May « 2011 « Christa Allan, author of not your usual Christian fiction

May 31, 2011

Caution: Life Under Construction

Filed under: Faith,Issues — Christa Allan @ 11:08 pm

June is

NATIONAL REBUILD YOUR LIFE MONTH.

When Ken and I built our house, we started with the foundation. No, actually we started with a plan so we’d know where and how to pour the concrete for the foundation.

Then the carpenters framed, and the roofers roofed, and then there were walls…and months later, we moved in to our home. We made a few changes to the original plan along the way and, even after moving in, realized there were other adjustments needed.

Now, ten years later, it’s just the two of us plus the three cats. We’d build a different house today, perhaps even in a different area. Circumstances have changed, our priorities have shifted, and we’re more confident about what we want…in living and in life.

So…all this to say that I see rebuilding my life much the same. Doing so isn’t attesting to failure or weakness; in fact, it reflects an acceptance of and a willingness to change. It’s re-evaluating and making decisions based on plans for the next ten years, not the last ten. It’s tearing down what no longer works to make room for what does.

What five things would you do to rebuild your life? (I’m sharing mine next week.)

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May 26, 2011

You can be it…but just don’t say it.

Filed under: Education,Faith,Issues — Christa Allan @ 2:15 pm

What do God and homosexuality have in common?
Teachers in Tennessee can’t talk about either one of them in public school classrooms.

On Friday, the Tennessee Senate passed a bill that prevents teachers from discussing homosexuality with elementary and middle school students. Instruction will be “limited exclusively to age-appropriate natural human reproduction science.” The New York Daily News quotes Republican Stacey Campfield, the bill’s sponsor, as saying, “homosexuals don’t naturally reproduce” and has argued families should decide when its appropriate to talk with their children about homosexuality.

The state curriculum already in place makes no mention of homosexuality according to the Tennessee State Board of Education who argues that fact makes the bill unnecessary.

Now labeled the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, SB 49 still has to go before the House where it’s still in committee and some will try to keep in there until 2012.

I hope it dies there.

“Age appropriate natural human reproduction science.” Seriously? So is a discussion of in vitro fertilization equally taboo? And given that a definition involves more than just one’s sexual orientation, I don’t think that graphic depictions or discussions of heterosexuality are appropriate either.Good grief. If we continue to instruct students in heterosexuality, they might actually engage in it. (Read Alexandra Petri’s column about how the bill doesn’t go far enough.)

I don’t even know where to start with “age appropriate.” Quite a number of middle-aged people are suspect. But if Campfield understood age appropriate, he would also understand that 13 and 14 year old students committed suicide because of being bullied for their sexual orientation, perceived or otherwise. Maybe we should append the bill with “Let’s Pretend.” Let’s pretend we don’t have students in public schools with gay parents or siblings or relatives or friends or who are gay themselves.

Campbill also stated that one motivation for the bill was to let families handle that issue. “That” being any discussion of homosexuality. Does that mean he finds it perfectly acceptable for families to not have to handle discussion of heterosexuality? Let’s leave that one to the schools? Well, gosh darn, how’s that going to factor into all those blabberings about teacher accountability and tying salaries to test scores?

I guess if no one’s talking about homosexuality, then there won’t be any bashing, right? Unless Mr. Eugene Delgaudi, President, Public Advocate of the United States gets his way. (For the record, I’m not sure how he came to be elected to that office. ) In a recent call out, he said: “The Homosexual Lobby will not take this loss lying down. They will double-down and come back with a vengeance.” I’d suggest, though, he revisit the definition of double entendre before his next letter.

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May 21, 2011

What if…

Filed under: Education — Christa Allan @ 3:43 pm

As I celebrate the end of my 2010-2011 grading marathon, I want to share a post I wrote some time ago that still thumps in my teacher heart at the close of every school year:

Some days, I want to hurl the textbooks and state-mandated curriculum through the windows that open only to the windows of another portable classroom, and announce:

Okay, let’s talk about what really matters. Let’s talk about what you’ll face in the world. How tragedy and joy are holding hands, and they’ll play Red Rover with you for the rest of your life.

I know some students are experts at the “divert the teacher from the lecture” game. And some teachers are sucked in and allow class time to be swallowed by rambling tales of the teacher’s children’s latest antics, their spouse’s occupations or lack thereof, the state of their disunion.

But that’s not what I’m advocating.

I’ve squandered so much of my own life afraid of the unknown, afraid of deciding, afraid of not deciding. I wonder, if someone had grabbed me by the collar of my uncertainty and encouraged me to risk, to ignore those who did and would steal my dreams…what would that life had been?

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May 17, 2011

MEET JULIE CAROBINI and her stories filled with faith, flip flops, and waves of grace

Filed under: Guest Post — Tags: author interview, Fade to Blue, Julie Carobini — Christa Allan @ 12:15 am

Tell us a little about yourself and your background.

Sure! I write seaside stories filled with faith, flip flops, and waves of grace. My family and I make our home on California’s central coast, and I’ve written five novels plus hundreds of published articles on everything from parenting, to team building in the workplace, to Christian surf dudes on a mission.

How did you become interested in writing?

My father wrote magazine articles on the side, including interviews with entertainers such as Fred Astaire and Fred MacMurray. Always loved that! I too became an article writer almost twenty years ago, but I always yearned to create fiction. I wrote two novels that did not sell, but as they say, third time’s a charm, and my debut novel, Chocolate Beach, released in 2007 (re-released with recipes in 2011 as an eBook). By that time, I had a renewed faith in God as well as a redefined focus on the kinds of stories he was leading me to write.

What compelled you to write a book on this subject?

Ever since the inception of the Otter Bay Novels with Sweet Waters, I’ve wanted to set a book with the famed Hearst Castle as its backdrop. So much intrigue and mystery about that real castle on the hill and its eccentric, yet astute owner. Of course, novels are more than their location. So after writing the 2^nd of these stand-alone novels, A Shore Thing, even I longed to know what happened next for the big-hearted, single mom from that story. Fade to Blue satisfies that curiosity … J

What is the main theme or point that you want readers to understand from reading your book? Are there any other themes present in the book?

Writing this story was much like holding a seashell, constantly turning it over in my hand. Though they’re often tossed into the sea with nary a glance, seashells are intricately beautiful—even when broken. The more I examined the shattered life of Suz—the heroine of Fade to Blue—the more beauty I found. Only the One who restores our souls can make that happen.

Are there some specific lessons you hope readers will learn and apply to their lives after reading your book?

I hope readers get lost in the story and the beautiful setting, that they revel in God’s creation as much as I did while writing it. I also hope they experience the Good Shepherd’s gentle leading (Psalm 23), and fall in the love with the concepts of forgiveness, sacrifice, and grace—as much as they do the breathtaking locale.

What makes your book different than any other books similar to yours that are in circulation today?

Although I’ve been compared to some amazing writers—something that humbles me—I also know that God made each one of us uniquely. I knew you even before you were conceived. Jeremiah 1:4-5. One unique aspect of my books is the focus on God’s creation of the sea and everything in it. My characters have loved dolphins, sea lions, otters—even giant, glowing sea anemones. But they take that admiration a step further by drawing closer to the God who made such beauty.

How does the book intertwine with God’s call on your life, and how you are currently serving Him?

This story reminds me not to dwell on the past, but to prayerfully, joyfully—and ‘hope’fully— move forward. Such lessons there! Suz Mitchell made mistakes in her past—so have I—yet healing brokenness and restoring souls is God’s business. Praise him for that!

When you are not writing, what do you like to do?

I love to comb the beach, to jog the sand with Charlie the Dog, and take coffee breaks with my husband—so adore that man!

Anything else you would like to add?

Just that I hope people reading this are encouraged to follow their heart’s desires with the Good Shepherd as their guide. God took all the lows and highs in my life and created something new with them.

Although I’d always wanted to write, I had no inkling that I’d be writing beach- themed novels one day. I just kept praying and writing and seeking until an idea popped into my head. I followed that idea, and now find myself talking about my fifth novel filled with ‘waves of grace.’ Be encouraged!

Where to find Julie!

Website: www.juliecarobini.com

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

CBD.com

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May 10, 2011

When students predict my future

Filed under: Education — Christa Allan @ 10:03 pm

Once upon a time, I taught a senior elective, semester Advanced Composition class. Even students who clawed their way through my Advanced Placement classes where they secretly made voodoo dolls that not-so-oddly resembled me, signed on. They’d heard from their senior friends that I was human. And they trusted them.

One of the sacred rituals of the class was opening with journaling [free writing] time in response to something I’d read to them, or a word, or ideas they’d bring to class. Somehow, one of the journal traditions that evolved was predicting where everyone would be in five years. As seniors, they were optimistic they’d be graduating from or dangerously close to graduating from college by then. So, we’d pass around journals around and share our thoughts.

Not so long ago, I unearthed my journal from the fall semester of 2004, and I found the entries from that class.

In no particular order, here are some of them:

1. I have no idea. Still teaching?

2. You will win the lottery and buy a mansion in the Hamptons, have a life filled with lavish parties, cool cars, and tons of former students at your beck call as your indentured servants (from all the years of torturing you).

3. You will be in Hawaii–tanning, soaking the sun and laughing at the poor ladies who are still teaching wild kids.

4. Dead. No, I’m just joking. {a note from me–fortunately, for them, these were all anonymous. . .} Still teaching or in the Bahamas.

5. You will discover your knack for Broadway performing and become a star! Then you will give all of us free, year-round passes to all of your Broadway shows.

6. You will be a retired teacher who becomes a nice old librarian who enjoys skydiving.

7. You will be an amazing aerobics instructor, you will have grown five WHOLE INCHES, and you will live on a golf course because you’ll be so darn wealthy.

8. End up hospitalized after being diagnosed with hemophilia opiatrasimplia {me again…more than likely, this is not in Webster’s},which means loss of blood, from grading AP papers. You will forever be feared by incoming freshmen who will build shrines to ward off bad grades.But, seeing that this will fail, they will just switch out of your class.

9. I think you could become a famous writer and leave our school behind. Then all the students who never got to have you will mourn their loss.

10. Making AP students cry, and Advanced Comp students cheer. You’ll win the lottery and write that novel you never got around to.

11. You’re going to decide that teaching annoying kids isn’t for you, and you’ll become a famous writer. After your 100th best seller, Hollywood will make a movie of one of your most touching novels, and Orlando Bloom will play the lead.

12. You’ll write a long, good book and live in Hawaii. You will donate all of your jewelry to me.

Kids really do say the darndest, sometimes rightest, things.

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May 5, 2011

Many of her closest friends are liars…meet Mona Hodgson

Filed under: Guest Post,Writing — Christa Allan @ 9:18 pm

Please welcome Mona Hodgson to my blog. Her novel Too Rich for a Bride released Tuesday. New York Times Bestselling Author Cindy Woodsmall said the book is “A beautiful tale. Intriguing. Inviting. Inspiring.”

THE TRUTH IN FICTION

by Mona Hodgson

Many of my closest friends are liars. But they might prefer the title storyteller extraordinaire. Tale-weavers. And whether the literary yarn they spin is set in an actual place or based upon real life events and historical characters, they are authors of fiction. I am too. And as novelists, we have chosen to write fiction, not fact. But even so, is the story we weave truly and completely made up?

Not the best stories. All compelling fiction resonates with readers. Why? Because the best stories are rich in truth.

Why has Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell camped on bestsellers’ lists? Why has it inspired movies and spin-offs? Why is Gone with the Wind a classic? Because the story told the truth. Even though Scarlet’s tale wasn’t necessarily formed in actual reality, the setting and characters, action and themes offer a tapestry of honesty that can make a work of fiction feel more real, at times, than life itself.

Using those four central threads of fiction, I try to create an honest story world and premise that will provide a platform for truth and deepen the realness of my fiction.

SETTING

As the backdrop for the action, the setting anchors a story in a specific time and place. How can setting add truth to fiction?

You and I are affected by the location in which we find ourselves. We react to our setting on physical, emotional, mental, and perhaps even a spiritual level. Sometimes we’re aware of our reactions. At other times they take place in our subconscious.

Where is your story set? At a plantation in Georgia?

Tell me more.

Actually, it’s Tara, a cotton plantation Scarlet’s father named after the Hill of Tara, once the capital of the High King of ancient Ireland.

When?

Through the Civil War and into the reconstruction period.

That’s more like it. The time period in which a story unfolds has everything to do with the setting. And that’s true whether it plays out in a historical time and place or whether it’s contemporary. Setting isn’t limited to a pin on a map, but also provides a cultural, social, and political context in which the characters act, interact, and react. Consider the West Coast of America in contrast to the South. Ireland in the1600s and the USA in that same time period. What about settings where women are finally able to vote? And post 9/11? These events will be considered and remembered differently, depending upon the setting and situation in which the characters experience them.

That’s something an author has to consider . . . what is the main character’s surface and gut-level reaction to the details and fullness of their setting? A clearly defined setting will impact their characters, and, consequently us as readers because we will recognize honesty in the setting.

My Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek Series is set in a mining camp in Colorado in the late 1890s. There are many truths intrinsic to that specific time and place—the culture of the Wild West mining camps. Ore fever, most definitely. Prostitutes, certainly. And hardships in varying sizes and shapes.

CHARACTERS

Scarlet O’Hara was fake only when she chose to be to serve her purposes. Otherwise, she was one of the most “real” characters we’ll find in literature. An individual through and through, Scarlet was bathed in the truth of human nature—replete with strengths and weaknesses, self-centered pursuits and dogged determination in the company of tragedy. A character’s inner conflict is what invokes honesty.

Margaret Mitchell imbued Scarlett, a multi-dimensional character, with a clearly defined goal—to win Ashley’s heart, and then to save Tara and win Rhett Butler back. We watched Scarlett’s desires unfold and change and deepen, along with the setting in which she found herself.

How does an author draw truth out of a character? We saw it with Scarlet. It’s through the fascination and friction inherent in human relationships (fictional ones included) that reveals true character. And that’s true whether those secondary characters are love interests, antagonists, sidekicks, or mentors. They provide a means for readers like you and I to see the main character’s vulnerabilities and strengths.

As I plan a story, I have to determine what it is that my main characters want? What must he or she achieve or overcome? Why? Where lies their motivation? What is at risk if he or she doesn’t meet their goal? What will happen if their objective changes?

Two Brides Too Many tells the story of Kat and Nell, two sisters who came out west from Portland, Maine as mail order brides. What drove them to make that choice?

If I “flesh out” the character and her journey and outcome, I find myself writing truth in fiction.

ACTION

The story consists of a series of actions inspired by a character’s goal and motivation, driven by his or her interactions with others, and deepened by the roadblocks they face, which may in part be inherent to the setting they find themselves in.

For instance, Two Brides Too Many is set in a mining camp on the southwestern slopes of Pikes Peak in 1896. In that time period, most of those towns were still made of wood. Those that were, went up in flames at least once and, most of them, many times before the town’s people chose to rebuild using brick and stone. Kat Sinclair encounters one of those fires in Cripple Creek, which serves as a key plot point in her journey, fueling action on her part and on the secondary characters with whom she interacts.

Basically, plotting is the action a character takes to overcome the obstacles and work through the conflict that stands in the way of him or her reaching their goal. Gone with the Wind is resplendent with such action.

THEME

I want my readers to discover truth about themselves, the world, God, and others as they relate to and interact with my characters. The theme provides the walk-away value in the story. What central truth do I want my readers to recognize in the setting, the characters, and the action and take with them when they close my book?

My job then is to develop my characters fully and allow them to struggle naturally and passionately, letting my theme emerge out of the “realness” of the characters’ situations.

Margaret Mitchell didn’t break into the story to tell us the themes of Gone with the Wind. Through setting, characters, and action, she showed us triumph over tragedy and there is strength in love. In Two Brides Too Many, I showed God making a way through the wilderness for those who placed their trust in Him. Ida, the oldest of the Sinclair sisters struggles to realize where her true priorities lie in Too Rich for a Bride.

The message or moral of a story will only ring true when the characters carry the theme with them on their journey from goal through conflict to resolution.

Where is the truth in fiction? Yes, it is in the details. But it is birthed deep within the writer. I’m trying to dig deep to create stories rich in authentic settings, characters, action, and themes. Thanks for reading!

QUESTIONS FOR YOU:

1. Think about the books you’ve read. To what book do you attribute honesty, a certain truth in the storytelling?

2. What aspect—setting, character, action, or theme do you feel contributed most to the story’s honesty? How?

MONA HODGSON is the author of Two Brides Too Many (May 2010) and Too Rich for a Bride (Available May 3, 2011), the first two books in the Sinclair Sisters of Cripple Creek Series (WaterBrook Press/Random House). Her writing credits also include 28 children’s books, Real Girls of the Bible: A Devotional, Bedtime in the Southwest, and six Zonderkidz I Can Read books. You can follow Mona at www.twitter.com and become a fan at www.facebook.com, Mona Hodgson Fan Page.

To read the first chapters of Two Brides Too Many and Too Rich for a Bride and to watch the videos, go to www.monahodgson.com. Click on Mona’s Novels, then on Sneak Peek.