“The Christian bookstore industry is being haunted, not by Halloweenish ghosts, goblins, and children dressed as demons with pitchforks, but by real false prophets, real false teachers, real demonic doctrines, and real people masquerading as Christians. But the failure of the Christian bookstore industry to monitor their own bookstores is not due to their lack of knowledge. They have been informed time and time again, over and over and over, almost to the point of saturation.” ~ Bud Press, Director Christian Research Service, Special Report, October 13, 2006
In CRS’
“Now before you lose your cool and fire off an indignant email or letter to some editor, Webmaster or religious leader, you need to know this: Many of them don’t know what they’re selling. That’s the good news. The bad news is, some of them do,” states Paul Proctor, columnist for NewswithViews.com.
For Bud Press’ entire article, read Special Report .
Interesting article from CBA Marketplace: How Can You Keep False Doctrines Off Your Store Shelves?
Other sources:
Beware ‘Christian’ Bookstores
Lifeway removes books
Are Christian publishers promoting…interspirituality?
Deception in the Databases
What ever happened to Eerdman’s?
CRS Master List
“Have you ever noticed there are people you know who are literally at the same place today as they were five years ago? They still have the same dreams, the same problems, the same alibis, the same opportunities, and the same way of thinking. They are standing still in life. It’s like their watch stopped five years ago, and so did they. God’s will for us is to grow, to continue to learn and improve. The biggest room in our house is always the room for self-improvement.”
~ John L. Mason, An Enemy Called Average, Nugget #5
I think we all know people like this, but I might take issue with the self-improvement mantra. Any progress I make as a writer and human being is due to the grace of God in every area of my life. But yes, let’s press forward…
Yay, it’s finally here! The Christian Writers Carnival! You’ll enjoy the plethora of entries for this month’s grand opening. Make note of it and jump on the merry-go-round next time!
Visit: The Christian Writers Carnival . Thanks to Gina Conroy at Writer Interrupted for organizing this wonderful carnival.
Happy Friday, folks! In Atlanta, we have dark skies and wet grass. I love the rain. Raindrops pelting against the porch soothes this writer’s heart. Sometimes I focus better when it’s raining—don’t ask me why.
Today’s inspiration comes from Going on Faith: Writing as a Spiritual Quest, edited by William Zinsser. In particular, let’s ponder the words of Frederick Buechner from the 2nd chapter :
“In the stories of Flannery O’ Connor, for instance, I have the feeling of the author herself being caught off guard by a flash of insight here, a stab of feeling there. She’s making discoveries about holy things, about human things, in a way that she herself says would not have been possible if she had known too well where she was going and how she was going to get there. And as her readers we share in the freshness and the wonder of her surprise.”
Buechner calls The Brothers Karamazov the greatest of all novels, yet a ’seething bouillabaisse’ of a book:
“It’s digressive and sprawling, many too many characters in it, much too long, and yet it’s a book which, just because Dostoyevsky leaves room in it for whatever comes up to enter, is entered here and there by maybe nothing less than the Holy Spirit itself, thereby becoming, as far as I’m concerned, what a religious novel at its best can be—that is, a novel less about the religious experience than a novel the reading of which is a religious experience: of God, both in his subterranean presence and in his appalling absence.”
Buechner probes further: “Is it the Holy Spirit? Is it the muse? Is it just a lucky break when these things happen in a story or in a life?…But as in the journey of faith, it’s possible every once in a while to be better than you are. Saint Paul says, “Do you not know that God’s spirit dwells in you?”
Another thought: “Are novels like mine a kind of whistling in the dark? I think so. To whistle in the dark is more than just to try to convince yourself that dark is not all there is… And in the same way, faith could also be called a kind of whistling in the dark. The living out of faith. The writing out of fiction…”
According to Buechner, what faith and fiction have most in common is that they are a way of paying attention.
“If it’s God we’re looking for, as I suspect we all are, maybe the reason we haven’t found Him is that we’re not looking very hard.”
Like Dostoyevsky’s books, my life seems digressive and sprawling at times. Am I paying attention?
Are you?
Going on Faith: Writing as a Spiritual Quest .
Note: These essays on writing are not all written from a Christian perspective.
National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.
Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.
Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.
Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.
As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and — when the thing is done — the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.
In 2005, we had over 59,000 participants. Nearly 10,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.
So, to recap:
What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month’s time.
Who: You! We can’t do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let’s write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.
Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era’s most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.
When: Sign-ups begin October 1, 2006. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.
Still confused? Just visit the How NaNoWriMo Works page!
Check it out, folks! I need to choke my internal editor for a solid month, so I’m thinking this might be the way to go. But hurry! Only a few more days before NaNoWriMo begins!
NaNoWriMo website
How it works
Washington Post.com article
“The work of art must seize upon you, wrap you up in itself and carry you away. It is the means by which the artist conveys his passion. It is the current which he puts forth, which sweeps you along in his passion.” ~ Pierre Auguste Renoir
Whenever I need a heartlift, I surf over to JustPics and Macromoments to see what my friend, Bonnie Bruno , is up to. Here’s a woman whose art truly seizes me. Not only is Bonnie exceptionally gifted with words, she has this amazing ability to capture the essence of life through something called a ‘macro lens.’ She brings beauty to us, up close and personal. Awesome talent.
“Bonnie Bruno has been writing professionally for 25 years, specializing in children’s books, articles, columns, and stories for both the inspirational and general marketplace. Her work has been published over 450 times in 40+ different magazines and newspapers.”
“Her work reflects an eye for detail, as well as a passionate appreciation for nature. She specializes in landscape, black/white, and macro (closeup) photos.”
Bonnie Bruno’s website
Bonnie Bruno Photography
Bonnie’s column: Retrospect
Bonnie’s Macromoments
Bonnie’s Photo Blog
Bonnie’s Pictures at FotoLibra
A gallery of Bonnie’s Northwest photos are on display at the Oregon State Snowmobile Association’s website , as well as on her own web gallery .
Bonnie’s current Project: WHEN GOD STEPS IN: Stories of Everyday Grace (Standard Publishing, September 2007).
Thank you, Bonnie, for the beauty you bring to our world!
Thank you kindly for visiting Light for the Writer’s Soul for your daily cup of inspiration. While a couple deadlines are fast approaching, I’ll have to post light the next couple days, but please take advantage of my resource page (at the top) if you haven’t yet. Lots of good stuff there!
If you’d like to get a jumpstart on your Christmas shopping, please consider purchasing your gifts via my Amazon bookstore online. While my profits are terribly small ($1.67 to date), any little bit would greatly help defray the costs of hosting and maintenace of this site.
Enjoy Light for the Writer’s Bookstore. The main page showcases the writing books I currently recommend (the featured products), but search through the other Amazon products for whatever suits your fancy.
Perhaps creativity begins in solitude. Sharing some inspiration today from The Making of a Christian Bestseller: An Inside Guide to Christian Publishing by Ann E. Byle.
Chapter Two: Nurturing the Writing Spirit by Linda Anderson:
“The writing heart needs solitude. If an idea is going to gestate and take root and come to fruition, it’s going to happen more easily and creatively to a person who does not write back-to-back. The writer needs certain times of quietness and refreshment to refine and hone the writing spirit.”
“My present passion for nurturing one’s spirit by silence and solitude began with a search for simplicity as described in the Bible. Jesus spoke about the ‘abundant life.’ I didn’t feel I had it and I asked him what he meant. He answered over a period of years as I began taking short times away from regular work just to be with him and talk things over. I wanted the life Jesus promised in John 10:10: ‘I am come that they may have life and have it to the full.’
“I began to accept the fact that my writing life would not look like the generally accepted American model of productivity. If it did, my writing would become dried out, cookie-cutter writing. I needed to let my heart wander, daydream, become receptive.”
“I think a true writer receives his or her ideas from the inner sanctum of heaven itself, from the Creator himself. And I have become convinced that regular times of solitude become the birthing room and comfortable cradle of all words later written.”
How do you nurture your writing spirit? You do take regular breaks from writing?
“A publisher asked me last week what my distinctive mission as a writer is. I think it’s to probe beneath the surface into the deep longings of people, then to open a door into the invisible spiritual realm so people can see ultimate realities (including God, angels, demons, heaven and hell) with the eyes of faith and imagination. Once you catch glimpse of the other world, the real world, you are weaned from the illusion that reality is limited to our five senses. You can’t help but live differently once you learn to see differently. My life verse is “We look not at the things that are seen but the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are temporary, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18). I seek to help readers see the unseen through my writing, both fiction and nonfiction. My prayer is that God would use me as his instrument to represent accurately the truths of His Word and the greatness of his Being, in purity and passion.” ~ Randy Alcorn, Amazon.com interview
Check out byFaith Online’s recent column on Art & Culture: Much Ado About Something, an interview with playwright and actor, Tom Key.
“Key is best known for award-winning performances off Broadway and in Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Dallas. He authored the Cotton Patch Gospel (with singer-songwriter Harry Chapin) as well as various theater pieces from the works of Truman Capote, Walker Percy, and Flannery O’Connor, among others.”
Nat Belz interviews Key:
BF: How do Christians need to think differently about drama?
TK: “People are made to live forever, not books or plays or dances or buildings or nations, but individuals, human souls. I understand using “Christian” as an adjective. But when it’s used in terms of the arts as an adjective, it usually is really referring to plays or movies or paintings that are about subjects in Scripture …. Even though it might be [Christian], it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s art. It might be a play about the apostle Paul, but whether the playwright succeeds in scripting a text that engages and convinces the audience of its reality is another question. It’s like if I get on an airplane and the pilot tells me he’s a Christian, I’m glad to know that, but I really want to make sure he can fly the plane.”
BF: How should the theater transform us?
TK: “I think art is always entertaining in that it engages; it might make us laugh or be thrilled or wonder or confront or affirm. But entertainment is not necessarily art, and I think the difference is a residual effect. I think that art always leads the person to slightly or profoundly more than change, whereas the entertainment that is not art will not experientially, existentially affect the recipient.
I think we need the gift of art in order to perceive reality. The Bible, besides being the Word of God, is well-written. It’s good literature. It’s wonderful poetry. It’s ecstatic praise and lyrics. It’s story, history. That provides a lens for us.”
Hope this whets your appetite. For the rest of the interview, go here .
Tom Key answers other questions like these:
- Do you bring a philosophy of language to your work?
- When delving into the deeper human issues of biblical characters – you might say putting words in their mouths – is that an offense against the sacred Word, or is that a liberty that a Christian artist has?
- How do we nurture actors and artists?
Related links:
Tom Key
Tom Key
Screwtape in Person
Cotton Patch Gospel
