One of the major hurdles I encountered when shopping my first novel “The Resurrection,” had to do with two factors: 1.) It was aimed at a Christian audience, and 2.) The story contained a ghost. And Christian fiction doesn’t do ghosts. The eventual publisher accepted the book on the basis that the ghost was peripheral, [...]
If you’re a critic of organized religion, there is no easier target than the megachurch. Take this infographic I cribbed from a Facebook friend. It was initially posted in Atheists and Rational Thinkers (which is an irony I’ll leave for another time). It cites one of the most common accusations against megachurches — that they [...]
Aleister Crowley played a significant part in my conversion. Sort of. Back in the late 70s, a group of high school buddies began to uncover bizarre occult themes in rock music. We weren’t fueled by rabid preachers denouncing backward masking. This was much less subliminal. Lead guitarist for the band Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Paige, was [...]
That was the question writing coach and consultant Martha Alderson was asked, specifically about some negative reviews she had received on one of her writing books. Martha answered that question in the affirmative: [The writer] wanted to know if I felt the negative reviews on Amazon for The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any [...]
The changes in the publishing industry have forced us to redefine what a “successful” author is. However you choose to define “success,” the growing consensus seems to be that successful writers are hybrid authors, publishing both traditionally and independently, who crank out the books. But cranking out books is a challenge for many writers, for [...]
I recently spoke to a pastor friend who moved from Southern California to Oregon. One of the things he lamented was the lack of racial diversity in his area. His current church is made up of approximately 90 to 95% whites. That demographic sampling is consistent with the church’s style of ministry, and the location [...]
Love and doctrine are often wrongly juxtaposed against each other, as if the person who loves needn’t worry too much about sound doctrine and the person who worries too much about sound doctrine usually doesn’t love It’s a false dichotomy, but one that’s used often nowadays. Mainly as regards the Christian Church. Take Greg Boyd [...]
During Christmas break, my wife and I took in a couple movies. Being that I’m a big Martin Scorcese fan, we considered seeing The Wolf of Wall Street. But after hearing the reactions of viewers and critics, I was conflicted. While the movie was included on many year-end Best Of Lists, some of my Christian [...]
Lots of talk about “privilege” lately. You know, that “invisible right or immunity granted to particular persons or groups.” Of course, it’s mostly charged to straight, white, males. But the list is really quite extensive. (Did you know you may suffer from Average-Sized Person Privilege, Upper-Class Privilege or Non-Trans Privilege?) So I was a bit [...]
Does Non-Acquisition of “Hinterlands” Signal End to Christian Fiction’s “Mature-Content Experiment”?
Depending upon who you are and what you want, “status quo” can be a good thing. If the recent sale of Marcher Lord Press signals anything, it is that the status quo will be served. The response to the sale of Marcher Lord Press to Steve Laube has been overwhelmingly positive. In many ways, I [...]
