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~ A random repository of how-to-write and geekery, with an occasional snippet of accidental wisdom.

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Tag Archives: christian fiction

“Implant”

18 Saturday Nov 2017

Posted by erinkenobi2893 in Living Life with Passion, Story Dynamics, Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

black friday christian book sale blog tour, christian fiction, reviews

 

As part of this year’s Black Friday Christian Book Sale Blog Tour, I had the opportunity to read Implant by J. Grace Pennington to review it. When reading it, I couldn’t put it down–it was a fast read, not too in-depth but engaging all the same.

The book’s concept–a medical miracle implant which can cure cancer, Parkinson’s disease, and practically all other diseases, but which has been turned into a way to control people–is what drew me to the story.

The main strength of this book is certainly its characters. Gordon Harding just wants to be a nice person–he doesn’t want to fight, but he ultimately has to take a stand. Neil Crater, an intelligent man trapped in a nightmare world, unsure of who to trust. Doc, who doesn’t want anyone to know his real name.

However, outside of those main three, there are only a few other characters who are fully fleshed-out. I wish they had all gotten more development.

Secondly, the setting. When I was reading the main action of the book, I saw a bombed-out Wild West town surrounded by tents in my mind’s eye. Post-apocalyptic and similar genres aren’t often setting-rich, focusing on characters instead.

And finally, the main premise. Gordon Harding is someone who wants to live. By the end of the book, he becomes someone willing to sacrifice his life, and someone who is willing to avert the future he’s been a part of.

What bothered me about this book was I didn’t feel very connected to anyone outside of the three main characters. Also, I began to see the main major plot twist coming from about 50 pages in, though maybe that’s because I read so much fiction. When a character’s real name is not revealed, there’s always a reason for it. (Unless you’re watching Doctor Who. Then it’s just artistic choice.)

One thing I was relieved about, reading the book: this book does not involve mind control. I feel that mind control and other forms of zombie-ism are overused in fiction–I much prefer when the characters have the free will to make their own (right or wrong) choices. There’s something powerful in that–perhaps more powerful than the pedantic trope of “oh, he did it against his own will!”

I do feel that the ending may have been a bit of a cop-out. However, as that same cop-out was very much a part of making everything worse before the climax, I can excuse it.

Another thing I would have liked to see more of would be Gordon trying to rejoin society after his big adventure. After all, you’ve just had a life-changing experience. What do you do now?

All in all, I would give this book 3.7 out of five stars.

From November 24th-30th a huge selection of discounted books is available at indiechristianbooks.com. You can also join the Indie Christian Authors for a week-long Facebook party during the same dates, or visit http://www.indiechristianbooks.com/supporters/ for more information. There’s also a giveaway–visit http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/62a405b99/ for that.

25 Wednesday Nov 2015

Posted by erinkenobi2893 in Living Life with Passion, Uncategorized

≈ 22 Comments

Tags

book reviews, books, christian fiction, i am so excited i am doing a little happy slippers dance, writing, yes i wear slippers all the time

Smiley

As I go through the year, sometimes I read. Sometimes I don’t but mostly I do. I sometimes end up just getting lost. Which is nice, because normally I know exactly where I’m going.

Like most other bookworms, great books make their way onto my “things I’m thankful for” list every year. It’s hard to choose favorites, but I went ahead and picked five books I read in 2015 and am thankful for.

  1. The Last Battle, by C.S. Lewis: When the mind is muddled and confused and the world just seems too complicated, I can always rely on Lewis to be light and clarity and sense. *throws Lewis’s books at the people who are deliberately muddying the waters* BEGONE!
  2. The Negotiator, by Dee Henderson: I know this book is a bit older (published at least ten years ago!), but it’s still a fresh read and a realistic build. Henderson is one of the few romance authors I can stand, and a fantastic suspense author. Kate/Dave was my first OTP.
  3. For the Temple, by G.A. Henty: There’s going to be a couple controversial choices on this list, and probably a lot of historical fiction. This one is both. I know people who hate Henty, but for me, he brings Palestine under Roman occupation to life in a way that relates strongly to us today. Maybe it’s not politically correct, but it’s an engaging (and approachable–take that, losers!) read, with a very balanced take on the historian Josephus.
  4. The Hornblower series, by C.S. Forester: Horatio was the first example of a literary character who I found out about who had internal dialogue a bit like mine. I am represented in fiction! Yay!
  5. The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien: When life is too complicated, too full of deadlines, I think about the months the Fellowship spent in Rivendell, waiting and essentially doing nothing. Another mind-clearing read.

So basically, I read like the most politically incorrect college student on the planet. Ha-HA!

I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to another great year of reading! Speaking of more reading, here’s one more thing to be grateful for. Books on sale! In honor of Thanksgiving and Black Friday, a group of independent Christian authors banded together to offer over seventy discounted books on Nov 27-30. There’s literally something for everyone.

Every single book listed on Indie Christian Books is on sale in one or more ways. Find discounted paperbacks, dozens of books offered with free shipping, $0.99 ebooks, package deals and more. Even if you have a budget of $0, new reading material awaits you.

Don’t know what to pick? The fearless Indie Christian Books team created a quiz that will generate a book list perfect for you! Check it out!

Book Quiz

What awesome reads of 2015 are you grateful for? What books are you looking forward to reading in 2016?

A note on the Ebooks Only page. All books are listed as “Sold Out.” This only refers to paperback copies of these titles. Please click onto the product pages to find descriptions and links to discounted or free ebooks.
Acknowledgements: Thanks to Leah E. Good for her work organizing this sale, Gloria Repp for completing the time consuming job of uploading book info to the sale website, and Hannah Mills for her fantastic design work on the website graphics. Hannah can be contacted at hmills(at)omorecollege(dot)edu for more information about her design services.

Ummm… a little help here? Please?

14 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by erinkenobi2893 in Living Life with Passion, Story Dynamics, Tales of a Wandering Bard

≈ 30 Comments

Tags

alex/connor, c.s. forester, captain america: the first avenger, catholic culture, christian fiction, christianity, colorblind, dee henderson, horatio hornblower, irene hannon, john flanagan, louisa may alcott, marvel, novels, ranger's apprentice, romance, star wars, the clone wars

I just realized that I’m in deep, probably in over my head, in hotter water than I guessed before, probably because they turned the temperature up while I was in it.

I’ve been a shipper ever since I picked up one of my mom’s romance novels. Marcus/Shari. Dave/Kate. I could go on (thank you, Dee Henderson!)

Then I went through a stage where I didn’t like romance at all. I think I was just bored with sexual tension, whatever they call it these days… anyway, I thought everyone was just being stupid. I didn’t have time for that sort of thing. I was in high school.

And now… I’m shipping again. I think it started slow, with Obi-Wan/Siri–Siriwan, as it’s often called. I thought I was a Obitine (Obi-Wan/Satine) shipper, but then I realized, nope, Siriwan to the core. They’re a better contrast and they fit together better. (Though I think the whole arc with Satine back in Season Two was excellently done and very much in character for Obi-Wan, which is sadly a thing–there’s a whole subgenre of Out-Of-Character Syndrome dedicated to Obi-Wan shippings.) And then came Steve and Peggy (how could I not love these two?! His crush on her was just so precious.), and Pepperony (I probably love that ship name way too much…) I also ship Halt/Pauline and Horace/Evanlyn. Though for some reason, I don’t ship Will/Alyss much, but that’s probably because I haven’t finished reading the series yet. (I think the Will/Alyss angle was a bit rushed in the first book, to be honest.)

I also (maybe?) ship Horatio/duty or Horatio/his ship.

(That was a very sad attempt at a joke. I’m sorry. I will refrain from joking again throughout the rest of this post.)

And now, for the first time, I’m trying to write a ship of my own.

What am I getting myself into?!

I know I can’t write romance. I am no good at writing romance. I could not write romance to save my life. Apart from the casual background Pepperony, I always end up writing Siriwan more platonic. (Which works well, because as well as being the adorable lovebirds we know they are, they’re also BFFs 4 life!)

It’ll be fun, I said. Back it up with suspense and action and you’ll be fine, I said. What are you so worried about?! I said.

I. Am. Toast.

I’m so scared I’m going to mess it up. I love these two, I really do, but… I don’t know if I can write them in a relationship. I’ve tried writing background romance before and it never felt right. I can write about two people who are already in love, who love each other very much–that’s easy. But two people falling in love?

That’s outside my experience. And I frankly don’t know where to start. (No, stop thinking about setting me up on dates. And, for that matter, please do not diagnose me, even in the privacy of your minds, as asexual–I think that I’m just waiting for the right partner. In fact, please don’t diagnose me at all. I don’t like being diagnosed. Even if having a legit ADHD diagnosis would make college easier–much easier… Or anything, really. I don’t need it, honestly. I can handle this. Let’s save it for people who actually need it, please.)

I know how my parents show that they love each other. That’s easy. But I’m not sure how to show people falling in love.

I guess that, looking back, it’s all up to Louisa May Alcott: writing romantic love is nearly impossible if you’ve been single all your life, and either totally understated or overstated, depending on who is doing the reading.

I noticed a few things about my romance reading habits, too:

  1. It had to be by one of a specific few authors (mostly Dee Henderson and Irene Hannon.)
  2. I couldn’t sit through a novel that was all romance, either. It had to have suspense or action/adventure in it, too.
  3. Never could stand so-called “sexual tension”, for some reason. If there was physical attraction, it couldn’t be just lust. And I much preferred the people who fell in love with others because of their personalities.

I suppose I just need help. Even if I knew the answer to this riddle, I’d need help.

So this is a shoutout: Can I get a couple of beta readers to help me write the scenes with Alex/Connor in them? Because if you’d read those scenes for me and help me out, I’d be in your debt forever.

Thanks for reading, and God Bless.

P.S. Umm, I probably don’t have to say this, but… CHRISTIAN FICTION FOREVER!!! (Sorry, just felt like shouting it from the rooftops… and yes, this is Christian near-future sci-fi/action/psychological thriller/suspense. It’s not preachy, though. Christian in atmosphere, no reading between the lines required 🙂 )

TCWT: What’s normal?

07 Wednesday Jan 2015

Posted by erinkenobi2893 in Living Life with Passion, Story Dynamics, Uncategorized

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

authors, baroness emma orczy, bbc sherlock, brian jacques, captain america: the first avenger, catholic culture, catholicism, christian fiction, christianity, creative writing, dee henderson, disney, dynamic characters, editing, editor, fantasy, frozen, generations, invented religions, jorge luis borges, living life with passion, loyalties, macguffins, magic realism, marvel, novels, o'malley series, paranormal, redwall, religious themes, roman catholic, sherlock holmes, sir arthur conan doyle, spiritual, star wars, story dynamics, story tools, supernatural, t.h. white, the avengers, the scarlet pimpernel, the sword in the stone, uncommon heroes series, urban fantasy, world building, writing

I thought that I would not be doing TCWT again. I’m almost too old to do it. But I decided to come back at least one last time. So, here you go.

The prompt was “What do you think is commonly done well in literature? Done poorly?” I think it depends on the author and genre as much as anything else. Some things are well-done in one genre and horrific in another, or okay in one and marvelous in another.

Religious themes. A character’s religion, how they practice it, if they really live their faith, if they even practice what they preach at all, is a marvelous tool in character development whether you are religious or not. I have never been able to understand why some people neglect it. A character’s beliefs, including their religious persuasion, tells us quite a bit about that character. (This is why, if someone leaves the religion space on their character sheet blank, I often have headcanons about their beliefs.) Some books where this is done well: Dee Henderson’s “Uncommon Heroes” and “O’Malley” series (among the only romance I actually read). Living what you preach is a sign of sincerity, honesty, and sometimes even of courage. Often, it takes courage to say more than “non-denominational” on your forms, and the thing is, these characters don’t overtly try to convert others. It is the way they live that makes others think, “Wow. I wish I had what they have.” A book where this is done poorly: Many books (sadly) in the Christian fiction genre. (Oftentimes, Christian fiction is like romance; you have to be extremely choosy to find the good stuff.)

Religious themes in general: If a character actually lives what they preach, then religious themes in the plot itself are generally a given. Normally, you won’t run into actual angels or demons “on-set”, but the forces of evil vs. the good guys will probably happen. I very much prefer the sort of stories with a fallible main character, who falls and fails and then gets up again and apologizes for it (or, sometimes, doesn’t apologize and then sees the error of his ways.) Everything else just feels like another Christian fiction forgettable Mary Sue.

I also like to see slightly-different versions of real-world religions in stories (such as the world where Christianity developed slightly different, though all the teachings are still the same, the practices are different; some practices never evolved, while some that don’t exist in the real world did.)

Magic Realism. Now and again, I love a good story with spiritual/supernatural themes in the magical realism style, where it’s all strongly realist and then seamlessly in comes a bit of the supernatural. I love it when the plot twist throws me off, but when I look back into the rest of the book, I can see how it was subtly setting it up the whole time. Sadly, many “paranormal” stories tend to be “paranormal” throughout, without any magic realism. For me, it’s not urban fantasy if they don’t have the urban before they have the fantasy. Otherwise, it’s just fantasy.

A few notes on urban fantasy: I have read a couple of very good dystopian/urban fantasy novels where the story was very well-written. One of the biggest shockers, in my opinion, is when something that’s out of our normal experience happens and the characters treat it like a normal occurrence, because in their world, it is normal.

Items with character and/or significance. Now and again, there will be a MacGuffin that really ties everything together; it doesn’t even matter what the MacGuffin is, it is the significance that goes along with it. For instance, in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, it was Padme’s charm that Anakin gave her when they were both very young. (I swear, Attack of the Clones would have been so much better if at some point, Padme had slipped the japor snippet out of the collar of her dress and said quietly, “I still have the amulet you gave me.” I would be shipping Anidala so much harder than I do now, trust me.) In my novel Loyalties, it is the multi-generational hand-me-down amulet, the symbol of a master’s care for his apprentice, which is worn hidden in the French braid across the back of an apprentice’s head (or, alternatively, depending on the circumstances, hung on its ribbon around their neck,) that ties the generations together, as it is passed down from Rynnar to Winter (who tries, upon his leaving active service as a Ranger, to return it, but Rynnar refuses to accept it), and later from Winter to his apprentice Elían, and is constantly there to remind Winter of Rynnar, even in Rynnar’s absence, during the first book. (I’m certainly praying to the Muse that I end up doing it right.)

Martin the Warrior’s sword, in the Redwall series, is a recurring object that serves to both tie the series together, and to remind everyone of Redwall’s first Champion. Another example would be Sir Percy Blakeney’s “pimpernel” signet ring in the Scarlet Pimpernel books (which, though not recurring, was key to the first book–was that a spoiler? I hope not…)

Items that get left behind. In my opinion, many authors these days tend to forget about this. Things get broken and left behind. Things are not overly important, and things should not be overly important to the characters. For instance, someone can and will lose their arrows or throwing knives (which, believe it or not, is a loss that was, in the past, a very hard one, since both were very valuable, especially arrows, which were hard and time-consuming to make by hand and thereby expensive. There will be times when someone rips their shirt or goes swimming and loses it. For some reason, authors these days seem too often to ignore these instances.

On the other hand, a character losing something with sentimental value can be a very emotional moment. It can be the last straw that breaks the camel’s back. Or it can illustrate that at this point, the character doesn’t even care any more, or is just grateful that they got out of there alive. Martin the Warrior loses his father’s sword, which Tsarmina snaps in half, pushing him into vowing vengeance on the wildcat, as it was the only thing he had left to remember Luke by. Someone’s horse dies, and it’s a very emotional moment. Beaumont the hound in The Sword in the Stone (book, not the movie.)

Or, someone escapes a burning building to find that they left their old notebook behind. When the other character offers sympathy, the first just says, “It’s all right. It was only a notebook. I’m just glad we both got out alive.” Or even, “I don’t need it any more,” illustrating a dynamic moment in a character’s journey. Moments like these are a tool that is sometimes sadly neglected. People tend to forget that in a prior era, people would attach value to things using a different methodology than we do today. They would keep things because they were valuable or hard to replace, not because of sentiment, quite so much. In realistic historical fantasy, this is sometimes a stumbling block, though not always. (Kristoff losing his sleigh in Frozen could have been done so much better. At least they weren’t afraid to have people lose their gear in the movie.)

Use of small cues. This is a big one. Some people nowadays seem to want everything to be blatantly obvious and to avoid the search for small meanings and symbolism. This is the reason why some people hate character movies and characters like Obi-Wan Kenobi; they don’t see anything past the not-really-action of the movies or the character’s quiet, unassuming exterior. Forsaking dynamic characters for the sake of flash, some people end up creating Mary Sues.

However, I believe there are authors out there who do this really well (Brian Sanderson, Liam? I think I got that impression,) using small character cues, such as a slight movement, a nervous habit (such as fiddling with one’s sleeves) that recurs throughout the book, and tiny facial expressions that are left open for the readers to interpret to subtly build well-rounded, fleshed-out, dynamic characters. After a while, the reader becomes familiar with a repeated movement (“oh, Halt’s up to something; there’s the eyebrow!” “He’s reaching for his cuffs, even though he’s wearing a short-sleeved shirt. Poor kid.”) and learns to associate it with certain moods or actions. After a while, if you’ve seen The First Avenger, you get to recognize Steve Rogers’ nervous half-smile and distinguish it from his awkward smile, his stage smile, and the genuine article in Avengers. (Did anyone else notice how eerily similar Coulson’s non-offensive “I’m not a threat or even important to the plot at all; take no notice of me” half-smile is to Steve’s awkward smile? Since we know Steve better than we know Coulson, this tiny little fact, whether intentional brilliance on the part of Joss Whedon and whatsisname who plays Coulson or happy serendipity, tells us loads about Coulson as a character.)

Excessive stage drama queens. Basically, some characters just draw attention to themselves when they shouldn’t, detracting from the plot and being blatantly obvious (“don’t be obvious!”–>Moriarty’s best advice ever!), so much so that it’s sickening. This is just annoying. If it fits into the plot and the character, all well and good; it works! (This is why we actually can like Tony Stark.) But if not, then… then what’s the point? Seriously. All you have is an over-made-up actor who can’t even recite his lines properly. BORING. *shoots the wall* Sickening.

For me, most of what annoys me is blatantly obvious or lacking when it should be there. Of course, my pet peeves will be different from other people’s, but I think that all authors should try to improve their work based around these issues.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this listing of things I think are well-done but could be improved in fiction, thanks for reading and God bless you, as always, and don’t forget to drop by the other blogs on the chain through the rest of January! 😉


5th – http://whileishouldbedoingprecal.weebly.com/

6th – http://jasperlindell.blogspot.com/

7th – https://erinkenobi2893.wordpress.com/ (you are here) and http://nasrielsfanfics.wordpress.com/ (this would be Rosalie; I still need to read her post so now I’m done with mine I’m heading over to do that.)

8th – http://miriamjoywrites.com/

9th – https://ramblingsofaravis.wordpress.com/

10th – http://semilegacy.blogspot.com/

11th – http://kirabudge.weebly.com/

12th – http://thelittleenginethatcouldnt.wordpress.com/

13th – http://maralaurey.wordpress.com/

14th – http://dynamicramblings.wordpress.com/

15th – http://theedfiles.blogspot.com/

16th – https://horsfeathersblog.wordpress.com/  

17th – http://www.juliathewritergirl.com/

18th – http://butterfliesoftheimagination.wordpress.com/

19th – https://gallopingfree.wordpress.com/

20th – http://www.alwaysopinionatedgirl.wordpress.com/

21st – https://deborahrocheleau.wordpress.com/

22nd – http://irisbloomsblog.wordpress.com/

23rd – https://clockworkdesires.wordpress.com/

24th – https://introspectioncreative.wordpress.com/

25th – http://wanderinginablur.blogspot.com/

26th – https://anotefromthenerd.wordpress.com/

27th – http://randommorbidinsanity.blogspot.com

28th – http://unikkelyfe.wordpress.com/

29th – http://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com/ (We’ll announce the topic for next month’s chain.)

(Hey, look! Rosalie and I share a day! Awesome. ^_^)

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