The sidebar* to Chuck Klosterman's article in the May Esquire makes some good, troubling points about our favorite show.

For three seasons the ABC series "Lost" used flashbacks to illustrate elements of the narrative the audience never saw. Now they've gone the other way; now they're consistently using flash-forwards to show pats of the story we haven't yet experienced. It's made the series even more interesting than it already was. But something keeps occurring to me: Isn't this a dangerous move on behalf of the producers? They seem to be giving its central cast members the strongest negotiating leverage in TV history.

Let's say the actor who plays Sayid (Naveen Andrews) suddenly decides to ignore his current contract. Let's say he demands twice as much money as he's scheduled to receive and won't show up for work without it. What could ABC possibly do? They can't just feed him to the smoke monster and write him off the show; we already know he definitely exists in an abstract tomorrow. By actively showing the future, the screenwriters have relinquished their ability to control the present. An even greater (and admittedly morbid) problem would be accidental death: What if Michael Emerson (the actor who portrays Ben) died in a car accident? Would the show simply have to end? How could his absence be reconciled? There is no "News Radio" option for "Lost." Not any more.

We could end up with a whole new version of "Bewitched"'s two Darrins or "Roseanne"'s two Beckys.
Or, I guess with the whole time travel angle in play now, they could write someone off and just spin into a new future without the stubborn actor.

Bill, does this still count as having to look at a "Lost" post?


* Not available online.

Revision of the Jesus book is done!

I'm going to celebrate by going to see the new VeggieTales movie with my family.

This is going to be the best Jesus book ever. Not only do I get to footnote scholarly discussions of the Gospels' similarity to ancient Graeco-Roman biography, I get to footnote stuff like this.

Hey, I'm editing my "Jesus book" manuscript, and I need your help.

Several years ago, Asbell told me that the absence of infancy narratives in the four Gospels was actually not all that unique for ancient stories. He suggested that biographical propaganda of the surrounding time/culture typically recounted a hero's birth and then -- boom -- the story jumped to his adult exploits.

He cited a source for this idea (I think), but I don't know what it was.
I have a pretty good collection of references on Jesus and the Gospels, but I'm coming up empty on any discussion of childhood/infancy narratives in the Gospels and their similarity or dissimilarity to other ancient biographies.

Anybody know of a secondary source where I might see this notion confirmed or contested?
Scratch that: Anybody HAVE a secondary source on this? I'm footnoting this discussion and need to be able to provide page numbers. If I can't find a source, I won't mention this discussion in the book at all.

Thanks ahead of time!
Thinklings readers rock!

As some of you may recall, in June I posted a Thinklings interview with author and chess historian, J.C. Hallman.

Hallman is the author of two books: The Chess Artist and The Devil is a Gentleman.

If you'd like to learn more about Hallman's writings, visit his website -- jchallman.com.

Incidentally, if you go to his site, you can see that he linked back to his Thinklings interview. Here's a piece of that interview:

Both of your published books -- The Chess Artist and The Devil Is a Gentleman -- have a religious theme to them. What's your concept of religion in the world? Did you grow up in a religious environment?

Hallman: I started out Catholic but rejected it very early. Like when I was ten. As to my conception of religion in the world, it's something I articulated more in the second book, in which I explored a variety of religious movements, taking along with me the thinking of William James as a kind of guiding spirit. What I came up with, in terms of the big picture of religion, is that consciousness, human consciousness, comes with a significant attendant cosmological curiosity. That is, when we become conscious as people, we begin to get curious about big questions: why am I here, what is the nature of the universe, and so forth. All this is another way of saying that the side effect of sentience is a god-shaped hole in our psyches. Now that's Sartre (I think), but what James might add to it is that failing to satisfy that curiosity can result in a kind of profound sadness, even the tendency to reject life. So people are hardwired to find some set of answers that satisfies that cosmological curiosity. Fills the god-shaped hole. Very often that set of answers is God, but it can just as well be science's version of creation, the Big Bang (which some string theorists describe as quaint, it's so out of date), or organized Atheism, or Christianity, or Satanism, or chess, or literature, or whatever else satisfies you in terms of your personal quandary about the basic questions and mysteries of life. This is basically what we mean when we turn religion into an adverb and note that someone pursues whatever they pursue "religiously."

Click here to read the entire interview.

As some of you know, I've been converting a message series I taught called "Old School Jesus" into a book. One of the joys in this process is transferring my typical sarcastic asides in preaching into sarcastic footnotes. Here's one I just wrote I felt like sharing:

"I am halfway convinced that Oprah Winfrey herself is responsible for the hamartological bankruptcy of Middle American culture. If you don’t know what hamartological means, it’s okay. I only halfway believe this theory, so it’s not that important."

In an earlier chapter I was being cheeky and long-winded and was footnoting definitions of some terms. In the final ranty lines, I made up a German theological term, which I footnoted: "This one I just made up."

This is a fun book to write. :-)

The Guardian has a pictorial on writers' rooms. HT: Lifehacker.

I wonder if that'll be the title of a book one day. I fear -- unless he's keeping meticulous records -- all of his correspondences will one day be lost.

Seriously.

On the other hand, it's not just him I wonder about (although he's the most likely Thinkling to reach fame through his writing), but I wonder about everyone's missives these days.

When was the last time you actually wrote a letter, sealed an envelope, and dropped it in the mail? If you're like most people I know, you don't do that. You email instead. You blog instead.

I guess it all comes down to whether or not you take the time to archive your digital files, and whether or not those digital files will be easily accessible twenty, thirty, fifty years down the road.

I'd love to peruse some of the emails Jared and I zipped back and forth to each other during our college days. But I didn't save them ...

Did you, Jared?

Mark Horne applies George Orwell's rules on writing to theology.

loose: (adj.) not firm, taut, or rigid

lose: (v.) to come to be without

---

tenants: (n.) a dweller in a place; an occupant

tenets: (n.) an opinion, doctrine, or principle held as being true

One of my unwritten resolutions this year was to become more organized, especially at work. One area where I'm completely disorganized is in keeping track of the paper notes I write. I'm notorious for grabbing the nearest loose notebook, scrabbling for a pen, scribbling down notes, and then promptly losing the notebook and usually the pen too.

I decided this year to get something bound to take notes in. I figured if it's bound and I bought it I might keep up with it. So earlier this week I was in a bookstore looking through their journals. I was going through the whole routine: Hmmm. Too girly. Stripes? Too complicated. Why'd they put the brand name on the front? Too big. Flowers? Uh uh. and so on.

Then I saw it: a Moleskine.

You know what a Moleskine is, right?

"For two centuries now Moleskine journals have been the legendary notebook of artists, writers, intellectuals and travelers."

Legendary! It says so right there on the pamphlet that comes with it.

Modo & Modo, the company that now makes them, claims that Vincent Van Gogh and Ernest Hemmingway used them. Of course, those guys may have used something Moleskine-ish, but . . . well I think Modo & Modo are embellishing, although I fell for their marketing scheme hook, line and sinker. I mean, if one of these babies was good enough for Ernest Hemmingway . . . it must be worth the fifteen bucks I paid for it, right?

I bought the "Reporter" style that flips up from the top, for extra coolness. In a meeting yesterday one of my coworkers even commented on my cool notepad. When I've filled this one up I'll probably try the regular notebook (which comes with an added feature: a ribbon bookmark. Nice.)

I'm totally geeked on my Moleskine now. I like everything about it: the elastic band holding it together, the great paper, the simplicity of it all. It rocks.

And I haven't lost it yet. Miraculous . . .

To my chagrin, I notice that the lushes over at the seedy dive down by the docks are also feeling that Moleskine Buzz.

I picked up the autobiography of one of my favorite childhood writers last week. In the foreword he has a great word about why he bothered to write the book in the firstplace. I love it.

I don't feel that my thoughts are more worthy of publication than the thoughts of others, just that there may be some interest in them because a vagary of fate has given me a certain amount of notoriety. It's as good a basis as the next.

I love that! That pretty much sums up my feeling every time I bother to post something on this blog. What a great quote. Jewel, can you add that to the "quote of the moment" que?

By the way, anyone out there ever read any Piers Anthony? What did you think?

Among the listed reasons my first novel, Otherworld, was rejected for publication were "The whole UFO/alien thing is not popular right now" and "Supernatural thrillers are out of fashion."

This was the year all those Sixth Sense ripoffs appeared in the theaters.
This was the year before War of the Worlds became Tom Cruise's highest grossing movie.
This fall the networks are unleashing a whole host of supernatural-themed programs, a few of them alien related.
Now Sony Pictures is going to adapt Whitley Streiber's novel The Grays.

I don't argue with publishers. But are supernatural thrillers and alien-related stories ever out of fashion?

The book came very close to publication with a new imprint specializing in speculative fiction. "Speculative fiction" -- that's code for sci-fi, fantasy, and supernatural. The editor in charge really wanted to publish my book and was campaigning for it hard with the editorial board (ie. the ones who bankroll the operation). The board ultimately turned it down because "women are the ones who read Christian fiction and women don't like science fiction."

I was thinking a) if you read the book, you'd see it's not really science fiction, and b) if you want women readers, why are you launching a speculative fiction line in the first place?

Someday I'll get it. But today I don't.

The only thing I would add to her excellent post is to mention the awesome book by Francine Rivers, Redeeming Love, as an example of just how gritty and real and deep CBA fiction can get. For anyone who thinks Christian fiction readers are afraid of such fiction, make note that Redeeming Love hasn't left the bestseller list since 1997 when Multnomah first published the book. This story is about a girl sold to a pedophile who is later forced into prostitution. Even after finding a man who loves her, she returns more than once to a brothel.

Anyone who says that Christian fiction is about perfect characters and that flaws are only alluded to and not explored in depth hasn't been reading much of the fiction being released in the CBA market today. Edgy, gritty Christian fiction about complex characters who are flawed and entirely human abound. I write novels about imperfect Christians because that's the only kind of people I know. And the Christian novels I read are filled with flawed characters who reveal their deepest, darkest thoughts and emotions. I would run out of room if I tried to list all of the CBA authors who are writing such books.

So writes Christian author Robin Lee Hatcher in this post on her blog Write Thinking.

Now I admit that my knowledge of Christian fiction is pretty thin. It ranges from the mid-20th century masterpieces of C.S. Lewis to Hannah Hurnard's allegorical devotiona Hinds Feet in High Places to the very fine (my opinion) fiction of Frank Peretti. It ends at what I could plow through of Left Behind (that is, before I ran screaming).

Robin continues:

I wrote 30 books for the general ABA market. I was free to use curse words (I did to some extent), name intimate body parts (I avoided for the most part), write sex scenes (I did), etc. But I was not free to write about my Christian faith except in very general, euphemistic terms. As my faith and my relationship with Jesus deepened, so did the need to write more openly about what mattered most to me. Which is what drew me to write for the CBA ? the freedom I was offered by the CBA publishers to write about adultery, family secrets, alcoholism, rebellion against God, etc. To tell stories about realistic characters struggling with real-life issues.

So when I hear griping that a writer can't use curse words in CBA-targeted fiction, I want to tell them first that restrictions and requirements are everywhere in publishing. They're just different, depending upon the market they are writing for.

Robin also gives her take on the "conversion" scenes in many Christian novels here on the Charis Connection.

She seems like a very nice and intelligent woman, and she has had a number of books published in both the ABA and CBA arenas. We've discussed the state of Christian fiction in this space many times. Does she have a point? Is there hope? Are things not as bad as we thought?

What do you think?

The latest book update at Mysterium Tremendum includes an opportunity for those interested in helping a young novelist refine his masterpiece. ;-)

But if it did, it would tell you that there is some new stuff at Shizuka Blog and that there is another novel update at Mysterium Tremendum.

But since this post doesn't exist, you didn't see anything . . . . . .

For those interested in the book progress and what-not, I've just posted an update-type thingy at Mysterium Tremendum.

That is all. ;-)

Ok, I read the comments on the "What Are Your Thinklings Reading Habits?" post and noticed a familiar cry for other thinklings to post and a request for poetry. The poetry request may have been a joke, but alas... here's a poem I wrote for kicks. It's nothing serious or deep... it probably belongs in a comment thread rather than a post, but alas, here 'tis:

it's day, then night comes,
and all day long one song i hums.
i heard it on FM something or other,
and was interupted by my loving mother.
"it's time to go" so off i went,
with a buck ninety-two just waiting to be spent.
the story fades from that point on,
so i'll jump in time, even way past prom.
a college man, i'm labeled by most,
where a gourmet meal consists of toast.
i watch tv to pass the time,
why couldn't i major in sitting, eating, or mime?
now i have a job and get paid a check,
new car? new home? aw what the heck.
the world's my oyster, or so i'm told,
what happens when this oyster gets old?
or perhaps this guy's allergic to shellfish.

I probably should've included a picture of a monkey, eh?

Update:

Actually, this is the first rejection of my current novel project, which is a feat in of itself, as it isn't even completed yet.

I didn't mention this publicly before (because I didn't want to make a big deal out of a mere possibility), but a couple of weeks ago a senior editor for a major non-CBA publishing house contacted me via e-mail based on my writing on the weblog(s). He said he has been given the go-ahead to pursue fiction projects for the imprint he heads that might appeal to Christian readers, and he wanted to know if I had any book-length projects that might fit the bill.

Surprised, highly hopeful, and scared witless, I sent him the promotional material for my first novel and the first few chapters of my current one (making sure several times to remind him that those pages are unrevised and the project itself is incomplete).
He let me know up front he probably wasn't interested in my completed novel, because it is supernatural fiction, and they just don't publish that genre. That wasn't a surprise to me, really, and I now feel like I've squeezed the last molecule of juice out of that turnip. It came this close to being one of four books used to launch a new Christian imprint specializing in speculative fiction, even making the single-digit list of finalists considered. But once that publisher rejected it, I now just sort of throw it out there at curious publishers like a pathetic Little League dad bragging about his marginally talented son.

But he did sound interested in my current project. Alas, it was not to be. Here's the message I just received from him:

Hi Jared,
I enjoyed your sample chapters ? you are a gifted writer and your passion for the craft really comes across on the page. And I agree that BLACK DOG MAN would be served best by a non-Christian publisher, especially one that grows and supports literary writers. Unfortunately, as I only acquire commercial fiction, and mostly for women at that, I?m afraid I won?t be able to pursue this. That?s not to say that your writing would not be accessible to a commercial fiction audience, but it doesn?t fit nicely into the categories that define commercial fiction. I?m sorry; I wish I was in a position to help more. But thanks for letting me see your work. I have a feeling you?ll find a publisher sooner rather than later.

A few things:

First, even though I've suffered nothing but rejections so far, I have been encouraged by the personal nature of the rejections I've received. With the exception of one editor, every person who has passed on my manuscripts has nevertheless gone out of their way to affirm my talent and say they really liked the book(s). A few have said variations of "I'd love to publish this, but it doesn't fit our needs right now." This obviously makes rejection easier to take.
I suppose also, in this case, that getting rejected with encouragement by a big-league publisher -- one whose editor made the effort of contacting me -- beats not even getting a hearing from one. (And the one editor who rejected me coldly was actually a guy who contacted me unsolicited, was from a "vanity press," and wanted me to pay him to publish my book. When I declined this guy actually started insulting me!)

It does sort of suck getting a project rejected before it's completed. That happened once before on my first project, and I immediately regretted submitting it before it was done. I'm already having that feeling about this correspondence. Maybe if I'd said, "Well, I've got something I think you'll like, but I'll send it to you when it's done," he'd be in a different place when I finally submitted it. Or maybe not.

I am both encouraged and concerned by his affirmation that a mainstream publisher would be the best fit for the book (even though it is about a missionary). I suspected as much, because I am not confident that a CBA publisher would be that enthusiastic about a story populated with assassins, Yanomamo warriors, prostitutes, drug runners, and a gay CIA agent. There is no explicit content, and the narrative is consciously Christian, but I could see an editor with an eye toward the blue-haired ladies frequenting the Christian bookstore fiction shelves balking at it.

So his confirmation of that suspicion is a good affirmation of my instincts. Moreover, his citing its "literary quality" is a great encouragement to me, as well. All along, I have tried to write a page-turning, genre-type story that is told with the substance of a literary novel. According to him, at least, I have succeeded in that respect.
But here's my dilemma: if it's too edgy for the CBA and too literary for the mainstream, how in the world will I get it published? Therein lies my concern.

Oh well. I'm disappointed in this rejection, because getting published by this company would have been something to put at the top of the Christmas letter.
;-) Heck, I would have embossed it on the envelope!
But I take some comfort in how he let me down, especially in his affirmation of my writing itself.

So I labor on. I'm one chapter away from finishing Part 2 of the novel (which actually approaches the 550-page mark). Two more parts to write, but Part 3 will be relatively short and fairly easy to write. After that it's all downhill, and Part 4 will be fun, I think.
I just hope I haven't spent three years on an unmarketable book.

"Writing now was like dropping stones in some deep, bottomless pool. They drop; they sink -- there is no answer." -- Alexander Solzhenitsyn, One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich

By contrast, blogging is like paddling a raquetball at a wall. The answer is almost instantaneous.
Of course, sometimes the ball comes back and smacks you in the face. But even then there's at least the gratification of response!

It's hard for affirmation-seeking writers (like me) to trade the near-instant gratification of blogging for the solitary work of "real" writing. I can only hope that the pool does indeed have a bottom and that the stones sinking slowly down awaken some beast of fulfillment that is sleeping in the darkness and murk of the ocean floor.