Category: Fiction
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Revisions and the Joy of Allegory
Today I plan to start revisions on The Advent. Step 1 is reading through the manuscript as it stands. This is always an interesting venture. I haven’t looked at it since I finished the first draft back in early December, and I have a short memory when it comes to my own writing. I also…
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Haunt of Jackals: The Conversation Continues
Last week when I blogged on Haunt of Jackals for the CSFF Blog Tour, I was hoping to stir up conversation. Well, thanks to everyone who jumped in with many different viewpoints, conversation has been stirred! In fact, Eric Wilson, the author of Haunt, was gracious enough to offer a response of his own. If…
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God in Fiction (Haunt of Jackals, Day 3)
As my review made clear yesterday, I was bothered by the representation of Christ in Haunt of Jackals. In some ways I found it more pagan than Christian. But that brings me back to a question I’ve asked myself a thousand times since I began writing: how can we faithfully represent God in fiction? As…
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A Review: Haunt of Jackals (Day 2)
April 2000–Zalmoxis Cave, Romania She was free, for now. The first step . . . With dagger in hand, Gina Lazarescu faced the cave opening where the sounds of scuffing feet seemed to mark the presence of another. A Collector? One of Jerusalem’s Undead? Bleeding, she stood still and waited. Haunt of Jackals opens where…
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Haunt of Jackals: CSFF Blog Tour
Kudos to Eric Wilson: he is a brave man. Since I put Worlds Unseen into the world, I’ve learned that reviews are a mixed bag. You’ll get good ones. You’ll get bad ones. Often you’ll get mixed reviews, because very few people will share the exact vision you had for your story or will feel…
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Fiction at the Rim of Knowledge
As symbol, or as the structuring of symbols, art can render intelligible — or at least visible, at least discussible — those wilderness regions which philosophy has abandoned and those hazardous terrains where science’s tools do not fit. I mean the rim of knowledge where language falters; and I mean all those areas of human…
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Story, Symbol, and Laughter in The Vanishing Sculptor: An Interview with Donita K. Paul (Day 3)
For this month’s CSFF Blog Tour, Donita K. Paul was kind enough to grant me an interview. Although e-mail and spam filters tried hard to sabotage our conversation, we finally connected. I think it was a conversation worth having. I hope you’ll agree! Rachel: The Vanishing Sculptor was the first of your works I’ve read,…
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A Review: The Vanishing Sculptor (Day 2)
Tipper’s heart skipped a beat . . . “I have a feeling,” she said, “that we are going to have a glorious quest. This day is the beginning of a great adventure.” So declares Tipper Schope, who gladly gives up the responsibility of caring for her family’s estate when her disappearing father reappears after fifteen…
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The Vanishing Sculptor: CSFF Blog Tour
This month’s featured CSFF book is The Vanishing Sculptor by Donita K. Paul, the Dragon Lady of Christian fiction. Mrs. Paul’s books have made a definite splash, and I’ve been hearing their ripples for years, but this is the first I’ve actually read. It is fun, more than usually so, even for a children’s book…
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The Book On Paper and the One In Here (Offworld, Day 3)
I’ve heard it said that every writer has two books: the one in his head, and the one that ends up on paper. CSFF Blogger Julie did an interview with Robin Parrish in which he says, There was also a desire on my part to do a story that was totally character-driven. The Dominion Trilogy…