Last week, friend and novelist Nicole Petrino-Salter posted a provocative piece entitled Why Writers Make Lousy Reviewers. Her thesis: We writers are a critical lot – forced to be as we scour our work for “bad” writing errors. What ultimately happens is we see every downside of others’ works right along with our own… we [...]
At one time, the term “biblical worldview” was seen as a drift (albeit intentional) AWAY from explicit Christian fare. As a result, CBA / ECPA books containing little, if any, references to God or overt redemptive themes began to pop up in the Christian market. Christian authors wanting less sermonizing, less sanitizing, and more creative [...]
A roadmap for those writers in search of their own literary Podunk. Thumb your nose at the Classics — “Hemingway was a hack and Tolstoy was long-winded. Besides, half those guys would never be published today.” Eliminate the phrase “good writing” from your vocabulary — “Who’s to say what ‘good writing’ is? It’s all relative [...]
It wasn’t long ago that I pined for The Good Vampire. Christian publishers have a notoriously knee-jerk reaction to those nocturnal archetypes. Well, now “good vampires” seem to be everywhere and one author (and publisher) is finally attempting to meld the genres. I signed on to Kiss of Night blog tour for one reason: I [...]
Almost 30 years ago, Neil Postman warned us that “sound-bite politics” was destroying our ability to understand and discuss serious social issues. The American media, he observed, has shaped our thinking so as to ensure that short, fat, or unpleasant-looking people would never again get elected president. Much less long-winded, boring people. From Answers.com: SOUND-BITE: [...]
Just learned that my first novel The Resurrection has made the 2011 INSPY Shortlist in the Speculative Fiction category. The INSPY’s were created last year by bloggers who recognized “the need for a new kind of book award… to discover and highlight the very best in literature that grapples with expressions of the Christian faith.” [...]
The subtitle of this blog is Faith, Culture, Composition. That covers a lot of ground, I know. And while I give myself the freedom to roam subject-wise, I tend to gravitate to the same general topics. Anyway, I’m interested in learning a little more about the primary subjects that bring readers here. Would you take [...]
Editing is like having your teeth cleaned — you hate doing it, but you love having done it. Well, I’m officially editing my second novel The Telling (due out May 2012 from Realms). And I feel I must confess how much I enjoy someone probing and poking around in my manuscript. Sadistic? Perhaps. Realistic? More [...]
Perseverance is an indispensable part of being a writer. Knowing when to give up, to admit failure, change course, is an indispensable part of being a human. At least, a smart, sane human. But do “real” writers ever give up? (Not to mention, are they ever really “sane”?) If you frequent writers’ circles, you will [...]
Analyzing what you like to read is a lot like researching why roses smell good or sugar tastes sweet. At some point, your findings kill the enjoyment. That being said, I enjoy books with “textual density.” That’s the phrase I stumbled across in a recent book review. In the latest Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine, [...]
