Biblical Battle Erupts In Former Greenburgh Resident's Debut Novel

Bortz, who recently moved to Virginia where her son lives, was a Westchester resident for nearly 40 years. The Columbus, Ohio native's first moved to Greenburgh in 1975. She spent eight years in both Hawthorne and Chappaqua before moving to Mount Kisco, where she had lived for the last 20 years.

During those years, she attended the Hillside Church in Armonk and has taught every level of Sunday school and led women’s Bible studies. She has even directed two drama ministries and wrote several plays, one of which she has now turned into her first novel.

The initial idea for the play came while watching a "STOMP" performance, which used trash can lids and sticks to make music.

“For some reason I envisioned the battle of Armageddon, which is kind of weird to come from that, but it did,” she said. “And the more I thought about it I conjured up all kinds of ideas about angels and demons fighting at the end battle of Armageddon.”

Bortz wrote and produced the play at the Colleen Dewhurst Theater in Mount Kisco. At her husband’s suggestion six years later, she decided to turn it into a book.

“’Hard Truth’ is actually a countdown to the apocalypse. But, it’s based on the events and timetable that is described in the Bible,” she said.

In the book, the nations of the world, including America, have fallen to the antichrist, who Bortz says drives women to faint, men to fight and Christians to flee.

However, there is another fight going on within Megan, an up-and-coming television reporter. She is caught between the temptations of the natural world and peace from the spiritual world. Megan’s best friend Nadia rebels against the antichrist. Both women try to convince the other they have chosen the wrong side.

Bortz said she drew from 200 scripture verses in the Book of Revelations and that her plot follows that timeline very closely.

“It’s something that I can really say that the lord worked a lot through me,” Bortz said of writing the novel. “I spent a lot of time in the Bible and I got a lot closer to God because of it.”

The mother of two said she is already thinking about a sequel. 

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