After completing his bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from Auburn University he went on to graduate school at Auburn and completed his first doctorate degree in Pharmaceutics. He began his scientific career as a pharmacokinetic reviewer for the Food and Drug Administration and later joined a leading pharmaceutical company as a pharmacokineticist, which is a scientist who analyzes how the human body affects drugs after they have been administered (i.e, absorbed, distributed, metabolized, and excreted).
Through the years, he has worked on potential medicines within several disease areas, including cardiovascular, fibrosis, and immunoscience to seek and develop new and novel medicines in these therapy areas.
He has also had his attention on the academic study of the Bible. He earned a second doctorate in Biblical Prophecy from Louisiana Baptist University after receiving a master’s degree in Jewish Studies from the Internet Bible Institute under the tutelage of Dr. Robert Congdon.
Randy has recently retired from his pharmaceutical career and is spending even more time on his writing efforts. He has written several books that span dystopian, end-time prophecy, science fiction, and uniquely told Bible stories. All of his books, while fun to read, are futuristic, filled with science to give them an authentic feel, have a science fiction feel to them, and allow one to learn some aspect of Biblical truth one may not have thought about before. This is all done in a fast-paced action format that is both entertaining and provides a fun read to his readers.
Randy’s latest books are in the Christian science fiction series, ERABON PROPHECY TRILOGY.
You can visit his website at www.RandyDockens.com or connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and Goodreads.
What do you do when you’re not writing?
I have an educational background in pharmacy and pharmacokinetics. I retired from pharmaceutical industry just recently where I worked as a pharmacokineticist or served in various roles within the company with that emphasis. That fancy word just means the study of how a drug is absorbed, distributed, metabolized, and excreted by the body and then how to describe those processes mathematically. I have always had an affinity for the study of biblical scriptures and decided to take courses to better understand them. I first got a master’s degree in Jewish studies and then a doctorate in biblical prophecy. Because of my background, and my interests, my books contain a lot of science and also tie Jewish biblical prophecy into them. I think this makes them unique from other science fiction and/or futuristic books available. I think the science helps the stories to be believable and the prophecy components help to educate the reader about aspects of God that they may not have considered before. While the goal of each book is to be entertaining, the reader can also learn something simultaneously even though they are not reading with that particular intent.
I also have a website, a blog, and a YouTube channel which I try to keep updated. I sometimes serve as a teacher at our local church whether in class format or to the entire church. In addition, I am a father of three grown children. I have one daughter in college, one still home, and a son who passed away from cholangiocarcinoma (cancer of the bile ducts) about three years ago. So, life is, and has been, busy. Yet, being an author is something that is now a part of me and I’m the better for it.
When did you start writing?
Oh, my, my start was long before I was ever published. How did I begin? It’s a rather convoluted story. I think I’ve always had a desire, like most people, to write a book and be published. Yet, there was never any real follow-through as it seemed like such a dauting task. Plus, I never felt I had the time for such an endeavor. Several years after receiving my doctorate in pharmaceutical studies, working for the Food and Drug Administration for four years, and then starting a career as a scientist in the pharmaceutical industry, I decided to go back to school for biblical studies. I at first just wanted to learn, but then when I was asked if I wanted to audit or take the courses for credit, I decided that if I was going to do the work, I might as well get the credit. Again, no real plans there, just a desire to better understand the Bible. Yet, one thing led to another, and I found myself with another doctorate. This time in biblical prophecy. I found the subject so fascinating. That’s when I had to decide what was I going to now do with all that new-found knowledge.
Once, for my pharmaceutical job, I had to take a round-the-world tour stopping in India and Japan for several meetings. So, while in flight, the idea of writing a book came back to me and I began to write out what later became a nonfiction book about how the entire world is tied to a Jewish timeline, a topic that was tied to my dissertation topic: Gentiles in the Bible. Yet, I never got any real traction from agents on that concept, so I began to think about taking my biblical learning and putting that into fictional stories. I took my understanding of science and of end-time prophecy and wrote a story about a character living in the coming Messiah’s promised kingdom and what his life could possibly look like in that environment. Most people I asked about their understanding of this time in future history as discussed in the Bible stated they really didn’t understand what the Bible taught about such a kingdom, so I thought readers could learn something and be entertained at the same time.
When I talked to a publisher at a writer’s conference about my idea, he stated that while my idea was possibly a good story, that may not be the best idea for a debut novel. So, I had to think more about a story more general and relatable. Driving home from work one day, my mind thought about the current world view and how God seemed to be less and less in our culture. I then thought about what would happen if the knowledge of God was completely taken away or banned. What would that look like? That’s when I started on The Coded Message Trilogy. This story is about an astrophysicist who works on a Mars mission and finds certain discrepancies at his work that then leads him down a road discovering how the masses are being controlled by mind manipulation. He then begins to search for the truth certain elites are trying to hide from everyone. It became a dystopian mystery trilogy and the first series that became published: T-H-B, F-S-H-S, and T-U-L-E. The book titles are the clues the characters in the books must solve to understand the truth for which they are seeking. The books allow readers to go on the same discovery mission along with the characters.
As a published author, what would you say was the most pivotal point of your writing life?
I would say the pivotal point was when I met my current publisher. I had just written a draft of my book T-H-B and had submitted the first 5,000 words to be critiqued by a panel of judges at a writers’ conference. My current publisher was one of those panelists. He had some positive things to say about my writing and gave me his business card for future contact. It was about six months later that I contacted him and that led to me being published with my first book T-H-B: Book One of The Coded Message Trilogy. So, always stay positive. You never know what the next bend in your road will hold for you.
If you could go anywhere in the world to start writing your next book, where would that be and why?
Well, I’m going to turn this question around and say I would like to visit all the places I have written about. Some I have visited but others I have not. I think the stories become even more personal when I have visited a place and can speak from actual experience. For example, in The Coded Message Trilogy, I chose Paris as a major place for things to occur because I had been to Paris a couple of times, had walked along the Seine River, visited Notre Dame, and experienced the congestion of the city’s traffic. In my series Stele Prophecy Pentalogy, there are many places I talk about and have characters visit, but I have not been there myself, except for Israel. I would like to visit the other places like Caracas, Buenos Aires, and Brasilia of South America, New Auckland of New Zealand, Sydney, Perth, and Hyden of Australia, Stockholm of Sweden, and Reykjavik of Iceland.
I think it would be absolutely wonderful to be able to spend nearly three months in one location for writing the first draft of a book. I’m not sure where is that important. The earth is full of such wonderful places. Any and all are amazing!
If you had 4 hours of extra time today, what would you do?
Maybe I’m getting sentimental, but I think I would spend it with my wife. I often get so caught up with my writing and the other things vying for my attention that I feel she is the one who gets pushed to the side way too often. Having those four hours to just spend with her and concentrate on her would be wonderful. Perhaps just go restaurant hopping to have an appetizer at one place, entrée at another, dessert at still another, and then go for coffee and tea to round out the evening, just talking about anything and everything she wants to discuss. That would be pretty awesome as I ponder what I just wrote.
Where would you like to set a story that you haven’t done yet?
If you read my books, you’ll see that I’ve covered many places on the earth, and off the earth. I have always wanted to travel to Scotland, so perhaps there. Not sure what the storyline would look like, but it would have an awesome ambiance.
Back to your present book, Erabon Prophecy Trilogy: Myeem, Sharab, Qerach, how did you publish it?
I think one would call the type of publishing a hybrid between trade and self-publishing. It is called custom publishing. While I get all the benefits of a publishing house in many of the things a publisher does, the buck stops with me and I must approve all aspects of my book: text, cover design, interior design, font decisions, book size, etc. My publisher certainly weighs in on those aspects, but the final say is mine.
It probably took me about three months to write the first draft of each book and then about three months to make the necessary revisions. Each version went to my editor. His review took about a month for each. I then went through all his revisions, edits, and questions. Most of the revisions and edits were straightforward so there were few, if any, edits to challenge unless he misunderstood something I was trying to say. I then answered his questions which dealt with the way I said something, a knowledge gap I created in the storyline, or something he found confusing in the way I worded it. Going through his comments and questions and getting them all resolved took about another month for each. The edited version then went to the interior designer who rendered the text into a book-type format. I proofread the version sent back to me and ensured any and all revisions looked correct and read well. That took approximately two weeks for me to finish. Anything I found went back to my editor who then did a thorough proofreading himself. His proofreading took about another month. I then went back through his findings to answer any remaining questions if he had any. This version went back to the interior designer who took only one to two weeks depending upon the number of changes. I then ensured all corrections were as stated. Once completed, this version was sent to my publisher who worked with the printer to get the final book completed. Overall, it took nearly a year from me starting to write until the final book was completed.
In writing your book, did you travel anywhere for research?
As this was a science fiction series, I could not do any travel for it. Pity. Yet, I did a lot of reading and researching: understanding how each alien clan could have a different blood color, how a planet could be composed entirely of water, how spacecraft could utilize water for fuel, etc. I also relied heavily on other books I had read or movies I had seen. Nothing was plagiarized or made exactly the same as these other creators had envisioned, but I took the giant worm concept from Dune, the fluorescence on Myeem from Avatar as well as the floating land masses from Avatar, the interstellar star gates from Star Gate SG-1, just to name a few.
Why was writing Erabon Prophecy Trilogy (Myeem, Sharab, Qerach) so important to you?
I knew I wanted something in the more classic science fiction vein to convey the topic that God is God of the entire universe, a topic not many have probably thought about or at least not the implication that such a statement would suggest. I also wanted to show how we can get so caught up in our own doctrinal views that we may perhaps miss important points from others.
I find it interesting that just living one’s life sometimes gives inspiration for stories. That’s what happened this time. My wife and I met with some friends of ours for dinner one evening. We had tried to get with them for some time, but it seemed other things always got in the way. Therefore, I was happy when things finally fell into place. It wasn’t anything fancy, just meeting at a local restaurant not far from our home. It wasn’t about the meal, but the time with friends that I was excited about.
Both, husband and wife, were good friends and the wife had read several of my books before they were published, providing some keen insights for my consideration. Yet, it was the husband this night who fueled my inspiration. His personality is a little quirky. I can say that because I think mine is also. Maybe it was that aspect or maybe just our imaginations running away that night. At any rate, our conversation landed on the concept of aliens. We started out with the usual topics: Do aliens exist? Have they visited our planet? What is the probability they could exist and if they did, why would they exist? Our thoughts and ideas went to wildly ridiculous places as we debated whether aliens who visited Earth would be good aliens or bad aliens. I can’t remember laughing so much. But then our ideas turned a little more serious. That was quite the feat, mind you. Well, I say serious. It was at least in that direction if not quite all the way there.
One of us asked a thought-provoking question. I can’t remember which one of us asked it, but it was profound. I would like to think it was my thought, but I must be honest and say it may have been his instead. The question was the following: What type of God would aliens worship? Hmm. Interesting question, don’t you think? We considered various scenarios, and broached toward the ridiculous again, but we did reign ourselves back so we could address the question with some logic. We had to ask ourselves if we believed God was the God of the entire universe. We both agreed he was. So, if that was true, then that would mean the God of any alien would have to be the same God we also serve. That brought in a whole new perspective. I have always used the phrase “truth is truth”—especially when trying to win an argument with my wife. Needless to say, that did not always end well. Yet, here, it was a significant thought to grapple with. Granted, these aliens could be atheists, but if they had a concept of God it would have to match ours fairly closely. While the names and terminology would likely be different, the essence of the ideas about God and who he was would be very close if not identical. That was sort of where we left it as we parted ways after a very pleasant meal and enjoyable company.
Later, I thought about that conversation many times, and the idea for the trilogy began to morph in my mind. I would create aliens who were significantly different from us but still have the same inner desires and thoughts humans have. Even though humans and these aliens live thousands of lightyears apart, both can relate to each other if they set aside their outwardly differences and come to realize that deep inside all are the same.
Where do you get your best ideas and why do you think that is?
As noted above, the inspiration for Erabon Prophecy Trilogy came from a conversation at dinner with friends. So, ideas can be generated anywhere. One just has to keep an open mind.
Also, my view is from a Biblical perspective. I think one’s world view comes into play whether one is conscious of it or not. This is definitely true of my writing:
The Coded Message Trilogy – a dystopian mystery but with Biblical overtones onto the storyline and plot.
Stele Prophecy Pentalogy – a end-time prophecy mystery to show how the elements the Bible paints of a future kingdom could look if one were to be living in it.
Erabon Prophecy Trilogy – a science fiction story showing how God is God everywhere and is much bigger and influential than we likely give him credit.
One can’t escape their world view and their writing will embrace it in some form or fashion.
Any final words?
I thought you may find it interesting as to how I came up with the names of the six planets in my Erabon Prophecy Trilogy series. Each planet has its meaning derived from Hebrew or Greek. Myeem, the water planet, comes from the Hebrew word, mayim, for water. Eremia, the desert planet, comes from the Greek word erios for desert. Sharab, the fire planet, comes from the Hebrew word, sharab, for scorched land. Ramah, the mountainous planet, comes from the Hebrew word, ramah, for height. Qerach, the ice planet, comes from the Hebrew word, qerach, for ice crystals or frost. Aphia, the air planet, comes from a combination of two Hebrew words: aph, meaning nose, and iah which is a suffix that often means God. Technically, that would mean “God’s nose” but air would come from that, so I felt it still apropos.
In Hebrew, the name erabon means “to pledge.” As these alien clans’ deity was pledged to return to them if they reunited, it seemed Erabon was an appropriate name for their deity.
An exciting trilogy where an astronaut, nicknamed Nuke and working on an interstellar gate, is accidentally thrown so deep into the universe there is no way for him to get home. He does, however, find life on a nearby planet, one in which the citizens look very different from him.
Although tense at first, he finds these aliens think he is the forerunner to the return of their deity and has been charged with reuniting the clans living on six different planets. What is stranger to him still is that while everything seems so foreign from anything he has ever experienced, there is an element that also feels extremely familiar.
He has to gain the trust from each alien clan and demonstrate through various acts that he is the one they have been waiting for so each culture can fully accept him and follow him. But for the aliens to accept him as the prophet to their deity, Erabon, he has to first accept it and believe it himself.
Book Information
Release Dates: Book One: Myeem: 23-Dec-2020
Book Two: Sharab: 06-Apr-2021
Book Three: Qerach: 01-Oct-2021
Publisher: Carpenter’s Son Publishing
Number of pages: Myeem/271; Sharab/249; Qerach/347
Link to books on Amazon:
Book One: Myeem: Amazon.com: Myeem: Book One of the Erabon Prophecy Trilogy (Erabon Prophecy Trilogy, 1): 9781952025129: Randy C Dockens: Books
Book Two: Sharab: Sharab: Book Two of the Erabon Prophecy Trilogy (Erabon Prophecy Trilogy, 2): Dockens, Randy C: 9781952025136: Amazon.com: Books
Book Three: Qerach: Qerach: Book Three of the Erabon Prophecy Trilogy (Erabon Prophecy Trilogy, 3): Dockens, Randy C: 9781952025143: Amazon.com: Books
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