Rants, Revisited

Yesterday my local writing group critiqued a number of pieces, some long, some short. Yes, one of them was mine. I appreciate the feedback the other members give me, the "this doesn't work for me and here's why" or "I'm liking this more all the time".

One post, however, was labeled an essay. It read more like a blog post...or a rant.

Now, I'm an apologist for rants. I believe constructive ranting can clear the air; can find like-minded folks and maybe inch a step further toward rectifying the ranted topic; can open one's eyes to the view that's a hundred-eighty degrees off yours; can generate, and nuture, mutual respect.

But a rant, like other pieces of writing, must do Job One: communicate. This rant didn't. Most of us seemed to feel the same way, and the writer of this rant made the mistake of defending it.

That should be a no-no in all writing/crit groups. You don't defend. You may ask questions about someone else's viewpoint, but you may not defend in the strictest sense.

Our colleague defended. When we told him his post made several points that he did not support with proofs, he said they were opinions and didn't need support. Well, then, we said, you should cite examples. No, he said, it didn't need examples.

You get the drift. It deteriorated from there, and we ended without a meeting of the minds or with any idea our fellow writer left inspired to make his piece better.

If you're not ranting to make something better -- why rant at all? And if you don't come to a writer's group and take away something constructive -- why come?

Just wondering.

Kathie's Rant

Deb writes: some of you may remember AJ Mercer, whose story was told in ANGEL WITH A RAY GUN. Her New-Age, ex-hippie, anything goes mother has been champing at the bit to talk, and I finally relented and let the insistent flower child have her moment.

Here's what Kathie says about recent developments:

Since she left home, I can’t remember a time that I haven’t been able to write AJ with all that’s going on. It’s definitely weird. Yet, I sit down and start: “Dear Pooch” and can’t seem to put down another word.

It’s so far out. The vibes are not feeling positive, and yet they don’t feel negative either. I can’t read them.

Giselle says I should blame it on midlife crisis.

Yipes, I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me start at the beginning instead of the middle. Maybe jotting this down will help it make sense.

Now, you know AJ’s getting married. Married. Imagine a daughter of mine wanting to shackle herself for life to another human soul.

I’m not saying Matt’s not a good sort. He strikes me as good to the bone. The aura around him is a soft greenish-blue, and the vibes ring very true. From the first time we met, I had the feeling that you get what you see, and he utters no word other than the truth.

This is a very good thing in a male. They tend to throw up verbal smoke screens, and lies as thick as fleas on a squirrel. I haven’t met one who’s in tune with the Earth Mother at all.

Until last weekend, I never thought I would. Then I met Matt’s ex-boss. Whoa. The aura was such a pale lavender, I thought I was meeting a woman. But Dr. Jonathan Hale’s no girl. He’s all guy, and yet tells the truth…

“Call me Jon,” he says on first meeting, and although it doesn't seem dignified, he makes me want to. His handclasp is willing, firm for a man his age. My age. His eyes assess without judging, warm without ogling, welcome without coveting.

He’s very attractive in an Establishment sort of way.

Of course, he’s a Christian of Matt’s stripe. And AJ’s now, she insists. Such lack of harmony, believing there’s but one God (and they use He, not She!) and not multiple paths to the Great All.

I remember a conversation the night I met AJ’s fiancé. Funny how it’s stuck with me. True to form, she and I squabbled. We’ve been doing this for years, in one form or another.  AJ claims I’m reactionary, but actually she’s stodgy. Lately we’ve seen plenty of advances in understanding the human spirit.  The age of Aquarius was real, why doesn’t anyone see that but people like me? We could have greened America.

But Matt, Jon, and the way they believe…AJ thinks it’s real. She claims I’m just into anything that’s up to date, or interesting, or popular. She says my way lacks stability. No roots in any one place.

I say with different people come different levels of spiritual attainment.  Everything can work in its place.  What works for me might not necessarily work for someone else. Obviously it hasn’t worked for AJ, or she wouldn’t embrace this whole Jesus and Pearly Gates ya-ya.

Matt did get me on one thing. He challenged me that with my way comes the idea there are no absolutes, and no ultimate truth. That one was a poser. I do believe in Truth—haven’t I spent close to five decades searching for it? And yet…it seems like this boss of Matt’s has some acquaintance with Truth.

I want to have nothing more to do with this Jon Hale. But I’m the bride’s mom—her whole family, actually—and since Dr. Hale will be hitching my daughter for life to another human being…

I’ve decided to cut him some slack. Even New Agers can wait and see.

 

 

Whaddaya Luv?

Love the middle ages? The Cymry (Welsh) people? Battle? Reluctant heroes? Spunky heroines? Dastardly Vikings? Twuue Luurve?

If you love any of these things, you may want to check out a book...

PEACEWEAVER releases this Friday (yes! this Friday!) from Desert Breeze Publishing (www.desertbreezepublishing.com). Get ye there and check out the cover awesomeness.

Seriously, I love this story as it came together. It was a joy to write. I hope my readers will enjoy it, too.

Whose Fault? -- and Announcing...

A post the thoughtful and smart Chila Woychick made on her blog this spring has had me thinking hard ever since.

Who should we blame that the general market finds Christian fiction to be banal and bland? Where does the responsibility lie that quality is not the first thing that comes to a reader's mind when thinking over our work?

You guessed it. Ours. The writers.

We cannot blame the publishers for this. What, exactly, could they do if suddenly all the Christian novelists decided not to submit the junk-food-for-the-believer's-brain that has passed for good C-fic all these years? What if they decided, say, to submit only novels that push the envelope a little? Only those stories that ask tough questions? Only those stories set in eras or places that are not completely and immediately recognizable by a 21st century audience with the attention span of a gnat?

Now, of course, this isn't possible. There will always be those writers who will simply shovel into the maw of the larger publishers any type of stories "they want." This translates to, "This will sell well for us with minimal work of any kind on our part. Keep the bland stuff coming--we love it!"

There are writers thinking outside this paradigm, which in my usual shorthand, I call The Box. There are quality Christian publishers who don't care to publish Box Stories. There are writers who've been told "no, we can only publish fiction set in the 18th or 19th century, which has a certain type of heroine and a setpiece hero, and you'd better not mention denominations, or dancing, or alcohol, or sin, or, or, or..." Some of these authors are frustrated, and rightly so. Some of the best of these writers are taking their work direct to their readers, or "indie" publishing.

I celebrate the freedom of self-expression, and the expression of truth for Christ, that the new electronic world gives us. I hope the banal, the easy, the repetitive, the non-challenging will soon be a footnote to Christian writing history, much as the monks' work on medieval vellum is now.



That said -- I'm striking my own blow for realism in Christian fiction. With ample and expert help from my publisher, that is. Desert Breeze Publishing will release the first book in the "Faith Box" trilogy on September 21, in print and digital formats. Take a gander at the cover and tell me if you think this is a "usual" book!

Rock Stars, Romance, and Jesus

How's that for a provocative post title? No, seriously -- I read a romance I really, really liked (and all of you know I’m notoriously tough to please). HER MINNESOTA MAN is set in—well, Minnesota. Brenda Coulter, author of all this bodacious terrificality, was kind enough to join us on JTTS today.

DK: Describe, please, what factors went into your starting the story 5 days after Jeb accepts Christ.

BC: Well, we see a lot of hero-gets-saved-at-the-end-of-the-story romances, don’t we? I wanted to do something different. I also wanted to show that getting saved doesn’t make a person’s life more comfortable, but less so. I mean, it’s easy to please ourselves, isn’t it? But living to please God . . . that’s a hard thing. Especially if you have never even been to church, how do you know where to start? And how are you supposed to respond when the people around you are laughing and pressuring you to get over your “foolishness” and return to “reality”?

A novelist always wants to open her story at a moment of great conflict for her protagonist, so I showed my hero being pressed on all sides as he struggles to find God’s will for his life. Right out of the box (I hope), readers who might otherwise have been less than sympathetic toward a rock-star hero will find themselves rooting for this poor guy who’s trying so very hard to do the right thing.

DK: I was surely rooting for Jeb! And Laney—she’s a tower of strength, but you show her struggling with faith questions. Do you feel that makes her a stronger Christian, or simply a normal one?

BC: I think she’s like most of us in that her faith sometimes wavers like a candle flame. The reader meets her at a particularly difficult time in her life: While she’s a true believer, she’s frustrated and emotionally exhausted to the point that she has stopped praying and attending church. She knows that’s wrong, and she means to get back on track. But just now, she’s feeling a tad resentful that God hasn’t moved to lighten her load.

DK: I can understand that, with all Laney has to deal with! How did you come to write the Three Graces? Do you know ladies like these?

BC: The Three Graces came straight out of my imagination, but I wish they were real. I would adore having tea with them, and maybe I would even ask them to teach me how to knit. I’d love to hug Millie and trade quips with Aggie and make Big Plans with Caroline.

DK: I’d like just to hang with them and see how triplets really interact! What went into your portrayal of the mainstream rock-and-roll singer’s life? Did you have to do “real-life” research?

BC: I watched a lot of “backstage” videos and read some Rolling Stone articles and also a bunch of on-the-road blogs by members of secular bands. It was fun because I love that music, even though I deplore the frequently unwholesome lyrics and the band members’ hedonistic lifestyles. (Over the course of my life, I have often whispered prayers for singers and bands whose lyrics have disturbed me. I imagine that’s where the idea for this story came from.)

DK: I came of age in the 70s, so I can relate to liking music I shouldn’t. At any time up to your decision to take your book direct-to-reader, did you feel any impulse to water down Jeb’s past life or his current struggles? What made you decide not to?

BC: My former publisher’s market research has repeatedly shown that in general, conservative Christian women don’t want to read about actors, sports stars, recording artists, and the like because those people are widely perceived as “hard-living” and unfaithful. I believed I’d written Jackson Bell in a way that would appeal to readers, but my editor was still compelled to “pass” on the project. Almost immediately, I was struck by the idea of self-publishing. My readers kept asking for longer books, and here was my chance to give them one. I would also be free to subtly depict the physical attraction between my hero and heroine without having to worry about those lines ending up on the cutting-room floor. I broke several more of my old publisher’s rules, and had a blast doing it. I was no longer writing for their audience, but solely for my own, and that was tremendously exciting. So this turned out to be a completely different book than it would have been had my editor bought the proposal. The story is bigger and more real, and I couldn’t be more satisfied!

Since I was previously published by Love Inspired, a huge name in Christian romance, some people have asked why I didn’t hire an agent to shop this story to the other Christian publishing houses. That simply never occurred to me. Self-publishing felt so right that I just never stopped to consider any other option.

I’m glad you made that choice. IMO, this was a story that deserved to be told. Brenda, thanks for two things: for writing such a terrific book and for sharing some of your heart for the story.

Potential fans and good-story-lovers, get HER MINNESOTA MAN at one of the links here:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0086WXN3U/

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/167264

Readers, You Are Blessed

After all, gentle Reader, your job is merely to pick up, in whatever medium suits your fancy, and read what we labor and fuss and obsess about -- BOOKS.

You needn't worry about the industry. You are free not to care about what it's becoming during this time of transition. You couldn't care less about guidelines, imprimaturs, Themes We Cannot Write About, agents, editors, committees...

You get the drift. Your job is to borrow or buy and read, and hopefully enjoy.

Let's just state that it's not quite that easy from this side of the keyboard. Recently a dear friend and mine own mentor submitted a book for approval by a Catholic organization. They declined, for reasons I won't go into in huge detail.

Suffice it to say that because she omitted a minor plot point, it nuked the entire book in their eyes. Something that wasn't even necessarily addressed, but had to be in there because, let's face it...

...Christians are stupid. If every last thing isn't spelled out, we might tear our clothing, set our hair on fire, and run off screaming into the night in some wild midnight ride of apostasy.

Dear readers, all three of you -- Christians are not dumb. If one of my characters makes a mistake in my book, does that really mean my readers will scratch their heads and say, "Oh, Kinnard's character did this -- that must mean it's okay! Think I will go forth and do likewise!"

We're smarter than that. It's high time the industry gave us maybe an ounce of credit for it.

An interesting Sunday (as in the old Chinese curse: "May you live in interesting times."). On a certain Christian fiction writers' (not readers') loop, one member posted a question that led to a lively discussion: why is C-fic not recognized for its high quality in the larger writing/publishing world? Why no awards for C-fic titles such as the Pulitzer and others?

I don't want to add to the controversy. That's already been done by higher profile persons than me. Some of the on-loop comments have been downright nasty and/or snarky, and I propose to take a higher road.

What books in our market have you read lately, that you thought stood head & shoulders above anything you've read this year? Which would have stood out in the larger pack, had they been published in the so-called secular marketplace? Which were "too good" for Christian fiction?

My short list includes Sandra Byrd's TO DIE FOR. Also Siri Mitchell's A CONSTANT HEART and Susan Meissner's A SEAHORSE IN THE THAMES.

Notice how few there are? Notice that two out of the three are not first-line, highest-profile authors in our market? Maybe that's no accident. I gave up on Kingsbury when she started writing soap opera. The other best-selling Christian authors write in eras and settings that bore me into insanity, so I don't read them either. In fact I read very little Christian fiction these days, since most of it seems as interesting as overboiled porridge.

How about you, readers? What are your "too good" titles and why do you love them?