Into the Fire

I've been the straggler when it comes to reading Charles Martin's novels. Shame on me. Unwritten is my third venture into Charles Martin's work, and it seems he has yet to disappoint. A few years ago – you Charles Martin experts will know exactly when – he switched from the Christian fiction genre to the general market. Some of his devoted readers were disappointed with a book or two of his after his decision. After reading Unwritten, I can imagine he decided to do this because of the restrictions generally placed on certain language and innuendoes in Christian fiction, but that would be a guess based on this particular novel. Those who are more familiar with him probably have read or heard his explanation for making this change.

Unwritten, published in 2013 by Center Street, a division of Hachette Book Group, is a story about two individuals who have been shattered by life's experiences and have one person in common before they meet each other in the worst possible way. Their common denominator is an 80+ year old Catholic priest who goes by the name of Steady. He's in the rescuing business and has a phenomenal ability to plan the merging of two broken people, who couldn't be more different from each other, in order to save them both.

Katie Quinn is a world famous actress of the stage and screen who's carried unrelenting pain which originated in her childhood, carried over into her youth, and has intensified to a level she can no longer bear.

"Sunday" is a mystery man, a recluse, who fishes and hides out on the shores and islands off the Florida coast. Somehow he's made enough money in his younger life to sustain his minimalist existence. His friend Steady joins him to fish and visits with him when Sunday stops by the church to talk.

When Steady realizes what Katie is about to do, he convinces Sunday to go with him to see her. Once they are able to reach her, life changes for both Katie and Sunday in a huge way – a way neither of them appreciates in the beginning.

What Charles Martin is able to do throughout this interesting story with three unusual characters is to slowly develop each one and weave their lives together as their revelations sneak out from the obtrusive walls Katie and Sunday have built to conceal them. Broken by different assaults, Katie and Sunday share empathy they're slow to discover, mutually unwilling to allow trust to be a factor in their odd new friendship.

Damaged and disguised, they venture together toward a realization neither of them expects to find – or really even wants to. A tiny hope on life support flutters in each of them, neither ready for what happens when clarity strikes them.

Unwritten is a contemporary story of breaking free from those things which hold us captive and torment us with their painful prodding and terrifying threats of even more hurt. Those things that keep us bound to the pain and refuse to relinquish us to find a workable freedom enabling us to live.

Although Steady brings the presence of godly wisdom and faith, both Katie and Sunday in particular never quite embrace the fullness of God. There are still some grudges and blame placed on God which Sunday can't quite overcome, but the story leads us to believe the faint glimmer of hope recognized and experienced in the ending of this tale could lead to a recognition and amplification of faith.

I would say the appearance of God is visible but obscured by the elements of the story which features two people who haven't decided to allow Him a place in their aching hearts. Steady keeps them aware of the goodness of God and the unconditional love he and God has for them. He is the one constant in their tumultuous emotional reckonings.

Unwritten displays the unique storytelling and imaginative, lovely, and intricate prose of Charles Martin. With compelling characters precisely because of their oddities, they lead us on a journey of discovery which elicits raw and all-consuming pain with the hope that in the end they will survive its terror. The ending of which remains unwritten.

Highly recommend the work of this gifted novelist.

Father, please continue to supply the stories to Charles and give him what he needs to write for your glory. Bless and encourage him as only you can do. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

Characters. One of my all-time favorites is pictured above. Played by my absolute favorite actor Johnny Depp. If you're familiar with Johnny Depp, you know he plays very diverse characters, and his appearance changes dramatically with each one. Developing Captain Jack Sparrow took on a bit of acting genius to sustain him through four films, reported to be creating a fifth. From Sam in Benny and Joon to The Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland to Tonto in The Lone Ranger, Johnny has proven his ability to accentuate and take on the unique flavors of many characters ranging from the serious to the absurd.

As a writer, characters in my stories play their first roles in my head. I watch them, sometimes visualize their physical appearances, hear them, and eventually know them. Not unusual to hear this from a writer, but often they consume my imaginary lifetime as I walk in their shoes. Critical to the writing process is making them as real to the reader as they are to the author. If readers can't vividly see or experience who they are, there's no way they can care about a story.

This identification or observation of characters doesn't mean the reader must be able to relate to their choices or their habits or their peculiarites. It means, in some manner, the reader must be interested in them.

Antagonists fall prey to clichés. Whether it's a serial killer or an ex-boyfriend, it's hard to find unique qualities to sustain interest in them. So many evil traits have been repeated ad nauseum. What separates one from another? Do you tire of predictable villains or do you accept their bad guy personas?  

Now my question for you writers is this: How far into your characters do you get when you're creating them and writing them?  

Father, thanks for imagination. You are the Creator. Thank you for sharing so much of who you are with us. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

My guy is holding out. Disappointing. I love Marshawn. Please honor your contract, Beastmode. Please.

Okay. There is no defending domestic violence. Nothing can be said to justify either spouse or people in a relationship whipping up on each other. Nothing. Having established the ground floor on this subject, I'm going to say this: everything concerning Ray Rice's and his fiancée's fiasco in Las Vegas has been dealt with by the couple and by the NFL. Tough if you don't like it. That's right: tough! Deal with it. Two adults, obviously not having a good time with possibly alcohol playing a role, acted aggressively and stupidly toward one another. One report said she spit on him, and he cold-cocked her. Another report said they slapped each other silly. Regardless of what truly transpired, it's long over, and all the pompous judges on sports radio and sports TV added to outraged women voicing their disdain for the discipline assigned to Ray Rice for his personal conduct need to shut up and mind their own business now.

Football is becoming just another victim of governmental and social intrusion. I for one detest the interference. I don't even like the pink accessories promoting breast cancer on the football field. Football fans love the sport, not the opinions of those outside the sport or those who think they're authorites on what should and shouldn't happen to these athletes. When there's a criminal investigation involving a player or coach, the authorities and/or courts decide the outcome. 

Some players make stupid mistakes that become public gossip and sports' tabloid fodder. So be it. But there's a limit to who should be passing judgment. I won't argue that it can seem like some athletes receive favored status in the courts. I won't argue that sometimes their punishments seem light. And I'm not saying either case is justified. I am saying that once the judgments are made and the NFL designates a suspension, fine, or whatever judgment they bring down, it's over.

Enough already!

Father, help us to better see through your eyes. Impossible to rightly see with our flawed and sinful gazes, but you can help us discern the good and evil. Thank you for that. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.  

Recognize yourself in any of these? How would you classify your emotional makeup? Author Brenda Anderson says she rarely cries, and her husband calls her "The Ice Queen". Other authors note their various emotional - or lack thereof – statuses and how those affect their writing.

I've declared multiple times here I'm a sap. And I've found my emotions tipping into serious sappiness in recent times. You'll find it in my stories, but I hope it's not as effusive as in my real life. 

My anger tends to be subdued, certainly less demonstrative than my tearful eruptions and rarely spontaneous.

I love to laugh but haven't been able to find a lot lately to express that wonderful emotion of unabated frivolity.

Silly? Oh yeah. I can be silly with the best of them if the mood strikes. In a good way, you know. 

So how about you? If you're emotional – or not – how does it affect your writing? And your reading? 

Father, I'm grateful for the deep emotions. It's difficult at times, but I'd rather feel deeply than very little. Thank you, Lord. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
                    

In the ongoing Jack Noble Novels by L. T. Ryan, it's imperative for the reader to start at Noble Beginnings and continue to experience these stories in order. It's not because the novels won't stand on their own, it's because for maximum benefit and to understand the progression of the characters in this series, each book takes the reader to another level of how their "business" plays upon their psyches, personalities, and faint grasps of some kind of morality.

The problem in reviewing the series at this point is the inability to divulge important plot points that have carried over from the previous episodes without ruining the experience of each collection. You know I rarely include spoilers – and always mark them when I do.

What I can tell you is I like Jack again in this edition of the series. He's weary, has lost a bit of his sharpness, but is anxious to get back to the "things" he left undone. In order to do that, he and Frank Skinner must cooperate on certain assignments, so he teams up with one of Frank's best female agents (Jasmine) to clean up a critical mess that threatens the security of America in multiple ways.

Jack feels responsible for this particular mess although he had no idea what he was hired to obtain when he did it for the all-world gangster called "the old man". When "the old man" sold what Jack had provided for him to the Russians, Jack learned just what kind of dangerous information he'd secured for the gangster. And he intended to get it back.

In the meantime, Clarissa's assignment merges with Jack's and Jasmine's while both Bear and Pierre plan a rescue of little Mandy when she is kidnapped again, this time during a strange bank robbery.

Once again these jobs take all the players to different parts of the country and world and eventually back to New York City. Action, killing, distrust, betrayal – all present in Episodes 6 – 10 of Season Two. Jack wants to retire, take Clarissa and make a life for them. As you might expect, their lives can never be easily resolved. Obligations, both professional and personal, seem to always keep them apart except at critical moments when they save each other's lives.

There's a lot going on with each character in this installment. Internal and external struggles, emotional upheavals, and always trying to stay one or two steps ahead of trouble but rarely allowed that opportunity.

Season Two ends with another cliffhanger from Jack's not-too-distant past, and it works perfectly to keep the reader pressing on and ready to venture with Jack to London on a more personal mission.

I recommend these Jack Noble Novels if you're a fan of intense international intrigue, high crimes, good guys and bad guys, and the muddled mess of deciphering who's who and what's what. L. T. Ryan does a good job of concealing, mingling, and amping up the conflicts. Minimum profanity. Definitely violence.

Father, please continue to provide Lee with stories to tell. Bless his life and home. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.     

The wicked freely strut about

   when what is vile is honored among men.

Psalm 12:8 (NIV)

Writers are always instructed to make sure everything within the pages of a fiction manuscript advances the story. While it's one of the better "suggestions", aka "rules", it too is not foolproof and inarguable.

Stories combine a multitude of factors. Characters, locations, sights, sounds, smells; literary, action-packed, ordinary, extraordinary, fantasy, supernatural, historical, criminal, styles and genres. If the above rule is applied religiously and unbendingly, the author will produce an Ernest Hemingway replica. And while some professionals love Hemingway, many readers do not. As I've said repeatedly about Hemingway, he was a terrible writer who told great stories (with the exception of The Old Man and the Sea).

I would guess editors are as diverse as writers which is a giant reason for using one who complements and understands the writer's style. Differing opinions as to what "advances" and enhances a story present significant conflict.

I enjoy details in a story. I like to read them and I like to write them. They don't have to be included for the sole purpose of contributing to a story but instead to provide a wider vision of plot, scene, etcetera. I like characters and their sometimes superfluous reactions fleshed out because to me it tends to make them more realistic.

If you've ever read a Tom Morrisey novel, you will generally read a lot of technical information included with his touching and action-centered literary style not usually found in this rare combination. Traditionally, you get one or the other, but Tom has a unique way of bringing them all together. One of my favorite novels is Tom's In High Places, the touching story of a father and son who climb rocks and experience the death and grief of losing wife and mother, and the son experiences first love while trying to figure out why his mother died the way she did. Meshed with the hard adjustments to being without the woman they loved, we feel the sorrow, the growing morose mood of the father, and all the while we're also reading about the technical equipment and instructions for rock climbing. Tom's a rare breed of author.

Authors can go off on tangents, and this rule is designed to restrict their falling in love with their flair for words. The evil red pen of editors can easily kick those extraneous words to the curb without even flinching, while the author of those precious darlings sits slumped in a chair bawling over the marked up manuscript. The decisions to keep or extract words should make sense and not feel like a death knell to the story by the author. Again, finding a compatible editor is critical for the storyteller.

The point of all of this is to tell a good story – to present an entertaining piece of work for readers to enjoy, to immerse themselves in a tale that accomplishes the desired results. It's important to note readers are as different as writers. Their fickle tastes cannot be served by obeying or disobeying every rule known to authors. Story will trump writing in most cases but not all. The idea is to give the best audience for your work the dual satisfaction of a good story and good writing. No easy task but worth the effort if you're a writer. And that's the point after all.

Father, apart from you, we can do nothing. Thank you for sharing your creativity. May we use it the way you intended. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.  

Summer TV makes a case for Anna Wood and Cam Gigandet as the sexy Yankee lawyer Jamie Sawyer at odds with the Charleston, South Carolina, newly appointed City Attorney Roy Rayder. If you like Southern sizzle and pop, Reckless is a well cast and tightly wound drama with good writing, plenty of conflicts, and each episode leaving viewers anxious for the next installment on CBS Sunday evenings at 10 PM (PDT).

With several conflicts in the police department and courtroom intersecting, these particular two characters have UST that just won't stop. Great onscreen chemistry.

If you enjoy that southern twang and the cultural discrepancy between the north and south, Reckless is an entertaining venture. The steamy scenes could easily be eliminated and seem to be included just because Hollywood must think without a sex scene quota, people won't tune in. When you present a series with as much good conflict and UST as contained in this drama, the slight graphics show up as unnecessary add-ons.

Other characters prove worthy of note and keep the reservoir of trouble active. Not your ordinary courtroom drama, although there are some highly charged battles within that environment. Each week reveals more and expands the knowledge of each personality. Reckless is a good summer replacement series and should earn a recurring role on the CBS roster.

Father, you're the source of real talent. Let those who use it well recognize from whom it comes. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.     

Computers are a necessary evil and a frequent nuisance. I've been locked somewhere in the netherworld of no ethernet or internet for a few days. As you might've guessed, it has been . . . difficult. Now with a new modem/router and several hours of extra frustration setting up, it appears I am up and running.

I've been out of touch, and I've missed you, but now it's all good. I'll catch up eventually.

Father, all I can say is thank you. You keep me steady. Apart from you, I can do nothing. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

Not a word from their mouth can be trusted;

  their heart is filled with destruction.

Their throat is an open grave;

  with their tongue they speak deceit.

Declare them guilty, O God!

  Let their intrigues be their downfall.

Banish them for their many sins,

  for they have rebelled against you.

Psalm 5:9-10 (NIV)