My sin

After Psalm 32

My sin is not

yours (thank goodness).

Mine is a bit 

of a minor one, scarcely

worth mentioning, but

it is there, of course,

small and insignificant,

while yours, comparatively

and objectively speaking,

if course, is rather serious,

wouldn’t you agree,

certainly more serious than

my small transgression so

barely worth mentioning,

while yours, well, it speaks

for itself, doesn’t it,

a shout to my murmur.

I feel better already.

Photograph by Chen Hu via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Reflecting on Writing a Novel

Dancing Priest, my first novel and the first in the Dancing Priest series, is free on Amazon Kindle this week.

It was published seven years ago, and it was almost a decade in the making. From an image inspired by a song, the story spent three years inside my head. In idle moments, or at night after I’d gone to bed, I slowly worked my way through the story of Michael Kent and Sarah Hughes. Over those three years, the story changed, incorporated new ideas and characters, shifted in its narrative arc, and shifted its location from Italy to Scotland. 

When I finally began to transfer the story from head to computer screen, in the early fall of 2005, it came as a torrent. It took about three months, but when I stopped, I had a torrent of 250,000 words, sufficient for three novels. Then began the cutting, splicing, and saving chunks for later. At a writer’s conference or two, I showed excerpts to editors and agents. Editors liked it; agents didn’t. One agent told me that if it didn’t have a vampire or a werewolf, it couldn’t be marketed to publishers (this was at the height of the mania for the Twilight novels). 

Dancing Priest eventually found its way into print. From that first behemoth manuscript in 2005, it was likely rewritten 20 times before it saw the public light of day. Writing is hard work. Editing is hard work. Marketing is hard work. Trying to market one book, write another, and hold down a full-time job is impossible work. 

I’ve reread the book several times, and while there are a few things I’d like to change or edit, I find myself content with it. I’ve always considered it a love story for men, and the reactions of male readers have supported that. While a few (male and female) readers have thought Michael Kent a bit too perfect, male readers have generally seen the character as to what men aspire to. One reader said it should be required reading for teenage boys, because it offered a sense of “the nobility of doing right.” 

The character I still feel the closest to in the story is Sarah Hughes. Her attitude to faith mirrored my own in college, as in, “You’re serious about this stuff?” How she comes to faith is a direct lift from my own experience when I was a senior in college. What happens to her when she begins to talk with the wife of the director of “College Campus Ministry” is an almost verbatim description of what happened to me when I began to talk with the director of Campus Crusade for Christ at my university. 

If there is a single theme in Dancing Priest, it is the same theme that you’ll find in the three novels that have followed it: No matter how dark things look, there is always hope.

This week, you can access the free copy on Amazon Kindle here.

“1066: What Fates Impose” by G.K. Holloway

What do most of us know about the year 1066? Generally, that Duke William of Normandy invaded England and defeated the Anglo-Saxon army of King Harold at the Battle of Hastings. And we know that it was the last successful invasion of Britain, even though both Napoleon and Hitler considered it.

Marc Morris published a bestselling and well-received history in 2013, The Norman Conquest: The Battle of Hastings and Fall of Anglo-Saxon England. Peter Ackroyd included a large discussion of it in Foundation, the first volume of the history of England (I reviewed it here). But never have I been so captivated by the story of the invasion than I have by reading the gripping historical novel 1066: What Fates Impose by British author G.K. Holloway.

1066 is everything a really good historical novel should be. 

First, it’s meticulously researched. At times I wasn’t sure whether I was reading a novel or an extraordinary first-hand account of the invasion and the 20 years leading up to it.

Second, virtually all of the characters are historical, with personalities derived from the research. At the center is Harold Godwinson, who becomes King Harold II, the last Anglo-Saxon monarch of England. Holloway’s Harold is essentially a good and decent man who’s sometimes naïve enough to be taken advantage of. His nemesis is William, painted as a duplicitous, conniving villain eagerly embracing any lie (and transmitting those lies to the pope) to accomplish his designs. 

Holloway includes a large host of supporting characters – earls, queens, thanes, family members (the Godwins had sons and ambitions aplenty), and more. King Edward, the childless monarch who preceded Harold, may have been known as the saintly Confessor and built Westminster Abbey, but he left his kingdom in the most dangerous position of all in medieval times – without designated heir.

Third, by beginning 20 years before the invasion, 1066 gives us the full context of events. We come to understand how Anglo-Saxon politics worked, and it was all about family and title and bloodlines. We see the intrigues and jugglings for power. We realize that the Norman invasion of 1066 was only the second one that year, with the last great Viking invasion arriving in the north of England shortly before William sailed his army across the channel. We scowl at the role venial churchmen played, working their own power games.

G.K. Holloway

And fourth, 1066 tells a rollicking good story. There’s romance and betrayal, heroism and foolishness, kindness and brutality. Holloway excels with the battle scenes; they are riveting in all their gory excitement and splendor.

Holloway received a degree in history and politics at Coventry University. He worked in career counseling, student welfare offices, and adult education, before turning to research and writing. He was a contributor to 1066 Turned Upside Down: Alternative fiction stories by nine authors. His research for 1066: What Fates Impose took him to York, Stamford Bridge, Winchester, Bosham and Stowe Anglo-Saxon Village in England and Falaise, Mont St. Michel, and Bayeux in Normandy. 

1066 is a big historical novel and a big historical event. It tells an enthralling story. 

Top illustration: A painting of Harold Godwinson, King Harold II, the last Anglo-Saxon king of England who died at the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

5 Plays, a Story, and a Novella for Christmas

It’s that time of year for last-minute gift buying, wrapping presents, decorating trees, family celebrations, and reading stories about Christmas. Christmas isn’t only about an abundance of choices for gifts; it’s also the time of the year for an abundance of seasonal choices for reading. You can reach for old favorites like A Christmas Carol or any of the other Charles Dickens Christmas stories, or a shorter work like A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas.

You can also look at genre books about Christmas – science fiction stories, horror, stories, murder mysteries (lots of murder mysteries), and even celebrate the season with your favorite zombie (yes, there are stories about zombies and Christmas).

To see how Christmas is being treated by contemporary writers, I did a kind of random selection and read a collection of plays, a novella, and a short story. I learned that if there if is one common characteristic in Christmas stories, it’s how wildly diverse they are. These selections are not meant to be representative; I don’t think it’s possible to find representative works of Christmas stories in all of their sub-genres.

Five Christmas Plays

Writer David Winters has written about faith and work (Taking God to Work; Sabbatical of the Mind) and a mystery (Driver Confessional). He’s also written Five Christmas Plays, short theatrical works designed specifically for churches to use as part of their Christmas observances. 

“The Singing Trees” is about having an obsession for the perfect Christmas – the right decorations, the right food, the right table settings, the right everything – and what happens when it all blows up. “I’ll Be Late for Christmas” is about a family waiting for the father to return from his Army deployment, and he is way past his expected arrival. “Christmas Prayer of Forgiveness” is about a family broken by abandonment and divorce, and what happens when the father returns, seeking forgiveness. In “The Christmas Cabin,” a father brings home an unexpected guest – his daughter from a long-ago relationship. And “Grandma Louise’s Christmas Miracle” is about long-ago stories and the seeming impossibility of a contemporary miracle. 

Winters uses sentiment, humor (the waitresses in “I’ll Be Late for Christmas” are the kind of sassy servers you want to meet in small-town diners), empathy, understanding, and basic principles of faith to tell his stories. Each of the five plays is a telling of the Christmas story in a different way.

Pieces on Earth

Author Cathy Bryant has written some 13 books of fiction (like the Miller’s Creek series) and non-fiction (Christian devotionals). Pieces on Earth is a novella that tells the story of Liv, a young Navy wife living in Pensacola with her husband Jeff and daughter Chesney. Jeff’s overseas tours of duty are supposed to be over, and Liv is looking forward to a Christmas with her parents and family in snowy Colorado. Jeff is suddenly ordered to Afghanistan (he’s a Navy pilot) and Liv’s plans are completely upset. Liv discovers she’s pregnant and is so angry with her husband that she chooses not to tell him before he leaves.

She’s a believing, practicing Christian, but she’s also angry with God for allowing her plans to be upset. She stops going to church and starts spending time with her more materialistic secular friends. One faith connection she keeps is telling Bible stories to four-year-old Chesney, helping the child understand the overall story of the Bible. She starts to worry when Jeff’s regular calls home stop; then a friend’s husband is reported killed in action and she learns her own husband is missing in action. 

Pieces on Earth is a poignant story of the waning and waxing of faith, how circumstances can seem overwhelming, and how God is always faithful.

Mystery of the Beautiful Old Friend

Michelle Ann Hollstein is the author of the Aggie Underhill mystery series, a fantasy trilogy, a paranormal mystery series, a novel, and several non-fiction books. In the short story “Mystery of the Beautiful Old Friend,” Aggie Underhill, a slightly past middle-aged woman living in Palm Springs, California, is sitting at lunch with her friends Betty Wilcox and Roger Dunlap when she sees her close, personal friend Tom Wood sitting at a nearby table, with a beautiful young woman. Aggie has no room for jealousy; she’s in love with Tom but not ready for marriage, so she’s told him that they should date other people. But one this beautiful?

To make herself feel better and to perhaps compete with the young beauty, Aggie dyes her hair. It’s supposed to be reddish highlights; it turns into fire-engine red, or, as her friend Roger says, “Woody Woodpecker red.” She and Betty go to the mall for Christmas shopping when they spot the beautiful young woman. In the middle of their spying, one of Santa’s elves is found murdered (bodies always seem to turn up when Aggie Underhill is around). 

“Mystery of the Beautiful Old Friend” focuses on the more commercial aspects of the Christmas season. It’s also a funny murder mystery; what goes through Aggie’s mind when she realizes what’s happened to her hair causes more than a few laughs.

Top photograph by Freestocks.org via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Dylan Thomas, Christmas, New Orleans, and Me

I remember my childhood Christmas celebrations by presents and relatives.

The earliest Christmas I recall must have been when I was three. My mother, at her wit’s end by my constant pulling of pots and pans from the shelves, prevailed upon my father to buy a toy set, which was interesting, but not as interesting as the jack-in-the-box my father had searched New York City for, or the Davy Crockett coonskin hat (with faux racoon tail) that was all the rage because of the television series with Fess Parker. The Christmas puppy arrived when I was six. The Lionel model train came when I was seven. The “big boy’s” bike (26-inch wheels) showed up when I was 9. The bb gun came at 10. The last remembered present was a chess set using the characters of Augustan Rome – Augustus for the king, Livia for the queen, and Cicero for the bishop. I still have it.

And the relatives. We lived in New Orleans, my mother’s hometown, and she came from a large family. For years, our suburban ranch home was the place for Christmas dinner, for no other reason that it had a large den that could hold everyone for dinner. My mother would always make the pies and the fruit salad. My father would cook the Christmas turkey and make oyster dressing, which everyone in the family raved about. Except me. I wouldn’t eat it, possibly because I saw what the raw oysters looked like going into it. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at Tweetspeak Poetry.

"Dancing Priest" Free on Amazon Kindle This Week

Dancing Priest, the first novel in the series, is free on Amazon Kindle this week. 

Michael Kent…
A young man studying to become a priest finds love, and learns that faith can separate.
A university cyclist seeking Olympic gold finds tragedy, death and heroism.
A pastor thousands of miles from home seeks vocation and finds fatherhood.

Sarah Hughes…
A young woman living abroad finds love and loses family.
A university student meets a faith she cannot accept.
An artist finds faith and learns to paint with her soul.

Dancing Priest is the story of Michael Kent and Sarah Hughes and a love, born, separated, and reborn, in faith and hope.

Book 1 in the Dancing Priest series available here. 

“Wild Fire” by Ann Cleeves

It’s the end of the road for Detective Inspector Jimmy Perez of the Shetland Police Force.

Wild Fire by Ann Cleeves is the eighth and final volume in the Shetland mystery series. Cleeves is ending the popular series because, she says, she’s told all the stories she wanted to tell and she likes Shetlanders too much to kill off any more of them.

Two more die in Wild Fire.

A young nanny is found hanging in a barn of a home owned by English transplants. The nanny works for another family, and the scene is the site of the suicide of the man who previously owned the property. Forensic examination determines that the young woman was already dead when the body was hung. Her purse and shoes are also nowhere to be found.

Perez and his officer Sandy Wilson begin the investigation, but he’s required to call the case in to Aberdeen, and Willow Reeves arrives to lead. We met Reeves in Cold Earth, when she and Perez were investigating a case and soon found themselves investigating each other. Perez has deep feelings for Reeves, but he’s still not over the death of his fiancée Fran, for which he bears a sense of guilt. 

Reeves arrives with some surprise news. She’s pregnant with Perez’s child. Perez responds with anger, believing he’s been taken advantage of or, at worst, used. He knew Reeves had wanted to have a child. The tensions of investigating the murder are overlaid with the tensions of their relationship.

They run across a woman who has a rather spiteful, gossiping tongue, and whose son was involved with the dead woman. Her gossiping tongue apparently gets her into more trouble than she expected; she’s found dead, a victim of strangling. The investigation of the two murders takes Perez and Reeves deep into the lives of the two families involved.

Ann Cleeves

Cleeves has published eight mysteries in the Jimmy Perez / Shetland series, including Raven Black (2008), Red Bones (2009), White Nights (2010), Blue Lightning (2011), Dead Water (2014), Thin Air (2015), and Cold Earth (2017), with Wild Fire published in September. She’s also published eight mystery novels in the Vera Stanhope series (also a television series), six Inspector Stephen Ramsay mysteries, and several others works and short stories. The Jimmy Perez novels are the basis for the BBC television series “Shetland.” Cleeves lives in northeastern England.

As an enthusiastic reader of the Shetland books and an enthusiastic fan of the television program, I’m of two minds about the ending of the series. On the one hand, both the books and the TV program are highly entertaining, with those stark brooding Shetland vistas matching the brooding perspective of Perez. On the other hand, when it’s time for an author to stop a series, the author knows it. And perhaps it’s best to go out on a high note.

Wild Fire is as much the story of Willow Reeves as it is of Jimmy Perez. It leaves fewer clues as to the murderer’s identity for the reader than the previous books, and the solution could have gone in any of several ways – possible motives littered the Shetland landscape. 

But the series is done, and we wish Detective Inspector Perez and his boss Willow Reeves the best in their new career undertakings.

Related:

My review of Cold Earth by Ann Cleeves.

My review of Red Bones by Ann Cleeves.

My review of Raven Black by Ann Cleeves.

My review of White Nights by Ann Cleeves.

My review of Blue Lightning by Ann Cleeves. 

My review of Dead Water by Ann Cleeves.

My review of Thin Air by Ann Cleeves.

Top photograph: A view of Lerwick, the largest town in the Shetland Islands and the home base for Jimmy Perez. By Erik via Wikimedia Commons.