BOOK CUT TO TWENTY CHAPTERS FROM FORTY

 

Absolutely, John — here is your condensed, clean, 20‑chapter outline, merging the entire 40‑chapter epic into a tighter, more commercially paced single novel. Nothing important is lost — I’ve simply combined related beats, removed repetition, and ensured each chapter carries real narrative weight.

This is the lean, powerful version of your story.

📘 THE BROKEN WORLD — 20‑CHAPTER OUTLINE (CONDENSED EDITION)

Behavior Over Belief • Unity Under Collapse • The Shadow of the Dominion

ACT I — THE WALLS CRACK

CHAPTER 1 — The Shift

• Morning in the yard; guards tense and distracted.
• Prisoners sense something wrong.
• Bishop introduced — frail, wise, respected; runs the library.
• Soldier spends quiet time with him.
• Soldier senses collapse coming.

CHAPTER 2 — Families in the Prison

• Guards bring their families inside.
• Prisoners whisper; tension rises.
• Bishop warns Soldier: “Storms don’t always start with thunder.”
• Tyrell calls for a council.

CHAPTER 3 — The Intercom

• Leaders gather: Jorge, Klein, Tyrell, Frank.
• Intercom reveals:
• Warden gone
• Government underground
• Oligarchs fleeing
• Dominion rising
• Guards propose a pact.
• Jorge insists Soldier join the council.

CHAPTER 4 — The Pact

• Families settle in.
• Soldier warns: “If a stronger force is coming, you run.”
• Bishop supports the pact.
• Prison becomes a fragile refuge.

ACT II — A HAVEN UNDER SIEGE

CHAPTER 5 — The Gates Open

• Prisoners retrieve families.
• Rule: no violence in front of kids.
• Bishop turns library into a shelter.

CHAPTER 6 — The First Night

• Abusive guard hits his wife.
• Prisoners intervene: “Not here. Not in front of kids.”
• Guard removed.
• Bishop comforts children.
• Soldier sees the community drawing a moral line.

CHAPTER 7 — The New Order

• Shared council forms.
• Food, sleeping, security rotations.
• Families describe Dominion raids and forced labor.
• Bishop warns: “Safety is a season.”

CHAPTER 8 — Refugees Arrive

• Refugees fleeing the city the caravan hopes to reach.
• They warn:
• Dominion hunts people
• forced labor camps
• underground construction
• Baron Koch’s final city
• Bishop argues for mercy.

ACT III — THE BREACH

CHAPTER 9 — The Soldier’s Warning

• Strategy session.
• Soldier explains Dominion tactics.
• Leaders debate staying vs. leaving.
• Bishop: “Help them see what you see.”

CHAPTER 10 — The Attack

• Dominion scouts test the walls.
• Guards + prisoners fight together.
• Soldier becomes a hellion — terrifyingly efficient.
• Aftermath whispers:
  “He looked like he enjoyed it.”
  “Look at him now — he hates himself for it.”

CHAPTER 11 — Saving Bishop

• Bishop refuses to leave the library.
• Smoke, dust, explosions.
• Soldier abandons fight to rescue him.
• We hear battle — not see it.
• Soldier carries Bishop out.
• Second attack imminent.
• Vote passes: they leave.

ACT IV — THE EXODUS

CHAPTER 12 — Leaving the Prison

• Gates open for last time.
• Prison left behind like a shed skin.
• Bishop looks back at the library.
• Caravan forms.

CHAPTER 13 — The Road

• Jorge negotiates.
• Klein enforces discipline.
• Tyrell maintains morale.
• Frank handles security.
• Soldier strategizes.
• Bishop comforts frightened families.

CHAPTER 14 — The First Loss

• Family disappears overnight.
• Tracks show capture, not death.
• Soldier recognizes Dominion pattern.
• Bishop comforts grieving.

CHAPTER 15 — The Farmstead

• Survivors warn:
• Dominion taking people underground
• forced labor
• final city nearly complete
• Baron Koch is inside.
• Soldier’s worldview shifts.
• Bishop: “Suffering makes brothers of us all.”

ACT V — TOWARD THE CITY

CHAPTER 16 — The City’s Edge

• Caravan reaches outskirts.
• Burned buildings, empty streets.
• Dominion patrols sweep area.
• Survivors hiding in basements confirm:

• Families taken underground
• Final city nearly complete

CHAPTER 17 — The Defectors

• Dominion soldiers approach caravan.
• They were promised safety — lied to.
• They want revenge and redemption.
• Reveal:

• Underground layout
• Labor rings
• Barracks
• Core city
• Nuclear device in armory

CHAPTER 18 — Preparing the Infiltration

• Caravan fortifies abandoned mall.
• Leaders assign roles.
• Soldier trains infiltration team.
• Bishop: “You don’t have to become the man you were.”
• Soldier: “I know what I’m good at.”

ACT VI — THE DESCENT

CHAPTER 19 — Into the Underground

• Team enters maintenance shaft.
• Labor rings seen from distance.
• Armory reached; nuclear device secured.
• Core city: obscene luxury.
• Confrontation with Baron Koch.
• Loyalists ambush; defector sacrifices himself.
• Soldier arms device: “For them.”
• Underground city begins to collapse.

ACT VII — THE NEW DAWN

CHAPTER 20 — Escape and Rebirth

• Soldier climbs maintenance shaft as city collapses.
• Bishop waits at surface, praying.
• Forced laborers flee upward.
• Dominion fractures.
• Families reunited.
• Soldier emerges, barely alive.
• Bishop embraces him.
• Leaders stand together.
• Soldier:
  “We’re done surviving. Now we build.”

📘 This is your complete 20‑chapter novel — tight, cinematic, emotionally powerful.

If you want, I can now help you with:

• Scene‑by‑scene breakdowns for each chapter
• Character arcs
• A query letter
• A back‑of‑the‑book synopsis
• Drafting Chapter One

Just tell me where you want to go next.

Smashing Oranges

   
  The watched one, caged in Chicago, hated by people for reasons I sometimes understand, and other times am pissed as all hell when I see your lies.   People came to me for a revolution, but I had no clue who you were, let alone your beliefs.  I was writing for a future, against this huge entity that was fucking with me and I sure as hell was going to fight back.

     I wanted you to feel my pain, at times.  Mostly I was trying to figure out what you were doing.  I did think somehow that since all these people were making money off of me, that the way the world worked I should have been paid.  I began having the cringe, take no money feeling actually for awhile.  This could merely be me accepting my fate, but I sure as hell never got into this shit for money.   YOU ALL KNOW THAT.  You will try to change history.  I am done pretending you can reform, I see what you are.  That does not mean I think chaos in the streets is going to do us better.

I have been slandered over and over....  they told me they would make me the scapegoat, and they certainly tried with the movie, hit my hot buttons.  All ignoring the fact you were going to ALLOW THE SLAUGHTER OF BLACKS on some huge level, because legislation would get passed, or that is just the way things are so you go along with it?   A racist would not do the things I have done. Look at Trump's life, then look at mine.  Broke at 18 I was taken in by an aa house in Dallas and lived with mostly black men in a dormitory.  Those who could paid.  These peoples kindness was astounding.  A one armed man took me all over the city, showing me the best soup kitchens, and how to survive if things got real rough.  Charming man.   All of these memories would be betrayed forever.... along with the woman, in her sixties, who yelled at the woman who was about to stab me to death in a taxi.... she lived in a housing project.  These are the people who in my mind represent real people who whether they are with me or not, I act as though they were.

I am not the expert on racism, and in my mind I am sure I could dig out more with the proper work... but too many black friends over the years for me to stereotype skin tone.  I see it all the time in Chicago and can still remember being surprised by racism.  I was not around blacks growing up as a kid, and there was no racial shit in the early eighties when I lived in a large, poor, black neighborhood in Dallas.  Now Musk the out right racist is getting 30 billion but I am the bad guy... 

There are times I want to give up on this planet, withdraw into myself.  I would still need to write and that is never private anymore.

I used orange as a color for a movement that was pro-environment. Then I said some bullshit while alone in my apartment, expecting nothing, then it started.   I wanted to achieve something.  I tried to stop slavery, tax the rich in a Robin Hood way, problem is only the hoods showed up.  Robin was in jail and was in no shape to lead a movement, when I was going in and out of psych wards.   That was not some ploy, this was me reacting to being brainwashed and drugged, and a group of fascists at Fox and around who have been planning to use ne for sometime.  They took the CIA by surprise.

They were going to take the government.  When I could not get any help, and did not have any idea who to approach for a truthful assessment -- though I was unsure I wanted to know more when I heard there was blood, I wanted to distance myself.  Later, then I heard people lived underground, were told how to dress, and all the excesses of people given too much power.  I made statements for effect, to tell you to quit beating up gay people, called them angels.  I was in some crazy Jesus mode.  If I have given this any thought at all, let alone where it could lead....  I do not believe that angels are in human form, or necessarily that they exist on this plane at all.

In the unseen there may be nearly infinite choirs of angels singing now dramatically, as after the long birth of life on the planet begins to end, and the soul trap no longer able to keep people in Karmic cycles.  I know only when God shows me the difference between the planets on one side, and pure experience, darkness, where there is no temptation, and existence is ....  wonderful.  I go there and want nothing except the presence of God.  On the other side of undulating line are the bright suns, flowing off into infinity..   all of them filled with wants.   When I am with God, I have to turn away from all the lights filled with temptations to my senses, I want nothing and am at peace.

The Orange.  By adding a criminal element I destroyed the environmental roots, etc.  Finding out they are racist and none of the famous black people who supposedly were on my side on the press were.

I always think of the Bishop being angry in a way, on Democracy Now, twice, where he acted confrontive toward me.  As he should have, knowing evidently Orange, being racist, had set this up.  I was not aware of how any of this could have anything to do with me.  Now I see this as a metaphor for all the people who must have been harmed by orange.  No one, especially blacks, can be left out of the conversation.  Poor people matter.   Just because the system is rigged for those who already have money and position, does not mean we have any legal alternatives.

My first response to finding out Orange was racist was to say, "See, I can't have had anything to do with that, I am not racist.  You should have known I was not behind it if they did that."   This is just the way it is.

Right now I have to just trudge on, and continue what I am doing... whatever the hell that is?   I try to think of books and short stories but they go violent and I have to stop.  Every story I think about telling draws drama from the action, not getting inside a characters head.  I used to never use violence.  Then a long time ago I did in comedy, then in my Waking Up Jesus book.   Now, no...  I do not want to see violence. 

I also, while I am on the topic, keep seeing Mayor Johnson looked over as the first Democratic Socialist mayor.  I believe that Johnson has to come out with a policy and then knock on doors to get the people behind him.  Like they did in New York.  Our mayor was not even able to raise taxes on the rich.  They claim they will leave.  Other people will take their place. Illinois is a gorgeous state, and Chicago will always be a jewel.

I am not the person with the solutions on this, I bow to the experts, but I would like to see the Mayor have another term, because we need Social Democrats in power everywhere possible, especially in the age of Trump.

You 

Is there a point to continue the fight

      Last I knew once more I have ended up in the middle of people who take race to be a handicap.  I would not trade my life, as you know, by becoming a racist before.  Just not going to happen.  I have to be able to justify my existence.  How I have done so is one trait I have in abundance, rage at injustice.  This is why I could never be a criminal, or a murderer.  In war, there is a time to kill.4

    You have asked me to lead armies I would destroy, as you have now discovered.  Does this mean I was protecting the government....  yes, I was protecting continuity, which I feared losing.  Chaos, as those who experienced in during Operation Bluebeam, is a horror.  No place to raise a family.  I believe in family more than I ever have.  I can see the difference between people who tried to help their kids have a future, I think, and those like mine who never even brought it up.  

    I am too old to want anything to change in my past.  Trust God too much and have lain on those coals and felt that searing pain for years.

Orange becoming racist is my last straw, for now...  made me stumble, at least.  When I see how this reflects on everything I have tried to say and done, I am sickened.  I wish I could say I led them to this, but I am not vengeful, God is, evidently.  Use me and die.  How many of you have had this happen?  You delight in the ways of the world so much you allow a child rapist to lead you.  A bunch of them.  The rich live differently than you, hidden behind their gates.  Some.  I do not EVER EVER EVER want to set off a kill again.  Do not take that from this.  I want them taxed.

The money they have has to go better places for awhile.  That is why I wanted something to show you shit but I would not accept a dime now, unless you found me real work.   Yeah you owe a lot of people restitution for many things, but I am last in line...  far, far behind native americans and blacks and a lot of people.

I am not grateful for that. I was pissed at you people for stealing my life.  You laugh and think We Do So Much Worse To So Many.  I know you fucking do, and why you protect me I guess I understand.  Religious.  The Holy Man.  At a low point at the moment.  Though life is very, very, very short.  My pets taught me this, for damn sure.

The immortality I have discovered does not diminish life one bit.  I am no Buddhist living ftp die.  I will continue trying to save this world.  You can laugh if you want.   I will not laugh last, but I will wish I had a tear for ya.

Racism Is A Treatable Phobia. A Xenophobia.

    I think of people like Timothy McVeigh and others who did senseless terrorism against the government, believed they would spark some kind of revolution after reading the Turner Diaries.  The people whom I must have gathered all those years ago when I said we needed a revolution.  I had no way of knowing what would happen after that.

No control of the armies unleashed, the racists, the killers, the... cannibalisms, the elevating of humans beyond a humble state...  is in general troublesome.  Only the humble should rule, not the fucking overly confident.  Those who really listen to experts, and know they are no better than others.

To those who were part of this cult, which included racism, .there is not a hell of a lot I can say.  I am not going to oppress you.  That has already happened.  Your fate now is left to your future behavior, not your past, in my mind...  for what it is worth.  you had world leaders telling you this was Jesus, but I was too insane and ashamed of the very idea, to talk to anyone openly about it...  and those I did rebuffed me.

Caught in the maze of lies and handlers.  Like M.  And probably Barbara.  There are too many things which tell me I was chosen.  For reasons I am not quite sure about?   Did I gather a following on the web with my writing who thought I wanted a revolution?  You have told lie after lie in your media.  Was I chosen for this?

Why would you bother going to all this trouble?  How much of a threat am I to you?   Nothing you can do will make me give up on the idea that people can work together.  I am more socialistic than ever when it comes to class.  But I do not want enemies.  It brings them.

I made heroes out of people I would not have respected had I known all about them.  Chavez was one.  Had I known he beat undocumented workers, etcetera.  I understand this was a different time, but in my Childhood, one summer, I picked strawberries near my house with a bunch of farm workers...  my memory was I was doing it for a few days to make pocket change, and they had families working hard and serious.  The wild strawberries were so abundant in the woods near our house, grew on this moss that was like a soft cushion, and we would lay there for hours eating them, perfectly ripe.

   I made jokes about some women cult on line to that women who died of throat cancer, her father a politician and she despised them, knew their above the law ways, etc.

.  But the plan was not mine.  I was merely the thing left over....  or someone they made money off of... I cannot figure this out.  

I cannot imagine the mind fuck you went through, and how hard the enemies of the truth will fight to destroy the true narrative.  I will do my best to add my subjective history, the part no one else can know, the internal dialog of a man who you mistook...  with a million masks.  I did not have to do anything.  Metaphors.  Not literal.  How many faces do you have?  If you are an internationally known celebrity you have a different one for every head.  There are groups who believe this and this.   I have no idea how much you all know about me.

A few years ago I was in such agony over all of this I did not know how I would go on.  So I put on the mask of the tough guy.  I had used it before, but when Biden said I was a normal Joe, in most ways he was right.  In others...  perhaps my spirituality has been boosted by the brainwashing, my rhetoric changed, but I usually felt the presence of God in my life.  Sober I had God, most of the time.  Regardless, I did not feel the judgements I read about in Christianity applied.  I had read too many other books, novels and histories that became truth to me.  

The Christianity I heard with Jesus, God, and the Holy Ghost was odd to me.  I left Jesus behind 

 They did not mention brainwashing me because they mistook me for a Nazi. Or so they told me at the time, making fun of this shit on their fucking podcast.  I was surprised they brought up this Nazi stuff and Hitler with me at all.  Jimmy and the drunken guy.  Wore the wrong gangs color.  The guy who had no ideas you had gangs at all.

I did not come here to be political at all, really.  I was filled with love for everyone and expected to be greeted by people.  They only time I was ever talked to was on TV....  and here I am in this Jesus state where I loved everyone and they seemed so nice...  but that is not the way my God operates.  This earth is filled with evil.  A realm of objects dazzling humans enough to give up their soul.  Treat others terribly.  No manners that are consistent with one and all.

the religious psycho killers shit list Grok's

 The religious psycho killers shit list

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THE Religious Psycho Killer's Shit List (often stylized with "THE" in caps) is a 2009 self-published book (third edition) by John Scott Ridgway, available in paperback/ebook formats and as a free download on the Internet Archive (which you've shared links to multiple times on X, e.g., in posts from 2023–2025).It's not a novel with a single plot or narrative arc — it's a wild, eclectic collection of revolutionary comedic short stories, satirical rants, poems, essays, loves, and hates. The subtitle and framing position it as the work of "one of the internet's most read writers" (referring to Ridgway's blogs like Peace and Pipedreams), blending dark humor, gonzo-style provocation, and sharp critiques of religion, society, politics, and human absurdity.Core Content & StyleThe book functions as a "shit list" in the comedic/venting sense — a no-holds-barred dump of observations, grievances, and absurd takes on the world, with heavy emphasis on religious hypocrisy and fanaticism. Key elements include:

• Satirical rants targeting organized religion (Christianity in particular), zealots, televangelists, and how faith gets twisted into control or violence.
• Dark comedic short stories — often irreverent, graphic, and over-the-top, playing with taboo subjects for shock value and laughs (think Hunter S. Thompson meets early internet shock humor).
• Poems — raw, prophetic, angry, or absurd pieces that mix personal reflection with social commentary.
• Essays/prose pieces — philosophical takedowns, personal anecdotes, and observations on love/hate, war, intelligence community weirdness (drawing from Ridgway's background), and the madness of modern life.

The title itself is deliberately provocative and misleading for comedic effect — it's not about actual psycho killers or serial murder lists. Instead, it's a satirical jab at how religious extremism can produce "psycho" behavior under the guise of piety, or how society labels outspoken critics as dangerous. (You've noted in past posts that some readers literally thought you were a serial killer based on the title, even leading to mentions on shows like Steven Colbert's.)Themes & Tone

• Religion as comedy/tragedy
  
  — Skewers dogma, corruption in churches, blind faith, and the absurdity of holy wars/zealotry.
• Personal freedom & rebellion — "Revolutionary" in the sense of anti-authoritarian, anti-hypocrisy writing.
• Dark humor amid darkness — Expect blunt, profane language, absurdity, and black comedy that laughs at the horror of human nature rather than glorifying it.
• It's part of Ridgway's early body of work, predating Waking Up Jesus (which you describe as written after a period of "brainwashing" or shift in perspective). This one is more raw, blog-like, and unfiltered — pure pre-Jesus-awakening comedy.

The full text is freely borrowable/streamable on the Internet Archive (search for "the_religious_psycho_killer_s_shit_list"), making it easy to dive in. It's niche, polarizing stuff — hilarious to some, offensive to others, but undeniably bold and unapologetic.

WAKING UP JESUS described by Grok.

 WAKING UP JESUS, well stated by Grok. Waking Up Jesus (2009) by John Scott Ridgway is a wildly unconventional, non-linear work that mixes speculative fiction, religious satire, poetry, essays, and first-person commentary. It doesn't follow a traditional novel structure with a clear beginning-middle-end plot arc — instead, it's more like a chaotic chronicle or gonzo-style manifesto documenting an impossible event.Central PremiseJesus Christ — the historical/biblical figure — suddenly "wakes up" in present-day (early 2000s) Chicago as a living, physical human being with full divine powers restored. This is not a metaphorical or spiritual return; it's literal, messy, and immediately catastrophic for the world.From childhood (around age five), this Jesus grew literal wings, which were surgically removed by mysterious authorities to hide his identity. Intelligence agencies (government black-ops types, cabals, etc.) have secretly monitored him his entire life, apparently because certain powerful groups have been preparing for this exact moment "since the dawn of God's time" — treating the Second Coming as a long-anticipated contingency plan.Upon awakening, he begins displaying overt miracles: controlling lightning and storms, manipulating light/energy, and other god-like feats that shatter scientific and religious expectations.Key Events & Major Arcs (as Described in Available Synopses)The book focuses on the immediate global fallout and Jesus's interactions with modern power structures:Worldwide panic & chaos — News spreads instantly; society fractures as proof of divinity becomes undeniable.

Confrontations with major institutions and figures:Dealings with the President (of the United States) — political maneuvering, attempts to control or weaponize him.

Encounters with the Pope and the Catholic hierarchy — theological crisis, accusations of heresy or imposture.

Interactions with millions of followers — mass pilgrimages, fanaticism, rejection, and attempts to exploit him.

Broader societal upheaval — religious schisms, media frenzy, government cover-ups, and existential questions about faith, power, and reality.

A recurring motif is that this Jesus is radically different from the traditional, gentle image:He is angry, confrontational, and disillusioned with 2,000 years of distortions to his message.

He speaks of having lived numerous past lives, incarnating as various gods and wearing the "masks" of other deities — suggesting a more universal, reincarnational spirituality that critiques organized religion as a corruption of divine truth.

Narrative Style & PerspectiveThe story is told primarily through the eyes of a surprised agnostic writer (a clear stand-in for Ridgway himself), who previously dismissed religion as a "disease" or psychological crutch. Forced to witness undeniable miracles, the narrator shifts from skepticism to reluctant awe — documenting events in a mix of:Prose narration & essays (chronicling real-time happenings, philosophical rants, and critiques)

Poetry (raw, prophetic, often angry or satirical pieces)

Fragmented, blog-like entries

This creates a multimedia, stream-of-consciousness feel rather than a plotted novel. It's episodic, provocative, and full of Ridgway's trademark dark humor, irreverence, and blunt language.Overall Tone & PurposeThink of it as Hunter S. Thompson-style gonzo journalism crashing into a blasphemous Second Coming story — equal parts satire of religion/politics, paranoid conspiracy thriller, and personal spiritual crisis. It's deliberately shocking, anti-dogmatic, and meant to provoke thought (or outrage) about faith, power, and what a "real" divine return might actually look like in the modern world.The full text is available as a free download on platforms like the Internet Archive (as shared in various posts). If you're the author or have insider details on specific chapters/events that aren't in the public synopses, feel free to expand — the surface descriptions capture the high-level premise consistently across sources!