A Visit Out Of The Blue

My friend Blue dropped by today to drop off. . . well okay so we are both busy and now is the first time that we could exchange Christmas presents. . .but as usual the conversation quickly turned to writing. She was lamenting Christian science fiction writing and authors and I was trying to point out that there are a few good scribes among the dross and telling Blue not to give up on the genre completely. She says she's been burned too many times, too many authors have started out with a great plot or character and then it's gotten too religious. Now by religious she means ''deus ex machina'' and full of miracles and sudden changes of heart. You know, God comes into the situation and everything is hunky-dory. Life isn't like that. Miracles happen, yes. People get converted overnight and changed. . .well some people have. But we are talking about FICTION, not real life and in FICTION, I wouldn't believe a bitter God-hating soldier getting his act together and becoming a real on fire believer in three chapters. Nuh-uh.

And she's right, if you are going to write allegory, then ALL of the story is allegory, not some, not certain passages, not the beginning and the ending but not the middle. ALL. Stop going back and forth and trying to be cute and lyrical in some bits and others are suppose to be true to life. Allegory isn't true to life, that's why it's called allegory! Sorry, I will try to control the ranting.

It really is slim picking out there for those of us used to top-notch writing now looking for it in the Christian realm. The worst thing a reader can tell me about a new book that they are reading or attempting to read is it's great for a Christian Author. That friends is the death-nell for the tome. Which is why I keep banging away at the keys, and keep pressing on even when I am convinced that this writing thing is pointless. Because deep down inside, I want write stories that dazzle, that encourage, and that entertain, without being tagged as ''great for a Christian author."