TESTIFY!

Stewardship...ugh!

Just the mention of the word is enough to cause many people to tune out.  It is oftentimes brushed aside as a "churchy" word with a nebulous meaning that no one really understands.  I know that whenever I truly need to understand something, an example is always helpful and encouraging.  For that reason, I now present you another excerpt from Learning to Give in a Getting World, the book I co-authored with Marc Farnell on the spiritual discipline of giving and the blessings that come along with responsible Christian stewardship.

BUT WAIT!

Don't think I'm going to offer up this portion of the book without asking a little something in return.  I know that the testimony that appears in our book will bless you immensely, no matter where you find yourself with respect to giving.  Perhaps you are toying with the idea of tithing.  Perhaps you tithe, but are feeling prompted to give more.  Perhaps you are giving over and above the tithe.  The one simple thing I ask you to do is this:  once you are finished reading this testimony of God's grace poured out, head on over to www.facebook.com/LearningToGive.  If you want to encourage others in the same way that Scott Pearson's testimony below will most assuredly bless you, consider posting a brief testimony on the FaceBook page about how giving has changed your life, and how God has blessed you as a result.  You never know how your words might encourage someone else!

Without further ado, and I know there was a lot of ado, here goes Encouragement Testimony #1 from Learning to Give in a Getting World.

ENCOURAGEMENT TESTIMONY #1

The following email was sent to CrossRidge Church on June 11, 2010 from Scott Pearson, a member of the church and a faithful servant on the Praise Team.

Hello Pastor Marc,

Over the past two years, I have struggled so hard to make a living for my family.  I went from having a great job to losing my job and receiving over $6,000 in bounced payroll checks.  I started a new job, but it barely paid my bills and at the end of each month, I literally had nothing left.  I had to do odd jobs or sell my personal belongings to make up the difference for our basic needs.  After six months of getting caught up, I was just about to be even and be able to start saving when I was called into my office and once again left it without a job.  I was devastated and as soon as I hit the door, I collapsed with fear and anguish I had never felt before.  I thought about my family and what I was going to do.

Again, I was left with no job, no income and no way to pay for our basic needs like food, mortgage and gasoline.   You know the feeling you get when you stub your toe?  The eye-squinting pain and how it consumes your entire body?  That feeling became a daily feeling that I felt each time I woke up.  I was praying, searching and crying out to God.  I heard no response mostly because my human self was drowning out His voice.

It is June now and I am still without a job.  I came to church [on June 6] in a sour mood and all I heard was “give, give, give”.  I was so angry, hurt and confused.  I was sick of hearing about giving and I thought to myself, “I get it, go to another subject”.  I came home frustrated, ready to give up and ready to quit.  I even told my family I was done with this church.  I had lost everything I had worked for.  My daughter was in tears and looked me in the eye and said, “Dad, you’re the reason I accepted Jesus, and you’re the reason we are together and you’re giving up on God?”.  She reflected about the night she accepted Jesus as her savior and how I told her I could not save her, and that she had to call out to God.  He was the only One that could save her.  I was shaken back to reality.

Monday morning [June 7], I surrendered and was quiet in my mind as I began to pray.  I asked God what He wanted me to do.  In my spirit, I heard “Give!”.  Instantly, I was angry again.  I cried out to God, “Give You what?  I have nothing!  I have no money and no income and you dare to tell me, not ask me, to give?”.  A parting gift, if you can call it that, from my last job was a brand new laptop with all the fixings.  I had posted it to sell it.  It would keep me afloat one more month as I frantically searched for a job.  The system was valued at $1,200 and it equaled a house payment and a little money for food.  “I can do it”, I told myself.  The key word here was “I”, not “He”.  Again, I heard “Give!”.  I fought God.  I said, “No, this thing can sustain me for another month.”  Again, I heard “Give!” and then I heard “Trust me!”.  My fear was gone.  So, I packed up the laptop, drove to the church and I handed it to you, Pastor Marc.

No, I do not have money at this time, but what I do have I gave.  I want to be a faithful servant and that is what I will be.  I will give everything I have and all I have because my God gave it all for me to save me.  As I write this, I see in my mind thousands of hurting kids searching desperately for hope and love and finding nothing.  Families are being torn apart searching for a light in the darkness of this world.  If I can be one glimmer of light, I will give everything I have.  I will give my time, talents and treasures.  It all belongs to Him and I have to surrender it as He surrendered everything to save me and to give me hope. 

Pastor, I stand tall now ready to work for God and to give Him everything.  Not just with what I have, but all of me, everything I am.  I refused to let Satan devour me or my family.  And when I say family, I mean my church family as well.  We have to stand together, lock our arms and stop Satan in his tracks.  In the name of Jesus I claim victory!  I claim victory!!!  I CLAIM VICTORY!!!

Your brother in Christ,

Scott Pearson

*               *                       *

Then, on June 17, a follow-up email was received from Scott Pearson, with the subject line “What a mighty God we serve!!!”.

Pastor Marc,

I wanted to let you know that I started a new job yesterday.  I am here to say that it works.  God is faithful.  All I had to do was trust Him.  By giving everything I had, He has now provided me with a  job that will take care of my family.  I loved it on my first day.  This is a good job and I am so excited to tell you about it.

I’m with a stable company and I feel so blessed.  The true miracle here is this is a job I had to turn down previously because of the pay.  I added everything up and it would not sustain our basic needs because of the distance and if I had taken it, I would not have had enough to pay our bills, let alone give to the church.

After I gave you the laptop last Monday, I got a call.  It was the job I had turned down.  I was told they were willing to offer me double the original offer.  I was stunned because when I had told them about the situation, I was sure they didn’t want to have anything to do with me anymore.  During the call I was told that my skill set was amazing and that the company desperately wanted me to join them.  Trying to contain myself, I said “Yes!” and accepted the offer.

I hung up the phone and began a dance of joy, freaking out my kids.  My wife kept saying “What?”.  I broke down in tears and told them what had just happened.  My daughter, with a huge smile on her face, looked at me and said, “I told you so.  Only God can save us and He has and always will if we stick to His Word.”  I was so proud of her.

Pastor, it is time to shine!  It’s time to dust ourselves off and draw the line.  I proclaim the name of Jesus and yell at the top of my voice.  I have victory because I trust in my God to provide for all my needs.  Not my wants, but my needs.  He is good, faithful and I will never again doubt His blessings.

Yes, I looked for the job.  Yes, I interviewed for the position.  Some may say I did all the work.  I say I just did my part.  God met me once I surrendered everything I am to Him, but I had to walk to Him broken, calling out for Him to save me.  A humble, servant’s heart is what I will daily strive for.  I will give everything I have down to the last thing and penny to help my church shine the light of Jesus Christ.

I refuse to let Satan get a foot hold in this church, my town, my state, my country and my world.  I will store my treasures in Heaven, not in this world.  My family is in total agreement with me when I say we will give it all to help bring the lost, hurt, lonely, shattered, abused and scarred people to the throne of God so He can mend them all.

We must, as a church family, surrender it all, take a step of faith and be willing to lay it all down at His feet.  If we, as a church family, surrender, God will use us all in our own way to a point we cannot fathom.  Even if we only save one person from the grips of Satan, it is worth it all.  If we are faithful to our God, nothing, and I mean nothing, will ever stop us.  STAND TALL, CHURCH, AND BE FAITHFUL! WATCH WHAT HAPPENS!  LISTEN TO HIS CALL AND REJOICE THAT YOU HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO BE A PART OF IT ALL!

---

Learning to Give in a Getting World, by Marc Farnell and Jesse Greever, is available as both a paperback and eBook at the following locations:

CreateSpace (paperback, $13.99)

Amazon.com (paperback, $13.99; eBook, $8.99)

It is also available to Amazon Prime members as a free eBook download as a part of the Kindle Lending Library.  Pastors and church administrators can contact me directly at jesse@accidental-author.com to find out about discounts available for churches that wish to use this for teaching and small group curriculum.

You can also become a fan of the book at www.facebook.com/LearningToGive.

Follow me on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/#!/JesseSGreever

Scott Pearson and his family are the founders of To Him Alone ministries.  Check them out!

Excerpt from Learning to GIVE in a GETTING World

It occurs to me that perhaps the best way to get these ideas into everyone's heads, especially regarding a book that deals with the virtues of the spiritual act of giving, is to give something away.

We've already made Learning to Give in a Getting World available for free to Amazon Prime members, but let's go a bit deeper than that.  Without further ado, here is Chapter Twelve, entitled "There is No Point of No Return" from Learning to Give in a Getting World.  I hope it blesses and encourages you.

CHAPTER TWELVE

THERE IS NO POINT OF NO RETURN

CROSSING THE RUBICON

In 50 B.C., Julius Caesar was a provincial governor of certain parts of the Roman Empire that included the modern day country of France.  As a regional governor, he had a reasonably large army at his disposal, granted to him as a part of his position.  During his time as a governor, the “powers that be” in Rome were constantly and not-so-secretly plotting against him out of fear that he would return to Rome and seek a leadership role as the sole consul of the Roman Empire.  Two years prior, the Senate requested that Caesar disband his army, and then rallied behind a political rival, Pompey, as their selection as the sole consul.

In the latter part of 50 B.C., Caesar sent a letter to the Senate agreeing to their demand if, and only if, Pompey would do the same.  This missive infuriated the Senate, and immediately, they demanded that Caesar relinquish command of his army, or face extremely dire consequences.  Defying the authority of the Roman Senate, Julius Caesar banded together with his allies Mark Antony and Quintus Cassius Longinus.

On January 10, 49 B.C., Julius Caesar made a fateful decision while commanding one legion of his army.  In an act of complete opposition to his enemies in the Senate, he and his legion crossed the Rubicon River.  The Rubicon was an important geo-political boundary that formed the border line between Italy and the province of Gaul.  It was widely understood, as dictated by the Senate, that anyone who marched an army across the Rubicon was, in effect, staging a military action against the Roman Empire.  As a result, Julius Caesar’s actions ignited a civil war, and even though he certainly could not have defeated the entire Roman army with his single legion of troops, his widespread popularity among the people of Rome as a military hero all but guaranteed his success against the forces that conspired against him.

It was at this momentous crossing of the Rubicon River that Caesar was purported to have said “Alea iacta est”, or “The die is cast”.  In essence, Caesar was declaring that he had made an irreversible move that would label him a traitor to the empire, and that this single action would immutably alter the course of his life.  He had acted in such a way that he was committed to a long journey that would eventually end five years later with his installation as the dictator of the Roman Empire.  Julius Caesar had traveled beyond the point of no return.

           

THERE CAN ALWAYS BE A RETURN

While this story serves as an interesting historical backdrop, with respect to our relationship with Christ, it is completely imprecise.  Aside from dying without a saving knowledge of Jesus, there is never a point of no return.  Even as believers, redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb of God, we are always under attack from the enemy to act in opposition and disobedience to the will of God.  And, so many times, Satan is able to overcome our desire to be faithful and the result is a sinful action on our part.  Even Paul struggled with this.  “For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing” (Romans 7:19, NIV).  Clearly if one of the greatest missionaries in the history of Christianity is susceptible to sinful behavior, it is not unreasonable to believe that we too are vulnerable to such spiritual attacks of temptation.

Over the entire span of humankind, there have been countless examples of individuals who have made stunning errors of judgment that have resulted in hideous sin.  However, God’s Word is full of stories of restoration that illustrate just how ready and willing God is to provide forgiveness and reconciliation.  In the Old Testament, the story of David and Bathsheba quickly comes to mind.  We read that, during the spring of the year, when David’s armies were at war, he remained in Jerusalem.  One evening when he was walking around on the rooftop of the palace, he noticed Bathsheba bathing.  And though she was married to one of David’s military men, Uriah, he committed adultery with her, and as a result, she became pregnant.  To make matters worse, David then sent Uriah into battle in the front lines, and just when the fighting became most violent, he ordered all the men around Uriah to withdraw.  As a result, Uriah was killed in battle (2 Samuel 11:1-17).

This was certainly not one of King David’s finer moments.  In a very short span of time, he indulged in the sin of adultery, and afterwards, murderously sent one of his faithful soldiers to his death.  But, because God is the God of second chances, He did not just toss David onto the scrap pile.  He had bigger plans for David.  The Lord sent Nathan to rebuke David, and upon realizing the tragic depths to which he had sunk, he repented of his sins to the Lord in front of Nathan.  God Almighty still punished David for the evil he had committed by taking his firstborn son, but because of David’s contrite heart and desire to be restored to the Lord, God granted Him a second chance, and also gave him another son, Solomon (2 Samuel 12:1-25).

In addition to David, probably no one appreciated another chance more than Peter.  In one of the darkest hours of the history of history, after Jesus Christ had been betrayed and arrested, Peter was identified three times in a crowd of people.  And each time someone recognized him as a disciple of Christ, in the strongest possible terms, he denied that he had any relationship with Jesus.  Surely, he must have been devastated and shocked by his own weakness, even though Jesus had predicted those very events (John 18:16-27).

But, just like David, Peter was granted a chance to have his relationship with his Master reconciled.  In one of the most beautiful portraits of forgiveness and grace, Jesus questions Peter three times about his love and devotion towards Him.  After Peter’s repeated affirmations of his love for Jesus, all his denials were forgiven and his relationship with Jesus was completely restored (John 21:15-19).

Even the thief on the cross next to Jesus, in his final hours on the planet, was given a chance to be redeemed.  In the presence of the sinless Son of God, he recognized his moral depravity and professed his belief that Jesus did not deserve the punishment he was receiving.  In a show of incredible humility, he asked Jesus to remember him, and Jesus, in the throes of incredible agony, poured out His love for the man.  “Jesus answered him, ‘I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise’” (Luke 23:43, NIV).

A FRESH START

In each of these situations, we can see that God is always willing to give anyone a fresh start.  Even in light of some of the most heinous sin, with the right attitude of repentance and humility, we can always request another chance from Jesus, and without fail, He will grant that request.  Of course, this is not to say that we will somehow be relieved of suffering the consequences of our sin, but we can be assured that our relationship with Christ will be firmly intact.  King David still had to suffer the consequences of his adultery and murder through the loss of his son that he had with Bathsheba, but David’s relationship with the Most High God was ultimately reinstated.  The thief on the cross still had to suffer the punishment of death for his crimes, but his contrite heart and humble attitude insured that he would receive salvation from his sins.

Likewise, we can also receive another chance to follow God’s commands with respect to our finances.  He is a God that longs for us to depend completely and solely upon Him to supply our needs and all He asks is that we regard Him as worthy of our tithes and offerings.  None of us have progressed beyond the point of no return.  There is no point of no return.  In terms of our stewardship with the resources God has graciously granted us, there is no Rubicon River to cross.

We can return to faithfulness to God with our finances.  All that is required of us is this:  start now!

THE FUNDAMENTAL STEPS

There are many Christians today who have been living in disobedience to God’s guidelines for giving.  In order for these believers to avoid God’s further discipline, some very basic steps must be taken.  The steps towards obedience are simple, but not necessarily easy.

First, we must accept and freely admit that we have been living in sinful disobedience.  This may sound extremely straightforward, but hidden inside is a critical component that can actually be quite painful.  As a part of this admission of guilt, we must also understand that in this area of obedience, we have been pushing God off of the throne of our lives and installing “self” as the King of our finances.  Remember, God will not share His throne.  Either we are or are not obedient to the Lord in the area of giving; there is no in-between.  We cannot be “partly obedient”, “somewhat obedient”, “mostly obedient” or “almost completely obedient”.

Second, we must repent of our rebellious lack of good stewardship.  “Repent” is an active verb, full of very rich meaning.  For a person to repent, two things must happen.  Initially, there must be a turning away from the sinful behavior.  We must decide that we are no longer going to be disobedient with our finances.  However, there is more to repentance.  Following the turning away, we must turn towards obedience.  It isn’t just enough to say “I’ve done wrong”.  We must then resolve to do what is right in the eyes of God.

Finally, we must act.  Admission of guilt and repentance are not the complete story.  Following repentance, we must immediately begin to align our behaviors with God’s commands for giving.  This may involve many things.  It may include decreasing our spending in various non-necessary areas to free up some additional funds to increase our giving.  It may include sitting down with our family members to discuss ways in which sacrifices can be made to bring our giving up to God’s expectations of us.  It may even include determining methods of generating more income so that we can have additional money to give at least a tithe to the Lord.

These steps are critical to our success in giving graciously, generously and cheerfully to the Lord.  Admission of guilt begins in the mind.  Repentance is an act that involves the heart.  Combine these two things, and action becomes inevitable.

THE CHALLENGE AHEAD

If you can identify yourself as someone who has fallen out of sync with God’s commands for His people with respect to stewardship and giving, and you have an earnest desire to return to faithfulness with your finances, then the section ahead is for you!  In the following chapters, we will outline the “nuts and bolts” of the Ninety Day Challenge that was instituted at CrossRidge Church during the summer of 2010.

In light of the turmoil facing the church in the beginning half of 2010, it became clear that a call to an admission of disobedience, sincere repentance and immediate action was absolutely necessary.  Throughout the thirteen weeks of the Challenge, drastic changes occurred in the corporate giving at CrossRidge Church.   Members who had never given before began to give.  Those who had been giving just the tithe began giving offerings in addition.  And throughout the entire process, God came through in incredible ways, showering blessings on those who participated, and on the church as a whole.

There future is always uncertain, but one thing is not:  the guarantee that God will bless those who are faithful with their giving.  If you are ready to face the future and act in obedience, and you are ready to be blessed, just turn the page and begin the journey.  God's story for His glory will be told in and through your life, as you pour your time, talents and treasures out for His kingdom.

---

 Learning to Give in a Getting World, by Marc Farnell and Jesse Greever, is available as both a paperback and eBook at the following locations:

CreateSpace (paperback, $13.99)

Amazon.com (paperback, $13.99; eBook, $8.99)

It is also available to Amazon Prime members as a free eBook download as a part of the Kindle Lending Library.  Pastors and church administrators can contact me directly at jesse@accidental-author.com to find out about discounts available for churches that wish to use this for teaching and small group curriculum.

You can also become a fan of the book at www.facebook.com/LearningToGive.

Follow me on Twitter:  https://twitter.com/#!/JesseSGreever

Wait...you mean it's already 2012???

Well, a good two full months into the year, and I look back on all the plans I had for this blog in 2011, and I look back at all the things I'm proud of:

1.  F. Paul Wilson interview:  a four-part transcript of an in-person interview with FPW at the World Horror Convention in April 2011.  Classy guy and willing to talk openly about his work and his process.

2.  Jeff Strand interview:  Met him while with FPW at the convention.  Led to an interview a few months later.  Another class act.  Extremely witty as well.

3.  Phase One of my Inspiration to Publication series:  Inspiration.  Did a number of interview with talented authors at Untreed Reads.  Great stuff.  Very proud of these interviews.

4.  Phase Two of my Inspiration to Publication series:  Writing Process.  Did another great round of interviews with other authors regarding the writing process itself.  Very insightful.  Also extremely proud of these interviews.

Then, it all fell apart.  No real Phase Three (Editing) or Phase Four (Publication and Marketing) in my series.  I literally fell of the face of the planet for a while.  There was some purpose behind this, as I was consumed with writing my first full-length book, Learning to Give in a Getting World, co-authored with Marc Farnell, Senior Pastor of CrossRidge Church in Little Elm, TX (which also happens to be the church I attend).  It is a great book that has sold extremely poorly (so far), but I shall never give up on it.  It is overflowing with God's truth, and I believe it will bless and challenge all who read it.

But I digress...

Here we are on the first day of the third month of the year 2012.  Guess what?  Rather than focus on the failures of 2011 in keeping up with my plans for The Accidental Author blog, I'm just going to say "Well, that's the way it goes."  And then, I'm going to move on.

Stay tuned, faithful follower(s)...there are great things to come this year.

But first, if you haven't already, go over to Amazon and pick up my latest short story Rumspringa, Untreed Reads' bestselling title at Amazon for the month of February.  Not a bad way to start the year.

PS  You might want to start following my twitter feed at @JesseSGreever.  News and updates will be coming soon about projects that I'm working on.

HOLY COW! I forgot to mention...

I've been so blasted busy these past few weeks that I completely forgot to mention (on this blog, at least) that I have a new short story released from Untreed Reads entitled Rumspringa.

Here is the blurb, in case you are interested:


Excessive drinking. Chain-smoking. Methamphetamine addiction.

Such is the life of Wilma Burrows, a woman whose lifetime has been marred by an inexplicable string of bad decisions. Scarred and shattered, she tries to manage each day as it comes, desperate to keep herself from plunging into the abyss, but the demons are always a few short steps behind her.

Sixteen years ago, one of her many indiscretions resulted in the birth of pure and untainted innocence. But that shining glimmer of decency was whisked away, only to fade away as a distant memory.

But some days, even the most faded memories have a way of reemerging in unexpected ways.

And for Wilma, that day is today.


You can also find it at Amazon, B&N and all your other favorite eBook retailers!

My New Book is NOW AVAILABLE!

My new book, Learning to GIVE in a GETTING World is officially released as a trade paperback and an eBook.  Co-authored with Marc Farnell, Senior Pastor of CrossRidge Church in Little Elm, TX, this book explores the topic of obedient stewardship even in times of economic turmoil.

You can find it at CreateSpace as a paperback, Amazon as a paperback and a Kindle eBook, Barnes & Noble as a nookBook and at Smashwords in a variety of electronic formats.  Paperback is priced at $13.99 and the eBook versions are $8.99.

New Author Interview with Corie L. Calcutt

It HAS been a while hasn't it. 

A number of projects, not the least of which is my day-job, have monopolized my time, but be not afraid.  I have not forgotten the blog.  And I have some pretty exciting stuff coming up, so stay tuned!

And to bring the blog back to life in style, I'm posting an interview today with Untreed Reads author Corie L. Calcutt, who just recently released a new suspense/thriller novella entitled TAKEN.

---

The Accidental Author:  Obviously, this tale is a nice mixture of macabre and mayhem. Where did you get your inspiration for TAKEN?

Corie Calcutt:   Honestly, I was inspired by a mix of things. I had heard of several real-life abduction cases in which more than one state line was crossed (I am, sadly, a true-crime junkie); however, in all of those cases the victims were women. I was interested to see what might happen if the victim was male; more specifically, a young man who might statistically have a better chance of fighting off their abductor.

Another thing I was interested in was seeing an abduction tale told specifically from the victim's point-of-view. In so many plots like this, readers see it from all sides: the victim, the abductor, the party or parties working to resolve the crime. I was curious to see if a story told from only the victim's point-of-view would work; to see the crime unfolding through only one pair of eyes. I felt it gave more mystery and was more suspenseful if the reader had to learn the information in the same way a potential victim of a crime like this would.

AA: When you set out to write, do you tend to have a strict outline, or do you allow the story to evolve organically?

CC: All of my work evolves organically. Sometimes it doesn't even evolve in the right order!

In the case of TAKEN, it was not only an organic process, the story really almost wrote itself initially. I just couldn't stop writing the first draft of it; like a good suspense thriller, I too was sucked in right until the end!

AA:  Do you feel that your works are more character-driven, or more plot-driven? In other words, do you allow the strength of the characters to bend the plot to their will, or does the strength of the plot transform the characters?

CC:   It's a little bit of both, actually. Most times I find that the plot will sometimes drive the characters; in some cases, the characters are SO strong that the plot bends around them.

One example of this from TAKEN is the character of James: in all three versions of this story that I wrote, I found readers were more drawn to him than they were the main protagonist! In writing for James's character, his personality really determined what would happen next, even though I usually had a rough idea of what that next step would be.

AA:  In terms of mechanics, when do you know a work is complete (or at least, ready to submit)?

CC:  Actually, I am a horrible judge of when my stories are good enough to shop out. Oftentimes I rely on a very small circle of friends in the art and writing world to proof and give me feedback on my works, and when they like it, it's done.

With TAKEN, it was a twofold process: there were three different versions of the story written. As far as the plot of the story went, I simply wrote it until I felt it needed to stop. Originally I (and the main characters) was going to Saskatchewan; once I hit Omaha, the story was telling me to wrap it up.

Two of my versions were nothing more than a perspective change: I found that writing it in first-person POV was much easier storywise than the third-person POV I was accustomed to writing in. Much less thought italics.

As with my other works, I had it looked over by my small circle of writing friends. Once they liked it, I shopped it out.

AA:  Do you revise while you write, or do you complete a full draft before you go back and revise?

CC:   Usually I revise as I write, but it honestly depends on the project. In this case, I did both, making my own changes and accepting the suggestions of my writing friends. If I were to write out a full draft before revising or requesting feedback, I'd never finish anything!

AA:  When you write things like TAKEN, do you write about things that you fear personally in a sort of personal catharsis, or is it something else entirely?

CC:  It's not so much what I personally fear rather than it's what piques my curiosity. As I stated before, I am a true-crime junkie; I grew up on mysteries and the like. I tend to write more tales about false confinement (kidnapping, hostage situations, etc.) because I find that the mindsets of those involved fascinate me, both the criminal's and the victim's POV's. There's just so many outcomes and things one doesn't normally consider unless they are in a situation like that that is worth exploring.

AA:  What are you working on now?

CC:   Right now I am working on two different projects in the midst of Real Life: one is a collaboration with a graphic-artist friend to turn one of my previously published short stories, "Consolation Prize" (first published through Kasma SF) into a short graphic novel. The other is a more fragmented work consisting of several short stories that, when read together, create one overarching story involving the meaning of family and the costs of obsession and vengeance.

---

Corie L. Calcutt is the author of several short stories, including Consolation Prize, Hostages at the Kitchen Table and Taken.  She has a bachelor's in Creative Writing, is a lifelong Michigan resident, and has a very active imagination.

The Jeff Strand Interview

Ah, it's been a while, I'll admit.  I've had a number of things on my plate that have conspired to monopolize my time and pull me away from posting on my blog.  But, the past six weeks haven't been entirely idle, and now you can see the fruits of that labor:  an interview with bestselling thriller/horror/comedy (or, what I liketo call "thrormedy") author Jeff Strand.  In addition, he was this year's Bram Stoker Awards Master of Ceremonies, as well as a nominee for his novel Dweller.

Jeff talks about his writing process, but more importantly, he moves us into the third quarter of the year, where I will focus on the editing/revision/submission process in the yearlong series "Inspiration to Publication".  I hope you enjoy reading about his process as much as I did during this interview.

---

The Accidental Author:  In a recent interview with F. Paul Wilson, he stated that the line between horror and hilarity is very thin.  However, with books like The Sinister Mr. Corpse, you like to blur and smudge that line into what could be described as horror comedy.  What inspires you to meld horror and comedy?

Jeff Strand:  Any genre I wrote in would be melded with comedy. So if I decided to become a romance novelist, I'd write romantic comedies, and if I did mysteries, they'd be comedic mysteries. It was never a case of "Eureka! If I combine the elements of a comedy with the elements of horror it will create a glorious reading sensation!" but rather my natural desire to write funny stuff combined with my love of horror fiction.

AA:  Speaking of The Sinister Mr. Corpse, let's talk about Stanley Dabernath.  Is he at all based upon anyone you know (that you are willing to admit), or is he a complete conjuration?

JS: Fortunately, he's a made-up character. It would suck to have to actually hang out with him. It's a traditional character arc--he starts off as an obnoxious creep, and by the end of the book is significantly less of an obnoxious creep--applied to a guy who happens to now be a resurrected corpse. There's also the theme of being famous without actually having any real accomplishments of your own, but that wasn't based on any particular celebrity.

AA:  This seems like as good a time as any to start talking about the writing process.  This year, on my blog, I’m devoting the entire year to an arc of interviews I’ve titled “Inspiration to Publication”, and I’m currently in part two:  the actual process of writing.  Focusing further on Stanley Dabernath, did you have a real sense of his character in its entirety before you set out to write the novel, or did he significantly evolve as the story arc progressed?

JS: I had a pretty good sense of him from the beginning. Without throwing a great big spoiler out there, I can say that I knew how the book was going to end, so the story was all about taking Stanley from the kind of person he is in the first chapter to the kind of person he is in the last chapter. It's a very character-driven book, so all of the plot twists were to support Stanley's growth as a human being...even though he's a zombie.

But that's all in a general sense. Though I had the major character beats mapped out, and they didn't really change while I was writing the book, there were a lot of smaller things that I came up with as I was writing. You're supposed to be rooting for the guy, and you're supposed to feel that there's genuine peril, so while I was writing I came up with the line at which his wisecracks stop. It wasn't planned out beforehand. For example, there's the early scene where the scientist is being sadistic and showing Stanley the pictures of when he was dead. That's where I said "Okay, at this point Stanley is no longer able to use jokes as a defense mechanism."

So there was certainly character development that happened while I was writing, but overall I knew where the character was going.

AA:  This is actually quite interesting, because I recently interviewed your friend F. Paul Wilson, who basically allows the plot to mold his characters.  Do you tend to let your characters' needs for certain types of transformative steps dictate the action in the plot (in general)?

JS: It varies from book to book. For example, I didn't write Wolf Hunt so that I could explore the emotional growth of George and Lou; I wanted to write a kick-ass novel about two thugs chasing a werewolf! Same thing with Benjamin's Parasite, which was not inspired by "I wish to write about the inner journey of Benjamin Wilson," but rather "What if this guy had a really horrible parasite inside of him, and it was totally screwing with his mind and body, and dangerous people who wanted the parasite were chasing him across the country?" Memorable characters are always important, but books like Fangboy and Mandibles are very much plot-driven.

Kutter is on the other end of the spectrum: a vicious serial killer finds a lost Boston Terrier, and his unexpected love for the dog gradually changes his life for the better. My personal challenge in writing that book was to start with a character who was completely reprehensible and unredeemable...and see if I could make the reader like him by the end.

Dweller was a mixture, because the premise (a boy befriends a forest-dwelling creature that lives behind his house, and the novel follows their friendship from childhood to old age) was pure character. But the book was sold before it was written, and the publisher wanted an outline. For me, outlines tend to be "Here's what happens in the book" rather than "Here's what's going on in the characters' minds" so I took a character-based premise and turned it into a plot-focused outline.

AA:  When you are writing a novel, do you have a tendency to revise “on the fly”, that is to say, do you revise while the draft is still in progress, or do you wait until the entire work is complete to go back and make revisions?

JS: Oh, I'm constantly revising while I write. I don't really do official second, third, fourth, etc. drafts. When I type "The End," the book is pretty much done except for a final polish, but I've been rewriting and editing throughout the entire process. 

AA:  When you sit down to write, are there any “staples” that you require, whether it is copious amounts of coffee, background music, or some other item that helps your writing process?

JS:  There is usually caffeine involved, though it's in Red Bull or Mountain Dew form rather than coffee. No background music--I need relative quiet to concentrate. There's no special time of day that I write or anything like that...the only consistent schedule is that the closer I get to my deadline, the more I write. The deadline for my next book is August 1st, so I will write much less today than I will write on July 31st. Beyond that, I don't have any weird elements that need to be in place to write!

AA:  Let's go back in time a little bit (I didn't tell you I had a time machine, did I?).  What is your earliest memory of your desire to write, and when did you know that you wanted to write professionally?

JS:  The desire to write goes back so far that I literally can't remember a time when I didn't want to be a writer. And I always wanted to do it as a career, though when I was in grade school my work really wasn't up to professional standards. I started submitting my work when I was in high school. Back then and through college, I mostly focused on writing screenplays (I wrote a dozen and sold zero) and then in my early 20's I began writing novels. And that's where I've mostly stayed, because I know I can sell a novel or a short story, whereas something like a screenplay or a comic book script is a crapshoot.

AA:  I know that you do a good amount of self-publishing.  Do you think this is the true future of publishing?  Do you think that legacy publishing will survive, or will it be one of those cute nostalgia things like vinyl records?

JS:  I have no idea, which is why I'm playing both sides now! For my next three books, one is with a large publisher, one is small press, and one will be self-published. I think there are advantages to both, and I don't think one is going to destroy the other anytime soon. The fourth book in my Andrew Mayhem series is going to be self-published (the e-book edition, at least) because I'm marketing it to an existing fan base, and a publisher really can't get the book much wider distribution than I can get myself. I might as well keep total control and receive significantly higher royalties.

For my upcoming Young Adult novel...well, I'm out of my area of expertise and the publisher can offer a lot. I want them to worry about the cover and getting the book into stores and getting the reviews, and I want a vicious cold-blooded editor to hack it up.

I plan to continue both methods, depending on what makes best sense for an individual project.

AA:  In terms of publishing through any method, self-publishing or otherwise, how do you know when a book is ready?  Do you have friends or other authors who provide feedback?

JS:  By this point, I have a pretty good handle on what's working or not, but each book goes out to five or six readers, who hunt down those last pesky typos and continuity errors and offer general feedback. Though they're all fans of my work, it's a good mix of the people who like the "serious" stuff versus the ones who like the comedies, so I always get a wide variety of reactions.

I'm known for turning in very clean manuscripts, so the process for self-publishing a book isn't much different than when I hand it over to an editor. I'll have more test readers, and they'll have time to give it a leisurely read, and I'll add a couple more intense read-throughs to my usual process. There's some great editing in the small press, but also some not-so-great editing, so I've gotten used to taking responsibility for the final product!

AA:  Do you encourage writers just entering the field to explore self-publishing?  Should they seek out an agent?

JS:  They can explore it, a little, but when you're starting out, you're probably not producing material that you'll still be proud of in a few years. Self-publishing gives an author a lot of power and ends those long, frustrating waits for your work to make it through an editor or agent's slush pile...but it also makes it very easy to get published before you're ready. When I finished my first novel, I thought it was awesome. Now, the idea of somebody actually paying for that piece of crap, even 99 cents, fills me with horror. I am very, very, very, very glad that the Amazon/Smashwords model did not exist back when I was writing terrible books, because I would have used it, and now I'd be sorry.

So, yeah, I think authors should try to find an agent, if only because it forces them to spend more time perfecting their craft. And also, for every newbie writer whose first book is making them thousands of dollars a month in Kindle sales, there are many more who are selling a few copies a month, if that, and wondering what the hell happened.

AA:  Finally, if you had one nugget of wisdom for someone who is toying with the idea of transitioning from “writing for fun” to “writing for fun AND profit”, what would it be?

JS:  Write a lot. If you're Jonathan Franzen you can spend a decade on a novel, but if you're trying to make a living at this without being a NY Times bestseller, you need to build up a body of work. This doesn't mean to crank out garbage as quickly as you can, but you should always have something else in the pipeline.

---

Jeff Strand is the author of a bunch of novels, some serious, some not so serious. You can visit his Gleefully Macabre website at http://www.jeffstrand.com.