Rachel Starr Thomson

Apologies to Nike for stealing their slogan. In their ads it was way too ambiguous (just do WHAT?), but as writing advice, it’s good advice.

Just do it. Just write. Just stop procrastinating, excuse-making, Twittering, procrastinating, reading everybody else’s work, daydreaming about writing, cleaning your desk, and procrastinating. (I know it’s redundant. Shhh. That’s for effect.)

As my dad pointed out the other day, a book is two pages a day for 100 days. Can you write two pages a day? You can if you’ll just do it. Thinking about writing results in a lot of foggy nothing. Actually writing results in words on a page — words you can edit, revise, play with, enjoy, and eventually meld into a finished project.

Thanks to Debbie Ridpath Ohi, the writer’s cartoonist, for the comic. See more comics (and a lot of other good stuff) at www.inkygirl.com.

Years ago my dad called all of his kids together and shared the Franklin-Covey system of planning with us. He asked us to write out our core values, then write out our dreams (building these on our values, not just pulling them out of thin air), our life goals, the plans we had to reach those goals, and the daily activities that would carry out those plans.

That’s a lot to ask of small children, and we were pretty bad at it. But the idea of planning and prioritizing our lives stuck with me and underlies much about the way I live now.

Last week Dad decided that it’s time to do it again, involving all of the kids who’ve been born since those long-ago days (plenty of them) and having us older ones review. I’m finding it challenging and helpful to write out what’s really important to me and the actions I want those values to lead to. I recommend trying it — if not going through the whole system, then at least writing out your core values. List them, describe them, and give an idea of what they look like in action.

It might be some of the most valuable writing you do .

Of all the amazing things the Internet has done, one of the most amazing is the way it connects readers and writers. Even I, who am hardly a critical success as an author (yet), get to post about my writing and my books, and I hear from readers and get tremendous satisfaction out of that.

Surfing author-related sites can be a great way to motivate yourself as well. I had a few minutes to surf today (like five — I could spend hours, but then I wouldn’t get any work done), and I thought I’d share my findings.

Debbie Ridpath Ohi of Inkygirl.com and other great sites posts interview scraps from children’s author Lois Lowry, including this quote: “‘Being an author’ is sort of a public thing. Being a writer is what I love.”

Jeffrey Overstreet posts only the tip of the cover for Cal-Raven’s Ladder, causing me to feel very impatient. I read Auralia’s Colors and Cyndere’s Midnight during my second CSFF blog tour (here’s one of my Cyndere posts) and am thoroughly hooked on the series, both for the story and for the sheer beauty of the writing. The covers are pretty good, too . The rest of the cover is coming later today!

The Lord’s Prayer is one of the most repeated in the world, but do we really know its richness? This summer, I helped tour a production called “Father,” exploring the themes of the prayer through music, dance, and narration. In doing so, I realized anew how desperately we need the God who is revealed in it. “Our Father,” published on Boundless.org, is a reflection on the prayer and the experience of sharing it with hurting people. You can read it here.

The narrations in “Our Father,” as in the ballet production, come from my book Heart to Heart: Meeting With God in the Lord’s Prayer. You can learn more about it on this page.

Warning: This discussion of Tom Pawlik’s Vanish will spoil a few of the surprises inherent in the book, so if you’re planning to read it (taking into account that several CSFF blgogers have classified this book as “horror,” but without gore, grossness, and gratuitous violence), you may want to skip this post. For now.

As I mentioned yesterday, I had a few issues with the ending. First, I felt it was undeserved — although many of the early details DID come together to make the ending a tight explanation of all that had gone before. Perhaps what I objected to was the role and depiction of God. For most of the book God is a distant person the characters ignore, belittle, or actively oppose. In the end, He is presented as Savior and Judge and Lord — but for that depiction to be really convincing, I would have liked to see Him as a more present character throughout.

Of course, it’s not easy to write about God as a character. That’s why I haven’t written a “Christian novel” yet. I find it so hard to write about God without being trite or unconvincing — unless I transport Him to a fantasy world. In that case, I’m not writing about God at all, but about someone who represents God — as Aslan does. In my Seventh World books (Worlds Unseen and Burning Light), Christ is represented by the King. A fantasy setting creates distance for the reader, so when the King says or does something, it’s clearly my interpretation of what God would say or do, not meant to be taken as a record of His actions the way scripture or a real-life testimony can be.

Becky Miller’s post from yesterday addresses some of these concerns:

There’s also a theological issue that comes into play. It’s one of those tough things to sort through when writing Christian speculative fiction. How much must we pay attention to theology if we are using our imagination? I’ve said before, when we write about what is real, even if it is real in the spiritual world or in Biblical history, we are obligated to stay within the bounds of that which has been revealed. Within those bounds, I think we can speculate. (For example, a story about angels must be true to what the Bible says about angels, but a lot has been left unsaid, so I think we can speculate as long as we aren’t contradicting what the Bible says).

This question of how much we can use our imagination in regards to God and what He has revealed is a question all writers must struggle with. Personally, I hesitate to set a story in the “real world” and have “God” speak in that story. All fiction is fantasy in a sense, but setting fantasy in the real world makes it more difficult to discern the difference between truth and illusion.

Near the end of Vanish, (SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!) Conner Hayden discovers that nothing he’s experienced has been really real. Chicago is not empty. No one has vanished. Aliens have not invaded. The flashbacks he experiences are brought on not by mind control but by his own memory and guilt as his brain slowly lets go — for Conner, like Mitch and Helen, is dying. They have been existing in a strange world between worlds called Interworld, where demons lurk in the shadows to drag away those who cross from “dying” into “death.”

This is very much fantasy in the real world. Could such a place really exist? If so, do dying Christians also go there — haunted and hunted by demonic creatures and their own pasts — or are they whisked away to some more paradisical version of Interworld? Had Pawlik created Interworld within a fantasy setting, I would have no trouble with it, but in our own world, I find it unconvincing and outside of God’s created order.

As Christians, we spend much of our lives battling Satan’s illusions and trying to distinguish human fantasy from God’s reality. Paradoxically, fiction can help us do this. But where are the limits? How much should we create fantasy in the real world — how helpful is it to do so, and how much might it just confuse people further?

I don’t have answers to this question. I’d love to hear your thoughts. What do you think?

Conner Hayden: divorced lawyer struggling to relate to his teenaged daughter. Mitch Kent: tattooed mechanic on the eve of proposing to his girlfriend. Helen Krause: aging career woman and lonely ex-model.

Three people with nothing in common — except that each is hiding a secret.

Thunder rumbled louder now, low and sustained. Flashes of lightning lit up the night sky. Conner went to the patio doors.

Something wasn’t right. For one thing, no rain had been predicted in the forecast he’d heard earlier. For another, this storm was rolling in from the east. Off Lake Michigan. The clouds churned and billowed like the black, acrid smoke of a chemical fire. Lightning flashed inside the billows. Long, sustained flashes of multiple hues. Red, amber, and blue.

Conner’s frown deepened. He called back into the house. “Rachel? You see this?”

. . . It rolled over the house. No more than a couple hundred feet.

Conner’s mouth went dry. This was no storm . . .

After a mysterious storm rolls over Chicago, Conner, Mitch, and Helen are forced into an unlikely alliance — for they seem to be the only people left on earth, and something in the shadows is stalking them.

Vanish is tightly plotted, tersely written, and a perfectly typecast addition to the genre of supernatural thrillers. It strikes that balance between clear and obtuse that so effectively keeps hearts racing and minds guessing — and it throws in plenty of twists to keep readers on their toes. Few of these are predictable; some are valuable. (The book’s most disturbing image deserves to linger, both for its courageous depiction of a terrible truth and for its revelation of how carefully we hide our own darkness — but enough about that.)

Pawlik’s characters are sympathetic; I was interested enough in their lives that I might have kept reading even if the supernatural hadn’t invaded, and their struggles with life and faith are real. But as in most thrillers, the plot drives this story. It doesn’t at all surprise me that it came out of a writing course (Vanish won the Operation First Novel 2006 contest, sponsored by Jerry B. Jenkins’s Christian Writers Guild). As I read, I could hear a how-to-write-a-thriller primer sounding in my head: Enter late, leave early. Use cliffhangers. Write short chapters. Hide as much as you reveal. Hooks, twists, catalysts, climaxes, strategic moments of quiet. The book is a testimony to how well these techniques can work. Pawlik uses them all deftly, and I was happy to be sucked along.

And then came the ending. To be honest, I didn’t like it — to me, it was too reminiscent of the old cop-out, “And then I woke up, and it was all a dream.”  I didn’t see it coming for a moment, which considering the genre of the book should have been a good thing — but in this case, I felt cheated.

Now that I know Vanish has a sequel, I’m inclined to be more charitable about the ending — Pawlik has set himself up to do some potentially fascinating things. By itself, Vanish is a delightfully scary, page-turning story with better-than-average insight into human nature, a lot of adrenaline, and a weak ending. If you enjoy thrillers and want a summer read with better theology than Jurassic Park, you may want to check this one out.

Over dinner recently my cousins and I got into a discussion about why anyone would read a book twice. One declared that she has never done so: “You read books to find out what happens, and once you know what happens, there’s no point in reading it again.”

Others disagreed, including me, and the whole discussion fed into another discussion I’d been having with myself all week — what makes a book a classic? What exactly does “literary” mean? I would definitely classify some of the CSFF authors I’ve reviewed as literary, notably George Bryan Polivka and Jeffrey Overstreet. And I would certainly read their work more than once.

One thing I do not believe is that all books serve the same purpose and should follow the same rules. When this month’s novel for review arrived in the mail, all misty and mysterious (it has a really cool cover), I pounced on it, mentally overjoyed, and exclaimed “Popcorn!” I was busy and tired and really didn’t want a book I had to think about. Thrillers do provoke some thought, but not the exhausting literary kind. They are best at inspiring adrenaline spikes and obsessive page-turning, but they don’t generally require much from their readers.

To some degree my first impression was right. Vanish was fun to read, light despite its heavy themes, with lots of spiky moments and pages with such wide margins and large print that I had no trouble reading it on the way to and from performances, and at other generally exhausting moments. Pawlik’s Web site says it pretty well: “If you love edge-of-your-seat thrillers with a healthy dose of the weird, the creepy, and the unknown, then jump in and hang on.”

I finished it, dissected it in conversation with my cousin, and told myself that I had been correct. This was a book that one reads to find out what happens. Now that I know, I’m not likely to read it again. The characters serve the plot rather than driving it. Vanish, I told myself, is the epitome of the stand-alone supernatural thriller. The sort of book you read once, enjoy fleetingly, and can’t imagine a sequel to.

Then the CSFF e-mail came in, and blow me down, I found out that Vanish has a sequel. Valley of the Shadow was released in May. So to some degree, I was wrong — this book is not a stand-alone, and its themes may turn out to be more enduring than popcorn. Suddenly I’m very intrigued.

Tomorrow, a proper review. Wednesday — well, I haven’t decided what I’m going to write on Wednesday. For now, check out the author’s Web site:

http://www.tompawlik.com/

Both books on Amazon:

Vanish

Valley of the Shadow

And finally, a last piece of trivia: Vanish won first place in the 2006 Operation First Novel contest sponsored by Tyndale and the Christian Writers Guild.

For some reason that makes perfect sense to me.

See what the rest of the CSFF tour bloggers have to say:

Brandon Barr
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Grace Bridges
Karri Compton
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Alex Field
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Ryan Heart
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Margaret
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Donita K. Paul
Epic Rat
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler

To end our three-day feature on fellow blogger, author, and homeschool grad Chawna Schroeder, I’m going to share a list of recommended books in the speculative fiction genre which Chawna was kind enough to share with me. The original list is actually much longer, including categories for what NOT to read — but I’m just going to share the top recommendations here. Chawna has exacting standards for book reviewing which she explains in this essay. Have a look!

For those of you who enjoyed Chawna’s essay on dark fiction yesterday, you might also want to read my own article on the subject. “Beauty and the Beast: Good, Evil, and the Art of Writing” is listed on my Articles page (near the bottom, as it’s an older one).

Without further ado, the recommended list:

A List of Speculative Fiction

Compiled by Chawna Schroeder, www.chawnaschroeder.com

Terms to Know

Mid-grade: 8-12 Tween: 10-14  Teen: 13-16 YA: 14-18 Adult: 16 and up

CBA: Christian Booksellers Association ABA: American Booksellers Assoication

*Note: This list is not exhaustive nor does it include classic fantasy by authors such as George MacDonald, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, E. Nesbit, and Madeline L’Engle, or Christian horror/supernatural thriller authors like Frank Peretti and Ted Dekker.

Title/Series     Author/Genre    Market/Availability

Recommended: Good writing, good content

The Begotten by Lisa T. Bergren    CBA

The Gifted #1     Adult Supernatural/Historical  Available

The Betrayed by Lisa T. Bergren    CBA

The Gifted #2     Adult Supernatural/Historical  Available

The Blessed by Lisa. T. Bergren    CBA

The Gifted #3     Adult Supernatural/Historical  Available

The Evidence by Austin Boyd    CBA

Mars Hill Classified #1   Adult Near-future Sci-fi  Available

The Proof by Austin Boyd    CBA

Mars Hill Classified #2   Adult Near-future Sci-fi  Available

The Return by Austin Boyd    CBA

Mars Hill Classified #3   Adult Near-future Sci-fi  Available

Raising Dragons by Bryan Davis    CBA

Dragons in Our Midst #1   Tween Techno-fantasy  Available

The Candlestone by Bryan Davis    CBA

Dragons in Our Midst #2   Tween Techno-fantasy  Available

Circles of Seven by Bryan Davis    CBA

Dragons in Our Midst #3   Tween Techno-fantasy  Available

Tears of a Dragon by Bryan Davis    CBA

Dragons in Our Midst #4   Tween Techno-fantasy  Available

The Eye of the Oracle by Bryan Davis    CBA

Oracles of Fire #1    Tween Techno-fantasy  Available

Enoch’s Ghost by Bryan Davis    CBA

Oracles of Fire #2    Tween Techno-fantasy  Available

Last of the Nephilim by Bryan Davis    CBA

Oracles of Fire #3    Tween Techno-fantasy  Available

Bones of Makaidos by Bryan Davis    CBA

Oracles of Fire #4    Tween Techno-fantasy  Available

Beyond the Reflection’s Edge by Bryan Davis    CBA

Echoes from the Edge #1   Teen Alternate Reality  Available

Eternity’s Edge by Bryan Davis    CBA

Echoes from the Edge #2   Teen Alternate Reality  Available

Trion Rising by Robert Elmer    CBA

Shadowside Trilogy #1   Tween Sci-fi/Allegory  Available

The Owling by Robert Elmer    CBA

Shadowside Trilogy #2   Tween Sci-fi/Allegory  Available

Light of Eidon by Karen Hancock    CBA

Legends of the Guardian-King #1  Adult Fantasy    Available

The Shadow Within by Karen Hancock    CBA

Legends of the Guardian-King #2  Adult Fantasy    Available

Shadow Over Kiriath by Karen Hancock    CBA

Legends of the Guardian-King #3  Adult Fantasy    Available

The Return of the Guardian-King by Karen Hancock    CBA

Legends of the Guardian-King #4  Adult Fantasy    Available

The Restorer by Sharon Hinck    CBA

The Sword of Lyric #1   Adult Alternate Reality  Available

The Restorer’s Son by Sharon Hinck    CBA

The Sword of Lyric #2   Adult Alternate Reality  Available

Restorer’s Journey by Sharon Hinck    CBA

The Sword of Lyric #3   Adult Alternate Reality   Available

Premonition by Randall Ingermanson   CBA

City of God Series #2    Adult Time-Travel/Historical  Out of Print

Retribution by Randall Ingermanson    CBA

City of God Series #3    Adult Time-Travel/ Historical Out of Print

Double Vision by Randall Ingermanson   CBA

Stand-alone novel    Adult Near-future Science-fiction Out of Print

Oxygen by Randall Ingermanson & John B. Olson CBA

Prequel to The Fifth Man   Adult Science-fiction   Out of Print

The Fifth Man by Randall Ingermanson & John B. Olson CBA

Sequel to Oxygen    Adult Science-fiction   Out of Print

Dream Thief by Stephen Lawhead    CBA

Stand-alone novel    Adult Science-fiction   Out of Print

Adrenaline by John B. Olson    CBA

Stand-alone novel    Adult Supernatural Suspense  Out of Print

Fossil Hunter by John B. Olson    CBA  Stand-alone novel    Adult Science-fiction   Available

Shade by John B. Olson    CBA

Book #1     Adult Supernatural Suspense  Available

Auralia’s Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet    CBA

Auralia’s Threads #1    Adult Fantasy    Available

Cyndere’s Midnight by Jeffrey Overstreet    CBA

Auralia’s Threads #2    Adult Fantasy    Available

DragonSpell by Donita K. Paul    CBA

Dragon Keeper Chronicles #1   Tween Fantasy   Available

DragonQuest by Donita K. Paul    CBA

Dragon Keeper Chronicles #2   Tween Fantasy   Available

DragonKnight by Donita K. Paul    CBA

Dragon Keeper Chronicles #3   Tween Fantasy   Available

DragonFire by Donita K. Paul    CBA

Dragon Keeper Chronicles #4   Tween Fantasy   Available

DragonLight by Donita K. Paul    CBA

Dragon Keeper Chronicles #5   Tween Fantasy   Available

The Bark of the Bog Owl by Jonathan Rogers    CBA

Wilderking Trilogy #1   Mid-grade Fantasy/Bible Retelling Available

The Secret of the Swamp King by Jonathan Rogers    CBA

Wilderking Trilogy #2   Mid-grade Fantasy/Bible Retelling Available

The Way of the Wilderking by Jonathan Rogers    CBA

Wilderking Trilogy #3   Mid-grade Fantasy/Bible Retelling Available

Firebird: A Trilogy by Kathy Tyers    CBA

All three books of  the Firebird Trilogy Adult Science-fiction   Out of Print

Firebird by Kathy Tyers    CBA

Firebird Trilogy #1    Adult Science-fiction   Out of Print

Fusion Fire by Kathy Tyers    CBA

Firebird Trilogy #2    Adult Science-fiction   Out of Print

Crown of Fire by Kathy Tyers    CBA

Firebird Trilogy #3    Adult Science-fiction   Out of Print

Shivering World by Kathy Tyers    CBA

Stand-alone novel    Adult Science-fiction   Out of Print

One Mind’s Eye by Kathy Tyers    ABA

Stand-alone novel    Adult Science-fiction   Out of Print

The Shadow and the Night by Chris Walley    CBA

The Lamb Among the Stars #1  YA Science-fiction/Apocalypse Available

The Shadow at Evening by Chris Walley    CBA

Part 1 of The Shadow and the Night YA Science-fiction/Apocalypse Available

The Power of the Night by Chris Walley    CBA

Part 2 of The Shadow and the Night YA Science-fiction/Apocalypse Available

The Dark Foundations by Chris Walley    CBA
The Lamb Among the Stars #2  YA Science-fiction/Apocalypse Available

The Infinite Day by Chris Walley    CBA

The Lamb Among the Stars #3  YA Science-fiction/Apocalypse Available

By Darkness Hid by Jill Williamson    CBA

Stand alone?     YA Fantasy    Available

Darkness In Fiction: How Dark Is Too Dark?

by Chawna Schroeder

Read more of Chawna’s essays on her Soapbox page.

Evil exists.

We might want to ignore it. We might want to hide from it. We even might want to deny its power completely. But open a newspaper, flip on the television or click into the internet, and we are reminded once again how very real evil is.

No, the problem is not whether evil exists. The problem is what to do with it, both in life and in fiction.

Is Evil Permissible?

God is holy. He cannot stand any sin or any evil, from the tiniest lie to the worst mass murder. Anything that carries even a smudge of such darkness is, under normal circumstances (see Job 1 and 2 for an exception), banished from His presence.

Therefore, shouldn’t Christian fiction reflect this?

Of course. But that doesn’t mean we should banish the evil from our stories. Putting aside the fact that such a void would cause the story to ring untrue, we rather must consider how we incorporate and portray the darkness. For even God didn’t fail to include the stories of the Fall, Abraham’s lies, David’s adultery, or Judas’s betrayal in Scripture.

But just because evil or sin is acknowledged, a novel isn’t necessarily dark. So what about dark fiction makes it dark?

When Evil Takes Over

God is light (1 John 1:5). Therefore, the darkness must be the antithesis of Him. So a “dark” book would be a novel where there is more darkness—those things opposite of God—than the light, the attributes of God. So in the simplest terms, a dark story is where evil or the attributes of Satan (e.g. despair, deception, death) dominates the story.

Again, a question arises: does that make it wrong?Not necessarily. For evil is strong—often more than we want to admit—and sometimes (dare I say often?) it appears to be the ruling force. Since fiction is to mimic reality, such a world must be portrayed occasionally.

Moreover, how can we show the power of God and hope in Him, one of Christian fiction’s primary goals, if we don’t show the darkness? For no one hopes for what he already has (Romans 8:24). Accordingly, God provided us Judges and Revelation, two very dark books filled with hope and the comfort of His Sovereignty.

So How Dark is Too Dark?

Ah, we’ve reached the core of this issue. It’s a hard question, one I’ve wrestled with many months as my writing has taken me to a level of darkness I did not want to go.

On one hand, it is an individual matter, based on personality, experience, maturity, and amount of immersion.

Because I am an introspective person with an overactive imagination, my tolerances for darkness are very low. I cannot read Peretti or Dekker, even though I know they’re both good authors with much of value to say. But my personality makes them wrong for me.

Likewise, the age will make a difference. For an extreme example, it isn’t wrong to write or read about rape—unless the intended reader is eight years old. That level of evil is inappropriate for that age. And this is one reason I struggled with the darkness level in recently release Christian YA novel, The Book of Names. The level felt too strong for the majority of the intended readership.

The other factors, experiences and immersion, also affect this. If you read only dark fiction, you’ve probably become desensitized on a level that requires withdrawal from such books, making them wrong for you. And if you are in the midst of difficult times, especially those evoking emotional distress, such fiction could prey on you, causing more damage than healing.

That all said, there must be a concrete line, for some books irrevocably cross it, no matter the personality, maturity, immersion level, or experiences of the reader.

Where’s the Line?

Like so much in life, it all comes down to balance. If the darkness is strong, the light ultimately must be shown as stronger. To do otherwise is to break moral law (those spiritual truths written into the universe much like the law of gravity—as what goes up must come down, so the one who sins must die). For God is always the strongest, and in the end, He always wins. Books that even imply differently lie and therefore cross the line.

But a direct lie is not the only way to cross the line. There are several other things that create a gray zone around the line. Walk too near the edge with too many factors, and they will push you over the edge, just like too much weight and erosion on a cliff causes it to crumble. So these things must be considered:

Does the evil appear most powerful? For in reality, light is always stronger: no amount of darkness can extinguish a flame, no matter how small.

Is there a reasonable hope? Evil always has chinks in its armor, and if we can see these, hope and light are ignited. But if they remain hidden, a lie of evil’s strength is told.

Is the evil internal or external? External evil is easier to cope with (and therefore does not seem as dark) because it is based on experiences which few of us have experienced. But internal or psychological evil—now that is a reality we all deal with daily, making the evil and its power more real and personal. However, the darkest place is a combo of the two, for it gives evil the advantage, again promoting the idea that it is strongest.

Are good and evil confused? I’m speaking of the values here, not a good side vs. a evil side. For heroes can have flaws and villains virtues if they are presented as what they are. It is when flaws are called virtues and virtues flaws that trouble comes.

Is evil portrayed as an only option, whether for hero or villain? This is a common lie in our culture, but all of us always have a choice.

Are there shafts of light? Small victories go a long way in breaking up the darkness; it reveals the chinks in evil’s armor. Humor also helps, for it defies the hopelessness that darkness has won.

So while Dekker and Peretti are dark, they have counterbalanced it (I have heard) with humor, externalizing most of the evil, and an ending so filled with light and hope that the darkness of the previous pages receded. And yes, Two Towers and Return of the King are dark, but humor, small victories, a clear line of good and evil, the chink of Mt. Doom and the resulting reasonable hope, and the offers of redemption for even the villains (only possible if light is stronger) reminds us of the power of the light.

And this is where I felt The Book of Names failed. The intent was good without a doubt. The author never intended to cross a line, I feel. But the execution of the story was faulty: it walks too close to the edge on too many issues without the proper counterbalance.

The line between good and evil magic is too blurry. Victories are small and shallow; even the climax victory is defused with the body’s disappearance and the following murder of Chapter 47. Darkness dominates both externally and internally (both heroes and villains), making the already powerful evil more potent. And most of all, not enough hope is provided. Not enough chinks are known to the reader, few to none to the heroes, and even the mention of Tal Yassen at the end is insufficient from lack of set up and information.

No one of these would have sunk the book. But all these together create an evil too powerful with chinks too few and a solid, reasonable hope too weak. This, combined with the target readership and the fact that series tend to get darker before lighter, caused me grave concern.

Of course, there’s always hope I’ll be proven wrong. )

About Chawna Schroeder

Chawna Schroeder spends her days working as a professional liar, better known to most people as a novelist. She loves spinning stories and fabricating fantastical tales about characters caught between two worlds—not to mention fiction writing provides the easiest explanation for her imaginary friends. Otherwise people tend to look strangely at a 20-something adult conversing with invisible people.

When Chawna isn’t working or meeting other novelists’ imaginary friends, you can usually find her pouring over her studies in biblical Greek and Hebrew. She has studied both languages under a seminary-trained pastor for several years and has done some teaching of the Greek and Hebrew.

Since she doesn’t have a split-personality (despite what family members and friends may contend), these duel passions for fiction and Scripture must share the same mind and therefore often collide. Sometimes that’s not a problem; fiction and Scripture meet and part on congenial terms. But at other times they get into a fight. So what is a writer to do? Write, of course!

So Chawna posts three times a week on her blog, Imagination Investigation www.chawnaschroeder.blogspot.com. There she explores the boundaries of fiction and faith, reviews books, and talks about the occupation of writing.

Not convinced that you trust this strange person named Chawna Schroeder? Stop by www.chawnaschroeder.com to find out more about her and the stories she writes, or contact her directly at imaginationinvestigation@yahoo.com

I met Chawna Schroeder online during the CSFF Blog Tour for Blaggard’s Moon. She had mentioned taking fantasy books to a homeschool conference; intrigued, I asked her for more information on what she does. It turns out we have a lot in common! Chawna is a homeschool graduate who writes fantasy and science fiction (her novel Metamorphosis won the ACFW’s Genesis Competition in 2008 in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Speculative category). But she’s also involved in the literary world in another, unique way.

About me–well, I was homeschooled from fourth grade through high school, and during late high school as I started weighing college options, decided that I wanted to become a novelist. After attending a small local writing conference and joining a local guild, I decided that pursuing a degree in literature or English or such would gain me more debt than help. So with my parents’ support, I skipped college and pursued an education in writing through writing conferences, books, and three 2-year correspondence courses.

During some of those writing conferences, I heard it mentioned again and again that there was no way to tap the homeschool market and those who could learn to break into that market would earn major points with a publisher. I don’t know that last part is true, but being a homeschooler with a slightly rebellious streak, I decided I would take a whack at cracking that market. I did some brainstorming with my older sister, who now homeschools her three kids, and a few ideas resulted.

I can’t say that I’ve “cracked” the market — I think there are many others who may be doing a much better job of that than me — but I decided to do some experimenting nonetheless. I love sci-fi and fantasy. Many Christians, including (dare I say especially?) homeschoolers, either fear that genre or don’t know that Christian sci-fi and fantasy exists. The best way to introduce them to it is through a recommendation of someone they trust. My sister’s local Christian homeschooler conference is small and needed vendors. And so the current project was born.

Over the next few months, I hope to feature several young authors and other literati on Inklings. Chawna is the first. Today, I want to share more about her “current project.” Tomorrow, I’ll post Chawna’s essay on dark fiction, which has some great thoughts about the way we portray evil in writing. And on Friday, we’ll wrap up with Chawna’s recommended list of Christian fantasy. In the meantime, check out her Web site here (including sample pages from Metamorphosis and two other novels) and explore her blog, Imagination Investigation.

Chawna’s story continues:

I gathered up my personal collection of Christian sci-fi and fantasy, picking out only what I considered the best, since I know how picky homeschoolers can be about the quality both in content and craft. I wrote a couple of essays on my views of fiction, fantasy, and how that intersects with the Christian faith for free handouts on my table. I printed out the book reviews I had done. Then I headed out, stood behind a table, and talked to anyone whose attention I could capture.

My finances are quite limited, so I’ve only been able to vendor a few smaller conferences thus far, and I can’t say that I’ve been all that successful. Nevertheless, in these two short years, I developed a real passion for talking to homeschoolers (and Christians in general) about not only about sci-fi/fantasy, but also about the Scriptural foundation for it and the Scriptural foundation for balanced discernment in fictional media overall.

I find many Christians, even those who are discerning and thoughtful in other arenas, become somewhat arbitrary and inconsistent on why it’s okay to read this book but not watch that movie, or vice versa. Story is powerful and does impact, so we need to be careful what we put into our mind and hearts. But reading only morality stories or books labeled as “Christian” isn’t usually healthy either — especially since many seem to turn off their discernment at that point. That is more dangerous than reading the secular with discernment. Rather, I recommend reading with guidelines, built on Scripture and moderated by maturity and personal limitations. But I’m letting my passion run away with me.

Anyway, for the moment, I continue to seek out conferences where I can vendor and speak. At least, I’m now seeking spots to do some speaking, even if only for a 45-minute vendor’s workshop. Not many doors have opened in that arena yet–much less for the all-day seminar on discernment in fictional media that I’d love to do–but I keep looking.

That’s it for today. Coming tomorrow: “Darkness in Fiction: How Dark Is Too Dark?”