Into the Fire

My kind of Christmas refreshment. Sweet kid. Works for me. I have no idea why it's called "creepy". It's anything but creepy. 

Father, please bless those who write and create entertainment without raunch and who honor kindness and character especially for this time of the year. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

                          In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever.

Psalm 30:12b (NIV)

   (Originally published on January 9th, 2014, over at Novel Rocket.)

No one wants to listen to advice from an author who hasn’t sold much of his or her work. Writers want to hear from those elite authors who’ve ended up on The NYTimes Bestseller List or have actually repeatedly and impressively sold their novels in large numbers, causing the average reader to remember their names, not just the title of their books. Who can blame them?

Perhaps these special authors have discovered the secret key or code to producing, marketing, and selling fiction. Notice I didn’t say “good” fiction. Because, honestly, sometimes what sells well isn’t written well, uses a clichéd plot, stereotypical melodrama, and/or cardboard, smarmy, or super-hero characters. What does this mean?

It means many things. A specific audience was ripe for picking up that drama, comedy, thriller, or period piece and the writing techniques were inconsequential to the subject of the book. There was just enough emotion, laughter, blood, or lace and swords to capture a significant part of the reading population at any given time. The simplicity of the story gave a good many readers just what they wanted for entertainment, escape, and excitement. Somehow it worked.

Could other writers follow their successful leads and reap the same benefits? We see those attempts frequently from publishers wanting to cash in on what appears to be working, i.e. Amish/Mennonite novels; Vampire novels. Trends that work for a season flood the market until signs of saturation reduce the inventory.

I’m not one of those authors who qualifies for giving advice of any kind concerning writing endeavors. In spite of that disclaimer, I will say I’ve learned that different types of writers exist, and some of them will do whatever it takes to be published. Others not so much. E-publishing has given the second group opportunities to fulfill their writing pleasures be they good, bad, ugly, or indifferent. Everyone has an opinion about who should or shouldn’t be published, but it’s almost become a moot point. Those willing to compromise and meet the needs of editors/publishers to secure a contract find a certain satisfaction in obtaining their goal(s).

Having said all that, I’ve found, for myself, authenticity matters most to me. The heart or the head, and very often it’s a combination of both leaning heavily toward one or the other, dictates how authors write their stories. Big surprise I lean toward the heart – which isn’t always a good thing. However, writing a novel must immerse me in its deep waters, only allowing the gasping eruption surfacing back into my current reality in order to function in the day-to-day. The story absorbs me into each personality and produces the voices and circumstances of those individuals. It has to.

So how’s that workin’ for ya, you ask? Well, it works for me. However, it hasn’t produced bestsellers or an author who will give you advice or pretend what she has to say will in any way affect how you choose to write your novels.

Father, thank you for every mini-moment of success in touching someone's heart. No words for that feeling. No words big enough to thank you enough. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

                          
(Originally posted on February 13th, 2012, "Taking the . . . Kill Shot")

The New York Times multiple bestselling novels by Vince Flynn give the contemporary thriller readers an informed and realistic look at the world of assassins and espionage. No one does it any better than Vince Flynn. Kill Shot is the latest in the Mitch Rapp series, the second prequel following American Assassin. Vince has said in a few of the interviews he's done for this novel that he wanted to expose the loneliness and isolation that an individual in Mitch's profession faces. He nails his objective with great flair in Kill Shot, a novel that moves quickly to the final page.

A young Mitch Rapp has been turned loose to eliminate a list of terrorists in multiple locations around the world. His next assignment is in Paris, France, and as he scopes out the target, the job looks textbook. He takes his time to make sure of every detail because his attention to precision is what makes him the best at what he does. When everything is in place, it's time to move on the target, but something feels off. It's an intangible that resonates in his gut but nowhere else. He proceeds, completes his mission, and as he's about to exit the hotel room, he's ambushed by men with automatic weapons spraying every inch of the suite. His incredible skill at assessing the attack is the only reason he escapes and not without damage as one bullet hits and exits through his left shoulder.

Mitch Rapp no longer knows who he can trust. This last hit erupted in an incredible mess and Paris law enforcement is all over it. A DGSE (the French CIA) agent appears on the scene and a side plot is injected into the story. Mitch does what he's been trained to do when things go horribly wrong, but he delays calling his handler Irene Kennedy because he's beginning to wonder if even she is trustworthy. When he decides to call, he exposes the prejudiced assumptions being made about the situation as errant and conspiratorial against him, insisting he was set up.

When a team is dispensed to Paris to find Mitch, he's not sure a "kill order" hasn't been sent along with them. The man who trained him (Stan Hurley) has misjudged him from the beginning and one of Hurley's top guys ("Victor") hates Mitch and wants him dead. Mixed in with all of this is a Monsignor who's an elderly spy, Mitch's gorgeous girlfriend Greta, a British MI6 friend of the acting Director of the CIA (Thomas Stansfield), some jihadists, and a few crooked politicians on both sides of the pond. 

If you want genuine thrillers with a larger than life hero in Mitch Rapp, Vince Flynn's novels should be next on your reading list. The importance and significance of the CIA with its successes and failures is never diminished in Vince's novels. The positions of political, law enforcement, espionage, and military types get honest portrayals and accurate assessments in characters of all kinds. If you get uptight about "head-hopping" in writing styles, Vince's approach might bug you, but I find it seamless and easy to follow.

If I had to fault the novel, I'd make the point that Mitch Rapp's character makes these stories, and a fair amount of this novel is partitioned off to those characters who want Mitch's head. It's not a big problem because it heightens the battle waged between the good and bad guys in the same professions and exposes the lusts for power, wealth, and dominance.

If you're squeamish about violence or uncomfortable with varying degrees of cussing, you'll be overlooking some valuable, yes, even meaningful, stories in Vince Flynn's novels. Kill Shot focuses on the isolation of an assassin who methodically takes care of the most evil terrorists in the world. His meticulous skills, extreme accuracy, and his personal moral code require him to avoid non-combatants at all costs where and when it's possible.

American Assassin and Kill Shot have taken us back to the young Mitch Rapp to show us how he became the elite assassin of Vince's later books. His next Mitch Rapp novel will pick up in time after Pursuit of Honor, bringing his readers back to the present in Rapp's life. There's no contemporary writer I can recommend more in this particular genre than Vince Flynn.

God, you've brought Vince through tremendous pain, physical and emotional suffering, and you've protected him along the way. I pray you would bring him back to full strength and provide complete healing. Continue to lead him in all that he does and in the stories he's born to tell. Watch over him with your protective hands, I pray. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

It's never easy watching them grow up, but the memories transcend it all. Subaru nailed it with this one.

God, please watch over those we love, those you've chosen to give to us to raise. Such an honor and a privilege and never easy. We're desperate for you in all we're charged to do. Help us to do it well. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

The Rolling Stones had multiple hits. Love them or hate them, they were talented at every level and successful with their version of real rock 'n' roll.

Father, thankfully you know our hearts. You give the talents and gifts and wait for us to recognize where they came from. Help more understand that apart from you, we can do nothing. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

When Rachel Stowe's pastry chef friend Holly is invited to the classic old hotel just outside of Juniper Grove to entertain a well-known radio host and his crew with her baked wares in exchange for his advertising of her bakery (Holly's Sweets), Rachel and Julia tag along for the adventure and to support Holly. It just happens to be on the 50th anniversary of an unsolved murder at the hotel of a man named Purdy, and the host is convinced of the reality of the tale that his ghost still roams the hotel looking for his killer.

The longtime owner of the hotel is a kind man who's kept the hotel in its aging condition to keep up its tourist appeal of being haunted. However, it doesn't much appeal to the trio of friends even though the owner is cordial and accommodating, having shut down the hotel to outside guests just for this occasion. Holly, Julia, and Rachel are given rooms next to each other but right across the hall from the room where Purdy was murdered and where the radio crew is set up. They're warned about a strange sound that happens sometimes with the added suggestion that it's the old pipes contracting. This of course makes no sense to Rachel, especially when it happens.Some think it's coming from the basement, and a few of them including Rachel decide to investigate after acquiring flashlights. Other than being creepy, there's nothing downstairs to explain the noise.

Before long there is a murder in the library. And a storm. And the power goes out. The couple who are caretakers at the hotel are rushed into service as the storm rushes in and the power goes out.

As you can imagine, in the dark with an unknown murderer in the bunch there is considerable suspense and suspicion.

And so goes the scary mysterious death in this Book 5 Scared to Death of the Juniper Grove Mystery Series by Karin Kaufmann. As always, the Queen of cozy mysteries is at her investigative best with Rachel Stowe doing her part to put the strange occurrences in order and helping her beau Sheriff Gilroy reach the right conclusions.  

Father, thank you for Karin's work, the clever voice and stories you've given her, and her ability to entertain readers while glorifying you. Keep her going, Lord, and bless her in your abundance. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

     The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:

          "This is the covenant I will make with them

               after that time, says the Lord.

           I will put my laws in their hearts,

               and I will write them on their minds."

     Then he adds:

           "Their sins and lawless acts 

            I will remember no more."

     And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sin."

Hebrews 10:15-18 (NIV)