Interview With Kaci Hill

E. Stephen Burnett: Good afternoon. Kaci Hill: Greetings and hail. Had a good day? E. Stephen Burnett: Indeed, though it’s not over yet. Still need to write my column for Spec-Faith on Thursday, which I’ll probably try to do tomorrow. […]

Kaci Hill on Sep 1, 2010 · Off

· Series: Observations of a Church Brat, Observations of a Youngling

E. Stephen Burnett: Good afternoon.

Kaci Hill: Greetings and hail. Had a good day?

E. Stephen Burnett: Indeed, though it’s not over yet. Still need to write my column for Spec-Faith on Thursday, which I’ll probably try to do tomorrow. And here I thought I could work a whole week in advance by reposting my Visitation review. … Ha, ha.

Kaci: I’m glad you liked The Visitation. I laughed my head off during that one.

ESB: (Warming up the ol’ interviewer side of the mind …)

Kaci: Not a problem. It takes anywhere from a few minutes to a few days for the mind to shift (depending on what it’s shifting to). Amazing how that works out.

ESB: Indeed. Just last week I spent much of Wednesday afternoon doing, well, more-introverted tasks. And then my wife and I went to a church dinner and prayer meeting, and I literally had to go off into a dark room, pray/talk-to-self, and fumble for that invisible accelerator slider from “introvert” to “extrovert.” I find caffeinated beverages also help.

Kaci: Exactly!

I warn the girls in my home group: “Okay, if I’m acting a bit off, I’ve been alone too long.” Now, anytime I get weird, one girl says, “You’re in writing mode, aren’t you?”

ESB: That’s a good topic to start us off, actually.

So, Kaci — are you introvert, extrovert, or in between, or variable depending on other factors?

Kaci: I’m what Mom calls ‘an extroverted introvert.’ I’m not antisocial; I love people. But whereas an extrovert is energized by lots of people, I eventually become emotionally drained. I figured out in college I have to keep an even ratio of social-to-solo time. Too much of one or the other and I go a little crazy.

ESB: Sounds familiar — when might you have found out that many others, especially writers, can be the same way?

Kaci: Probably after one or two writers’ conferences. Writers are funny: We tend to assume no one else gives a rip. Then you throw us all in one room and we won’t talk about our own stories. It didn’t come to me consciously until one published author (you’ll know the name) was talking with me, and, I don’t remember the context, but he said, “I’m not like a lot of writers. Instead of being introverted, I’m really extroverted and social.” (That’s…paraphrased, but the gist.)

ESB: (You must have been with the cool writers! At the last conference I visited — this is not a reflection on the conference! — some others never asked about my work in progress, but wouldn’t stop talking about theirs’. )

Meanwhile, you have publishing credits already, having helped Ted Dekker with Elyon and Lunatic in his Circle Trilogy spinoff series, The Lost Books. What sorts of reactions do you get, I wonder, at a conference, or with a group of other writers?

Kaci: (I saw three groups: The one who is not published, but tended to think more of themselves than they should, and therefore said more than they should; and the published group who spoke little of their own works but deeply were interested in anyone who came in ready to actually discuss a WIP and make it better; and the unpublished group who would accept no criticism.)

I haven’t been to a conference in a couple years (though I will be going to one close by in September, and would then better be able to answer that question). Honestly, I think my biggest fans are the faculty and students at the school I substitute teach at. They’re always very encouraging and I’m highly appreciative. From what I’ve gathered on the internet, the reactions on L&E are a little mixed — but that’s probably normal. For the most part, people I’ve actually met in person or have talked to me through Facebook have thought the co-authoring was “cool.” Mostly I get, “So how did that happen?” My answer, “God has a demented sense of humor.”
ESB: (Chuckling) You think God was making a joke by arranging your writing partnership with Dekker?

Kaci: Oh, I know so. I think he laughs nine times out of ten. I think he decided it’d be funny to throw something like that in my lap. Seriously, I am not hyper-spiritualizing or exaggerating: That was an act of God. And it was funny. Therefore, more proof God has a healthy sense of humor.

ESB: Let’s jump back a few years and talk “testimony,” as Christians often call it. You’ve been writing since childhood, and something has drawn you more specifically into the realm of Christian fiction. What’s your faith background, and writing background — and your view of how the two overlap?

Kaci: I’ve been both for so long there’s no separating the two. As a teenager, my writing was a prayer: a dialogue with God, a way of asking questions and pondering the answers. I come from a Christian family. I grew up in church. I graduated from a private Christian school. My first answered prayer was a baby sister at age 5. There was no “sacred/secular,” and there was no “Christian fiction.” Yes, I was reading mostly Christian fiction, and still mostly do, but I wouldn’t have thought of This Present Darkness as anymore “Christian” than, I dunno, Anne of Green Gables or The Whipping Boy. They were books. (A better comparison might be Narnia — which I didn’t like until jr. high — and The Golden Compass—a book I also just didn’t find that interesting as a 5th grader. If you’d asked me which was “Christian,” I’m not sure I’d have immediately been able to answer, because, in my head, they were books. One had Christian symbolism, one didn’t.)

ESB: Some Christians might be yelling at you for having read The Golden Compass. Others might be tempted to do the same, for your having waited so long to read Narnia! While other girls might be enjoying more books like Anne of Green Gables, what did you find attractive about speculative fiction?

Kaci: Well, in my defense, I think I tried to read The Silver Chair first, and we all know how frustrating Eustace is (and how whiny Jill was). And I loved Anne of Green Gables. She’s a storyteller. As far as speculative…again, that’s…a funny story. I’ve an overactive imagination. I wasn’t into Cinderella or all those, but I loved Peter Pan, Robin Hood, and Pinocchio. I was really into the supernatural: That’s why Frank Peretti and Bill Meyers were an attraction to me. I went through an end times phase. I was fascinated with supernatural, paranormal, cataclysmic events. I liked conspiracies. Again, the writing and the faith overlapped: I was reading all the OT prophets, Revelation, anything that smacked of supernatural just fascinated me. So I think, ultimately, that was it. Speculative feeds that exploration of things unseen.

ESB: Left Behind series, perchance? I had to ask.

Kaci: I read all the way up through the one right before Glorious Appearing. (When I snapped out of my end times phase as a 10th grader, I snapped out hard.) I didn’t like the ending, didn’t think there was a chance either main character could survive, and figured I knew what Glorious Appearing was going to be about. So I was done. Plus, I think my tastes had changed. I was getting into Dekker and such by then.

(Case in point: I’m watching Unsolved Mysteries while we chat. Hehe.)

ESB: (Ha, ha!) (Plus Jesus didn’t come back and the Beast didn’t take over after the Y2K computer crisis, which was a slight bummer.) What did you like about Dekker’s works, compared with others? And by then, were you also trying your hand at your own stories?

Kaci: (Oh, do not get me started on Y2K. I have several entertaining stories.) I wrote my first story on paper as a 5th grader; and I was singing stories before I could write. I switched to a laptop in 10th grade, but never considered publication (or doing this as more than a hobby) until somewhere in college. Per Dekker, my first of his was Heaven’s Wager. Witty, crazy characters & plot, and it fed my supernatural tastes. Funny, I’ve never thought about it. I just kept picking up more Dekker books, because when I find a writer, I tend to read everything of them I can find. *thinks* Something just clicked. And I kept reading. I think the next was When Heaven Weeps, and I just fell in love with Janjic. I’ve…read pretty much in order of publication. I was getting serious about the time Black came out (as a writer).

ESB: We’ve talked on Speculative Faith and elsewhere about the fact that, even with your coauthor credits, you’re actually somewhat new to the fiction scene — especially the Christian fiction subgroup. That’s quite a rarity. What might you see about The Industry (or Industries) that others may not?

Kaci: Hum. I’m working on how to articulate that one. For one, I’m pretty late into the business end. I’m finding I’m really needing to use those conferences to explore that end. Second, I didn’t know CBA/ABA or a distinction thereof existed before I got into college (where I started actually using the internet) and all these people were in arms over what was appropriate or not, what CBA allowed and didn’t, these people argue this and that and this group will freak if you do that, and that group won’t publish us, on and on and on.

I don’t know. Recently I’m starting to realize how familiar that all is. Being a church brat (read: person who grew up in church) whose parents were pretty involved, you hear a lot and learn more by speaking less. So, in the end, I think I’ve started to see this not as a CBA/ABA issue but something more along the lines of the Legalists and the Liberals (if you’ll pardon the gross generalization). In other words, what is acceptable in print is acceptable in print. What isn’t, isn’t. I’m not going to make the distinction. It’s glorious, or it’s grotesque.

ESB: Possibly related to the question of what causes sin: one’s own heart, or more the assumption that a Thing outside yourself is to blame — remove the Thing, and it better prevents the sin.

Kaci: Right. On the one hand, reading a book where a guy curses every other word is not going to insist that I curse. On the other, it might take more of a conscious effort. An example would be this: I don’t swear. It’s just not part of my vocabulary. In college, however, I was around people who did, enough that I’d be doing it in my head without really realizing it. It took a more conscious effort the more I was around those people, but it didn’t insist that I curse.

(I will say, on the other hand: Excessive swearing is just that. It’s overdone and detracts. But that’s another discussion.)

ESB: Something that’s surprised me in the last few years is finding how much that theology — that nonfiction, real-life stuff — affects how we view, and write, fiction. What are some themes fresh in your mind, that inspire your writing? Or do you sort of approach the story first, and let themes embed themselves?

Kaci: For me both are a bit organic. Again, I can’t quite separate the two, anymore than I can really separate bone and marrow. However, yes, whatever I’m studying, or whatever I’m trying to work through, will wind up influencing the story — consciously or not. Like, at one point I was fascinated with the idea of God as a Lover. As a King. So I wrote that. I was fascinated with a redeemed traitor. So I wrote that. Recurring themes for me tend to be Light & Dark, redeeming the totally unredeemable (probably why Edmund is a favorite). I write the story. The themes work themselves out on their own. When I realize them, I go ahead and let them do their thing. Like, right now, I’m letting the list of armor in Ephesians take on flesh and blood. Each piece defines their character, perceptions, strengths, weaknesses, and spiritual gifts. So I’ll look at the guy who’s righteous and think, “Well, what would he look like? What does it mean to be righteous? Where’s his weakness?”

The whole idea of godliness/righteousness/holiness has come up a lot recently, so he’s been easy to explore. But that’d be one example.

I’m quite enamored with what true Christianity looks like. Flesh and blood, day in/day out, hands in the dirt Christianity.

ESB: Deep Magic indeed. That leads me perhaps to a third-to-last question, about what weaknesses you might see in the current field of “righteous” storytelling, or Christianity altogether — or the intersection of the two.

Kaci: Well, I think we have no concept of it, as a whole. American Christendom right now is a bit turned on its head. (And I speak only as someone trying to figure it out myself.) My reading says, righteousness brings justice down on the head of the oppressor and shields the oppressed. Righteousness is less concerned with the outside of the cup and worms its way into the heart. It wasn’t that Jesus didn’t care the adulteress was what she was; it was that righteousness offers compassion to whoever will take it, and judgment to those who will not accept his compassion (Ezekiel…18?).

As for righteous storytelling…“Be excellent in what is good and innocent of evil; and the God of peace will soon crush Satan underneath your feet.”

I think, honestly, the weakness of the guy who wants to write what he wants with no restraint is like a clanging gong: Loud, lots to say, but in the end, he’s possibly more justifying his own indulgence in the darkness than anything else. I may write a nasty fellow, but I’m certainly not going to defend him or justify it. Maybe qualify it. And I think the guy who wants only “clean” fiction is doing the same in reverse. At some point, both are missing the point.

ESB: How, then, do you hope to find the balance between the two in your own writing — in your current work-in-progress, or in whatever is next for you?

Kaci: For my current project, I’m challenging myself on subtlety. Can I write a character soliciting another without any mention of the act? (That’s just how I’m choosing to do it this time, because I’m trying to stay on a particular level.) Far as I can tell, less is more. In the end, I have a list of questions I ask: Is this serving my purpose? Is it distracting? Is it excessive? Is my mind going to carry this farther than my fingers actually type? (That’s a big one for me: the pen stops long before the mental movie reel does — and at that point…I have to ask if I’m in too deep.) Am I comfortable with other people actually reading what I just wrote? Could I read it out loud in public, or would I be embarrassed?

I don’t know. I tend to know when I, personally, am going too far. When I read, I’m usually okay as long as whatever’s happening isn’t just gross and/or out of place (the usual culprit).

ESB: Your current WIP: what’s your hook?

Kaci: Beowulf’s town contains an abandoned, haunted mansion and a series of legends surrounding a horrific event. People tend to mysteriously disappear without warning or trace. Beowulf’s the first to catch a glimpse of the culprits, but when starts sniffing he’s getting countered by a series of cover-ups at the highest levels. In the end, a girl running from a stalker may well be how he gets his answers. Not that the answers will be pleasant. And assuming they survive.

ESB: And the final question: what might have you liked to have been asked and may like to answer or say now, for Spec-Faith readers?

Kaci: Offhand…I’m not sure. I wasn’t sure if you were going to go more with biographical information or more the writing end of things. I feel we covered both pretty well. Thoughts?

ESB: From me? Just that I look forward to hearing more from you about all of what we covered and more, when you’re writing for Spec-Faith — every other Wednesday, am I right?

Kaci: Yessir.

ESB: Excellent. If you wish, end this interview with a favorite sci-fi, fantasy or fiction quote! And thanks so much for a great conversation, and for signing onto the starship Spec-Faith.

Kaci: Awesome. Sure thing. This was fun.

“I have you now, Will, and I will not let you go.” ~ Bran, “Scarlet” by Lawhead

Reality and The Supernatural In Peretti’s ‘The Visitation’

Fiction and poetry provide authors a unique way to glorify Christ that more overtly intellectual genres, like theology, simply can’t. These genres that aim directly for the heart and soul—rather than aiming at the heart through the mind—do not argue […]

E. Stephen Burnett on Aug 26, 2010 · Off

Fiction and poetry provide authors a unique way to glorify Christ that more overtly intellectual genres, like theology, simply can’t. These genres that aim directly for the heart and soul—rather than aiming at the heart through the mind—do not argue for belief, they show what it looks like and make you feel it. . . . They offer an author a way to give his beliefs flesh and blood by enacting them in the confusion of the real world. In fiction, belief is not what you look at, but what you look through.

Abraham Piper, How is Fiction True and Valuable?, Aug. 30, 2009

Say “Christian fiction,” and most people think in terms of extremes. The apocalypse thriller Left Behind series comes to mind, along with a dozen old jokes about how many volumes it has. Or one might think of an even greater multitude, which no one could number, of various romance genres — prairie, historical, cozy, comedic, medieval, prairie-historical, historical-medieval-cozy, etc. Recently, the top trends in Christian fiction are plain weird: Amish-community tales and (Twilight-influenced) vampire stories. (Don’t steal my idea to get rich: an Amish vampire novel.)

More rarely will someone think this about Christian fiction: extreme orthodoxy. Decades of flaky doctrines and Charles Finney-esque pragmatism has led to shallowness in Christian storytelling, to put it mildly. The “deep” themes of most stories are either Get Saved, or Have More Faith.

Even that wouldn’t be so bad if more Christians would write honestly about themselves. One may fault the Left Behind books or Frank Peretti’s thrillers for un-Biblical end-times or spiritual-warfare views. But at least they acknowledged a world where the Church exists. Not so with many other evangelical thrillers, mysteries or romances. Church, if it’s shown at all, is barely there. Apparently many evangelicals just don’t like to hold the mirror of fiction up to us. They’d rather write about prairie schoolteachers, police detectives with faith-crises, or Amish/vampires.

So it’s mostly for those reasons, I believe, that many young-restless-reformed types (what I affectionately term the Calvinistic Cabal, and I count myself among them) don’t have much place for Christian fiction. It’s trite, ripping off the world; its themes are shallow, and it doesn’t show Christ or His truth well. Reformed blogger Tim Challies, interviewed by Bob Lepine in a podcast about The Shack, was finally asked what other fiction he might recommend other than that. I just don’t read that much fiction, Bob, was Challies’ answer. I’m a Nonfiction Guy. Okay.

My question: Why can’t a Gospel-driven Christian be both/and? C.S. Lewis has in-depth stuff, of course, but is there anything else?

I would submit that there is. And ten years ago, none other than Frank Peretti, that angels-vs.-demons thriller novel guy, wrote it — a 500+-page novel called The Visitation. Unlike other novels, it’s deep. It’s about the Church. And it’s about Jesus.

Doctrines, demons and deceptions

Most people know Frank Peretti for writing the blockbuster book This Present Darkness in the early ‘80s. Evangelicals loved Darkness and its sequel for its thrilling portrayals of angels vs. demons, Christians vs. Satanists, and plenty of creative spiritual battles. But many doctrine-minded Christians, loving and otherwise, also had concerns about what people were doing with Peretti’s stories. So did Peretti himself, according to a 1997 interview with World’s Gene Veith.

In prayer groups across the country, people were binding demons named after specific sins (Envy, Despair, Lust) and calling on angels to beat down devils in charge of particular cities and nations. “That really alarmed me,” Mr. Peretti told WORLD. People were taking his fiction literally, as if it were fact. [. . . H]e stressed that his books were symbolic, and that theological conclusions need to come out of the Bible rather than a work of fiction.

Veith went on to describe Peretti’s work-in-progress at the time. That became The Visitation. Unlike his previous stories’ portrayal of evil demonic strongmen, this novel focuses on inner demons. Rather than sweeping battles in spiritual dimensions along with prayer meetings and car chases, Peretti focuses on the turmoil of a former Pentecostal pastor in Washington State.

After a mysterious stranger comes to the small town of Antioch, Washington, burned-out pastor Travis Jordan is forced to review his past — partly because the stranger seems to know all about it. Even worse, the stranger claims to be “a new, improved version of Jesus.” He has televangelist-like charisma. He can perform real healings of diseases. He preaches love and tolerance. And he forms a religious movement that pulls in many, excepting Jordan and others.

Even more interesting, the false messiah has a personal mission: to ensnare Jordan himself. This minor-antichrist is convinced their stories are the same — that they both mistrust the Lord.

Thus, throughout doctrine deceptions, religious battles, and chapter-length flashbacks to past struggles and life changes, Jordan is forced to wrestle with the teachings of his youth, church authority abuses, why God didn’t heal his wife of cancer, and most of all, the real Jesus Christ.

Though The Visitation has plenty of characters in the third-person, most of it is written in the first-person. And based on accounts I’ve read, it’s also partly autobiographical. At the very least, one could say that no one who was not personally aware of more-charismatic practices, trying to find God’s will in “signs and wonders,” or fighting small churches’ stubbornness, could know the drama, trauma, and very often the comedic value, of these things.

For example, the foolish behaviors and gullibility of many charismatic women, who fall for the false Christ’s performances, are both comical and tragic — yet you as a reader never laugh so hard at the antics of people being “slain in the Spirit” or whatever that you forget to grieve over the real results of such feelings-based, un-Biblical ideas.

Along with fighting false teachings outside the church, Peretti’s protagonists also fight it within. Unlike other novels, this one has denominations, and without being preachy the author shows their excesses and where they get it mostly right — such as Baptists, Pentecostals, Lutherans, the other Baptists, and Presbyterians. As the townsfolk marvel and follow after the false christ, the consequences of their deception become dangerously clear.

A great theology book can debunk false doctrines well, or tell of such truth, about Who Christ is and how we follow and worship Him. Yet it takes a great fiction book to show ways this plays out in the real world. These can awaken new passions of the heart and for the true Jesus Christ — awakenings that can only come through God-glorifying stories.

The Visitation is one of the best I’ve found. My only regret is that there aren’t more novels like it. But maybe, once young-Reformed folks reach the fiction field, someday there will be.

(Originally published Oct. 28, 2009, on my church’s blog site.)

The Stakes Are High

For many years I lived in the middle of nowhere. And there I spun my own somewheres in writing, and I read classic fantasy novels without much exposure to current writers of Christian spec-fic — which is a long way […]

E. Stephen Burnett on Aug 25, 2010 · Off

Eventually I moved out of the middle of nowhere, joined the CSFF Blog Tour, read Starlighter and a galley of Masters and Slayers by Bryan Davis, and got to thinking:

Why do I like these books?

Because here’s the thing: I read Masters and Slayers all in one sitting, and I was really eager to read it. I’m really eager to read the sequel and the sequel to Starlighter, and yet there are things about the books that don’t suit my usual tastes. Davis’s writing style doesn’t grab me, and the fusion of sci-fi and fantasy elements strikes me as awkward (though it’s better in Masters and Slayers, so there’s a good chance it’ll keep feeling more natural as the series progress). I’m surprised I care as much about the books and the characters as I do, but I DO — and I finally figured out why.

The stakes are high.

Every single character is battling enormous personal stakes. Most of them will die horrible deaths or otherwise lose everything if they fail. Their world is battling enormous stakes. And that’s why I care. Davis is good at this. What’s happening is important. It matters a LOT.

As I thought about that, I realized that high stakes are one of the biggest reasons I like fantasy, period. I suspect it’s one of the major reasons we all like it. Fantasy writers are not afraid to embrace high stakes. We routinely put entire worlds, entire universes, on the line. Fantasy characters don’t have small stories. Even the smallest characters, the Sam Gamgees and Mister Tumnuses, matter in huge ways. They don’t just make decisions that influence their personal lives. They make decisions that tip the balance of everything.

I’ve often thought that fantasy more accurately represents real life than many other forms of writing because it accepts the supernatural. In this thing of high stakes, again I believe fantasy accurately represents real life. The Bible shares this sense of none of us living small stories; of every personal story counting in a way we can’t entirely comprehend (Romans 14:7-8: “For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s”).

In the story we’re continually telling with our lives, the story of the kingdom of God, the stakes are not small. We are in a story about saving souls, about saving creation, about saving the universe and things beyond it that we don’t even know about. Fantasy is a reminder of that. It reminds us that our lives count. It reminds us that this story is vast, endlessly complex, supernatural.

Our readers live in a world that saps our sense of meaning and purpose; as fantasy writers, we can serve them by giving it back. By writing stories that cry, “The stakes are high!” — because they truly are.

CSFF Blog Tour – Your Favorite

I’m partly to blame. When the previously scheduled CSFF featured book for August was pulled by the publisher, I agreed with the suggestion that we turn this month into a Your Favorite feature. A great idea, really, and I’m so […]

Rebecca LuElla Miller on Aug 23, 2010 · Off

I’m partly to blame. When the previously scheduled CSFF featured book for August was pulled by the publisher, I agreed with the suggestion that we turn this month into a Your Favorite feature. A great idea, really, and I’m so looking forward to reading everyone else’s posts. But writing my own … now that’s not so easy.

I mean, how do you narrow down what you’ve read to “Your Favorite”? Of course for me “favorite” means fantasy, but are we talking about favorite of all time (a toss up between Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien and Watership Down by Richard Adams), my favorite for this year (Wayfarer by R. J. Anderson), my favorite of the Clive Staples Award nominations (I’m not saying 😉 ), my favorite YA (North! Or Be Eaten by Andrew Peterson), my favorite middle grade (The Bark of the Bog Owl by Jonathan Rogers), or my favorite adult fantasy (toss up between By Darkness Hid by Jill Williamson and Blaggard’s Moon by George Bryan Polivka).

You can see my dilemma.

Add in the authors whose books I really like (Sharon Hinck, Karen Hancock, Christopher and Allan Miller, D. Barkley Briggs) and the authors who have changed the landscape of Christian fantasy (Donita Paul, Wayne Thomas Batson, and Bryan Davis), and it’s getting to be a nearly impossible assignment.

So let me tell you instead what comprises my favorite book. It would have an engaging protagonist and a medium-paced story. The world would be dense without being confusing.

The story would feel fresh without being off-the-wall. There would be lots of tension from the start and surprises and twists.

The plot would not be hard to follow, but it wouldn’t be simplistic. There would be romance, though it wouldn’t dominate the story. There would be battles, too, and running-for-your-lives scenes. So lots of action broken up by some quiet moments that spotlight internal tension rather than external.

In the end the character will be changed and the reader will be moved. And as I near that end, I slow my reading down because I don’t want to leave this world that seems so real it feels like I will find it when I peek around the corner.

Yes, that‘s the book I want to ~~writ~~, er, read. OK, it’s also the book I want to write, too. 😀

Your turn. What is your favorite? After you’ve left a comment, check out what the other CSFF participants are saying about their favorites:
Brandon Barr ** Thomas Clayton Booher ** Keanan Brand ** Grace Bridges ** Beckie Burnham ** Morgan L. Busse ** Jeff Chapman ** CSFF Blog Tour ** Stacey Dale ** D. G. D. Davidson ** Jeff Draper ** George Duncan ** April Erwin ** Andrea Graham ** Tori Greene ** Ryan Heart ** Timothy Hicks ** Becky Jesse ** Jason Joyner ** Julie ** Carol Keen ** Krystine Kercher ** Mike Lynch ** Rebecca LuElla Miller ** New Authors Fellowship ** John W. Otte ** Donita K. Paul ** Sarah Sawyer ** Sarah Sawyer ** Chawna Schroeder ** James Somers ** Rachel Starr Thomson ** Steve Trower ** Jason Waguespac ** Fred Warren ** Dona Watson ** Phyllis Wheeler ** KM Wilsher

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Interview With Kaci Hill

To Published & Beyond — One Author’s Voyage Pt.2

Of Hobbits and Heroes

Claiming The Blog For Technorati

Weird Science

Reality and The Supernatural In Peretti’s ‘The Visitation’

Doctrines, demons and deceptions

The Stakes Are High

To Published & Beyond — One Author’s Voyage Pt.1

CSFF Blog Tour – Your Favorite

Beware The ‘Moon People’!

In Which the Author Attempts to Demonstrate the Unique Pitfalls Often Associated with Lack of Accountability, Shunning Editors and the Unfortunate Enablement Offered by Vanity Publishing.