Four Shorts, All Good

We can legitimately lament, and perhaps mourn, the transition of the bookstore and the rise of the electronic book. But one of the benefits of e-books, and there is more than one benefit, is the accessibility of short works – short stories, novellas, short novels – that would never have seen the light of day except packaged with similar-length works. I’ve been working now and then on my own novella, which will most likely emerge one day in pixilated form.

Before us are four such short works – two children’s stories, two suspense stories.

Peter Pollock’s A Very Different School is the first of his Professor Alexander stories. The town of Rosefields has constructed a new school. Even if only a small number of students will be attending. The teacher is Professor Alexander, and he has a unique way of teaching – by time machine. In this first story, he takes his students to the very first Easter week, to see Jesus enter Jerusalem on a donkey, the last supper, the betrayal by Judas, the prayer in the garden of Gethsemane and the arrest of Jesus, Peter’s denial, the crucifixion and the resurrection. Three of the children in the story just happened to share the same names of Pollock’s own children – and that’s how the story came to be written.

Pat Hatt’s Tune at High Noon is a very different kind of story – a rhyming story about the town of Rumbling Tumblewood and a host of animals who are the townspeople. It’s a sleepy, happy kind of town, until a band of outlaws (played by cats; Hatt has a cat or two that he often writes poems about) arrives and takes over. Things go from bad to worse, until Goosey Air (who runs the saloon) figures out a way to corral the cat gang and their cohorts. It’s great fun, and it’s mean to be read aloud.

I can see myself reading both of these works to my grandchildren, an engaging way to learn about Easter and a fun way to learn about standing up to bullies.

 

And now two for adults.

Rearview by Mike Dellosso was originally part of a collection of seven stories by various mystery and suspense writers, and then broken out as a separate novella (or long short story). Dan Blakely is a college professor who arrives at school one morning to find himself accused of assaulting one of his female students. He’s told to clear out his office and leave. As he experiences his life turning upside down, he decides to kill himself, but survives a car crash to find his been given a reprieve of seven hours. So what would you do with your last seven hours? We find out what Blakely does, and Dellosso weaves a story that is reminiscent of the old Twilight Zone television programs.

Mirror Image, a short story by Dellosso and Aaron Reed, begins in a library. A man finds a book, and the picture of the author is the man’s doppelganger. He finds himself tracking the author down, learning what his life is like, and then determining to take the author’s life as his own, even if murder is required. This is another story with twists and turns, as we come to occupy the mind of a man determined on a fateful course of action.

Four short works, two for children and two for adults. And all thoroughly enjoyable.

Related – author’s blogs:

Mike Dellosso

Pat Hatt 

Peter Pollock

Does It Always Have to Be an Amish Romance?

I recently read Robin Parrish’s novel Offworld, the story of a group of astronauts returning from Mars who discover that the world’s 10 billion people, or almost all of them, have disappeared. The novel was published by Bethany House, a well known and well respected Christian publisher. The author is a Christian. And the novel is, well, the novel is not an Amish romance.

It’s not even overtly Christian. No big gospel message. No struggles with faith. And an incredibly riveting and well-written story.

I didn’t think this was a big deal, until a few weeks later, someone commented on a blog about the novel: “I didn’t like it. Offworld didn’t edify me.”

I have all kinds of problems with that statement, not the least of which was the assumption that the novel’s purpose was to “edify me,” both an arrogance and a self-centeredness that the commenter likely didn’t intend.

A debate rages off and on about what is, and isn’t, “Christian” fiction. Some have offered these qualifications: written by a Christian author; published by a Christian publishing house; absence of cursing, sex, raw violence; some moral lesson; explicit goaspel message; good always wins in the end. Some go much farther than this. Novelist Ted Dekker ripped on the content guidelines of Christian romance publisher Steeple Hill; some pointed out that under those guidelines, even the Bible wouldn’t be published. Dekker eventually apologized, and everyone agreed to “move on,” a euphemism for acknowledging that the parties don’t, and probably won’t, agree. Another way to look at it, though, is to say Mr. Dekker knows his art and Steeple Hill knows its market. Publishing is a business, after all.

Suspense writer Mike Dellosso and writer Mike Duran have both written in the past about “Christian fiction,” to raise questions and invite discussion. Both go beyond the “defining guidelines” kind of controversy, and ask more pointed questions. What is “Christian” fiction? Is there such a thing? Can there be? For those who say that some write from a “Christian worldview,” what does that mean? And the audience question: what is the purpose of “Christian” fiction – to evangelize or build up the church? Who do Christians write for? Who should we write for? If we’re writing only for other Christians, are we keeping ourselves not of this world and out of it?

The discussion, even with the occasional outrage, is healthy. And it’s important. It begins to get at the purpose of writing and fiction, of creation and art. It leads us to this “separate but equal” life and lifestyle we Christians often live in today’s world.

And it can point us in a different direction. Switchfoot singer Jon Foreman, writing in The Huffington Post, called the artist “the bridge between hope and despair” (read the whole article). I think Foreman is right.

I’d add that this bridge, this essential function, happens most effectively when we Christian writers understand we are that bridge.

This article was originally published by The Christian Manifesto, but the site was redesigned and the archive (with all of my posts) disappeared. So I’m occasionally reposting some of the articles I wrote for the publication.

Mike Dellosso's "Frantic"

Marny Toogood is a pump jockey at a gas station in Maine. A car arrives at the station, driven by a rather large man with a young woman sitting in the back seat. Marny’s taken by her eyes, which seem to follow him around the car. He’s also taken by the note she leaves behind on the ground: “He’s going to kill me.”

The car drives off. Marny stares at the note. And then he acts, and fast, running to jump in a car to give follow them.

Marny’s life is going to change forever.

Thus tarts Mike Dellosso’s new novel Frantic, and a frantic ride of a story it is. Marny, who carries considerable baggage from his past that includes what he believes is a curse in his relationships, will discover and accept a new role in his life: to save and protect the girl, Esther, and her brother William. They are being held captive by Gary, the driver of the car, who believes 11-year-old William is the anointed one who needs his protection, because the voice in his head tells him so.

And to protect William, Gary will leave a trail of bodies across New England. Running from Gary, Marny, Esther and William flee to Esther’s father, only to find themselves in the arms of an even greater evil.

I’ve read all of Dellosso’s previous novels – Scream, The Hunted, Darlington Woods, and Darkness Follows – and this is his best yet (and the first four were all good). In Frantic, he’s taken his writing and storytelling skills to a new level. In the process of terrifying the reader, Dellosso also writes a compelling, believable story. The writing is simple, straightforward narrative, and conveys an urgency that builds and builds, and even includes one unforgettable car chase scene.

He draws the characters of Marny, Esther and William with care and even love. They become real characters the reader comes to care deeply about (and terrified for). And yet Dellosso also makes Gary a three-dimensional villain, gradually revealing what has turned him into a ruthless killer.

Marny finds himself unable to save Esther and William until he realizes that he has to surrender control of himself. This is the larger theme of Frantic, one Dellosso has developed fully and well in all of his novels but especially so in this one.

30 Days of Faith

Writer Mike Dellosso has been publishing "30 Days of Faith" at his blog this month, posting a contribution on a story of faith each day from readers. Today (Day 11 in the series) he has a contribution from me.

I've told this story before, but there's a new wrinkle (which I don't mention in the post). In December, I was having breakfast with a good friend who is a missionary in Costa Rica. He and his family were on a home visit and we had some time to catch up. He was telling me about their mission work, and I was telling him about my new book, Dancing Priest. We then talked about the possibilities for short-term mission work, and I mentioned the trip I took to Central Europe in 2002.

And then it hit me. During that trip, our team met with a young German minister in Erfurt who was ministering to scores of people following a shooting at a local high school; 13 people, including the gunman, had been killed. I've described what happened before, but during my breakfast conversation with my friend, I realized that the minister had inspired the character of Michael Kent in my novel.

I could almost hear the click-click-click as all the brain synapses connected.

Mike Dellosso's "Darkness Follows"

Sam Travis is a carpenter and construction worker, trying to recover from a nasty fall and serious brain injury. He lives near Gettysburg, Penn., and he finds entries in a journal about the battle beginning to appear – written in his handwriting. He’s also haunted by a family tragedy in which his older brother died, and he begins to hear his brother’s voice calling to him. Sam Travis is a man descending into darkness and madness.

Symon, and that’s all he knows his name to be, is a man who can’t find his past or his memory. He kills almost single-mindedly, to remove the impediments to his mission. And his mission to make sure Sam carries out the task that’s been preordained for him.

And the task is Stephen Lincoln, a U.S. Senator who’s changed political parties and in the process embraced a pro-life position. He’s upset a lot of former supporters, especially because he’s being touted as a candidate for President. And he’s going to give a speech in Gettysburg that will likely launch his campaign.

Jacob is the imaginary friend of Sam’s daughter Eva, and Jacob keeps telling Eva to pray for her father because he’s going to do something really bad.

Sam is an expert shot with a rifle.

These four characters are the main storytellers of Mike Dellosso’s Darkness Follows, although Jacob exists through most of the novel only as expressed by Eva. And they tell a story of suspense, violence and the supernatural that is riveting.

Dellosso’s previous novels – Scream, The Hunted and Darlington Woods – effectively use elements of horror and the supernatural. With Darkness Follows, he’s moved to a new level. The writing is solid, the action measured but fast-paced, the story building toward an almost fevered climax (yes, I had to get up and walk around – several times – as the crisis point approached).

This novel is not what many would consider traditional “Christian fiction.” Several people die, and rather brutally, the descriptions of their deaths so spare that it increases the horror. Jacob is clearly a kind of guardian angel, actively intervening. Something is clearly controlling Symon, and it’s likely something demonic.

But there is also no question that the novel is shot through with Christian understanding and faith. It is not a conventional “Christian novel,” but it is a novel written by a Christian author.

Darkness Follows is a masterful story and a thought-provoking read.

Mike Dellosso's "Darlington Woods"

It took me a week to read Mike Dellosso’s Darlington Woods. I could have read in far less time; it’s that fast-paced. But it is also one scary read, so scary that I had to read some, put it down, read some more, put in down and catch my breath. It’s definitely not a book for the fainthearted.

But it is a great story.

Rob Shields has lost his wife Kelly and son Jimmy to kidnapping and murder. Kelly’s body is eventually found; the police think they've found Jimmy’s body but it's not definitive. Then Rob inherits a house in Maryland from his aunt, and he travels from his home in Massachusetts to see it, only to find a profound evil and perhaps – just perhaps – his son.

Dellosso, author of The Hunted and Scream, writes in the Christian supernatural, horror, and suspense genre. And he writes better than well. Each page crackles with tension, pulling the reader deeper and deeper into the story. The action happens simultaneously over just a few days – and 20 years. No small feat to pull that off, and Dellosso does it with ease. And as the sun sets in Darlington and its nearby woods, we meet the darklings, led by the Wax Man, who is out for revenge, and revenge against Rob in particular. Only gradually does the reader learn why, and that gradualness adds to the tension.

Darlington Woods is a terrific story and a terrific read, Dellosso’s best yet. He knows how to tell a wild, dark and suspenseful story.

Just don’t go into Darlington Woods.

(Attention Federal Trade Commission: I bought this book from Amazon.com. With my own money. Just so you know.)

The Tenth Day of Christmas: Suspense

I’ve loved reading mysteries and suspense since I was six or seven years old. The first one I can remember reading was Trixie Belden and the Secret of the Mansion. I can also remember ordering ever mystery offered by Scholastic Book Service at school, inhaling all of the Hardy Boys (with a slight detour into the Tom Swift science fiction stories), and then going on to mysteries with murders and general mayhem. Even today, I usually can’t resist the newest mystery novel by Elizabeth George, P.D. James, Ian Rankin or the Spanish writer Arturo Perez-Reverte (English translation).

Christian fiction has its own sub-genre of mystery and suspense, and a growing category of horror. And there’s a lot of controversy within the ranks, so to speak; not everyone likes it or believes it to be “edifying.” But I’ve found four novelists are who tell great stories, and I will read anything by them.

Earlier this year, not too long before I started blogging, I discovered Mike Dellosso and his novel The Hunted, shortly before he published his latest novel, Scream. Set in Pennsylvania where Mike lives, these are stories more influenced by Stephen King than P.D. James. There’s mystery, to be sure, but there’s also horror, and sometimes the supernatural. He writes about life in a small-town, but it’s life like you’ve never run across before. I got hooked. His next novel, Darlington Woods, is due out in May 2010.

Then I saw a recommendation for Isolation by a Chicago-based novelist named Travis Thrasher. He’s a full-time writer, and has written 12 novels, including a love story and a lot of mysteries and suspense. His novel Sky Blue is a personal favorite, and I’ve also read Admission and Ghostwriter. Some are mysteries, all are suspenseful and a few fall into the horror category (As I read Isolation, I had to occasionally put it down, go walk around and calm myself, and then come back – the tension that Thrasher creates is something else). He’s under contract for a series of Young Adult novels, and has just self-published Every Breath You Take because it was something he wanted to do. (Yes, I’ve ordered it.)

Adam Blumer's novel Fatal Illusions was published in the late spring, and I don’t think I will ever look at magicians the same way again. Adam is a freelance editor who lives in Michigan’s U.P., and this is his first novel – and it’s a corker of a story about a family trying to take a healing sabbatical, and instead finding themselves being stalked but not one but two different people for two different reasons. Don’t read this novel before turning the lights out for the night; I made that mistake and lay in bed wide-eyed for some time. Adam is also working on his next novel.

Sam Batterman also published his first novel this year, called Wayback. It leans more in the direction of science fiction than the other three novelists, and it’s more like Michael Crichton than Stephen King. It’s got a fascinating premise – that scientists are able to prove the Biblical flood, and travel back in time to do just that. The descriptions of the landscape – and of the cataclysm of the flood itself – are incredible. Batterman is working on a sequel to WayBack.

(Over at the High Calling Blogs, we’re celebrating the 12 days of Christmas by highlighting a blog or web site of someone besides ourselves during this season of Advent and Christmas.) (Which is what we should also be doing the other 353 days of the year.)

Didn't Quite Make the Century Ride

Well, I almost made it, the Flat As A Pancake Century bike ride, that is. I did a relatively short training ride last night (20 miles) and was feeling fine. But about 1:30 this morning, I woke up, turned on my side, and had to grab the bedpost because of the pain on my left side.

I made it to work this morning, but had to give it up after an hour. Making a left turn in the car was agony. Getting out of the car was agony. Walking was okay for the moment, but sitting or standing was no fun. A member of my team came into my office to talk, and as I turned from my computer, it was all I could do to keep from yelling out loud.

The doctor checked me out, and even had a chest xray done. My wife kept glaring at me for not telling her about the pain in the first place. Diagnosis: something torn/strained/pinched with a muscle that wraps from my left shoulder blade around my left side. Treatment: Aleve, tylenol, heat, ice -- and no century ride. I had to listen to the doc on this; he's more of a biking fanatic than I am.

So instead of getting up before dawn tomorrow and going for a long, long ride with a group from the YMCA (wearing those great jerseys, too), I will be finishing Leif Enger's Peace Like a River and rereading an interview with author Dale Cramer in the latest edition of Christian Fiction Online Magazine. I love Cramer's writing. The interview is good, but the interviewer didn't ask half the questions I would have (okay, so they have space limitations). This edition of the publication also has an article about my online friend Mike Dellosso, author of Scream and The Hunted. Mike and I have never met face-to-face or even talked on the telephone, but we've become friends via the internet. His books scare me silly. He's working on a new one, tentatively entitled Darlington.

So no century ride tomorrow. Instead, I'll be reading and working on a work in progress, a novel I'm calling (for now) Plain Sam.

Fatal Illusions

Big day for my online friend Adam Blumer tomorrow -- publication of "Fatal Illusions," his first (published) novel. The book is in the Christian suspense genre. Another recently published work in the same genre -- Mike Dellosso's Scream.

Christian Horror/Suspense

In the past several months, I've been expanding my reading of Christian fiction. During the Christmas holidays, I spent two hours at a local Christian bookstore, poring over the fiction titles (and occasionally stealing away to listen to samples of contemporary Christian music -- I found Brandon Heath while doing this). I bought a pile of books and consumed them -- authors like Dale Cramer, Charles Martin, Taylor Field, Nancy Moser, Elizabeth Musser and Annette Smith.

A number of these novelists write in the "women's fiction" genre, which, I'm told, is where I'm doing a lot of my own writing. In addition to these, I discovered a genre I was generally unaware of because I simply hadn't been interested in it -- Christian horror and suspense. There are some big names here (like Ted Dekker) but also lesser known authors who are equally good, writers like Mike Dellosso. I liked Dellosso's The Hunted, but I loved his most recent one, Scream. I wrote reviews of both on Amazon. If you like a scary good read, either one (or both) of these will more than satisfy the itch.