Into the Fire

How many novels have you read more than once? I can only recall two, both by Kristen Heitzmann, Secrets and Unforgotten. I loved Lance Michelli. I've read portions of novels over again. Some many times, but I've only read those two entire books over again, right after I finished them. An amazing experience I've never been inclined to do again - until reading The Waves Break Gray . . .  

Father, thank you again and again for the amazing creativity you give so generously to your writers. I'm in awe of how you inspire and encourage. May those who use your skills know and recognize that apart from you, we can do nothing. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

     One day Jesus said to his disciples, "Let's go over to the other side of the lake." So they got into a boat and set out. As they sailed, he fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped and they were in great danger.

     The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Master, Master, we're going to drown!"

     He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. "Where is your faith?" he asked his disciples.

     In fear and amazement they asked one another, "Who is this? He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him."

Luke 8:22-25 (NIV)

What makes some writing more impacting than others? What makes us appreciate certain authors and leads us to read all their books? Writers tend to give specific responses to questions such as these. Readers often give less tangible answers.

Having just read Sibella Giorello's The Waves Break Gray, I'm reminded how much I've missed her character Raleigh Harmon. And I caught myself exploring the two questions posed above. So . . . here are my thoughts and answers:

     Sibella packs an enormous amount of emotional pain into the understated Raleigh Harmon. Establishing the long-term requirement of keeping her emotions in check due to her mother's mental illness and adding the same discipline when employed as an agent for the FBI, Raleigh is anything but the hysterical female. She's constantly suppressing her emotions in order to function at a high level and not give away the agony she often experiences on the inside.

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     She's had to hone her toughness just to survive her pain and this survival instinct keeps her somewhat unable to admit and handle her feelings for Jack. She can't take any more rejection in her life so she stifles her attraction and longing for him and pretends not to care when she thinks Jack has someone else in his life, attempting to distance herself from him to alleviate more pain. All of this is written perfectly, authentically, capturing the pure emotion of this young woman who's torn apart by a mother who can't be one to her and never has been and the additional misinterpretation of what she and Jack feel for each other.

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     Besides the terrific character building of her heroine, the language is elevated and uncommon, using beautiful, stark, or shocking metaphors to describe scenes or items or the expressions on people's faces. I can see, smell, hear, or taste what Sibella presents. At times I'm in awe of her descriptions.

     Adding to the list, the dialogue brings the characters into acute focus. We know them from their expressions and words. Raleigh's internal dialogue is always honest and self-punishing. No one is harder on her than she is. Yet she manages to conduct herself as a true professional, reading people well with her discernment, not above suspecting most everyone and can wield sarcasm like a sword but generally selects the right tone for each individual.  

There are my answers as to why Sibella Giorello is one of my most favorite authors.

Father, once again I ask for your blessings upon Sibella. Pour out your Spirit on her life. Fill her up with your presence, I pray. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

The Waves Break Gray is Sibella Giorello's sixth novel in the Raleigh Harmon Mysteries.

Raleigh Harmon's emotional pain bleeds from the page like a severed artery.

How can it be that a young woman so eager but afraid to give love, who empathizes with the grief-stricken, who searches out the truth no matter the personal cost, who wants so desperately to find what it takes to be loved, can't find the key to that elusive and most basic of needs?

The Waves Break Gray is the kind of book you don't want to end, but you want to put a tourniquet on the pain, you want to keep reading but you have to set it down because it hurts too much to continue, and you're almost praying for a good ending but fear it won't happen.  

Raleigh Harmon resigned from the FBI but still does consulting work for them in forensic geology. Jack still works for the FBI and insists he and Raleigh are "two of a kind". Captivated by Jack, Raleigh fights falling hard, but it's too late, and she knows it. 

Raleigh and her mother's dog "Madame" live with a grand old woman (Eleanor) who used to do theater and met Raleigh when she worked a case at the racetrack involving Eleanor's race horses. The unique relationship affords Raleigh the use of Eleanor's classic sports car which she uses to get to her new case in Leavenworth and up to the asylum where her paranoid schizophrenic mom now lives. The excruciating and demanding visits with Madame to see her mother produce the intense pain she's endured since her childhood. That singular rejection haunts Raleigh every day of her life and influences her thoughts and actions bringing both vulnerability and cynicism to her approaches in nearly every circumstance. A scene at the asylum after yet another rejection will bring tears to your eyes and point to the novel's title.   

I would love to tell you more and quote some of the superb writing in this novel, but there's just too much. With an unusual plot twist I never saw coming, The Waves Break Gray goes from frustrating to bizarre. Fascinating and rewarding, the ending is perfect, and now it will be very difficult to wait for the next Raleigh Harmon Mystery. If you love these books, this one will both break your heart and make you cheer.

Thank you, Sibella, for another Raleigh Harmon story that exceeds the norm for today's mysteries and re-establishes Raleigh as the best female character in contemporary literature.

Lord, I don't believe anyone can write this kind of pain without having known it at some point, so my prayer is that any residual pain in Sibella's life will be fully healed by your amazing grace. Please continue to bless her life, her family, her creativity and outstanding talent with your divine touch. Keep her safe from all harm. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.  

I'm savoring the new Raleigh Harmon novel. I've maintained that Sibella Giorello's Raleigh Harmon is one of the finest female characters in contemporary literature. Strong yet vulnerable, she's unique and psychologically deep and wounded. This is an excellent series by a truly gifted writer. You should start with the prequels and read all the way through the Raleigh Harmon Mysteries.

Father, please continue to bless Sibella. She writes emotional pain so well. If she carries it personally, I pray you would make her burdens light as only you can do. Encourage her, strengthen her, and keep her safe from all harm. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

BK Jackson got me thinking with her comment on Friday's post (What is it with sex?). She said in a question, "Maybe people who write don't KNOW how to bridge that gap between vulgar and non-existent or dry?"

Interesting concept. The reason being because some authors/writers appear not to know how to bridge that gap, others definitely want to maintain a wide gap and prefer non-existent sexual intimations in scenes where they would appear natural or authentic while still others want to push every titillating sexual button with their words and descriptions. Between the prudish and the vulgar, there should be an acceptable middle ground, but there is not. And I would venture there never will be. Those who prefer to use zero sexual words or references and those who write explicit sexual scenes have only one thing in common and that is story. How they set out to write the story purposely differs.

Inherently different in their approaches, they're appealing to totally opposite audiences. And any writer who's done any serious contemplation of their desired readers knows what they want from their audience and what their readers will want from them.

I cannot imagine why readers desire to read sexually graphic fiction. The only thing I've been able to come up with is for them to be able to fantasize the experience – to allow the explicit descriptions to virtually turn them on. If you have another reason, I'd love to hear it because apparently there are an abundance of readers who seek secular fiction for this purpose. If that's not the case, then why would they continue to read the enormous amount of literature with those scenes in them?

In the opposite camp are those readers who somehow have concluded that anything sexual or sensuous in literature is sinful and shame on the author who includes any mention of a sexual attraction or action. The market for those novels may not be as large as those who read secular/general market fiction, but they're a powerful lobby in Christian fiction and can find an ample supply of their purist novels.

If you're a reader and/or a writer, I'd love to hear your opinions on this topic.

Father, you created sex and mankind perverted it. You are the author of everything good and perfect, beautiful and trustworthy. And we pervert it all. Please forgive us, Lord, and help each of us who write to seek after beauty, truth, grace, and mercy with our words. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.   

     Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own. You were bought at a price.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV)

Okay. The title and picture are meant to titillate your interest. Make you feel compelled to read the article. How does it feel to be manipulated by sensationalism? Even though this is a legitimate question, let me quote a verse from the bible. For some readers, they're already rolling their eyes. "OMG, not the bible!" Yet, the OMG stands for Oh My God so why don't we hear what the Creator of sex has to say about it.

     For this reason [Genesis 2:23] a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they will become one flesh.

     The man and the woman were both naked, and they felt no shame. (Genesis 2:24-25 NIV)

     Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. (1 Corinthians 6:18 NIV)

Writing fiction requires authors to make critical decisions about interpersonal relationships in all genres. It doesn't have to be a romance – historical, suspense, or otherwise – for those decisions to contemplate a sexual agenda. How much if at all should sex play a part in the story, in the characters' relationships? Not much in most of Christian Fiction. Of course not graphic/explicit sex but even mentioning serious sexual attraction is often taboo at some publishing houses. In secular, or as the publishing world likes to call it: general market fiction, it's no holds barred resulting in written pornography by some authors. Do secular readers gloss over it, skip those passages, enjoy it?

If the success of the 50 Shades of Grey Series is any indicator, there are an enormous amount of women who enjoy reading about sex and even perversions of what the original act was meant to be. I have no reasonable explanation for this. 

What sex was meant to be and what it's become in this world are as estranged as good and evil. This act was meant to be a merging of bodies, souls, and spirits in the purest form of a triad union. Pleasurable, beautiful, pure, and holy. Even Christians fail to remember the holiness factor where sex is concerned. God is not absent from the sexual union. But to see the utter pollution of this dynamic, explosive, and intimate act of two individuals becoming one physically, emotionally, and spiritually is of course a direct consequence of our sinful natures mixed with the destructive influences of the enemy of God's people: the devil himself.  

As a Christian reader who spent 30 years in the world before meeting Jesus, I know the ugliness of sexual impurity. I also know the beauty of God's forgiveness. As a writer, I know sexual relationships can't be ignored in authentic fiction, but the portrayals of both kinds of relationships can be done tastefully without acting as if sexual tension or attraction doesn't exist. To write without that evident tension where it would normally appear is basically dishonest, but those stories definitely have their audience.

Preliminary musings . . .

Father, help us all to personally combat the corruption of this holy act of love, to honor, enjoy, and respect what you gave to us. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.     

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Sex, Lies, and . . . Christian Fiction

                 Book 3 in the McCabe and Savage Thrillers.  

Maybe the secular readers don't mind the excessive cussing and sex scenes or maybe they've just become used to it. Publishers shape readers. If a publisher decides a novel needs more of this and less of that, their editors comply and the novelist must decide how much they're willing to do and/or compromise. Most authors are willing to do whatever it takes to get their books published. Unfortunately, many good stories are cluttered with foul language and salacious sexual scenes. Mr. Hayman's novels fit this category. Very good stories not only cluttered but littered with garbage language and sex. I checked the Amazon reviews and there were only a few one-stars, but each of those complained about the language and sex, discarding the story because of their excesses.

It's said that the excessive use of profanity is a result of lazy writing. I would agree. Profanity is far more explosive when limited and its effects can be suggested with as much power as the actual use of the words. The inclusion of explicit sex scenes are generally unnecessary and create a type of pornographic element to the story.

Having said all that about Mr. Hayman's novels – and I've read three in this series – I think it's a shame that a writer as talented as he is in creating these mysteries with two interesting main characters in McCabe and Savage decides to muddy his stories with ugly language and voyeuristic sex. I really don't want to "hear", visualize, or read about other people's sexual escapades other than understanding they have them. Beyond that, it's just pornography.

Darkness First lets us see Maggie Savage up close. Takes us to her hometown, lets us meet her sheriff father, his wife (Maggie's mom passed away), one of her brothers (Harlan) - the black sheep of the family – and allows us to watch her work without McCabe until she finally calls him for assistance. A young woman visits Maggie's best friend Emily who is a doctor. When the woman can't get what she needs from Emily, she leaves but is discovered by the person from whom she's running. There's an horrific scene when he finds her, and when Emily steps outside to see if she can help, she's run down in the street by the same person.

The ongoing investigation in which Maggie can only peripherally assist takes some riveting turns in both the mysterious and the emotional involvements. People keep turning up dead with zero real evidence left behind but made to look like what it's not. Maggie's gut is telling her that all the "evidence" is not what it seems, and as the case progresses, there's a nagging suspicion of who the perpetrator is. When she turns to McCabe for help, he arrives to give her back up and the support she didn't realize she needed.

McCabe and Savage are well-developed characters and strong for each other, loyal partners. Their attraction to each other stays in the background most of the time but can't quite be ignored. Maggie is faced with a lot of emotional challenges on this trip back home besides the brutal murders and the injuries to her friend. McCabe is the strength she needs and counts on maybe too much. He wouldn't have it any other way.

With a satisfactory ending Darkness First presents another good mystery – giving clues a little sooner as to the killer but stretching out how to catch this clever evil one.

Father, you know the hearts of us all. We can hide nothing from you. Please continue to give insights to James and lead him to yourself. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

Michelangelo Antonioni's film Blow Up isn't well known in certain places. Filled with symbolism from start to finish, it's vintage 1960's "art". Rock 'n' roll buffs will recognize the great guitarists (Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck) and the late Keith Relf in the British group The Yardbirds performing in this clip from the movie. Blow Up debuted in 1966. I was crazy about this movie at the time.

Lord, only you know our hearts. Please keep drawing souls to your Son. We're all desperate for you whether we know it or not. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.