I’ve been pretty quiet in the blog world lately, due to the high amount of writing that I’m doing.  However, I’m doing a lot of tweeting with writing updates, so if you’re curious how it’s going, check out my Twitter page (which has an RSS feed available if you want to subscribe), or see the Twitter stream on the bottom right hand corner of my blog’s homepage.

I’m at the halfway point, and it’s been a lot of fun so far.  I’ve been pretty strict with my writing schedule, keeping myself to 2000 words a day and taking only Sundays off.  It’s worked really well for me.  I’m a big fan of taking a literal Sabbath, the kind where you relax, unwind, and rest for a whole day.  So the same philosophy that I use in my daily life gets applied to writing as well because, after all, it’s work.  Enjoyable work, but work nonetheless.

I’ve had many, many surprises a long the way in this process, as I’ve never made it this far into a book before.  Sure, I’ve written short stories, but I’m finding that this is a whole other ball game.

For one, my characters have their own agendas in the story.  It’s an odd experience, but as I get to know my characters more, they start taking over more, doing things I didn’t want them to do and acting out on their own time table.  I’ll learn interesting things about their likes and dislikes, as well as their history, as we go along.

Also, I’m learning that writing 2,000 words a day isn’t that tough.  I don’t mean to sound cavalier about it, but when I first set out to do this, I thought that I was going to spend a lot longer staring at a blank page.  But it’s really not that way.  I sit down, read a little bit of what I wrote last time, and keep going.

I’m also learning about where I need to grow as a writer.  Dialogue is a huge area.  I found that I deliver lines in the same way a lot, and it gets a little monotonous.  I need to learn some tricks for varying the conversations while still keeping it readable.  Thankfully, the writers’ organization of which I’m a member is hosting a writing workshop this weekend on dialogue, so I’m set.

Oh, and I’m also learning that I’m not as deep and complex as I thought I was.  I thought I’d be a bit more cognitive in my novel writing, ponderous and drawn out.  But no, I default to trite and cute.  So it’s a constant battle between me having fun and just going with the flow and trying to slow down to give my characters some brains.

I’m sure this is more than you wanted to know about the experience, so I’ll save the rest for next time.

I do have a resource for anyone else doing the NaNoWriMo along with me.  Being the overly organized writer, I created an Excel sheet to help me set goals and meet them.  It’s for the month of November, and it lists where I should be each day. But it also calculates where I need to be the next day based on a 2000 word a day schedule, in case I get ahead of myself (which I often do).  This could be adaptable for any month and any writing plan.  So, I thought I’d toss it out for people who like to have a daily writing schedule.  I wrote my Master’s thesis on one, and I’m very glad I did. (Oh, and it’s got my writing tally up to now in it, so you can see how it works).

Click here to download Amy’s Writing Calendar

One of my book groups recently read Bridge of Sighs, by Richard Russo, the Pulitzer Prize winning writer of Empire Falls (which I have not read…yet). When an authors win the Pulitzer, I tend to pay attention to their other books as well, and this, his most recent release, looked like just the book to take along with me to Italy. After all, it’s supposed to be about a trip to Italy…supposed to be.

I know I’m probably ruining a part of the book by saying this, but after all this ramping up to a trip to Italy, they never end up going. Russo takes his characters elsewhere. And boy was I pissed. Don’t dangle something like a tour de Italy in front of me, string me along for 500 chapters, and cop out in the end. Can you tell I’m a little peeved about this?

Anyway, the book has its upsides, too.

It’s about a small town and two generations of people within it. Each generation repeats the same failings as the other, and it’s a little depressing in that regard (everyone seems doomed to fail). Plus, the town, a fictitious one in upstate New York, is slowly killing all the people in it because of a toxic stream, polluted by an old tannery. Not the happiest place to live.

Lou Lynch (Lucy…a nickname that plagues him his entire life) idolizes his best friend, Bobby Marconi, to the point where the author hints he might even be homosexual. Bobby is everything that Lou is not, tough, smart, and good with women. The story follows their journey to adulthood, including an early, life altering event for Lucy. Crossing a bridge on his way home from school, some local bullies lock him in a trunk and abandon him there. Lucy experiences the first of his many “episodes” where he freezes into a semi-catatonic state temporarily. His childhood is filled with such experiences, which continue, sporadically, into his adult years.

Then comes Sarah, the love of Lucy’s life. She’s bold and no-nonsense, looking for love from Lou and his family. Sarah becomes a regular fixture in the Lynch corner store. But here’s the problem…Bobby likes her too.

The main intrigue for the book came from this love triangle. Sure, the relationships between the generations were interesting, but for the most part, I found them kind of repetitive and fatalistic. People die left and right in this small town. And not many people are truly happy.

Perhaps that’s what bothered me most about the book. Where is the joy? The only joy seemed to come from getting out of the town, getting laid, and hanging out at the Lynch store (which had its own unique family dynamic involved, with a very disturbing Uncle and some scary upstairs renters). At the end, at couple characters showed hope for change, but it wasn’t in the transforming way that you’d hope for, after going through so much dreariness. Basically, I wanted Jesus to show up and fix these screwed up lives.

But then, this isn’t Christian fiction. Interestingly, one of my favorite characters is a Christian who isn’t painted in a bad light. In fact, hers is one of the only positive stories. But you have to wade through 400 pages to get there, so I’m not sure its worth it.

Russo excels in character development, slowly divulging intriguing details about the characters’ former lives and making you want to follow their progression. He also masterfully alternates points of views, using different narrators skillfully, something that few authors can do (Next week, I’ll be sharing an example of how NOT to do this).

Because of these skills, I’m not giving up on Russo. I’m sure Empire Falls will be on my reading list, eventually. I need a few faster moving and less depressing novels before I try Russo’s writing again.

And I hope I’m not sounding too PollyAnnaish, that Jesus should swoop in and make all these people perfect. I know life is hard, even when you’re blessed to have Jesus helping you. But what people need is a good dose of the hope and joy that only Christ can give. And even one character with that joy wasn’t enough to bring up the spirits of the novel and make it a little less depressing.

“Sighs” is right.

I’m probably going to be pretty pooped out on writing this month, so I’m not sure if my standard blog posts are going to happen.  I’m due for a couple more book reviews, but aside from that, I think I’m going to keep my blog posts focused on the NaNoWriMo experience.

So I’ve finished day 2, which is technically my day 1, since I’m determined to not write on Sundays.

So far, I’ve finished 2000 words, hitting my goal for the day.  Here’s hoping that the first couple pages are some of the hardest, because I kept having to make up new characters as I went.  And I also had to keep myself from Googling factoids that I wasn’t sure about.  I’m trying to keep this as low research as possible, hence the subject matter of the book, basically locally oriented chick lit.  Out of all my story ideas, which I shared with Dan, it seemed like the best suited for this kind of project.

Let’s see, discoveries for today.  I’m realizing that characters let you in on secrets about their future. I’ll be writing about a character and something surprising will pop out of his or her mouth, indicating a future sub-plot that I would have never expected.  So, of course, every time that happens, I need to jot down that plot development in my little “plot overview” sheet, which is really just a short list of things I want to happen in the book.  Right now, it seems like I’m on a journey from point to point, just trying to make it to the milestones I’ve set up for these characters.

Oh, and the exposition stage is a real bear.  I hate it when books just dump down the entire character history right off the bat.  I’m more of an in medias res kind of person (where the book starts in the middle of the action).  But the challenge to that is incorporating the character background in a natural kind of way.

Stay tuned for more on this adventure.  Here’s my NaNoWriMo page with the new page numbers listed: http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/user/567502.

Dan and I had a nice long chat about whether or not I’m off my rocker, and we came to the conclusion that while I might be slightly disturbed, I’m not completely ready for the psych ward.  I’m going to do the National Novel Writing Month contest, which means I’m going to be writing a 50,000 word (aprox. 175 page) novel this month.

Here’s the deal.  I never finish any large writing products. I’ve written several books with only a chapter or two completed (mostly nonfiction).  And I typically leave my short stories about 1/2 finished.  This blog and a few journal and newspaper articles seem to be the only things I can get finished.

It seems like deadlines help.  But also, the longest thing I’ve written is my 70 page Master’s thesis.  I’d like to tackle a bigger project and actually finish it.

I have a lot of ideas for topics, so I’m going to be running them by my husband later to see which one will work best for this kind of writing.

You can see my official NaNoWriMo site here.  And ideally, I’ll try to update my wordcount every few days.

Here’s to trying something new and challenging.  Remember that post I did about risks awhile ago? I think this classifies as one.

Athol Dickson’s latest book, Lost Mission, was a pleasant surprise.  Every so often, I try to read current Christian fiction to see what’s going on in that market.  I admit, it’s not my favorite genre, largely because the quality of the writing has been so poor, especially when compared with the general market.  But Dickson has brought Christian fiction a little closer to the standards for the general market, and for that, I am grateful.

The story isn’t so simple (one major reason it sticks out from within the Christian fiction market).  Dickson weaves plotlines together across several centuries, including an 19^th century monk who works at a Spanish mission and several contemporary plotlines that interweave.  There’s Lupe, the Mexican shopkeeper who is called by God on a mission to preach to the Americans.  And Tucker, a recent seminary graduate who is trying to make a difference in the lives of the Latin Americans who live in his southern California town illegally (I don’t know if I can say “illegal alien” after all the hype over that Halloween costume, so I’ll just steer clear).  And there’s the ridiculously rich Delano with his beachfront home in California, who tries to save his soul through the money he gives to his opulent church. 

There’s a mystical/magical realism to the book, lending me to think about such mainstream favorites as Salman Rushdie and Gabriel Garcia Marquez.  Of course, they’re in a different league, but I’ve got to give Dickson credit for trying. 

My least favorite stylistic element is Dickson’s awkward and confusing method of transitioning between time periods.  We move from the 18^th century to the modern day mid sentence, and it’s never a very appropriate place to transition. It feels very forced.

One additional gripe, which is a minor component of the book but really struck me the wrong way, were the lectures on depression and the use of medicines for them.  I’m really sick of hearing Christians rant about this and point fingers at people who choose to medicate a serious medical condition. 

What makes this book move Christian fiction a step closer to mainstream fiction is its willingness to allow for bad Christians.  Yes, these are saved people who don’t behave themselves.  And that’s a much better reflection of the world as we know it.  There are so many more shades of grey in this book, which is refreshing, given the cliché “good” characters and cliché “bad” characters that populate typical Christian fiction.  In its dark realism, there are hints of Flannery O’Connor’s approach, to revealing the darker side of us all and leaving the heroes and heroines a little muddled, so we need to sort out the moral ambiguities for ourselves.

Okay, there is one character who is too goody two shoes to be real, but I won’t say who it is.  I was a bit disappointed that this vestige of current Christian fiction still remained, but at least, the character isn’t the typical American Christian. There’s at least a little uniqueness there.

And thankfully, there’s no “obligatory” conversion experience. 

So I’ll encourage you to read the book and judge for yourselves if it’s coming closer to the mainstream standards.  I wouldn’t mind if a few of us “voted with our dollars” that we’re looking for more complex, morally complicated books from Christian publishers.

And if you’re interested in hearing what other reviewers are saying about the book, including some opportunities to win a free copy of the book, visit this link.

Many thanks to the LitFuse Publicity Group and Howard Fiction for providing me with a review copy of this book.

Last Sunday, I got convicted of a bad reading habit. 

I admit, when I found out that in our study of Luke, we’d be spending an entire sermon on Mary’s Magnificat, I was a little unenthused. I’ve read that thing a million times, and it’s a nice little song and all, but seriously, a whole sermon on it?

Prepared to be bored, I got out my iTouch and readied it for multi-tasking.  I read my Bible on it during church, so it’s pretty easy to surreptitiously switch over to another program without anyone noticing.  Bad habit, I know.

But our pastor proceeded to give a great sermon, explaining just why this little portion of scripture was worthy of our attention. For example, did you know that young Mary expounds on 17 attributes of God in her song?  There’s an entire theology wrapped up in those nine verses (Luke 1:46-55).  She also demonstrates the right attitude to present when facing trials, something especially handy these days. 

And here I was, guilty of glossing over this section, time and time again.  It made me wonder if I’ve ever really tried to understand it.  I’d simply took it at face value, as a cute song of thanks, and moved onto more interesting things (in this case, John the Baptist’s birth). 

I’m recognizing that if I’m to believe that the Bible is God’s word, I’ve got to realize that means all of it, even Leviticus (which has worked in the past for me as an excellent insomnia cure).  By glossing over some parts and picking others as more worthy, my reading habits indicate that I’m not devoted to the whole of it. 

So what’s a Bible glosser to do?  I haven’t quite figured this part out.  But I think it’s going to require a serious effort to study all of it, not just my favorite bits.  Perhaps it will involve heavy use of my footnotes, which help clue me into why boring parts shouldn’t be so boring.  I’ve got a great version with excellent footnotes, the ESV Study Bible, and I need to be taking advantage of the additional information it provides. 

But most importantly, I think it’s a matter of attitude and of thirst.  If I’m easily quenched by the obvious, surface stuff, I’m missing out on another level of teaching, reproof, correction, training in righteousness, and equipping (2 Timothy 3:16-17). 

And I want more. I want the full Word and all its power to pierce the division of my soul and spirit and discern the thoughts and intentions of my heart (Hebrews 4:12).

I won’t settle for less.

Today’s book review is a little unusual for me.  Multnomah Publishers offered me the opportunity to review this book, and I was struck by how this could be an important book, because it addresses a topic with which most women can relate.  So, this week, I’m reviewing a Christian sex book (and no, that isn’t an oxymoron).

Kiss me Again: Restoring Lost Intimacy in Marriage, isn’t exactly what the title leads you to believe.  It’s more of a book about digging through your past sexual sins and those committed against you, so that today, you can have a better love life with your spouse.  Ninety percent of the book is focused on looking to the past to heal the future. 

Personally, I was hoping for a few more “how to” tips for today, that weren’t so focused on past sexual sins.  But Barbara Wilson won me over to the importance of dealing with the past before you even have hope in the present and future.  As someone who has worked with many couples as director of sexual health education for a pregnancy resource center, she’s knowledgeable on the research she cites as well as with personal stories of those who have found this information life changing.  The statistic that caught my attention the most was that 95% of people will have sex before they get married, Christian or not (5).  It shows that pre-marital sexual issues are in the majority, so it’s wise to deal with something so overwhelmingly prevalent. 

Wilson deals with a full range of sexual addictions and experiences that can interfere with your healthy, married love life (and she also does a good job showing what a healthy love life might look like).  The book is highly targeted to women, so you’ll find info on pornography use by women (this needed a bit more info, since it’s such a huge issue today), shacking up, and even abuse.  She’s big on wives confessing all to their husbands, openly, and in the right context and timing.  And Wilson encourages a lot of guided, reflective journaling to help you work through the past issues and find healing in Christ.

I appreciated the research minded approach (even if she went a little overboard with attributing most problems to oxytocin issues).  She comes across as very trustworthy, someone who knows this topic through and through.  And while I’m of the impression that meeting one-on-one with a professional Christian counselor is the best way to address these issues, this book might be a second best step, for those who don’t want to see a professional for help. 

What I come away with most from this book is an amazing sense of hope for our marriages.  We have Jesus, the healer, the redeemer, the savior, to help us have the marriages he wants for us.  He doesn’t want us burdened by past sin that corrupts our marriages.  He’s for our marriages, for healthy marriage beds and minds free from guilt and shame.  And it’s comforting to know that no matter our past mistakes, he’s here to make our futures bright. 

Thanks to the folks at Multnomah/Random House Publishers for providing me with a review copy of this book. Visit the publisher’s website to learn more about the book.

Today, I’m visiting my happy place.  Would you like to come along?

Welcome to the Cinque Terre. It’s a special world, set apart from the regular world, where time slows down, the people are friendly, the sun always shines, and cars don’t exist.

The Cinque Terre is composed of 5 towns, each with its own character, all sitting next to the Mediterranean.  Their other similarities include their car-free living, hilly terraces, pesto, wine, fruit de mare (seafood caught in the morning and served that night).

Let’s visit the first town, our home base.  It’s called Riomaggiore.

Riomaggiore is the southernmost town.  It’s steeply vertical orientation makes it a challenge to walk, but it’s well worth the splendid vistas at every turn.

The harbor is a wild and sometimes fierce place, when the wind blows in, and daredevil rock jumpers swim in the deep waters.

Around 5:00 p.m., the locals all come out to walk the streets, sit on benches, and chat with each other.  The children gather at the church to play football.

Walk down the main street, and you’ll see the several restaurants, all advertising the catch of the day, two grocery stores, jewelry and beach gear vendors, and the local fruit stand.

At the bottom of the main street, take a right, and walk the long tunnel to the train station.  But we’re not taking a train.  We’re walking the Via dell’Amore.

This famous walk is called lovers lane for a reason.  You don’t find views like this just anywhere.  For years, lovers have come here to place a padlock all along the route, a symbol of the strength of their love.

In about 20 minutes, you’re at the second town, Manarola.

Little Manarola boasts the best deep water swimming around, with easy access ladders in the harbor, and little boat traffic to get in the way.

At this point, you have a choice, continue the hike from the Via dell’Amore or take the train.  I advise the train because the hike from here is pretty rough going.

Arrive at Corniglia, the town on the hill, far above the water.

To get to the town, take a small, highly packed bus that leaves the train station about every 30 minutes, or walk up the steep stairs, which will take you what seems like forever, to get an incredible view of the land below.  Corniglia has a rocky beach below the train station for swimmers equipped with footwear.

Hop back on the train, and see Rick Steves’ favorite town, Vernazza (you can hear him gush about it here).  It has a lot to offer, for sure.  The only town with a natural harbor, there is a modest sandy beach with easy access and shallow swimming areas.

Climb to the top of the castle and look out over the ocean, or eat at the restaurant, which has you perched overlooking the most beautiful stretch of coastline in Italy.

And your final stop on this daydream will be Monterosso del Mare, the town with the incredible sandy beaches.  Leave the train station and walk the strip along the water, taking a break at a gelato stand if you get tired.  And keep walking until you pass through a large tunnel.  On the other side, find the quieter beaches, filled with more locals and less tourists.

Keep an eye out for the “coco” vendors, selling fresh pieces of coconut to chew on while you’re basking in the sun.

And this ends our journey to the Italian Rivera.  Thanks for being my travel companion.

The 19^th Wife by David Ebershoff sounded too scandalous to avoid.  It promised to combine plotlines, one focusing on the Mormon prophet Brigham Young, and another about Mormon polygamy in modern times.  Plus, it was at Costco.  And I can’t help myself when it comes to Costco bestsellers.

I loved the concept of this book.  It takes historical fiction and modern fiction and combines them.  In addition, it combines real historical documents into the mix, a way to lend authenticity to the stories.

However, even though both story lines were very engaging, they had some serious draw backs.  The main one, for me, was that you could never tell what was fact and what was fiction.  Sure, there are the historical documents in there, but you never know if they are really 100% true or have been fabricated a bit.  And I’m more comfortable with my non-fiction staying clearly separate from my fiction, not all this confused, unlabeled intermixing. 

Story line #1 is about the life of Brigham Young’s 19^th wife, a true historical figure named Ann Eliza.  Eliza is famous for her crusade to end polygamy in the US, after she divorced Young and toured the country giving public lectures about her marriage and scary details about Mormon polygamy in general. 

Story line #2 is a modern who-done-it, staged at a fictitious modern day fundamentalist Mormon compound that still practices polygamy.  The main character, Jordan Scott, a twenty something, homosexual, former compound member, sets out to solve the mystery of his father’s murder.  Jordan’s mother has been convicted of the murder, and Jordan revisits his former world at the compound to help her get off the hook. 

The book has a few very overt agendas/messages.  The first is an open challenge to the modern Mormon Church regarding their non-acceptance of homosexuals.  Jordan finds love and acceptance with his boyfriend in an apostate Mormon church that embraces gays and lesbians.  The author’s other beef is the Mormons’ covering up of their polygamist roots.  Ebershoff details Joseph Smith’s revelation about polygamy and shows how he and Brigham openly practiced and encouraged it as an essential means to salvation. 

To be honest, the book lagged a bit.  There were long stretches, especially in the format of an academic term paper, that got really boring.  My favorite parts were about Ann Eliza and her story, which taken alone, would have made for a much better book.

Ebershoff makes a good case for why someone like Ann Eliza would become entrapped in polygamy in the first place, and a lot of it has to do with the manipulating and corrupting power of “religion.”  I gained a greater understanding of how people who are raised and entrenched in an extreme religious culture can accept repulsive and dehumanizing behaviors.  This not only lends insight into the modern polygamist Mormon sects, but it also can explain some of the behaviors of extremist Islamic fanatics.

When the object of your devotion is a religion, you become victim to religion.  But when you follow Jesus, you’re not following religion, you’re following a person (who happens to be God), one who is good, one who is righteous, and one who won’t victimize you or lead you into dehumanizing acts.

Ever wonder why Jesus used fishing in so many of his parables and analogies? He could have chosen donkeys or carpentry, but he stuck with fishing, again and again.  Of course, it has something to do with his audience (those disciples were devoted fishermen), but I think it has more to do with the fact that fishing naturally lends itself to comparison with Christianity.

Standing on the river bank, throwing my line in the water, I can’t help but draw some biblical allusions.  Last weekend, we went fishing for salmon at our favorite spot up in BC.  And there’s nothing like a day of fishing to award you some clarity of mind.

As I patiently cast the line, time and time again, sometimes coming up with nothing, sometimes getting a fish on, only to lose it, and sometimes bringing it safely to shore, I recognized how perseverance plays such a large role in fishing and in the Christian life.  After 20 unsuccessful casts, I could have given up and stopped throwing that line in, but I knew that success often came at the 50^th cast.

And Paul tells us to have the same attitude in prayer.  Even if we can’t see our prayers being answered, even if we’re tired of praying the same things time and time again, we need to persist, ”praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.  To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints” (Ephesians 6:18). God promises to hear and answer our prayers (even if that answer is “no”), but the whole point is that we keep praying, to change us, to intercede for others, and to glorify God.

Jesus also recognized the connection between fishing and evangelism.  We are to become “fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19).  But fishing isn’t as simple as dropping a worm on a hook in the water.  There are a lot of different types of fish out there, and they all require different tie-ups.  Last weekend, I was fishing for three different types of salmon. The humpies (pinks) seemed to prefer pink colored yarn and beads (2 small ones) with a black hook.  And the Chum (dogs) liked either green or purple tie-ups.  The Coho (silvers) were the trickiest to catch, and I managed to land a 10 pound fish on a Chum tie-up.  But they’re supposed to bite on silver lures.

As with fish, it is with people.  When we’re reaching out to young people, we’ve got to use a different “lure” than when we’re reaching out to baby boomers.  They all have different tastes.  Now, there will be times that one message will cross over between people groups, like when my silver chomped down on my humpy tie-up.  But for the most part, it’s good to know your audience and tailor your words to suit them (while sticking to the Truth and the fishery rules).  This takes discernment and wisdom.  Standing on a street corner, waving a sign about the coming apocalypse might catch a few people, but for the most part, it’s not going to work for everyone else.

On, and the same tie-up won’t necessarily work two days in a row, or different hours in the day for that matter.  The clouds will change the color of the water and its reflective abilities, so it’s often wise to try another tie-up if clouds roll in on an otherwise sunny day.  These variations make fishing challenging, but they also bring excitement and the thrill of a challenge.  And when we’re out to catch people, to tell them the good news about the Truth of the gospel, what worked one day might not work as well on another.  If people are in a season of suffering or they’re living on cloud nine, you need to take that into account.

I think I’ll end my fish tales here today, but this is a theme I’ll likely revisit.  Spending more time on the river will doubtless yield more insight and comparisons.

Maybe some other fishermen and fisherwomen have similar analogies to share with me.  I’d love to hear them!