Category: On writing

Where are you God?: Themes from The Stranger

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I am delighted to welcome Joy Margetts to my blog today, with a guest piece that looks at the themes of her latest book: The Stranger. Joy is a fantastic writer: do check out all of her books. She wrote about the themes in her first book, The Healing, and her journey to getting it published on my website back in 2021 so it is wonderful to welcome her here again.

I wonder if you have ever asked: Where are you God? If we are honest, we have all been in that place of not sensing God’s presence. Perhaps that has been combined with the other big question, ‘Why God?’

Life is not always easy. Bad things happen – loss, grief, trauma, pain and sickness are all real. Sometimes when we are in the middle of the worst experiences of our lives, when we really need to feel God’s closeness, to hear his comforting voice, to know his peace, suddenly he seems incredibly far away.

A lonely journey

The Stranger tackles those themes. At the beginning of the story we meet Brother Silas, a man broken by life’s circumstances. The great service for God that he had poured everything into lies in ashes at his feet. Once a man full of faith, now he feels God’s absence and questions everything. He runs – from his home, his vocation, his faith and from God. The journey Silas takes is a lonely one, but there are glimmers of hope along the way, as he meets people that he finds connection with, as he experiences miraculous happenings, and as he reunites with an old acquaintance. As his physical journey comes to an end, as one of my reviewers put it, Silas rediscovers that the faith he thought he had lost, he had never really lost at all.

Drawing on personal experience for The Stranger

As in all of my fiction, in writing The Stranger, I was writing from my own experience. There was a season in my own life where everything suddenly changed. A sudden illness became a chronic condition and it robbed me of many things: a ministry role that I was flourishing in, a job that I loved, the joy of travel and discovering new things, being the wife and parent I wanted to be. I couldn’t understand why God had allowed it, especially as it came at a time in my life when I was contented and looking forward to the future with excitement. I begged him for healing, believing wholeheartedly that he would answer me. My loved ones prayed with faith, too, but nothing changed. I started to question everything, and soon hopelessness and despair took over. God seemed a million miles away – if he were there at all.

I had been a follower of Jesus all of my life. I had seen God do miraculous things, change people’s lives radically. I had experienced sweet times of feeling his tangible closeness, heard his voice speak clearly and yet in the time when I needed him most, I could not find him. The temptation to run, from everything I had ever believed in, was real.

Finding hope again

I was able to write The Stranger recently, some years later, because actually it is a story of hope. I think there are many reasons why we can struggle to hear God or feel his closeness. Fear, doubt, disappointment, anger, sin – these things can all create a barrier between us and our Father. Has he really left us when we needed him most? I don’t believe so. He promises in his Word, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’ (Hebrews 13:5, NKJV). My testimony is that of course he had not abandoned me. I could not trust my feelings, or my understanding during that traumatic time. I had to choose to believe his promises.

Like Brother Silas, God brought people into my life to demonstrate that he was real, and that he cared about me. He spoke through his Word, and eventually I began to hear the sweet whisper of his voice again, as I repented for building a case against him. In hindsight, I can look back at so many times when God was obviously there. 

My healing still hasn’t come fully. I still have some of the same struggles, but my God is faithful. He loves me, and he will work all things together for my good (Romans 8:28). I don’t have to understand what that looks like, I just have to trust him, and enjoy being loved by him.

In The Stranger I portray human brokenness, but I also write with understanding about a God who never leaves his beloved children. Even when they try to run, he will pursue them, gently and persistently, until they finally find themselves fully back in his embrace.

Joy Margetts loves writing and loves the Word of God. A retired nurse, mother and grandmother, she also has a lifelong interest in history. Her works of Christian historical fiction are inspired by her own faith journey, and set among the beautiful Welsh landscapes of her adoptive homeland.

Her books are available on her website , The Stranger can also be bought direct from the publisher  and all are widely available elsewhere online and through good bookshops.

Wheel of Fortune

I have the huge pleasure of welcoming Claire Dunn to my blog today, as part of a tour for the first book, Wheel of Fortune, in her new series: The Tarnished Crown. I asked her about how the series came about, and what writing the first title was like.

Why did you choose to set your new series in 15th-century England?

It was inevitable. It stems from a life-long fascination for the Wars of the Roses – the 15th-century conflict that dominated English political life for over 30 years, and was driven by powerful personalities whose names resonate down the centuries. Men such as Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (the ‘Kingmaker’), George, Duke of Clarence (he of the butt of Malmsey), and Richard III – remembered, unjustly, for all the wrong reasons. Women, too, make it into public consciousness: Elizabeth Woodville – queen to Edward IV – and Margaret of Anjou, Henry VI’s wife. Historical figures are often rendered into bare, memorable essentials – kingmaker, fickle brother, wicked uncle, she-wolf, temptress – stripped of the nuances that make them real people. And it is the real people  and what motivates them that I find interesting. It is too easy to reduce historical figures to their component parts rather than see them as multi-faceted, yet we relate to people, not attributes, not labels.

What did the characters come to mean to you?

One of the reasons I like writing series is the chance to get to know the characters – both real and imagined – really well. When we first meet Isobel Fenton in Wheel of Fortune she is a young girl with limited experience of life. By the end of the book she has encountered people and events that alter her expectations and the way she views herself and the world. She hasn’t changed, but her relationship with the world has. 

Sometimes my own relationship to my characters changes over the course of writing a book. In Wheel of Fortune, I gave the Earl specific – rather unlikable –  traits; but as I grew to know him my attitude towards him shifted. The man became more complex, with his own values, interests, hopes, anxiety and doubts. He became real and, instead of disliking him, I came to understand why he acted the way he did. 

The Earl is a character of my imagination, but the challenge for a historical novelist is to integrate the real with the imagined in as seamless a way as possible so that a character’s situation and experiences represent the reality for many of those living through a period of turmoil like the Wars of the Roses. Good or bad, for all their faults, people were trying to live out their lives as best they could in a time of hardship and uncertainty. Are we not trying to do just the same now? Faced with similar circumstances, how would we react and what decisions would we make?

How did you go about researching such an enormous topic?

Research is something I relish. Not only is it vital to ensure the accuracy of what I write as far as is humanly possible, it can also suggest new plot lines. Research is like travelling down a long corridor lined with many doors behind which lie endless  possibilities waiting to be discovered. Finding the key to those doors is another matter. Research can be a hard slog through primary sources both physical – visiting castles or museums to understand the built environment, for example – and the written and pictorial – manuscripts and paintings, indentures and parliamentary records. Much research, though, is checking on who did what, when and where – not easy in some instances when the historical record contradicts itself. Gaps in knowledge have to be filled, which sometimes feels like a leap of faith.

Could you give us an insight into how you approach your writing?

Writing is a roller-coaster experience with many ups and down along the way. I ‘write’ one way or another every day, whether it is researching, editing or tackling the next chapter. Some days I will manage only a few hundred words, but on others, several thousand.

Writing can be a slog or the biggest high you can imagine, but most of all it requires what the writer Elizabeth George describes as ‘bum glue’ – the ability to sit down and work at the book project, day by day, until it is completed. That is no small task in a busy life where writing is only one aspect of being an author. A writer nowadays also needs to be media savvy, understand marketing, negotiate contracts, attend events…the list goes on. Is it worth it? You bet it is when you hold your new book baby for the first time and it gazes back at you. And then you open the crisp new pages and meet once again all the friends you have made over the preceding months and remember why you are an author in the first place.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book: I share a short review over in the Woman Alive book club Facebook group, which you can access here.

Claire Dunn (C.F. Dunn) is an award-winning English novelist of historical fiction, mystery and suspense. Born in Lincolnshire, Claire spent her childhood moving from place to place with her Forces family, an experience which she believes helped fuel her imagination. It is as a child that she discovered a fascination for the past that led to an abiding interest in the Wars of the Roses and a lifetime of research.

Following a degree in Medieval History she founded and ran a school for neurodivergent children and young people – students whom she describes as inspirational. Embarking on her writing career, she returned to her historical roots with Mortal Fire – the gold medal-winning first book in The Secret of the Journal series (read Claire’s reflections on writing that series here). Claire is currently working on a major new historical series called The Tarnished Crown set during the turbulent period of 15th-century England known as the Wars of the Roses.

She now lives and writes by the sea in Dorset with her family, assorted animals and overworked  coffee machine. 

Book 1 in The Tarnished Crown series – Wheel of Fortune – was launched through Resolute Books in May 2023. Book 2 – Sun Ascendant  – is due for release through Resolute Books in the autumn of 2023.

Writing as an act of worship

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I am delighted to welcome Rob Seabrook to my blog, as part of the blog tour for his book Beneath the Tamarisk Tree, which is a fictional retelling of the story of the penitent thief who met Jesus on the cross. Awaking in heaven, he is welcomed by Jesus and looks back over his story… At the start of the book Rob provides a ‘Note from the Author’, in which he says: “This book is ultimately an act of worship, to bring glory to God. It is attempting to help us understand more of who God is and what he had to endure for each of us.” Over to Rob…

Reflecting God’s creativity

I am not musical in any way, I cannot sing well and I am certainly no dancer! But I like to think I can write, and even if no one else likes my writing then at least it gives me pleasure to be creative. And creativity is a reflection of God. It is His very nature to be creative, infinitely creative. His imagination is unlimited, displayed in the endless creativity we see around us, as well as the way He has created each of us to be unique. Billions of souls, all made in His image but all unique. What depth of imagination that takes. So to me it makes sense that our imaginations are a gift from Him, which, if well directed, can be used as an act of worship to bring the glory back to Him.

The power of storytelling

This concept of my writing being an act of worship was new to me when I began the writing process. As the story developed, the characters became real to me, the images of each scene began to grow in my imagination and I began to see how the creation of a novel could be an act of worship. Especially if I kept hold of the overall mission, which was to communicate the good news of Jesus to the reader and help to bring them on in their relationship with God. After all, storytelling was a tool that Jesus often used to communicate His message, each time bringing the focus back to the Kingdom of God. For millennia, people have used storytelling to communicate important truths…stories grab our attention, spark our imaginations, engage us in the narrative and help us to associate with the message.

Writing biblical fiction

My chosen genre for my first novel was ‘biblical fiction’ – two words that Christians don’t really like to put together! I certainly felt the responsibility of creating a work that in no way presented an alternative narrative to the Bible, that did not detract from the Word or add to it (Deuteronomy 4:2 and Revelation 22:18-19 are quite clear on this). However, I read quite a lot of other biblical fiction books as a part of my research, mostly very good but a few that made me wince as I read them, and I began to see a way through it. The genre can certainly be used to expand the reader’s understanding of a Bible story and bring deeper understanding. In many cases, when it is well researched, it brings cultural context that is often not clear to us as we read the Bible text, and hence it can clarify the meaning and improve our understanding.

Asking for feedback

There was one element that I found especially hard to write, which was when Jesus needed dialogue. Who am I to put words into the mouth of Jesus? I felt the weight of responsibility to pitch this right. As much as I could I tried to keep the dialogue brief, but using sentiment and phrases that were aligned to His words as quoted in the Bible. At all times I kept in mind the character and intentions of Jesus, and how He was most likely to have approached the conversations. And then I read, re-read, edited and re-edited many times, then ensured that a number of much more qualified theologians than me read it and gave me whatever feedback necessary to fine tune it. My measure of success was that they would read it and the words would not grate, or feel out of place. They indicated that they were the sort of words they could imagine Jesus speaking. I was thankful for a great team to support the writing process.

Leading others

I would like to encourage others to use their God-given gifts to create worship. Our first thought is so often that worship is for others to lead us into, but those of us who like to write can do so with a clear purpose to bring glory to God and help to lead others into a place of worship. Short stories, novels, teaching books, poems, prayers, blogs, newspaper articles and even church newsletters – all can be written as an act of worship.

Rob Seabrook lives and works in beautiful Devon, is married to Gemma, with three grown-up children, Bruno the dog and some chickens. As foster carers, together they have gained insight into the impact of trauma on children, and have seen that rebuilding a life takes endless patience, full acceptance, love and care, and there is always room for second chances. It is this experience that part inspired the context for Beneath the Tamarisk Tree.

A keen reader, after a few years of procrastinating he finally felt challenged to have a go at writing a book for himself. Beneath the Tamarisk Tree is his first novel.

Visit Rob’s website and/or follow him at: Instagram: @rob_seabrook, Facebook: @authorrobseabrook, Twitter: @SeabrookRob

Rob is running a giveaway up to 15th February, offering five copies of the book or eBook to new subscribers.

The story behind Burrowed

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I am delighted to welcome Marissa Mortimer back to my blog as part of her tour for her new book Burrowed.

Burrowed is my latest Young Adult (YA) novel, set on the fictional island of Ximiu. I love using island settings – perhaps because it’s limited so it means I don’t have to invent entire continents!

Tackling grief in Burrowed

I had been thinking about grief and how we look at the different people who seem to live forever and how those we love get taken too soon. It’s not always like that, but it can certainly feel like it. Even Asaph, when writing Psalm 73, complains about the way bad people seem to have such smooth lives and even their death is peaceful. Until he saw into God’s sanctuary. As Christians, we comfort ourselves that our friend or relative is now with Jesus, it’s all for the best etc, but deep down we can still question, ‘Why? Why him, why now?’ Of course, this can come with a lot of guilt as well.

Losing people can make the light leave your world for a while. So while thinking of this theme and the prospect of writing a YA novel, I found the picture that is now the cover of Burrowed and it spoke to me. Life might feel grey and stormy, but there are still so many blessings around us, so many light moments and beautiful blessings, touches straight from God’s heart, and it’s easy to lose sight of this when grieving. It’s tempting to wallow in our sadness and ignore the beautiful moments or maybe even feel guilty for feeling a moment of joy. Grief is so complex, as it’s not a linear process, so some days can be filled with more bright moments than others.

The sustainability theme

Thinking about the island, I thought about sustainability and how going Green can have implications. I was imagining hidden people wanting the old resources. One way to achieve this was by making the island give up those old resources. What if the hidden people had bad intentions and weren’t satisfied with asphalt? That was an interesting research point as well. Tarmac can’t be reused; asphalt can. I grew up in the Netherlands where we use asphalt, so I have always seen road surfaces being recycled. My editor grew up around tarmac, so wasn’t familiar with this – when I talked about tarmac being reused, we had to look into it and change it to asphalt.

Finding the main character

I don’t normally write books in the past tense, as I’m a bit of a Pantser; I write and plot at the same time, simply allowing the creativity to flow. More recently, I have become a little more of a Plantser, which means I now like to think a little more about items I want to include, verses that come to mind or characters and what they might struggle with. Knowing I wanted a teenage wannabe detective, I decided to make her my main character. Not only that, I was going to impersonate her. A lot of her teenage attitude and ideas were edited out, but I still had a lot of fun writing from her perspective!

Enjoying the various elements in Burrowed

I loved all these different aspects, as it’s what makes writing so interesting. The different story ideas, as well as some dubious characters, made the story grow until it turned into a book. It blessed and helped me too, having to look at my character’s grief and how people supported her. I feel more encouraged to look for and enjoy moments of God’s blessing during difficult days.

Maressa Mortimer is Dutch but lives in the beautiful Cotswolds, England with her husband and four (adopted) children. Her debut novel, Sapphire Beach, was published December 2019, and her first self-published novel, Walled City, came out in 2020, followed by Viking Ferry, a novella. Beyond the Hills, the second book in the Elabi Chronicles, was released in 2021. Burrowed is her latest novel and it is available now.

Maressa is a homeschooling mum as well as a pastor’s wife, so her writing has to be done in the evening when peace and quiet descend on the house once more. She loves writing Christian fiction, as it’s a great way to explore faith in daily life. Her books can be found on her website and you can follow Maressa on both Instagram and Facebook @vicarioush.ome

Home Truths with Lady Grey

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I am thrilled to welcome Katherine Blessan to my blog, as part of her blog tour for her latest book. She explains a little as to how she crafted Home Truths with Lady Grey. First, here is a little taster as to what it is about:

When normally capable, career-minded Jennifer crumbles under a debilitating disease, she struggles with no longer being in control of her life. In the meantime, Mona, a family-oriented mother of Iranian heritage, finds out that her husband is gambling and hiding the truth from her. Can she move beyond betrayal to action?
When Mona goes to work for Jennifer as a carer, Jennifer is initially defensive, but the two soon discover that despite their differences they have so much to learn from one another. Will Mona discover how to balance the conflicting loyalties of family and self? Will Jennifer learn to let others in? And most importantly, will they both survive?

How the idea of Home Truths with Lady Grey came about 

I was walking home from work one day, and the idea of two very different women came into my mind. One of them was physically fit, independent and a little racist (Jennifer). The other was going to be a foil to the first character – from a BAME heritage (which I pinned down eventually as Iranian), and a much warmer, personable character (Mona). The story developed around these two women with all the conflicts and themes emerging over time. 

What the writing process was like

It was a long process that began in 2015 and ended last year. I didn’t write constantly throughout that time. Other writing projects took my focus, for example screenplays and two long ghostwriting projects.

I alternated writing the story between Jennifer’s and Mona’s point of view. Mona was written from the third person limited. Later, I found out that this was the ‘right’ thing to do as Mona is Iranian, thus I couldn’t be accused of what’s known as cultural appropriation. Jennifer’s voice was deliberately written in the first person. I wanted readers to understand her and empathise with her as she goes on this journey from prickly independence into vulnerability. But I knew that she might be more difficult for readers to warm to than Mona. However, the more I wrote from her perspective, the more I enjoyed her and actually found her easier to ‘spend time with’ than the more likable Mona!

My first draft was very much Mona and Jennifer’s two separate stories. They didn’t really meet until the end of the novel. My most astute beta readers [people who read through a first draft and give feedback] told me that this wasn’t working. I had to figure out a way to weave the two stories together more effectively. I did that by inserting little vignettes of Mona and Jennifer’s time together throughout the novel in a way that linked to the themes of each chapter.

The reader’s experience

Because reading a novel is a such a personal experience, every reader will take away slightly different things. But I do hope that readers will take away something of the frailty of the human condition, and be reminded of the importance of gratitude, friendship and openness. As a Christian, I also hope that the readers will take away something of the power of God to break addiction, which can be seen through Mona’s husband James’ story.

Katherine lives in Sheffield and is married to Blessan, from Kerala, India. As well as writing stories that touch on social issues and explore the space where cultures cross, Katherine is a social entrepreneur and English tutor.

Previously, she lived and worked in Cambodia, a rich experience she draws on in her writing. She set a previous novel, Lydia’s Song, in Cambodia – it was a category finalist in the Indie Book Awards, 2016.

Home Truths with Lady Grey is available from 20 April, but can be pre-ordered on Katherine’s website.

Behind the sparkle of Isabella M Smugge

I am delighted to welcome Ruth Leigh to my blog, to celebrate the publication of her second novel: The Trials of Isabella M Smugge. I was hooked within a few seconds when reading the first in the series, and this second one hasn’t disappointed. It is funny, heartwarming, honest, and doesn’t shy away from the difficulties life can throw at us. Here, Ruth lifts the lid on what life is like for her as a fiction writer and mum.

When I first invented my ludicrously successful ‘Instamum’ star, Isabella M Smugge, she was simply a comic device, a woman who couldn’t have been more different to me. I reside in a draughty semi-detached Victorian house, heated by an ancient Rayburn. This means lots of cobwebs and grime, although there are charming original features (windows that let in the wind, nice red tiles in the dining room, smoke-blackened fireplace). Isabella dwells in a Grade II listed Georgian house, clean and sparkling as you like (because someone else is paid to do it), heated via oil I would imagine and with more reception rooms than you can shake a stick at. 

My garden is very on-trend. I thought you might like to know that. It’s rewilded. So now! (As in it’s full of weeds, the hedge needs trimming, the bushes need cutting back and there are plants growing where no plant should be.) Isabella’s acreage is a delightful panorama of velvety green lawn, charming flowerbeds and a Victorian greenhouse full of produce. Oh, and she likes to have her coffee in the reclaimed Edwardian gazebo by the pond. 

The reality of this writer’s life

Even though I know perfectly well that success is 10 per cent inspiration and 90 per cent perspiration, before I was one, I thought that fiction writers were a different breed, ethereal, other-worldly, inhabiting a more gracious, beautiful universe.

If you are a fiction writer and this is your reality, do let me know. Feel free to share your secrets. Because I could really do with knowing. Let me open a little window into the insanity that is the Leigh household first thing in the morning. 

Unusually yesterday morning, all three children were in residence and required driving to various places of education. My normal routine is to fall out of bed, wander about a bit drinking tea and making packed lunches then drive the 13- and 15-year-old to school. Yesterday, the 18-year-old, slightly fragile after a night in the public house with a friend was part of the matrix. 

It was School Sponsored Walk Day. Standing in front of the mirror in the downstairs loo applying make-up ahead of Lovely Jason’s visit (it was book launch day and he shot a short video), I was joined by said children. One was dressed as a frog, complete with hat, the other was brandishing a large rubber horse’s head. As I tried to put on eyeliner in a straight line, my daughter stood behind my right shoulder, gurning at me in the mirror and flicking her tongue in and out while making frog noises (I suspect mimicking catching a fly) while my son nibbled at my elbow with the horse teeth. 

This would never happen to Isabella M Smugge.

“Can I just mention that your mother, the author, has a big day today,” I quavered, rubbing concealer on to my huge eye bags. “My new book is launched! It’s in the shops and everything.”

Neither of them seemed that bothered. “Well done you!” my son said kindly, patting me on the shoulder from a great height (he’s 6 foot 1”). Scrambling into the car to do the double run (high school in Woodbridge followed by college in Ipswich), we bounced off down the flooded lane, muddy water running off the fields and optimistic white clouds scudding across the rain-washed blue sky. I began to wonder what I would write about for the second half of this blog. Five minutes later, it had written itself.

Hands-on parenting

For years and years, no car journey was complete without at least one mild row or wrangle. Today, hearing their voices rise and fall in good-natured abuse, I smiled to myself. Once upon a time, the exhausted mother of three little children, I yearned to have peace and quiet, to be able to go to the loo alone, to drink a cup of tea that was somewhere between boiling and tepid. 

Now I can, but it’s the end of one season and the beginning of the next. They can still dish it out though.

Son #2: “Who were you talking to outside last night? I could hear you going on and on in my room! Do you know what time it was? [Impression of growly voice].”

Son #1: “I was talking to Evie! She wanted to know I’d got back all right. And what about you? All I could hear the other night was [second impression of growly voice].”

Son #2: “I was talking to Shay! We were saying goodnight! And anyway, what about Katie, FaceTiming her friends?”

Son #1 and Son#2: “Ooh, hello, how are you, giggle giggle, make-up, Netflix [impression of teenage girls].

Daughter: “Shut up! I haven’t talked to them at night for AGES! And I don’t talk like that.”

Son #1: “Ooh ooh!”

Me: “That sounds like that bit in Feelgood Inc by Gorillaz.”

Son #1: “So it does! Ooh ooh!”

Me: “Ooh ooh!”

And so it went on, everyone smiling and a general air of bonhomie in the car.

I dropped off the frog and the horse and continued to Ipswich. Thanks kids. The chaos, the rowing, the lost hoodie, the last-minute packed lunch – all grist to the mill. My heroine is new to the crazy world of actually parenting your children yourself, but she’s learning fast. 

My house is messy and dusty, my garden is wild. But heck, authenticity is what it’s all about and here’s my truth. Behind the sparkle lies inspiration, exhaustion, innovation and a bit more exhaustion. 

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Ruth Leigh is a novelist and freelance writer based in beautiful rural Suffolk where she lives with three children,one husband, a kitten and assorted poultry. She is a book reviewer for Reading Between the Lines and loves nothing more than losing herself in a good book. You can find out more about her and the world of Isabella M Smugge at ruthleighwrites

Summer news

I wanted to share my summer news as I realise that I have been pretty quiet – both in terms of newsletters and here on my website. That wasn’t an intentional decision, but a necessary result of some things we are walking through right now. This summer I have taken extra time out with my kids alongside helping out at a magazine whose editor is ill. But here are some things that have come out recently (although I worked on them a while ago) that I’d like to flag up to you (and so I’ve included the information here and in my newsletter, which you can sign up to receive here):

Return of regular column

I used to write every other week for Christian Today but haven’t done so for a number of years. Recently, they invited me back, so I started with once a month over the summer. In July I encouraged us all to go gently as we begin to meet together again, and for August wrote about taking time to lament.

A piece on waiting

I was so pleased to be able to write about this subject, as it has been one on my heart for a while. It featured in August’s issue of Premier Christianity, but can be accessed here.

Writing for Preach magazine

I was thrilled when my first pitch to this magazine was accepted, and I now have an article in the current issue, which is on grief and lament. Unfortunately I can’t share a link to it, but the whole magazine is available to purchase either in print or online here.

Building a world

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I am delighted to welcome Maressa Mortimer to my blog as part of her blog tour for her latest book Beyond the Hills, the second in her fictional series the Elabi Chronicles, which is publishing on 18 June. Here she explains the journey of building the world and its characters.

When you’re new to writing, everything is exciting. I started with a diary-style story based on a game. It was so much fun, I decided to write a book. It needed a lot of work, but as it was November, I learned about a new thing, NaNoWriMo. While my NaNo-project (Sapphire Beach) was being edited, I looked around and learned about ‘World Building’. Listening to a podcast, I dutifully took all the steps, thinking about food, terrain, culture and language. I decided to use Latin words, and turn them into names. That is how the city-state of Elabi was born. 

HOW THE IDEAS FORMED

When I was writing the first book in the series, Walled City, I was intrigued by one of the minor characters, a very unpleasant girl named Macia. She had a tragic backstory, and I kept wondering about her. Would she ever be influenced by the others? Walled City almost done, it was at an Association of Christian Writers Day that I crafted a scene for the next story set in Elabi. That happened through a writing exercise based on Colossians 1. Someone was trying to escape Elabi! I didn’t know who or why, only that the person was petrified, trying to buoy themselves up with that passage. Would it work? And whereabouts were they trying to run away from? 

November arrived again, and I knew I would be writing Macia’s story and it would be about the power of the Word of God, as there was nobody to speak to her about God. So I took a deep breath, typed Chapter 1, and remembered how, in Walled City, tiny portions of the Forbidden Book had been in circulation. Would it be enough to touch Macia? 

LOOKING AHEAD

I loved writing Beyond the Hills. It’s different from Walled City; a little slower, I suppose. Macia’s family was…interesting. I learned about paddleboarding, and now I want to try it, although I’m not anywhere near as fit and athletic as Macia. I love learning through my characters, and I’m looking forward to writing book three, which will deal with the area called Downstream. I’m plotting characters and writing notes already, but it will probably be my next NaNoWriMo project. 

My main aim in writing is to explore faith and Christian living, and it’s been wonderful to use World Building for this, as it allows you a lot more freedom to do so, I feel. Although Elabi, with its rules against beliefs and emotion, wouldn’t be my preferred holiday destination, the place has blessed me in many ways, and I hope others will enjoy these books.

Maressa Mortimer is Dutch but lives in the beautiful Cotswolds, England with her husband and four (adopted) children. Her debut novel, Sapphire Beach, was published December 2019, and her first self-published novel, Walled City, came out on 5 December 2020, followed by Viking Ferry, a novella. Beyond the Hills is the second book in the Elabi Chronicles, and will be released on 18 June 2021.

Maressa is a homeschooling mum as well as a pastor’s wife, so her writing has to be done in the evening when peace and quiet descend on the house once more. She loves writing Christian fiction, as it’s a great way to explore faith in daily life. Her books can be found on her website and you can follow Maressa on both Instagram and Facebook @vicarioush.ome

The Faith of Poppy Denby (and her creator)

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I have been an avid reader (and lover) of Fiona Veitch Smith’s Poppy Denby Investigates novels, so am thrilled to be a part of her blog tour as she celebrates the release of her fifth book, The Art Fiasco. Here she tells us more about the faith journey of her main character, Poppy, as well as her own.

When Poppy Denby (22) arrives in London in 1920 to start work on a newspaper, it is the first time she has moved away from her evangelical community. And she’s in for a bit of a shock. She goes to live with her suffragette aunt, a former doyenne of the West End stage, and gets introduced to an eclectic mix of socialites and socialists. 

Aunt Dot believes in God and drops into the occasional church service, but is not an evangelical Christian. She, like her brother Poppy’s father, was brought up Anglican. Poppy’s father became a Methodist when he met his wife, an earnest evangelical, running a soup kitchen. He becomes a Methodist minister. However, it’s her mother’s strict fundamentalism that has the most influence on Poppy. She spends most of The Jazz Files worrying about what her mother will think of her new lifestyle choices: drinking alcohol, wearing make-up and going to jazz clubs with the totally irreligious Delilah Marconi.

For most of the first two books Poppy is being weaned away from strict evangelical culture. Some people would describe it differently: ‘backsliding’. However, that’s not what I intended to convey. What I hope to show in Poppy’s spiritual journey is that she comes to meet other people of faith who do not have the same views as her mother, and that she learns to separate belief from approved behaviour. She meets people whose faith is expressed through social justice and human kindness, some of whom, like the mentally abused Elizabeth Dorchester, doggedly hang on to God by their fingertips, rather than through puritan standards of morality.

However, Poppy’s faith remains an important part of her life. But all is not peaceful in her heart as she lost her brother in the war. ‘Why did God let him die?’ and ‘why does God allow suffering when he has the power to stop it?’ are questions that claw at her soul. The crisis comes to a head in The Death Beat, where, by the end, she finds some sense of contentment, even though all threads have not been neatly tied up. This is what many of my readers (Christian and non-Christian) say is something they can identify with: Poppy does not have all the answers, and shares many of their doubts.

In The Cairo Brief, she again has a meltdown when she attends a séance. The dire spiritual fears of her youth resurface as she is terrified of opening herself up to the occult and demonic influences. However, she soon discovers the whole thing is a hoax, exploiting the emotions of the bereaved for financial gain. Nonetheless, she is still desperately worried that a photograph of her at the séance might find its way to her mother.

The Poppy Denby Investigates series so far.

Book five, The Art Fiasco, is set two years later. In between the usual murder and mystery, Poppy finally goes home to face her mother. But Poppy has grown as a woman – and as a Christian – since the guilt-ridden days of The Jazz Files. She now firmly rejects her mother’s view that a Christian woman should not work for pay. She believes that what she does as a journalist and amateur detective is just as much ‘God’s work’ as teaching Sunday School and working in soup kitchens. She believes that bringing killers to justice and helping bereaved families discover the truth is worthy work. She no longer cares (as much) what her mother thinks about her lifestyle (which by most standards is still fairly modest). However, she also grows in respect for her mother who, despite her strict views, is portrayed as a woman of compassion, helping young women who have become pregnant out of wedlock. She is respected by the mining community with which she works, despite, in their words, being a ‘bit of a Bible basher’. In turn, Poppy’s mother learns to respect her daughter and her choices – although she’ll never get over her wearing make-up.

What of Poppy’s journey is reflected in my own? 

I went to a C of E primary school in the 1970s and occasionally attended church with my mother, who believed in God but was not overtly religious. I went to my first (and last) Sunday school class on my fourth birthday. When the teacher announced it was one of the other children’s birthday, I stuck my hand up to say it was mine too. In front of the whole class she said, ‘You shouldn’t lie, Fiona, God doesn’t like liars.’ I never went back. 

When I was ten my dad got a job on the mines in South Africa. Soon after we moved there, we were befriended by a deacon in the local Methodist church who asked if he could take my brother and I to church with him. My parents thought this was a good idea. What they didn’t know was that he was a paedophile. I was his victim for over a year – the first incident taking place in the car park of the church while Sunday school went on inside. We moved to another town when I was eleven; my parents never knew about the abuse.

It was when I was eleven that I came to know God myself. The Gideons handed out Bibles at my school; I took mine home, read it and now believe that God spoke to me personally that day. Despite my bad experiences with church people, I came to have a faith of my own. To cut a long story short, for the next 20 years I was involved in a series of fundamentalist and evangelical churches, communities and para-church organisations, some of whom (along with a number of good things) had very strict behavioural codes and cut-and-dried theology about who was ‘in’ and who was ‘out’. It was only in my early 30s that I started to realise that I didn’t have to believe all that to be a follower of Jesus. 

Now, aged 50, I no longer consider myself an evangelical, although I am content being a member of a progressive evangelical Baptist church. The writing of the Poppy Denby books over the last six years has reflected some of that journey. Poppy’s mother is representative of the type of Christianity that I have been weaning myself from. And now, like Poppy, I’m far more content in my faith: God has never let me go; and is more important to me than ever. 

Fiona Veitch Smith is the author of the Poppy Denby Investigates novels, Golden Age-style murder mysteries set in the 1920s (Lion Fiction). The first book, The Jazz Files, was shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger, while subsequent books have been shortlisted for the Foreword Review Mystery Novel of the Year and the People’s Book Prize. The latest book, The Art Fiasco, is out now. See www.poppydenby.com for more information on the series.

If you are interested in reading more from Fiona on my site, you can take a look at previous guest blog posts from her here and here and read an interview I did with her after The Jazz Files was published.

Comedy and tragedy

I am delighted to welcome Fran Hill to my blog today. She has just released her second book, Miss, What Does Incomprehensible Mean?, a memoir filled with comedy – but also tragedy. Here she explores the relationship between the two…

The actor Peter Ustinov said: ‘Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious.’ He won Grammys, Tonys, Baftas, Emmys and Golden Globes, so I’ll take his word for it. 

Despite what he says, we’re still tempted to create false dichotomies. For instance, we categorise comic and serious fiction in separate generic boxes, confidently labelling novels ‘rom-coms’ or ‘domestic noir’, or perhaps that’s for the convenience of booksellers.  

But Ustinov is right, surely. Comedy is rarely just ‘funny’, free from underlying, serious themes. Think Bridget Jones, Adrian Mole or the fool in a Shakespearean play. Whether commenting on loneliness, teenage angst or the foolishness and vice of monarchs and nobles, each uses comedy, making us laugh while simultaneously plugging in to universal issues of humanity.

The Bible isn’t afraid to mix funny and serious either. How about Balaam’s donkey having better angel-vision than Balaam did and then backchatting his sulky master? Then there’s Jonah, trapped inside a giant fish (vowing never to eat spare ribs again). And Jesus’ own parables were filled with ironic humour and implication, sometimes lost on his listeners. 

However, my favourite Bible story (Acts 20) is of Eutychus. A young man, he falls out of a third-floor window from the windowsill on which he’s perched, having nodded off during a long sermon of the apostle Paul’s. 

Imagine the scene: everyone listening to Paul, the respected man of God. Their faces are serious, intent on learning from the great man. Suddenly, Eutychus disappears, there is a thud and everyone waits for a scream. They rush downstairs to find him dead on the path outside the house. 

Paul could have said: ‘He found my sermon boring. Someone else resurrect him!’ but instead he graciously throws himself on the boy who is instantly revived. 

This is a funny story but it speaks compassionately of average people, trying to do the right thing, and not always managing to keep up or cope: normal folks, not able to meet society’s expectations. That’s all of us at some point. Just like Eutychus, we can’t maintain interest or momentum. Sometimes it’s just too much because we’re tired of life: its worries, griefs, addictions, illnesses or pains. In the same way as Eutychus struggled to keep his eyes open, we too struggle to stay focused, despite it all. 

The story also speaks of a world in which dead things can be brought back to life. Paul makes it look easy, in fact. After he resurrects the youth, he trudges back upstairs to finish his sermon. Eutychus doesn’t get taken home until afterwards, so, where did he sit for Part 2, I wonder? Also, we’re told ‘they took the young man home alive’ as if this was a bonus event, rather than what they’d have expected! Or maybe it suggests that he’d made a habit of this and had been resurrected 17 times before. ‘Honestly, Eutychus!! Again?’ 

I wrote a little poem in his honour: 

I’m comforted by Eutychus
to find that he is one of us.
Asleep, he falls without a push
when Paul the preacher will not shush.
This poem’s an ode to him because,
though dead and gone, that Eutychus
gets resurrected with no fuss.
I think that makes him Euty-plus. 

Erma Bombeck, the American humorist, said: ‘There is a thin line that separates laughter from pain, comedy and tragedy, humour and hurt.’ And, of course, there’s a tenuous distinction between laughter and tears; they both make us feel better, releasing tension-relieving hormones.

Two Radio 4 comedies I’ve enjoyed have been set in depressing situations. One called ‘Rigor Mortis’ is set in a hospital’s pathology department and another – ‘Old Harry’s Game’ – in hell. Somehow the more sombre the setting, the sharper the comedy. And as Dr Adam Kay’s recent book, This is Going to Hurt demonstrates, many whose professions involve tragedy speak of black humour as a vital coping mechanism even amidst horror. 

Teaching can’t be compared to pathology or emergency gynaecology – relief! – but my new book, Miss, What Does Incomprehensible Mean? also combines comedy and tragedy. It’s a funny memoir in diary format about a typical year in my teaching life and portrays comic classroom moments and the hapless attempts of the protagonist (me!) to keep control of her days as they slip out of her grasp. But it also explores the misbehaviours of both pupils and teachers, including my own, examining why people misbehave, are cruel to others or lack empathy. Sometimes this is linked to past trauma that affects our relationships, perhaps making it hard for us to accept the kindness of others, even though that kindness is vital to survival.  

To go back to Ustinov, Miss, What Does Incomprehensible Mean? is my attempt to say something serious by being funny. 

Hopefully, no one will fall out of a window at any of my readings. 

Fran Hill is a writer and English tutor living in Warwickshire with her husband. She has three grown-up children and two grandchildren. Her first book Being Miss was self-published in 2014. Miss, What Does Incomprehensible Mean? is her second. Fran has been a freelance writer for over 20 years, contributing to a wide range of publications, both faith-based and secular. Read more at www.franhill.co.uk