeps showing a bit too much initiative. In a free society, that probably wouldn't matter much, but she lives in a society that's bent on building a perfect mix of perfected men and women, and failure to fit in can get you declared an experson. In that case, your only hope lies outside the only world you've ever known.As it happens, there is that other world, populated by misfits who have been hiding from the tyrannical government for generations. Also, as it happens, those misfits are itching to break out of their tunnels so they can live above ground again.Oleevaba is about to find herself in the middle of a rebellion. It's not what she was raised for. It's not what she could have ever imagined. Oh, well. It is what it is. Life happens.This is the third edition, revised and released in 2025.Other books in this series include The Birdwatcher, The Unexpecteds, The Hidden, Notes From Hiding, The Historian, The Forgotten Ways, and The Lowly.

During the reign of Greenley the Third, eleven-year-old Shayna Miller is living underground with her adoptive parents, hiding from the government, which is trying to perfect society by killing anyone who doesn't meet their biological and psychological standards. The experiment has been going on for generations, and so an extensive parallel society of freedom lovers has developed. They call their society Subterra, because so many of them live underground, in tunnels and caves. They refer to their period of history as The Smolder, while adopting a motto of 'Down, but not out.' In Shayna's time, the younger generations, who have never known what it's like to live openly above ground, are getting restless, and wondering if it might be better to risk their lives in a revolt, rather than live in relative safety, but in cramped conditions, with limited options. Still, for the most part, most Subterrans have settled into what has come to seem like a normal life to them, simply staying unnoticed as much as possible, and contenting themselves with making the best of life in whatever little community they're in.But Shayna's father keeps moving her family from place to place inside Subterra, almost as if he's trying to run from something inside Subterra itself. But what? Kathryn Judson was a newspaper reporter and columnist for many years, before switching over to working for a small indie office supply company that morphed into the Uffda-shop, one of the largest indie bookstores in Oregon. (It has since closed.)Almost Hopeless Horse was inspired in part by her horse Yob, who was afraid of cattle. Trouble Pug combines a love of history, time travel stories, and her late husband's fondness for a pug that traveled the country with him in his younger days. Why We Raise Belgian Horses got its start in stories from her husband's Norwegian-American family, including a story his grandfather told of a horse with an unusual phobia. The MI5 1/2 series started off as a spoof of spy novels but ended up being more serious than that in places (although still fairly silly overall). When she got tired of dystopian novels that ignore God and don't seem to understand that conversion is an option for people, she launched into the Smolder series, which also pokes sharp sticks into the evils of racism and social engineering, while still having fun with romance and friendship.Mrs. Judson is an adult convert to Christianity. You will find, if you read her books, that the ones from early in her walk are generally more in line with an Americanized national religion than with the Sermon on the Mount (found in the Bible in Matthew chapters 5 through 7) and other foundational commands of Christ Jesus. It took her a while to realize that some of what she was taught in church and had acquired from pop culture and from reading "Christian" books was often at odds with Jesus and His apostles. Therefore, with many of her books, you'll find American "conservative" values and ways of thinking more than Christian ones. In all cases, you should always compare what is presented against what Christ teaches. When there's a difference, go with Jesus.She has lived most of her life on the rain shadow side of Oregon but has also lived and worked in a number of other states. She also long ago traveled through Central America, and Canada, and to Japan. Also way back when, she toured with Up With People, and as a lowly flunky helped put on a Superbowl halftime show. In her school days, she was active in community theater, both on and off stage. One summer during her newspaper days, she took time off and worked for a summer stock theater company in the Black Hills of South Dakota. In 2017, she asked her church in Idaho to plug her ...

Isannah thinks she has a pretty good idea who she's going to marry someday. After all, she lives in an old prison camp, cut off from the wider world, and has grown up with all the known prospective husbands. For that matter, other than attending to chores, she really hasn't got a lot to do besides dream about the future.But then the war moves closer, and Isannah is face to face with a future that's nothing like she expected, one that involves contact with a number of people from outside the camp, for better and for worse.Meanwhile, the Bible says to return good for evil. Who knew that would take so much time and effort? Even in wartime?At times like these, love and friendship will both be put to the test. Will Isannah find true friends? Will she find true love? Kathryn Judson was a newspaper reporter and columnist for many years, before switching over to working for a small indie office supply company that morphed into the Uffda-shop, one of the largest indie bookstores in Oregon. (It has since closed.)Almost Hopeless Horse was inspired in part by her horse Yob, who was afraid of cattle. Trouble Pug combines a love of history, time travel stories, and her late husband's fondness for a pug that traveled the country with him in his younger days. Why We Raise Belgian Horses got its start in stories from her husband's Norwegian-American family, including a story his grandfather told of a horse with an unusual phobia. The MI5 1/2 series started off as a spoof of spy novels but ended up being more serious than that in places (although still fairly silly overall). When she got tired of dystopian novels that ignore God and don't seem to understand that conversion is an option for people, she launched into the Smolder series, which also pokes sharp sticks into the evils of racism and social engineering, while still having fun with romance and friendship.Mrs. Judson is an adult convert to Christianity. You will find, if you read her books, that the ones from early in her walk are generally more in line with an Americanized national religion than with the Sermon on the Mount (found in the Bible in Matthew chapters 5 through 7) and other foundational commands of Christ Jesus. It took her a while to realize that some of what she was taught in church and had acquired from pop culture and from reading "Christian" books was often at odds with Jesus and His apostles. Therefore, with many of her books, you'll find American "conservative" values and ways of thinking more than Christian ones. In all cases, you should always compare what is presented against what Christ teaches. When there's a difference, go with Jesus.She has lived most of her life on the rain shadow side of Oregon but has also lived and worked in a number of other states. She also long ago traveled through Central America, and Canada, and to Japan. Also way back when, she toured with Up With People, and as a lowly flunky helped put on a Superbowl halftime show. In her school days, she was active in community theater, both on and off stage. One summer during her newspaper days, she took time off and worked for a summer stock theater company in the Black Hills of South Dakota. In 2017, she asked her church in Idaho to plug her ...

Tomas is living in a time of turmoil but, wrapped up in his government job, he doesn't know it - until war breaks out, and he suddenly finds himself caught between the totalitarian government he's loyally served his entire life, and some fascinating rebels he never dreamed existed. He doesn't trust either side, and it appears that people on both sides are all too happy to return the favor. Meanwhile, he's surrounded by too many available women, but in the Subterran world, the rule is 'hands off the women' except for a man with his wife. But it's harder than he could have imagined to find a wife. And then there's the little problem of having somehow landed among conscientious objectors. During wartime. So, does he stick with his new and unpopular friends, or escape to join the rebel fighters, or try to go back to the only world he knew before this whole mess started? And did we mention the problem of too many women who must be kept at arm's length for now? And how hard it is to find a wife?Other books in this Christian series set in the future are The Smolder, The Birdwatcher, The Unexpecteds, The Hidden, and Notes From Hiding. Kathryn Judson was a newspaper reporter and columnist for many years, before switching over to working for a small indie office supply company that morphed into the Uffda-shop, one of the largest indie bookstores in Oregon. (It has since closed.)Almost Hopeless Horse was inspired in part by her horse Yob, who was afraid of cattle. Trouble Pug combines a love of history, time travel stories, and her late husband's fondness for a pug that traveled the country with him in his younger days. Why We Raise Belgian Horses got its start in stories from her husband's Norwegian-American family, including a story his grandfather told of a horse with an unusual phobia. The MI5 1/2 series started off as a spoof of spy novels but ended up being more serious than that in places (although still fairly silly overall). When she got tired of dystopian novels that ignore God and don't seem to understand that conversion is an option for people, she launched into the Smolder series, which also pokes sharp sticks into the evils of racism and social engineering, while still having fun with romance and friendship.Mrs. Judson is an adult convert to Christianity. You will find, if you read her books, that the ones from early in her walk are generally more in line with an Americanized national religion than with the Sermon on the Mount (found in the Bible in Matthew chapters 5 through 7) and other foundational commands of Christ Jesus. It took her a while to realize that some of what she was taught in church and had acquired from pop culture and from reading "Christian" books was often at odds with Jesus and His apostles. Therefore, with many of her books, you'll find American "conservative" values and ways of thinking more than Christian ones. In all cases, you should always compare what is presented against what Christ teaches. When there's a difference, go with Jesus.She has lived most of her life on the rain shadow side of Oregon but has also lived and worked in a number of other states. She also long ago traveled through Central America, and Canada, and to Japan. Also way back when, she toured with Up With People, and as a lowly flunky helped put on a Superbowl halftime show. In her school days, she was active in community theater, both on and off stage. One summer during her newspaper days, she took time off and worked for a summer stock theater company in the Black Hills of South Dakota. In 2017, she asked her church in Idaho to plug her ...

Seventeen-year-old Reuben had been born into a community that had been hiding from a totalitarian government for generations. He'd long dreamed of breaking loose and living above ground, free.Renzo had been born into the society run by the totalitarian government and had served it most of his life, unaware of the hidden civilization burrowed in around his remote outpost in western Northam - until he had been declared an experson, and Subterrans had captured him and taken him underground to save his life.When war broke out between the Subterrans and the Era forces and it looked like the Subterrans might finally gain their freedom, both men had assumed that this fight for freedom was necessary and right. But three years into the war, they are increasingly at odds with their neighbors, and questioning everything they thought they knew about Subterra, about freedom, about right and wrong, about what God requires of a man.They are finding that being a nonconformist who doesn't conform with the nonconformists around you isn't easy. And sometimes it gets dangerous.But what is a follower of Christ supposed to do in a world full of hate, cruelty, and fear? What does following Christ look like in a time of war? Is it like what they've been taught? Is it? Kathryn Judson was a newspaper reporter and columnist for many years, before switching over to working for a small indie office supply company that morphed into the Uffda-shop, one of the largest indie bookstores in Oregon. (It has since closed.)Almost Hopeless Horse was inspired in part by her horse Yob, who was afraid of cattle. Trouble Pug combines a love of history, time travel stories, and her late husband's fondness for a pug that traveled the country with him in his younger days. Why We Raise Belgian Horses got its start in stories from her husband's Norwegian-American family, including a story his grandfather told of a horse with an unusual phobia. The MI5 1/2 series started off as a spoof of spy novels but ended up being more serious than that in places (although still fairly silly overall). When she got tired of dystopian novels that ignore God and don't seem to understand that conversion is an option for people, she launched into the Smolder series, which also pokes sharp sticks into the evils of racism and social engineering, while still having fun with romance and friendship.Mrs. Judson is an adult convert to Christianity. You will find, if you read her books, that the ones from early in her walk are generally more in line with an Americanized national religion than with the Sermon on the Mount (found in the Bible in Matthew chapters 5 through 7) and other foundational commands of Christ Jesus. It took her a while to realize that some of what she was taught in church and had acquired from pop culture and from reading "Christian" books was often at odds with Jesus and His apostles. Therefore, with many of her books, you'll find American "conservative" values and ways of thinking more than Christian ones. In all cases, you should always compare what is presented against what Christ teaches. When there's a difference, go with Jesus.She has lived most of her life on the rain shadow side of Oregon but has also lived and worked in a number of other states. She also long ago traveled through Central America, and Canada, and to Japan. Also way back when, she toured with Up With People, and as a lowly flunky helped put on a Superbowl halftime show. In her school days, she was active in community theater, both on and off stage. One summer during her newspaper days, she took time off and worked for a summer stock theater company in the Black Hills of South Dakota. In 2017, she asked her church in Idaho to plug her ...

The Billboard War was launched by people who had been hiding from a worldwide totalitarian regime for generations, but five years in it's not going as well as hoped in portions of Northam. People on the rebel side are increasingly turning on anyone not seen as properly devoted to the cause. Those who refuse to pick up weapons out of religious conviction are especially likely to be shunned, shamed, jailed, or worse.At the same time, despite the hatred and violence launched at them from both sides in the war, the number of people who are laying down their weapons to follow the peaceful ways of the Sermon on the Mount keeps growing.Will the Subterrans be able to shut down this peaceful rebellion in their midst that they see as a threat to their violent bid for freedom?