Who are my Cousins/God's Writers?

Hallelujah...
We, my brother David and I, grew up near the Suwanee River in a cul de sac surrounded by a tobacco field, Ocean's Pond and three tiny white churches of different denominations, who met one week a month, so that everyone could rotate and experience each other's way of worship.
We were cousins.
I've been praying for a while about my blog, about what I read on other blogs. About what my play cousins--my writing friends in Christ-- agree and argue with me about. And lately, I've been pretty much to my self, afraid to rock any more boats, lose friends, or hurt anyone's feelings. Afterall, I am southern lady, who takes great pleasure in helping smile's spring forth on people's faces and sharing my constant supply of 'Nana Puddin.'
But lately, just lately...my cousins and I have been playing Hide and Seek by ourselves.
Thank, God, for my sugarbear-Gaspard, David(my twin), MeLana(my lil' sis,)and my play cousins: J. Mark Bertrand, Lamonica Smith, Dave Long, Pat Loomis, Marina Woods, Stephanie Jones, Chris Wells, Rhonda Nain, Chris Mikesell, Claudia Burney, Mary Griffin, and all y'all who I have run out of room to recognize and Selah(my angel baby.)
Today God granted me more illumination.
Please, I ask. Direct yourselves to J. Mark's revelation about Christian storytelling. His words have sat in my soul since David and I played with cotton fuzz drops and dandelions. God knew I couldn't express it(tough as I may sound I cry easily,) but as Sophia say, "There is a God." And in this secret place(our emerging stories) he also resides.
Have a good weekend.

Writing to see what the end's gon' be,
Dee

Agent Call: Mary Sue Seymour

The Seymour Literary Agency is looking for "well-written Christian chik-lit" with a wordcount between 75,000-90,000 words.

For information about submitting to The Seymour Agency:
Click on the Blog entry title to direct yourself to her site.
Or email her at : marysue@slic.com
Or send SASE for guidelines to:
475 Miner Street Road, Canton NY 13617.

Writing to see what the end's gon' be,
Dee

Rise of the Sistah Agent: Kimberly Matthews

Earlier this year Tee C. Royal, President of RAWSISTAZ Bookclub and best selling christian novelist, Jacquelin Thomas referred me to an up and coming literary agent, Kimberly Matthews of Kissed Publications.

Click on the title of this entry and it will send you to my interview with Kimberly at my Suite 101 Channel.

Grown Falks Talking: Me & Victoria Finale

This entry is the part III of my interview with Victoria Christopher Murray.

Dee: What's your writing process?

Victoria: I try to spend at least an hour writing my novel everyday. Many days, I can write four, five, even six hours. On other days most of it is spent thinking about the characters, talking the story through with my other author friends, etc. I don't work from an outline...I just let the story flow. That's what works best for me.

Dee: How many drafts did you go through before you finished Grown Folks?

Victoria: Three.

Dee: Did you have to do a great deal of research on the gay lifestyle before you wrote this novel?

Victoria: No, I didn't do any research on the gay lifestyle because the book wasn't about gay men or gay women. Grown Folks Business is about the woman's journey, what life would look after a husband revealed he was gay. Period. I wanted my book to be different from the others out there in that way.

Dee: How important is craft to your writing?

Craft is second only to my Christian themes. Kim Roby and I were talking about this this morning. I want each book to be better than my last. I take writing courses and I spend a lot of time rewriting my books to get them to be the best they can be.

Dee What is the message that God is saying in this book?

Victoria: I can't tell you that God has a specific message. I can tell you MY message that I pray came from God. My message is that I know the Word of God and the truth of God's Word. I wrote this book to address that. I also know how judgmental we can be as Christians. And although we are to judge each other, I think we spend more time pushing people away, than pulling them to Christ. I hope people recognize this as they read the book.
One more thing about God's messages through these books-I think God reaches people on their own level. Many times people will tell me something they got out of one of my books and I am totally shocked because that is not what I thought the book was about at all. With that, I've come to realize that God reaches everyone in different ways. When He wants to use my book to give a message, He will give it to each individual reader. I hope that makes sense.

Dee: What are you working on now?

Victoria:I'm working on the sequel to my first novel, Temptation. My next book, which will be out next June is called, A Sin and A Shame.

Christian Script Consulting?

Dreaming about turning your novel into a screenplay? What about becoming a Christian consultant on a movie script? The New York Times' Sharon Waxman writes in her article "Hollywood's newfound passion for Christ."

I would like to know what qualifies you to become a "newly minted expert?"

Paul Lauer, who on his Web site calls himself an expert in the "faith and family" market, has been hired to work on "The Chronicles of Narnia," based on the C.S. Lewis literary fantasies, which Christian groups regard as an explicit allegory of Christ's Resurrection.

I think I have my answer here:

Jonathan Bock, a former sitcom writer who founded Grace Hill Media to specialize in Christian marketing, was hired to help sell Universal's "Cinderella Man," Fox's "Kingdom of Heaven" and Sony's "Christmas With the Kranks." And he is currently advising Sony on what is likely to be one of the most problematic movies of the coming year for Christian moviegoers, "The Da Vinci Code," based on the best-selling novel that challenges basic Christian dogma.

Two years ago I took a screenwriting course. I think I better pull out my notebook. What say you?

Writing to see what the end's gon' be.

Bible Study: Velvet Elvis

Controversal look at Christianity. Rob Bell's Velvet Elvis:Repainting the Christian Faith.. If anyone is reading this book right now I would love for them to share their thoughts about it on this blog. I have a backlog of other books to read, but I may just have to read this. Because something in it disturbs me and something in it resonates with me. Isn't that weird?

Rob Bell is the founding pastor of Mars Hill, one of the fastest growing churches in American history. He is featured in the first series of spiritual short films called NOOMA.

Writing to see what the end's gon' be,
Dee

Black Portrayals: A Perilous Proposal

One of the best books I've ever read was Sue Monk Kidd's the Secret Life of Bees. What I loved most about it was how authentic Ms. Kidd portrayed her African American characters and her ability to weave in the history of the Black Madonna phenomenon . I wondered were there any other white authors creating black characters in their novels, and tackling the subject of faith despite of societal woes.
Charles Martin's Wrapped in Rain I featured earlier.
But this month I found a few new ones. And as I read them I will share them with you.
For three reasons. (1) If you're a white writer, maybe you can use these books as examples to build your own characters, if you choose to put people of different ethnicity in your book.
(2) If you're black. It's informative to read how others portray our universal conflicts.
(3) I thought it would be interesting.

A Perilous Proposal is Book One in Michael Phillips: Carolina Cousins Series. The story is about a young, angry freedman, named Jake, who is on the run for killing a white man, who's also on the run from the resentment inside. During his escape he searches for his father and falls in love with another freewoman with secrets of her own.

I will be reading this book through August along with two other christian historicals with themes on race & African American History:
Patricia Hickman's Whisper Town and Judith Miller's First Dawn.

I hope you check back on the blog about these books.

Writing to see what the end's gon, be,
Dee