Promotion—A Third Option

By now I hope you have seen The Fantasy Challenge and have made plans to participate. This is NOT limited to fantasy writers or even to fantasy fans. If you love books and want to see CBA publishers expand their offerings, then The Challenge is for you.

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I came away from the last CSFF Blog Tour with a list of topics I wanted to remember to write about here at A Christian Worldview of Fiction. That’s often the case, but I don’t always remember to make a list. This time I have the list but didn’t write down the blogs that stimulated my thoughts. I apologize for not being able to send you to the original source. You might recognize it and can pass on the link.

One of the topics relates to promotion. In a comment to someone’s blog post about something (or maybe it was on her own blog), Karen Hancock made an insightful comment about promotion. As nearly as I can recall, she said that what matters is the promoter’s heart attitude. The idea was, promotion that comes from a place of wishing to serve others is consistent with what God calls us to. Promotion from a place of panic that believes a book will fail if the author doesn’t get out there and do, do, do to bring in buyers, actually is from a place of doubting God’s goodness.

Obviously, all that is filtered through my understanding of what Karen was saying.

But here’s the thing that a friend brought to my attention. There can actually be a third view of promotion. If I have written something that calls attention to God—His work, His Word, His person, His plan—wouldn’t I want others to know about it? So my promotion wouldn’t in and of itself be a ministry or service to others (though it certainly could be), but the focus would be on letting as many people as possible know about a book that can point them to God, that can strengthen them spiritually.

In other words, the promotion would be a means to end, but the end would not be to sell more books so that I get another contract or a better one or more royalties or whatever personal gain I might wish.

Not that any of those things aren’t legitimate concerns for an author. I imagine they are. But aren’t they in God’s hands? Yes, I should write well. Yes, I should fulfill my obligations to my publisher. Yet, whether I find a publisher, get a good contract, have mediocre sales—those kinds of things are ultimately up to God, I believe.

So where does promotion come in? I understand that some authors might be tempted to substitute my work to get the word out for God’s sovereign orchestration of what He plans for my book. But I don’t think it has to be that way.

I look at promotion of a book much like I do pursuit of publication. I can work for years and NOT find a publisher, though I go to writers’ conferences, create query letters and proposals that have all the necessary elements, work on craft, and polish my manuscript. None of that is a substitute for trusting in God. In fact, some of it is necessary if I am to fulfill my responsibility as a writer. But none of it guarantees that I’ll be published.

I guess I can sum up this third view like this: Yes, I work and yes, God reigns.

Believing the Bible Instead of Using It

Before I start, I want to point out that I’ve made some changes to The Fantasy Challenge. We’ve had several other authors offer prizes, and after reading Wayne Thomas Batson’s post at Speculative Faith, I extended The Challenge to July 1. Take a moment to check out what’s new.

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I thought it might be helpful to elaborate on my terminology, specifically what I mean by “using the Bible.” I definitely believe God gave us His written word to be used, not as decoration for the coffee table or a place to record the family genealogy. But in these posts, I am thinking of using the Bible much the way I think of the phrase using people.

By saying I don’t think anyone should use people, I am not saying to avoid contact with people. It really goes to the issue of motive. If I use people, I am thinking of what they can do for me.

In the same way, if I approach the Bible to use it, I’m thinking of what it can do for me in the here and now. That’s the problem I have.

I believe the Bible is God’s special revelation in which He discloses Himself—His words, His work, His plan, His Person. It is not to be used like a magic wand, or like a vending machine: do this, get that.

Yes, the Bible has many, many promises, but when taken as part of a whole, it is clear that the promises point to spiritual and eternal benefits. Somehow so much of what matters most has been swallowed up in what is here and now—to our detriment.

Seemingly, we are more eager to have the Bible tell us if we should join the gym or wear our hair long or listen to a certain kind of music than we are to have it tell us of God’s majesty or His heart for the lost or His preparation for my eternal home.

Of course that’s a generalization. But it seems to me, the Bible—and prayer, for that matter—is too often looked at as a means to get what I want in the here and now.

It’s much like the treatment Jesus received from the people in the first century—a host of His contemporaries expected Him to set up a political kingdom, and when He didn’t, when He made it clear His kingdom was MORE, they couldn’t tolerate Him. They wanted freedom from the Romans, bread aplenty, instant healing, unlimited water. He said, I’ve come to give you Life—eternal, abundant, new.

Believing the Bible, I think, means understanding that the Life He offers is better than freedom from the Romans, bread aplenty, instant healing, or unlimited water. Does He impart those things to people in His family? At times. But what He gives consistently, no matter what the physical circumstances, are things like the joy of our salvation, peace that passes understanding, hope for our eternal future. Those are the kinds of things the Bible makes clear are ours. And I believe it.

Believing What the Bible Says

First, ( ) I want to point out that I’ve created a page for The Fantasy Challenge. If you know of anyone else who would like to see Christian fantasy advance, invite them to join in. It should be a lot of fun. We already have our first contestant. I’m thinking now that a person should be able to enter as often as they wish (not commenting on the same book store inquiry, mind you, but on any new one. I’ll need to add that to the challenge page.

On to today’s topic.

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I find that I have more to say about using the Bible, but I promised to move on to believing what the Bible says, so I’ll do that today and maybe come back to the other.

It struck me today as I was reading in 2 Timothy that false teaching will only increase. Here’s the passage:

But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them; and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
– 2 Timothy 3:13-17 (NASB)

And here I am, quoting verses of Scripture to prove a point. Is this not the very “using” of the Bible I decried yesterday?

Understand, I was not saying a person can’t extrapolate principles from the Bible and apply that propositional truth to daily life. But there are some guidelines in so doing:

1) The principle should not contradict any clear statement of Scripture.

In her comment to yesterday’s post, Chris gave a perfect example. Some man took the principle, I can do all things through Christ, and used it to justify sleeping with a married woman, which violates a clear Scriptural injunction.

2) The principle should be an outgrowth of what the original intended.

This is where things get sticky, I think. How can we know the original intent? Only by studying the context. First the context of the book itself. Who was the author, why was he writing, what was he saying? Although the Holy Spirit inspired Scripture, this did not happen in a vacuum, but in history. The words had meaning to the person who wrote them down and to the original target audience. It is that meaning that creates a backdrop of understanding for any present-day application.

3) The principle should not become a principle if scriptures also exist that “prove” the opposite.

Here’s where a lot of denominational differences are created. One denomination finds verses about Topic X that seem to indicate Doctrine A should guide our beliefs. Another denomination finds verses about Topic X that seem to indicate Doctrine B, in opposition to Doctrine A, should guide our beliefs. Which denomination is right? Is the Bible contradictory? Or are some of the verses to be ignored or explained away?

If the Bible is to be believed—from Genesis to Revelation, Scripture is inspired by God—then even the apparently contradictory parts are there for a reason. I reject the either/or arguments and adopt a both/and approach. God put both positions in the Bible, to the point that scholars steeped in the Word can make credible cases for opposing views. I conclude, God is saying both things, though they appear to be contradictory.

This may appear to be illogical, but I don’t think it is, not if we remember who God is. He is three, but one. Came to earth as a man though he did not cease to be God. Is merciful AND just. You get the picture. There is so much about God that seems contradictory. From a human standpoint these things can’t coexist, not in one individual. Yet God! The simple truth is, He is beyond our logic. If I know Him to be so, then I don’t have to tie up Scripture in a neat doctrinal bow at the expense of some of what He has to say.

Now don’t misunderstand. I think there are doctrines that are clear, without any contridiction, the chief being who Jesus is and why He came and what He accomplished. Those clear statements are the ones that define being a Christian.

The others—the ones that seem in opposition—still need to be believed, I think. It is in dismissing the ones that we don’t like or that clash with others we believe that creates problems. If nothing else, it divides Christians.

There’s more to believing what the Bible says, but I’ll save that for another day.

Using the Bible

It’s on! I’m talking, of course, about The Challenge. Here it is, for those of you who would like to accept your mission (understand, this post will not self-destruct ) Go to your local bookstore—Christian or secular—and ask if they have … name a Christian fantasy title. Then report back here at A Christian Worldview of Fiction, telling us what book you inquired about and what the store clerk had to say. The deemed winner of The Challenge will be the person whose name I draw and that person will receive an autographed copy of Wayne Thomas Batson’s The Door Within, Lost Chapters Edition. You have until June 1. Happy inquiring!

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And now on to today’s topic.

“Sarah, what are you doing?” Carmen stared at her friend as if she were looking at an ET look-alike.

Sarah slid into the front seat of her SUV. “I thought you said you wanted to go to the beach?”

“I do, but you forgot to lock your door. That’s not like you.”

“It is now. I found this cool Bible verse in 2 Timothy that says, ‘He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him.’ I’ve entrusted my house to Him, and this verse promises He will guard it, so I don’t have to lock up any more.”

That little fictitious scenario is an illustration of what I call “using the Bible.” In some cases, there is a grain of truth. God certainly can guard and protect our stuff, for instance. But the particular verse this character quoted has nothing whatsoever to do with God keeping thieves from stealing a TV.

A friend of mine related another fictitious tale, used most often to steer people toward Bible study rather than Bible pick-and-choosing:

A young man decided his life was aimless. He needed help knowing what he should do, so he turned to the Bible. He decided that he’d fan the Bible open and point to a verse. This then would become his life verse. Turning his head, he released a good two-thirds of the pages and stabbed a finger onto the open page. “And Judas hanged himself,” the verse read. The young man gulped. There had to be some mistake. What could God possibly be saying to him? He decided to try again. Once more he closed the Bible, released pages, and pointed to a verse. This time he read, “Go and do thou likewise.”

So what am I saying with these illustrations? Simply this: not only is it possible, but some people actually do, take verses out of context and make them say something other than their clear meaning.

The key here is taking the verses out of context, for surely Sarah correctly quoted a part of 2 Tim. 1:12. Those words alone do say that God will guard what I entrust to Him. However, the context—the rest of the verse, chapter, book, and BOOK, show that God is promising something about our souls and for eternity, not our stuff for the here and now.

Notice, the context of a scripture is the book of the Bible in which it is found but also the Bible itself. The latter is the greater context, the totality of which gives meaning to individual verses, even those that are in apparent contradiction with each other.

In yesterday’s post, I put “using the Bible” in opposition to “believing what it says,” so I’ll address the second half of the equation tomorrow.

Where To Begin? Bibliolatry

First (I think starting a paragraph with “first” is part of my non-fiction voice. I’d love to see if I have any posts without one. ), I want to follow up on the fantasy challenge from yesterday. Wayne Thomas Batson has generously offered “a signed copy of The Door Within, Lost Chapters Edition for whomever you deem to be the winner.”

And The Challenge? Go to your local bookstore—Christian or secular—and ask if they have … name a Christian fantasy title. Then report back here at A Christian Worldview of Fiction, telling us what book you inquired about and what the store clerk had to say. The deemed winner will be the person whose name I draw from the group leaving a comment about said inquiry. The only thing to determine now is how long is reasonable to give you to meet the challenge. I’ll wait to hear from Wayne, then make a decision.

So, the topic is bibliolatry. Good old Wikipedia actually defines the term more nearly as it is used today than does the dictionary. The latter gives the more general “excessive adherence to the literal interpretation of the Bible” characterization. And Wikipedia? “Bibliolatry is the worship of the Bible or any other text regarded as inerrant scripture.”

We’re talking then about “excessive adherence” or worship of the Bible.

You might wonder why I’m bringing this issue up. For one, the term came up during our recent blog tour. Our fellow tour member DGD Davidson over at Sci Fi Catholic mentioned it in a list of things he thinks Christian SFF should adhere to:

Fourth, bibliolatry in fiction looks stupid. I apologize for the term here, but bibliophilism was too broad. If your characters find the Bible holds the magic answer to all their problems, your novel is dumb. I’m sorry, but that’s just how it is. Show your characters some respect and let them have more complicated lives than that. The best way to use the Bible in fiction is to soak in it and let what you pick up flow out naturally through your pen in mythic archetypes, in symbols, or even in turns of phrase. And please, please, please don’t write a book where nothing religious happens until the very end when the characters pick up a Bible, get saved, and die. That’s right up there with the it was all just a dream ending. Besides, I hate to break it to you, but a person who’s never heard of Christianity and picks up a Bible and reads it straight through might not come away with your theology anyway. If you’re Protestant, nobody came away from the Bible with your theology until the sixteenth century.

I’ve run across the term in other places, as well—as a condemnation of Evangelicals by emergent church/postmodern believers and by some in the Orthodox church.

I understand the point. Without refuting the claim that the Bible is authoritative and should have nothing added or taken away, those who actually do add or detract from it fire off this accusation that people who take it literally are worshipping it.

The accusation is silly. Anyone believing in the infallibility, the inerrancy, the authority of Scripture surely knows the commandment about having no other gods than Yahweh Himself.

But sadly, there are people who use the Bible rather than believing what it says. On the outside no doubt, they look very much like the person who believes what the Bible says. They may even sound a lot the same, but that’s not hard.

I heard a PBS program about Buddhism the other day, and the person explaining the beliefs mentioned enlightenment, then qualified it by saying this was the concept of “being saved” in western parlance. Huh?

Unless we define terms, we can sound like we’re talking about the same thing when we aren’t.

Next time, a look at “using the Bible” rather than believing what it says.

So, Exactly How Hot Is Fantasy?

I made an observation during our recent CSFF Blog Tour for Return of the Guardian-King: on Technorati’s list of Popular Books, five of the top eleven were fantasy. Today that number is five of the top eight, with a fantasy holding the number one spot. (Five days after the blog tour, RotGK is holding onto the number eight spot.) Over at Amazon, three of the top ten bestsellers (fiction and non-fiction combined) are fantasy. In fact, fantasy titles hold the top two spots.

So what’s new? This trend has been going for some time. But here’s the new twist: pundits have decided that fantasy can be included in literary fiction. Yep, that’s what a recent article inWriter’s Digest says. Realizing that some in literary circles pooh-pooh this mag as … not so literary, I’m guessing there will be lots of people who take this fact as insignificant.

Be that as it may, I found a couple quotes I thought were significant. From Simon Lipskar, an agent at Writer’s House literary agency:

Anybody being honest about the current market will acknowledge that fiction that’s not entirely of this world is red-hot.”

Then at the end of the article, Lipskar again:

“Any publisher who’s avoiding mainstream or literary fiction with fantastic elements is ignoring one of the most obvious phenomena in recent publishing history.”

Given that movies seem to reinforce book trends or vice versa, and that the Harry Potter movies have—what?—three more to air and Narnia has six more, I don’t see fantasy cooling down any time soon. And now literary works are including fantasy elements.

From author Aimee Bender:

“I find it [fantasy] freeing to write because I can get to truer feelings when I obscure the reality of the scene. Somehow, by shifting away from actual facts and real life, I can be more honest.”

And about reading “fantastical fiction,” Bender has this to say:

Newness is exciting, and in that fun there’s a metaphor that, if it’s working, will resonate in a surprising way. I like reading fantastical work because my feelings sneak up on me. I don’t expect to be moved.”

Well, well, well. The public actually beat the avant-garde to this one, but at last it’s out in the open: fantasy is popular.

And there are signs that the CBA may be noticing, too.

A quick small-scale success story: when I spoke on fantasy at the Association of Christian Schools International teachers’ convention in Anaheim this past fall, I prepared a handout with a list of recommended CSFF titles. Soon after, I dropped a copy of the handout off with our church librarian. Sunday I found three of the recommended books on the new [to the library] shelf.

Three Christian fantasies sold. More readers exposed.

So here’s a fantasy challenge. Go to your local bookstore this week and ask for a CSFF title (need a list? check out the most recent issue of Latest In Spec), then come back here and leave a comment. I’ll do a drawing and see if we can’t get the winner an autographed copy of one of the recent releases. No promises on that, but I can ask.

So, exactly how hot is fantasy? Well, according to Lipskar, it’s red hot. Which means, combustible, as in spreading like wild fire. Wouldn’t that suggest Christian publishers are bound to start actively acquiring more fantasy?

Pure Rant—The US Legal System

Best laid plans must be set aside temporarily—I’m on jury duty. I was all week, of the call in kind. And for four days I got the all-clear message: my group was not to report in. Today things changed.

Which is fine, except that I have come to realize I do not believe in the US legal system, at least not the criminal division.

As part of the orientation, a very nice judge spoke for a while. Thanked us for our service, told us what Thomas Jefferson said about the jury system being the anchor for democracy. All quite motivating, except he kept referring to trials settling disputes. I’ll give him that in civil cases, but not in criminal ones. Yet criminal cases are treated with that same mindset.

Perhaps you still thought criminal cases were about arriving at truth. No. They are staged performances for a voting audience of 12, not so very different from American Idol. Except rather than singing, the lawyers are putting on a case, one that is supposed to convince the 12 voters.

Sometimes truth wins out. I was on a trial two years ago—or was it three?—and I have to believe we found the truth. But it wasn’t hard because one of the lawyers was pretty bad.

OK, this is it for me. No more talk about trials, and certainly not about, any trial I might become part of a jury for.

I just hope some semblance of truth wins the day.

Blog Tours and Fantasy

I’m much like Rebecca Grabill (but, alas, not nearly as funny ) in that the CSFF blog tour has made me think of so many different things, I’m not sure just what to post today.

I settled on discussing blog tours in part because the CSFF Blog Tour completed its first year and in part because I just checked Technorati out of curiosity to see where Return of the Guardian-King ended up on their list of most popular books. Wonder of wonders (and thanks to all the fantastic participants in this tour), RotGK came in at number two, beat out only by Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, a totally understandable situation.

Here’s the thing that surprised me. RotGK is ahead of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Children of Hurin. But there’s more. Today Technorati is displaying 11 books. (Some days they show as many as 30 or as few as 4). Of those 11, 5 are fantasy. Clearly, the interest in fantasy has not waned.

It’s exciting for me to see a Christian fantasy—maybe two (I know nothing about this latest Tolkien book)—on the list, but I’m also aware that making the Technorati list is not the end all of the CSFF Blog Tour. In fact, as far as I’m aware, no one is sure just how influencial blogging really is.

I suspect, like anything else, it depends. Here’s how I see it. There are three kinds of promotion: a) TV (or radio) commercials: If I see a commercial on TV, I may be informed about a product, but I am in no way inclined to buy it. If in the commercial, some actor/athlete I care about endorses the product, I may pay a little closer attention, but am still not really closer to buying the product. b) Print media: If I get a flier in the mail or on my door or if I see an ad in the newspaper, I’ll more than likely ignore it and probably trash it, unless it has some sort of coupon, and I have a need for the product. c) Personal recommendation: If a friend tells me she tried the product and loves it and she’s sure I would love it too, well, if I have the money and the need, I’m there.

Which of those three most closely resembles blogging? Doesn’t it depend?

There are political blogs that spout a party line or replicate a celebrity view. There are others that give thoughtful discussion to whatever issue is current.

What about blog tours? I have to say, I am continually impressed with the participants of the CSFF Blog Tour—impressed and challenged and motivated by them.

Participants on the CSFF Blog Tour have put in a lot of work and raised all kinds of interesting topics and have influenced their readers, at least a few, to buy some books.

So what’s our influence? Large? Small? Does it make a difference to CBA editors that a band of readers/writers who want to see more Christian speculative fiction are talking about the books and web sites they love?

Who knows?

Well, of course, there is an answer to that question. God knows, but so far, He hasn’t told me just what He has planned for CSFF Blog Tour. Only that this is something worth doing, something He continues to draw more people to.

I’m glad, ’cause it sure is fun.

CSFF Blog Tour – Karen Hancock and Return of the Guardian-King, Part 4

Also titled The Anatomy of a Fantasy—a Look at the Legends of the Guardian-King, Part 4.

But before I start (is it annoying that I have started inserting bits and pieces of unrelated information at the beginning of my posts? ), I want to mention something Shannon McNear reminded me of in her post on Monday: the CSFF Blog Tour is completing its first year of operation today.

Amazing to realize. The tour that started out with 11 bloggers, some not even science fiction and fantasy fans, but merely doing a favor for a fellow writer. If you’re interested, my inaugural post for the tour is here. We ran that first tour for the entire week, and by the end had collected four more bloggers. The tour has grown ever since!

Realizing, of course, that God’s hand is in everything, I have to say that I’m not surprised by how the numbers have swelled. Or that Kevin Lucia is planning to launch his own tour, highlighting Light at the Edge of Darkness, an anthology of stories by a number of Lost Genre Guild authors. All this interest in Christian science fiction and fantasy is what I’ve suspected, actually what seemed logical, given the current interest in fantasy in the culture at large. Why would Christians be any different than Joe across the street in our involvement in cultural trends?

Of course, that sameness is our boon and our bane. We are like everyone else, so we get caught up in American Idol and Survivor. We watch House and Jay Leno. Well, some do. And we also lie to our boss, break promises to our kids, even commit adultery against our spouse. We are Everyman, the people Christ died for, while we were yet sinners.

Yes, we are redeemed—freed and forgiven. But does that mean I now like vanilla ice cream instead of chocolate? No. I am still me. My love for the imaginative is no different as a Christian. Except, now I want to use it to glorify God. I want to read imaginative stories that bring glory to God.

Which brings me full circle—award-winning author Karen Hancock has written just the kind of imaginative story I love. The four-book series Legends of the Guardian-King finishes with Return of the Guardian-King, but we have more to look forward to from Karen. If you stop by her blog, you know she is working on another series, more like her first book, Arena.

And that’s fine because Karen is an outstanding writer, the very reason I wanted to take a look at what makes Legends of the Guardian-King work.

Certainly I’m not exhaustive, but I identified five specifics that, in my view, set the story above most others. The two I want to discuss today are changing relationships and plausible, imperfect endings.

Because Karen creates believable characters with weaknesses and strengths, she also creates books that place characters in changing relationships. In Rebecca Grabill’s hilarious “thorns” post yesterday, she wondered what happened in Return of the Guardian-King to the feisty Maddie of the earlier books. Well, she grew up. I’ve yet to see a mature woman marry, have children, yet behave as she did when she was single. Abramm and his brother, Trap and Clarissa, Maddie and her sister. The relationships changed—some for the better and others for the worst. That’s the way real life is. Those changing relationships gave this series depth, in my opinion.

As did the imperfect endings. Now, I’ve been made aware that I don’t really know how Return of the Guardian-King ends because I read an ARC—an unedited Advance Readers Copy—and things changed from that to the final. Originally I had said I thought this final book was the exception and that things ended too nicely. Now I don’t know. In the other three books, there was certainly a measure of resolution, but there was not complete peace, absent all opposition. I never felt like the next line could be “And they lived happily ever after.”

In fact, I believed Karen had ended book three in the wrong place, and said so in my review at Amazon. Since reading her interviews (see for instance Chris’s Write and Whine blog), I now realize that the true conflict was not the physical one but the spiritual, so the success Abramm experienced near the end of Shadow over Kiriath was part of the process to bring him to the test, and failure and forgiveness, of the end.

At any rate, the less than happy-ever-after endings not only set up the next book, they added to the depth of Karen’s story.

OK, if you’ve stayed with me this far, you’ve stayed in one place too long. It’s time to see what others are saying. You might want to stop by CSFF Blog Tour first for a round-up of the other posts, then you can pick the ones that tweak your curiosity. Enjoy!

Nissa Annakindt

Wayne Thomas Batson

Jim Black

Jackie Castle

Valerie Comer

Karri Compton

Frank Creed

CSFF Blog Tour

Gene Curtis

D. G. D. Davidson

Chris Deanne

Janey DeMeo

April Erwin

Kameron M. Franklin

Linda Gilmore

Beth Goddard

Marcus Goodyear

Rebecca Grabill

Andrea Graham

Jill Hart

Katie Hart

Sherrie Hibbs

Sharon Hinck

Christopher Hopper

Heather R. Hunt

Becca Johnson

Jason Joyner

Karen

Dawn King

Tina Kulesa

Lost Genre Guild

Kevin Lucia and The Bookshelf Reviews 2.0 - The Compendium

Rachel Marks

Shannon McNear

Caleb Newell

Nicole

Eve Nielsen

John W. Otte

Robin Parrish

Rachelle

Cheryl Russel

Hanna Sandvig

Chawna Schroeder

Mirtika Schultz

James Somers

Tsaba House Authors

Steve Trower

Speculative Faith

Daniel I. Weaver

CSFF Blog Tour – Karen Hancock and Return of the Guardian-King, Part 3

Another name for this post is The Anatomy of a Fantasy—a Look at the Legends of the Guardian-King, Part 3, a short series I started over at Speculative Faith yesterday.

In that article, I listed five things that I think set Legends apart from many other works, Christian or secular. By the way, before I continue, you might be wondering, since this is a blog tour specifically for Return of the Guardian-King, where’s the review or the interview with Karen Hancock?

As to the review, I recieved an advance readers copy of the book back in December, I think it was, read it, and already posted my review here.

When it comes to interviews, several other blog tour folks have posted great interviews with Karen. Check out Shannon McNear’s blog for one two-parter and Chris Deanne’s for another.

So, back to the discussion: what is it that Karen does so well that makes her books such high quality?

In the interest of time, I’m going to link two of the points I made—that the character weaknesses and strengths lead them in places the reader doesn’t expect and that the characters face new conflicts throughout. In both points, I’m referring to the surprising twists and turns in the plot, things the reader didn’t see coming but understands completely upon looking back.

Part of this success in developing an unpredictable plot is in creating complete characters with internal weaknesses that allow them to struggle and to make wrong choices. Another part is to bring those characters into contact with others who can betray them, love them, use them, pledge fidelity to them.

Consequently things like a brother selling the protagonist into slavery is a shocking development, but not without underpinnings. It feels real, plausible given the set of circumstances Abramm is in. Equally so is the kindness of a master, falling in love with another slave. Yes, and seeing someone he loves, die. That this loss comes into play in later books as a key piece of motivation is masterful.

Karen uses the events of her story to prompt the next events of her story. It seems like an easy technique, but especially over a span of four books and numerous subplots, this is anything but easy. That Karen makes it look easy is another testimony to her skill as a writer.

And now, more touring. Along with the interviews I mentioned, be sure to catch Rebecca Grabill’s hilarious “review that wasn’t.” It’s mouth-watering in its promotion of the entire Legend of the Guardian-King series, so be warned—you’re apt to want to visit your local book store as soon as you finish reading her post. The other blogs you’ll want to visit some time today or tomorrow include the following:
Nissa Annakindt Wayne Thomas Batson Jim Black Jackie Castle Valerie Comer Karri Compton Frank Creed CSFF Blog Tour Gene Curtis D. G. D. Davidson Chris Deanne Janey DeMeo April Erwin Kameron M. Franklin Linda Gilmore Beth Goddard Marcus Goodyear Rebecca Grabill Andrea Graham Jill Hart Katie Hart Sherrie Hibbs Sharon Hinck Christopher Hopper Heather R. Hunt Becca Johnson Jason Joyner Karen Dawn King Tina Kulesa Lost Genre Guild Kevin Lucia and The Bookshelf Reviews 2.0 - The Compendium Rachel Marks Shannon McNear Caleb Newell Nicole Eve Nielsen John W. Otte Robin Parrish Rachelle Cheryl Russel Hanna Sandvig Chawna Schroeder Mirtika Schultz James Somers Tsaba House Authors Steve Trower Speculative Faith Daniel I. Weaver