MY BROTHER THE KING

MY BROTHER THE KING

Their time is marked by oppression, their home by conflict. Within a humble Nazareth dwelling, four siblings share a secret. Their people pray for a freedom fighter who will shake off their bondage - the great M'sheekha. But he's already here, and he's not who anyone expected. 

Take a journey into the stories of the brothers and sisters of Jesus. Ponder the experience of growing up in the same house as God. Follow him on the road of ministry. Stand back and see him give his life - a ransom for many. 

Even the ones who didn't believe.


Nearly fifteen years ago, I knew I wanted to tell the story of Jesus through a fresh perspective. I didn't realize the long road ahead, and the many tries and failures over the years to get it right.

What my vague original idea became was the story of four Jewish siblings, Ya'achov, Y'hud, Talia and Hannah, sons and daughters of Joseph and Mary of Nazareth. They are as common and poor as the lowest of their time and place, with one exception. Their brother is the promised king.

What would have Jesus's childhood home looked like? Would it be peaceful because Jesus lived there? Perfect? Idyllic?

The more I thought about it, the more research I did into that society, the more certain I was that it couldn't have been that way. Jesus wasn't there to do what his people expected. Jesus wasn't about following the rules. Jesus was radical. And to a lowly Jewish household and community, he stood out too much. The Bible clearly explains that he had enemies ... even in his own family.

So these many years later, I am ready to share their story. I hope it will inspire you to go back to Scripture with your heart engaged, ready to see Jesus for who he was and is. Not so much the wise, compassionate teacher sitting out on the hill, but the revolutionary, bleeding divine blood up the hill of Calvary to buy the freedom of an entire universe.

Let's not think of him as any less than what he really is, even if it scares us, even if it isn't comfortable. Let's meet him at that hill and see what he is able to do in us as a result.

Let us not live in unbelief any longer.

MY BROTHER THE KING is available in print or electronically for your phone, kindle or computer. Please don't forget to leave your review on Amazon. It doesn't have to be long, but the more reviews there are, the easier it will be for potential readers to find it. Find it HERE.

Advanced Quick Tips for Writers

If you know that glorious moment when you write THE END on the final page of your novel, you know that after the high wears off, you have more work to do.

Writing the rough draft is an act of complete creativity. All of your soul should be poured into those 70,000 - 100,000 words you've typed into your computer. Now it's time to take a surgical knife to your soul.

This isn't as scary as it sounds. You're not trimming the parts that will someday make you an example of genius in literature. You're cutting the stuff that distracts people from really experiencing your unique voice.

The greatest writer in the world will still have these problems in a rough draft. Even though I've noticed I have less to edit as the years go by, I still have plenty. And if I'm not convinced it's there, my editor is always happy to point it out! :)

These are four tips with examples that will give you a polished, professional edge with your manuscript:

1. DON'T BE PASSIVE
2. LOOK FOR "WAS"
3. NO CLICHES!
4. GIVE A POSITIVE SPIN

Look at the examples in the illustration for more info. Remember, you aren't cutting your genius moments. But you do want to edit out the parts that whisper of amateur. And you want to cut anything that doesn't change or define the plot or characters.

Happy writing!

Where We Belong is available now in print!

Where We Belong is available in print or Kindle
amazon.com

I'll let you in on a little secret, Where We Belong is available TODAY in print! (Official release is September 1, 2015.) You can order your copy today for 12.99 or preorder your Kindle version for 4.99.

Enjoy!

Reforming Christian Fiction

I've started calling myself an "outside-the-box" author of Christian historical romance. But what does that mean? And why does it matter?

I recently wrote this post asking the question "Are you reading the wrong Christian fiction?" and I was encouraged by the response it received on Facebook. Maybe I'm not the only one standing alone on my soapbox, and there are more of you out there who are dissatisfied with the state of our stories.

Recently I read the blog post of a nineteen-year-old young woman who claimed she had stopped reading Christian fiction, especially romances, and one of the reasons she cited was that they were often blatantly inappropriate.

While I believe it is important for women to find the genre best suited to them, and what a nineteen-year-old and a woman in mid-life might think appropriate are two different things, she has a point. Any fiction that causes women to be dissatisfied with their husband (or their vision of what a husband might someday be) because of the "perfect" image of a hero in a romance, is not appropriate and should be avoided. But what the young woman doesn't realize is that there are some pretty complicated reasons why this is happening, and changing things is not going to be an easy, overnight process. But she's right about one thing.

We HAVE to stop buying or even just reading fiction that doesn't measure up to the standards we should have for our literature.

I say this with trepidation as an author, because I know I am putting myself on notice. It is one of my passions to pass along this commitment of reform to other authors. I can see that some of the authors I used to enjoy have "sold out" under the pressure of the demands of traditional agents and publishers. I know by my dealings with some of the people on the inside that it really doesn't matter what kind of writer a person is. If they aren't willing to cave to the formula expected (that will make money), they have no future in traditional publishing.

I believe we are on the edge of a new way of doing things. I firmly believe that agents and publishers have readers wrong. They are convinced that what we want as readers is what we are getting, because that's how they are making money. But I don't think it's necessarily the truth anymore.

Right now, this new way of doing things and thinking about Christian fiction is largely unorganized and haphazard. But it's time for us to roll up our sleeves and get to it. So what is a practical place to start for all of us as readers? For me, and others like me, as authors?

What I promise as a reader of Christian fiction:

I promise to be thoughtful in my reading choices, to raise my standards to those that bring me closer to Christ, and to have a voice in this reforming process happening right now.

This means we promise to stop reading or buying books that don't change us. That contain fairy-tale notions of romance that give us unrealistic expectations of our own lives. We agree that literature is critical to our thought-developing process, and important to our state of being. We promise to be open to new ideas, new genres, new authors and new ways of obtaining our stories.

We promise to find the authors that are writing with their whole heart and ability, for the glory of God, and help them get the word out, because they are doing it all themselves and cannot hope to succeed without the aid of readers.

What I promise as an author of Christian fiction:

I promise to write with my whole heart and all my ability, for the glory of Christ.

This means, ultimately, I promise not to write what pleases me, or what pleases other people, but what pleases Christ. I promise to edit carefully, with every resource, perspective and tool I can reasonably obtain. I promise not to let a book reach your hands before I have prayed over it and prayed for you, its readers. I promise first to have sculpted and shaped it, listened carefully to the perspective of other knowledgeable writers and readers, and changed what must be changed.

It doesn't mean you won't find a typo or two, or an awkward sentence here or there. I don't have all the resources of traditional publishing to ensure a perfect look and feel. But I will use my perfectionist tendencies to make sure you don't regret buying a book I have written. (Or getting it free on kindle once in awhile!) :)

This doesn't mean it will be written in the same style as the traditionally published books. After all, that's the point of reform. I consider very deeply what readers want, but it is not my highest authority. Sometimes we don't know what we want until we get it. And we don't all respond to the same things. From me, you will usually get something that pushes the edges of genres. I love romance, and I love historical, but not at the expense of a bit of mystery, adventure and maybe even a sprinkling of supernatural.

I love authors who look at things in a more detailed way, leaning in and focusing a bit more on any given scene. I want to explore what the characters might be thinking and feeling as they move through the story. This is one of the reasons I didn't fit in the traditionally published world, because the demand of the mysterious masses is that authors rush through a story as efficiently as possible so that everyone can be on their way. Don't get me wrong, I know we're all busy! I keep our shorter attention spans in mind when I write, and I try not to waste words. But I am searching for readers who would love to open the box with me and climb out to see the possibilities. I'm writing for the curious, for the imaginative, for the thinkers and feelers, and for the explorers. That person that sits for an hour staring at a painting, trying to unlock every secret, and who hates to get up and leave when the art museum closes? That's the reader I'm looking for.

My promise also doesn't mean that you will always agree with everything I write in a story. If you did, it wouldn't be much of a book. The purpose of art is to help us see different perspectives. To make us a little uncomfortable as we consider something we wouldn't have considered on our own. (Think about how disturbing a picture some of the Bible's stories paint for us!) A writer's job is to tell a story that communicates something - some idea important to understanding the nature of God or the nature of man. But I will make it my goal to present possibly bigger ideas in entertaining and fun ways.

I hope this post has inspired both readers and authors of Christian fiction. I hope we can all move toward a better place in order that we can all have a bigger impact for Christ.

What about you? What are you reading? What are you writing? What authors come to mind when you think about these things?

Why I Don't do NaNoWriMo

If you're not a writer or you haven't ever contemplated writing, you probably have no idea what NaNoWriMo is. You are excused from reading further.

If you are contemplating it or are busy getting ready for it, the purpose of this article is not to discourage you. I do not believe NaNoWriMo is evil or even bad. If it helps you get writing, and you are supposed to be writing, then it's a good thing for you. 

I'm only here to tell you why I've never done it or seriously considered it. You will probably be in one of two camps reading this. Either you will stridently agree (less likely) or you will be indignant with disagreement. I've never been the type of writer who fits the norm. I'm not the diligent and organized fiction writer who sits down with my neatly typed outline and writes my daily 500-2,000 words without a moment of angst or indifference.

I'm the writer who, even if she writes an outline, will almost always deviate so far from it that it's ridiculous to even attempt one. I'm the writer who has a mess of hurriedly scribbled notes and thoughts and research piled on the desk and beside it and littered around the rest of the house. I'm the writer who will stare desperately at the screen for two hours without writing a word, and the next day will feverishly write 10,000 words or more. I'm the writer who eats, sleeps, and dreams stories and words and adventures and aches to get them recorded so other people can share them. I'm the writer who hates the details, the business, the money. I would rather just write every waking moment.

And that is probably why the idea of a month to write one novel goes against my grain. To me, a novel begins in the recesses of my imagination where some image of a piece of art or words of a song or another story I read or saw causes some spark that ignites. It simmers for months or years. It slowly takes shape as I consider the characters and their desires and fears. Only when I am sure of who they are do I dare to begin to write. And from there, I may indeed write their story in a month or two. But it is far from done. That is where the real work begins of shaping and molding the words into something pleasing and good.

That's the problem I have with the extreme excess of published books we have available. They're written too fast, they follow the same formula and lose the precious tone of the true writer's voice. They may be neat and orderly and follow all the rules, but they don't pose any questions, they don't spark any imagination or inspire any beauty.

If you have a burning desire within you to release the pressure of your exploding imagination through the avenue of a novel, you should. But do it the way you need to in order for it to be your true work of greatness. Don't just follow the rules, do your duty for November and then never think of it again. If you CAN do that, I would question why you are even doing it in the first place.

Not everyone needs to write. If you don't need to, why clutter up an already congested world of books? Let's make sure we aren't wasting our lives doing something that is someone else's job. Find your passion, find what makes you soar, and do THAT. You'll never regret it.

For me, it's writing. And for me, it could never be contained by a month or a plan.

4 Obstacles to Indie Publishing

Speaking as a brand-new Indie author, this painting by Edward Munch is a great description of how I feel when I researching the process.

But the more I know, the more excited I get. The more I knew about traditional publishing over the years, the more frustrated and anxious I got. I spent years trying to get the attention of agents. A few sent criticism, sometimes harsh. A few sent form letters. Most never responded at all. 

When I finally began a relationship with a reputable agent, I was excited. She liked the story, just wanted a few minor changes. I did them, in record time, and waited months for her to respond. She requested a manuscript. She wanted the 90,000 word book printed out and sent to her. I did it quickly and waited months. She wrote a note on one of the pages that she liked it but it needed more changes and a professional edit. I did the changes, had the manuscript edited and printed out the whole thing again. And I was truly happy for her help. Her advice did make the story stronger. But after a year had passed since the original query, she sent another barely legible note on the back of a page that she now wanted me to take out everything but the romance. All my character development, the mystery and the adventure, the PLOT, basically, had to go. As it was, it wouldn't make enough money.

I was floored. Apparently, that's what it takes to sell a book traditionally. I don't necessarily blame the agent for requiring it, but the more I thought about it and discussed it with my editor, the more sure I was that I couldn't be that kind of author. The kind of story she wanted my book to be is the kind of book I think should be banned from the shelves. There are too many of them. They don't challenge the reader, they don't have depth or art. And from the women I've talked to, everyone is kind of tired of them. 

So Indie it is. But I quickly noticed in my new quest that there are some serious obstacles to Indie Publishing as well. 

1. It's hard to find.

I've been trying to find Indie authors who write the same types of genres as I do. (Christian Historical Romance.) So far I haven't found any viable options for me to read and support. There are quite a few smutty romances and not a little science fiction, but Christian Indie authors seem to be lagging behind. 

2. Everything is lumped together.

To me, Indie publishing feels like a huge room filled nearly to the top with books. All of them are screaming to be read. It's loud, it's unorganized, and when you step in the room you're a little afraid of drowning in them. You pick a few up, but quickly realize that there is no difference between the author who has carefully rewritten and edited their work, seeking the advice and editing of others and taking the time to actually learn how to write, and the folks who just have too much time on their hands and spent more time designing the cover than fixing their spelling and plot holes. And let's face it, most of the books are not the edited kind. 

There are a few things to provide a solution, such as Kirkus reviews, but for the Indie author who has to buy photo editing software, professional editing and other programs to turn a word document into a book, it gets pricey. Hopefully as time goes on, there will be more accountability and ways to determine whether an Indie read is worth the time or not.

3. The need to spend time building followers on social media versus the need to have time to spend writing.

Writers write. I've written my entire life, it's just a part of me and the same as thinking to my brain. Now that I've trained to write in a manner that will be useful to others, I can't just sit back on my laurels. I have to labor over the words over and over until they are just right, and that takes months and years. The social media circus is an absolutely necessary but daunting frustration to the time I wish I could spend working. And it's not just Indie authors who have this problem. Traditionally published authors are also expected to form an outrageous following before they even have a single book available.

I believe this is a big part of why we have the formulaic, cookie cutter stories that turned me away from traditional publishing. No one is allowed to be different, to express their own voice and to write for a more modest niche of people who will enjoy exactly the books they write. The only ones free to do this are the fortunate few who have had the success stories most authors will only ever dream of. And I just don't think it's right to limit art to such a narrow (boring) avenue.

4. Art as a business.

The truth of it for me, is that I don't care if I ever make money writing. I would like to cover my costs, but what is absolutely essential to me is finding readers who will get something out of my work. Unfortunately, in reality, the two are linked in our culture and it's difficult to see an alternative.

What do you think? Have you read any Indie authors you would recommend? Are you a Christian Indie author who is interested in working together? Anyone have any tips about social media? Please speak up and share your thoughts, we're here to learn from each other.

And please follow me! If you are interested in reading more posts like the recent ones, I plan to document my journey to Indie publishing over the next year before my novel Where We Belong is released in September of 2015. I'd appreciate your follows and shares. Thanks!