CONTEST WINNER

Lisa Paskins is the winner of this month's B contest. As I announced at the beginning, this contest ended early due to the holiday weekend and because I have company coming and my sister is in the hospital. Lisa, please send me your wish list and address.

My review column on Meridian is going through some changes. Instead of appearing once a month and covering half a dozen or so novels, it will now be a single review of one book, and will appear once a week, Thursdays. For the next contest, June A, please let me know what you think of this change, pro or con. I'm open to any suggestions readers may have to make my reviews satisfy the needs of readers and writers.

My blogs may be few and far apart for the next little while. My sister who has acute leukemia will undergo a bone marrow/stem cell transplant next week here in Salt Lake and it will take awhile to know whether or not this will be successful or how ill it may make her. She lives in another state, as does most of my family, so I try to be with her and her husband as much as possible and pass on updates to the rest of our family. Consequently I'm not getting a lot of blogging or writing time. (My WIP is now at 57,302 words).

When the Wind Blows

Do you remember the old story about the man who applied for a job working for a farmer, who gave as his qualification for the job that he could sleep when the wind blew? The point was that he always prepared for the possibility of a storm by securing the stock and barn every night, therefore when a storm arose, he didn't have to jump out of bed and run around doing anything to save the animals or barn. He was prepared.

If there's one thing I've learned for sure in this life, it is that there are a lot of unexpected storms. I'm not just referring to the kind of snow storm much of the West received earlier this week. I mean the unexpected illnesses, accidents and injuries, death of a loved one, job loss, a late freeze, a car that breaks down, a demanding calling, a family member or friend who needs help, and that list doesn't even begin to list natural disasters such as flood, volcano ash, tornados, tsunamis, or hurricanes. There are lesser personal disasters, too, that run the gamut from a broken tooth, a worn out washing machine, theft, or a rejected manuscript. Any or all of these things can raise havoc in our lives.

How do we prepare for these unexpected storms? Physical preparation is the easiest, though is often neglected. There's good old food storage, but there's also making certain we have adequate insurance, a cash reserve for dealing with emergencies, and taking steps to be strong and healthy. A little forethought will carry most people safely through most storms, though not all. That is why we must be spiritually prepared as well. Tough times can drain our spiritual reserves as quickly as our physical.

When my husband and I were younger and our children were arriving, my husband became deeply concerned about keeping the gas tank of our car topped off. I've often thought of that time and compared it to my spiritual tank. I never know when there will come a demand for spiritual strength and when it does, I don't want to be caught with an empty tank. I've always considered prayer, scripture study, bearing of one's testimony, accepting callings, and choosing uplifting entertainment part of spiritual preparation. Now I'm convinced the most important step to being spiritually prepared is temple attendance.

It's no accident that temples are being built far and wide, faster than most of us can keep track of them. This world needs the spiritual strength available only within those sacred walls. During this time of physical uncertainties and spiritual trials, I urge everyone to secure your homes, prepare reserves, look after your health, establish a Plan B, and keep your spiritual tanks filled.

A Winner plus Miscellaneous Thoughts

I can't believe May is half over. A winner has been picked for the contest just ended. Congratulations, Stephanie Humphries. Please contact me.


Between the abundance of storms we've had this past month, trying to finish my WIP, and my sister's illness, I haven't been able to spend much time in my gardens, but today I noticed my little peony tree is covered with blooms and decided to share it with you.



I just finished planting all of my Mothers' Day flowers. My daughters know I love gardening, so most or all of them give me plants each year. Guess what I give them! Plants! LOL We gave each other books before I became a reviewer. Now I receive many, many books to review and when I finish with them, my daughters pick which ones they want to read. They all make their way back to me. They don't have to worry about finding shelf space, but I do, that's why I give books away every month. (It just isn't possible for me to throw books away!) I have over a hundred books I want to give away. If I could afford the postage I'd send each of you a couple of them, but since I can't, I'll keep chipping away at my stack with my twice monthly contests. The new contest starts now and all you have to do is comment on any of my posts between now and noon May 28th. I'm ending this contest early this time because of the holiday weekend and because my sister, who has acute Leukemia, is having a bone marrow transplant the day after Memorial Day and I'll have a house full of company and be spending a lot of time at the hospital.

I took time out this morning to take my five-year-old grandson to his soccer game. As those of you who have ever had a five-year-old soccer player know, little kids play the game according to their own rules and whims. A seagull landed on the field and my grandson chased it to the middle of the next playing field, his best kick sent the ball flying towards his opponents' goal, but he had a great time and feels like a winner because he got a trophy and dozens of high fives. As I looked over four fields of four, five, and six-year-olds I couldn't help contrasting those children with poor little abused Ethan who was killed a week ago here in Utah by his mother and stepfather. Children that age ask so little, just to be loved and accepted. Those little soccer players represented four or more races and who knows how many other categories by which society labels each other, but each was thrilled by shouts of encouragement and hugs from fathers, moms, grandparents, and other assorted relatives who cared enough to spend their time and money in support of them. It mattered little to the children whether they won or lost the game, what did matter was the acceptance they received for their efforts. Every child should be that kind of winner.

FACT OR FICTION

Critics or book reviewers for newspapers, magazines, and some online review sites receive a lot of books to read for consideration for reviews. Reviewing books is usually a fun job and as a reviewer for Meridian Magazine, I get to read some really great books. Unfortunately I also get to read some boring, dull books, some mediocre books, some poorly written books, and some books that make me wonder where was the author's editor? Over the years I've noticed a problem I don't often see addressed by workshops or helpful writers' blogs. So bear with me while I make some observations on the thin line between fact and fiction in novel writing.

Some facts are essential of course. Historic events must occur in a novel at the exact time they occurred in history. Minor flirting with time to suit a novel's storyline is excusable; major historic events can't be altered. I read a book once where a coast to coast railroad played a major role in the story, but it was set in 1852. I didn't finish the book. Great care must be taken in fictionalizing a famous or scriptural character's life. LDS fiction writers must be scrupulously careful when they mix a doctrinal element into their books to ensure that the concept being used is doctrinally correct by Church standards and not "the Gospel according to Me" sort of thing. However, this isn't the fiction/fact line I'm most concerned about at the moment. What I'm really referring to are the books where the author is obsessed with something in his/her own life or a story that happened to someone else but the writer decides it would make a good novel.

If I mention in a review that a key point in a novel is implausible, I often hear an indignant, "but that's the way it really happened." If that's the way it happened, why is the author billing his/her work as fiction? Fiction means the writer gets to make up the story; it's okay, even preferable to make a good story better when writing fiction. "Stranger than fiction" isn't a meaningless cliché. In real life things happen that in a novel just aren't believable. It's okay to use a real life experience as a base for a chapter or even the entire book, but the writer must separate him/herself from the story and concentrate on telling a great story rather than relaying facts or sticking zealously to the way the event played out in real life.

The quasi autobiography/novel doesn't often fly well for several reasons; the author tries too hard to stick to the actual events, the author is too emotionally involved to see the story's flaws, the story isn't as powerful to the reader as the experience was to the writer, or the story is undertaken by an inexperienced writer who mistakenly believes writing about one's self is easy and doesn't require spending time on research. This type of story doesn't often turn out well.

Writers, including me, are often asked where we get our ideas. Here again, there needs to be a careful line between fact and fiction. I've mentioned before that most writers play the "what if" game. Many novels begin with a news story. Some event such as the huge oil spill in the Gulf sets the "what if" game in motion for dozens of writers and here's where the novelist is separated from the journalist. The journalist has a responsibility to unearth facts and tell the story as close to those facts as possible. The novelist has no such restrictions. One novelist might build his plot around an eco-terrorist group who set up the explosion to discredit the petroleum industry and cause the suspension of offshore oil drilling. They feel certain no one will suspect environmentalists of jeopardizing wildlife and pristine beaches. They justify their action by reasoning that the sacrifice of one environmental setting will offset the many other such areas that will be saved. Another writer might focus on the heroic actions of a man who loses his life while expediting the rescue of others from the crumbling platform. A romance writer could place a brilliant female engineer on the crew struggling to close off the massive leak and let her fall in love with an oil company executive with whom she must work closely. A Science fiction writer could devise a plot around a mysterious substance injected by aliens into the hoses that snake across the ocean floor to carry oil to the surface. At first the disaster appears to be of an environmental nature, but as the oil reaches shore, it is discovered it carries a deadly, highly contagious disease meant to spread through birds and sea life to wipe out human life. Even comedy writers might wonder "what if" an overzealous and ditzy hairdresser decided, through fair means or foul, to collect a ton of hair to donate to the cause of making huge ink blotters to absorb the oil floating toward the Louisiana coast.

All of these "what ifs" started from the same facts, but the various fiction writers are only constrained by the need for factual accuracy concerning how the oil disperses, the damage potential of the spill, and natural, biological, and scientific laws. Some may need to take a look at US and international law concerning oil production. The fiction writers can move the oil spill to another location, change the principal people and companies involved, make the spill larger or smaller, or do any number of things to the story until the reader forgets they all started with a real event. A life is a real event, but like most vacation photos, few people want to sit through a detailed, chronological, mustn't leave anything out, replay of someone else's amazing trip. A novel that feels suspiciously like watching someone else's two hundred vacation slides isn't good fiction.

Good fiction writers need to learn how to balance fact and fiction while leaving straight factual reporting to journalists and biographers. The best novelists place their emphasis on telling a good story, whether it happened that way or not.

Writing Update

I promised to keep you posted on my WIP (work in progress). It's currently at 43,852 words and is moving along quite well. I've written most of the first half, the last chapter, and several bits to tuck into chapters I haven't written yet. I get asked quite frequently whether I outline and I guess the answer is yes and no. I usually outline a chapter or two at a time and I start out with a major focus part of the story. Sometimes I write a lead in for something that is going to happen later, then jump to the later part and write it and set it aside for when I get there. I know, that sounds confusing, but it works for me. I have written a couple of books that I outlined completely before beginning, a few I outlined then threw out my outline a few chapters into the book, and some where I've done no outlining at all. Sometimes I begin at the beginning and tell the story straight through; other times I jump around.

The book I'm working on now is a murder mystery. The historical I submitted late last summer has hit a few snags. My publisher feels it would be better to split it into two books, so that means I have two partial historical books to work on and unless I can write a lot faster than I think I can, it's not likely either will be out this year. After some discussion, my editor and I have agreed that I should finish the mystery and get it out of the way before delving back into the history.

BRITT you asked whether I outlined. Send me your wish list of LDS books and I'll send you your prize.

Announcement Time

The winner of the last contest never claimed her prize so I drew two winners today. They are Rebecca Talley and M. Gray. Please contact me at bhansen22 at msn dot com to claim your prize. Please give me a list of five or more LDS novels on your wish list (preferrably ones I have reviewed on Meridian in the past few years) and I will send one of the books to you. Occasionally every book on a winner's list have already been claimed; in that case I'll ask for a second list. Please include your mailing address and something in your subject line that will identify you as a winner or refer to my blog.

The May A contest begins tomorrow. Same rules, same prizes.

There was a time when I wrote a weekly editorial for the newspaper that employed me. Sometimes it became difficult to find a topic to write on. I was always grateful for the Town Council because their meetings always gave me fresh subject matter. I've been blogging now for almost two years and again I've reached that "what can I write?" point. I'd rather not review books in my blog on a regular basis because so many bloggers do that and I review LDS fiction for Meridian Magazine. There are also enough bloggers interviewing other writers. So I'm turning to readers. In the comment section suggest topics you'd like me to discuss. All reasonable suggestions will be worth an entry in the contest for the first half of May and if I use your suggestion, you'll be a guaranteed winner. This (or these) winners will be in addition to the winner of the drawing.

WRITERS OF WORTH

As I looked over the list of Whitney Winners I was pleased to see so many really well written books on the list of winners. There are a few disappointments too, but I won't go into that. For those who don't know, Whitney Awards are presented to LDS authors, supposedly for their outstanding contributions to LDS fiction, but actually to any LDS author who garners enough votes for a particular piece of fiction published in the previous year whether it espouses LDS standards or not. Ironically, only one award this year went to a novel with any reference to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, though all of the winning authors are LDS and the majority are books compatible with LDS standards. The one work that actually mentions the Church is In The Company of Angels by David Farland (Wolverton), the story of the handcart company that became stranded on the Wyoming plains. Though not his usual genre, Wolverton certainly deserves recognition for this remarkable book.

There are a number of definitions of what constitutes an LDS novel and the Whitney Academy takes the broadest view, merely requiring that the author be LDS. Other definitions are more narrow, requiring some positive reference to the LDS culture, faith, or values, the use of clean language, and being neither excessively violent nor sexually explicit. My personal definition leans toward the latter, but doesn't exclude any novel that promotes ideals in keeping with the moral values set by the tenets of my faith. I'm always conscious, too, of that well known phrase "virtuous, lovely, or of good report." I'm not sure if some of what passes for LDS fiction today could pass this last test.

Orson Scott Card was recently honored by the Washington DC Chapter of the BYU Management Society. He spoke of the important role of storytelling in maintaining the core values of our country and our culture. He spoke of how the failure of a society results from the failure to tell stories based on the values of that society. As cultural stories deviate from core values, those values are replaced by lesser, negative, or destructive values. Several comments he made during his speech impressed me a great deal as he spoke about what he knows best, writing fiction. He said, "I've watched an increasing number of fiction writers turn away from the old values and use their fiction to advocate the inefficient or destructive replacement of values." He went on to advise that individuals "tell a better story, stand up for values, even if they invite ridicule from the intellectual elite." This is advice it would be well for LDS writers to take to heart. If we don't create literature that exemplifies our standards, we will be among those who invite rot and corruption into our culture from the inside. And just as our faith isn't for Sunday only, our adherence to Church standards in our writing shouldn't be for only those books we write for LDS audiences.

I'm certainly not advocating trite conversion stories, sugary sweet simplifications, fiction that is thinly veiled preaching, or more magic/miracle solution stories, but I wonder if we're trying hard enough to write stories within the framework of our beliefs. Perhaps it's enough to point out our memberships or involvement in various fields of endeavor such as politics, law enforcement, science, education, etc. We can show the effects of good parenting. We can unabashedly send our characters to church. We can create characters of sound moral fiber. And we can avoid glamorizing negative, immoral behavior. Of course, our characters will make mistakes, but we can show their realization and repentance of those wrongs. We don't need to whitewash our villains, but we don't need to wallow in their evil; our emphasis should be on the efforts to prevent or stop evil.

I have a lot of faith in LDS writers. We are blessed to have some superb writers at this time with testimonies of the Gospel. Whether we write for members of our own faith or for the general market reader, it is my belief that we should stand firm for those core beliefs we know to be true. I teach six-year-olds in Primary and there's one thing, above all else, I strive to instill in these children and that is that choosing the right, God's right, supersedes all else. If we remember that, we can write the powerful stories that will ensure the continuance of faith and hope among our people.

A few blogs worth reading

I spent a few minutes looking over a few of the blogs linked to mine today and found several to reccommend. First read Jeff Savage's blog on Six LDS Writers and a Frog. He has some helpful and easy to understand definitions of terms used casually in writers' circles, but found to be confusing to newcomers. By the way, I'm comfortable with both "dialog tag" and "speaker attribution", even attribution tag is okay with me.

Next check out LDSPublisher. I find the use of "different than" instead of "different from" a particularly annoying example of poor grammar in an increasing number of books I receive to review. It has become so common, many copy editors consider the terms interchangeable, but to me it's wrong and stops the story cold. One new publishing house irritates me with almost every book with this sloppy copy editing error.

Anyone interested in childrens' or young adult literature should check out Shermeree's Musings. The author is a childrens librarian for the Salt Lake City Library System and keeps readers appraised of new books, old favorites, new trends and awards given to outstanding books in youth areas.

Many LDS authors are making last minute plans and arrangements to attend the LDStorymakers conference and awards banquet this Friday and Saturday. This is an organization for LDS writers and writer wannabees. There will be classes taught, opportunities to meet with editors, and a lot of net working taking place. Unfortunately I won't be there this year. I have another committment for that day, but I'll be following closely the results of the awards presentation and sending good thoughts and doing a bit of background cheering for the presenters and finalists involved.

Please continue to send questions, make comments, or just share your Whitney thoughts. Each will count toward the present contest.

OFF WITH THE OLD---ON WITH THE NEW, CONTEST THAT IS

Winner of the April-A contest is jendoll70! She gets two books, one from the kick-off for this contest and one from her wish list. jendoll, please send me your mailing address and a list of at least five books on your wish list and let me know which of the Whitney finalist books listed you would like. Contact me at bhansen22 at msn dot com .

Now for the new contest. Every time I do a book signing or speak to a group, I receive a lot of questions about myself, about writing, about my books, or about the LDS book market in general. I've decided to open my blog for the next couple of weeks, until April 30, to questions from readers. Any question asked, I'll try to answer. And each question or comment will give the submitter another chance to win a book from his/her wish list. So on with the questions beginning now. You get one chance if you're a follower and another chance(s) if you comment or ask a question.

Contest ends tomorrow!

Last chance to get your name in the hat for this contest. Ends at noon tomorrow.