Self Expression Joins Fiction to Poetry

What a joy self-expression is. Whether writing fiction, poetry, or non-fiction the way the author presents the material, the choice of what is said, even what is left unsaid are indicative of the writer’s personality and experience.


As a child I was delighted when my father made up little ditties or spoke in verse. I never considered how they impacted me until I wrote a poem a day to sharpen my skills of observation and description. Later, I entered the La Porte County Poet Laureate Contest and performed in Arts in the Park for several years.



While studying the gospels, I imagined the motivations and conflicts of the individuals and framed fictionalized poems to express them. “Journey to Christmas” was followed by newly released, “Ten Days to an Empty Tomb” which is the good news of Easter told in story-poems. These contemporary poems explore thoughts and emotions of those encountering the days leading to the Passover, crucifixion, and resurrection. Human nature, reasoning, and choices are revealed provoking thoughtful meditation for those wanting to draw closer to Christ or simply share the story in a new way.

Here are three excerpts. Can you guess the character viewpoint?

These fools will serve this King of Plenty
as Servant Leaders and Ransoms for Many
as for me—there’ll be money and goods to disperse;
I’ll be Minister of Interior, Treasurer of Purse.


I wish I’d been cast from Temple
defrocked and shunned by Jews
for then I’d be pure in heart
with no regrets for what I’ve withheld from You.


Does the earth quake for a human?
Will lightning and thunder toll?
Does the sky split with the world’s weight
while gambling dice are rolled?



This is a FREE DOWNLOAD TODAY, SUNDAY, AND MONDAY, MARY 9, 10, 11.  If you do not have a Kindle Reader, that is a free download too. I hope you will follow the link, download a copy, and share the link with your friends. Perhaps you would even write a review on Amazon or comment on blogs about it. I value your feedback.

http://www.amazon.com/Ten-Days-Empty-Tomb-ebook/dp/B00BQN29TA/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1362835269&sr=1-1&keywords=Ten+Days+to+an+Empty+tomb

 Mary Allen writes from NW Indiana and prays that this Easter be one of deeper joy and greater commitment to our Risen Lord. Many blessings IN ACFW friends.

“Physics & Your Fiction,” Guest blogger Albert Einstein

             First, let me thank Rick Barry for this chance to be a guest blogger. It is a great honor. I only hope he vill not edit my author’s voice out of this submission.

Second, some of you may vonder, “Vhat does this kook know about fiction? He is a physicist, not a writer.” Vell, let me assure you, physicists already live in their own little world. Ve know plenty about alternate reality!”

Now, back to the point: Vhat does physics have to do with you fiction writers? Plenty. Allow me to introduce Newton’s First Law of Motion in laymen’s terms: “An object at rest tends to stay at rest, vhile an object in motion tends to stay in motion vith the same direction and speed.”

“So vhat,” you ask?

Vell, here’s vhat, Mister Smarty Pants: If you relax too much, your novel is in danger. Let me rephrase: An author at rest, tends to stay at rest. For instance, if you love to lie on your couch with a clicker, your idea for a novel might go kaputt. Writing is hard vork. You must develop discipline. Rise early, if you must. Get out of bed. (It’s mind over mattress, Charlie.) Limit your minutes with the television. Vhatever it is that tends to put your body at rest, get control of that thing, or you are doomed. 

However, there is a positive side of physics in fiction writing. An author in motion tends to stay in motion. In other vords, vonce you develop a daily rhythm, a time in vhich you record all that gobbledygook you dream up inside your skull, you have a vonderful bit of synergy going for you. Keep it up, baby! Momentum is a vonderful thing. Vhen you go to bed knowing exactly vhat should happen in the next chapter--vowie! You vill be eager to rush back to that keyboard. No more writer’s blockhead for you. Your subconscious noggin vill keep vorking on plot ideas vhen you sleep, vhen you drive, etc. But, if you relax too much, if you start skipping your keyboard time day after day… Pffffft! Your momentum evaporates. It is gone vith the vind. (Sounds like a fiction title, ja?)
             Facebook? Facebook is not writing. It is dessert. Check your FB only after you have written, and you vill maintain momentum. E-mail? Same idea. Answering email first soaks up time and creativity. Keep up creative momentum first, then check email as a reward after x number of vords added to the story. You vill thank me, believe me.

A similar principle of motion applies after you make a sale. Vonce an editor buys your vork, keep that ball rolling. No matter vhether you sell an article, or a short story or a whole big shebang novel, do not let that editor forget you! Craft another vork of art, and submit it! Othervise, you end up trying to get your cold foot in the door like a begger over and over.

So I stress: Apply physics to your fiction unless you vant to bomb. 

(Trust me, I know a thing or two about bombs. You do not vant to do that!) 

Auf Wiedersehen!

  

When he isn't impersonating famous physicists, Rick Barry is the author of over 200 published short stories and articles, plus two novels. Visit his personal blog at http://rickbarry.blogspot.com.

Roads We Travel to Publication

In American Christian Fiction Writers we all serve one God, but there are many roads we travel in his service. Sometimes the path can veer from the course we think is appropriate. It may even wind down shadowy valleys we don’t want to walk or lead up mountains that are daunting. As long as we are on the track as he directs we are exactly where we should be.


My children graduated high school in the mid-nineties and it was then that a story began to weave itself into my thoughts. The path to publishing that first novel seemed clear. Write it. Edit it. Get published. I wasn’t prepared for the twists and the turns that followed. As I look back, I can see God used each new job experience to teach valuable lessons, learn needed skills, provide funds, and mature me.

Poetry is one of those routes that I considered to be a detour, but which has proved to be a divine plan. Merging fiction, poetry, and Bible truths has been a profitable pleasure as well as deepening my understanding of the Word because of research. This weekend I’ll be e-publishing “Ten Days to the Empty Tomb” for Amazon’s Kindle. Please be on the lookout for it. Meanwhile, here are a few words of encouragement:

1. If you have a dream for a certain novel, don’t give up on it, even if the road seems circuitous.

2. Don’t fight the way that the Lord leads. He doesn’t delay capriciously. There are skills to be learned or heart lessons to be absorbed for our safety and protection. After all, what good would it be to have a best seller and lose our souls to greed or pride?

3. Perfect obedience the first time is the best. Even if we don’t understand God’s reasons, He will always prove true and right.

4. If we miss opportunities God will keep steering us back onto His plan. No one wants to wander in the desert for forty years, but in the end God brought the Israelites to the Promised Land. Following through on point three will lessen the times we have endure point four, for there is always something lost when obedience isn’t prompt and complete.

Have a wonderful March and a great INACFW meeting this month. Hopefully I’ll make it. 

Mary Allen has authored numerous articles and two books of poems "Journey to Christmas" and "Ten Days to the Empty Tomb". She hopes the road leads her back to focusing on her first piece of fiction in 2013.

Generating Ideas

One challenge for a novelist is coming up with ideas that generate ideas for future books. While we're writing one, we need to generate ideas for more -- it's a cycle of life of sorts. 

I read a few non-fiction books, looking for anything that jumps out at me. And if it interests me, there is a chance I can spin a story around it. After that I noodle the story, try to come up with new ideas, characters, and details that will coat the non-fiction idea in a way that fiction lovers with enjoy and be immersed in them. 


When Sarah, Tricia and I began talking about creating a novella collection, we started with a conference call. We started talking about the elements that we share in our World War II novels. Once we started spinning out elements, it became easy to craft a core that we could work from to create stories that were woven together.

With A Wedding Transpires on Mackinac Island, I thought about places we enjoyed visiting. Those often make a great setting for a book that will allow readers to escape into the pages and stories for awhile. 

How do you generate ideas for your novels?

It's a great time to be a writer

How did they do it?

Tolstoy--Source: Wikipedia Commons

Steinbeck, Hemingway, Austen -- they didn't have Google!

I write historical fiction and faction at present (although my new release will be contemporary humor), and I thank the dear Good Lord each day that I don't have to wade through piles of books at the library anymore to do my research as I did in "the old days."

Want to know who the most notorious criminals were in 1923? 

Google it.

What did they wear in 1823?

Pinterest.

Need a unique character to spice things up?

Listology. (You're welcome.)

Another great resource for research is used books. The Internet is even useful in helping me acquire these. Amazon usually sells used copies of books right beside the new ones!

It's an amazing time to be a writer and I'm grateful to be living in this time.

But it's also one of the most important times to be a writer. I'm conscious of a spirit of disbelief as never before on earth. "Oh, God!" I cry, "Teach me Truth so I can write Truth!" 

"For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe" (1 Thess. 2:13).

The only way to know the Truth is to know His Words. Just think: God used 40 writers to teach us the Truth. What if they'd decided not to write on the day God inspired them? 

"Sorry, Lord, but one of my harp strings broke. Can't work on that Psalm. I need perfect conditions, you know. Maybe tomorrow."

Someone needs to read what God has given you to write. 

Put your procrastinating self in that chair and do it. 

After all, you have more than Google, Pinterest or Listology.

You have the Precious Holy Spirit. 

And last time I checked, He'd written a book or two Himself. 

"But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you" John 14:26.

 Karla Akins is author of the best-selling Jacques Cartier (that went #1 on Amazon in its category), O Canada! Her Story and  Sacagawea. Her debut novel The Pastor's Wife Wears Biker Boots  is due out in 2013. When she's not writing she dreams of riding her motorcycle through the Smoky Mountains.