Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Sundry Items
Happy Wednesday, all. Today I have various updates and pieces of information for you.
Blog comments: I’ve set this blog up so that every comment is automatically emailed to me. This way I can keep up with your feedback without always checking the blog, which I don’t have time to do. It’s also helpful because when you leave comments to an old post—no matter how old—I’ll know about it. Some of you have wondered about this. You can rest easy that I do see any comment you leave.
Monday’s post—Sue Brower’s interview, part two: There was some interesting discussion in the comments. Some of you had points to add about the so-called ETPs—easy to place books. Some of these comments were added a day later. You might want to go back and check to see what you missed.
Feedback on anything I’ve gotten wrong: Forensics and Faith is here to inform, not misinform. So please, any time anyone sees some fact here that I’ve gotten wrong, or if you know a point on any subject that I’ve missed, please do leave a comment or email me. I’m really grateful whenever someone take the time to do this. And I’ll be sure to correct my mistake as soon as possible.
Coral Moon Influencer’s List: My assistant has heard from quite a few of you but tells me we still have room on the list, so don’t hesitate to email her if you’re interested.
Update on GG: He’s still on the porch. In the cane chair. Same clothes. Every once in awhile he changes position. Yesterday was most disturbing. In the front yard I saw a soccer ball, a goal net, and a silver scooter lying in the grass. I’ve never seen evidence of kids at that house before. Are these playthings GG’s? Is he planning to try out for a national soccer team? Is he two-wheeling around the neighborhood at night on some nefarious business? The plot thickens…
“Dark fiction” follow-up to Sue B’s interview: In Monday comment's Mark Bertrand wondered if I could find out how Sue defines dark fiction. Frankly, I wondered about her definition, too. It’s such a difficult term to define—and a dozen people are likely to have a dozen different explanations. I wrote Sue and received her answer. We will cover this topic tomorrow. Meanwhile, in preparation for what should be a lively discussion: Tell me--what is your definition for dark fiction? Do you read it? Why or why not?
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9 comments:
Dark fiction in the secular realm is too expansive to define. In the world of Christian writing, I think a lot of SFF could fit into it as well as some of the spiritual warfare books. Some of your novels, BC, because of the murders/murderers. I guess for me the "dark" implicates exposure of the more evil views of situations and/or characters in a story.
Thanks for following up on my question, Brandilyn! I'm looking forward to tomorrow's post. For a definition of "dark," I have to do some reverse engineering. I set out to write a book that would ring true with the vision of life in Ecclesiastes, and have been told more than once that this is "too dark." (Which I take as validation.) So I'd say that "dark" is what Manichees call Augustinian fiction. I realize that's self-serving, but you did ask for our definitions. :)
B. said, "In the front yard I saw a soccer ball, a goal net, and a silver scooter lying in the grass. I’ve never seen evidence of kids at that house before. Are these playthings GG’s? Is he planning to try out for a national soccer team? Is he two-wheeling around the neighborhood at night on some nefarious business?"
K: No, silly. It's IN CASE he wants to go two-wheeling around the neighborhood!
Dark fiction: What I read every night before bed. The bedroom is dark except for the bedside lamp.
An addendum to my post . . .
I love Peretti. I love BC's murder mysteries. I don't care for SFF. I can take any "dark" fiction as long as the Gospel is present and/or the hope of the Lord is evident. We live in a dark world, but without the truth of Jesus Christ being available, the lies of darkness prevail.
I guess for me "Dark" stories tend to be ones where over evil plays a large role and usually tends to have the upper hand for the majority of the story (sometimes even on through the end).
They look into the dark side of human nature through stark examples or straight up metaphore, and the worst of which never show the light prevailing but leave the world in darkness.
Not fiction that just presents life as gritty, but that makes the center of the story the seemingly hopeless plight of a character.
Of course there are varying degrees and tones, and it can be somewhat subjective, but that's my take on it.
Dark fiction can be anything from a dark comedy to science fiction to a CSI type murder crime story.
Like Stuart said, "there are varying degrees and tones" to it.
Frank Peretti hits on the more spiritual warfare side of it in "This Present Darkness". Your book covers for the Kanner Lake Series give away a dark tone (usually anything with eerie lakes and dramatic sunsets does).
The film "Million Dollar Baby" was dark, even though it didn't have anything supernatural going on. When I walked out the theater I felt like I had a tone of bricks dropped on me, and the people I went with felt the same way.
The darker the room, the more visable the light is.
Christian writers of dark fiction can use all the darkness in the world and show others the Light of Jesus.
Good question!
Dark Fiction - I would say that it is fiction told from a decidedly dark side of life. Of course, how you decide how dark is dark is probably somewhat an individual call, even though I'm sure there is some industry 'definition'. For me, dark is pretty dark. I would not call your suspense dark Brandilyn, although I'm sure some people would. However, it was hard for me to read Dekker's "Showdown" and the Dekker/Peretti "House". These are pretty dark and were well worth sticking with, although I almost put down Showdown because it was so dark.
As for GG, I think he's just trying to get extra attention and actually reads your BLOG. Maybe you should suggest an outfit for him and see if he shows up in it the next day.
To me, dark fiction is fiction that doesn't have any light in it. And light = God's truth. Some books I've read really show the hard side of life, but there's still light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak. Hope.
LOL
it's been a while since I've dropped by..but your GG story sure did make me smile....and yet, the more i thought of it the creepier it seemed....
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