Film critic Jeffrey Overstreet, in his book Through a Screen Darkly, talks about the backlash he received from concerned parents after his favorable review of the film Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. One parent wrote, “If you think anything meaningful can be conveyed by pagan mythology, you’ve just opened up Pandora’s Box.” Overstreet [...]
A Christian speed metal band used to emblazon their logo with the words, Faster for the Master. As if musical MPH was virtuous. The successful Amazon Kindle author could probably adopt that saying for their own. Only, in their case, the Master is the market and the faster they write, the more the market is [...]
In his book On Writing, Stephen King uses a unique illustration to describe the relationship of the author to her story. Novelists, suggests King, are less creators than they are discoverers. He writes, “Stories are relics, part of an undiscovered pre-existing world. The writer’s job is to use the tools in his or her toolbox [...]
I entered into the field of writing by way of Christians and the Christian market. At the time (2005), this seemed like the natural thing to do for me. I’d become a believer in 1980, pastored a church for a period of time, and was spiritually restless, wanting to find new avenues for creativity and [...]
I’m thrilled to announce that my Urban Fantasy novel The Ghost Box is now available in print and Kindle at Amazon.
There is a scene in my first novel, The Resurrection, when my protagonist, the dim-witted but earnest Pastor Ian Clark, trashes something very important to him. It’s a plaque with the words Follow Your Dreams. The words were burned into the wooden plaque by his sister to commemorate Clark’s ordination into pastoral ministry. But after [...]
When talking to Christian authors about their novels, I’ve recently begun by asking them to describe the content of their book in terms of explicit Gospel content. On a scale of 1 to10 — 10 being straight-forward, conspicuous Christian themes and 1 being inconspicuous or non-existent biblical elements — where does the book fall? It’s [...]
There’s significant discussion among Christian novelists about the aim of storytelling. Should Christians create fiction… to inspire and encourage fellow Christians? to sow seeds in non-believing readers? to simply entertain? a combination of all of the above? Jesus’ teaching methods often come up in this regard. While Christ’s methods appeared to vary per audience — sometimes [...]
In an odd twist to our tabloid-driven obsession with “celebrity deaths,” Lena Dunham admitted her own fixation upon mortality. Although hailed as “the voice of [her] generation” and a Glamour magazine Woman of the Year, in her new book Not That Kind of a Girl, the actress, screenwriter, humorist, and feminist firebrand fesses up to [...]
CAUTION: This post contains snark, sarcasm, innuendo, wisecracks, jests, crass stereotyping, and lots of playful, but not-so-subtle jabs. Okay? It’s no secret that women drive the Christian fiction market. Polls like the following simply reveal what they want in their fiction — men. Swoon-worthy men. I must confess, I thought this was a parody [...]
