Into the Fire

Passionate thoughts about the world of writing and the Power of God

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Passionate: right or wrong. Writes love stories with a passion. Raw Romantic Redemptive

  • Yeah . . .

     

    This was my "escape" series. And now it's gone. Unlike so many TV series of today, it was clean, honest, fun, without neglecting serious plots. Great characters that expanded their depths and developed their backgrounds. Good, real action. I grew to love it. And I'm angry that it was canceled. No, it was not the original, and it never pretended to be. It took some of its shape and history from the wonderful original with Tom Selleck and John Hillerman and incorporated Magnum's history with "Rick" and "TC", but each character created a unique and meaningful role for themselves. It was well-written and gradually developed the chemistry and "UST" between Juliet Higgins and Thomas Magnum, concluding with a perfectly done admission of their real feelings for each other. 

    Ignore the "subtitled" words. Half of them are incorrect. This is pure romance done well. 

     

    Father, you give creativity in abundance. It's a blessing when it's used for your glory. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.  

     

  • Monday Musings . . .

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    Thinking about "new" authors . . . I'm not a bestseller, have no platform to speak of, but I have self-published soon-to-be nine novels, having written eleven. 

    At writers' conferences, there are multiple classes for just about everything a first-time author wants to ask or learn. Talented bestselling authors address all kinds of writing concerns, techniques, approaches, and matters of the heart concerning writing that novel – be it the first or one of many. There is much to be learned and conferences are a fun bonanza for all kinds of information and making contacts with professionals and other writers at your same level of business. 

    One of the more important things to note is this: there is no set way to write that novel. You might be an "outliner", you might be a whiteboard jotter, picture posting, chalkboard note-maker, or seat-of-the-pants creator of stories. If I had to make an outline for a story of mine, none of them would've been written. So keep in mind, you are the one God made you to be and you can perfect over time and many, many words later who you really are as a writer and what works best for you. 

    Find your niche, don't be afraid to take chances, pray your way through the process, and accept the lessons you learn as either valuable or, frankly, a waste of your time. 

    Also, remember, words are the premium, the critical factor. They are what drive the communication of a story. They are what make readers take notice. They are those "grab you" or "gotcha" providers that send the reader on a meaningful journey glued to the pages of your story. Words matter. They can be simple or complex or lovely or stark – but they make the book what it is. 

    My Monday Musings . . . on June 13th.

     

    Father, help me to always honor you with my stories. You give them to me, but I must write them. Thank you is never enough. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.  

  • Sunday’s Offerings

     

    . . . They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised. Amen.

         Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. 

         Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful. They invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

     

    Romans 1:26-32 (NIV) 

  • Clarification to “An Invitation” . . .

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    Just in case "An Invitation" came off as disrespectful or "snotty", I do wish to clarify. I write love stories with a passion. I include all the trappings of attraction, physical and otherwise, flirtations, and the feelings and emotions those attractions elicit. Even those individuals who are less emotional, perhaps more "practical" in their assessments of the opposite sex, must agree that somewhere along the line that object of their affection and attraction caused a spark to ignite. Whether or not that flame turned into a roaring fire that led to temptation to abandon any moral code they might have had, that temptation is often present as a result of the attraction. 

    In the world's view of that temptation, there's normally little hesitation in its leading to a "logical conclusion" which is a sexual encounter. For them: no big deal. This is the obvious result – and aim – of flirting.

    For the Christian, it is – or should be – the opposite of that worldview. Why? Simply because God has selected people for each other, and He insists that physical union be anointed by a commitment first to Him and then to each other. That physical union is not just a romp in the hay, a one-night stand, a temporary bargain between two strangers turned lovers. No. To God, the act of love is the joining and bonding of bodies and souls, a pledge of honor to God and to each other, a spiritual and physical contract between two people in love and the perfect act of fulfilling that contract. I don't think it's possible to understand the depth of that promise to one another without knowing the Lord. Don't get me wrong: there are many in the world who understand the contract of marriage and desire and work to hold up their end and stay in love. However, when the spiritual element of adding God to the mix is absent, that marriage lacks its final seal.

    So. Christians engage in the game of romance, knowing the risk, learning the temptations, succeeding or failing in the process. We're no less humans, not immune to the minimal or total failures of succumbing to the sexual thrills of falling in love. We're just more aware of the consequences of failing each other while disappointing the One who is Love and wants the ultimate best for us.

    My novels portray the efforts, struggles, conduct, failures, and successes of romantic relationships. The reader sees it from both sides of this journey – and sees it from the reality of contrasting views. For some readers, that is not pleasurable reading. 

    It seems there are 3 types of romance novel readers. One: the romance reader who will read any kind of romance from the general market (secular); Two: the romance reader who will read both the general market and inspirational/Christian Fiction; Three A: the romance reader who wants their romance with Christian faith elements and less content relating to physical attraction and what that "causes", in other words: "Clean" labels; Three B: the romance reader who wants their romance and Christian faith elements written real.       

    "An Invitation" was written to point out that I'm a Three B Author as both a proclamation and a caution to some readers. 

     

    Father, I write the stories you so graciously give me. May I always honor you in the process. Thank you is never enough. In the Name of Jesus. 

  • An Invitation . . .

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    Many of you know I will have a new novel releasing soon. This post is an invitation to those readers who either love, like, or occasionally read love story/romance novels.

    But . . . if you need that "squeaky clean" label attached to the novels you read, chances are you're not the audience for this Christian novel.

    The reason being – or the disclaimer – for that is romance and love are not "dirty". Literal graphics of sexual activity are neither "clean" nor necessary, particularly in a Christian novel. However, sexual attraction and desire are natural and inherent in romance and love. When written respectfully but real-ly, this author finds nothing offensive about their depiction. 

    The second reason for readers' consideration is the world's behaviors are generally the opposite from those who follow Jesus. Nevertheless, those behaviors are real and should be shown as such with a few exceptions. If the very occasional use of "hell" or "damn" and the allusion to cuss words by characters either in the world or struggling to get back to the Lord offends you, my novels are not for you. 

    And three, why would I not press with the hard sell for Then . . . you, my new novel? I've seen the destructive and self-righteous reviews on Amazon posted by self-proclaimed Christians for beautifully written redemptive novels where not only is the sexual attraction criticized, the author's theology is attacked. I would prefer to avoid those readers for this novel – and my others as well. They are not "my" audience.  

    There are literally millions of romance novels out there – many, many to choose from. Plenty with the "clean" labels, plenty more that are R-rated. This is why I chose these three words to label mine: Raw Romantic Redemptive. To those with discerning tastes those three words should either point them in my direction or away from my novels. 

    You're invited.

     

    Father, thank you for every inspiration, every story, every word. Only you. Apart from you, I can do nothing. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

     

        

  • Wednesday Whimsy

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                              Mood moments at the ocean . . . 

     

    Father, you created beauty in so many facets of life. The ocean is just one them. Thank you for it all. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

  • Tuesday Tunes

               

    In keeping with the romantic theme, this old tune reminds us of how it feels when love is in fact "in the air". 

     

    Father, we only get a glimpse of love in these bodies of flesh. You wrote the Book of Love. You are Love. And it's so much bigger, better, more than we ever imagined. Thank you is never enough. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

     

  • Thinking of what she’s . . . Left to Loathe

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    Left to Loathe by Blake Pierce is Book 14 in the Adele Sharp Mystery Series.

    Special Agent Adele Sharp continues to suffer in guilt for her part in the death of a serial killer who called himself "The Painter". The guilt haunts and taunts her and she needs to tell her partner and love interest Agent John Renee what she's experiencing, but she keeps postponing the encounter. After getting the courage to confess her struggle to him, she's stunned by his reaction, but he follows up with a troublesome confession of his own. 

    The two of them are thrust into what has grown to be a serial murder of prostitutes that sends them first to the depravity of De Wallen, Amsterdam. They have very little to go on, and it only gets worse as the clues and information are slow-going but move them to Germany after another death. Adding to their frustration, the killer has a type. That they happen to resemble Adele is just an added side-effect in figuring out why he's selecting them. 

    When one of Adele's suspicions turns out terribly wrong, it eventually leads to other sources of information that prove to finally be valuable. 

    There is one parallel hidden underbelly of this story that no one, especially John and Adele, will ever see coming much to the dismay and absolute danger for both of them, leaving this novel in a desperate cliffhanger.  

    The growing closeness of Agents Renee and Sharp is well-written and rewarding. The "American Princess" as John likes to call Adele and the dashing French rogue Renee are very different in their cultural beginnings, backgrounds, crime-solving, and former lifestyles, but they mesh and Adele gets to see the best of John which he's growing more comfortable making available to her. That she decides to reveal her conscience to him is a big deal for her, and he lightens her burden with his honesty. There's a key element in her same confession to her father, and it doesn't appear to end well. 

    I love this series, but I'm not a huge fan of these types of cliffhangers. I would rather read a longer novel to have the extent of these events resolved rather than dangling them at a critical point only to have to wait for the next edition of the story. 

     

    Father, you know hearts, minds, souls. We can hide nothing from you, try as we might. Lord, bless Blake and provide what's needed for more stories. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

  • Sunday’s Offerings

     

    "In that day," declares the Lord,

       "will I not destroy the wise men of Edom,

       men of understanding in the mountains of Esau?

    Your warriors, O Teman, will be terrified,

       and everyone in Esau's mountains

       will be cut down in the slaughter.

    Because of the violence against your brother Jacob,

       you will be covered with shame; 

       you will be destroyed forever.

       . . ."

     

    Obadiah verses 8-10 (NIV) 

      

  • Nothing new under the sun . . .

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    What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.  Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NIV) 

    No better application for this verse than in literature. Plots have been done and redone hundreds, perhaps thousands of times. There are millions of novels offered by almost as many authors. To write a unique story is more than a challenge, it's almost impossible.

    So what will make a novel different, a story more enchanting, scarier, more engaging, funnier, more thrilling? What will it take to make a book stand out to a devoted reader of fiction?

    The easiest and most probable example to be made is in the genre of romance. How many ways can love go wrong or right? How many timelines or time traveling can be used and manipulated to tell the stories of people in all kinds of places who fall in love, stay in love, or experience the sorrow of being "star-crossed" lovers? It's all been done over and over again. 

    And yet we continue to read those novels that lure us into those basically-the-same stories because . . . why? Because they entice us by the way they introduce us to the premise or we fall instantly in love with one of the characters, or we are tantalized by the action incurred by some courageous hero, or we dread the trap set by the antagonist? Whatever it is that takes place to cause us to finish a story, to find an absolute favorite, to keep reading a series, to continue in a genre we don't normally enjoy – all those sometimes indefinable nuances of a story, a style, a plot we just plain like – this is what makes us select certain favorite authors and commit to reading whatever they write. 

    And that commitment is the desire of every one of us who writes fiction and longs to share our versions of "nothing new under the sun". 

     

    Father, you own my novels. Apart from you, I couldn't have written even one of them. You give me inspiration and words, characters and stories. I can't thank you enough for each one of them. May I always honor you with my novels. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.