SNOW in Tucson!!! and a Blog Tour

I have 461 pages of galleys before me marked with almost that many flags of issues to deal with, and today it started SNOWING!!! Snow in Tucson! Last time it happened was in April of '95, I think. Talk about a big time distraction. But I'm using it. Do a little work, then go back and look out the window again. When I saw the snow on the palm trees tonight, though, I just had to take a picture...

As the title alludes to, it's also time for another blog tour, this one featuring the young adult fantasy trilogy of Wayne Thomas Batson: The Door Within, Rise of the Wyrm Lord, and The Final Storm, which released last September. I'm sure regular readers of this blog will not be surprised to learn I haven't read them, but others on the tour are quite excited about the series and it's apparently been doing very well on Amazon. Tina Kulesa was eagerly looking forward to putting up her comments on the series for this tour, as was Rebecca Miller , and Sharon Hinck has already posted a very nice interview with Mr. Batson. (One I could totally relate to, by the way.)

For straight from the horse's mouth material, check out The Door Within web site and Wayne Thomas Batson's blog as well. Wayne, a middle school English and Reading teacher, has some nifty artwork he's done himself using a digital art program called Bryce 3D (Daz Studios) to promote the series. Pretty cool.

While others are busy touring I'll have my nose to the grindstone, going through my pile of 461 pieces of paper and their accompanying post-it flags. Some of the the glitches are minor, but others are major, head-banging issues that send me to the Lord screaming "HELP!!!" And I have only ten days to get it done. But don't mind me...

Other folks on the tour this time are listed below. Enjoy!

Jim Black; Jackie Castle; Valerie Comer; Karri Compton; Frank Creed; CSFF Blog Tour; Gene Curtis; Chris Deanne; Janey DeMeo; Tessa Edwards; April Erwin; Linda Gilmore; Beth Goddard; Marcus Goodyear; Todd Michael Greene; Leathel Grody ; Karen Hancock; Katie Hart; Sherrie Hibbs; Sharon Hinck; Joleen Howell; Kait; Karen; K. D. Kragen; Tina Kulesa; Lost Genre Guild; Kevin Lucia and The Bookshelf Reviews 2.0 - The Compendium; Rachel Marks; Shannon McNear; Rebecca LuElla Miller; Caleb Newell; Eve Nielsen; John Otte; Robin Parrish; Cheryl Russel; Hannah Sandvig; Mirtika Schultz ; James Somers; Stuart Stockton; Steve Trower; Speculative Faith; Daniel I. Weaver

Karen

Vitalogy

In line with my comments the other day about science being a self-correcting discipline, and the continual change in so-called scientific "facts," I direct you to this new entry by Ed Willett on "self-corrections" in the medical profession. Vitalogy was a book published in 1899 that "attempted to contain within its 1000-plus pages 'the wisdom and experience, the best results of years of practical observation, of prominent and enlightened physicians, upon the simplest and most effectual methods of promoting health, overcoming disease and prolonging life.'" Weird and fairly amusing. Here's Ed's entry. Enjoy.

Karen

Arizona Bible Conference part 2

After the teaching on the fact that Jesus Christ controls everything, Pastor McLaughlin turned to an examination of the Synagogue of Satan, mentioned in Rev 3:9... A synagogue is a place of learning, and refers not to a literal synagogue, but to a system of thinking. Satan's system of thinking, with which he has decieved the whole world, is constantly teaching us whether we want it to or not, through the media, education, books, music, other people, Internet, etc. It's a multi-faceted system, holding something to appeal to almost everyone, and can be broken down into two major approaches.

The first represents the way Satan thought at the time of his own fall, prior to the creation of man, and cited in Isaiah 14. It's a system of living for self, with no interest in God whatsoever. ("I will make myself like the most high. I will ascend to the mount of the north. I will do what I want.")

For those who want to live for something beyond themselves, he has a second approach, offering them the various religious systems like Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, cults, etc. If people do manage to believe in Jesus and become Christians, he has counterfeits for them as well. This second approach accepts a belief in God or even in Jesus, but subtly attacks His character, his nature and His word. Satan does this by bringing in counterfeits that seem right, but are just enough off to lead his victims astray.

Wanting to be like God, He has counterfeited everything that God has done or commands. The Bible teachs of another Jesus, another Spirit, another gospel, another communion table... He presents himself as an angel of light and has ministers of righteousness sent out to teach people how to be righteous his way. These are the people who think they are serving God and aren't, mentioned in Matthew, and Romans, and Timothy and Corinthians. We must be alert to them and turn away from.

This second approach represents Satan's thinking after the creation of man, when he went into the garden and questioned the woman regarding what God had said. Satan knew very well what God had said, ("From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat") but pretended ignorance to trip her up. "Has God really said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?"

He used this approach again when he tempted Jesus in the desert in Matthew 4, quoting scripture to our Lord in the second and third temptations. Which brings up the startling point that Satan knows the Bible. In fact, few have mastered it as much as Satan -- he's had thousands of years to work at it, after all -- though without the filling of the Holy Spirit he'll never be able to really understand it.

The point is, he can and does use even the Bible to trip up God's people. If we are not solid in what the word of God teaches we will be vulnerable to his schemes, Bible based and otherwise. For they are everywhere.

Karen

Arizona Bible Conference

Photo: Doubletree Hotel in Tucson

This last weekend we held our third annual Arizona Bible Conference for Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries here in Tucson. After temps in the high seventies for a week, clouds and a cold front moved in just in time for the conference. Not exactly what we would have hoped for to welcome attendees from the northeast and northwest, who had had their fill of cold and clouds. But so what! It was a great conference no matter what the weather.

Pastor McLaughlin continued his teaching on the seven churches in Revelation, taking up again the Church at Philadelphia mentioned in Rev 3:7 - 13 where he left off at the California conference in November.

He started with a brief reference to the doctrine of the open and shut doors, reminding us that God opens and shuts doors in our lives because He loves us and has a definite direction in which He desires each of us to go. When he shuts a door, we should be humble enough to accept it. If we push the door open -- and often we will be allowed to, if we insist -- we will not end up where He wants us to be.

After that he took up the concept that Jesus Christ controls everything, as referenced in Colossians 1:15-17, and many other passages. "The continuation of the universe and creatures and the stabilized atmosphere of our earth depends not on the devil or people or so-called scientific laws, but on the omnipotence and perfect integrity of our Lord Jesus Christ." He upholds all things by the word of His power, even when he was a baby coming forth from the womb, even when he was on the Cross. In fact, when He was on the cross he could have called on the angels to deliver him from the lies, the mocking, the people who had put Him up there, but he did not, because He chose to stay until all our sins were paid for.

So-called scientific laws were not created by science, nor can science uphold them. Science simply observes, investigates and plays with them. (A point that reminded me of something I'd read recently in an interview with Michael Crichton, that "Science is a self-correcting discipline." Meaning that whatever is believed to be true about things today, will most likely be "corrected" as men continue to observe and investigate the environment in which God has placed us.)

Pastor McLaughlin listed some items that supported this concept of "self-correction," starting with Erastosthene's 3rd century BC tally of "all" the stars: 675. This was presented as scientific fact at the time. In 200AD, Ptolemy counted 1028 stars. Flamsteed in the 18th Century counted 3000. In 1862, as telescopes continued to improve, 300,000 stars were counted and today, of course, the count is over 200 billion in the Milky Way alone. The stars didn't change number in all that time, only our ability to see them. Which is, of course, the obvious and major limiting factor in science: our ability to perceive all the necessary information and then to correctly put together what we've perceived. It confounds me how men and societies continually conclude that they've finally gotten all the relevant facts, only to discover later that... they did not.

So it's not science that made the laws or governs them, and it's not science who put us here, and really, it's not science or scientific advancement/invention that will destroy us or preserve us. That power belongs only to our Lord. Science can only observe His brilliance and His faithfulness and His power. And if science contradicts what His word says, then I'll take His word, and wait for those scientists to correct themselves!

More important though, the upshot of examining the fact that it is Jesus who controls everything, who made everything and maintains everything... that He contols the storms, the winds, the thunder and lightning, the rain, the sea... that there is nothing outside of His reach -- the conclusion you come to is that there is not a single problem in your life He can't handle. And yet how often do we get distracted by and focused on the details of our lives and all we can see is the problem. How silly to let ourselves get all flustered and frenzied when we know the one who numbers the very hairs on our heads, and yet holds the planets in their paths and hangs the earth on nothing! It's an awesome study to meditate on.

And that was only a snippet of what was taught the first morning.

Karen

Vulnerable to Distraction

Over the vacation, my friend Ed Willett's science column noted an article on how older adults are more vulnerable to distraction from irrelevant information. Well, being an older adult, that caught my eye at once, though I don't think it was irrelevant information!

Aha! So there is a reason why I'm so distractable these days. The study, conduced by Canadian scienties at the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest and the University of Toronto, "has identified changes in brain activity that begin gradually in middle age – and which may explain why older adults find it difficult to concentrate in busy environments and filter out irrelevant information."

So it really is age that allows my son to concentrate with music blaring, and me to be totally distracted by it. I used to be able to write with music, but only if there were no words. In the last few words I've had to go to total silence, because even the notes distract me. Or worse, sometimes the music generates "scenes", which seems like it would be a good thing, but isn't because it's usually not a scene anywhere near to what I'm currently writing, and it's always the same scene. So even if I write it down, everytime I hear the music, I go back to the same scene and whatever I was doing breaks off.

I digress. Apparently there are two regions in the brain's frontal lobes that shift into a "seesaw imbalance" (not sure what that is) -- causing older adults to become less efficient in inhibiting distracting information." Instead of focusing on the task at hand -- reading, for example, or, writing one's book -- we are unable to resist the sudden thought that we need to go check the mail, or we should see what is on so and so's blog today, or how dare such and such reviewer make those comments about my books last year.

As younger people concentrate on a task, activity in the region that is associated with concentration increases while activity in the region associated with thoughts about yourself, what happened yesterday, or what's going on around you decreases. As people age, the activity in the second region doesn't turn off so easily, and the activity in the region that governs concentration decreases.

By the time we reach 65, it gets really pronounced. So the researchers recommend that "Older adults should try to reduce distractions in their environment and concentrate on one key attentional task at a time. It may be as easy as turning down the radio when reading, or staying off the cell phone when driving a car."

A cell phone would be a disaster. I can't even talk to my passengers when driving a car, because I get way too engrossed and who knows where I'll end up. On more than one occasion I've found myself driving home when I'm supposed to be driving somewhere else.

But this does affirm the importance of reducing external distractions and internal ones as well, since it's not just external monitoring that happens in the region that won't turn off. Which fits right in with my decisions to start simplifying my life again.

You can read the full article about the study here.

Galleys Are Coming

So this morning I spent several hours with the HP tech figuring out my printer is shot and I need to get a new one. Then I left for Wednesday lunch and returned to a message from my editor: the galleys are done! They may be on their way even now. If not they'll be sent out tomorrow and arrive Friday. Whew! I barely got my newsletter out today, and haven't even started getting caught up on email. Since we're hosting our third annual Arizona Bible Conference this weekend, so I won't be able to work on anything until Monday. I have about two weeks to go through the galleys...

But I've learned nothing if not that the Lord has everything under control, so I won't sweat it. We are all really looking forward to the conference here in Tucson. So many friends, old and new will be flying in. It should be great, even though, after all our months of dry weather and blue sky and mild temperatures, it's supposed to rain this weekend. And drop into the 50's as daytime highs. Yes, it's raining right now, but I don't always believe the weathermen, and everything could be cleared up by the tomorrow. In any case, as I said, the Lord has everything under control.

Grace,
Karen

Where the Map Ends Interview

Where the Map Ends is a new website started up by Jeff Gerke, formerly editor for the Realms speculative fiction imprint at Strang Publications, and a speculative fiction novelist in his own right, with six published novels to his credit.

The site was designed to be a place for Christians who love speculative fiction to hang out. There are interviews of the top Christian speculative novelists writing today, lists of books currently available in the market place, writing and publishing information artwork, worldbuilding tools and a rank of other features in the making.

Jeff recently honored me with a request to do an interview, and that interview is now up as this month's featured Interview. You can find it here. (And just to offer you additional incentive, I believe this interview includes the first public snippet of information on what Black Box is about.)

After you read the interview, I encourage you to look around a bit. There's a lot to discover and much more to come. It's a site you'll no doubt want to visit often.

Karen

Course correction - Part 2

In yesterday's post I spoke of the need of making course corrections, periodically -- of recalling one's objective, then looking at the fabric of one's life to see how much it is focused toward that objective. My primary objective is to fulfill God's plan for my life, which means to stay consistent with the perception and application of God's word, and to function in my spiritual gift and talents to proclaim who He is and what He's done. I think I have a talent for writing fiction and a gift for communicating spiritual truths. I don't know exactly what that gift is called. Teaching? Encouragement? Ministering? I only know I'm supposed to be writing novels, so that has got to be a major focus of my life.

My eternal distraction seems to be marketing and networking. There is always something new to do, and many people telling me, either directly or indirectly that I MUST do it. The implied threat is that if I don't, I will fail. My books will fail. Readers won't like me and then my books will really fail.

Besides the negative pressure, there is also positive pressure. Some of the things I need to do are fun and appeal to my approbation lust, and my desire to communicate. These things are rarely intrinsically wrong, like, say robbing a bank. They make a certain amount of sense and from the perspective of sight, the success of my books in the market place, while not a total disaster, could certainly use some help.

But God keeps telling me over and over, "I will do it, you will not." I keep trying to take it back after I've given it over, arguing and fretting and rationalizing until finally I reach the point of leaving it alone again. Then something new comes along and I start it all over again. I think I've reached the end of one such cycle now.

The conclusions that I've come to, again, are that I write long books. And with a market that wants an author's books to release at relatively short intervals, I know I can't write the books I write in the time given if I'm doing all kinds of other things. Particularly things related to writing. Like blogging, for example.

I decided last fall to join two team blogs because I thought it would be fun. I remember reading several different team blogs and wistfully wanting to be part of one. When an opportunity came up, I believe it was the Lord's answer to my request -- not necessarily because He intended for me to do it on an extended basis, but so I could see what it was like. Not long after that, a second opportunity came up. I said yes to that one, too. Because after all, I find that sort of writing easy, and being on different blogs is a way of gaining "exposure" for my books.

But then everything got hard in the writing of Return of the Guardian King's final draft. Suddenly the words were incredibly slow to come. It was like pulling old labels off a box -- only tiny scraps at a time would come out. In between I felt blank and drained. The deadline stretched on and on and my ailment spread from writing fiction to writing blog entries -- at least for the team blogs. I managed to write several entries for one of the groups but for the other, not a one. I thought once the book was turned in and I'd had a rest, the ideas would return. It's not happened.

For one thing, there's been little rest. As soon as I stopped writing the book it seemed a hundred other tasks presented themselves: update my website, write a long overdue newsletter, interviews, email, update my blog's format, back cover copy of the book, the christmas letter, tour the lab, Christmas, leave town to visit relatives, go arrange for a spring booksigning... And the drought of blog ideas continued. Finally it dawned on me that maybe I'm not supposed to be doing them. That perhaps I've gotten in over my head, and am drawing water from a well that has been depleted by my real calling, which is writing novels. That in doing all this other stuff I am not letting that well refill, stealing creative waters what should be saved for the next book.

Blogging also takes time. Already I've spent a couple of hours on this post. I may spend another hour by the time it's all over. And when I post on the team blogs, I'm even fussier. Afterwards there may be comments and I get distracted going back to look for them; the comments may spark thoughts or, worse, angst, and then I've used up more hours on something that really hasn't contributed to the writing that I KNOW I'm supposed to be doing.

Furthermore, since I'm part of a team, I think I should read what other members post and that takes even more time, in the reading, in the thinking about what was read, and maybe in following various links. This is an especially insidious temptation when I don't want to work on what I'm supposed to be working on. And sometimes the reading draws me off into places that don't help me with my work in progress at all, but disrupt my thinking and mood.

Finally, the more tasks you add to your regular list of things to do, the more stuff you have on your mind. I'm a firm believer in simplifying your life, though I seem to have to keep on doing it. Maybe everyone does. Especially in this time when there are so many, many things available to do.

In any case, as a result of my yearly reflection and evaluation, I see that once again, I've spread myself too thin, and have compromised the amount and quality of the time and effort I can devote to my true calling. No matter how fun or even useful an activity is, if it draws you off course from the central calling, it has to go. So I'm turning the wheel back toward that calling now... I've already resigned from one of the teams. The other only asks that I post when the Lord lays something on my heart to post, so I'll give it a little more time and see if He does...

Meanwhile I want to look for ways to streamline other things and work more actively on refilling my creative well...

Karen

Course Correction -- Part 1

I don't make New Year's resolutions, but I do like to look back on the year, and on where I am today and make some corrections to the course I'm following if needed. The world is such that there are always new things that come into your life, exciting things, fun things... exciting fun things at first that gradually lose their luster. Many of these things are distractions. I guess that's the issue. You set an objective and chart your course, more or less. You set out. Then things begin to come in to distract you from your focus.

And it's no accident. I believe there are unseen forces that deliberately bring them in. Things to clutter your mind with false concepts or issues that are irrelevant to your true objective. Things to pull you off, to get you occupied and distracted from the goal that you are supposed to be heading for. Now you are spending all your time and thoughts and energy -- or at least a good measure of it -- on things that really aren't part of your calling.

I received a newsletter the other day that mentioned having a mission statement. Frankly, the phrase sets my teeth on edge, but this time the author's take on it made me sit up and take notice: "A mission statement gives you a reason to say no."

Why, I thought, that's just like knowing what God's calling on your life is. And when you know what it is, you should be focusing on it and saying no to everything else that comes along to take you away from it. Things that are really not part of it, that eat up time and energy and don't contribute to your God-given objective.

To be effective, we must be selective.

Karen

Yellow30 Sci Fi

Last summer the folks over Yellow30 Sci-Fi , "an independent forum for science fiction, fantasy and alternate history," asked me to do an interview for their site and I agreed, telling them I thought I was going to finish RotGK by October 1. Of course that didn't happen, nor did I finish by November 1. Not until December did I finally get the chance to answer the questions they'd sent me back in September, though my contact there was very gracious and patient throughout. I'm happy to report the Interview is now up, and I'm their featured author for the January-March volume. They've redesigned their home page and Return of the Guardian-King is right there on the front page alongside some very nice fantasy artwork. I invite you to give it a look at Yellow30 Sci-Fi . (Scroll down for the link to the interview)

While you're there, take a look around. The site features small press and self-published works (not specifically Christian, though it is open to Christian works) and offers reviews (including one of The Light of Eidon), interviews, SF Links (conventions, clubs, webzines and some just for writers) and finally a section inviting new and established writers of SF, Fantasy and Alternate History to submit their works for review. See "Guidelines" for what they will and will not look at. There is even a blog which has the amusing report that a "celebrity author will be the feature for the first issue" of 2007. [That would be me, in case the "celebrity" part threw you. ;-) ]

The blog also mentions plans for starting a printed version of the website that will include all reviews and author interviews. (Small Press, by the way, includes virtually all Christian Publishers. When I looked into joining the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America as a professional, I learned that Bethany House was not one of the designated publishers conferring "professional" status. Hence I've not yet joined.)

Though I continue to try to stay away from the computer, I don't think I did very well today. But the back cover copy is coming along nicely.

Grace,
Karen

Dragons at Spec Faith

I have my January post up at Speculative Faith, Here Be Dragons. It will give you some glimpses of my writing process, some elements that will -- and will not -- appear in Return of the Guardian King and a lot of interesting stuff I learned about dragons as they relate to Satan.

Now it's on to a cover copy draft for the back of the book.

Karen

A New Year

Happy New Year!

Another year has passed, and 2007 is upon us. I find it cool that seven in Biblical numerology is the number of completion, and this is the year that my Legends of the Guardian King series will be completed!

I hope you all had a great Christmas celebration and are looking forward to the new year. I know I am. What will God do this year? Wonders, I'm sure.

We spent the last week in southern California, visiting relatives and walking on the beach. I got online only late at night, on dialup, to download my Bible lessons from Grace Bible Church. What takes 3 minutes on high speed at home took an hour or more on dialup. The last night the little progress box said it was going to take an hour and 22 minutes so I decided to wait until I got home to do my lesson. I love my cable Internet access! (and how easily have I become spoiled!)

I am staying away from writing as much as I can, and also trying to keep from letting all the things that are lining up on my To Do List rattle me. I know I need to fill my creative well, and part of that means to stay relaxed, trusting the Lord to see that I get done what He wants done and not worrying about the other stuff. In some ways it's an exercise in the discipline of concentration.

I've divided the list into sections: one for catchup on housework, appointments & errands, one for daily to do's, and one for things to do for the book -- the little bit of marketing that I actually do. Which means blog posts, interviews, updating the website, answering emails (I'm embarrassed at how far behind I've gotten on those!), writing my newsletter, setting up a booksigning for the spring, getting postcards made for the new book, changing newsletter services, spiffing up the blog... there are so many things, and here I am claiming I do no marketing. Yet, from the time I finished the book, there was a list of things I could do to the point that if I let myself, I'd do nothing but those sorts of things. Or I could do nothing but catch up things. Or... really... I could easily fill my days with the regular, daily tasks of keeping house and Bible study and so forth.

For that matter, I could fill my days filling my well, because one of the main ways I do that is by reading. I started rereading Robin Hobb's Assassin's Quest over the trip (preparatory to reading Fool's Errand) and didn't get very far before I decided I needed to study it in more depth. Perhaps I'll blog some of my notes on it here. Or on Speculative Faith. I've got a blog post coming up there tomorrow (Wednesday) and am waiting for that to come together right now.

I also have some new interviews to point you to, so look for those, too, in the coming days.

Grace,

Karen

Wise Men Still Seek Him

Over two thousand years ago, the God of the universe, He who is sovereign over all and Lord of the armies, stepped down from his exalted position, deliberately and voluntarily depriving himself of all the privileges due Him, to take on the form of a man. And not just a man full grown, but a helpless babe, unable to speak, unable to feed himself, unable even to roll over. The one who in his deity held everything together, voluntarily took on the form of a baby, utterly, totally dependent on human parents who were poor, homeless at the time, and fallible -- ordinary people with sin natures and clouded vision. He humbled himself in a way we cannot even comprehend, all so that he could Himself pay the penalty Justice demanded for our sins. It is an incredible, incomprehensible act, exceeded only by what he did next, some thirty three years later on the cross outside of Jerusalem.

At this busy time of year, let us all take time to reflect on what was done on our behalf and be grateful. Wise men sought Him even then. They still do...

May you have a blessed Christmas and a joyous New Year.

See you all in 2007!
Karen

a lab tour, a conversation & links

Well, I thought I would not work on my next book for at least two months. But I guess the Lord had other ideas because over the weekend, the opportunity presented itself for me to tour a genetics lab at the UA (above). A friend of my son's works there, and was available to show me around, so this morning at 9am I went over. It was the perfect time what with school being out and the campus relatively empty. No parking problems, no getting in the way of people trying to get to class or do their work. I learned a lot. Learned even more of what I don't know... and am very pleased with the experience. I love the difference between real labs and the ones on TV. Real labs look more like my office, for one!

And then today, as part of an interview I'm completing for Where The Map Ends, I had to come up with a little blurb that tells about this next book, working title Black Box. (They've already told me that title won't do, since some airplane book out a couple of years ago had that title. I thought Black Box was a clever title for a number of reasons, but in light of this -- ie, that most people think of airplanes when they hear "black box"-- I suspect it's a bit too clever.)

On another note, over the weekend, I also had a conversation with another friend of my son's who works at Barnes and Noble. What she told me about her process of keeping shelves stocked was a little different than that article I linked to the other day. For one, if she notes that books in her department are selling, she will ignore what the computer says and increase the amount of books she orders. She also hand sells books she likes. And, something that really surprised me, she told me that the store very rarely initiates a return of books. Returns are almost always initiated by the publisher. I suppose so they can have more shelf space for their new releases...

And finally... the epilog is now in place at the end of Return of the Guardian-King. My editor loved it and thought it was just what the book needed. I'll reserve final judgment until I go over the galleys in a few weeks...

Grace,

Karen

PS. Check out Becky Miller's blogpost An Open Letter to Christian Fantasy Readers for some thoughts about why Christian fantasy isn't selling as we'd like and what she thinks people can do about it. Also, she's got an interview with Nick Harrison up on Speculative Faith concerning the new fantasy trilogy Harvest House will be putting out next year.

Two Economies

A concept I like to ponder frequently, especially in times after I've read something like that link I posted yesterday about How the Business Operates, is the fact there are in fact, two economies (which, out of the blue, just "happened" to be the subject of last night's Bible class.) There is the worldly economy, which says, Work! Write the absolute best book possible! Be better than all the others! Strive for success! Save! keep!

And then there is the heavenly economy which says, Seek first the Kingdom of God, submit to your pastor in learning God's word, live in what you've learned, and all these things will be added to you. It says, don't strive for success, strive to know God. It says, don't keep and hoard, give it away, and "it will be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, they will pour into your lap..." (And how cool that there are 5 different ways of measuring what is given -- five being the number of grace).

As believers we are not of this world. We have a heavenly citizenship. And if I am not a citizen of this world, then any attempt to function in the world's system, ie, according to the world's system will never lead to any real success or happiness in it.

Proverbs 4 commands us to "Acquire wisdom! Acquire understanding! Do not forget nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her (wisdom) and she will guard you. Love her and she will watch over you. The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom; And with all your acquiring, get understanding. Prize her and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her. She will place on your head a garland of grace; she will present you with a crown of beauty."

"I (wisdom) love those who love me," says Proverbs 8:17. "And those who diligently seek me will find me. Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and righteousness."

God's system is grace. We follow Him, we learn of Him, we live in what we've learned, allow Him to change our thinking into His and then we have capacity to receive.

The world's system is works and striving all the way, and includes things like that horrible computerized buying procedure outlined in Holly Lisle's article. Where you get discouraged before you even start. But God has overcome the world. He is not bound by it and I, of all people, know that.

When I first went to Mt. Hermon with Arena, no one wanted fantasy. Most of you know that. There were no fantasies being published except Tolkien or Lewis. I was told that fantasy was a death word. The dreaded seven letter word. (Hmm. And seven is the number of perfection, if I'm not mistaken.) If you weren't Tolkien or Lewis your books wouldn't sell. No one would touch you with a ten foot pole. When Steve Laube took my manuscript, he held it for nearly two years before he thought he had even a prayer of getting the buying committee at Bethany House to accept it. And that after fighting and wrangling his way to seeing Kathy Tyers' Firebird books and then Ingermanson/Olson's Oxygen bought. Everywhere the word was gloom and doom.

Even after BHP bought Arena another year+ passed, during which time the word came that Kathy's Crown of Fire had already gone out of print. Weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. I remember Steve saying, "They're great books! We just can't get people to read them." (come to think of it, he and others have said the same thing about mine.) The future was dismal. And what in the world was I going to do to change anything? I am not a marketer. In fact, even then, my first efforts at going into the bookstores to meet the buyers and salespeople were complete fiascos.

And then the Lord just blew the doors off everything. Somehow Arena got reviewed favorably at Publisher's Weekly and Library Journal. Those two things, which I had absolutely nothing to do with, opened all the doors. It was unbelievable. PW does not review first novels of unknown authors especially not in the dreaded genre of Christian SF/Allegory. But it happened and it moved Bethany House to contract the four books of the Guardian King series-- in the straight down the road, no way to avoid calling it fantasy genre. Within two weeks I went from no discernible possibilities of every really having Arena do well enough to convince someone to buy LoGK to awestruck. That's how fast it happened. How out of the blue. Completely unexpected and totally not my doing.

And lest you say, "Well you just wrote a good book in Arena," my response is... I don't think that the books I've written since Arena are any less than it is. I actually like them better, though some readers, I'm sure, disagree. The point is, I don't think that Legends of the Guardian King is this huge step down from Arena. But it didn't get reviewed by either of those publications. Furthermore, I've seen books reviewed that I thought were very poorly done and others ignored that I thought very well done. We can go on down to the minutiae of cause and effect in the attempt to root out why certain books are reviewed and others not, but the truth is, mostly we'll never know why. The truth is, "What do you have that you have not received?" The truth is, as Deuteronomy 6 says, He gives us "great and splendid cities which we did not build, and houses full of good things which we did not fill and hewn cisterns which we did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which we did not plant..."

So yes, things may look dark and grim, now. But dark and grim is when the Light's advent always shines the brightest.

Karen

How Chain Stores kill Midlist Writers' Careers

As part of the CSFF blog tour held this week, talk came out about the rumor that Kathryn Mackel's Birthrighter's Project was originally intended as a trilogy, but was cut back to a two book series on account of sales not being what the publisher hoped for. Shannon McNear has posted a piece on the age old problem of Christian publishers' claims that SF/F doesn't sell in their market and so they don't publish SF/F or don't publicize the few books they do publish with the result that readers never know they're out there.

I can relate to all of this. As I believe I mentioned in a previous post, Legends of the Guardian-King was originally contracted with a descending advance rate so that the publishers wouldn't lose any more money than they had to if the series tanked and they had to cut it off before the end. To their credit, though the books have not sold as well as they had hoped, they have stuck with it, and for that I am deeply grateful and even a little awestruck after having read this account (and the one by Holly Lisle cited below). Writing and book publishing is a brutal business, made moreso by changes in bookselling methods over the last few decades.

As an illustration of just how brutal, Tina Kulesa, one of the tour partipants put up a link to a fascinating article by SF writer Holly Lisle on the "midlist writer's career death spiral" called Selling to the Net . In it she describes how books are ordered and sold by the chain bookstores, and what that does to a writer's career. This is not new information -- Donald Maas also outlined it in his book, The Career Novelist -- but it's sobering to be reminded of it, and also in some ways heartening because, in my case anyway, it reminds me of how God has kept things alive when by other considerations they might not have been.

Karen

More of Mackel's Birthrighter's Project

Wednesday is the last day of the CSFF blog tour highlighting Kathryn Mackel and her newest release in the Birthrighter's Project, Trackers. Yesterday I mentioned that Beth Goddard was doing an interview and today I read part one of it (part two should be up Wednesday -- which may or may not be today, depending on when you read this!). I'm glad I read it.

I'll be honest -- when I read the setup about the new Ark built under the polar ice cap, my picky, whiny, critical mode kicked in. I'm trying to keep that one in its cage, or at least ignore it for the most part, especially when I have almost no facts. And this is a good case of the need for it to stay in the cage. My thoughts on the new Ark ran along the lines of, (whiny voice) "Well why would God need to do that? He already did it once, and people deciding to build an ark to preserve the species... yada yada blah blah... doesn't really work for me..." But then I read the chapter and decided maybe that didn't matter. See, if the writing, the pacing, the world, the action and the characters are appealing enough, I can set my theological quibbles aside and just enjoy the story, and this definitely seemed to be one where I could do that (not that you can always tell if your theological quibbles are even valid from ad copy -- of all people I should know that!)

Anyway, then I read the interview and Kathy said that her intent wasn't to create a new ark as such but to present a "metaphor for the church or the Christian home. The world of the strongholds is what we face every time we step outside our sanctuaries. Just as the Birthrighters collect specimens to honor God’s creation, we share the Gospel to honor Christ’s sacrifice. In the books, the kingdom of Traxx is sheltered by a wall of thorns. How many hardened hearts are there behind spiritual walls of thorns that the Spirit is calling us to dare to approach?" How cool is that? I'm hooked. In fact, I ordered both books today and you can too. In fact if you go to the Trackers page on Amazon you can order them together for less.

Or you could go on over to Shannon McNear's blog or Beth Goddard's both of whom are offering the chance to win copies of the two book set of the Birthrighter's Project. Mirtika Shulz is giving away a copy of Trackers and also pointed me to a fun test on the Birthrighter's site that you can take to determine what type of hero you are. I took the test, but as with all these kinds of tests they never give me the right options. What kind of canine would I be? A hound! Not one of the choices. What would I do if I had a craving for chili? I don't like chili. Yuck. But I know lots of ways to make it... Sometimes the answer is "all of the above." More often it's "none of the above..." in any case, it came out that I'm a scout:

"Your independence and perseverance fit you to serve as in this role. Your job is to wander this fallen world as the eyes and ears of the Birthrighter camps. Your reports allow trackers to ride, hike, climb, or even swim the ends of the earth in search of original (non-mutated) species for the Ark. You also warn of troop movements that threaten camps or missions, going undercover as needed to spy on strongholds.

"Your mild appearance and shoddy clothes mask the quick strength and iron-clad determination that allow you to move through peril almost at will. Your strong spirit allows you to endure the solitude and lack of physical comforts that your duty requires. While trackers, teachers, and outriders live in Birthrighter camps, you cannot—your duty requires that your identity be kept secret and that you always be on the move.

"The stronghold princes don’t even guess at your existence. But should you fall into their hands, you would be far more valuable than an outrider or tracker because you know the location of all the camps and the pick-up sites from the Ark. Your inner strength keeps you on course and your faith sustains you, even though your duty is harsh and lonely."

Which isn't as off as I'd expected...

Scroll on down to yesterday's post to check out the other tour participants' blogs today. The way this works is we're supposed to post on the subject at least once during the three days, and preferably on all three. Many only get around to one entry, though, so if you tried yesterday and found nothing, give it another shot. Of course, some put up multiple posts, as mentioned above, and you'll want to see the continuations.

Karen

Kathryn Mackel & Trackers

It's time for the December Christian SFF blog tour, this time highlighting Kathryn Mackel's most recent release, Trackers, part of her Birthrighter's Trilogy. Since I don't seem to be able to read anything anymore (I just found out I'll be getting the galleys for Return of the Guardian King in a little over a month -- if the Lord is gracious and holds them off that long!) I haven't read Trackers or the first book in the series, Outriders, but I plan to. You can read the first chapter of Outriders here. In fact, Kathy has set up an entire website devoted to the Birthrighter's Project and I encourage you to check it out for more info.

The chapter that I read was well done and undeniably intriguing. An ark below the surface of the ice in the arctic, an earth corrupted almost to extintion by genetic manipulation gone wild, whales, sled dogs, blacksmiths, swords... many things to get my attention. I recommend you read that chapter!

If you want to read some reviews, too, check out the blogs of Sharon Hinck, Rebecca LuElla Miller, and Shannon McNear. Shannon is having a contest for those who leave comments on her blog Monday through Wednesday for an autographed two book set of Outriders and Trackers. Beth Goddard is doing an interview Tuesday.

And check the other tour participants this month -- part of a growing list! -- for more reviews, comments, contests, etc:

Jim Black; Jackie Castle; Valerie Comer; Frank Creed; Gene Curtis; Chris Deanne; Janey DeMeo; April Erwin; Beth Goddard; Todd Michael Greene; Karen Hancock; Elliot Hanowski; Katie Hart; Sherrie Hibbs; Sharon Hinck; Joleen Howell; Jason Joyner; Karen and at Karen¹s myspace; Oliver King; Tina Kulesa; Lost Genre Guild; Kevin Lucia and The Bookshelf Reviews 2.0 - The Compendium; Terri Main; Rachel Marks; Shannon McNear; Rebecca LuElla Miller; Caleb Newell; Eve Nielsen; John Otte; Cheryl Russel; Hannah Sandvig; Mirtika Schultz ; James Somers; Stuart Stockton; Steve Trower; Speculative Faith; Chris Walley; Daniel I. Weaver

Karen

Hallelujah!

I Am FINISHED!!!

Hooray! Hooray! Today I turned in the final draft of my fifth book, Return of the Guardian-King! Last night I felt only cautious relief. Today, I'm bouncing off the walls. Set free! Whee!

Finally I can get caught up on my email, interviews, my very late newsletter, blog posts, reading, Smallville (Of which I've not seen a single episode this season), doctors appointments, bank statements... Oh, and Christmas, too.

Now, I'm reeling with amazement that this book is done. When I signed the contract for Legends of the Guardian-King, they gave me a contract that has descending advances. That means when you sign the contract you get, all at once, half the advance for the first book, 40% 0f the advance for the second, 30% for the third and a whopping 10% for the fourth. That's so if publisher decides to cancel the series somewhere along the way, they won't have lost too much money in the advance. I was already uncomfortable enough with taking any money at all for books I hadn't written yet, that I was happy to accept that. But it does show the concern they had for the books not doing very well. So I am jazzed and thankful that the Lord has seen fit to see it through. All the way to the end.

I think I'll be even more amazed to actually hold the book in my hands. But first I have to finish fielding the detail questions my editor is still sending me, then I'll have to do the galleys... so right now I think I'll just savor this Impossible thing that's turned out to be Reality: I've finished! It's a book!

Karen

Writing to a Deadline

Well I want to thank those who commented on my last post. I appreciated your kind and encouraging words .

I do want to clarify, though, what I meant by acknowledging that I am hack. I meant that in some people's eyes I will be regarded that way. That compared to some writers, what I do will be found, in some people's eyes, to be lacking. (Maybe even in my eyes!) When I worry about that, and think about how what I'm doing will be criticized, it's paralyzing. When I let go of it, acknowledge that, like all people, really, I write stuff that's flawed, it's freeing. Yes, there will always be those who will be annoyed by those flaws and feel compelled to point them out, but recognizing that, and realizing it doesn't matter, takes away its power to sting me. Some day I'm going to post about the thoughts I've been having on this entire issue -- that the world is way too caught up in comparisons and rankings and nebulous "official" standards when God could care less about stuff like that.

But that's for another time. For now, I'm posting over at Speculative Faith tomorrow (Wednesday) on Writing to a Deadline. I can't imagine why this should have been the only topic I could manage to muster any words to write about today. Must have something to do with what is going on in my life. And if it's not specifically on Speculative Christian fiction, well, it's is on what it's like to write Speculative Christian fiction. Though in this case, I think deadlines get to writers of all types of fiction.

Karen

Marathons & Hackwork

Another photo from the Rose Garden on Thanksgiving Day.

Well, I've been unexpectedly quiet, because I'm slogging along through the last couple of miles of this writing marathon I inadvertantly got involved in. I remember when my husband ran Boston last spring, my son and I went down to cheer him on at the end and he neither saw us nor heard us... too focused on just getting to the end.

I sort of feel like that right now. Just getting to the end. Bible class has been on thought testing and mental attitude and how there will be people, things, fiery darts sent in to screw it up. I've experienced it. For one thing, we've had four social engagements in the last week. Dinner parties and the like. We never go to dinner parties, and granted it's the holiday season, but it's not even December yet! Anyway, I thought it was funny.

I also stupidly googled my name late Wednesday night, just to see what would come up (I never do that; I know better than to do that), promising myself I would read no reviews... and ended up doing it anyway. Whoa! Did I get a boatload of fiery darts from that mistake. The reviewer didn't seem to think I'd done much of anything right in my books, and, in fact, spent the bulk of the words in the piece discussing all the things I'd done wrong, or at least not according to the reviewer's standards. Fortunately, immediately thereafter I did Bible class, which brought up the aforementioned fiery darts sent to destroy your mental attitude, and the part that zinged me was,

"'Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but only that which ministers grace to the hearer.' When's the last time you listened to some corrupt communication out of someone's mouth that didn't minister grace to you? It ministered judging to you. It ministered negativity to you. It ministered insecurity to you. Why? Because you listened to the garbage. You did it to yourself. You disobeyed God's commands to be careful what you listen to and how you listen and you said yes to the kingdom of darkness: 'Oh, do you have some more hits for me so as to corrupt my mental attitude?'"

Exactly what happened. All those things -- judging, negativity, insecurity -- were ministered to me. Even after that class, the next day when I had to keep on slogging through the book, the words from the review kept plaguing me until finally I just stopped, looked at it all and said, "Okay, yes, I'm a hack. I can't write. My secondary characters are poorly developed, my worldbuilding stinks, my dialog is mediocre, my characters don't seem real, I preach at unbelievers, and really, I'm just a hack. Fine. God uses the foolish to shame the wise, and even being a hack, even not having everything be wonderfully wrought and exquisitely rendered and blah, blah, He can still use what I do. He called me to do it, and gave me whatever hackish sort of gift I have, and so... who cares if that's what I am? I am what I am by the grace of God. Besides, I like what I do and there are others who like it, too. So, what's the big deal then? I think I'm actually quite comfortable with being a hack because then you have nothing to live up to!

Anyway, after that, well, I was still plagued with the negative voices, but I just kept on writing. Doesn't matter, you negative, accusing voices. You can accuse all day long. I know I'm not a terribly good writer, so it doesn't matter. God will use it anyway!

As of tonight I've sent in to my editor the weekend's worth of work: chapters 34, 36 and 37 (having already sent 35 last week). All that remains to go through are 38 and 39, then 40 to write. Maybe I'll get that done tomorrow. But even if not, I think the finish line is near.

Karen

White Ninja

My son is a fan of the White Ninja online comic strip (new comics released every Monday, Wednesday and Friday), which is a very bizarre comic, very off the wall, sometimes funny, sometimes inscrutable, sometimes a little gross... (so if you look around from where the links below send you, just be aware.) He actually met the creator of the comic at Comic Con in San Diego this year and had him do an amusing illustration/autograph in his sketch book.

Anyway, the site put on its second annual White Ninja Halloween contest for newsletter subscribers last month -- where fans were to dress up as their favorite White Ninja character, take a picture of themselves and send it in. My son and his friend not only dressed up as White Ninja and his nemesis, Black Ninja, they made a little story in a comic panel and sent it in. They won first prize, which was $100 worth of merchandise from the White Ninja store. I think it's pretty funny and if you'd like to have a look, you can find it at White Ninja Halloween Contest. (Note, to have some context for the fire power reference, check out the comic White Ninja Has Fire Power.)

Karen

Let His Plan Unfold

Last week we had some lessons on Thought Testing: the thought conflicts that will inevitably arise in our souls brought on by the fact that we have an old sin nature and we live in the devil's world where we are constantly being bombarded with lies about what life is all about.

Today, I had the lab part of that class. Remember I said I wanted to have ch31/32 done over the weekend? Didn't happen. Then I thought it would be nice if I could have them done yesterday. Nope. They are developing, just very slowly. Today, then, I thought. But though I continued to progress today, they still aren't done.

Sometime around midmorning, when the approaching new deadline and my lack of progress got to me yet again, I went and dug out something I'd written about this very thing some time before...

Don’t try to plan too much, take control…let God’s plan and guidance unfold moment by moment with the book as you do with your day. There's always time to do the will of God.

I keep wanting to see it all now, but almost nothing does He do that way. He releases information slowly, whether it is about Himself, or about me, or, I see, about this book. It is a gradual, day by day thing that I cannot control, despite my repeated attempts to do so. When I think about the future, I only get frantic. I know this. I know I have to do it one day at a time and NOT think about the future. I have to come to work and see what He gives me and be satisfied with that. I have to keep living in the spiritual life really, truly trust that He WILL see it through. It will happen. But not by me doing... well, anything different than I'm doing. I don't think the fault lies with me. Except in my muleheadedness in continuing to demand my timing on all this. When I let go of that, everything's fine.

The thing is, the story is already there. God knows exactly what it’s going to be. He could dump it all into my mind in an instant, but He has not. Nor will He. Because it’s a privilege for me to struggle with it—to continue to have opportunity to be patient, to apply truth, especially as the time grows ever shorter. To remember that this is not “my” work. It does not have to be done according to “my” standards and in “my” timing. When I get upset and frustrated and desperate and guilty—that’s wrong motivation. That’s the old nature trying to take control and achieve. When this life is not at all about achievement.

Life is not at all about achievement. No. It's about mental attitude. It doesn't matter at all what you achieve as far as the world is concerned, if your mental attitude is wrong, if your thinking and motivation are wrong and you are operating in the wrong power (human, rather than the Spirit) then you've achieved wood, hay and straw. If your mental attitude is right, then even if what you're trying to do falls to nothing, you've got gold, silver, precious stones.

Karen

Photo by fortunecookie

Thanksgiving

Yesterday, Thanksgiving, while waiting for the turkey to cook, we took a walk in the park near our home and were delighted to find the rose garden in full bloom. I brought the camera! This is a panorama shot, but I also got some pics of gorgeous individual blooms. It was a beautiful mild, clear, Arizona fall day. One of many things God provided yesterday to be thankful for.

On or around Thanksgiving I like to reflect upon all the many ways God has blessed me: the air I breathe, the food I eat, the ability to walk and talk and see and hear, friends, family, His word, His Spirit, my place in Christ, my pastor... It's a list I have been reviewing often of late, though, so yesterday I thought I'd reflect instead upon specific things God has done in my life this last year that I'm thankful for.

In going through last year's journal to review, I was astonished by the theme that emerged. A year and a half ago He told me through Bible class that I was going to go down. That it's the only way to grow. That we have to be willing to accept the times of humbling and losing, to lose things, to not get the promotion we wanted, to lose the promotion we'd already gotten, and still know that He is in charge.

And so it's been. As I reviewed my entries I saw the losses I was having to deal with -- the year-long death of my dog, friends, the success of my books in the marketplace, to name the most difficult. There was also very hard, continuous lessons in how to deal with people, how not to surrender control of my life over to them, something I see now I have struggled with for years.

What's amazed me is that in rereading the journal I can see His hand working, and see it clearly. When I turned in the final draft of Shadow Over Kiriath and began to think about working on Return of the Guardian-King, is when I got that first message -- "It's going to be hard, you're going to go down, you have to have suffering and loss in order to learn. There is no other way to learn the things I have for you to learn. Even Jesus learned obedience through suffering."

Two months later, when I really began to work on RotGK in earnest, I took Bear to the vet for a puncture wound in his toe and learned about the kidney disease -- he was dying. There was no cure. It would only get worse. That was very hard to take.

Last May, when I received my last royalty statement, and Arena had only sold 24 copies for the period, I was very upset, for I saw that that it was ending. The next day, after much angst and bitter complaint to my friends, the lesson that night was on suffering for blessing and I got the message again. You have to go down. You have to learn to handle undeserved suffering. Without complaint. Without self-pity or bitterness or resentment. You have to learn to handle it with thanksgiving.

We look so many times at the characteristics the Bible says we should have, the way we should be. But love, joy and peace are part of the fruit of the Spirit, not part of the fruit of us. We can't really make ourselves have peace or joy or even real love. He does it. We can't change ourselves, He does it. Through the transforming of our thoughts and minds -- which happens through learning the word combined in many cases with suffering.

"My peace, I give to you," he says to us, "not as the world gives...." How does the world give peace? By providing peaceful circumstances. Having everything go right. We meet our goals. Our work is prospered. We have supportive friends and families. 0ur needs are met. We have a solid home, a good bank account, worldly security. Then there's peace. How does the Lord give peace? Not that way. He gives it through His word and through adverse circumstances, which not only is the only way to get it, it's the only way you know you have it when you finally do.

And even then, it's all too often a choice. We can't make ourselves have peace, but we can confess our anxiety or arrogance and concentrate on the truth. If we don't know the truth, we can learn it. We concentrate on what we know: that God is sovereign and his hand rules over all, that he has wonderful plans for us, plans to bless and not to hurt, that He owns the cattle on a thousand hills, that we are already completely perfect in his sight and we aren't going to improve that perfection one iota no matter what we do, or don't do.

We can concentrate on the truth that, despite that perfection in position, we are still dust, which God knows and understands and has mercy upon; that we have an old nature which will always fight against the Spirit and the word and the new nature He put within us when we believed in Christ. Why get shocked and upset when we act like the corrupt, disgusting cockroach we are in our old nature? When it happens, God is still there. We name the sin, the Spirit regains control of our soul and brings to our remembrance the things we've learned, to change in that moment the way we have been thinking. The perspective shifts and we leave behind all those old lusts and goals and human viewpoint ideas that tormented us. And the peace is there.

It's awesome when that happens. But you can't know you have it without the trials. And it can't be developed within you apart from the trials.

For a long time I just wanted to learn the truth and make the application to avoid having difficult times. There's some validity to that approach, but this last year I've learned as never before the benefit of suffering. The need for it. And the fantastic way God has sown it into my life, along with all the truth that I need to handle it, and the encouragement He knows I also need when I fail. And fail, I do. Over and over.

In a recent lesson the pastor said that those who try hardest to make the proper applications of truth and live the Christian way of life are going to fail the most. The more you try, the more you'll fail. But that's okay. That's how it is. When you see that about yourself, there is no room for boasting. It's all God's doing. He's the strong one. I'm just dust. Graced out, made new, blessed abundantly, because of Him. Because of what He did and what His son did.

So that's what I'm especially thankful for this year: the things He has been teaching me about Himself, and about myself; the suffering He has sent to do it. The promise that it will only last for a season, but that if I endure, there is reward.

Karen

Is Santa Real?

When my son was born my husband and I weren't terribly excited about the whole Santa Claus story, though I had very much enjoyed it as a child, growing up in an unbelieving home. Other relatives, however, were quite invested in Santa Claus, so I sat back and let them do their thing. I read Adam The Night Before Christmas, but beyond that I don't recall ever actually telling him there was a Santa.

When he was about five, we were driving in the car around the Christmas season, and he asked me if Santa was real. I asked him what he thought. He said he didn't think so. How could Santa deliver all those presents to everyone in all the world in a single night? (As a child, I recall being troubled by how he was going to slither under the door, since we had no fireplace and chimney.) I said that was very observant of him, and no, Santa wasn't real. That was the end of any active belief in Santa for my son, though "Santa" still continued to visit on Christmas eve for some years...

On that subject, and a related one -- ie, that children are unable to distinguish fantasy from reality, a claim which parents who object to fantasy stories evoke as justification for condemning them -- my friend Ed Willett has an interesting post on his blog today, What's Real and What's Pretend . It's about a study done at the University of Texas that challenges child expert Jean Piaget's 1930 statement that "children consistently confuse fantasy and reality, the mental and physical, dreams and reality, and appearance and reality. " In fact, according to this study, they're pretty darn good at figuring out what's real and what's not.

Karen

Peace Again

Well, yesterday (Sunday) I had food poisoning, the first time for that in 30 years! We went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant the night before and Sunday morning I was not feeling well at all. Had to stay home from church and didn't get a thing done writingwise all day. Didn't get much done on Saturday either, though not cause I was sick. Today though, I turned in revisions on chapters 24 and 25 and several other smaller parts, and started on the first scene in ch 30, since what I sent in with the "final" draft was no more than a place holder.

I hate doing this, and it's been bugging me. I know it's a pain for my editor and I feel like I've failed. I was supposed to have turned it in all at once, not piecemeal. But that was my plan not God's. He's teaching me to accept His timing in things, and to really trust Him beyond what I've had to do in the past. In the past I trusted Him to see the books were done by the deadline, and learned even then, (though to a lesser degree than now) that the deadline was really a human construction and He could work on both sides of the problem -- me and my editor. On one of my first books, it turned out she wasn't even going to get to work on it for a month after the assigned due date. And on this one, she keeps assuring me it's fine. It's no problem.

I guess it really isn't, beyond being a violation of my standards which say you're supposed to turn your book in complete at the agreed upon time. That's professional and reliable. Turning in a book piecemeal like this is flaky and unreliable, and I can really go into a guilt trip on it. But making myself feel guilty is a sin, so I won't. And yes, I failed. But... big deal. Everyone fails. God uses failure. His plan is not dependent on my making perfect execution all the time.

This November, when I was supposed to have turned in the book already, I agreed to try to read for endorsement a new fantasy (due Nov 30), have to decide how many copies of Arena to buy by Nov 30, agreed to attempt an online interview (due Nov 26), agreed to contribute three entries to two team blogs by the end of the month, had to arrange and prepare a birthday celebration, will have to arrange and prepare Thanksgiving, write my November newsletter (not happening) and change my blog over to Blogger beta. This in addition to finishing an online interview begun in October, catch up on email and bookmark mailing, start preparing for Christmas, plus all the other regular stuff in addition to finishing the book. Most of that isn't happening.

That long of a list starts to get me rattled and my brain flits from task to task building anxiety and guilt. Not at all where God wants me to be. It took me awhile but today I finally remembered:

There is always time to do the will of God.

And not all of those things are necessarily His will. So I put them all in His hands and will trust Him to see done the ones HE wants done, not the ones I think need to be done.

"Don't think of all you have to do, just do the next thing. And rest in Him."

So I did. Am. And I have my peace again.

Grace,
Karen

Before the Moment Needed

The Lord always provides the solution even before the moment it is needed. And often afterwards, as well, just for confirmation.

After getting the letter yesterday about Arena's demise, last night's message was on suffering for blessing and as a part of spiritual growth. Perfect. Especially since after a disappointment like that the tendancy is to start trying to affix blame, either on others or on self. But the fact is, God is on his throne, he numbers the hairs on my head and His sovereignty rules over all. Nothing happens in my life that He does not approve, and if I believe that promotion comes from Him and him alone, with no merit on my part, then I must also believe that demotion, such as it is, comes at His hand as well. And be content with it.

I think I am. One of the things I've been praying for is that He would deliver me from being in bondage to what people think, and to the world's system that says success and personal worth is a matter of your accomplishments and sales and how many people like you or like what you do.

Do I seek the favor of men or of God? When you have things like this taken from you, it tests that belief. Are you going to freak out and fall apart because not enough people liked what you did (it would appear) or will you recognize that it's not an accident, it's a part of the plan and the plan is perfect. More than perfect, it is specifically designed with your best interests in mind. If I'm writing for God, sales can't really matter. He's in charge of them. He gives enough or he doesn't, but it's not my concern. My concern is to write the books and leave the rest to Him.

He provided for me in more than just last night's message, too, because in the conference last weekend, the last part of Gideon's story was all about numbers. All about how God doesn't need numbers. And one of the things Pastor McLaughlin said was, "God will place us in situations where the odds are overwhelmingly against us, so we will know that we are not the ones doing the delivering, He is. It's not us, it's not anything about us and it's not with the help of other people, either. It's all Him."

So. We'll just see what He's going to do, because I really believe He's going to do something cool. I just don't know what it is yet. Kind of like Christmas, I guess... all those packages and you know you're going to like what's in them, you just have NO idea what it is. But I know the one I serve, and that is everything.

Karen

The Death of a First Novel

Arena

May 2002 - November 2006

Today I received the news that due to a current sales rate too weak to sustain active publication, Bethany House has declared Arena out of print after a four year run.

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Karen

November CSFF Tour: Landon Snow

Well, I went away to California and came back to discover a Blog tour had snuck up on me. Given the events of the past month, that's hardly surprising. This month they are highlighting children's fantasy writer R.K. Mortenson's third Landon Snow book, Landon Snow and the Island of Arcanum.

I confess I have read none of these books and generally tend to stay away from discussing or recommending Young Adult fantasy to avoid increasing the potential of my own books being regarded as being for children as well. There is an automatic assumption among many that all fantasy is for children or young adults (Landon Snow is pegged as being for 9 to 12 years old and up). I have nothing against fantasies for children or young adults, I just dislike receiving letters and reviews from disgruntled parents/grandparents/relatives who bought my books for their kids without having read them, under the assumption that all fantasy is for children and how dare I introduce adult situations into the story! They had to rip pages out of the book before they could give them to their intended recipients, and I am a bad girl!

I could almost do a rant about that subject...but I will restrain myself. It's a fact of life, particularly, I think, in the Christian world.

My fantasy can be and is read by more experienced younger readers, but it was never intended for children and in some people's eyes is definitely not for them. R.K. Mortenson's books on the other hand, are designed for younger readers, and do not introduce unwanted adult situations of the sort that have so incensed some of my correspondents and reviewers. So if you are looking for good, clean fantasy stories for middle grade readers, Mortenson might be your author.

Karen

2006 California Conference

Above is a view from our hotel, the Riverside Marriott.

I've just spent the last four days in Riverside, CA for what was, I believe, the fifth annual Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries California Conference. We had a great time, as always. Two classes a day, Friday and Saturday, a question and answer period Saturday night after class and another class and communion on Sunday.

I got some great answers in class and in the Q&A afterward and was so looking forward to going over my notes (I'm a copious note-taker) only to discover that somehow I'd left my notebook in the hotel room! Arg. (One of a number of consequences of going on a trip immediately after a big push to finish a book draft. For the second time now, I have dared to venture out into public without a brain. This time, fortunately, I gave no speeches, but I was amazingly turnip-headed! Leaving my notes behind is just one example!)

Anyway, today I tried to recall some of the things that stuck out for me and here are some snippets and reflections ...

In honor of Veteran's Day Pastor McLaughlin broke from his study of the seven churches in Revelation to do a special on soldiers. He started with the doctrine of Warfare, then went on to a study of Gideon.

Gideon's story starts at the end of the 40 years of peace that followed the victories of Deborah and Barak. Israel is once again doing evil in the sight of the Lord, ie, getting involved in idolatry. I've often wondered about all the emphasis on idolatry in the Old Testament, in light of Romans 15:4 (For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have confidence.) If it's for our example, instruction and encouragement why all the references to idolatry being such a problem? I mean, you don't see too many statues of Baal around these days. Then he defined idolatry: anything we turn to for help, happiness, support, success, comfort, encouragement or security instead of the word of God. By that definition, idolatry takes on new meaning.

Even as Christians, how many of us turn to something besides the word to make us feel better or more confident or secure? How many of us focus on getting that thing we just know is going to solve all our problems and make us wonderfully and finally happy? In fact, without it, we are often desperately unhappy and yearning. It can be a job, writing, being published, getting a mate, having the mate you have act right, having your family or kids turn out right... the options are innumerable. I see the temptations everywhere, but for me now they especially hang out in the field of writing when it comes to getting or being/staying published.

As Pastor McLaughlin moved through the passage the next major subject was miracles and how miracles are the easiest thing in the world for God to do. The much harder thing for God to do is to get a Believer to line up his thinking with God's -- to learn His word and then to apply it to his life. A miracle can be accomplished by a snap of God's fingers, but bringing a Believer to maturity requires that believer's volition. And a lot of time and consistency.

Miracles are used for many things, but rarely does God use them to deliver his people from their problems. Instead, the deliverance lies in his word -- in changing our thinking and our viewpoint and really believing what God has already told us. And that's pretty much what happened with Gideon. The arabs in the land were the problem, and the miracles didn't solve the problem.

Gideon was visited by the Lord and told right off that he -- Gideon -- was going to deliver Israel. After that he saw two miracles: the fire coming out of the rock to consume the meat and the bread he'd offered, and the Lord vanishing before his eyes. But at that point, instead of remembering what he'd just been told (that he was going to deliver Israel) he thought he was going to drop dead from having seen God. His panic tells us how short his memory had become, and how shaky his understanding of God's very recent word to him was.

Of course he didn't drop dead, but finally got his act together, listened to what God told him to do and went and tore down his father's idol -- in the night. And that was another cool thing. Gideon was too afraid of his father to do it in the day, and his fear (despite having been told directly by God that he was going to deliver Israel and seeing two miracles) caused him to do it at night. Which, ironically was exactly what God wanted him to do since the final operation for which Gideon was being prepared would be accomplished at night. I find the fact that God has incorporated even our failures into His wonderful plan to be extremely comforting. And also the demonstration here of His very great patience with us when we are total doofuses.

Which Gideon surely was. For after he tore down the idol and saw his father suddenly switch sides and defend him against the angry religious Israelites who wanted him dead, and after 32,000 Israelites came at his call to be under his command, he lost his nerve again. This is so much what I see in my own life. Great things happen, you realize God is leading you in a direction, first you're afraid to step out on faith but finally you do it, then the stakes multiply and -- oh, no! What if I make a mistake? I have 32,000 men waiting for me to command them. What do I know about command? What if I fail? Oh, noooo.....

So then we have the fleece episode which is really... well, blasphemy. God already told Gideon what was going to happen, and Gideon just didn't believe him. The God who cannot lie. The God who does not change, and in whom there is no turning or shadow. Gideon doubts Him, so he asks God to prove himself. Give me a sign. How many of us do that? I'm really not sure you mean what you say here in your word, God. Could you make the stoplight turn red right now? Or the lights in my living room flicker? Or have someone call me? And God was gracious. He did the miracle. Only to have Gideon doubt the miracle and turn around and ask for another. And even while being insulted, again, God answered his request.

I liked how pastor emphasized at this point how in Judges 6, Gideon had been doing all the talking and not listening much. As a result he didn't learn much and kept falling into fear. But in Judges 7 God started doing the talking, Gideon started listening and obeying and finally started moving forward in the plan...

Karen

It's Done!

Whoopee! Return of the Guardian King is done!

My fifth book, in the can. Wonder of wonders!

Sort of in the can, anyway... I still have two three-chapter sections to go through and develop/smooth out, and about 5 or 6 chapters at the end to work through (editing, tweaking, bringing details into line with things I've changed) but I can send those in as I finish them.

Yesterday I had even more left to do, but had decided just to send the thing in as it was... only to learn that the guy who processes the e-copies into hard copies for the editor was off to work the election. So I kept it another day, worked through one of those three-chapter sections and made significant headway before sending it off today. Even though I still have work to do on it, it still feels like a huge load off.

The deadline factor is oppressive, to say the least, and the last few days left me despairing. Some of the problems were large and complicated, the kind that require several days to mull over and sort through and I didn't have several days. And by the time you get to the end of a book as long as mine are, you're just sick of your own words. Especially when you're having to write fast. You begin to notice all the times you're saying the same things, the fixation you have with particular words, and you start chiding yourself: "Can't you think of anything else for them to do besides "look" at one another?!" I think that's why I like editing the best: I can cut most of that stuff out or replace it with better. I get positively on fire when I start editing. Just love it.

Anyway, there are more days now, so it's all working out just fine. As the Lord knew, but I was too often doubting. In spite of all the times He's come through. What can I say? I'm dust.

I can say, though, that I have the most wonderful editor alive! She is amazingly patient and so encouraging.

Anyway, I thought I'd take the afternoon off. Maybe clean the house a bit, do some ironing, write in my journal, take a walk, post a blog entry -- all the things I've not been doing lately. It feels like I've been in a long, dark tunnel for some time now and have finally emerged -- only to realize that I lost my dog in that tunnel. Kind of a strange feeling.

The other weird thing is that ... I can't believe I'm saying this... part of me also wants to go back and start looking at those chapters I still need to fix. Talk about obsessive! You know how they say dogs are like their owners? Or owners are like their dogs? Well, that's why the hound is the perfect dog for me. Get them on scent -- or focused on anything else they care about -- and they will NOT leave it alone!

Tomorrow, though, I'm off to another Bible conference, this one in CA. Looks like we'll be having a car caravan heading over there, which will be a blast.

I'll be back Monday and finally regular on posting again. Thanks for all the prayers!

Karen

Oh yeah, and the word count? It came in at 176,000. How about that?

Fireworks Photo by brianteutsch