Monthly Archives: August 2013

African-American Novels By White Authors

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From the blog archives…

 


Have you ever wanted to write a novel featuring characters of a different race?
I came across these books in my messy basement. They’re old Heartsong Presents titles that I read years ago, back when I was still in the Heartsong Presents book club. Although these books have African-American characters, the authors are Caucasian. I recall I enjoyed them back when I read them, and I thought the authors did a great job of portraying the African-American characters.I feel it takes a fair amount of talent to write a novel having main characters of another race. I have written novels with Caucasian characters, but, they were never published. My Caucasian-character novels were written a long time ago – way before I’d learned much about the craft of writing.

So, have you ever wanted to write a novel featuring characters of a different race? If so, did you write it? Was it hard to do? Leave a comment!

Sticks And Stones By Susan Meissner

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From the blog archives…(2007)

Have you ever tried to solve a real mystery? How were your investigative skills?

Sticks and Stones (a Rachel Flynn Mystery) by Susan Meissner

(Paperback)

Publisher: Harvest House Publishers
Pub. Date: January 2007
ISBN-13: 9780736919159
300pp

From Amazon.com
Book Description

Critically acclaimed author Susan Meissner’s Rachael Flynn mystery series started with the popular Widows and Orphans. In the second serving of intrigue, Sticks and Stones, lawyer Rachael Flynn receives an unsigned, heart-stopping letter:

They’re going to find a body at the Prairie Bluff construction site. He deserved what he got, but it wasn’t supposed to happen. It was an accident.

When the body is uncovered, Rachael and Detective Will Pendleton discover that the fifteen-year old victim, Randall Buckett, had been buried twenty-five years before. Is the letter writer and the killer the same person? Why would someone speak up now? And why are they telling Rachael?

Susan Meissners ability to weave a fascinating tale will leave readers wanting more.

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To tell you the truth, I don’t believe I’ve ever read a cozy mystery. I’m not sure if this would be categorized as a cozy, but it reminds me a little bit of the way a cozy is defined.

This book was good, and it was suspenseful without being too scary. Also, although the characters were Christians, it wasn’t a very preachy book. I think people who read secular fiction would enjoy this book a lot, too.

One thing that happened in this story reminded me of the Brandilyn Collins novel, Eyes of Elisha – Rachael has a supernatural ability from God to sense danger, it’s an ability she realizes she’s received since the birth of her child.

As you read the story, you’ll find yourself sympathizing with the children Bucky tormented twenty-five years ago. You’ll find yourself drawn into the story, mesmerized, wanting to know who sent Rachael the three letters tipping her off about the death a quarter of a century later.

There are also some secondary characters that provide comic relief to this serious mystery. You have Trace, Rachael’s artistic husband, as well as Trace’s artistic cronies. Trace and his friends give their opinions using words and drawings to imagine what might have happened to Ronald Buckett.

Rachael’s uncanny ability is tested when she realizes that something dreadful has happened in the cellar of a house in Bucky’s neighborhood. The house has been burned down long ago, and is now replaced by another dwelling. However, although the serious crime happened long ago, Racheal can still sense that there was pain and anguish behind Bucky’s death.

This is a good read to grab for a rainy day, when you just want to curl up in front of the fire with an intriguing and suspenseful story.

So, have you ever tried to solve a real mystery on your own? Were you successful?

Sunday Brunch! Is It Wrong For Christians To Wear Tattoos?

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Photo
courtesy of Free Digital Photos

Photo: Bon Jour Good Morning Buon Giorno

Photo courtesy of Romanticando.

Do you think it’s wrong for Christians to wear tattoos?

I came up with the subject for today’s Sunday Brunch while I was out on Friday evening. I passed a tattoo shop and this scripture came to my mind:

Leviticus 19:28 28“ ‘Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.

This scripture is taken from the Old Testament, and far as I know, the New Testament does not mention this rule. I’ve seen some cool tattoos on folks, but, I’ve never been of the mind-set to get one. The thought of being pricked by that painful needle…and making that permanent mark on my skin has never appealed to me. Plus, as you get older, the tattoos don’t look as fresh and vibrant, they fade. I definitely wouldn’t want my skin crowded with faded tattoos!

However, I honestly don’t think that getting a tattoo is necessarily “wrong”. I tend to think more of daily-life Christian laws as being taken from the New Testament, moreso than the Old Testament. However, people may disagree with me about tattoos and I’d like to get a discussion going about this subject. I know I was raised to believe that tattoos were wrong and this scripture was used to back up that “rule.” However, as I got older and more exposed to the world, my thinking has changed.

Although I don’t think getting a tattoo is wrong, it’s not something that I would encourage someone to do. Why? Well, like I’ve already said, the idea has just never appealed to me, and if my son were older (like a teenager) and wanted my permission to get a tattoo, I’d tell him NO!

So, do you think it’s wrong for Christians to get tattoos? Leave your response in the comments!

Saturday Matinee! The Book Of Eli!

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http://www.entertainmentwallpaper.com/images/desktops/movie/the_book_of_eli02.jpg

The Book of Eli starring Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman

How would you survive in a post-apocalyptic-type world?

My sister recommended that I watch this movie a few years ago when it was in the theaters. I’m just now getting around to watching it! I really enjoyed this movie. This story takes place in a dystopian world. Thirty years ago a catastrophic event involving the sun has killed many people – leaving several people blind. Eli, a man who lived in the world before this event occurred, has a special mission. He needs to head West, taking a special book which he carries in his possession.

In this dystopian world, material possessions are scarce and daily needs, like water, are rationed. Most of the books were destroyed after the catastrophe and the majority of society is illiterate, struggling to survive.

I usually enjoy dystopian stories, and that’s why I found this movie so appealing. Also, the movie shows how the absence of God and prayer has affected society as a whole. I thought Denzel Washington did a great job playing Eli and I was surprised to see Jennifer Biels (from the eighties movie Flashdance) as a secondary character.

Eli is a fighter, and is protected by a force, as he survives, trekking on his journey west. In the meantime, there’s a man, a man who is as old as Eli, who’d survived from the world before the catastrophe. This man is anxiously searching for a certain book and he sends out illiterate men – hoping they will find this book during their search.

Over all, a great movie that I highly recommend. To better display the misery of the world, most of the movie was in black and white. So, if a catastrophic event occurred, wiping out a majority of the population, how would you survive?

SPOILER ALERT!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have to point out that the book that Eli was taking West was the Holy Bible. However, in this movie, artistic license was used. The Bible in the movie was in Braille and Eli is blind – you don’t find this out until the very end. Since my husband is blind, there’s a little-known fact about Braille Bibles that I know: A Braille Bible cannot be bound into one book! My husband’s Braille Bible takes up a few shelves. Braille letters are much bigger than print letters and when you print something in Braille, you need a lot more paper than a print book. Just a book as simple as a novel can take up to three or four huge, thick Braille books.

I can understand why they changed this fact in the movie, though. It would not have worked so nicely if Eli were carting around huge cartons of books for thirty years!! Since the Bible was only one volume in the movie, the book fit nicely in Eli’s backpack! Also, I had a short story published several years ago and I used the same artistic-license convention. My short story was about a blind woman reconnecting with her faith and I have a emotional and important scene where she takes her Bible to church and reads a scripture.

 

 

Bittersweet Memories

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

~Cecelia Dowdy~

Question From A Writer…

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I received the following questions from a writer named Regina:

Hi Cecelia,

Is your latest book project almost done?  I think it had a Key West backdrop.

>>>My novel, First Mates, was set in Miami. I’m revising an old project right now and I plan to self-publish that short novel late this year or early next year.

I had to put my book on hold for awhile. I wanted to ask about websites and their prices. Do you think that writers need to have a website just for poetry?

>>>Poetry? I know next to nothing about poetry since I seldom read it. If you’d like to sell your poetry (I’m assuming you have a book of poems) then it’d probably be best to have a website. That way, other poetry lovers can find you and they might purchase your book.

How effective are blogs? What do you think of them?

>>>Blogs are kind of tricky. Meaning, you have to update often, interact with others regularly, in order for them to be effective. How effective are they? It’s hard to say. I’ve heard some writers say that they can get more effective interaction with social media, like Facebook and Twitter, instead of their blogs. I’ve also heard of writers abandoning their blogs entirely, while focusing on social media. You just have to do what’s best for you.

>>>I recently attended the Greater Philadelphia Christian Writers conference and blogs were discussed. You might want to start slow, like, maybe, one blog post per week. As you gain more momentum, you might want to increase your blog posts to two or more per week. At the conference, they mentioned it’s best to pick a schedule and STICK TO YOUR SCHEDULE! I’m not very good with sticking to a blogging schedule anymore. My life has gotten so hectic that I just blog whenever I feel like it. That works for me, but, if you’re starting out with a new blog, I’m not sure if that would be effective? It’s hard to say which blogging method would work – it’s all a process of trial and error.

I’ve been trying to put a budget together to see what are very good options that I can venture into to get an audience for my work.

>>>If I were you, I’d try blogging as well as social media. Try to find other blogs that focus on the same demographic as yours, comment and interact with those people, and they might come to your blog and interact with you. Again, it’s hard to say what will work. Thanks for writing to me, Regina! It was good to hear from you!

 

Sunday Brunch – Preaching The Gospel In Public School!

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Photo: Bon Repas Enjoy Lunch Buon Pranzo

Photo courtesy of Romanticando.

Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

Do you remember when the Gospel was preached in public schools?

Reading this scripture had me thinking about my childhood. When I was in the fifth grade (many, many decades ago!) the Gideons Bible group sent permission slips home to our parents, asking if they could give each student a new Bible when they came to visit the school. I recall my mother telling me that I didn’t really need a new Bible since we were Jehovah’s Witnesses and we already had our own Bible (The New World Translation).

Anyway, I recall one of my Bible-receiving classmates taunting a non-Bible-receiving classmate – asking why he refused the new Bible. The Bible-receiving classmate had said, “Why didn’t you get a Bible? Do you love the devil?”

The non-Bible-receiving classmate mumbled that he already had a Bible. I also recall that the teachers had separated us non-Bible receivers into another room while the rest of the students were gifted with their Bibles. We returned to the classrooms later, amidst students flipping through scriptures, enjoying their new gifts. The teachers had received the full Bible, both Old and New Testaments, the students received a smaller Bible containing just the New Testament.

Anyway, my whole point to this blog post is that times have changed. I can’t imagine the Gideons visiting a public school nowadays, gifting each student with a new Bible. I’d imagine it would make the school explode with shock, as well as some possible lawsuits, if such an event happened today?

Do you remember a time when Christianity and faith were discussed in public schools? Do you remember when the Gospel was shared in the classroom? Please share your thoughts…

WOOL – Silo Series 1-5

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Wool Omnibus (Silo, #1) (Wool, #1-5)

WOOL by Hugh Howey

***Note, this is a secular title.

Can you imagine living hundreds of feet below the earth with your people, having no contact with the outside world?

That’s the premise of WOOL, a five-part series about large group of people who live underground in their home, a SILO. The SILO is huge, several hundred feet beneath the earth and the population makes their living by doing a host of jobs: machinery (to run the electricity in the huge underground home), agriculture, cafeteria worker, etc. These people live without contact with the outside world – they have little knowledge of what lies beyond the great door leading outside.

However, being below ground for decades can cause strife amongst people. Some get depressed, curious about what lies beyond those underground walls. Sensing their fate of death, they volunteer to “clean.” This means they are suited up, sent Outside, and when they’re sent out, they clean the SILO window, giving the people a clear view of the outside. The suit does not hold up under the strife of the outside world – so people are sent to die – both voluntarily, and non-voluntarily. The non-voluntary cleaners are those who create strife in the SILO, firing up the people, giving them all sorts of forbidden ideas that go against the Pact.

One SILO worker, Juliette, who works in the Mechanical department is particularly strong and courageous. Her life takes an interesting twist after a certain man is sent to clean.

This is a sci-fi title (I don’t read many of those). I kept hearing about this book in my writers’ circles so I felt that I should read it. I was NOT disappointed. I LOVED this  book! Although the plot mesmerized me, I still felt there were a few things that were not fully explained – like, what happened to make the world unlivable beyond those SILO doors? A couple of the characters talk about this briefly, but, I was still left wondering. Is the entire world unlivable outside of the silo?

So, could you imagine living hundreds of feet below the earth with your people, having no contact with the outside world? How would  those living conditions affect your mind?

 

 

Sunday Brunch – Would You Follow Jesus?

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Jesus healed the sick, he made the blind see and he made the lame walk. Let’s pretend that you were born during Biblical times, if you were alive back then, and you witnessed Jesus doing his miracles, would you believe? Would you accept Him as your Savior?

I’ll be honest, if  I were living during Biblical times, I’m not sure if I would believe if people told me about Jesus. I could imagine myself being skeptical, thinking that people were exaggerating about Jesus’s healings. However, seeing is believing. If I actually saw somebody being healed, I would believe. I could also imagine myself believing if I encountered the blind man (or somebody like this) described in John 9 (quoted below). If I’d seen this man, blind since birth, before his healing, and then encountered him after he’d been healed…well, I’d be stunned, shocked, and then I’d fall on my knees, praising my Savior!

So, if you were alive while Jesus walked on this earth as a man, would you have accepted Him as your Savior? Would you believe?

Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind

John 9:1-12 As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2 His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

3 “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4 As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5 While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

6 After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7 “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

8 His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” 9 Some claimed that he was.

Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”

But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”

10 “How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.

11 He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”

12 “Where is this man?” they asked him.

“I don’t know,” he said.