Rachel Starr Thomson

There’s nothing like importance to bring on total professional paralysis.

The Advent, let there be rejoicing, is shaping up really well in outline form just now; I think it’s finally done bursting out in useless fits and starts and is shaping into a story. But part of its difficulty getting to this point is that it feels important: it’s the end of a series, it deals with heavy issues, I want it to be really good.

All this week I’ve been struggling with paralysis in another area.

I’m going to a Writers Digest Conference in September, and all attendees get to submit something ahead of time for use in a 15-minute critique with an editor. Ten attendees will be chosen to meet with an agent as well, on the strength of their submission. We have a few options, and two are relevant to me.

1. A query letter for a finished novel.
2. A self-published book.

I have both — a query for Angel in the Woods, and of course Worlds Unseen and Burning Light in book form. The conference is unusual in that it addresses marketing and other concerns for both self- and traditionally published authors, and a few of the sessions will address transitioning from one to the other.

What would YOU have submitted?

I mulled this choice for days and finally decided to send a query for Angel. The biggest factor in that decision? IF something crazily wonderful was to happen and the materials I submit were to catch the attention of an agent or editor and actually lead to publication (a big, REALLY BIG “if,” I know), I’ll be happiest if The Advent can keep on its current trajectory without interruption.

Anyway, I sent the query about an hour ago. The paralysis of importance is over; now is the hour of the potential agony of regret :). Who knew freelancing was such emotionally fraught work?

I’ve heard it said that every writer has two books: the one in his head, and the one that ends up on paper. CSFF Blogger Julie did an interview with Robin Parrish in which he says,

There was also a desire on my part to do a story that was totally character-driven. The Dominion Trilogy was a blast to write, but the most common feedback I got about it was that it was very plot-driven. Not that that’s a bad thing, necessarily, but the most resonant and emotional stuff does usually come from character-driven storytelling. I wanted to prove that I could do both, so I’m very pleased with the fact that Offworld is entirely driven by these very three-dimensional characters and their needs, emotions, and decisions.

Question is, did it work? I think yes. Lyn of ResAliens agrees:

The author’s strength is character driven stories – good people with angst set in compelling situations with enough reality based conflict to give the fantastical elements of the story their appeal. I like spec fic but I like good characters and story telling best. And Parrish delivers.

The process of writing is a struggle to form a vision so clear you can put it into words; to find words so perfect they express the vision. Offworld has inspired a lot of people to ask whether Christian fiction should be more overtly Christian, whether sci-fi ought to include more sci-, whether car chases really belong in a novel and not on a screen. Perhaps because I’m incurably nosy about creative processes, I find myself asking other questions: Did the author tell the story he wanted to tell? Did he get those car chases on paper, or are they still blazing through his head somewhere, unable to be truly expressed in words?

I enjoyed Julie’s interview and especially Parrish’s comment about wanting to prove that he could write two kinds of stories. That’s the kind of challenge that excites me as a writer: Can I cross that horizon? Can I conquer that territory? The answer is always “I hope so — let’s see.”

For me, a major horizon is expressing my Christian faith through fiction. I write nonfiction articles on faith all the time, but I shy away from triteness with all my soul, and I can’t seem to express Christianity in fiction without being trite. Fantasy fiction is the closest I can come, as I can explore and express the supernatural with such abandon. Someday I want to write a “real-life” novel about faith, just to prove I can — to myself as much as to anyone else.

This post wraps up the CSFF Blog Tour for Offworld. Check out the list of other posters on Becky Miller’s blog, and leave a comment here. I’ll be giving away a copy of Robin Parrish’s book next week, so check back!

Six months out, six months back, two years on the surface of Mars. For dedicated astronauts, scientists, and adventurers, three years is just enough time to accomplish the greatest expedition in the history of mankind — but it’s also a long time away from home.

Christopher Burke shares his teammates’ eagerness to get home, home to a hero’s welcome, to family, to real food. When their ship, the Ares, loses contact with Houston several months before the return voyage ends, they figure it’s just a computer glitch onboard. Then comes the swirling black void spotted just before entering orbit, the system failure, the plummeting death of the Ares with its astronauts saved against all odds by an automated landing program at the Cape.

Then the emptiness.

Every man, woman, child, and animal on earth has disappeared.

Determined to find out what has happened, Chris and his team borrow a couple of offroad vehicles and hit the freeways of the southern U.S., dodging pile-ups of empty cars as they journey toward Houston — source of a brilliant beam of light, and, they hope, of the answers they need. On the way they rescue a homeless girl (“Who do you think I am?” she asks; “You’re the fly in the ointment,” Owen answers”), battle a ferocious storm, discover the enemy, and come to terms with secrets of their own.

Action-packed, exciting, a veritable comic book in all prose (see my last post), Offworld left me feeling like I’d just watched an action flick. Its characters make a great team, real people and likable, with definite foibles and follies. Parrish reveals his characters more through action and dialogue than through interior monologue, adding to the summer-blockbuster feel. His prose can be clunky (“Trisha piled out of the SUV” was a howler), and I couldn’t help feeling as though some editor somewhere had fallen asleep on the job — one doesn’t “withdraw” a gun for a fight, one draws it. But the writing does what it sets out to do, which is tell a whopping story and tell it well. For all their occasional bad verbs, Parrish’s action scenes are detailed, vivid, and adrenaline-pumping. There isn’t a single gory or otherwise objectionable scene from a moral standpoint, which makes the book particularly suited to young action fans.

Readers looking for a strong Christian message won’t exactly find one here — the characters’ moment of epiphany, led up to by Chris’s habit of asking someone vague for “a little help here,” is that they’re not alone in the universe. Who else is with them and what that means to their personal lives is never really explored. The climax involves a spiritual element which I found a little out of place; had the rest of the book possessed a more mystical feel, I might have found it more fitting.

All in all, Offworld is a good read, an exciting story, a fine alternative to sitting in another theatre for two more hours taking in action mixed with the world’s un-clean fun.

The time has come for another CSFF Blog Tour. Before I begin, I beg your leave to make an observation: It is HOT. This is BEASTLY. Thank you.

August’s book-o-the-month is Offworld by Robin Parrish. In this sci-fi novel set in 2033, a team of astronauts returns from the first successful trip to Mars to find that the world as they know it is gone: every animal, man, woman, and child has disappeared — or so it seems at first. No, this is not Left Behind. Or Vanish. Or even The Enclave‘s enclave. It is perhaps a tired plot element in Christian fiction (I note that September’s book is entitled The Vanishing Sculptor). But Parrish does a highly enjoyable job with it, building up the mysteries and the suspense and especially the action page-by-page until Offworld gets pretty hard to put down.

Tomorrow I’ll feature an actual review of the book; Wednesday I’ll cover — another aspect of it. Still thinking on that. For now, another observation: Robin Parrish writes comic books. THAT is exceedingly cool. It also makes a ton of sense when reading his work, and actually, I enjoyed Offworld more when I found out that its author was a comic book writer and I started reading Offworld like it was itself a comic.

Parrish excels at action. He’s great at dialogue, too — every character has a distinguishable voice, and lots is revealed through talk. He can handle detail like a pro. I have a feeling I could drive the (treacherous, in the book; not usually, in real life) route through Florida and Lousiana and Mississippi and Texas that his characters take. The book is not literary in a “read it for the love of beauty and words” sense, nor does Parrish spend much time in interior monologue or description. But it tells an engaging story with comic book-like momentum.

I’m actually reading one of Parrish’s comic books, Guardian, right now. It’s available for free read on his Web site, which is one of the better author sites I’ve seen. (It also includes one of the better book trailers I’ve seen; have a look.) I encourage you to explore his site today, come back for a review tomorrow, and gear up for another contest — I have a giveaway copy of Offworld that might have your name on it :).

You can also check out the posts from these other intrepid CSFF Bloggers, blogging though the world may fry up and disappear all around us:

Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Gina Burgess
Canadianladybug
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Linda Gilmore
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
John W. Otte
Lyn Perry
Steve Rice
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Stephanie
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Elizabeth Williams

The much-anticipated article on Amy Carmichael was featured on Boundless.org this weekend. Amy is best known for her lifelong work as a missionary in India, but she was also a prolific writer — and her writings have had a profound effect on my life. You can read “Fire Words,” an introduction to Amy and her work, here.

Good afternoon, everybody! I’m just wrapping up another week, praying for Carolyn whose driving test starts in two minutes, and thinking that if you’re not a fan on Facebook yet, I’d love to see you there. I started a Facebook page for The Seventh World Trilogy a few weeks ago and am having a lot of fun with it. Plus, it boosted my ego just now to discover that I have half as many fans as Robin Parrish, whose book Offworld I just finished reading for the upcoming CSFF Blog Tour. (His fans, however, write on his wall more than mine do. Come now, folks.)

It’s been a good week. Resting after being in a wedding and other household craziness, I’ve taken a trip to the beach, worked a lot on the outline for The Advent (for better updates, join that Facebook group), finished a major editing project, and slept in a lot. Next week, the CSFF Blog Tour returns with Offworld. See you then!

EDIT: I keep forgetting to mention that I won the CSFF Top Blogger award (for the second time) for my posts on Karen Hancock’s The Enclave. Thanks to all who voted!

You may be aware of the Christy Awards, the major award to recognize “excellence in Christian fiction” every year. Fantasy and other forms of speculative fiction can be entered in the “Visionary” category, but there’s no major award specifically to recognize these “fringe” genres — ironic, considering how many of the best fantasy writers have been Christians (C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Madeleine L’Engle, George MacDonald . . . ).

Well, now Becky Miller of the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour, along with several others, are working to establish such an award. They’ve named it the “Clive Staples Award” (eminently suitable, although considering Clive’s own feelings about his name, maybe they should have called it the “Jack Award”). Do you read Christian fantasy or other spec fic? Want to air your opinion about this whole award business? Visit this link and leave your vote on whether this should be pursued: http://clivestaplesaward.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/thoughts-on-the-clive-staples-award/

Two of my books are bestsellers: Worlds Unseen (fiction) and Heart to Heart: Meeting With God in the Lord’s Prayer (nonfiction). No, you won’t find them listed in major newspapers alongside Harry Potter or The Shack, but they’re squarely at the top of the Little Dozen Press Bestseller List.

Self-publishing has been a challenging venture, and a fun one. I don’t self-publish because I’ve given up on breaking into traditional publishing, on the contrary, I’m still sending out query letters and making plans in that direction. Nor am I doing it because I believe it’s necessarily a “better” way to get into print. I’m doing it because I wanted to learn more about the business side of publishing, earn a little extra cash, and most importantly, reach readers.

That’s what I love most about my bestsellers. I’ve sold over 100 copies of Heart to Heart from the back table at Soli Deo Gloria Ballet productions, especially Father, which uses Heart to Heart as the basis of its narrative sections. As an author, it’s a humbling and amazing experience to share my work with people in such a personal way, and when they buy a book, they’re taking home something that’s a part of me and allowing me to carry on a conversation about God with them.

In April, I spoke at a couple of homeschool conferences and was excited by the reception given to Worlds Unseen (I sold out). I wrote Worlds six or seven years ago and never really thought others would get a look at it — it was one of those manuscripts destined to go under my bed. But I knew it was good enough to be read, and I’m having so much fun now, sharing it with other people, discussing the concepts of fiction and fantasy with them, bringing the story to life all over again.

Wherever my writing journey ultimately takes me, my Little Dozen bestsellers will always have a special place in my history. They’ve brought me readers, and readers are the most valuable gift any writer can have.

(By the way, if you’ve read either of these books, would you consider writing a review and posting it on Amazon.com and BN.com? If you haven’t read them and would like to, you can purchase them from those retailers, order them through your local bookstore, or buy them through www.rachelstarrthomson.com.)

Cindy Rushton is a wife, mother, businesswoman, prolific writer, and one of the most encouraging people I know! I’ve had the privilege of speaking and writing for her at various times, always a fun and uplifting venture. I tell you this because I’ve got a link for you today:

Among Cindy’s many ventures is a podcast for writers on Blog Talk Radio, called the Writers Radio Show. Last week’s topic was on being organized (I’m listening to that show as I type); this week’s is on tax info for writers. If you’re a Christian and you write (or you want to write), check this show out! You’re just about guaranteed to learn something, and you’re sure to be encouraged.

When life really hurts, sometimes the best thing to do is surrender. Read “I Surrender All” at Boundless.org.