Hey there! Today’s post is super short because I have an exciting announcement: My new short story is here! Lifewarden is now available for anyone to read over on StoryEmbers.org. I’m honored to have my work published on their site, as they do amazing work for the Christian writing community. I’m also very grateful to their editors, who helped me polish my story. What’s this story about? In a nutshell, Lifewarden follows a hundred and nine year old woman who has spent her life foretelling deaths, despite sensing that something isn’t quite right about her work. On the final day of her existence, her doubts resurface, now with the power to determine how she will be remembered, what will become of her family, and how an entire society will be shaped. The best part is that you get the whole experience in just over 3,000 words. HERE’S THE LINK...
For the One Who is Afraid to Begin
For the one who is afraid to begin. For the one who is stuck in endless calculation and planning. For the one who is afraid to make the first brush stroke for fear they are not prepared. For the one who is afraid to set the first stone for fear it will create the wrong foundation. For the one who is afraid of making mistakes and having to backtrack and rethink. For the one who is afraid to begin for fear of having to begin again. And again. And again. This is for you. — Lord, I want to begin, but I do not know when, or how, or if now is the right time to. I do not know if I am prepared enough or even if I should have taken this much time to prepare. I like to be efficient, to not have to backtrack, to get...
Epic Fantasy in Nazareth
Image from Pinterest Behold, young man, and may the gods avert the omen, but you have been born into times when it is well to fortify the spirit with examples of courage.” – Tacitus Most of our lives would make pretty boring novels. (maybe 2020 changed that, but let’s just ignore that for the moment, yes?) True, there is a certain drama in the everyday ups and downs, but it amounts to no more than your ordinary contemporary novel. Which is why people read and write contemporary novels. It’s relatable and shows us the important moments that do happen in our everyday lives (and that’s why I wrote this story ). However, for those of us who read or write more fantastical and “exciting” genres, like epic fantasy, coming back to the Normal World after closing a book can feel dull. Yes, it’s wonderful that we don’t have those monsters...
Flash Fiction: A Grain to Spare
Aedus hated it when his hourglass talked. The majority of its speech was apocalyptic prophecy, and he would have given anything for it to be wrong. Just once. Preferably now. Stones cut through the soles of Aedus’s shoes as he sprinted down the hill, dragging a stretcher behind him. He winced as his burden banged against the knee-high stone arches that littered the rocky wasteland. The arrival of Nothing had chased them right into the Riddled Plains. “Hurry, moronic human, if you want to live!” Of course, the rest of Hourglass’s speech had to be abuse. Aedus cast a quick glare over his shoulder. His younger brother, Rand, lay in the stretcher behind him, gripping the side with one pale hand while his legs flopped around uselessly. His other hand clasped it. Hourglass’s sand vibrated as it screamed again in a gravelly voice. “Onward! Are you blind?” Aedus swerved...
Humility and Obedience as an Artist
Artists are powerful. Whether they are painters, poets, writers, actors, or musicians, artists wield a power that echoes the creative forces of God. While artists cannot create out of nothing, they do have the ability to recreate reality through mirroring reality in a way that follows the norms of their particular craft. All humans are artists in that they “are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece.” (Pope John Paul II, Letter to Artists, 2). Yet, an artist in the traditional sense has a greater focus on creation and creativity in regard to what is beautiful. This does not make the traditional artist a better person than someone who is not a traditional artist, but I believe it does give the traditional artist an extra responsibility; rather than simply being responsible...
A Specific Sorrow: The Key to Authentic Characters
About a month ago, I attended Story Embers’ Authentic Character Summit. The event started out with a bang as the opening keynote was given by one of my favorite speakers: Tosca Lee. Tosca has a way of instilling what I would call an audacious passion for storytelling in me. Her pre-conference workshop at Realm Makers 2018 was unforgettable; I still use her character creation exercise whenever I get stuck with my own characters. I wasn’t surprised when I felt the same energy, desire, and fearlessness as before when I listened to her at the Summit. I won’t go into the specifics of what she said (you can purchase a recording of her keynote here!) since it was the general theme she addressed which really captured my mind and heart. How do we honestly portray the full human experience? How do we write characters so authentically that the reader believes...
The Victory That Has Overcome the World
Easter this year was hard. You may have seen the email I sent out several weeks ago before Holy Week, in which I was feeling pretty hopeful. That hope didn’t necessarily die for me. I felt like I was able to mentally and spiritually follow Jesus’ journey to the Cross and the Resurrection as well as I could from home. On Saturday night, right before Easter, there was a moment when I felt utterly crushed about the situation the virus has created in the world. The next day was Easter Sunday, undoubtedly the most joyful day of the year for Christians, and the world was in darkness. As much as I wished it, part of me knew that I wouldn’t wake up the next morning and hear that the virus was gone, everyone was cured, and all the churches were opening. I thought that something was wrong about that....
How Fear Can Unlock the Soul of Your Story
Fear. The often unnoticed or else ignored shadow lingering behind characters or even right beside them without them even knowing it. As I was pondering stories in general a while ago, it struck me how many times characters are afraid within the overarching stories they live in. How many times they’re glancing over their shoulders, fighting back old memories, and purposefully avoiding certain situations even when it endangers their lives. These fears are always tied to an event in the past: a “Ghost,” as it’s called in the writing world. A Ghost happens. A character becomes afraid. And if that fear isn’t overcome, they end up acting in accordance with that fear for the rest of their lives, often without even knowing it. But then comes a moment where the character must get over this fear or else. Or else his world is going to be destroyed, his family...
Get Back in the Boat
You’ve been out all night, all week, all month. It goes the same for all of us. We cast our buckets to the creative wells of inspiration tucked deep in the heart and the mind and once, and we pull. We pull up a catch of emotions and thoughts all tangled together and rearrange them on a page in something called story. Some days it’s light work, and though we’re working alone, the encouragement and prayers of others seems to grow hands and make our job easy. We pull and pull and our buckets overflow. Other days it’s hard work, and our two little arms hardly seem strong enough to pull up a bucket that just reveals itself to be empty. It seems like a game of chance. Yes, there are strategies. Write consistently. Plot the scenes. Re-inspire yourself. Keep a schedule. Pray for help. Yet every day is...
What God Taught Me About Writing
I’m convinced that writing for God is one of the scariest and most challenging things in the world to do. Why? Because when you invite God into your writing process, suddenly, you aren’t the only one calling the shots anymore. You aren’t the only author any longer. There is a much greater Author there with you, and he’s just as interested as you are in your character’s arc and personality type, that plot twist that’s going to shock readers, and what your story’s theme is. To quote Plot Versus Character: “…where there was once only one power…now there are two.” Writing has always felt like a tug between two powers to me, between structure versus spontaneity, rules versus intuition and art. It’s been between what should work and what does work, what I want the story to be and what it actually is. And it’s especially apparent between what...