April 16, 2012 Leave a Comment

Having A Hard Time Getting Started?

Strength for the Quest

You’ve had those mornings, haven’t you? When the engine doesn’t rev. The coffee doesn’t perk. The brain cells don’t spark. And the hamster refuses to climb onto the wheel. Why are so many of those days Monday?

I keep signs and quotes around me to remind me of things I tend to forget in the crush of deadlines and the urgency of the immediate. One of my favorite fiction writing quotes is from bestselling author Dean Koontz — 

TORTURE THE READER TO THE END

A favorite quote from J. Wolfgang von Goethe reminds me to press forward toward my life goal of telling inspirational stories — 

Lose this day loitering, ‘twill be the same story
Tomorrow, and the rest more dilatory. 
Thus indecision brings its own delays,
And days are lost tormenting over days.
Are you in earnest? Seize this very minute;
What you can do, or dream you can, begin it;
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it;
Only engage, and then the mind grows heated;
Begin, and then the work will be completed. 

Time to get to work. 

STRENGTH FOR THE QUEST
Because Life Is More Than A Journey

 

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April 13, 2012 Leave a Comment

Stretching Fictional Muscles

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A FEW YEARS AGO I participated in a writing exercise with some friends, just for fun. Each of us was given the following outline with instructions to write a scene in our given genre. Mine was historical. Here's what we were given—

A man walks into a room occupied by two women. One he loves, one he hates. He utters one line, then exits. One of the women then follows him.

Years earlier I'd read about a rather dubious honor related to the burial of Egyptian royalty. I'd jotted the information down in my notebook thinking it might someday make a good scene. Pairing the research with the outline, here's the story I wrote—

 

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April 11, 2012 2 Comments

The Quote That Inspired A Novel

Behind the Pages
THE PURITANS HAS BEEN by far my bestselling novel. Although I wrote it nearly twenty years ago, I still remember the quote that proved to be the inspiration for the novel’s plot— 

Drew Morgan dreamed of becoming a world-renowned knight, long after the days of knighthood had vanished. He dreamed of fame, adulation, and glory. His dream was nearly his undoing. 

The quote that inspired the story? 

Speaking to a graduating class at McGill University, Rudyard Kipling advised the graduates not to care too much for money or power or fame. He said, “Someday you will meet a man who cares for none of these things, and then you will know how poor you are.” 

The story of Drew Morgan hinges on the small English village of Edenford where he was sent to uncover an underground publisher of seditious pamphlets. If he was successful, he’d achieve his dream of fame and glory for the Crown. But in Edenford, he met a man . . . . 

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To read more about The Puritans click here

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April 9, 2012 Leave a Comment

Novels Spark Revival In USSR

Strength for the Quest
I’m sure the author wouldn’t want to hear this, but for me the most memorable part of his book was a footnote— 

The footnote told how, in the 1970s, journalist Malcolm Muggeridge was interviewing Anatoly Kuznetsov, a Russian writer who had defected to England from the USSR. Muggeridge surprised to hear that a spiritual revival was taking place in the Soviet Union. This was at a time when virtually all Christian books, including the Bible, were banned by the Communist government. But according to Kuznetsov, there was hardly a writer or artist or musician who was not exploring spiritual faith. 

What was sparking the revival? 

Kuznetsov explained that while the Russian authorities suppressed all Christian writings, they dare not suppress the works of the great Russian novelists, Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, and that through their novels people were reading perfect expositions of the Christian faith, resulting in widespread spiritual revival. 

On a personal note, early in my professional career I observed how story was able to portray spiritual truth in a powerful, memorable way. People remembered the stories I told long after they forgot the lesson. It was this observation that lead me to begin writing fiction. 

I’ve staked my professional career on the fact that good fiction is life-changing fiction. 

STRENGTH FOR THE QUEST
Because Life Is More Than A Journey

_________________________

INTERESTED IN REVIVAL? For revivals in America, see my Great Awakenings novels

Click here: Great Awakenings

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April 6, 2012 Leave a Comment

The Making of C.S. Lewis

CslewisIF CHRISTIAN PUBLISHING has a patron saint, it is probably C.S. Lewis. The man is revered for both his non-fiction writing and his fiction. His Mere Christianity has been read by millions of devotional readers; his Chronicles of Narnia has thrilled millions of fiction readers; and his The Allegory of Love: A Study in Medieval Tradition is still used in academic study.

Years ago when I wrote Postmarked Heaven, a series of letters penned by four believers in heaven to people still living on earth, the bookstores didn’t know on which shelf to place it. The letters were devotional in nature, but they were written by fictional characters. Should the book be placed with the devotional books or in the fiction section? I said, “In a way, it’s similar to C.S. Lewis’s Screwtape Letters. On which shelf do you place it?” Their reply? “On the C.S. Lewis shelf.” 

To what does C.S. Lewis attribute his prodigious output of writing?

 

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