Infuze's Narnia Blog

 Click on the icon to be directed to Infuze's Narnia Blog.

 

Powered By Qumana

Selah and I will begin reading this book this weekend. And our Daisy Scout troop will look at the easy reader version as a scouting activity. We are passing on the movie, because the girls are afraid of the lion. Selah and I will go and see it at the Imax with her little boy friend, Nicholas. :) Are you planning to take your young ones to see this. Why or why not?

Veteran's Day Fundraising Reminder

  Yesterday was my father's service unit- The United States Marine Corps birthday. Today is Veteran's Day. If you haven't donated to this great project, today is a perfect day to do it. Let me remind you:

 

 Project Valour-IT is a project of Soldiers' Angels [a 501(c)(3) charity], providing voice-controlled laptops to soldiers with wounds that prevent the use of conventional computers. The donation page is here. If you want to join the friendly fundraising competition, please read on: Here.

You can see on the sidebar that we are close to reaching our goal. Let's represent. We're a christian blog. Let's so brotherly love to our injured soldiers. Semper Fi!

 

Powered By Qumana

Christian Writer's Prayer

Angela Hunt gives us a lesson on prayer and studying God before we prepare our stories at Charis Connection today.

"Father, help us in our task and forgive us our foolishness. Make us better writers than we are, for your name's sake.

Amen."

Dee

Halo Tip#9: Angela Talks Amen

Angela Benson talks Amen, abusive churches   and themes in her new release the Amen   Sisters here at Christian Fiction. Her first christian novel,  Awakening Mercy was a finalist for the RITA Award given by Romance Writers of America (RWA) and the Christy Award given by the Christian Booksellers Association (CBA). 

 

Dee: I read your article in this summer's Precious Times Magazine-"Helping a
Friend After the Trauma of an Abusive Church." Is that what The Amen Sisters is about or is it more than that?

Angela: The Amen Sisters is my tribute to survivors of church abuse. I tell their story, a story I don't think many of us think much about.  You know, we see the ministers on television who give their repentance sermons and we get to hear the stories of how God helped them pull their lives back together, but we never hear about the broken parishioners who get caught in the middle of the chaos.  I wanted to write about those broken people to show that they do exist and to show how God heals their hurt and restores their faith.  People laugh at the things that go on in some churches. I want The Amen Sisters to be a reminder of all the people who are hurt by the nonsense.

Dee:Francine alienated everyone in her life when she became a member of a cult-like church. Bits and pieces come out about what happened to her while attending this church, but the story concentrates more on how her hometown was affected by Francine's actions with this chuch. Why did you choose to build the story from this point?

Angela: This was a deliberate decision on my part. I didn't want to write a story that hinged on the sensationalism of the topic of sexual predators in the church. There are a lot of stories out there that already do this, stories that focus on the bad acts of the preacher.  I wanted to write a story that honored those who were, and are, preyed upon. So The Amen Sisters does not take the reader into the bad acts of Bishop Payne, but it shows the far-reaching impact of his actions and the struggle of all those affected to recover from the blow.

Dee: What are the themes in this story?

Angela: Now that's a hard one.  I almost want to ask, What's a theme? but I'll resist.  When I first started writing, I thought that I could write themes into a story.  What I've learned over time is that the themes emerge as I write the story.  If forced, I'd say the major themes in The Amen Sisters are 1) personal sin has community consequences, 2) healing comes with forgiveness, 3) your past doesn't have to dictate your future, and 4) faith in God's love overcomes any personal challenge or shortcoming.

Dee: You have you characters saying prayers alound and quoting scripture in dialogue. Why do you do this? And how does it help your readers understand the themes in this story?

Angela: The characters in The Amen Sisters are Christians who have relationships with a living God and who believe the Bible is relevant to their day-to-day lives.  It's normal for Christians to encourage each other by recalling situations in the Bible where God did or said something related to their current experience.  Therefore, it's natural for the the characters in The Amen Sisters to pray together and to recall scriptures related to the situations they face. I'm not sure the recalling of scripture helps the readers grasp the themes as much as I think it helps them understand the characters and what motivates them.

Dee: You give 5 tips in PT Mag to help friends support survivors of abusive churches. Does any characters act on these tips in the story?

Angela: That's a good question.  I'd like to think all the characters learned the tips by what they experienced and that, because of their experiences, they'll deal with other survivors in a supportive manner.

Dee: Bonus question: Were you an abusive church survivor?

Angela: I had a very negative church experience some years back. I didn't experience exactly what the characters in The Amen Sisters experienced but I did feel their same sense of hurt and betrayal.

 

If you have any questions for Angela, please leave them in the comments, so she can answer them for you. Thanks, Angela.

 

Dee

Powered By Qumana

Blog Thanks Award

Ok. So, this month is Thanksgiving and Christian Fiction Blog's feeling quite gracious. This month we are sending out Blog Thanks Awards to blogs that have inspired us this year and have given us far more than we could ever give back. 

 

My three picks are(and I have so many others to thank later:)

 

Dave Long's Faith*in*Fiction Blog.

I have formed such a great bond with Dave and the guys and dolls at the forum. Dave has his hands full aquiring titles for Bethany House. Yet, he takes the time to not only share his thoughts about what christian fiction can inspire to be, but also with a dry humor try to convince a southern football fanatic like me that baseball is better. :)Now more than ever I believe that writing with a christian worldview is my calling. Thanks guys for being so giving.

 

Darren Rouse's ProBlogger.net:

I ran across this blog when I decided I wanted to learn more about blogging and how to turn this site into a tool for christian fiction writers and readers. Darren gives so much advice about generating traffic, current trends, and news I need to pay him, but my blogging isn't earning millions like his. But it has earned me enough to have my own domain! We'll talk about those changes in December.

 

Mick "Milk" Silva's Your Writing Group:

Such a passionate soul about christianity and christian writing. Didn't get to chat much with him when Focus on Fiction was running. But I'm constantly checking out what he has to say. I'm constantly checking my own writing to see if my writing is devoted to God. Thanks Milk(my pet name only.)

 

We would love for you to take this image and give thanks to your favorite blogs and comment here about which blogs you chose, so that we could check them out. What a fun meme to show thanks to the blogosphere. 

 

At the end of the year, we will compile these blogs and do a top ten of the best inspiring blogs. Thanks for commenting.

 

Dee

 

 

 

 

  Powered By Qumana

HaloTip #8: Using Horses to Drive Theme

An excerpt from Sugar Rum Halloween…

 

“Mary Margaret…” I screamed.

Her body flailed back and forth on the altar like a fresh trout in a beach bucket.

“Are you in there?”

The jerking stopped. Mary Margaret Hogan looked straight through me. Her eyes, glazed, jaded…green. I held my chest.

Five months ago the Valdosta Daily Times wrote an article about a little boy whose parents made him live in a coat closet, because he needed to be disciplined. By the time the police found him, his face was green, jaded, and dead.

Mary Margaret sat straight up. Jack-in-the-box. And growled. “She is not here, Anastasia Foster.”

I felt a drop of urine in my underpants.

People aren’t always what they seem to be. And yes… There are green monsters in my closet.

*

In my short story Sugar Rum Halloween I used horses, a screenwriting term for collaging subjects, in order to build a solid theme. Each theme or horse grew stronger and stronger until the reader understood that this story was about secrets, mercy and identity.

 

Go to the message board to see how to you can create horses to drive your theme.  And tell me what kind of stories are bridging your theme.

 

Dee

 

Powered By Qumana

Girl Scouts Across America Adventure to Narnia

 

My girlscout troop, the Notorious 1942 Daisy Patch is excited. This year the Girl Scouts of America started a nationwide bookclub. And guess what our first book will be? The Lion, the Witch & The Wardrobe. We will start this month so we can prepare to see Narnia. Next month we will meet only once and the meeting will be to see the movie on the 10th. I'm psyched.

 

Powered By Qum  ana