BJ Hoff's GRACE NOTES

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Dianne Burnett, Fiction Editor at christianbook.com, has developed what should prove to be a very helpful chart for readers--and writers, because aren't we avid readers, too?

If you especially like the works of a any particular author, this chart will make you aware of the novels of other authors you might also enjoy. You might want to print it off so you can refer to it as often as you like.

See it here:  http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/cms_content?page=1852744&sp=1001&event=1001RNF

BJ

Being There

I'm aware that I write much about setting. Not long ago, another writer asked me what I, personally, look for in a story's setting. That's one of those thought-provoking questions that, when confronted with it, I couldn't answer right away but had to consider it as it related to some of the novels I've read ... and remembered.

I finally decided that I look for a setting that can draw me into the thick of it, that can make me forget my immediate surroundings and become a part of the story's center, enabling me to see and feel and taste the place, to live there in the midst of its characters and experience their world with them. As a writer, I know that requires a great deal more than the "travelogue" type of description I discussed in an earlier post or a quick overview of a landscape. A writer has to work for encapsulated reality, for mood and atmosphere, and relation to character--all of which involve significant, intricate details, all carefully chosen.

Here are a few examples that accomplish what I'm talking about better than I could ever explain it:

From Homer Hickam, Jr.'s October Sky (the novel on which the movie was based): "There was a breeze coming down the hollow. The dogwoods low on the mountain waved as if asking me to look at their glory. They were like white bouquets God had stuck in the stands of ancient oaks and hickories, glistening green in their own new growth. I heard something and looked up and down the road for its source. It wasn't just a single sound. It was Coalwood moving, talking, humming its eternal symphony of life, work, duty, and job. I stood alone on the side of the road and listened to my town play its industrial song."

From Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise--a masterpiece of a novel on which I'll probably blog later. Set at the beginning of the Nazi occupation of Paris in 1940, Parisians are fleeing the city in an eerie hush: "Silently, with no lights on, cars kept coming, one after the other, full to bursting with baggage and furniture, prams and birdcages, packing cases and baskets of clothes, each with a mattress tied firmly to the roof. They looked like mountains of fragile scaffolding and they seemed to move without the aid of a motor, propelled by their own weight down the sloping streets to the town square. Cars filled all the roads into the square. People were jammed together like fish caught in a net, and one good tug on that net would have picked them all up and thrown them down on to some terrifying river bank. There was no crying or shouting; even the children were quiet. Everything seemed calm. From time to time a face would appear over a lowered window and stare up at the sky for a while, wondering. A low, muffled murmur rose up from the crowd, the sound of painful breathing, sighs and conversations held in hushed voices, as if people were afraid of being overheard by an enemy lying in wait ..." 

From Denise Giardina's novel, The Unquiet Earth: "The coal camps are strung along Blackberry Creek like beads on a necklace, and each looks much the same. Every house is painted white with black trim. Some of the houses hang from the hillsides, their fronts supported by fragile columns of brick and wood. Others sit in the creek bottom on streets of mud and red dog from the slate dumps, raised at four corners by short brick piles with space beneath the house for spare tires and sleeping dogs. Fences of wood and wire separate each house. In winter a truck comes from the mine and fills the coal houses in the corner of each yard so people can feed their stoves. Several times a day the black trains scream through the camps, and often the whistle at the mine blows for an accident ..." 

This is what I mean when I say that, as a reader, I want to be there. And as a writer, I do my best to take the reader there.

BJ

Such Friends

It's been one of those weeks when, out of necessity, I've had to neglect the blog--and a few other things. There simply hasn't been time to work through everything that's been piling up. But I received a few emails this week that reminded me how very fortunate I am to have the truly wonderful readers I do, readers who have blessed me time and time again through the years, who continue to bless me, over and over again--and I thought I'd just take a moment to thank you.

By its very nature, writing is a solitary lifestyle. It would probably be a lonely lifestyle for many of us were it not for our families (and that includes our church families), our friends, other writers ... and our readers. Many of my readers pray for me, for my work, even for my family. And believe me, I'm more aware of those prayers than you can imagine! Some have become good friends, even though we've never met. Many drop me a note on a regular basis simply to let me know they're thinking of me and cheering me on as I work through the book in progress. Some "hawk" my books as they travel about the country, talking with bookstore folks, encouraging them to order titles they don't have on the shelf, at the same time making them aware of other authors writing inspirational and Christian fiction. And some of my readers are also writers who can pray with great understanding and empathy, because they've "been there and done that."

I wouldn't like to consider what a hole would be left in my life without these special friends. Many of you are reading this, and you know who you are. Know this also: you make a significant, powerful difference in my life--and I'm grateful for each one of you. Thank you for loving the stories that I love to bring to you, and thank you for pouring out your affection and your prayers on me. Because of you, my life is anything but solitary: because of you, I'm blessed with a wide network of friends who care and who never hesitate to make the effort to let me know they care.

When I give thanks for you, my readers, a line from my favorite poet, W. B. Yeats, invariably comes to mind:  "Think where man's glory most begins and ends,  and say my glory was I had such friends."

Bless you.

BJ

Why We Read

Why do you read? More to the point, why do you read fiction? Over the years, I've tucked away some replies I've heard to this question from readers: friends, other authors, editors, librarians, bookstore folks, students, etc. Many of the answers are similar, as you might imagine, but some are unexpected.

A sampling of a few: To escape from the everyday ... To relax ... To visit places I'd probably never get to see otherwise. ... To learn about other places and other people ... To forget my problems ...  To broaden my horizons ... To enter different worlds ... To go back in time and see what things were like for my parents and grandparents ... To learn how to write my own books ... For research ... I love words and beautiful writing ... I love stories ... To be encouraged and lifted up ... To understand people better ... To keep my mind active ... To learn more about life and myself.

One intriguing reply came from a high school student several years ago: "When I read I forget myself and at least for a little while become soneone else."

And what are mine? A combination of many of the above. Especially, "to enter different worlds," "to learn," "to relax." And--probably at the top of the list: I can't resist a story!

No doubt there are others I haven't heard. Feel free to share yours here.

BJ

WIP

Ever since I finished the Mountain Song Legacy series, some of you have been asking "what next?" I published a little information about the new WIP on the web site, but I'm far enough along now to give you an update, so here 'tis:

The title of the new series is Mt. Laurel Memories, and it will be published, of course, by Harvest House, who also published the Mountain Song books. The first book in the series, Harp on the Willow, is scheduled for release early next spring.

One of the reasons I'm so excited about doing this series is that it's given me the opportunity to "reintroduce" one of the primary characters from my Emerald Ballad series. During the time of the Emerald Ballad stories, Daniel Kavanagh was a young man--in his teens, actually--who aspired to be a physician. He quickly became a favorite character among my readers, and I'm delighted that I can now continue his story in the Mt. Laurel books, this time as an adult.

Here's an excerpt from some catalog copy to just give you an overview of what I'm doing:

"Not long off the Civil War battlefields, Dr. Daniel Kavanagh travels to the small town of Mt Laurel to visit the parents of a friend who died in the War. Captivated by the quiet, pastoral settlement in Appalachia, he stays to set up his medical practice among the people there. Mt. Laurel is separated from a coal mining town by only a river, but in no time the doctor realizes that the two communities are also divided by a wall of ethnic and cultural differences. He's soon caught up in both worlds as a physician--and as a man who finds his loyalties and his affections often torn between the people of both towns ... and the two women who vie for his heart."

It's an interesting experience for me to revisit Daniel, because he was little more than a boy when I first introduced him--and now he's a doctor in his mid-thirties. An Irish immigrant who survived an impoverished childhood and a horrific Atlantic crossing, Daniel developed survival skills at an early age. Even in his youth, he was a complex, multi-faceted character who often surprised me. I'm finding that as a man grown he surprises me even more.

I've enjoyed following his responses to some of his patients, to Serena Norman, Mt. Laurel's only schoolteacher , and to Addie Rose Murphy, a young woman he discovers across the river in the coal company town of Owenduffy. Daniel also forms some unlikely friendships, one being with Addie Rose's father, Dominic Murphy, a hard-edged coal miner intent on improving the conditions of the men who look to him for leadership.

Some of the other folks who reside in Mt. Laurel and Owenduffy include Stephen and Esther Holliday, parents of Daniel's deceased friend, who open their home and their hearts to the young doctor; Sandy MacIver, Daniel's closest friend and widowed pastor of the small church where Daniel worships; Lawrence Hill, editor of the county's small but thriving newspaper, a man of obvious culture and education, who seems far more out of place in the rustic setting of Mt. Laurel than he actually is; Ira and Sally Birch, freed slaves who farm a small piece of land adjacent to Daniel's home while working toward buying their own farm; Miss Gladys Piper, an elderly maiden lady who finds new purpose for her life at the very time when she fears she may be at the end of it--and many others I think you'll enjoy getting to know.

If you sense that I'm having fun with this one, you're absolutely right! In truth, I've carried the idea for this series in my heart for years, but the time never seemed to be quite right to launch it. For any number of reasons, I came to realize a few months ago that this is the time.

I'll keep you posted as I go along.

BJ 

If You Like ...

My reader email indicates that a surprising number of general market readers are discovering Christian fiction and seeking out the genres that reflect their tastes and interests. To help out in their search, I've put together one of those "If you like _____, try _____." I may add on to this later, but for now, here are a some samples:

If you like Philippa Gregory, Diana Gabaldon, and Sara Donati, try Liz Curtis Higgs, Jane Kirkpatrick, and Lynn Austin.

If you like Sophie Kinsella and Marian Keyes, try Kristin Billerbeck and Trish Perry.

If you like John Grisham, Harlan Coben, and Robert Parker, try James Scott Bell, Alton Gansky, and Brandt Dodson.

If you like Luanne Rice, Richard Paul Evans, Nicholas Sparks, and Anita Shreve, try Deborah Raney, Karen Kingsbury, Karen Ball, and Robin Lee Hatcher.

If you like Jodi Picoult, try Angela Hunt.

If you like John Jakes, try Jack Cavanaugh.

If you like Harper Lee and Dorothea Benton Frank, try Jamie Langston Turner and Ann Tatlock.

If you like Anne Tyler and Alice Hoffman, try Lisa Samson and Patty Hickman.

If you like Pat Conroy and Leif Enger, try Athol Dickson and W. Dale Cramer.

If you like Julie Garwood and Debbie Macomber, try Lori Copeland and Diann Mills.

If you like Mary Higgins Clark, Sue Grafton, Tami Hoag, and Kathy Reichs, try Colleen Coble, Terri Blackstock, Brandilyn Collins, and Dee Henderson.

If you like L.B. Graham and C.S. Lewis, try Karen Hancock and Kathy Tyers.

Oh--and if anyone likes to read about Irish immigrants, there's always Herself.   

BJ

What's Stopping You?

What stops you when you're reading a novel? Fiction writers know that one of the chief  "sins" we can commit is interrupting the fictive dream: jarring the reader out of the story. What interrupts your involvement, your participation in a story? What yanks you out of a novel's "world" and brings you back to reality?

Like most writers, I'm also an avid reader, and there are certain things that will bring me to an abrupt halt when I come across them. Some are more intrusive than others, but any of the following will interrupt my experience of a story:

Author intrusion. This is a bit like the old stage plays where a narrator would come on stage to announce a new act or an intermission or deliver an explanation of the play's events to a captive audience. The author of a novel can do that by inserting his own thoughts or explanations or even pasting in a phrase that simply doesn't work for the time period or the characterization.

Sometimes this takes another tack. The writer is obviously so dizzy with her own literary pretensions, so enamored with a vocabulary that would leave any normal reader gasping for air, that I begin to feel as if I'm being manipulated. And I quickly become unimpressed.

Glaring error. This can be anything from a noticeable typo to an inaccurate piece of information that virtually shouts the fact that the author didn't do his research.

Anachronisms. 21st-century morals, speech, behavior, dress, etc. on an 18th-century character. Or modern weapons used in combat ... during World War I. Or a hymn being sung ... that wasn't composed until half a century later. That sort of thing.

Profanity. Yes, even in general market fiction, this stops me. It's simply a wasted word or phrase. I've been burned more than once for my opinion about this, usually from a writer's perspective. But I feel the same way as a reader. For almost any reason, it's unnecessary and can almost always be attributed to lazy writing. Some authors believe there's a time and place for it. Well, for certain that place isn't in Christian fiction, and it's no more necessary in secular fiction either. Before you start snickering about my being a buttoned-up, pious prude (you're cracking me up), let me assure you that I grew up in the tight-knit community of law enforcement officers (mostly Irish) and I'm familiar with just about any purple word you can throw at me. You won't even make me blink. But I don't want it in my stories, and a writer who uses them just for effect or to raise my eyebrows (won't work) slips a notch on my favorites meter.

Graphic anything: sex, violence, whatever. If a novel shoves disembowelment, decapitation, and other disgusting goings-on down my throat (don't linger on that image too long)--or insists on making me a voyeur of clinical, anatomical sex scenes that stretch the imagination beyond all limits (and physical capability), I lose interest in a hurry. I want story, not gory.

Those are a few of the things that make me go searching for a different book. And usually a change of authors.

For a few of the books I've recently read or am reading that don't rely on any of the above "stuff," check out the sidebar of the blog.

BJ