The Master's Artist

Smoots and Sheppeys

Luke is home for a few weeks. (Please imagine the previous sentence written in sparkling letters, with fireworks shooting out of them, and confetti falling all around, and a marching band passing by playing something by Sousa. Yes, I am happy about this.) He recently returned from his nine-month West African adventure and is preparing to leave again in August to attend seminary at Regent College in Vancouver, BC.

Yesterday we logged on to a housing message board on the college's website  and scanned potential rooming options--mostly rooms for rent in houses or basements or apartments. To help narrow his choices, Luke plugged the addresses into Google Earth to see how far each place would be from campus.

The "ruler" is just one of many useful Google Earth tools, allowing you to draw a path from one location to another and measure the distance. Luke had calculated a particular distance in kilometers (I guess because he got used to the metric system in Africa), and I asked what it would be in miles. He clicked on the drop-down menu and the following list of options appeared: centimeters, meters, kilometers, inches, feet, yards, miles, nautical miles, and smoots.

Wait a minute. Smoots?

Unexpected but welcome interruption

Good morning everyone. I promised to blog this morning and just as I was getting ready to fire up my computer, I received a phone call from Australia from a key source on a story that I am working on.

It was a long conversation, thus I am late! A journalist has a hard time with planning things because there are always unexpected developments.  News happens. It can really ruin a well-planned day and wreak havoc on a "to do" list of non urgent but important things to do.   But there are a number of things I want to post on today.  First, a few thoughts on the life of a journalist.

Sexy Sales and Eternity

I don't find it coincidental that I received a disheartening email about the sales of one of my books on the same day author Kristy Dykes moved from our sin-stained earth to the streets of gold.

I read the disheartening email first and let it seep into me. One of my books is dying a terrible death. My daughter said it well, "Mommy, that means one of your babies has died." Though certainly not that traumatic, I did feel the loss of dreams, the loss of ministry potential, the sadness that comes from failure. I felt it down to my core.

Question of the Day - Interesting People

Who is the most interesting person you've ever spoken to
personally? What was it about them that intrigued you?

Madison Richards: That's a tough one! I've met a lot of really interesting people in my life, and interesting is, of course, in the eye of the beholder. To me an interesting person is someone who is not necessarily like me at all - it would be someone who challenges me to think outside my own set of boxes and rules and tweaks the way I look at the world. This has happened to me several times over because of books I've read, but the actual people list is quite a bit smaller. I guess my pick would be Jim Driscoll. He administrates a biblically-based dream interpretation website and teaches classes on The Art of Hearing God. His knowledge and understanding of scripture forms an incredibly solid base for some really heady concepts on living a spiritual life. After talking to him I frequently come away challenged to dive deeper into the Word and seek God for myself. www.madisonrichards.com  http://writeonedge.blogspot.com

A Time and A Place For Everything

When it comes to novel writing, setting is an important element of your story. Some might argue it into the top three. Creating a sense of time and place is right up there with building strong characters and pacing. It's no wonder Solomon's Ecclesiastical epiphany on timing remains a source of comfort and inspiration a couple of millenia after the fact.

Life gives us an unending array of settings and time frames to choose from, whether historical, present day or future, and time naturally follows place. The characters, clothing, language, and consequences of plot need to all come together to create a valid, believable setting.

A writer has a lot of leeway to tweak and adjust their own unique elements of time and place, but if any of these elements are missing completely, then the story loses something in the translation. The great thing is, we don't have to take expensive trips or graduate classes to learn the lessons of time and place. Life is a great teacher. Dorothy learned this lesson well by the end of The Wizard of Oz - she really didn't have to look a whole lot further than her own backyard. You just have to learn how to tune in...

Friday Post-A-Quote

It's Friday and there's no 'real' post. So I'm making one up. (My apologies to anyone who's offended...mmmm, nah, not really.)

Here's the best little nugget I've come across this week. Thought you guys might like it too. So read mine, then post one of your own in the comments section. Maybe there will be a prize for the best one?

Ariel Gore, from How To Become A Famous Writer Before You're Dead, on dealing with rejection:

"And because capitalism knows no limits, you can actually upload the text of the rejection letter you get from a publisher and, for ninety dollars, Lulu.com will print it on four rolls of toilet paper for your wiping needs."

Knowing What You Don’t

It’s been an interesting week so far. I had the good fortune of attending my first ICRS shindig in Orlando, FL where I was able to catch up with some old writing pals and meet some new ones, along with a lot of nice Zondervan folks who work on my books. The most surreal moment was not trolling the show floor in search of " Jesus junk" (that highly anticipated excursion made me more sad than amused), but rather the ten minutes or so I found myself surrounded by a small platoon of famous writers. This was no special occasion, we all just sort of showed up in the same place at the same time. I was the token newbie in the bunch.

Craft and Deviation

I posed a question on The Writers View this week, but it didn't get much response, most likely because most of the folks there are at ICRS (the International Christian Retail Show). But I like the question, so I'm bringing it your way.

A Project for the Prodigal Writer

 

I read many stories that attempt

to illuminate and Fail.

To set a  soul vertical, upward

toward Heaven, one must allow

the soul to write.

This month I am participating

in an online writing project. As I contemplated what I

would submit, I thought about The Master's Artist. I

thought about you and what this project really could

mean if we... I thought...

The Old Man and the Sea

Our family spent this past week on the Oregon Coast. Like Jeanne, I haven't spent much time at home so far this summer, nor am I scheduled to remain there for long.

The coast is amazing and wild and rugged. The ocean always makes me feel appropriately small, putting me gently in my place as I stand before the thunderous roar of its crashing waves.

Here the wind blows sometimes up to one hundred and fifty miles per hour. It's given me a great appreciation for fishermen who brave the tides and storms of the sea in order to catch their daily wages. It's a different life than I've ever known, that's for sure.

Jesus knew the life of the fisherman though, didn't he?