Denominational Coyness in Evangelical Christian Fiction

 Some time ago I consulted a book about how to write (Evangelical) Christian fiction and read the following advice: the church in your fiction should not be Faith Baptist Church or Grace Pentecostal Church. Instead, just call it Faith Church, or Grace Community Church.

Now, my first impulse was to run out and claim that if you drop the 'Catholic' from Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church or Immaculate Conception Catholic Church that would make it all neutral and non-denominational.

But I see the purpose in the advice. 'Evangelical' encompasses a wide variety of denominations (and non-denominations) and by being neutral as to church names, a wider group of readers can feel like the church in the Christian novel they are reading is just like their own church.

Another aspect of denominational coyness is that the author bio on normal Evangelical Christian books almost never gives a hint as to the author's denomination. If the author's home church is mentioned, it is sure to be a non-denominational church, or at least to have a non-denominational name.

One problem with this denominational coyness approach is that most Christians today are highly ignorant about the many church denominations and their beliefs. Many Christians had the good luck to attend religious education classes of some sort during childhood, and some of these classes actually taught the basics of what that particular church believed--- perhaps even got into the history of the denomination. But even those Christians likely know less than nothing about what the church down the block of some other denomination believes and teaches.

As a result of this ignorance, there are some Christians out there who honestly believe that nearly every Christian church in the country teaches the pre-tribulation Rapture theory. That's what was taught in most of the churches they attended in their life, and so they think it's taught everywhere.

Other Christians have attended a variety of Bible-believing churches and never met with one that taught the pre-tribulation Rapture theory. These Christians might look upon the Rapture theory as something taught only in the oddest 'fundamentalist' churches where you can't play cards or drink beer but you are encouraged to handle poisonous snakes.

Another problem with denominational coyness is that it often helps a naive Christian to hang on to a belief that the Christian world is divided into 2 groups--- the churches who do everything exactly the way their church does it, and the churches who 'don't believe the Bible'. For example, if the Christian's home church rejects infant baptism and quotes proof-texts to back that up, they assume that every church that does infant baptisms is a church that rejects the Bible. They are often amazed to discover that the other side has proof texts, too.

Denominational coyness can sometimes produce (Evangelical) Christian fiction that is Christian fiction 'lite'. Vast amounts of Christian topics are scrupulously avoided since they would require the author to take a side on some issue of doctrine or church practices, and thus spoil the illusion that the church in the book is just like the reader's church. Even basic things like baptisms or church services may have to be hidden from the reader lest the reader discover the writer's preferred doctrines and practices and find them wanting.

The best Evangelical Christian fiction defies denominational coyness. Think of the Left Behind series which broke out of the Christian fiction ghetto to achieve best-seller status. (I read that series while I was a Neopagan and enjoyed it.) That whole series was based on the controversial pre-tribulation Rapture theory which is far from universally accepted even among Evangelicals. I think it was in large part the authors' boldness in standing up for what they believed, even though there were many Christians who disagree with them, that made the Left Behind series strong fiction and worthy of reading even if you don't agree with all the theology.

The reality is that Christians today live in a world of many different denominations and non-denominations. More Christians than ever switch from one denomination to another--- even between denominations that are pretty far apart like Pentecostal and Catholic. I think that the intelligent reader of Christian fiction today is aware of these differences, and doesn't demand the old illusion that all churches are like their church. Look at the popularity of Amish fiction, featuring a religious group that has significant differences with the Evangelicalism of the readers and writers.

I think most of us are ready to move on to 'meatier' Christian fiction, written by authors from throughout the Christian spectrum of denominations and theology. I myself am a Catholic (convert) and yet I read fiction by Evangelicals, Protestants and Mormons without freaking out that the characters don't go to confession or pray the rosary. I may particularly like fiction by faithfully Catholic authors, but I'll accept fiction by any follower of Jesus Christ as something I might identify with as a Christian. I mean, if I read secular books by authors that seem actively hostile to Christianity, I can surely put up with a little 'wrong' theology from my fellow Christians of different denominations.

What do you think? Do you think it pays for Christian authors to hide their exact denominational background? Or do you think most Christians are ready to accept fiction from a variety of Christian denominations?

Want me to read your blog? Enter this contest:
http://linalamont.blogspot.com/2013/12/want-me-to-read-your-blog-join-this.html
My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

Read My Blog, or This Cute Kitten Gets It!!!

While I neglect my blog a lot of the time, sometimes I work really hard on it and think I do a halfway decent job of it. And I'm just as likely to have my blog ignored when I work hard at it as when I give blogging a lick and a promise.

I've tried better content and more comments on other blogs and participating in blog events so there's one more thing left: threats. Read this blog, folks, or the cute kitten in the picture is going to get it.

Now, to give you a little more information about the kitten you are saving by reading this blog post. She was born this past spring to my black cat Gwen, one of a litter of 5 kittens, all female and all tortoiseshell or calico in color. I didn't name any of the kittens at first since I was planning to rehome them. But one of the litter was so sweet and friendly that I have her the name Myfanwy, after Gwen's sister who disappeared last year.

Myfanwy the kitten sadly died suddenly, so I was inspired to name the remaining two kittens in the litter after her--- Second Myfanwy, and the kitten in the picture, Third Myfanwy, who I tend to call 'Ender' lately.

Little Ender and her sister tend to have little eye and respiratory infections a lot in spite of the vet meds I gave them for it. But both girls are friendly and lively little things, a bit undersized compared to their foster brother, Little Stranger (who was nursed by their mama Gwen when I couldn't find which barn cat had given birth to him and abandoned him).

OK, the truth is when I said the kitten's going to 'get it' I was deliberately vague and I predict little Ender won't 'get' anything other than cuddles and, once in a while, a special food treat. This whole blog post was an odd experiment just to see what would happen.

But there's a serious side to the post, which is, it's very frustrating to be a blogger, especially in the world of writing or book related blogs. We work hard on our blogs (sometimes, anyway) but there are no guarantees we are going to get any payoffs in the form of finding an audience for our words.

I think it's a good thing for us frustrated bloggers to work together in our quest to improve our blog stats and build an audience. I've already started a little contest--- see my left sidebar--- to find a few blogs to read and comment on regularly.

I also intend in the new year to look up information on better blogging techniques and blogging about ways to apply them to our blogs. My hope is that even those bloggers who have nearly-unvisited blogs will find something practical they can do to improve their blog's reach.

Like right now. Your blog assignment: post something. Even if you didn't intend to. Even if you normally schedule and plan every post. Just post a little something--- take a picture of YOUR kitten, or puppy, or pet cockroach. Take a picture out your window and bitch about the weather.

Because the one thing I've noticed about the more unvisited blogs I've visited is that the bloggers don't post all that often. In the years I've posted on the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour, I've seen more than one blog on the tour that seemed to post one blog post in each month, for the blog tour. And while a once-a-month schedule might be fine for a traditionally-published, better-known author, when you are trying to build up a bit of a blog following, more posts are better.

Are you going to do your blog 'assignment' today? When you are finished with the blog post, feel free to post a comment here with the link to it. I'd love to read your post!




My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

Genre versus Author Platform? Which Matters More? by C.S. Lakin — The Book Designer

Genre versus Author Platform? Which Matters More? by C.S. Lakin — The Book Designer

How many times have you heard the concept that you have to have an author platform to sell books? But C. S. Lakin did an experiment, writing under a pen name, that shows that with the right genre, you don't necessarily have to have a platform to sell well.

The sad thing is that the genre used in the experiment was Western romance of the 'sweet' variety. I'm not sure I'd ever be able to pull that one off. I'm just wondering if there are other genres which sell well enough that my inability to do blogging and social media right wouldn't doom me.

My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

11 Things to Consider When Killing a Major Character

'When you don't know what to do next, kill off a major character.'  That's some really bad writing advice that floats around the NaNoWriMo participant world. Yes, killing a major character unexpectedly brings change to the story. But if your story is to someday acquire readers, they will certainly feel betrayed by an abrupt major-character kill off.

Highly skilled professional writers DO kill off major characters sometimes. But they do it after much careful consideration and do so in a way readers are more likely to be able to accept. Here are some things for YOU to consider before bumping off Little Nell.

1. Is the reason for the death related to the story?
Arthur Conan Doyle once got bored enough writing his detective series that he declared an end to the series by killing off his sleuth, Sherlock Holmes. An angry public successfully demanded that Holmes be resurrected.  Since Doyle's reason for the character death had nothing to do with the story, this made it much harder to accept. A character who dies so the other characters in a story can complete their essential quest DOES have a death-reason that's story-related, and so we do accept it.

2. Is the death foreshadowed?
Everybody anticipated the death of Little Nell. And by the second half of 'Little Women', we knew that dear little Beth wasn't destined to make old bones. Foreshadowing is the technique of dropping little hints about what will happen later in the story. Foreshadowing makes a reader feel more secure, since they feel that the bad things in the story didn't hit them like a bolt out of the blue, as such things can in real life.

3. Is this the kind of story in which major characters can die?
In epic dark fantasy, no one is surprised by a few major-character deaths. In a sprightly comedy, even one major-character death will ruin the whole mood. You have to consider the type of story you are writing--- the genre, the degree of seriousness--- to see how well major-character deaths are received in stories like the one you are writing. In addition, the length of the story matters. In short stories, killing off even the main character is business as usual. In a novel, not so much. In a trilogy or longer series, killing off the main character that the reader has had so much time to fall in love with is VERY problematic.

4. Is the character good or evil?
The death of a sweet, innocent character makes us weep (unless we are the neighborhood sociopath), even if that character is the villain's daughter and the reason the villain is doing his evil. The death of a mob enforcer, no matter how likeable he is, no matter how helpful to the main character achieving his story goal, makes us think something along the lines of 'you reap what you sow'. Now, you can kill off both good and evil characters, but how you handle the deaths must be different because the readers' feelings will be different.

5. Is the character the main character or primary viewpoint character?
Main characters and primary viewpoint characters are the ones readers are most likely to identify with. In part this is because we 'know' such characters don't get killed off! So killing one of these characters is going to be much harder to do right. If your story has a main character, and a different character as the primary viewpoint character, you might be able to get by with a main character kill-off by having the primary viewpoint character have a strong enough part.

6. How many readers THINK this is the main character?
Years ago I read an otherwise-forgettable novel in which two characters, one man and one woman, seemed to share 'main character' status equally. I identified more with the woman. But at the book's climax, the woman died a horrible death which motivated the man to take revenge on the villain. I found that death an utter shock, and I did NOT care to read any future works by that author. The lesson here is to make it clear who really is the main character and who is a mere killable secondary character.

7. How many readers REALLY love the character?
I have a long history of falling in love with secondary characters. Sometimes these secondary characters just are more compelling to me than the official main character.  Sometimes the secondary character is just more compelling to certain readers--- as a character with an autism spectrum disorder is someone readers with autism spectrum disorders identify with. Or an ethnic Chinese character might attract readers of Asian ancestry.  Try to avoid killing off a character that many readers may love more than they love your main character. If you must kill, make it a death with much meaning, and make the surviving characters very sad.

8. Is the character death transcendent?   
A transcendent death. A death with meaning, in other words. Think of this scenario--- a young girl is stabbed by her would-be rapist and dies. Sordid and not at all transcendent, right? Well, what if the girl's name is Maria Goretti, and she tells her would-be rapist that she would rather die than be involved in an impure sexual act. Her attacker obligingly stabs her. Dying, the girl forgives her killer. Her saintly ways result in her becoming a saint. By the time of her canonization ceremony, her killer has repented and devoted himself to God and to a life of repentance. These facts turn the sordid, sad death into a death rich with meaning. A death with meaning is a death that readers can better accept. Now, of course, this is difficult for writers who have adopted a life-philosophy that nothing is transcendent and everything is pretty meaningless. But such writers probably have to suspend that worldview a bit when they are writing.

9. Is the character 'in friendship with God' or on the hell-bound train?
Particularly in Christian fiction, the spiritual status of the person to be killed is very important. Now, this is not the same as whether a person is 'good' or 'evil' by human standards, since in Christian teaching no one can measure up to the standard of holiness God has. A person 'in friendship with God', or 'born-again' in a more Evangelical expression, is not so much a 'good' person as he is a person who has humbled himself before God and accepted the forgiveness God offers to the human race. For the Christian reader, nothing is more troubling as when a favorite character who is clearly NOT 'in friendship with God' dies without a chance to turn to God. You don't need to write up a lengthy 'getting-born-again' scene. It can take just a word that shows the character's heart may be softening, or changing the 'bolt-from-the-blue' instant death to one in which the dying person has a chance to think about God and eternity. Just so long as your Christian readers are granted a bit of hope. [In fiction written by Neopagans and other believers in reincarnation, expressing the hope for a happier future incarnation plays a similar role in reconciling the reader to a character death.]

10. Have you considered denying the character a Happy-End rather than killing him?
Sometimes having a sad ending for a particular character's story can take the place of killing off the character. Perhaps your desire to kill off that character is really just the fact that you are sensing that a Happy-End solution is not the right thing for this character. Maybe your character needs to be defeated, damaged or saddened rather than killed.

11. If a character absolutely must die, you might diminish him.
You see this all the time in cozy murder mysteries. The guests arrive at the English country house for the weekend. The character about to get corpsed to provide a murder mystery for the sleuth is either an absolute vile, cruel monster, an old-and-suffering person, or a person who is colorless and not particularly attractive or interesting. There are also the spear-carrier or redshirt characters who exist just to get killed off to show the hero that the villain means business. These characters are never given enough screen-time that their deaths will be a heartbreak to the reader. 

So, these are the considerations I think are important to think through before killing a major character. Do you have any considerations to add to the list?

Other blog posts on the topic:
Character Death Should Be Premeditated
Go Teen Writers: How to Kill a Character
Kill the Character? Tess Gerritsen






My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

CSFF blog tour, Day 3: Merlin's Shadow

The sun had long ago sunk below the granite-boned horizon, and Merlin crept up the mound hoping to catch the stranger asleep. Halfway to the top he drew his sword--- gashing his arm on a blackthorn bush. He bit his tongue and continued to climb through the shadowed grass, once again thankful he could now see, and see clearly.

Unfortunately, the miracle that had restored his sight had not made him the perfect scout. Whoever this man was who had camped so close to them, Merlin and Garth had to find out. Hopefully Garth would quietly scale the other side of the hill and not disturb the man's horse they had heard. If the stranger was alerted to their presence, and if he was one of Vortigern's men, Merlin might need to capture--- or kill him.

And now, we get to the meat of the blog tour--- the book itself. The quote above is the beginning of the first chapter of the book. Here are some of my immediate reactions to it:

1. Before the beginning... Before chapter 1 we have a summary of the first book--- this is book 2 of a trilogy. And also a prologue. According to some of the wise voices out there, prologues are soon to go the way of great-grannie's corsets. In my opinion, all that will mean is that the content of prologues will be shifted to a slightly later place in the book.

2. First sentence. 'Granite-boned horizon'. Memorable. And then we have Merlin creeping around trying to catch some stranger asleep. From that first section we've got interesting stuff starting to happen. The first sentence may not have quite reached the level of Gregor Samsa turning into a bug, but then, what does?

3. First paragraph. We learn that Merlin, until recently, could not see. Next paragraph we see that this is due to a miracle. That catches my interest right there. Miracles aren't much used in fiction precisely because they are hard to handle well. But we quickly see that a mere miracle hasn't solved all of Merlin's problems.

4. First Glimpse of Bad Guy. Vortigern. Just the name tells you he's trouble. I mean, when you read that name 'Vortigern', did you assume maybe he was Merlin's hair stylist or something? No, the name has this bad-guy vibe to it. Kind of like Lord Voldemort, only I'd guess anyone named Vortigern has worse table manners.

My reaction: I think this beginning can do the job story-beginnings have to do--- make the reader curious, and interested enough to want to read on. If YOU feel that way, you can actually read on. Right now, if you have a Kindle or some such. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Merlins-Shadow-Merlin-Spiral-Treskillard/dp/0310735084/

If, like me, your pockets are currently full of empty, you can download a free sample of Merlin's Shadow and at least get a taste of what the book is about.

You can also visit some of the other links on the blog tour, and see some other viewpoints on Merlin's Shadow.

Red Bissell Thomas Clayton Booher Beckie Burnham Jeff Chapman Pauline Creeden April Erwin Victor Gentile Ryan Heart Timothy Hicks Jason Joyner Carol Keen Jennette Mbewe Amber McCallister Shannon McDermott Meagan @ Blooming with Books Rebecca LuElla Miller Joan Nienhuis Nissa Jalynn Patterson Writer Rani Nathan Reimer Chawna Schroeder Jacque Stengl Jojo Sutis Robert Treskillard Steve Trower Shane Werlinger Phyllis Wheeler Deborah Wilson

What do you think of Arthurian fiction?
My first taste of the Arthur thing came in a set of storybooks my mother bought for me when I was just a baby, called My Book House. The twelve volumes kept me entertained with fairy tales, myths and legends, not to mention a glimpse or two of good literature. And in it I read my first stories about King Arthur and his associates. (Gosh, I made them sound like mob guys just there. I wonder, who was the enforcer?)

My next big Arthurian kick was when I read Marion Zimmer Bradley's pagan feminist reimagining of the tale, Mists of Avalon. I loved it at the time, but although I continue to re-read Bradley's Darkover books from time to time, I haven't wanted to touch Mists of Avalon in years.

A Christian-fiction version of the Arthurian legend is certainly as worthy a concept as Bradley's pagan version, though alas it probably won't sell quite as well. Is Merlin's Shadow just what the fiction world needs right now, or is it a story that's been done too many times. I don't know myself. I just know that every time I feel like I want to put the whole Arthurian thing aside as something that's been done to death and beyond, I find something that reminds me how deep-rooted that story is in my culture and in my own experience. Like the Merlin Spiral trilogy.
 
My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

The Hour of our Death.....

 NOT a blog tour post....

This morning on EWTN Fr. Mitch Pacwa got a question about 'the hour of our death' which is sometimes mentioned in prayers.

Fr. Mitch admits that he doesn't know a lot about the hour of our death because he hasn't tried it yet (though he will.)

He does say he's spoken to hospice nurses who have worked with large numbers of dying people. They have notices that when a person has lived their whole life rejecting God and any form of faith, the moment of their death is sometimes a moment of fear. In people of faith, the moment of death is so often a moment of peace.

That's an interesting observation. If Certain People are right and all religious people are deluded, wouldn't the moment of death often be a moment of fear when those delusions are shattered, or at least lose the power they once had over the now-dying person?

And if there is nothing after death, why would the non-believer fear that, while the 'deluded' Christian finds peace?

Maybe there is more to life and death than Certain People know about.

My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

CSFF Blog Tour, Day 2: Making the Most of the Blog Tour

Today I think I will blog a little about the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour itself. Even before I started this particular blog, I started participating in the CSFF blog tour. It was how I got the first readers for the blog I had at that time (which was named 'Moreover the Dog went with them',an obscure reference to the even more obscure Biblical book of Tobit), and after I deleted that blog, how I got readers for this one.

For the author--- or would-be writer--- who begins a blog, the CSFF blog tour is a chance to gain a few readers for your blog. I always tend to notice, on the tour, some of the blogs on the tour that don't seem to have blog readers yet, the bloggers who are just beginning to learn how to blog effectively.... I think participating in the tour can really help that.

The Visiting Round
One of the best parts of the blog tour is visiting the blogs on the list of blog participants. You don't have to be an official participant of the blog tour to do this. If you've accidentally found this blog post and never even heard of the CSFF blog tour before, perhaps you've never realized there was such a thing as Christian science fiction and fantasy before, you can still visit the blogs on the participant list.

Commenting is the most important thing about the Visiting Round. After you've read the blog post, it's good to say SOMETHING. It can be really hard to think up a good comment sometimes. But, hey, it's a blog tour. Just saying hello and telling the blogger you are visiting the blogs on the tour list is a good beginning for a comment. Then make a remark that relates to the post. Even if you have a bad case of 'commenters' block' and can't think of anything to say that doesn't resort to the word 'interesting', your comment will be encouraging to the blogger. And most bloggers these days are wise enough to visit their commenters' blogs and comment back.

Meeting the Author is an exciting aspect of the blog tour. The featured author has a blog and also participates in the tour. Not ALL blog tour authors make the rounds of the participating blogs, but most do. This month's author Robert Treskillard started making the rounds of the participants early in the day on day one. It's very exciting to have a real, traditionally-published author commenting on my blog! While visiting Robert's blog, I found out how to connect with him on social media, and so now have another author on my 'authors I kind of know but not really' list.

Robert Treskillard links:
*Merlin’s Shadow -  http://www.amazon.com/Merlins-Shadow-Merlin-Spiral-Treskillard/dp/0310735084/
Author Website - http://www.KingArthur.org.uk
Author Blog - http://www.epictales.org/blog/robertblog.php  

Following blogs is another thing you can do while doing the Visiting Round. I nearly always click on the 'follow' widget if it's the Blogger one. There are also other 'follow' widgets you can find on blogs, NetworkedBlogs being the next most popular after the Blogger one. I find that if I follow ten new blogs, I will get about 3 or 4 blogs to follow me back. Sadly, the Blogger widget only allows you to follow 300 blogs though some blogs have thousands of followers, which is kind of hard on the reciprocal-following concept. But you can follow from a widget when you are above the 300-blog limit, which is one good reason to provide a 'follow' widget if you have a Blogger blog.

The Link List:
This is your Big Opportunity to visit blogs and build more traffic for your own blog. Use it well.

Red Bissell Thomas Clayton Booher Beckie Burnham Jeff Chapman Pauline Creeden April Erwin Victor Gentile Ryan Heart Timothy Hicks Jason Joyner Carol Keen Jennette Mbewe Amber McCallister Shannon McDermott Meagan @ Blooming with Books Rebecca LuElla Miller Joan Nienhuis Nissa Jalynn Patterson Writer Rani Nathan Reimer Chawna Schroeder Jacque Stengl Jojo Sutis Robert Treskillard Steve Trower Shane Werlinger Phyllis Wheeler Deborah Wilson


My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

What's Your Nativity?

NOT a blog tour post....

It's that time of year, formerly the season of Christ's Mass (Christmas) then sanitized to 'the Holidays', and currently, according to many voices in the news media, 'the Shopping Season'. And people tend to throw around the word 'nativity' a lot.

What's YOUR nativity? Mine was Oct. 5th, in a year somewhat before 1965. My mother's was June 4th in a year before 1932.  My nation's nativity is July 4th, 1776. Because 'nativity' comes from the Latin 'natus', which means 'born'. The word 'native' is also of this origin.

Before I became a Christian I for many years was a Neopagan and did a lot of astrology. The word 'nativity' is often used in serious astrology books, because one concern of astrology is predicting things based on the position of the heavenly bodies at the moment of a person's birth. The book illustrated above is one example of that usage.

Now that I'm a Christian, I no longer recommend dabbling in astrology in that way. There are a couple of sound Christian books based on the idea that the zodiac constellations actually are a prophecy of the story of Jesus Christ, a Gospel written in the stars. One of these days I shall unearth those books and blog about them.

The Nativity, capitalized, in Christian and formerly Christian countries, is understood to refer to the Christian Feast of the Nativity, otherwise known as Christ's Mass. I suppose in Buddhist countries that celebrate Buddha's Birthday as a national holiday, Nativity, capitalized, would be understood as referring to that day.

The Nativity, Christian version, when depicted anywhere that an angry atheist might view it causes anger in the way, say, a depiction of Saint Nicholas AKA Santa Claus does not. The angry atheist community has not yet thought of boycotting Christmas/the Holidays and coming up with some holiday of their own to celebrate. I guess they just don't have anything to celebrate, so they have to try to stop others from celebrating.

What the Nativity, and Christ's Mass, means to an individual depends on their opinion of Jesus Christ. Even when I was a non-Christian I understood that there was a good body of evidence for the existence of a historical Jesus, and that the earliest and therefore most important record of Jesus' life was to be found in the books of the canonical New Testament--- those much-talked-about 'other Gospels' are uniformly written considerably later.

An educated person in our (post)-Christian culture, regardless of religious beliefs, has to come to a basic understanding of Jesus Christ, who he was and what he taught, just to be culturally literate. Because just parroting what other, possibly ill informed people have to say about Jesus is not the act of a logical, rational and scientific-minded person. Find out for yourself!

My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

CSFF Blog Tour, Day 1: Robert Treskillard

The Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour is here once again and we are featuring Merlin's Blade by Robert Treskillard, the second book in the Merlin Spiral trilogy. Now, normally I hate trilogies with only three books in them, but, hey, we're only on the second book, Treskillard can write lots more if we give him the proper encouragement!


Our first day's post is dedicated to the man behind the book. Robert Treskillard is a software designer, Celtic enthusiast, graphic artist and sometime bladesmith. He has a B.A. in Biblical & Theological Studies from Bethel University, a school sponsored by the Baptist General Conference. So, alas, he's probably not Catholic. :(

He and his wife have three children and live in the country outside Saint Louis, MO. Which makes me wonder: does he raise goats? Chickens? Guinea hens? Does he want to? Does he know I have some guinea hens I'm willing to unload, cheap?

Here are some internet places to meet Robert Treskillard:

His web site: http://www.kingarthur.org.uk
His blog: http://www.epictales.org/blog/robertblog.php

His Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/treskillard
The Merlin Spiral on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EpicTales.org

Merlin's Shadow on Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Merlins-Shadow-Merlin-Spiral-Treskillard/dp/0310735084/

The Fun Part of the blog tour is to visit the blogs of the other participants and comment. See which ones have posted their blog tour posts early and which are waiting for the last minute. See who has something exciting to say and who is afraid their blog tour posts are dull. And, there may be kitten pictures! This is the internet after all. So go and visit the blogs on this list and say hey.

The numbers indicate the blogs I have personally visited and commented on during the tour. 1 is for first-day posts, 2 is for second-day, and so on.

Red Bissell
Thomas Clayton Booher: 1
Beckie Burnham: 1
Jeff Chapman 1
Pauline Creeden: 1
April Erwin
Victor Gentile 1
Ryan Heart
Timothy Hicks: 1
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Jennette Mbewe: 1
Amber McCallister 1
Shannon McDermott 1
Meagan @ Blooming with Books
Rebecca LuElla Miller 1
Joan Nienhuis
Nissa Annakindt  YOU ARE HERE.
Jalynn Patterson
Writer Rani
Nathan Reimer
Chawna Schroeder 2
Jacque Stengl
Jojo Sutis 2
Robert Treskillard:(Our Featured Author) 1 2
Steve Trower
Shane Werlinger
Phyllis Wheeler 2
Deborah Wilson

My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

Want Me to Read Your Blog? Join this Contest!

Saipan the cat

Join the 'Obsession' Blogroll Contest


The wise blogger likes to read blogs, comment on them, follow them, and from time to time share their content with their own blog readers, in the hope that other bloggers will return the favor. I try to do this regularly, and have a very big blogroll of blogs I follow that I sometimes read or comment upon.

But this is kind of a scattergun approach. I'll comment on a blog once and then not get back to that particular blog for months. So I thought I'd start a new blogroll, my 'obsession' blogroll, filled with a very few blogs that I try to read very frequently, as well as commenting and sharing.

Three blogs will be picked from the group of blogs that are well-visited and much commented, such as the blogs by Mike Duran, Karina Fabian or Rebecca Luella Miller.


For the other blogs, I thought I'd throw it open to nomination, and pick a few blogs that share an interest or two with this one. I'm mostly interested in writing or book blogs, preferring those by authors of 'clean' fiction. I am a Christian (Catholic) and I enjoy work by writers that are Christian (Catholic, Evangelical, LDS, Protestant...) or at least by writers who are Christian-friendly or try to be. I like science fiction and fantasy, but I like other genres as well--- mystery, gothic romance, Amish romance, rural fiction and westerns are current 'likes'. And I am simpatico to writers who are 'different' and who even feel like outcasts--- perhaps because I have an autism spectrum disorder, plus I have same-sex attraction and am a conservative Catholic.

If you would like your blog to be read by me and be included in the 'obsession' blogroll, please comment in the comments section and describe your blog and tell a little bit about yourself. There will be between 3 and 6 winners this first time out, depending on how many people comment. The blogs chosen will remain in the 'obsession' blogroll for at least 2 months.

In time, I will rotate those blogs into the 'big' blogroll and perhaps run another contest for another group of blogs to 'obsess' over.

Anyway, if you think your blog might be a good fit with this contest--- or even if you are afraid it won't--- make a comment telling about your blog (don't forget to include your blog link.) And may the odds be ever in your favor.... ;)

Kitty picture notes: the cat Saipan is a year-old female cat who likes to jump into my bathtub. So one day I turned on the water. She watched, fascinated, until she realized that she was getting pretty wet.

Facebook Group: Christian Women Fiction Writers:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/572042192867903/
My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

The Scary Truth about YA Fiction

My ducks this afternoon

It used to be called juvenile fiction. Now it's YA (young 'adult') and it's trendy. And the one thing we know about is that the hero/heroine is supposed to be seventeen years old.

What does that mean? Well, years ago I read that Seventeen magazine was aimed at twelve-year-olds. It makes sense. Children--- especially children that read--- think of themselves as more mature than their age. So a reading 12-year-old would identify with an 'average' 17-year-old.

So when we learn that a YA novel is about seventeen-year-olds, we should assume that it is truly aimed at the younger-than-17 crowd. If it were for seventeen-year-olds, the heroes/heroines would be 22 or so.

Of course, you don't HAVE to be 12 to enjoy a YA novel. I read the Hunger Games books when I was over 50. A magazine for retirees had an article about how people of that age were enjoying YA books. And on the other end of the spectrum, there are the bright 9 year olds.

Which is where the scary comes in. Many young writers think that YA is an easy-to-write genre read by a narrow age range--- 17 or so--- who are not very demanding, on a number of levels.

But the fact is that most of the 17-year-old audience has graduated to reading mostly books for grown-ups by now. They don't need special, limited for-kids books any more.

The YA author must instead write for a core group that's younger--- perhaps as young as 12 or even 9. This audience does not know very much about the world around them yet, and so they need authors who won't expect them to recognize a Shakespeare quote or know who was emperor of Rome after Tiberius. But they want to think of themselves as fully grown-up readers able to read books that deal with challenging things--- they don't want to be babied along.

Especially these days, the YA author ALSO has to write for a number of older groups--- the 17-to-21 year olds who still like a YA book from time to time, the teachers, librarians and student teachers who read YA primarily to discover what to recommend, and the fully-adult readers who are willing to read YA if the book in question is well-written enough to draw in the more experienced reader.

So, in short, YA has to be just as good as grown-up fiction, but must not presume adult levels of knowledge, or offend against the innocence of child readers. I think that perhaps means that rather than being an extra-easy genre, it's an extra-challenging one.

My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

Indie Life: The Most Important Ways To Promote an Indie Book

This post is for the Indie Life blog hop, please visit their site!

Now, I'd like to make it clear that the 'ways' given in this blog post do NOT originate with me. I've only ever self-published one book--- a poetry book--- and I have never promoted it much and so haven't sold many copies.

This advice comes from a REAL writer, one who has been published traditionally and who has self-published. And what he says, essentially, is that these are the seven most important ways to promote your indie book:

1. Write a great book.
2. Write a great book.
3. Write a great book.
4. Write a great book.
5. Write a great book.
6. Write a great book.
7. Everything else--- web presence, reviews, publicity, book signings....

And sadly, numbers 1-6 are EXACTLY where the average indie writer falls down. This is how you can find out how badly go to Amazon.com and make like you are shopping for a new Kindle book. When you spot a book you suspect is an indie book, one that is big enough news to have 20 or more reviews, check out the bad reviews--- 2s and 3s, 1s, if any--- and see what they have to say.

Aside from complaints about spelling and grammar, I've seen complaints about boring story lines and flat characters, major plot holes, never-resolved issues, and, in one case, an author who confusingly calls important characters different names in different parts of the book.

The next way to find out where indie authors go wrong is to read the sample chapters provided. Often you will see that the very bad review you read about it was actually somewhat flattering as the book has flaws that weren't mentioned. Or you might find that it's not BAD, exactly. Just dull. Grading-school-papers-from-C-students dull.

The way NOT to end up one of those indie writers who makes readers resolve to NEVER read another indie book again, even if it's free, is to WRITE A GREAT BOOK. What is the first step to that? Write. Write lots. Write stuff you will never publish. Always have another writing project in the pipeline. You may need to write 10 bad novels before you write a good one, and 5 good novels before you write a great one. Do that writing.

To improve the quality of that writing, I'd suggest reading every how-to-write book you can discover that is written by someone who really knows about the writing business. Stephen King, Jerry B. Jenkins, Lawrence Block, Orson Scott Card, James Scott Bell, and Holly Lisle are among the writers who have written at least one book on writing. Donald Maass is a literary agent who has written a book on the subject. 

As a indie writer, you may lose a lot of readers because those readers believe indie fiction = badly written fiction. The number one way to fix that problem is not to self-promote like hell, but to deliver an excellent product that will GRAB the reader and not let go. Books like that don't need you to self-promote like hell. They cause readers to talk about your book to others voluntarily, and people will buy/download copies not because they've been urged to, but because they WANT to.

Have you ever cut into your writing time to promote a finished/published book in some way? Do you think that was a good decision or a bad one? How many indie books have you read that were as high-quality as books by a major publishing house author? Does finding a book like that make you more enthusiastic about being an indie author?




My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

What Does It Take to Write Quality Amish Fiction?

People who are aware of the popularity of Amish fiction in certain circles tend to laugh at it. Perhaps because the laughers are worldly people whose knowledge of the Amish comes from exploiting 'reality' TV shows. Or in other cases because they are macho-man (or woman) Christian writers who are embarrassed by the importance of the womanish genre of romance in the Christian fiction world. (Women READ. Deal with it.)

But Amish fiction is probably the most challenging of the fiction genres written today. You have to get the details right! Some of the Amish fiction readers have some degree of access into the Amish world--- Amish neighbors, Amish cousins, or they attend a Mennonite church frequented by former Amishmen. Not only that, but although the Amish rarely read fiction, a few have tried Amish fiction. So a newbie Amish fiction writer who gets the details of the Amish world wrong will soon be found out. Don't be that writer!

The Amish fiction genre was 'born' in 1997 when author Beverly Lewis wrote 'The Shunning'.  Beverly Lewis was born in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, and her mother came from Plain roots. Judging by the acknowledgements in her books, she also currently researches her subject matter through direct contact with Amish and formerly Amish friends. Beverly Lewis's Amish fiction sets the bar for the rest of us.

If you were to decide you wanted to write Amish fiction someday, how would you prepare yourself? Here are my suggestions for how to go about it.

1. Cultivate your connections to the Amish world, if you have any. This means Amish or Mennonite neighbors, family members or whatever you can get. Even the more worldly 'high' Mennonite churches may be a way to get started on these connections. If you live near an Amish community, visit their roadside produce stands and patronize their other businesses. But be very respectful of the Amish way of life while you do it.

2. Do research by reading books about the Amish. Use discernment, since many of the useful authors are worldly sociologists who study the Amish the way they'd study a bug in a bottle. Read as many of these books as you can. Buy your own copies of the most useful works, once you are well informed enough to know what those are.

3. Read all the Amish fiction by Beverly Lewis. Read each book 2-3 times each if possible. When that is done, you can sample other Amish fiction authors and decide which of those authors are good role models for your writing.

4. Learn German. The Amish speak a German dialect, Pennsylvania Dutch, among themselves, and use standard German when they read the Bible and sing hymns. How much German do you need? I think it's best to study enough that you could read a German book that's relatively simple, or well-known to you (the Bible) without much problem. 

5. Learn a little of the Pennsylvania Dutch language. How much you need of it depends on how much access you have to real-live Amish people. If you interact regularly with Amish friends to the point you might be invited to Amish events such as church services, you should probably put a little effort into it. 

6. Know about Mennonite history and theology. (I kind of lucked out in that regard, my first college was 'high' Mennonite.) The Amish are a branch of the Mennonites and have similar history and theology.

7. Know your own theology and the history of your church. If you want to get a standard Amish fiction book published by one of the publishers that does that sort of thing, you had better either be some sort of Evangelical Christian, or know the beliefs of Evangelical Christians pretty well. If you are not a standard Evangelical--- particularly if you are something weird like Catholic, Lutheran or Mormon--- you thus have to be knowledgeable about 3 denominations: Amish/Mennonite, Evangelical and your own.  This knowledge is necessary to connect with the average Evangelical reader, the main customer for Amish romance, and to connect also with readers of your own denominational background if that differs from Evangelical.

8. Amish fiction is rural fiction. You must know about rural life--- REAL rural life, not the distortions put out by people with various agendas. If you don't live in a rural area or within convenient driving distance of one, consider a vacation in farm country (if you do the vacation thing). If you look online for your rural connections, be aware that many of the best 'farm' web sites are those by hobby farms who don't make any part of their income from their farm enterprises. The guys that really farm for a living often have a crap web site that hasn't been updated in 3 years. (My experience from shopping for breeding goats online.)

9. Be prepared to think through the whole 'romance' thing in modern fiction and move beyond it in a Christian way. It's not enough to just take out the sex scenes you'd find in an ordinary romance. Avoid pushing the whole idea that following one's 'falling in love' emotions blindly is the only right way to choose a spouse. When 'falling in love' emotions are toward an unsuitable person, one can learn to dismiss them as mere infatuation feelings. 

That's a lot of work, isn't it? And all to produce something which the world will look at dismissively. But it's kind of like that for any worthwhile fiction--- you have to work hard, and study various topics, to competently write something that those who know will recognize as a worthy effort. 

A side question: Can you write Amish fiction if you aren't a Christian? Wouldn't it be an unfair rule to say that only Christians could write Amish fiction?

Well, isn't it unfair that only Black people can write the novels that are included in an 'African-American Literature' college course? Amish fiction as we know it today is a subdivision of the Christian fiction genre, and the rules of the Christian fiction genre demand that the writer be a current, practicing Christian, in the same way as the rules of 'African-American Literature' demand an African-American writer. 

But certainly a writer of any faith or no faith can use Amish characters and settings in fiction, and do it well. Just do a 'lite' version of the preparation steps given above to get the basic knowledge you will need. As a non-Christian, your work will not fit in the typical 'Amish fiction' slot and so you must find your own readership. And you must market your work carefully so that no one expects your work to be ordinary Amish fiction--- especially if your novel breaks the rules of Christian fiction (no sex, no swears), or has negative things to say about the Amish or the Christian faith in general. No reader wants to be tricked into buying a book that they think is one thing that turns out to be another.

Have you ever read Amish fiction? Do you think, reading this list, that it might be too difficult a genre for you to write? What might you need to study to be able to write well in your own favorite genre/subgenre?

My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

IWSG: Can YOU Be A REAL Writer?

This is a post for the Insecure Writer's Support Group. Visit the link to find other participants and read their posts, or to sign up yourself.

In the watches of the night, when you are close to a panic attack just THINKING about your writing career, one of the things that oppresses you is the awareness of the vast army of would-be writers out there. You look at Writer's Market and discover that at your favorite fiction periodical, they receive 10000 submissions and accept 10 and you think it's hopeless.

Only it isn't. A great many people have writing dreams, only a few have writing PLANS. And only a few of them have the capacity to realize writing plans. Not everyone is cut out to be a writer. Just think of all the folks out there who are under the impression that writing is easy work and always pays off in exactly the same way writing did for Stephen King. These people may not have read a book since high school, may never actually have TRIED to write even a flash-fiction story, but they still say 'I'll be a great writer someday. When I have time.'

People say a would-be writer should believe in himself. But let's get logical. Many who say they want to write a book someday SHOULDN'T believe in themselves, as writers, because they are just not the sort of people who become professional writers.

Should YOU believe in yourself-as-writer? There are signs that you can observe in yourself that might hint that you can. If you read the biographies of famous writers and find many things you can identify with, that's a good sign. And here are some other things to look out for:

1. A story-making mind.  This starts in childhood. Most writers start writing down little stories at an early age, in one form or another. This can depend much on the child's parents and teachers, though. The important thing is that stories are being MADE. Sometimes in simple, childish writing, sometimes in doll and toy play, sometimes kept hidden in the mind where grownups cannot correct and mock.

2. An affinity for English. This doesn't mean 'straight As in English class.' It means that, usually from early on in the learning-to-write stage, you knew almost instinctively how to write an English sentence which could be easily understood. Not a convoluted sentence or one with an essential word missing. Usually this means you have internalized the essential rules of English grammar, even if you couldn't name the rules to save your life.

3. A way with words. The difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. Potential real-writers know this without Mark Twain having to tell them so. Not only that, they have a feel for words, they can tell when a word in a sentence is not-quite-right, and they will know the right word when they find it.

4. An addiction to books. Movies, television series, radio plays and comic books are no substitute for books in the writer's early life. Sometimes being a fan of a television series or movie may be what inspires the young writer to begin writing. But if you have not been compulsively reading books since before you were old enough that the schools would permit you to start reading, you don't speak the language of books as your native language. You should have been reading every sort of book you could lay hands on--- non-fiction, all genres of fiction, and even ventures into good literature. When you were out of reading material, you should have tried mom's gothic romance and dad's World War 2 books--- or even read the back side of the breakfast cereal box. Extra points if you actually had a fight with a sibling over who got to read the breakfast cereal box.

5. A growing awareness of story-rules. The various forms of story-telling have rules, and these rules are often not written down. The future real-writer absorbs some of these rules and begins to use them even in all-in-the-head stories not intended for writing-down. For example, in my childhood, TV shows did not use curse words, not even hells and damns. They didn't show characters going to the bathroom or vomiting 'onstage'. In my early childish fantasies using TV characters, I followed some of those rules, not really knowing why. The rules of books today are different, and different book markets have different sets of rules--- think about the rules for writing a gay character in Christian fiction, and the different rules of secular mainstream fiction. And there is another kind of rules, not subject to change, about the right way to tell a story, the rules for character and plot and theme.

6. A self-correcting mechanism. In schools, writing is taught in a way to turn it from an individual pursuit into a group activity. We write essays on a theme chosen by teacher, and teacher and our classmates tell us if we have done it right or wrong, based on any sort of criteria they chose--- for example, these days, any story with a gun in it is a very badly written story. New writers try to recreate that sort of safe group-activity environment with writing classes and critique groups. But the future real-writer is too much of an individual voice to go along with such constraints. He knows what he is trying to do in any given story and has learned to tell when he is doing it and when he isn't, and he isn't going to change because an amateur critiquer likes something that's bad or hates something that's good. (He will, however, change things for the editor at his publishing house.) Note: this 'self-correcting mechanism' is one thing that may lead you to be an insecure writer. You can see your own mistakes--- an essential skill, but it doesn't build your confidence the way NOT seeing your own mistakes does.

7. Growth as a writer. If you are not growing and improving in your writing skills, you are moving backwards, as a person standing still on a moving treadmill does. If you have real-writer potential, no matter how low your self-confidence you can look at something you wrote ten years ago and something you wrote today, and see improvement. This growth comes mostly by compulsive reading, and compulsive writing.

8. An interest in the writing life. For me, it began when I read Little Women, and identified with Jo, the tomboy sister who loved to write and grew up to be a writer. That was when I first decided I would be a writer. If you have always loved to read fiction where the main character is a writer, or biographies of real-world writers, if you have read Writer's Digest or how-to-write books before anyone ever told you to, this means you have this natural interest in the writing life.

How did you do?

If you read through this article and all 8 points describe you quite well, that means that no matter how insecure you are about your writing, if you are willing to do the work you have every chance of writing success. Your assignment--- get out some writing paper and a pen, and write down all the things in your own life, on each of the 8 points, that show you have what it takes to be a writer. When you are feeling insecure, pull it out and read it over to yourself.

If you read through the list and some points describe you and some do not, you are not hopeless. But if you want to be confident of success, you need to turn some 'no' answers into yeses. Your assignment is divided--- for the points which already apply to you, do the assignment above and write down how the points apply to your life. For the points which don't--- make a plan to change things. If you don't have much of a command of English, find remedial books, perhaps intended for grade school kids, and work through them. Get improve-your-word-power books if you don't have a way with words. If you aren't much of a reader now, start a program to get yourself reading.

But what if you went through the list and feel that you are hopeless? If you are REALLY a 'no' answer on all 8 points, get out a paper and pen and do some written self-talk about why it is you thought about being a writer in the first place. If you are really a non-writing type, chances are you had some misconception about writing--- that it's easy money, or that it's an easy way to win respect, or some such. If this makes you discover you really don't want to be a writer after all, that's a good discovery. You are now free to explore other possibilities that are a better fit with your skills. Perhaps you will become a great painter or rock musician or plumber or electrician--- these are all worthy goals.

If you have made yourself say 'no' to all eight points and it breaks your heart, it may be your low self-esteem at work. When you say 'no' to 'an addiction to books' you may mean you don't read as much as some other person, or you don't read 'highbrow' literature, or some such. If this is your problem, get out your pen and paper and go through all eight points, exploring the ways in which they DO apply to you, even if only slightly and in ways that 'don't count'. IGNORE the possibility that you are deceiving yourself. If not being a writer REALLY breaks your heart, you probably DO have a real-writer personality buried under all that self-doubt. Read what you wrote on the eight points every day to encourage you to believe in your writerly nature.

What if you do NOT suffer from low self-esteem, have said a 'no' on all eight points, but are still determined to be a writer? Is it hopeless? It might well be--- unless you are incredibly bull-headed, and willing to put in extra hours of work every day into your writing, your reading program, and a study program to improve your English and vocabulary skills.

NOTE: in my eight points, one thing I did NOT mention was writing and writing habits. That is for a reason. Sometimes a successful writer does NOT write compulsively from childhood on. Perhaps there is a fear that the in-the-head stories, once written down, will be subject to vicious and unfair criticism. You do need to get over those fears to be a writer--- but a person with a real-writer personality may take a while to get to that point.

My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

Reading My Way Through November

 One of the things I've done with the writing journal I started was to start recording the books I read. I have one page for writing-related books, and another for everything else. And, for no apparent reason, I'm sharing my reading list from November here.

1. The Mindful Writer - Moore
2. Writing from the Inside Out - Palumbo
3. Writing Popular Fiction - Koontz
4. How to Write Horror Fiction - Nolan

5. The Burglar Who Studied Spinoza - Lawrence Block
6. Burglars Can't Be Choosers - Lawrence Block
7. The Burglar In The Closet - Lawrence Block
8. The Burglar Who Thought He Was Bogart - Lawrence Block
9. The Burglar Who Painted Like Mondrian - Lawrence Block
10. Treason - Orson Scott Card
11. Duma Key - Stephen King
12. Empress Orchid - Anchee Min
13. The Red Queen - Philippa Gregory
14. The Last Empress - Anchee Min
15. Everything's Eventual - Stephen King
16. Mockingbird - Charles J. Shields
17. The Covenant - Beverly Lewis
18. River Marked - Patricia Briggs
19. The Betrayal - Beverly Lewis
20. The Sacrifice - Beverly Lewis
21. Supervolcano: Eruption - Harry Turtledove
22. Brothers - Da Chen
23. Red Scarf Girl - Ji Li Jiang
24. My Fair Concubine - Jeannie Lin (NOT recommended)
25. Rice - Louise Jordan Miln
26. The Three Daughters of Madame Liang - Pearl S. Buck

NOTES: Very little nonfiction read this month. A lot of library books, both paper books and 2 ebooks I borrowed from the library system.

I started the month with Lawrence Block's Burglar series. I consider Block one of my writing role models and the Burglar series is my favorite series of his.

I have a love-hate relationship with Stephen King. I discovered him when my political/religious views were compatible with King's, but as I have altered my views I become very aware of how King feels the need to put-down his conservative and/or Christian readers in every single book. But I keep coming back. The man can WRITE.

I was a fanatic fan of Turtledove during his earlier series, but the more recent ones disappoint. His characters in the more recent books are duller and more homogenized.

In Christian fiction circles there seems to be a fad for making fun of Amish romances. I decided to try one myself, picking one by Beverly Lewis. As you will see, I went on to the next two books in the series and am eager for the final one. And I'm not normally a romance reader.

I was on an Asian kick and have read a number of books with Asian backgrounds. Perhaps my interest is because many of the characters in my NaNo novel are part Korean. I enjoyed all of them except for Jeannie Lin's book. I read it as an ebook from my library and didn't discover it was a Harlequin romance until I was halfway through the checking-out process. The book was set in ancient China but was very 'lite' on setting, claustophobically focused on the love/sex story, and contains a sex scene which went on for the better part of 2 chapters. NOT what I would consider worth reading.

I might also point out that I did a lot more reading this month than I normally do. I recently got some better reading glasses and so reading is less of a pain. Plus, I decided to go to the local library, which I haven't done in years, and found they've got in a bunch of new books I haven't read yet.

You might be tempted to think I did TOO much reading considering I was also doing NaNoWriMo. But I don't think it got in the way--- that was another problem entirely. Being a writer means being a reader, and I spent some serious time being a writer in November, in both my reading and my writing habits.

What about you? Have you done much reading this past November? Discovered any good books or new authors or genres? Or have you found books that disappoint?


My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

Goals Bloghop: Your Blog and Your Writing Goals

This post is part of the Do You Have Goals? bloghop sponsored by the Five Year Project.

Writers and aspiring writers who have goals also tend to have blogs, these days. Why? Something to do with having a platform, I imagine. A blog is not the same thing as a platform, but it's easier to put together.

How does your blog connect to your writing goals? Perhaps your writing goal involves writing a novel and having it published. Whether you publish with a large publisher or a small press, you will want to sell a few copies of that novel. Your blog can affect those sales.

Your blog is a place where your writing can be seen by potential readers without their having to take a gamble on purchasing your novel. What do your blog posts say about you?

Several times I've visited a blog by a would-be writer whose blog posts contain misspellings, grammar mistakes, and, worst of all, incomprehensible sentences. My presumption is that if these bloggers have books out, they are probably self-published and have the same flaws as their blog posts. Such blogs actually discourage book sales. Just as well, because these bloggers are probably prematurely self-published, which is not good for their writing career.

Other blogs are clever and interesting and, at the least, prove that the blogger is capable of writing in good English. Some blogs go even further and show that the blogger is a thoughtful, intelligent person who probably is able to write fiction that is compelling. One great example of this is the blog deCOMPOSE by author Mike Duran. Since Mike is a Protestant and I'm a Catholic, we don't always agree on the issues he blogs about. But at least his blog posts are intelligent and worth reading, and his blog is one of those that I look to as a role model for my own blog.

Now, not all of us can be a Mike Duran. We can't put together a thoughtful blog that attracts lively debate without cutting into our writing time too much. But we can all do something. And we can improve our 'something'.

For my own blog, my goals are to improve the blog by:
1. Posting more often--- sometimes I neglect the blog for a couple of weeks. I want to post at least twice a week.
2. I want to participate in 4 blog events monthly in order to interact more with other blogs.
3. I want to make my blog more personal by posting excerpts from my writing journal, and sharing about my struggles with writers block, low self-esteem, and my autism spectrum disorder (Asperger Syndrome).
4. More cat pictures. My blog really needs more cat pictures. Because my cats are way cute.

Kitten Therese mourning her dead friend, kitten Myfanwy.

MY goals update:

My goal, which I put down for this blog hop, was the limited one of writing 10 more poems in a series I started. I didn't do much work on this poetry project because of NaNoWriMo. And I didn't finish my NaNo novel, either. But I am continuing with my NaNo novel after the month is done. I've come up with some good ideas for it and the work is continuing.

Another goal which I haven't worked on this November is to work on putting together a ebook version of my poetry book. Also at the same time a revised print version of the book. I'm so indecisive about the whole project, though. I don't know whether to stick with the current version of the book or to totally do a new book with stuff added. Well, I'll think about that tomorrow.


My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

From My Writing Journal 11-14-13

From my personal writing journal.
 
I have such negative thoughts about myself-as-writer. I'm sure it is behind my issues with writers block and with finishing my work.

I remember when I bought Lawrence B[lock]'s Write For Your Life and the affirmations MP3 [also by Lawrence Block] and working with that seemed to help when I did the writing-affirmations-and-responses exercises.*

I think I need to get another legal pad and use it for exercises in writing affirmations. I filled one legal pad before and I think I was weakening my negative self-talk considerably by that method.

After a while when I wrote down an affirmation I didn't have negative reactions popping in to my head, I had to stop and fish for one.

Yes, I think I should incorporate a little affirmation writing into my working day. I will go to the store to buy a legal pad as soon as the morning writing session is done.

Note: the kitty picture is Kitten Therese the day I bathed her (and took pictures of the whole event). She needs a bath again right now. 

* Writing-affirmations-and-responses exercise:
Affirmations may seem just too new-agey for words, but they are just strong positive thoughts. The Christian pastor Norman Vincent Peale recommended using affirmations and suggested that certain Bible verses would make good affirmations such as Philippians 4:13 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.'

Writing affirmations down is one way to put these strong positive thoughts into your mind where they will do the most good. Lawrence Block's book recommended writing the affirmations 3 ways: I am a talented writer, You are a talented writer, Nissa is a talented writer. I do a block of 5 lines of each of these and then return to the first, for a total of 20 repetitions, on each page of the legal pad.

LB also recommends writing down your immediate reaction: you write 'I am a talented writer' and then write what pops into your head: 'you are NOT,' or 'no good' or whatever negative self-talk pops out. I was shocked at first with how virulent it was--- I was calling myself a fraud, even saying to myself 'she's dead'. But after repeatedly writing these negative thoughts as they came, the response kind of wore itself out and I had less and less negative stuff available, and it was weaker. I didn't FEEL it very much.

I had been writing my affirmations in groups of fives (with a space between the groupings), first the 'I' version, then the 'you', and then the named version, all with negative responses. Then I did the last five, in 'I' form, without the responses. 

I came up with a new wrinkle. For those last 5, I now write a positive response--- 'yes, I can' or 'AMEN' or whatever comes to mind. It ends the exercise on a very positive note, and, like the negative responses in the previous lines, has the additional function of keeping the writing of the affirmation from becoming too mechanical. That's also probably the reason for doing it in first, second and third person.
My page at NaNoWriMo:
http://nanowrimo.org/participants/ilsabein
My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

From My Writing Journal: 11-13-13

Excerpt from my writing journal, which I began in 2011 and mostly haven't used until lately.  

11-13-13
Once again I have a fearful feeling when I think about working on my writing. The SF-Gothic [my NaNoWriMo novel] feels flat to me - except when I'm working on it which the anxiety only rarely lets me do.

I'm more inspired by the zombie thing right this second. I think I may do a rough draft/rough sketch of the skeleton of it, writing in my composition book outside my Sacred Morning Writing Hours.

I have a Dreaded Doctor Appointment this morning and haven't had breakfast yet so I don't know what I shall get done. Perhaps I shall open the program [YWriter, free novel-writing software] and just write a few token words.

Yes, that.

Note: I did write the 'few token words' which ran to about 400 and on the 14th and 15th got more respectable word counts done in the morning hours. I'm feeling better about the story and have resisted the temptation to switch over to 'the zombie thing'.

I might also mention I'm aware how stupid it is to write very private writing journal things and then post them on a blog for the world to see. But, hey, I'm weird that way.


My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt

Would the Saints Kill Sick People During a Zombie Apocalypse?

 

Recently on The Walking Dead, Carol killed a couple of people because they were sick, and might spread their illness and/or turn into zombies when nobody was looking. And lots of Walking Dead fans said Carol did the right thing.

That made me thoughtful. As a Christian I'm called to be a saint. What would the saints do during a zombie apocalypse? I just can't picture Saint Paul or Saint Maximilian Kolbe or Saint Therese the Little Flower killing sick people because they might become zombies.

A saint would quarantine the sick people in zombie-proof cells and then most likely volunteer to be the one stationed in the quarantine area to care for the sick.

Honestly, I don't think I'd volunteer for the get-sick-and-die zombie apocalypse duty. I mean, I admire Saint Maximilian Kolbe, how when he was in the Nazi death camp and a man was about to be killed Maximilian Kolbe volunteered to die in his place. But I know I wouldn't have the courage to do that myself.

Moral issues like this need to be thought through logically. If we establish the principle that one may preventatively kill a sick person to stop them from spreading a disease or becoming a zombie, that sets a precedent. Many people in the zombie apocalypse may suffer sicknesses and even if medical doctors are around--- NOT a given--- there are no operating labs to confirm a diagnosis, so one cannot tell which sicknesses may be fatal ones.

And any person, regardless of age or apparent state of health, might die suddenly and become a zombie. So--- if some member of a survivors group kills another, it's fairly easy to make a claim of necessity--- the dead person seemed unwell. He might have endangered us all. How can anyone prove it one way or another? And chaos would reign and groups fall apart.

No, the whole Thou-shalt-not-kill thing is still a good rule. In a zombie apocalypse, you can't go it alone. You will need people with skills you don't possess. You will need people to watch your back. You will need to be able to trust them, and how can you if you knew they would casually kill you if it might conceivably make themselves a bit safer.  

How would YOU handle the issue of people sick with a contagious disease during a zombie apocalypse? Would you kill them? Abandon them? What if you had no handy place in which to quarantine them and no one to care for them that was not needed to care for vulnerable people?

 

This post is my post for the Indie Life blog hop. And the message the above post has for the indie writer is I guess on the importance of thinking things in your story through in a logical fashion.

If you are writing a zombie apocalypse tale, for example, you may have a vague notion as you put your characters through their paces that in a zombie apocalypse everything is different and the old rules don't apply.

Question that. What are the old rules? Why, in each instance, might they not apply? And what will be the extended consequence of their not applying? It actually doesn't matter what your precise answers are to these story questions--- so long as you have thought these things through and it makes sense, not just to you but to the average intelligent reader.

Because a well-thought-out story is a story that people will remember.

My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt