Sons of God

Title: Sons of God

Series: Sons of God #1

Author: Rebecca Ellen Kurtz

Genre: Supernatural Suspense

Excerpt from the prologue of Sons of God:

668 B.C. – Nineveh

“Tagas just executed your father.”

Raechev swiveled her head to look behind her shoulder at her half-brother Caleb before gazing down over her bathwater—the imported lotus petals completely covered her.

“I’m modest.” She signaled for him to walk around the enormous amber coated bath. “And don’t call him my father. Baalim allowed himself to be worshipped as a god. He deserved to die.” She derisively motioned dismissing the two slave girls.

Caleb waited for them to leave. “You call Ishtar your mother, I don’t see the difference—on both counts. Both are evil. Both deserve to die.” Crossing his arms over his chest, he glowered, towering his 6’4” frame over her. His dark chestnut hair belied his Nephelim ancestry, but his brightly jeweled eyes, the color of sapphires, gave him away. Caleb’s bloodline was one generation, or one human away, from aging. His deceased father had been a sixth generation Nephelim with two mortals in his ancestry.

Their mother, Ishtar, the self-proclaimed goddess of Nineveh, had executed Caleb’s father primarily for adorning sackcloth and bending his knee to Elohim in repentance from Jonah’s prophesying. Caleb, who had committed the same act, had fled the city, fearful for his life.

Raechev stiffened at Caleb’s words. “I will not kill my mother.”

An earth-bound female Nephilim seeks redemption before the executioner of her race can kill her.

The Craft: There are few things I find more disappointing a book or movie than a great premise unfulfilled. For a story to have such potential, such promise and then fizzle in the implementation—it is like being served an gourmet appetizer followed a main meal from a second-rate fast food restaurant. Unfortunately, this is the meal served up by Sons of God, a disappointment made all the greater when it would have taken so little to vastly improve the quality.

For Sons of God does have an intriguing premise of millennia-old Nephilim wandering the earth coupled with extensive research. The characters themselves were complex while the plot had some interesting twists. In short, all the elements of a great story exist.

But a fascinating premise, a few plot twists, and solid characters doesn’t equate with telling a great story any more than high quality ingredients guarantees a gourmet meal. It helps, but how you combine the ingredients is just as important.

If this was the only flaw in the novel—this failure to weave a compelling story together—then perhaps the captured imagination would still make a taste worth the while. However, a multitude of mechanical errors and other flaws in basic story-telling technique strains the reader’s patience even further.

There are punctuation, spelling and grammatical problems all over the place, and even a couple formatting issues (e.g. an extra text that split a paragraph mid-sentence, which left me confused for several minutes.) Redundancies abound, and the point-of-view switches so frequently (sometimes every 2-3 paragraphs) that I felt in danger of mental whiplash. And while the research is fascinating, it sometimes felt overbearing, dragging down the story and giving the appearance that the story was merely written to showcase Ms. Kurtz’s findings.

So while I believe there is a good story in Sons of God, it was lost and buried beneath a multitude of problems, many of which are the inexcusable mistakes of poor editing.

The Content: After my criticism of the craft, there’s nothing more I would like to do than praise the content as this edifying material worth getting to past the craft problems. Instead I find I must recommend a cautious approach.

There are some excellent themes of God’s love, mercy, and justice as well as a clear portrait of unseen evil and how to deal with it. However, the climax felt off-cadence and there is an underlying darkness that leaves me uneasy. I cannot fully pinpoint the cause, unfortunately. Perhaps in Ms. Kurtz’s zeal to show us evil for what it is she has taken us too far?

To compound the problem, there are several occurrences of swearing—only one of which was marginally justifiable—and some sexually provocative scenes which felt out of place and provided more information than necessary.

Summary: While I believe the author’s heart and intentions were in the right place, Sons of God falls short in many arenas, both in craft and content. Therefore, I must advise most readers to by-pass this book, as it is not well-written and the content requires much spiritual maturity (I’d recommend adolescent or above) and a deep understanding of Scripture.

Rating: Craft—0.0, Content—1.0, Overall—1.5 out of 5 stars

The Rants of a Home Business Owner

(Note: If you’re a visitor from NICHE, welcome to Imagination Investigation! On this blog you’ll find a vast amount of information on discernment in fictional media [click on folder marked “fictional guidelines”] and the rants and musings from the perspective of a novelist. If you’re interested in the books I’ll be representing, you can find the lists here and here. Additional info on the individual books is available under archived “book reviews” or at Words of Whimsy bookstore.)

“Do you work tomorrow?”

A simple question. A seemingly innocuous question. Yet the moment someone utters those words to me, I cringe to my core.

Why? Because I am a home business owner, and in those four simple words is contained a volume of misconception about the life I lead.

And I am not alone in this. My father runs a business out of his home. So does my brother-in-law. My current employer of my part-time work also has a home-based business, as did the woman I worked before that. And we have all run into the same problems on how “regular workers”—those who hold a 9-5 job outside the home—perceive us, as if working from home makes us so different from them.

Here are five of the biggest misconceptions I’ve run into as a home-business owner:

Misconception #1—My work isn’t a “real” job.

This is why the opening question bothers me so much. Embedded in it is the idea that somehow the person who doesn’t get up and go to a place of business each day really doesn’t work or his work isn’t as important as your work. Therefore, it’s my responsibility to pick up any slack in the world, whether in family, church, or other social circles. This misconception especially applies to those of us who don’t have a regular paycheck to show for our work.

But in truth, I have to get up every day and “go to work” just like anyone else. I have to sit down and write, whether I feel like it or not. I have to spend hours staring at a computer screen. I have to do business, whether or not I get paid now, because if I fail to do the work now, I will definitely not be paid, now or later.

Misconception #2—I am always open for business.

We want to accommodate our customers. Really, we do. But just because my office is a few steps away, must I meet all your demands, even on weekends and holidays? And although I love my work, is it too much to ask that you allow me to have a life beyond work?

Please, extend the courtesy you yourselves would want, and don’t ask us to give up what little free time we do have just to accommodate your requests.

Misconception #3—Working from home means I have more time than everyone else.

While home businesses can provide more flexibility (though that’s not true even for all home businesses), we work hard. Forty hours a week? Most of us dream of the day when we’re earning enough profit to do that. Instead, fifty or more hours are our normal. And that doesn’t count the time spent when we’re officially not working—like brainstorming a new task while doing house work.

So just because I’m home, it doesn’t mean I have endless time to donate to babysitting, chatting on the phone, or helping with church functions. Rather, the opposite is often true: I have less time, because I must put in extra hours (usually not billable) just to make ends meet.

Misconception #4—Since I am my own boss, I can do what I want when I want.

This is true…to a point. However, because I want to earn money, I am subject to deadlines not my own. I have to be available for customers—especially during business hours (and not just the business hours in my part of the world)—and their deadlines become my deadlines.

On the flip side, I also have family and a life beyond work. So just because I can work 70-80 hours a week doesn’t mean I want to. So customers, don’t think you can endlessly change projects or leave everything to the last minute as if I have nothing better to do.

Misconception #5—My flexibility has no consequences.

Home business owners love their flexibility. It’s one of the main reasons many of us started home businesses. But to gain that flexibility, we give up much in return.

Every time we flex our time for interruptions or non-business activities, flow is lost. This results in lost time and lost pay because we don’t get paid for settling back down into a project.

We also spend hours on work for which we don’t get paid. At a “normal” job, you work eight hours and you’re paid for eight hours, no matter the tasks assigned. However, as a home business, we may work eight hours for which we will be paid, but then we have to spend time billing clients, doing promotion, packaging goods, and answering questions—all tasks for which we receive no direct compensation. This is why we often have to spend more hours for the same amount of pay as a go-to-job worker.

But most of all, we have no paid leave, sick days, or vacation. If we don’t do the work, we don’t get paid. End of story. So yes, we can go golfing this morning—but that means I’ll work late tonight or over the weekend. And we ask ourselves—is such an interruption really worth it?

So as you can see, home businesses do have many advantages. But at the core, we are still a business. Please treat us like the professionals that we are.

Now it's time for me to get back to work!

Breaking the Rules

Since I started this blog in the spring of 2007, I have been slowly working my way through how to build guidelines for fiction to prevent yourself from going in directions you shouldn’t and don’t want to go, to protect your heart and mind in a world of landmines. (Check out the archives on the sidebar.)

But none of us live in a cocoon. We all move in a world where we interact with other people, some of whom are very different from ourselves. As a result, sometimes we need to break our own rules, stepping into territory where we would not otherwise go.

Breaking the rules, however, carries a set of problems and dangers all its own. Therefore, during the next few weeks, we will look at when and how to cross those lines.

Tuck

Title: Tuck

Series: King Raven Trilogy #3

Author: Stephen R. Lawhead

Genre: Adult Legend

Excerpt from the prologue of Tuck:

King William stood scratching the back of his hand and watched as another bag of gold was emptied into the ironclad chest: one hundred solid gold byzants that, added to fifty pounds in silver and another fifty in letters of promise to be paid upon collection of his tribute from Normandie, brought the total to five hundred marks. “More money than God,” muttered William under his breath. “What do they do with it all?”

“Sire?” asked one of the clerks of the justiciar’s office, glancing up from the wax tablet on which he kept a running tally.

“Nothing,” grumbled the king. Parting with money always made him itch, and this time there was no relief. In vain, he scratched the other hand. “Are we finished here?”

Having counted the money, the clerks began locking and sealing the strongbox. The king shook his head at the sight of all that gold and silver disappearing from sight. These blasted monks will bleed me dry, he thought. A kingdom was a voracious beast that devoured money and was never, ever satisfied. It took money for soldiers, money for horses and weapons, money for fortresses, money for supplies to feed the troops, and as now, even more money to wipe away the sins of war. The gold and silver in the chest was for the abbey at Wintan Cestre to pay the monks so that his father would not have to spend eternity in purgatory or, worse, frying in hell.

Betrayed by an English king, a Welsh archer fights to regain his throne.

The Craft: Mr. Lawhead is a master storyteller and a master wordsmith. He has gained a reputation as one of the best Christian speculative fiction writers, and that reputation is well-earned. His craft is impeccable, both on the macro and micro levels, from word usage through overarching story. And truthfully, I as an unpublished novelist have presumed long enough to analyze that craft for flaws with my first two reviews. What are some minor head hops in light of so much else done in excellence?

Descriptions are detailed yet folded into the plot so they always feel like they advance the story, not bog it down.

Characters are complex, and while the heroes more than their share of flaws, they win both my admiration and support so that I’m thrilled with they win at last.

Likewise, the plotting is intricate, with twists both predictable and unexpected with even seemingly unrelated events feeding into the climax.

And the end! Here is a book that ends a series properly with everything a reader could hope for. All loose ends are tied up. Character arcs are completed. Tension is released. I as the reader finished the novel and series completely satisfied.

Yes, Tuck was an excellent finale to an excellent series.

The Content: Because of the focus on Friar Tuck, the religious aspect is strongest in this book. Please note my wording: religious aspect. The mention of religion does not equate spiritual threads or deep truths. Tuck does have the latter, but it comes through the filter of beliefs in that period (as it ought to). So discernment must be applied. But beyond the surface lie themes like the need to seek peace and giving mercy in the midst of justice.

Other content issues include some language, violence (most of battle), and a few cruder situations, mostly due to the time period being portrayed.

Summary: Tuck wraps up the King Raven Trilogy with plenty of suspense, excitement, and a deeply satisfying end. While I don’t recommend the series for those under 16, it is an exceptionally well-written novel, good for those who enjoy adventure and a must-read for Robin Hood aficionados.

Rating: Craft—5, Content—4, Overall—4.7 out of 5 stars

See my reviews for Hood and Scarlet, or buy the whole series from Words of Whimsy.

The Return of Stephen Lawhead

It’s May. It’s also CSFF tour week. What does that mean? The return of Stephen Lawhead, this time with his book, Tuck. The third book of the King Raven Trilogy, this is the final installment in Mr. Lawhead’s spin-off on the Robin Hood legends.

This tour also featured book two about eighteen months ago, so I’ve already done reviews for both Hood and Scarlet. I invite you to check them out before wandering over to Mr. Lawhead’s website or catching up with some of the other bloggers (listed below). Then stop back tomorrow for my full review of Tuck.

Brandon Barr, Jim Black, Keanan Brand
Rachel Briard, Grace Bridges, Valerie Comer
Amy Cruson, CSFF Blog Tour, Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson, Jeff Draper, April Erwin
Karina Fabian, Alex Field, Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene, Ryan Heart, Timothy Hicks
Christopher Hopper, Joleen Howell, Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse, Jason Joyner, Kait
Carol Keen, Krystine Kercher, Dawn King
Terri Main, Margaret, Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller, Caleb Newell, Eve Nielsen
Nissa, John W. Otte, John Ottinger
Epic Rat, Steve Rice, Crista Richey
Hanna Sandvig, James Somers, Robert Treskillard
Rachel Starr Thomson, Steve Trower, Speculative Faith
Fred Warren, Phyllis Wheeler, and Jill Williamson

By Darkness Hid

Title: By Darkness Hid
Series: Blood of Kings #1

Author: Jill Williamson

Genre: YA (14-18) / Adult epic fantasy

Excerpt from Chapter 1 of By Darkness Hid:

Achan stumbled through the darkness toward the barn. The morning cold sent shivers through his threadbare orange tunic. He clutched a wooden milking pail at his side and held a flickering torch in front to light his way.

He wove between dark cottages in the outer bailey of the castle, mindful to keep his torch clear of the thatched roofs. Most of the residents of Sitna still slept. Only a few of the twenty-some peasants, slaves, and strays serving Lord Nathak and Prince Gidon stirred at this hour.

Sitna Manor sat on the north side of the Sideros River. A brownstone curtain wall, four levels high, enclosed the stronghold. A second wall sectioned off the outer bailey from the inner bailey, temple, and keep. Achan wasn’t allowed to enter the inner bailey but occasionally snuck inside when he felt compelled to leave an offering at Cetheria’s temple.

The barn loomed ahead of him in the darkness. It was one of the largest structures in Sitna Manor. It was long and narrow, with a high, thatched gable roof. Achan shifted the pail to his torch hand and tugged the heavy door open. It scraped over the frosty dirt. He darted inside and pulled it closed.
A teenaged slave discovers a gift of telepathy, threatening the secrets of many.

Craft: Okay. I admit it. I am an absolute, complete sucker for the underdog story, especially for the variation provided in By Darkness Hid. Most of my favorite books and movies fall into this style—a hero pitted against impossible odds—and my love for these stories is one of the reasons I was attracted to the speculative genre in the first place. In fact, I will endure pretty bad writing just to enjoy such a story. No such endurance, however, was needed with By Darkness Hid.

While it perhaps does not possess the top of the line writing—that spark of a great books was yet missing—By Darkness Hid is strong writing in which I can find few things to complain about. The craft was clean and stays out of the reader’s way for the most part. The protagonists are introduced in a way that you immediately connect with them, ready to root for them all the way through the next 400-some pages. They are complex, each with their own flaws and virtues and senses of humor. I did find the fickle affections a little annoying and occasionally out-of-joint with the rest of the story, but they were also understandable, especially since the two protagonists are both in the tumultuous teenage years.

I also felt some of the descriptions were over the top and long (e.g. paragraph three in excerpt), providing more information needed that was necessary at the moment, and the opening chapter could be disorienting with so many unfamiliar names and places being thrown at you. But these “flaws” could be largely a personal preference: I like small chunks of description interwoven with the text through a character’s eyes. However, those who read speculative fiction on even a semi-regular basis will not find these elements to be a problem.

Finally, I want to commend Ms. Williamson’s work on the timeline. Jumping between two points of view concurring in different locations can make it hard to track the relationship of the events. However, Ms. Williamson handles these jumps so well, that the sequence is always clear in my mind.

The Content: Like in the writing, the content is pretty typical—large scale battle of good and evil with normal levels of violence and usual parallels to God and Christianity. Nothing specific good or bad pops out at me. The telepathy is portrayed as a genetic trait, and any other magical elements hinted at carry evil connotations, unless it refers to a historical act clearly performed by God.

Summary: By Darkness Hid isn’t probably the best place for a reader new to the genre to begin. Otherwise it is fun story, worthwhile for teens and adults alike and a must-read for those who like a good underdog story.

Rating: Craft—4, Content—4, Overall—4.0 stars out of 5

Check out book two, To Darkness Fled, or order from Words of Whimsy now!

Preparations for Round Two

Although I hadn’t originally planned to, I decided to tackle vendoring a second homeschool conference. This time I am headed to NICHE (The Network of Iowa Christian Home Educators) the first weekend in June.

I know, I know. As if my life weren’t busy enough with all the different writing projects I have going. But I love to talk about books, talk about science-fiction and fantasy, and talk about how faith and fiction intersect. Oh yeah, it also lets me talk to people who are outside my head. Do you know what a treat that is for author like me?

I’m especially excited about this conference as I have an opportunity to present a workshop. I haven’t had this chance before, and I’m looking forward to talking about the power and benefits of fiction.

My table will be loaded too, with free handouts on a variety of fiction topics as well as my large selection of books (I’ve exceed 100 now). While I won’t have hard copies of every book to showcase, getting all I do have on one table is always an exercise in creativity.

The book list will look very similar to the one I posted for the last conference (see it here), but of course spring is a major time for new releases, and three months also allows for plenty of time to discover older books. So in addition to original list I plan to include some new books:

For science-fiction and fantasy:
The Cooper Kids Series by Frank Peretti
Beyond Corista (Shadowside Trilogy #3 by Robert Elmer)
Nightmare’s Edge (Echoes from the Edge #3 by Bryan Davis)
The Vanishing Sculptor (Book 1 in a new series by Donita K. Paul)
By Darkness Hid (The Blood of Kings #1 by Jill Williamson)

For Other Genres:
Exposure (Stand-alone suspense by Brandilyn Collins)
Always Watching (The Rayne Tour #1—a new suspense series for teens by Brandilyn and Amberly Collins)
A Bride in the Bargain (Stand-alone historical romance by Deeanne Gist)
To Catch a Thief Series (Mystery by Elizabeth Jill Nelson)
Nothing But Trouble (Mystery/romance by Susan May Warren)
Plus the newest Sisterchick (Gunn) and A.D. Chronicle (Thoene)

I also have a couple newer sci-fi and fantasy authors I’m investigating. However, I prefer to have personally read almost everything on my table so I can recommend books and answer questions better. As a results, any additions will depends on time and that, unfortunately, is starting to run out.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to the conference, and if any of you are around, please stop by and say hi. I’d love to chat with someone made of real flesh and blood. :o)

Desensitization Summary

Desensitization is the cancer of the heart. It’s swift and silent, able to poison emotions, logic, will, attitudes, and actions. Though starting deceptively simple, desensitization destroys and kills if left untreated.

But this disease rarely strikes all at once, but rather grows in five basic stages. Rationalization—questioning the evilness of evil—comes first, followed by finger-pointing self-justification. Stage-three complacency numbs any lingering sensitivity so that snobbery and the addiction of gluttony can take over.

Prevention is the best method of dealing with desensitization, but sometimes all the precautionary actions cannot stop its growth. In that case the radical steps of re-sensitization are necessary: acknowledgement of a problem, withdrawal, accountability, and in-depth, daily Bible study.

Then, and only then, can re-introduction occur, with proper guardrails in place. Of course, once the cancer has been detected, regular check-ups will be necessary to keep an eye out for a reoccurrence.

So yes, desensitization is dangerous, more so than many people realize. But it doesn’t need to be deadly. Examine your heart and take the next steps toward health today.

Beyond Corista

Title: Beyond Corista

Series: The Shadowside Trilogy #3

Author: Robert Elmer

Genre: Tween (10-14) Sci-fi/Allegory

Excerpt from Chapter 1 of Beyond Corista:

“What’s going on?” Just after the impact, fifteen-year-old Oriannon Hightower of Nyssa pulled herself hand over hand out of the back room of the shuttle, making her way forward to where her friend Margus Leek had been thrown to the floor in the control room Eye-watering black smoke made her choke on her words and gasp for breath before a burst of chilling aragonite gas snuffed the fire out.

“Did we hit a mine?” she asked.

Their spacecraft shuddered and tipped to the side. Gravity stabilizers must have taken a hit.

“You mean, you don’t know?” came a low, mocking voice from the back of the control room. Huddled in the corner, a defiant Sola Minnik waved her arms for balance as an even larger explosion ripped through the underbelly of the craft and the overhead light flickered out. The darkness made no difference to a blind woman, however.

An elder’s daughter warns of a danger no one believes exists.

The Craft: Beyond Corista has many of the same characteristics of the previous two books, Trion Rising and The Owling: A fast-paced adventure with characters that can make you laugh and cry, written in clean, straightforward prose. All in all, I have only on complaint: the ending.

On one hand, there’s nothing wrong with the final chapter, and if this was a middle book, I wouldn’t have minded the end. But when the book is marked as the last one of a series, the ending must work overtime, tying together plots, wrapping up loose ends, and giving a sense of completeness.

Instead, I turned the last page fully expecting to see another chapter, only to find none. And that is all that would be needed—one chapter to satisfy some lingering questions about Oriannon and her friends and to resolve things to the understanding that this set of adventures were over. As it is, the climax happens and the book stops, leaving the reader no time to decompress from the story’s tensions.

I guess I only hope there will be a follow-up series, although there seem to be no current indications of such.

The Content: Unlike the end, the content of Beyond Corista does not disappoint. It has some wonderful themes, like doing what’s right even though no one else believes you, and it alludes to Paul’s journeys in an entertaining way without the allegory becoming heavy-handed.

There is some violence, but much of it occurs off the page and the few descriptions are kept simple.

Summary: Though the end is somewhat disappointing and unsatisfying, Beyond Corista still has much that’s commendable, making it clean enough for all ages to read and worthwhile for child and adult alike.

Rating: Craft—3, Content—4, Overall—3.8 out of 5 stars

See the reviews for Trion Rising and The Owling, or purchase the whole trilogy from Words of Whimsy.

The Secrets of Characters

Dealing with characters is much like dealing with real people.

Some characters are very open, unwinding their whole story in more detail than necessary after only a few questions. Other characters stumble through their tales in starts and stops and stutters, sometimes from shyness, sometimes from difficulty of expressing themselves or other similar problems.

Then there are the secret-keepers.

These characters have a story to tell, but for some reason are reluctant to share it, even to an author. (Or is it especially to an author?) And they often will employ every evasive technique in the book, even outright lying.

What hinders them isn’t so different than real people. Their experiences were difficult. They fear what might happen to themselves or others. And sometimes, I think, they like being cloaked in mystery and just want to tease the author.

But the thing about secret-keepers is that, though their stories are the hardest to obtain, they are often the ones most your while.

Re-sensitization Step 5

Re-sensitization can take awhile, and on some occasions, the problem of desensitization will never be completely fixed, forming a personal limitation. But how can you tell?

That’s where this fifth step of re-sensitization comes in: reintroduction of problem areas. The only way you can know is by testing the waters. But don’t plunge in head first! Rather, try out the problem areas in small increments. For example, if violence is a problem area, start with a two and a half hour movie with a couple fight scenes—not a weekly program with a dozen shootouts.

Then follow up with regular check-ups. How do you react? Do old habits and attitudes resurface? Does your relationship with God or others suffer?

Also keep extra guardrails in place. Have a trusted friend to keep tabs on you, especially after an encounter with a problem area. Ask someone who has read or seen the story about what you should expect. Check out reviews, like those on Movie Guide. Then you will be able to make informed choices if that is a place you should go yet.

And finally, don’t be afraid to return a book, turn off a show, or walk out of a theater. A little embarrassment and a few wasted dollars are a small price to pay compared to the damage of desensitization.