The Pruning Principle
3 years ago
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Monday, May 16, 2005
Me and Judge Glenda Hatchett
Judge Glenda Hatchett
Shameless plugging of my interview with Judge Glenda Hatchett.
Let me warn you I uploaded it to my yahoo geocities spot, so beware of the ads on the right hand side. Just close them.
Good vs. Good, Politics and Peretti's Monster
Ok. This weekend I had to do some recovery. Just got back onto solid foods mainly potato soup. Thanks to the old man that sells redskinned potatoes, vidalia onions, and the largest, sweetest tomatoes I have ever smelled. (He keeps me healthy.)
Anyway...
So I had a huge chunk of time, while laying in bed and squeezing all the rubber out of my trashcan to ponder this question:
Can Christian Fiction be plot driven and have a deep enough structure to deal with our faith in a real and timely manner?
Yea. I know. Frank Peretti's Monster.
But I'm not talking a couple running from an evil in the woods. I'm talking about characters finding themselves in situations that they are partly responsible for, situations that both parties have good reasons to be in and thus, lies the main conflict (i.e. a pro life senator alienates a daughter suffering complications from having a secret abortion, who was raped by his brother, or church member being alienated from his church congregation for being a democrat)
Are these type of books too boring, too deep, or too political to write about? Or do we want to just know what happens next on the surface?
Writing to see what the end gon' be,
Dee
Anyway...
So I had a huge chunk of time, while laying in bed and squeezing all the rubber out of my trashcan to ponder this question:
Can Christian Fiction be plot driven and have a deep enough structure to deal with our faith in a real and timely manner?
Yea. I know. Frank Peretti's Monster.
But I'm not talking a couple running from an evil in the woods. I'm talking about characters finding themselves in situations that they are partly responsible for, situations that both parties have good reasons to be in and thus, lies the main conflict (i.e. a pro life senator alienates a daughter suffering complications from having a secret abortion, who was raped by his brother, or church member being alienated from his church congregation for being a democrat)
Are these type of books too boring, too deep, or too political to write about? Or do we want to just know what happens next on the surface?
Writing to see what the end gon' be,
Dee
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Christian Fiction Authors & Seven Figure Contracts
Check out Chris Well's snippet over at CCM Magazine about two christian fiction authors with incredibly large book deals. He's thinking about changing his name to Jerry Kingsbury. :)
Wow...
Wow...
Friday, May 13, 2005
May Book of the Month #1: Grown Folks Business
Grown Folks Business Early Release
For May I have two books of the month and this is why...
Victoria Christopher Murray contacted me today to let me know that her book, Grown Folks Business,which was slated to be my June book of the month has had an early release.
Hello again:
I realize just a few weeks ago I contacted you to tell you about my new novel, Grown Folks Business, coming out in June. Well, Grown Folks Business is in stores now. The early release took me by surprise, but it's a good thing...
Many blessings,
Victoria
I hadn't read the book, yet, because my shipper had a communication challenge. However, my good friend, Tee C. Royal, president of RAWSISTAZ book club--one of the largest and coolest clubs I might add--gave me a top notch review.
This version has been shortened for blogging purposes:
Happily in love with her husband, Quentin, Sheridan Heart is caught off guard when one morning after breakfast, Quentin tells her he's in love with someone else...a man. Her world stops as she tries to grasp the fact that her church-going, loving, and sensitive husband isn't quite who she thought he was. She must temper her two children, adjust to the attitudes of her parents, and learn when to ignore those of her church and community.
Reviewed by Tee C. Royal
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers
Don't worry. Next week I will share with you the second book of the month.
To read an excerpt of Grown Folks Business click the title.
First lines...
"There's no other way to stay this, Sheridian, I'm in loving with someone else."
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Time Warner Highlights me and Suite 101
Cheri, thanks for passing this info on to me.
Today I found that Time Warner Bookmark E-letter is highlighting my Suite101 interview of Cheri Paris Edwards for this month's HardFiction edition. I'm stoked!
So maybe now some other authors that have been giving me the okie doke will reply to my emails from now on...or not.
Anway, this is a blessing. So of course, I'm going to update that page and plug Third Thursday. Hee Hee
Writing to see what the end' gon' be,
Dee
Check out my novel writing process at Angel on the Back Pew
Today I found that Time Warner Bookmark E-letter is highlighting my Suite101 interview of Cheri Paris Edwards for this month's HardFiction edition. I'm stoked!
So maybe now some other authors that have been giving me the okie doke will reply to my emails from now on...or not.
Anway, this is a blessing. So of course, I'm going to update that page and plug Third Thursday. Hee Hee
Writing to see what the end' gon' be,
Dee
Check out my novel writing process at Angel on the Back Pew
Keeping the Weaker Sistah in Mind
Over in Faith*in*Fiction Dave Long started a discussion about the problems with non-CBA fiction. He gave eight reasons, but I will focus on one--#2--the weaker brother/sistah.
J. Mark Bertrand started a thread on the discussion board on this notion of writing for the weaker brother. And it is incredibly good. If you haven't hung out at Dave's Excellent Coffee House, then you need to click on the title and hop on board.
But first let me share my response to this topic. And then you can comment either here or on my tagboard whether you thought I was either way off tangent or on point.
I have read all posts and you all have brought up some very thoughtful points. But my take on this--to me--may be different than everyones. :)
Weaker brothers...at this point I am weak. I've been in the faith since I was eleven, but I have straddled the fence, backslid and everything in between, sideways and in the closet(not a homosexual reference.)
But at the same point I have grown strong and tall in my faith. I feel God moving in me.
I began writing on what I thought was my death bed to my daughter, who was a newborn at the time. Eventually, my writing moved to christian reporting and last year I did 40 days of purpose and believed God wanted me to write parables/fiction and relate what I know to the common man--the weaker sistah also.
When the Lord and I talk about my novel in the mornings we don't talk about how my writing will be so universal that my stories will transcend all ethnicities, denominations, philosophies. Or will I offend a single christian mother struggling with her faith and her urge to bed any man who would have her just to appease those who haven't experienced that kind of desperation, who don't know that God satiates. But, I about what I know for sure--that weak sistah, that weak daughter, that weak saint.
Just like Nehemiah wrote about how to pray and repent to God. He didn't try to tackle all of God in his work, but what he knew for sure. After all he was the king's cupbearer.
When Solomon wrote Song of Solomon, Ecclesiates, and Proverbs he didn't try to tackle everything in Heaven, but wisdom and love...things he knew for sure.
So unless I'm really missing the point here. Are we trying to tackle all of Christiandom when we speak about weaker sistahs instead of what we know for sure, the thing that we struggle with when no one's around, the thing that causes us to lay down our faith, the one thing that the Lord wants us to tear down so that we can truly live his creed?
Because if it is, then would our writing parallel violence with the tone and the theme of the novel as it relates to God's wrath? Because if it is, then would our writing parallel sex with Esther's yearlong bathing ritual or Vashti's refusal to parade around naked for everyone to see? Or are you saying that writing sugary sweet, small towns without ethnicity (except for that one hard working black man that creeps up in just about every faith fiction book I've read lately,) violence(as if Average Deacon Joe's aren't living secret lives as serial killers,) or sex, whereby Bishops are bedding every woman that steps two feet toward the altar, helping the weaker sistah?
As you can see I'm confused. Because what I got from Roman's is that we need to write in a way that doesn't offend each other not write in a way that doesn't keep us from delivering the message God created for us to give.
I grew up in a small southern town on a hog farm, so I'm not as jaded as I sound.
It's just on a daily basis I receive blood curdling news that ministers, politicians and such want me to flip and fluff around as not to disturb Atlanta's Christian world. Yet, people are walking around wondering where is our faith? Have you seen the news this year?
What say you?
Writing to see what the end gon' be,
Dee
Check out my novel writing process at Angel on the Back Pew
I’m hoping to summarize the critique that non-CBA Christian fiction has often received from folks within CBA. Remember this isn’t me speaking. It’s my coalescing of the overall prevailing criticism that I’ve seen or heard over the years.
If I’ve missed some, feel free to add them. (I added one Wednesday morning...2. We’re ignoring the Bible’s command to watch out for the weaker brother. When our fictional characters act inappropriately, it may serve as a stumbling block to others.
-Dave Long
J. Mark Bertrand started a thread on the discussion board on this notion of writing for the weaker brother. And it is incredibly good. If you haven't hung out at Dave's Excellent Coffee House, then you need to click on the title and hop on board.
But first let me share my response to this topic. And then you can comment either here or on my tagboard whether you thought I was either way off tangent or on point.
I have read all posts and you all have brought up some very thoughtful points. But my take on this--to me--may be different than everyones. :)
Weaker brothers...at this point I am weak. I've been in the faith since I was eleven, but I have straddled the fence, backslid and everything in between, sideways and in the closet(not a homosexual reference.)
But at the same point I have grown strong and tall in my faith. I feel God moving in me.
I began writing on what I thought was my death bed to my daughter, who was a newborn at the time. Eventually, my writing moved to christian reporting and last year I did 40 days of purpose and believed God wanted me to write parables/fiction and relate what I know to the common man--the weaker sistah also.
When the Lord and I talk about my novel in the mornings we don't talk about how my writing will be so universal that my stories will transcend all ethnicities, denominations, philosophies. Or will I offend a single christian mother struggling with her faith and her urge to bed any man who would have her just to appease those who haven't experienced that kind of desperation, who don't know that God satiates. But, I about what I know for sure--that weak sistah, that weak daughter, that weak saint.
Just like Nehemiah wrote about how to pray and repent to God. He didn't try to tackle all of God in his work, but what he knew for sure. After all he was the king's cupbearer.
When Solomon wrote Song of Solomon, Ecclesiates, and Proverbs he didn't try to tackle everything in Heaven, but wisdom and love...things he knew for sure.
So unless I'm really missing the point here. Are we trying to tackle all of Christiandom when we speak about weaker sistahs instead of what we know for sure, the thing that we struggle with when no one's around, the thing that causes us to lay down our faith, the one thing that the Lord wants us to tear down so that we can truly live his creed?
Because if it is, then would our writing parallel violence with the tone and the theme of the novel as it relates to God's wrath? Because if it is, then would our writing parallel sex with Esther's yearlong bathing ritual or Vashti's refusal to parade around naked for everyone to see? Or are you saying that writing sugary sweet, small towns without ethnicity (except for that one hard working black man that creeps up in just about every faith fiction book I've read lately,) violence(as if Average Deacon Joe's aren't living secret lives as serial killers,) or sex, whereby Bishops are bedding every woman that steps two feet toward the altar, helping the weaker sistah?
As you can see I'm confused. Because what I got from Roman's is that we need to write in a way that doesn't offend each other not write in a way that doesn't keep us from delivering the message God created for us to give.
I grew up in a small southern town on a hog farm, so I'm not as jaded as I sound.
It's just on a daily basis I receive blood curdling news that ministers, politicians and such want me to flip and fluff around as not to disturb Atlanta's Christian world. Yet, people are walking around wondering where is our faith? Have you seen the news this year?
What say you?
Writing to see what the end gon' be,
Dee
Check out my novel writing process at Angel on the Back Pew
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