Return of the Guardian-King...

... is officially done.

Er... I hope. I think. I had a lot of changes. Deletions, replacements, additions... This morning I had one transition I actually had to write from scratch and not get all freaked out about the time running out. I did it and finished at 11:45 am, then brought the galleys to the UPS store at 12:10... So it's out of my hands now, though my editor said we only have three pages of wiggle room in terms of getting everything to fit in what they've set up. So if I exceed that.... Well, I have no idea what happens then. It will be "scary," she said.

But I will NOT worry about that now. I know the Lord was in this thing every step of the way. I don't know exactly what I've turned out, but I know it's what He intended. Anyway, after all the gazillions of times He's come through on this book, day after day, I know He can handle the matter of the three pages.

Pray the editors and typesetting people will be able to deal with all the changes error free because the way I understand it, there won't be any more proofreading. Or only one if there is...

I decided as I was running through these galleys that I was really working through the manuscript at what should have been called the "final draft" stage, and that when I was working through what we called the final draft that should really have been called the "first draft," and that thing we called the first draft was really "the pile of dreck you wouldn't show your dog" stage. I had a LOT of changes on these galleys. More than I've ever had on any manuscript, which I became especially aware of when I started getting carpal tunnel symptoms a few nights ago (and then what seemed like tendonitis, also in the wrist) from changing my penciled in corrections to permanent red ink -- but again, the Lord came through and even though a couple of nights my arm and wrist ached and throbbed as I was trying to go to sleep, every morning all was working fine again. So thanks to all of you who were praying for me. I really appreciate it and saw its effects time and again.

When I first read through the galleys I was overwhelmed by the number of things I found just flat out wrong with the manuscript and other things that needed fixing because they just didn't work. I feel a lot better about it now, happy with a lot of the changes that I made. You always wonder if what you've done has really made it better, because it's so hard to see clearly. I think most of the changes, though, were a definite improvement. I was able to clarify some things, to work some still murky concepts out, jettison others that didn't belong and, I think -- I hope -- tie some of the scenes and developments together much better.

So I'm done. I'm thrilled to be done. Thrilled and amazed to have finished my fifth book! Thrilled to be able to get back to normal life again.

Speaking of, it's time to go eat dinner, then watch last week's Smallville and this week's 24. Yeeee-HAW!!!! I really am DONE this time!

Karen

More Snow Pics & Cancellations

Last post I showed the picture I took of the snow the night it was falling. The next morning we awoke to a wonderland. It was amazing. I had to go to a doctor's appointment and so was driving all about in it. By then it was warm enough the streets weren't icy, but they were still relatively empty, and snow was everywhere. I took the camera and was taking pictures all over the place. So I thought I'd share some pics of snow on things that almost never have snow on them. Like the palm tree here.



Like these paloverde trees:








And how about this cholla cactus:

Okay, I'm tempted to put up more but I have two chapters left to go through tonight and Bible class to do. I've cancelled all my regular activities and am ready now for the final run. Today I asked for and got a one day deadline extension so I'll be pulling up the drawbridge for the next few days. I'll be back, hopefully, (Oh please, Lord, let there be no more deadline extensions!) January 31. At which time this book should finally be done....

Grace,
Karen

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