A lot can happen in ten minutes.

People are born and people die. And a simple choice a person makes, seemingly insignificant at the time, can change that individual’s life forever.

Joy Junction Founder and CEO Dr. Jeremy Reynalds’ new fiction book, “10 Minutes,” scheduled for release in October, tells the story of a young man who experiences the consequences of such a choice. Cameron Foster, a local TV reporter and rising star, behaves for just 10 minutes in a way that contradicts his strong Christian faith.

The results are disastrous. They include shame, humiliation and the breakup of a once storybook marriage.

Reynalds said he chose to frame his story around a Christian reporter at a secular TV station for specific reasons. “I love the media, and Joy Junction has been blessed with lots of support from them. I’ve been frustrated over the years with evangelicals constantly harping on the media’s supposed left-wing bias. While many members of the media do apparently vote more to the left than to the right, the question is not their voting proclivities, but whether or not that results in slanted journalism. I really doubt whether it does.”

“However,” Reynalds continued, “I have been very aware that the news business is just that-a business. There is a constant tension between reporters who want to change the world when they start their career, and who end up being cynical, jaded and disillusioned by what attracts ratings and gets shown on local broadcast news. Often what ends up getting aired is not really important in the overall scheme of things, but it is what attracts viewers and ratings.”

Reynalds added, “In ‘10 Minutes,’ Cameron becomes a victim of his own lusts and human failings combined with the profit motives of his bosses, who are pretty quick to dump him when he becomes an embarrassment to them.”

Why a work of fiction and why now?

Reynalds said, “I had the basis for this book written for a long time, but it just sat there. People who I told about the plot, including several of the staff at Joy Junction, encouraged me to finish it. I am glad they did.”

Reynalds added, “It gives me the opportunity to say something about the faith struggles of a young reporter as he climbs the career ladder and navigates his way through adultery, greed, blackmail, the spiritual world and more.”

Reynalds explained that fiction also allows him to weave in his long-term interest and research about evangelicals’ struggle with and prejudices against the media, along with a spine-chilling plot about the forces of good and evil which will keep readers absorbed in the book from start to finish.

Reynalds said that the recent death of Osama bin Laden underscores the timeliness of the murderous events Cameron reports on and unwittingly becomes a part of.

Reynalds is also the author of a number of nonfiction books about the homeless. He has a master’s degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles.

For further information about “10 Minutes” or how to advance order copies, e-mail information@joyjunction.org.