Kansas Author Returns Home To Showcase His Faith-Based Movie, Square Pegs

AUSTIN, Texas - EntSun -- Known for his Aleksandr Talanov series of spy novels, Kansas author JAMES HOUSTON TURNER has broken stride with his series of action thrillers to write and produce a faith-based movie, Square Pegs, which he will bring to the Independence Cinema, in Independence, Kansas, on September 13 & 14. Turner and his wife, Wendy, were invited to Independence by longtime friends, Gary and Anne Hogsett.

A graduate of Baker University and former Bible smuggler behind the old Iron Curtain, Turner is also a cancer survivor after having had his face opened up like a book and a tumor the size of his fist removed from his jaw. His face was then rebuilt with bone from his hip, plus muscles and arteries from his arms. "I felt like the Lego man," he explains with a chuckle. "Interchangeable parts." Turner was not expected to live eighteen months. It has now been more than thirty-three years. Little did he know how important the emotions of that experience would be in a movie he would eventually write and help produce.

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"Where is God when life kicks you in the guts with tragedies like cancer and death?" he asks, alluding to the fact that he and Wendy have also experienced the loss of a child. "I found my answer, but I wanted to produce a movie that took audiences on that same kind of journey."

Winner of eleven film festival awards, including Best Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Director, Square Pegs follows Pastor Mac McCoy and his bartender daughter, Jodie, who end up in a courtroom battle against one another over the tragic death of a family member, with each accusing the other of not knowing what it's like to "walk in my shoes." So a judge orders them to swap roles for a week and find out. The movie is emotional and sometimes humorous as Mac and Jodie experience life outside of their comfort zones. Screencritix calls Square Pegs "a heartwarming drama that tackles universal themes of faith, doubt, family, and forgiveness."

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Turner says another theme of the movie is "church," which is not so much where you go but who you are. He witnessed that reality during his years as a Bible smuggler behind the Iron Curtain. "Many people could not attend church because it was forbidden by the Soviet Union's communist government. So they became the church, with the gospel spreading like wildfire on a one-to-one basis. I've met triumphant people whose lives were transformed during the harshest of conditions: totalitarianism, in red light districts, bars, prisons, gulags, and on Skid Row. Love and forgiveness change people, and we explore those themes in Square Pegs."

The trailer is available on YouTube, with times and tickets available on Fandango.