More than Writers

  As a Christian writer, see your writing career or project as a cross to carry till you achieve your victory.  You have been destined to win souls for the kingdom through your writing. It starts from the reception of the idea to the conception and birth of the first word to the last word on the final page. The next process of first edits, first thoughts on cover design and title, comes through before the final publishing process. We all wish it’s achieved easily. Nothing good comes easy, right? It might take years, months or weeks for some! When my mother died in October 2005, I grieved for years. I kept jotting down my thoughts and feelings – which were all over the place. This process brought healing to my mind, body and soul. I was finally able to face what I had written and published it! It was a cross I had carried for 20 years to victory. It will help people who need to process their grief and their hurt. What has been the longest time it has taken you to carry a proj...

  I might receive some criticism for this blog. Once again, I am thinking about Biblical fiction and how far we should add to scripture (if at all). I understand that ‘Midrash’ is the Hebrew word meaning, ‘putting flesh on the bones.’ So, how much flesh is acceptable? An author may focus on a Bible short story and write a series of books using rampant imagination. They may look at themes of forgiveness and redemption, sin and guilt, etc. I’m not saying it’s wrong. I’m asking, is there a limit? I have read some of the most well-known and perhaps most controversial BF books. One of my favourites was the ‘Left Behind’ series by Jerry Jenkins and Tim LaHaye. This 16-book series (I read 13) is a dramatized interpretation of end-times prophecy, depicting a post-rapture world. I now know that it is h eavily based on dispensationalist theology, which isn’t universally accepted. Many assume its portrayal of the Rapture and Tribulation is exactly how the Bible describes it. When I read...

I began life as a writer of non-fiction. Working on my local newspaper, there was no place for either fiction or poetry so those had to be kept strictly to my leisure hours. Later working life involved editing and publishing non-fiction, and when finally I was able to write my own books, it was easier to keep going down that familiar and by now well-beaten track. Especially as I had lots of friends and contacts amongst the non-fiction publishers! I suppose it was the path of least resistance - or to put a more positive spin on it, working to my strengths. Non-fiction had chosen me, much more than me choosing it. But my heart yearned to write fiction. And I was already writing lots of poetry. Over the years, the folders filled up, some with complete stories, some with starts that never got finished! And life went on, in all its gruesome technicolour. And each time I moved house, those folders got repacked into boxes and emptied out on bookshelves, nagging reminders... Until one day, I d...

  They say a picture speaks a thousand words and there are definitely times when I think that’s true. I’m fortunate enough to spend a week each year in the Swiss mountains and I can’t explain in words the majesty of the scenery and the deep peace that strikes me as I walk in the sun-lit, snow-dampened quietness.   I have similar feelings when I try to explain the cute mischievousness on a toddler’s face, or the love steaming from the eyes of a bride. Those sort of facial expressions are so much easier to picture than to describe. The best I can hope is that my words work like a link to a website: you click on a link and the website opens. You read the words and a picture from your own life experiences comes to mind.     Is that why, as Christians, we tend to focus on concepts like parental love and deep friendship? Even sacrifice. We know what they look like in our own lives, or what a flawed, never-perfect version of them looks like. It’s not a big stre...