Into the Fire

Some people will not like my novels. Perhaps a lot of people will not like my novels. Do I care? Of course I do. For the most part my novels are character studies dealing with relationship involving everyday life in contemporary situations. They’re not exciting, and they’re not fast moving. For the most part they’re about ordinary people experiencing the challenges of living on planet earth, finding out who they are or who they want to be or who they need to be and discovering if or how God fits in to all of it.

How’s that for marketing?

Let’s face it. It takes an extraordinary writer to appeal to all types of readers. I’m not one of them. That’s a fact.

The strength of my stories—if you can find one—is that the characters are you and me and people you’ve met and people you wish you hadn’t met. Their motivations mirror yours and mine and those of others.

My second novel The Famous One chronicles the life of a troubled kid who ends up becoming an actor and a reluctant celebrity, searching for love and reality in a surreal world. One test reader, an avid reader of Christian fiction, said it was the best Christian novel she’d ever read. Another reader, a male, said he was thoroughly engaged and called it “engrossing”. One reader said she couldn’t put it down. Another reader cried and told me the book ministered to her in so many ways. Several other test readers loved the story. Cool, huh? Well, here’s the flip side. “Failed to get engaged.” “Too much telling, slow moving.” “Nothing happens in the beginning.”

I’m being honest here. Painfully so. Now at least you know in more detail how my novels buck the current trends. Do I care? Yes, I do. And perhaps when the story comes along for me to mesh with those trends, I’ll write it. And hopefully write it well. Until then, I’ll write the ones I’ve been given to tell. And, yes, you snicker: remain unpublished. Well . . . yeah, I guess I will. And I could tell you I don’t care, but it wouldn’t be entirely truthful. I do care. Just not enough to change who I am as a writer. Please don’t think that’s being smug. I can’t change who I am as a writer. I’m not someone else. And if my role is handing out manuscripts to a menagerie of test readers, then that is what it shall be.

The Jane Austen craze has been resurrected of late. Well-written, sassy period pieces with an irresistible heroine where not much happens really. No, I’m not comparing my work to hers and suggesting I’m the writer of classics. But I’m sure some people haven’t cared for Jane’s work for the same reasons they might not care for mine.

I’m a contemporary writer of simple stories with real-life characters who experience the same physical, emotional, and spiritual perils that you and I face in our lifetime dramas. I hope, to those who like my style, the stories will touch their hearts and somehow draw them nearer to the One who gets any and all honor and praise for anything good that comes from them.

I do care about my work. I don’t take it lightly. I work at it to make it well-written, but if you don’t like it, I can’t modify it to please your tastes. No matter who you are.

Father, all I can say is thank you. You’ve allowed me to write. You’ve given me stories to tell. You will find the readers. Thank you for the privilege of writing. Somehow I hope it will honor you because that’s all that really matters. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

*PLEASE PRAY FOR KRISTY DYKES*