Into the Fire

In a few weeks my second novel entitled The Famous One will be available for purchase at several online outfits including Amazon.com. While the satisfaction is sweet, it is inherently mixed with the accompanying human fears experienced by anyone who shares something so intimately entwined with who they are. Perhaps some authors detach themselves from their work and creatively assess the human condition through characters so different from who they are in places so obscured from where they’ve been in circumstances stranger than anyplace they’ve ever visited, seen, or experienced. Perhaps.

Most novelists write from some distinct place of truth, whether personally known or unknown to them by direct participation. Whether they address the story through humor, tragedy, or ordinary ways, what they write exposes them in a form of nakedness, more emotional than physical. Exposure can be painful or cathartic or laughable or empathetic. It can even be ugly. Or beautiful. How those words play out on the page determines much of how an author is laid bare before his readers.

My first novel (Hope Of Glory) is every bit a first effort. No doubt. The objective in writing it was to fulfill the specific instructions the Lord spoke to my heart. There were times when I feared I would fail to complete it as the years passed. But I did it. And it’s published. For Him. And because of Him. And I trust God to continue to do with it what he had in mind for it when he assigned it to me.

The Famous One is entirely different from that first book in subject, style, and size. This novel is written almost like a fictional biography beginning from an omniscient POV. I can almost guarantee if you attempt to read it with all the established writing rules in the forefront of your brain, you will be shaking your head and rolling your eyes. It wasn’t written with those in mind. There was a character inspired by the life experiences of a real actor whose story would not be denied. It simply had to be told, and the way it came to be told is what it is. You know what I mean?

I can say that the test readers of The Famous One varied in ages from 30-something to 60+, both male and female readers, with one professional endorsement on the back cover which is a truly wonderful gift to me, one I didn’t expect. The novel received rave reviews from the particular readers who took the time to invest in the story. We’ll see what the tougher crowds who’ll be receiving a complementary copy of it think, if they dare to tell me. Some people probably won’t get through the first 50 pages because it doesn’t fit into their definition of what a novel should be. It will have a particular audience, I’m sure of that much.

The other novels I’ve written have similar themes but are different still than these first two. As you know if you’ve been reading this blog for long, my novels are generally longer than the typical CBA novel, more like epics or sagas in contemporary settings, focusing on relationships, fairly heavy on the romance—with the worldly contrasted to the godly.

You have to realize I’d completed five novels before I’d read a single blog or website. I’d written all my life in spurts until I gave any creative writing ability I had to the Lord for His use. Hope Of Glory was borne out of that as the other six novels have been. I didn’t mean to break the rules. I wrote what I liked to read, what I wanted to read. What can I say? The rebellion wasn’t intentional—it was natural.

So . . . now you know part of the story behind this story.

Father, thank you for the stories you’ve given me. If they minister to a few or many, please allow them to minister in some way—however you choose to use them. Just please help me to write totally for you, for your glory. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

*Please continue to pray for Kristy Dykes.*