Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Can You Build a Christmas Story with Me?

Thank you for reading my MD column at Christian Fiction Online Magazine.It has been a joy sharing some wonderful writers and stories with you. As this year begins to close, I thought it would great if we could present a community authored Christmas story for my December article.

What is a Community Authored Story?

 

It’s a story whereby a group of people create a story together. We would take turns, sentence-by-sentence, writing the story.  I’ve participated in them on blogs and on Facebook. Thought it would be fun to see what we come up with. And since I only have 1200 words this would definitely not take up your time.

Moreover, I would monitor and move the direction of the story so that we have a  clear plot with a definite ending. So if you’re game for  some festive fun and a completely unique story.  You can do this with me, but BEWARE,  the more authors involved, the merrier it can get!

If you would like to join me, leave a comment here with your Facebook profile link. I have created a Writing Project Facebook Group to house the project. You can jump in and add your sentence at any time. I will cap the story at 1000 words so that I have room to mention every author participating.

I will begin the story and provide details on November 1, 2010. My deadline for this project is November 17, 2010. And Yes, I’m doing Nanowrimo, too. I hope you join me.

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Wednesday Book Review: Catching Moondrops

Christian Fiction Fall Book Spotlight

Catching MoondropsAn excerpt from Jennifer Erin Valent’s Catching Moondrops
“Now, I’m all for civil uprisin’,” Tal continued. “I don’t see nothin’ wrong with colored folk sayin’ they won’t be walked on no more. I don’t see nothin’ wrong with wantin’ to use the same bathroom as white folks or sit in the same chairs as white folks. Way I see it, none of that’s goin’ to change unless someone says it has to.” He squatted in front of Malachi again and stared him down nose to nose. “But all this hotshottin’ and showboatin’ ain’t goin’ to do nothin’ but get your rear end kicked. Or worse. You aim to stand tall for somethin’? Fine. Stand tall for it. But don’t you go around thinkin’ these battle scars say somethin’ for you. You ain’t got them by bein’ noble; you got them by bein’ stupid. All’s these scars say is you’re an idiot.”
Summary: Jessilyn Lassiter no longer has to convince people she’s not a child. Having just turned 19 in the summer of 1938, her love for Luke Talley has never been more real. And Luke is finally beginning to care for her in the way she’s always dreamed of. But their budding romance is interrupted when Tal Pritchett—a young, black doctor—comes to Calloway, stealing the heart of Jessilyn’s best friend, Gemma, and stirring up the racial prejudice that has been simmering just beneath the town’s surface. The tension starts to bubble over when Jessie’s elderly neighbor Miss Cleta becomes the first white townsperson to accept Tal’s treatment. And when a young black man is lynched, Calloway is brought to its knees once again as Jessilyn realizes that her anger can make her heart as full of hate as the klan members who have terrorized her town and her family.
My review: The first lines of the book bothered me. It reminded me of  James McGovern’s  Anatomy o f a Lynching: The Killing of Claude Neal.  I’m still not sure if I’m in the right mental place to revisit this horrific era in American history. With the November elections and the nasty name calling of our President, I know this book is a relevant read. Perhaps this era is a safer read for the audience it was written for.
I would have loved for Tyndale to acquire an African American historical author, who could right about the same era, sort of like a literary diptych. Perhaps I will revisit this story when Sharon Ewell Foster’s novel of The Resurrection of Nat Turner comes out 2011
Gemma and Tal’s romance doesn’t satisfy me, but I wasn’t expecting it to. The relationship was the framework for the true story of Jessilyn’s self actualization and journey toward understanding social justice.
Moreover, Valent’s Jessilyn makes this story a worthwhile read. However, just like The Help I’ve grown tired of reading stories of southern white women’s rebuttals about Jim Crowe. What I liked most is that Valent didn’t dare try to be the voice of The Woman’s Club Movement or Black Womanist Thought like the Help. She showed a level of respect for a culture she can only know from the outside looking in. Catching Moondrops’s Jessilyn definitely personified that reality.
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