CSFF June Blog Tour Day Three: The Restorer

We're winding up the Restorer blog tour and the interview with Sharon Hinck by talking about Christian speculative fiction.

John: How would you characterize the current Christian speculative fiction market from where you’re sitting?

Sharon: I still think really unusual stories aren’t readily embraced. I totally understand why. I don’t feel bitter or angry about that. I understand where the publishers are coming from, trying to meet the requests and needs of their readership and the kind of stories they tend to buy. It still baffles me, because I see that whole area of speculative fiction exploding in ABA and I see some hope in the younger readership in CBA, but I don’t understand what’s keeping it from being more widely embraced. I’m hopeful but still a little bewildered.

It also depends on what you count as "speculative fiction." If you factor in Frank Peretti, Ted Dekker, Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, then the top selling fiction in CBA is speculative fiction. When you go more specifically to fantasy or science fiction then it’s still a very narrow market and I’m not quite sure why that is.

John: What themes do you think can be best explored by speculative fiction? What can speculative fiction do that other genres can’t?

Sharon: I think it’s one of the best genres ever at conveying the whole metaphor for the Christian life as a battle, as spiritual warfare, as a heroic epic journey, not only God’s epic journey but ours as well. There’s no other genre that does it as powerfully.

Speculative fiction can give us a fresh look at things we already know too well. When I taught dance I used to teach a movement prayer to the Lord’s Prayer. People would say afterward, "I pray that prayer so many times it stopped meaning anything to me. And now seeing it in this new way, certain portions of it mean more because I’ve acted it out." Fantasy can do that. It can take the story of God stepping into the human condition and redeeming us and look at it from a completely fresh angle.

John: Do you think there are any "taboo" elements of secular speculative fiction that can’t be sanctified by Christian fiction?

Sharon: I think Christians have the art first. Satan corrupts it. We don’t even have to think about taking back things and sanctifying them for our use again. I think everything is up for our use as we’re writing stories about God.

I think each writer as they’re serving God will find what elements to use.

It is a hard decision to make about what to include and not include. I don’t want my stories to make sinful look choices come across as looking okay or desirable. I want God to be more interesting than evil. That’s one of the tricky things because evil is more fun to write and more interesting in stories. To make God more interesting in His purity than evil is can be a very tricky thing.

John: What can those of us who enjoy speculative Christian fiction do to help the genre?

Buy books. Seriously. It makes such a difference if people buy them. It sounds simplistic, but that’s a huge thing. If people don’t buy the books, the publishers won’t contract for more of that genre no matter what it is.

Also be viral. Spread the word if you read a book you love. That can really make a difference. Like Lord of the Rings’ popularity. It was a viral thing. I read it in college and had been a fan from way back. For a modern audiences to embrace it the way they did when the movies came out, that was viral. That was people telling their friends, "You’ll like this movie."

It just happens naturally. If you love something, you tend to talk about it. But sometimes, I don’t think people realize what an impact that can have. Especially when it’s something that people are hesitant about like speculative fiction.

For example, all the gals in my Beth Moore Bible study had read the manuscript for The Restorer because I was looking for feedback when I first wrote it. My friend Vikki said, "Well, I don’t read fantasy." And my other friends said, "You have to read this one. It’s different. You’ll like it." Finally they talked her into it. She loved it so much she started passing this manuscript around to all these other people she said had to read it. She became this avid fan of the series. Her husband read it, her daughter read it, and she just kept giving it to people. But it was because friends said, "No really, read this book."

That personal word of mouth and voting with your pocket book are two great ways to support the genre. And prayer. At Mount Hermon, a session leader wisely said she believes that there are powerful stories God can tell in this genre through His people, both in the general market as well as the Christian market. For those doors to open, we need to pray. It’s a walls of Jericho kind of thing. It’s not something we can do with our own power and just make it happen. We have to be prayerful and patient and do the part of the work God gives us.

John: What advice can you give to hopeful Christian speculative fiction authors?

Sharon: Continue to seek God in every stage in the process: what kind of stories to tell, how to tell them, how to grow in the craft, who to listen to. You’re going to get all kinds of advice, you’re going to read things, and some of it will conflict and really make your brain hurt. It sounds simplistic to say, "Seek God," but it’s so difficult to quiet all the other voices and say, "Okay, Lord, I’m here."

When I teach about writing, I talk about my "A-As of writing," which are to be available and authentic. Available means showing up and saying, "I’m here, Lord, if You want to use me to write today. What do You want me to write? Articles, short stories, novels? What kinds of stories?" That sounds so easy but it’s not. There’re a million things to pull me away from it. Our own self doubt makes it difficult to show up and be available.

To be authentic, means to not write from a place of strength where you say, "I have all the answers," but from that place of brokenness, you know, "I’ve gone through these times of questioning and here’s how God responded in my life," and weaving those things into my writing.

The cool thing is, if you’re doing this in fellowship with God, it’s not wasted, even if nothing reaches publication. I like to be a good steward of my time so I really wrestled with this. It’s a very lavish art form in terms of how long it takes. Writing novels eats many, many hours and then growing in your craft, many, many hours of study trying and failing and rough drafts. You don’t want to spend that if you think it’s going to be for nothing. But I remember one time praying and seeking God about all that. I figured there were other things I could be doing like volunteering at my church rather than writing. And I asked Him if my doing this brought Him pleasure. You know, like in Chariots of Fire – "When I run, I feel His pleasure." If it does, then it has value. Maybe not on Earth, but if it brings God joy, it’s worth it. If it’s where God calls you, it’s where you need to be.

John: What’s coming up for Sharon Hinck?

Sharon: A nap. The three Restorer books release May, September, and January. The revision process, all the different stages, it has been a really intense year. Then I have two more coming out with Bethany House in 2008. I’m working on the rewrites for my fourth book from Bethany House, my seventh novel. After I’m done with that, I need a nap.

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And thus concluded the interview. Sharon insisted that we take a picture to commemorate the occasion (also so I could prove to Isaiah that he met Sharon if he didn't believe me):

So that's it. I hope you enjoyed the interview as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you.

Don't forget, the give-away ends at midnight. If you haven't signed up by then, it'll be too late!

And be sure to visit the other blog tour participants!

Trish Anderson
Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Justin Boyer
Grace Bridges
Amy Browning
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Frank Creed
Lisa Cromwell
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
D. G. D. Davidson
Chris Deanne
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Beth Goddard
Marcus Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Russell Griffith
Jill Hart
Katie Hart
Sherrie Hibbs
Heather R. Hunt
Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Kait
Karen
Dawn King
Tina Kulesa
Lost Genre Guild
Rachel Marks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Eve Nielsen
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Rachelle
Cheryl Russel
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
Mirtika Schultz
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Jason Waguespac
Daniel I. Weaver

CSFF June Blog Tour Day Two: The Restorer

We're in day two of The Restorer and in part two of my interview with author Sharon Hinck. As I promised yesterday, it's all about writing and The Restorer...

John: What made you want to write Christian fiction?

Sharon: Fiction tells the truth in ways that non-fiction can’t. When I read a powerful novel, I experience what the character is experiencing. That’s different than reading a non-fiction book that tells me "10 Tips to Have a Better Marriage" or "20 Ways to Get Closer to God." When I read a story, then I live with that character and it has such an impact. I felt that from the novels that I’ve read. I wanted to provide that kind of experience.

John: What is the "Sharon Hinck" writing process? Outline first? Fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants?

Sharon: Randy Ingermanson’s Snowflake Method? It gave me nightmares! I kept waking up with nightmares of blizzards.

I’m a discovery writer. I have a scene, a character, a concept that makes me curious and makes me wonder, "what next?" I begin to write to uncover it. It’s fun and thrilling and also kind of dumb because when you work that way, you can paint yourself into a corner that you don’t know you can get out of. I know where it’s aiming but I really don’t know how I’m going to get there. It’s kind of exhilarating and kind of terrifying.

I read a quote by Steven King that went something like this: "It’s like you’ve got this dark hole and some writers like to shine the light into the hole and make sure they see everything. He just reaches down in there and doesn’t know what he’s going to grab and pulls it out ."

I would love to use Randy’s approach. It would feel much safer to have it outlined and laid out. But then it feels like work. It’s like writing a research paper! My characters never do what I expect them to. I learn secrets about them about halfway through the book that colors everything.

John: What books and/or courses influenced your writing the most?

Sharon: There’re the standard writing books, Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. Writing the Break-Out Novel. Those are all helpful. As far as courses, I had a professor, John Lawing in my grad school classes. I learned so much from him. I also took a poetry class that influenced me a lot. You learn to focus on every syllable. I recently heard David Mamet on Charlie Rose. He said his job as a playwright is to shave syllables. I loved that.

I don’t normally admit this publicly, I do write a little bit of poetry. That actually comes into the style or the flavor of the writing in how I approach it. Some of the poetry classes and the grad school writing classes had more of an impact than the writing books. Some of the conferences I’ve gone to like Mount Hermon and the writing critique groups I’ve belonged to have had a big impact as well.

John: I've heard that Kathy Tyers, when she wrote Firebird, worked on it for a long time. Karen Hancock did the same with Legends of the Guardian King. How long have you been working on "The Restorer?"

Sharon: The seed of the idea came when I was working with the dance company about 20 years ago. The concept was for a theatrical work, so more of a script than a novel. It involved a mom trying to get away from the craziness of her day-to-day life for quiet time with God by sneaking up into attic. Then the characters of the stories in her Bible study would come out of the rafters to interact with her. And that actually formed the seed that germinated for years.

Then I played with some scenes for other things that ended up coming together. The actual novel was started four and a half years ago. I joined a writers group and I was listening to the fun they were having adding on to their novels. I took those concepts that had been kind of mulling in my head and started putting it together.

John: Did publishing a book in another genre (Becky Miller) help sell "The Restorer?"

Sharon: Yes. It absolutely did. The Restorer was the first book I had written and passed around. I kept hearing publishing houses saying they’d look at every genre except sci-fi and fantasy. I continued to write those books because I cared about them so much and hoped one day a door would open.

Then I decided to move on and try some other things. I think the fact that I had begun to build a readership helped overcome those objections that all publishing houses are nervous about sci-fi and fantasy just because it doesn’t pay off. I don’t want a publishing house to lose money.

The other thing I did with The Restorer was target it to core CBA readers. A lot of sci-fi/fantasy isn’t read by the core readership, the women age 20 to 60 in Middle America who go to the Christian bookstores. Mine is purposefully targeted towards those readers because I think those are a lot of women who would love the genre if they got over thinking of it as nerdy Star Trek convention people. The popularity of Lord of the Rings shows that. People love this kind of story if it’s presented in a way that they can identify with.

John: What kind of audience do you hope to gain by having a "soccer mom" as the hero of "The Restorer?"

Sharon: That was very deliberate. I really hoped to woo some readers who might not have tried the genre before. I think it’s such a rich genre but I know a lot of my friends don’t read fantasy. If you say, "This book is a fantasy," they say, "No. I’ll read Karen Kingsbury, I’ll read Francine Rivers, I won’t read fantasy."

After I wrote the manuscript, I passed it around to the gals in my Beth Moore Bible study. And they loved it. That was an important test, to see if I could break through that barrier. Whether that will work in a wider audience, I don’t know. There’s the core fantasy readership, that niche, and then there’s the younger readership that seem to love fantasy. Those will be nice secondary audiences. But I hope the primary audience will be the same women who read Becky Miller books.

+++++

We'll put a bookmark in there and save the rest for tomorrow. That's when we'll see what Sharon has to say about speculative Christian fiction.

Make sure you enter the contest if you haven't already. As of the time I'm posting this, we only have two entries! If you're one of the two, enter again today and double your chances!

And be sure to check out what the other participants are up to:

Trish Anderson
Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Justin Boyer
Grace Bridges
Amy Browning
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Frank Creed
Lisa Cromwell
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
D. G. D. Davidson
Chris Deanne
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Beth Goddard
Marcus Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Russell Griffith
Jill Hart
Katie Hart
Sherrie Hibbs
Heather R. Hunt
Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Kait
Karen
Dawn King
Tina Kulesa
Lost Genre Guild
Rachel Marks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Eve Nielsen
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Rachelle
Cheryl Russel
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
Mirtika Schultz
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Jason Waguespac
Daniel I. Weaver

CSFF June Blog Tour Day One: The Restorer

We're continuing with The Restorer today. So what's the "something special" I've been holding on to? Just this: back in April, I had the privilege of meeting Sharon Hinck and interviewing her for the blog tour. She graciously invited my wife, my son, and me to her Minneapolis home and we had a great two hour chat.

Actually, the beginning of the interview was a definite Becky Miller moment. I hoped to interview Sharon for the blog tour, figuring that I had an "in" since we're both members of the same denomination. I even tried to sweeten the pot by offering to bring my very adorable son, Isaiah, with me.

It worked. Sharon graciously invited my wife, my son, and me to her suburban Minneapolis home. Now, let me tell you, I was extremely nervous about this. I was meeting a published author and conducting an interview for the first time. I wanted to be cool, calm, professional.

So we got to her house, we settled into her living room, and the first thing Isaiah did was spit up on her hardwood floor.

Thankfully, Sharon laughed it off and, like I said, we had a great interview.

Over the next three days, I'll be posting that interview ... starting now:

John: What’s your background? What did you do before you started writing?

Sharon: I’ve done all kinds of things. I started writing when I was in grad school. The prof would send me my papers with red marks which told me everything I needed to fix, but then he’d write at the bottom of the paper "Submit this to Christianity Today or Partnership." So he got me to break through that barrier of being scared of being published.

My passion for many years was using the art of dance in Christian worship and theatre. I taught ballet for twenty years and spoke about Christian arts to various conferences. I was the director of a Christian dance company made of professional dancers for ten years. We wanted to use the art of dance in theatrical settings to bring in people that could see works about faith themes.
I was also busy raising kids and got back into writing four or five years ago.

John: What’s your all-time favorite book? Speculative fiction book? Christian fiction?

Sharon: Perelandra by C. S. Lewis. That book absolutely captivated me and gave me an understanding of creation and the fall and redemption in ways that I had never grasped before.

John: What’s your favorite speculative genre to write? To read?

Sharon: I enjoy reading fantasy with a contemporary voice -- general fiction with fantasy woven in. I just read Stolen Child by Keith Donohue. It’s a contemporary novel but it has changelings in it. As you read the whole mythology of these changelings, you start to believe that if you look out into the woods, you’ll see these little creatures out there. It makes them seem real. It’s written in a contemporary voice. There aren’t pages and pages of history and description. You know how a lot of fantasy is fairy-tale-ish? I like writing with a contemporary fiction voice but with fantastical elements.

I’ll read everything. I’ll even confess I have a shelf full of Star Trek novels. I love Diana Gabaldon who wrote Outlander and a whole series of time travel. I love time travel stories. I love the Anne McCaffrey books, which are very sociological views of creating a story world. What she does with that is beautiful. When I was in college I read Heinlein and some of the harder edge sci-fi writers. Of course I love Karen Hancock, Randy Ingermanson, Kathy Tyers, Kathryn Mackel. I just loved all their stuff. There are some really strong CBA speculative fiction authors.

John: What does being Lutheran bring to the world of Christian fiction?

Sharon: Go Lutherans! I was talking to someone at Mount Hermon about being Missouri Synod Lutheran. Her husband is Missouri Synod although she grew up Baptist. She said, "You gotta hand it to those Missouri Synod Lutherans. You really have a firm theological foundation."

I think that’s so valuable. I try to bring that into my fiction writing. Theology colors everything. For example, in the Becky Miller books, I address the whole issue of "If you’re really following God, then you’re going to have wealth and then you’ll have health. If something’s going wrong, you must be sinning." These are just totally non-Biblical concepts.

I cherish every theology class I had in college. I cherish my background: Scripture alone, faith alone, Christ alone. That does influence the way I write and what I try to bring to the story.

John: If you could collaborate on a story with any author, who would it be and why?

Sharon: That’s too hard. So many ideas are buzzing through my head now. Maybe Mark Twain? Wouldn’t it be fun to co-author something with him? I grew up reading Mark Twain and Jack London. Some of those authors and the way they write adventure ... That would be really fun.

But I have to say Madeline L’Engel. I would love to collaborate on a project so I could learn from her. I love her non-fiction books about the artist’s life and the writer’s life and of course The Wrinkle in Time and all those books. That would be really cool. She would be my top choice.

+++++

So is that it? Nope. I've got two more parts to go. Tomorrow see what Sharon had to say about writing in general and The Restorer. And be sure to enter the contest. You still have some time!

Also, be sure to check out the other blog tour participants:

Trish Anderson
Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Justin Boyer
Grace Bridges
Amy Browning
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Frank Creed
Lisa Cromwell
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
D. G. D. Davidson
Chris Deanne
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Beth Goddard
Marcus Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Russell Griffith
Jill Hart
Katie Hart
Sherrie Hibbs
Heather R. Hunt
Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Kait
Karen
Dawn King
Tina Kulesa
Lost Genre Guild
Rachel Marks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Eve Nielsen
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Rachelle
Cheryl Russel
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
Mirtika Schultz
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Jason Waguespac
Daniel I. Weaver

The Restorer

I'm getting a jump on the blog tour this month by posting my review of Sharon Hinck's latest book The Restorer a day early. Why would I do that? Am I trying to show up the other people on the tour? Not at all! Instead, I have something special in store for the few people who wander into the Least Read Blog that will start tomorrow. I've been looking forward to reading this book for quite a while (as you can tell from this post) and it didn't disappoint.

The Restorer is the tale of Susan Mitchell, a harried mom of four. Susan desperately needs some time to herself for devotion but she simply can't find any quiet time. Her husband, Mark, stumbles on what he thinks is a good idea: he converts part of their attic into a retreat of sorts. Susan can go up there, pull up the ladder, and concentrate on her devotions.

And that's what Susan does. But the first time she uses it, she somehow manages to stumble into an alternate world. In this world, a hard-pressed and surrounded people are waiting for the Restorer, a person sent by the One to rescue them from their enemies. Some of them believe that Susan is that Restorer. But how can a mom be a military hero? Is Susan really the one they were waiting for? And if she is, how is she going to help these people?

Sharon creates an interesting alternate world. It's not quite fantasy, it's not quite sci-fi, but it's a blend of the two. There are just enough twists and turns in the book to keep you guessing and reading. One of them, in the middle of the book, knocked me for a loop. I was sure I had things figured out but it turned out I was completely off. I love it when that happens.

Like in her previous books, Sharon also makes a valid point about what faith in God actually means. I don't want to spoil what it is, but it got me thinking. Especially of the end of Luke 9. Go figure it out.

This is perhaps one of the reasons why I enjoy Hinck's writings so much: she is clearly targeting mature Christians and isn't "writing down" to them. One of the things I've never understood is why Christian fiction is usually centered around a conversion experience for one of the characters. Maybe it's a feel good thing; I don't know. I do know that it's nice to see a story with a message for people who have been Christian for a while.

So go out and get this book. Hey, I'll even make it easy for you!

For this month's blog tour, I will be giving away a copy of The Restorer. Starting tomorrow, you can enter the contest simply by leaving me a comment on any post over the next few days that says, in essence, "Sign me up for the contest." You'll have until midnight CST on June 20th to enter. If you want, you can increase your odds by leaving one entry comment a day (no more than that, please). On June 21st, I will gather up all the entries and put them in a hat or some other kind of handy recepticle and have someone (maybe my wife, maybe my son ... although a nine month old might not understand what's going on) draw a name. Then I'll drop the book in the mail to you and you can see how wonderful this story is for yourself.

So is that the "something special" I have in store? Nope. It's not. Be sure to come back tomorrow and see what it is. I'm excited about it. I really am.

Bloodlines

So I finished the next book in the Legacy of the Force series, namely Bloodlines by Karen Traviss. And I have to say, at this point, I'm debating if I want to continue reading this series.

I don't think that reaction is entirely related to Traviss's work. Traviss does an admirable job portraying the characters. She also does a pretty decent job untangling some of the twisted backstory of Boba Fett.

I guess my problem with this series stems from the fact that it all seems a little forced. The conflict, the story, all of it seems a little off to me. Especially one character's journey to the Dark Side. I mean, I get where he's coming from but it just doesn't seem natural.

So at this point, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I might keep reading, but I think I'll be visiting my local library to get the rest of the books.

My Sister's Keeper

Late last night, I finished reading My Sister's Keeper by JodiPiccoult and, I'm man enough to admit, I was weeping like a baby. This was an extremely powerful book, one that I had trouble putting down.

On one level, it would seem to be a book about a bio-ethics dilemma. Kate Fitzgerald was diagnosed with an extremely rare form of leukemia at an early age. Her parents, desperate to treat her, are told that her best hope is if a sibling is available for donations. The problem is Kate's older brother, Jesse, isn't a match.

So Sara and Brian utilize the latest technology and have a matching sibling made. A few months later, Anna is born.

All her life, Anna has been used as a donor to treat Anna's disease. She's been poked, prodded, had blood and bone marrow taken from her. Finally, Kate suffers from kidney failure and her parents, her mother especially, believes that Anna will just naturally donate the kidney.

So Anna sues her parents for medical emancipation. The book tells the story of the week leading up to the emancipation hearing, what happens at the hearing, and beyond.

But this is more than just a bio-ethics book. Piccoult creates a rich tapestry in the Fitzegerald family, making each member of the family a unique character with their own problems. The dynamics of this family in perpetual crisis is fascinating and completely believable. I often found myself wondering what would happen if I were in their shoes.

It all builds up to an ending that literally left me crying for half an hour. It's that powerful and incredible. And best of all, I never saw it coming.

Pick up this book. You need to read it.

From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain

I've always been sort of a closet comic book geek. It started when I was a kid. Our neighborhood library had piles of comics you could check out. I think I read every single one of them several times.

In recent years, though, I've been more interested in people who are willing to take comic conventions and stand them on their head. For example, I love Watchmen. I devoured 1602. It's part of the reason why I'm so enamored with Heroes (although I think it's obvious that some of the writers cribbed from Watchmen, but what do I know?). That's why I was so eager to read Minister Faust's From the Notebook of Dr. Brain.

The premise was interesting enough. A group of superheroes are sent to Dr. Eva Brain-Silverman for counselling. It seems that the "Fantastic Order of Justice," to which our heroes belong, are worried about their job performance and the issues that seem to be simmering in their relationships. If they want to keep their positions in the F*O*O*J, they need to complete therapy with Dr. Brain.

The world that Faust creates is interesting as well. This is a world where superheroes are increasingly unnecessary. All of the supervillains have been either imprisoned or killed. So what direction will the F*O*O*J go in? Who will lead it into this new era? And how will Dr. Brain's "sanity supplicants" handle a new threat that threatens to tear them apart?

Faust created an intricate plot that kept me guessing. Every time I thought I had a handle on what was happening, he would veer off in an unexpected direction. When I finally understood how everything fit together, I have to admit I was a little disappointed; it was a bit too obvious for my liking, but it was still a satisfying end.

I only have two real complaints about this book.

First of all, there's the fact that some of the characters are a bit too "transparent." What I mean is that it's obvious who Faust is lampooning when it comes to Omnipotent Man (the last survivor of the planet Argon) and Flying Squirrel (an aging billionaire with tons of high-tech toys at his disposal). Given the creativity that Faust showed in creating his other heroes, you would think he could have come up with truly original characters who could still fit into the story as Omnipotent Man and Flying Squirrel did.

Second, there's the matter of voice. This one is kind of tough for me to judge. Faust has a unique voice and employed it very well in this book but it wore on me after a while. Let me explain: the book itself is presented as a self-help book, written by Dr. Brain to superheroes in need of her help. As such, you could argue that it's not Faust's voice that I have a problem with but his portrayal of Dr. Brain's voice.

The problem I had is that "Dr. Brain" had a love for over-the-top similes and metaphors. It got to be too much after a while. There were a few times when I had to grit my teeth and just slog through them to find out what was going to happen next.

Don't get me wrong. This was a great book and gave me a lot of food for thought (a great thing for any book to do, especially one that's supposed to be a comedy). I would highly recommend this one, whether you're a closet comic book geek like me or not.

The Apocalypse Code

Just looking at the cover for this book, you might be tempted to think that this is somehow related to a certain series of Christian books that have been dominating best-seller charts for the past ten years. It's possible that someone would pick this up, thinking that it's going to talk about the beliefs behind the Left Behind series.

And they would be right. And wonderfully wrong at the same time.

The Apocalypse Code by Hank Hanegraaff is indeed about the end of the world and, in some ways, deals with the Left Behind books. But this isn't an exposition about how Tim LaHaye got things right. Instead, it's a rather scathing rebuttal to LaHaye's dispensational premillennialism and it's long overdue.

Hanegraaff presents what he's dubbed "exegetical eschatology." He has this to say about his method:

I coined the phrase Exegetical Eschatology to underscore that above all else
I am deeply committed to a proper method of biblical interpretation
rather than to any particular model of eschatology. The plain and
proper meaning of a biblical passage must always take precedence over a
particular eschatological presupposition or paradigm. (p. 2)

Hanegraaff then begins to pick apart the dispensational premillennial belief system, showing how that, with a proper understanding of how to read Scripture, belief in things like a secret rapture, a literal millennial reign, and so on, can't be supported by Scripture.

I really appreciated this book, but I only have two small gripes:

First of all, Hanegraaff repeated himself a bit too much for my tastes. It seemed like every other chapter, he would repeat an argument he made verbatim, quoting the same Scriptural passages and statements. Toward the end of the book, I felt like I was being talked-down-to, like I couldn't remember the points he made a few pages ago. That bugged me a little.

Second, there's Hanegraaff's arguments that the book of Revelation was written in the 60s and not the 90s. Hanegraaff makes it sound like only dispensational premillennialists or liberal Biblical scholars believe in the 90s date and that anyone who thinks Revelation was written that late falls into one of those two camps. Quite frankly, that's a little insulting, because I'm not a dispensational premillennialist or a liberal Biblical scholar and I believe that John wrote Revelation in the 90s.

Related to that is the fact that there are some historical problems I have with Hanegraaff's dating of Revelation. I won't go into that right now; I'm checking some facts so I don't go off half-cocked.

Aside from those two sticking points, anyone who is interested in the end times would do well to read this book. I think it will help us read the Bible for all it's worth.

Stories from a Moron

This is a book that every writer should read if they need a pick-me-up. It's Stories from a Moron by Ed Broth.

Mr. Broth set out to make a nuisance of himself to various magazine editors. He would write short "stories" (I use the term loosely) and then just send them out indiscriminately. In other words, he would do no careful market analysis, trying to fit the story to the magazine. Half the time, he sent his stories to magazines that didn't even accept fiction.

In this book, he shares with us the fruits of his labor and the rejection slips that he accumulated. I should warn you, some of the stories are pretty out there in terms of content. Vague (and not so vague) sexual references, a cussing Harry S Truman, that sort of thing.

What kind of disappoints me (and impresses me at the same time) is the restraint that most of the editors showed. You would think that they would eventually tell Broth off for wasting their time (one of them does and is the best exchange of letters in the whole book). But most of the time, they are very polite, very cordial as they explain that they can't use what he's sent in. The funniest (and least honest) has to be Ambassador Magazine, a publication for Italian Americans. The editor writes a glowing review for Ed's story and compliments him on how he tries to capture "their" heritage ... and Ed said not one word about Italians in his story. It was plainly obvious that the editor hadn't read the story at all.

It's kind of a surreal read, but it's a fun one too. If you're ever feeling blue about a pile of rejections, this is the place to laugh some of your troubles away because, while your work may not deserve it, Ed Broth's most certainly does.

This is just "teh" awesome

Yes, I'm engaging in bad internet lingo, but I can't help it. This is just the coolest music video I've seen in a while:




Mute Math's "Typical." I'm thinking I need to check me out some more of this stuff.

On the Lot

You know, I was actually looking forward to the summer so I wouldn't watch so much TV.

But, wouldn't you know it, I had to take a peek at a reality show and now I'm hooked. What am I talking about? Why, On the Lot, of course.

I know it's been done before, but I'm curious to see who the "next great American filmmaker" will turn out to be. So last week, even though we were on vacation, Jill and I watched the premiere episode and we even got to watch the second one as well. We missed one episode in there somewhere (the minute-long scenes they had to film in an hour. Didn't see it).

So tonight we got to watch short comedies by the contestants. Here are my favorites:

• Andrew Hunt's barfing aliens -- I voted for this one numerous times. Call me a sci-fi junkie if you will, but I thought this was perfect.
• Zach Lipovsky's accident -- I voted a few times for this as well. Zach should just drop out of the contest now. I mean, the guy has proven he has what it takes and I'd be willing to bet that there's a line of studio executives lining up to snatch this guy up now.
• Shira-Lee's strip-tease -- Loved this short film. I thought she might have crossed a line but then, when I realized what she was doing, beautiful!
• Sam's farting cavemen -- I mean, do I need to say anything more than that?

I also loved Adam's dancing man, Mateen's "soft" thief, and although the judges were horrified (and I can see why), I chuckled at Jason's "Getta Rhoom." Sue me. Oh, and Will's lucky penny was great too.

So who do I want to see gone? Easy: Kenny, Hilary, and Claudia. But the greatest of these is Kenny.

I'm sorry, what the heck was that? Off color buildings, over-the-top acting, a shirtless fat man getting whacked in the chest with a pizza? This is comedy? Not only that, but you can tell that Kenny has a big "indie chip" on his shoulder. He may have talent (that's debatable), but he knows he has talent (or, at least, he thinks he does). Not a good combo.

Hilary's pee bus? Not funny. Claudia's blind date? Puh-leeze.

Oh well. Can't wait to see what my boys Andrew and Zach have in store for us next week.

Betrayal

So just a moment ago, I finished Betrayal by Aaron Allston.

I've been waiting to read this book for a while. This kicks off a new Star Wars series of novels. The last one, The New Jedi Order, was such a rip-roaring, holy cow, gasp fest that I was holding out high hopes for this one. I eagerly watched as more and more books from this series were released in paperback, but I wanted to wait until this, the first book in the series, came out in paperback as well (as they sometimes do, Bantam released this book as a hardcover first).

I'm not sure it was worth the wait and that disappoints me.

For starters, I accidentally learned what happened at the end of the book. So what should have been a big surprise ... well, it wasn't.

Second, we have Allston's writing. I love Aaron Allston's other Star Wars novels. Allston has a wit and sense of humor that shines through no matter what he's writing. For example, his Wraith Squadron books were golden (especially the running joke about the Ewok pilot; trust me, you have to read it to believe it). Even in the midst of the Vong invasion, Allston's wit shone through.

But not so much in this book. There were glimmers of it, sure, but they fell kind of flat.

Third, we have what I suspect was supposed to be a "holy cow" revelation but fizzled for me. The reason? I had no idea what Allston was talking about. I had to look up the information on Wikipedia and even after I learned what I had to, I wasn't that impressed.

I'll keep reading the other books in the series; I mean, given what's happened, I'm curious to see how things shake out. If you've read the book, you know what I mean. If not, well, you can take a look for yourself. Just don't expect tremendous things.

The Sparrow

Wow. Just .... wow.

Late last night, I finished reading The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. I think I'm still in shock from the ending. This was simply a phenomenal book.

In short, The Sparrow is the story of a Jesuit mission to an alien planet in orbit of Alpha Centauri. The longer version is this: a technician at a radio telescope in Puerto Rico discovers snatches of alien music. Father Emilio Sandoz immediately wants to go and meet the alien Singers. The Jesuits finance the mission quietly and, without telling anyone, send a small crew to the planet of Rakhat to meet the natives and learn as much as they can.

But something goes wrong. When the book picks up, we learn that only Father Sandoz has survived the Jesuit mission and nobody knows what happened. No one except him. And so the Jesuits do their best to reconstruct what happened, not only to the ill-fated Rakhat mission, but to Father Sandoz as well.

I had a hard time putting this book down. Mary Doria Russell crafted it perfectly. She jumps between two different stories seamlessly, telling us what happened to Sandoz after he returned to Earth, and then back to the mission itself. The beauty of this book is that even though you know the basics of what happened to the Jesuit mission (they all die) and what happened to Father Sandoz (... I won't go into that here), there are still big question marks that hover over the story and keep you reading. You know that the crew dies, but she doesn't reveal the how or the why. That's enough to keep you going through the book to its explosive conclusion.

I do have one complaint: it's obvious that Mary Doria Russell isn't Christian. I'm sorry, but her Jesuits didn't totally ring true for me. They kept turning to Jewish mythology for comfort. If I remember correctly, they only quoted from the New Testament once (Matthew 10:29, where Russell got her title). I don't think that true Christians would approach things quite as these did, especially not the Father General of the Jesuits and the way he looks at the whole mess at the end of the book.

That aside, this was a great read and well worth it. Just make sure you brace yourself. You're in for one heck of a ride.

Not Weepy At All

So Gilmore Girls just ended. I'm not weepy. And I should be.

This is one of those dirty little secrets I probably shouldn't post on the web, but I can get really emotional, especially at the end of things. I thought for sure that when Gilmore Girls wrapped, I would be bawling my eyes out.

Nope. Didn't happen. And I'm not surprised at all.

This season ... no, wait, series finale just is the perfect death rattle for a show that slowly petered out and lost steam over this last year. The writing staff who took over after Amy Sherman-Palladino left should be ashamed of themselves. They took a witty, great show and let it die a slow death.

Now there were some genuinely touching moments. The scene between Rory and Lane felt right. The scene at the party where Richard made his peace with Lorelai was good too. But this just wasn't right.

And I know what they were trying to accomplish by "framing" the whole series with the final shot. Look! It's reminiscent of the first episode! We haven't forgotten! But I highly doubt that the final lines conceived by Sherman-Palladino were, "I guess they'll have to read your stuff." "I guess they will." How hard would it have been to call Amy up and just pay her a couple thousand bucks to find out what the real final lines should have been so it could end right?

Well, farewell, Lorelai and Rory. You deserved a lot better than this.

Gilmore Girls redux

This sums up my thoughts pretty well. I particularly appreciated the comment that this last season has been Gilmore Ghosts. Just not worthy of the previous six seasons.

This is just cooler than cool

An archaeologist believes he's found the tomb of Herod the Great.

That is just so cool, I can't put it into words.

I've actually wanted to go looking for it for some time now as well. After all, we know from Josephus that Herod was buried in the vicinity of the Herodium, and we've known where that was for a while now. I could never understand why nobody ever went looking for the tomb itself.

Now I know that someone has been looking for this tomb for over twenty years. And now, his hard work has paid off and we may have the fragments of Herod's sarcophagus.

I mean, this is just awesome. Really, really cool.

Eldest

It would appear that my attempts at the blog tag game were a little late. Maybe I should just stick to doing book reviews and the odd rant about whatever's on my mind.

In that vein, let's talk Eldest.

I know I was a little harsh on the movie adaptation of Eragon. I wonder if maybe that cinematic train wreck soured me on the whole Inheritance trilogy. Hard to say. I can say this, though: I wasn't as impressed this time around with Paolini.

For starters, Paolini's archaic grammar and writing really bugged me. I realize that he was trying to set a tone, and maybe it's just I'm a more laid-back kind of guy, but it was a little too clear to me that Paolini was trying to give his story an "epic" feeling. But the kind of writing he did isn't really necessary to achieve "epicness." Sure, J.R.R. Tolkein did it, but Tolkein did it better.

Second, I wonder what Paolini's personal beliefs are, specifically his religious beliefs. There were times when it seemed that Paolini was on a soap box, preaching through his characters. I know it's a little ironic that a pastor who yearns to publish Christian fiction would be bugged by preachy characters, but part of the problem is that I disagreed with the position I think Paolini was espousing. And maybe I was just reading into things a bit too much.

Now I'm not saying that I didn't enjoy the book. The climactic battle between the Varden and the Empire was a good read, especially the surprise twist that occurred toward the end. I did not see it coming, and that's a good thing; I hate it when I can figure out an ending a hundred pages before it happens. It's also obvious that Paolini has put a lot of thought into his fictional world; it comes to life in a very nice way.

So will I read the third Inheritance book? More than likely; I'm the kind of guy who likes to finish stuff like this. But I probably won't buy a copy. The library will be good enough.

Next on my pile of books to read is The Sparrow, which Sharon Hinck recently recommended to me. I don't know. That pile of books just keeps getting larger; I recently ordered two more books from Amazon: The Apocalypse Code and The Restorer. So I guess that means I'll be busy with book reviews for a while.

Not that that's a bad thing.

I guess I've been tagged....

So I found out last week that I was tagged for a blog game. Thanks Becky.

I guess I need to post the rules first:

• Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
• People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
• At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
• Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

So eight random facts or habits about myself?

1) I was once involved in a race riot started by the Ku Klux Klan in Memphis, TN. No, I wasn't wearing a sheet at the time. Some friends and I were in town on Martin Luther King, Jr., weekend and wound up in the wrong place at the wrong time.

2) I don't drink alcohol of any kind (except for communion wine), but not because I believe that drinking alcohol is sinful. I have some sort of weird allergic reaction to every kind of booze I've tried and for that reason, I haven't touched the stuff.

3) I am deathly afraid of heights, but only if I think there's a possibility I will fall. In other words, I can handle skyscrapers just fine ... unless I'm balancing on the edge of them. My only other phobia is that of needles. I can't stand them. When we took Isaiah in for his third round of immunizations, I couldn't watch.

4) I majored in theatre in college. I actually considered going to theatre grad school instead of the Seminary.

5) I'd like to teach in a Lutheran high school someday.

6) I've considered going back to grad school and getting either a masters degree in homiletics (sermon writing and preaching) or even my PhD in liturgical drama, but I don't see the point in taking out all the loans for a degree that I probably would never use.

7) I've actually put thought into how I would have written the Star Wars prequels and, in my not so humble opinion, I could have come up with a story that didn't suck as hard as the one George came up with.

8) I once published two very bad poems in a Christian youth magazine. Thankfully I did so under a pen name. At the time, I thought a pen name would be cool. Now I'm glad that I used it so no one can connect me to the poems.

So now I need to pick people to tag, I guess. I'm going to do this in two different groups. One group will be people whose blogs I frequent. Those people would be: Mir, Shannon, Jamison, and Sharon (although it looks like Sharon already got tagged).

The other group I'll tap will be my friends from Red vs. Blue. I love the Politics & Currents Events Forum and I've met some very interesting people here. So I'm tagging the following and daring them to do this in their journals: Swooper, the incomparable Jengaship, Batmantis (who was asking for something like this in his last journal entry), and Satarus.

Okay. There we go. I feel better now.

Second-to-last Gilmore Girls Musing

Like I said a week ago, the plug has been pulled on Gilmore Girls. And, as I said last week, I'm still not sure how I feel about that.

But enough of my vacilating opinion. Let's talk about the second-to-last episode which aired this past Tuesday.

First of all, we have the big proposal. Logan pops the question to Rory only to have her turn him down. I was a little surprised, but also very relieved, when Rory turned him down. Even though we don't know what's going to happen to Rory in the future, I prefer her to face the future untethered. Not only that, but part of me dreaded even a hint of a double-wedding ending for the show (you know, Rory is engaged to Logan, Luke and Lorelai get back together, hinting that at some point, both couples would wind up getting married). Now I don't need to worry about that anymore. It stinks that Logan made it an "all or nothing" deal, but Rory is better without him.

Second, and while this is small, we have Kirk-in-a-box. It was short, it was weird, but it was perfect. It was a step in the right direction and helped me realize why I wasn't as satisfied with the show this season. The townsfolk were largely missing. Perhaps Amy Sherman-Palladino was able to juggle the competing storylines better than the current crop of writers, but we didn't see much of the other denizens of Stars Hollow this year and it made the rest of the show lacking. Seeing Kirk in a box helped me realize this. We should have caught even momentary glimpses of his other bizarre schemes. We should have had more town meetings. We should have seen more of Taylor. We should have definitely seen more of the Troubador than just him wandering through Taylor's maze.

There is one other issue that's bothering me about the way this is playing out, and that's the fact that next week's episode isn't a true series finale. Instead it's a season finale that's been promoted. Rather than work up to a true ending to the series, we have the show working up to what would have been the end of a season. There's a big difference. With a true series finale, we could have put a more definitive cap on some of the issues.

For example, I would have loved to see some sort of final reconciliation between Lorelai and her parents, even if it was in the form of a permanent cease fire. I would have loved to see Hep Alien strike it big. I would have loved to see Kirk declare his undying love for Taylor. Well .... maybe not that last one. But you get the idea. Instead of getting the final resolution, we're instead getting a half-hearted resolution that will just have to be good enough.

But what really has me cheesed off about this is the fact that they weren't able to bring Amy Sherman-Palladino back for the ending. If they had planned this better, made it a true series finale and not a rush job, they could have brought Amy back and let her write the ending she always envisioned.

I don't remember where I saw this (probably in one of the interviews on the DVDs), but Amy once said that she knew what the last words of the show would be and that she's always known. I would have loved to see the final episode that Amy would have written. I want to know what those final lines would have been. But even if she reveals them in an interview now, it won't be the same. I would have wanted to have heard the words coming from Lorelai and Rory (because that's obviously who would have said it), not read about it in the pages of Entertainment Weekly or on some blog somewhere.

Oh well. You can expect one more post like this sometime after next Tuesday.

I'm not sure how I feel about this...

Jill's brother is on the phone right now and told her the news. I immediately hopped on the web to look for confirmation...

Gilmore Girls has come to an end.

I'm not sure how I feel about that. In some ways, I'm relieved. The writing has really, really gone downhill and in some ways, they've been circling the drain all season. It's good for them to end before they really hit rock bottom.

At the same time, I'm not sure I'm happy about this at all. It's too quick. I doubt that they will be able to wrap up all the issues (such as the most recent, Rory's lack of a job) satisfactorily. I'm afraid that they'll rush to the ending and leave a sour taste in everyone's mouth.

Oh well. What's done is done. At least we have the good seasons in DVD.

Allegiance

So I finished off Allegiance by Timothy Zahn and, as always, Zahn shows why he's one of the masters of Star Wars novels. I know most people list him as the master, but personally, I think Michael Stackpole edges him out of that distinction.

This book is set shortly after the events of A New Hope, with the Rebellion on the run after the destruction of the Death Star. Zahn juggles four different storylines. First of all, we have Princess Leia meeting with some members of the Rebel Alliance over a brazen plan. Second, we have Han Solo and Luke Skywalker trying to deal with a group of pirates who have been raiding Rebellion supplies.

On the other side of the war, we have Mara Jade, the eighteen year old Emperor's Hand, trying to run down the same group of pirates thanks to some art purchased with embezzled tax revenue. And finally, we have a group of five disillusioned stormtroopers who are on the run after murdering an Imperial officer.

You know all four storylines will collide eventually and they do in a spectacular way. Zahn doesn't disappoint for the most part. Upon further reflection, the Leia storyline was a little on the weak side and little more than a reason for Han and Luke to run into the 'troopers and dance around the borders of Mara's story (and thankfully, Mara and Luke never come face to face, which would have just caused all sorts of consistency headaches).

What had me chuckling were the scenes where Mara and Darth Vader interact. If you've read the second Timothy Zahn Thrawn duology, you know why I chuckled. If not, I won't spoil it for you. But you would have to read the Thrawn trilogy first, so to understand my amusement, you'd need to wind up reading five Star Wars novels. It's not time wasted. Not with Zahn.

Anyway, if you're a Star Wars geek like me, this book won't disappoint. If you're not, probably better not to bother.

Book Review Three-fer

I've been falling down on the job lately. Normally the first thing I'd do after finishing a book is hop onto here and post my rambling, semi-incoherent thoughts about what I've read. But ever since a certain soon-to-be eight month old has come into my life, it's not exactly been easy to keep up with that. I mean, look at this face:

Now who would you rather spend time with? Him or a barely read blog?

But no, I have to get caught up. It's been bugging me. So what have I been reading?

A few months ago I read Speaker of the Dead and Xenocide. I didn't blog about those because, to be honest, I felt a little silly putting in my two cents about two books that are arguably pillars in the sci-fi community. I will say this, though: Xenocide is the last Card book I bought. Part of that is because of finances; I just can't afford to keep plunking down money every time I want to read a book. Part of it is also, though, that I think the quality of writing was slowly going down with each book. Ender's Game almost had me crying at the end; Xenocide, not so much. I'll read the rest of the Ender saga, but I'll just be checking it out from the library is all.

So what books am I prepared to write about? Well, how about the last three that I read?

Let's start with the best of the bunch, namely Renovating Becky Miller by Sharon Hinck. As you might recall, I loved the first Becky Miller book. That hasn't changed with the second book. Once again, Sharon Hinck has delivered a moving and thoughtful book that a lot of people should be reading, not just the moms it's targeting.

Why? Well, Sharon shines a light on some all-too-prevalent beliefs in modern Christianity. For example, does bigger always mean better in a congregation? That's something that gets tossed around a bit too much. Pastors especially are guilty of this. When we get together, we often compare congregation sizes and use that as a standard of success. But is that really the way churches should gauge their success?

The other vital message that Sharon includes in this story is the idea that Christians don't have to do everything. They just have to do what God has put on their plate and not overreach too much. I think some Christians have mistakenly tried to become the Holy Spirit. They feel that they and they alone are responsible for converting their non-Christian friends and family. If it doesn't work right away, they get frustrated.

But take a lesson from Becky's travails with her sister Judy, folks. Sometimes you're at the start of a person's journey to faith. Sometimes you're in the middle. Sometimes you're lucky enough to be at the end.

There's even more, but I don't want to spoil it all. Instead, go and read the book. Like in the first book, every chapter has a small "fantasy sequence" where Becky pictures herself in different movies. Part of the fun for me was trying to figure out which movie I was reading about. I think I got most of them, although there were a few that stumped me.

On to the next book I read: Tatooine Ghost.

I'll admit it gladly: I'm a Star Wars novel junkie. I have a shelf full of them. Timothy Zahn and Michael Stackpole hooked me. Even the few times I've read stinkers haven't broken my habit. This one just strengthened it.

I must have passed by this book in Barnes and Noble I don't know how many times but finally I decided to buy it. The plot is pretty basic: shortly after their wedding, Han and Leia Solo are off to Tatooine to purchase a painting, a rare Alderaanian masterpiece that was supposedly lost when Grand Moff Tarkin caused the planet to go "boom."

Why is it so important to get this painting? Because embedded in the art is a code key that could be used to unearth one of the Rebellion's most important spy rings. The fledgling New Republic is worried that if the painting falls into the wrong hands, the Empire could kill hundreds of operatives.

But as Leia is chasing the art all over the sands of Tatooine, she realizes that she came to Tatooine for another reason. The Force has brought her there to retrace the steps of Anakin Skywalker. Characters from the prequels pop up in unexpected places.

What made me absolutely love this book was the fact that I momentarily forgot my Star Wars Extended Universe chronology. Not a big deal, you say? Well, in this case, it was. See, because I forgot when Han and Leia were married, I didn't realize immediately who the Imperial officer trying to acquire the painting was. When I realized who it was (and who it always had to be), I was hooked. Especially when the officer in question shows up in an unexpected place. For you EU fans, think about it. You should know exactly who would want an Alderaanian masterpiece. Yeah. He's in this book.

So if you're a Star Wars fan, read this book. You'll enjoy the way that Troy Denning blends the prequels with the EU.

And now, here's the third book, the one that I couldn't finish reading because I was so frustrated with it: 10 Things Your Minister Wants to Tell You: (But Can't, Because He Needs the Job) by Oliver "Buzz" Thomas.


This one ticked me off. I spotted it on a library shelf and figured I should find out what I've secretly wanted to tell my parishioners but haven't been able to out of fear for being fired.

Now some of what "Buzz" (way to maintain your credibility there, buddy) says is okay. I didn't have a problem with items #2 or #5. I'd even be willing to bet that I'd agree with some of #10 (if I had read that far). But the rest of it was "Buzz's" opinion which he seems to assume that most pastors share. Sorry, "Buzz," but I'd be willing to bet that most don't.

Basically put, this book is nothing but propaganda from the left side of the Church. I found it an interesting read, especially to see what "Buzz" had to say, but part of my frustration is that he basically skimmed the surface of his arguments and then ended every chapter like he had irrevocably proven his points. If you're going to try to present stuff like this, you really need to offer more proof with, oh, I don't know, citations. Otherwise it's just your opinion and, as far as I'm concerned, doesn't make your book worth reading.

So skip this one. It isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

Hopefully I'll do better from here on out. Right now I'm working my way through Allegiance, a Timothy Zahn Star Wars novel. And I have a stack of books to work through. So expect more reviews. But hopefully no more three-fers.

CSFF April Blog Tour: Sin Boldly! (Day Three of "Return of the Guardian King")

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen, today’s topic is "Sin Boldly!" Those of you with any Lutheranism sneaking around in your background will recognize that as a Luther quote. Maybe even if you don’t. But this is some advice that I think writers of Christian fiction need to hear. More specifically, their characters need to hear it.

By way of explanation, let me tell you a true story. Way back when the only Christian fiction I knew of was Frank Peretti, I read The Oath and was mightily offended by it. Why? Because in The Oath, the main character, Steve Benson, had sex with a married woman. I thought that was absolutely awful. Benson was clearly the hero of the story. Even though he fought against it, you knew he was going to be a Christian by the end of the book. How dare Peretti have this soon-to-be Christian commit adultery! It was awful! It was scandalous! It was sinful!

Looking back on my reaction, I’m a little embarrassed. To put it bluntly, I don’t agree with the me who reacted so badly anymore, because I understand this simple truth: human beings sin.

They do. I do. You do. We all do. Even after we become a Christian, we still sin. We don’t want to, but we do. It’s like what St. Paul wrote about in Romans 7:15-25. It’s what Martin Luther called "simul justus et peccator" (righteous and yet sinful at the same time). If writers are to create realistic, three dimensional characters in their stories, those characters have to sin, even if they’re on their way to be Christian, even if they already are.

But writers seem to get so hung up on this. I can understand why. We certainly don’t want to condone sin. We don’t want to place stumbling blocks in the path of anyone. Better for a millstone to be tied around our necks and all that. Yet we can’t escape the fact that our characters have to be sinful if they’re to be realistic. So what do we do?

We make our characters wimpy sinners. They sin in "small" ways (I know, sins aren’t "small" or "big" in God’s eyes, but we humans tend to classify them that way). They might get mildly miffed when something doesn’t go their way. They may have a slightly harsh word for someone they don’t like. But our heroes rarely forsake their marriage vows. They usually don’t kill; if they do, we make sure we explain it away as something they had to do, something that couldn’t be avoided. They don’t rob banks. They lead relatively sanitized lives that are free of the "big" sins.

But is that realistic? I don’t think it is. More than that, I think it robs God’s grace of its true power. When our characters don’t sin boldly, we give the unintentional impression that there are some sins that can’t be forgiven.

Let me give you an example: let’s say that there’s a good Christian girl. We’ll call her Cheryl. She grew up hearing the dire warnings against premarital sex. It’s a sin. It’s wrong. It’s contrary to God’s will for your life. She made a pledge early on to remain a virgin and, through high school, she kept that promise. Of course, it was pretty easy since Cheryl was something of a late bloomer and didn’t do much dating.

But then Cheryl went off to college. There she met Steve, a great looking guy. She can hardly believe it when Steve asked her out. Pretty soon she’s head over heels in love. Even the fact that he’s a Christian in name only doesn’t bother her. She figures there’s plenty of time to get him on the straight and narrow, especially since Steve says all the right words about the future and togetherness and all that.

As their relationship progresses, Cheryl is confused by her feelings for Steve. She always assumed that if lustful feelings came her way, her faith would be enough to drive them off. But when she’s with Steve, giving in to those feelings doesn’t seem like such a bad idea. Finally, one night, Cheryl falls to the temptation. Afterwards, to silence the guilt, Cheryl tries to convince herself it’s all okay because she and Steve will get married someday.

Only that day never comes. A few weeks later, Steve and Cheryl get into a major fight and break up. Now Cheryl is devastated. The convenient excuse she used has been stripped away and the full import of what she’s done comes crashing down. She’s horrified, she’s sickened, she’s angry. And in this time of spiritual anguish, she turns to her favorite hobby for a little bit of solace: reading Christian fiction.

But in the pages of the books she’s reading, she keeps encountering people who have never messed up as badly as she has. Sure, there are people who have sex outside of marriage, but they’re the bad guys. But the good guys, they know better than to have premarital sex. They’re strong. They can resist the temptation. So Cheryl is left with the message that a true Christian would never have given in the way she did and she wonders if she can ever be forgiven.

Is that the message of Christianity? That some sins are too big for God to forgive? Absolutely not! Obviously not! But when we tame down our characters’ sins and make them mild, when we don’t let our characters sin boldly, I think we wind up preaching that gospel instead of the true Gospel that no sin is bigger than Jesus. There’s nothing that can’t be undone by the death and resurrection of Christ.

Instead, we should let our characters sin boldly, not because we’re okay with sin, not because we’re trying to "sin so that grace may increase," but so we can show our readers that God’s grace is so big that it can wipe away all sin, no matter what it is. The bold sins of our characters can help us depict God’s grace all the more clearly, all the more powerfully, all the more beautifully. It’s like what Martin Luther wrote to his friend Philip Melancthon in 1521 – "Be a sinner and sin boldly, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more boldly, for He is victorious over sin, death, and the world."

Now I realize what some of you might be thinking. "If we put the ‘big sins’ in our stories, we might come across as condoning those sins and saying they’re okay." That’s not what I’m suggesting at all. I’m not saying we should condone sin. I am saying that we should be free to depict sin. We won’t condone it if we depict it properly.

That means showing the negative consequences of sin. By way of another example, let’s say we’re writing the story of a businessman named Bill. Bill is a Christian, a regular churchgoer and a good family man. But due to mounting financial problems, Bill is tempted to embezzle from the retirement funds at work. He knows not only how to do it, he can do so in a way that places the blame on someone else. He also knows that if he does, a lot of his friends will be ruined. And he knows that it’s wrong. But he’s desperate. He goes ahead with his plan. The money is soon safely tucked away in an offshore account and a guy that Bill never really liked is on the hook for the crime.

So we’ve depicted a pretty "big" sin here. What happens to Bill after the crime will determine if we’re condoning his actions or not.

If we say that Bill goes home the night after the crime and sleeps like a baby, that he and his family live high off the hog, that Bill is never caught and lives to the ripe old age of 94, never gaving what he did another thought, we’re condoning it.

But if we say that Bill is wracked with guilt afterwards, that Bill knows he’s done wrong and can’t live with himself, and finally, after finding forgiveness at the foot of the cross, turns himself in so his patsy can go free, we’re not condoning sin but we are demonstrating that God can forgive it.

So what does any of this have to do with Return of the Guardian King? I think Karen Hancock struck that delicate balance where her characters could "sin boldly" without crossing the "condoning" line.

In the first book, Light of Eidon, before Abramm becomes a Terstan, he spends a passionate night in the arms of a slave girl named Shettai. They’re not married. And Abramm doesn’t seem to think it’s that big of a deal.

At least, he doesn’t until the third book, Shadow over Kiriath. Then, as Abramm is preparing to marry Maddie, he’s suddenly overcome with guilt over what he did with Shettai many years ago. He can’t believe that Eidon has forgiven him and he tortures himself over his sin. Trap finally helps Abramm through the guilt by pointing him to Tersius’s atoning death, reminding him that Eidon’s grace is more than enough to take care of that sin.

Abramm sinned boldly. But because he also believed and rejoiced even more boldly we were given a true picture of what grace is all about.

The heart of Christian fiction shouldn’t be moralistic tales of right and wrong (do this, don’t do this, etc.). Instead, the heart of Christian fiction should be God’s heart as well; His incredible, overpowering, incredibly rich, sin-overcoming grace.

Now I’m not saying that we have to have our characters commit every imaginable sin. I’m not even saying that every hero should commit one "gigantic" sin either. Instead I think that rather than be intimidated in writing about sin, we should "sin boldly." By depicting sin realistically, by letting our characters sin boldly, by remembering that Christian characters are saints and sinners at the same time, we can demonstrate "how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ."

Or at least, that’s my two cents. Errrrr ... more like two bucks. I just realized that I’ve been writing a sermon to y’all. Danger of my chosen profession I guess.

Be sure to check out the rest of the blog tour participants:

Nissa Annakindt
Wayne Thomas Batson
Jim Black
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Frank Creed
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
D. G. D. Davidson
Chris Deanne
Janey DeMeo
April Erwin
Kameron M. Franklin
Beth Goddard
Marcus Goodyear
Rebecca Grabill
Andrea Graham
Jill Hart
Katie Hart
Sherrie Hibbs
Sharon Hinck
Christopher Hopper
Heather R. Hunt
Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Karen
Dawn King
Tina Kulesa
Lost Genre Guild
Kevin Lucia and The Bookshelf Reviews 2.0 - The Compendium
Rachel Marks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Shannon McNear
Caleb Newell
Eve Nielsen
John W. Otte
Robin Parrish
Rachelle
Cheryl Russel
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
Mirtika Schultz
James Somers
Tsaba House Authors
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Daniel I. Weaver

Oh, and if you want to read the "Sin Boldly" letter for yourself, there’s a translation at "Project Wittenberg" here. This translation is a little different than the one I used in writing this essay, but it still gets the point across.