Overview of Tales for the Thrifty Barbarian: An Anthology of High Fantasy

a pair of commoners are on the run after accidentally killing their Count . . . a lass with psionic powers must save her Duke’s realm, and the peasant woman who raised her . . . a spoiled Lady and her bitter heir protector put aside all differences when wizards and Orqs attack . . . an alchemist takes in his wraith-haunted nephew, then his wife disappears . . . hunters face-off against environmentalists in a dragon-rights demonstration: an inept Elf/ freelance diplomat comes to the rescue (ever read a fantasy satire?) . . . three warriors defend a village against a dark beast who’s summoned a foreboding storm as hunting cover . . . a wizardling is quested to recover an artifact in order to save his land from an army’s onslaught

You can read more about the anthology if you go to http://fwi.thewriterscafe.com/FWIBookstore.html

Editor: Cynthia MacKinnon: The Writers’ Cafe

ISBN: 978-1-4116-9407-1 $19.95US trade paper or $7.41US download from lulu.com

Author list: Larry N. Morris, Jamie Hughes, Frank Creed, A.P. Reckert, Brian David Smith, Jaren Schroeder, Eugene Erno.

Writers have different motivations. What is it that drives you?
            My brand is Reflecting Reality, Honoring Truth. That is my motivation for writing too. My desire for my fiction is to reflect the reality of history—to bring it to life for readers. I also desire to honor the truth of the experiences men and women during WWII . . . and Truth, who is Christ.
            To do this, I not only research through books or on the Internet, I also interview the men and women who were there. And I tie spiritual threads throughout the books, which don’t focus on religion, but rather the relationship with Jesus Christ in individual lives.
 
You’re married with three children, so how do you find quiet-time to write?
         There is NO quiet-time to write, since I also homeschool my kids. They are around 24/7. I’ve trained myself to write without quiet time. We have one big homeschooling room/office. When my kids are working on their homework, I’m working on mine in the same room. I can be crying my eyes out, writing an emotional scene, and then I have to stop to help with a multiplication problem! Yet God blesses me as I serve Him in both of these areas.
         To be able to write, I use advice given to me by my writer-friend Anne de Graaf, “Do the next thing.” The next thing may be to write a description, to research a scene, or to write 2,000 words for that day. Or it may be to read a story with one of my kids or to set up a homework schedule. These small steps keep me plugging forward, and helps me not to get overwhelmed. If I tried to think of the whole book at once (or thirteen years of education!), then I’d probably freeze up. But I can do one little part at this moment.
And even I don’t have quiet time to write, I do take time for quiet time with my Bible and prayer book every day. I wake up at least an hour before everyone else and spend time with God. This is my priority, and this too transforms my writing.
 
Apart from interviewing WW-II veterans while writing this series, tell me about your creative method. Do you work from a writer’s notebook?
         The first thing I do is get an overview on the time in history. I read some general books and figure out a basic timeline for the story based on historical events.
         After that, I weave my characters within the timeline, and then I start specific research. This is when I start interview people who were there.
         On each of these levels, I have WORD documents on my computer. Or I’ve recently started using a program called One Note. I have different files for timeline, characters, description, conflict, etc. Each of these have different title files.
         Then, once I have the research about 2/3 finished, I start writing. I open a document and plug in my research according to how I will need it.
         Then, I start writing.
 
War and Christian fiction seem like contradictory terms. Did you struggle with moral issues while writing Arms of Deliverance, or was Hitler vs the Allies too black & white?
         Hitler vs. the Allies is the general conflict of the book, but I also have more specific conflicts within each of the characters. Each one has their personal goals, motivations, and vices. These are not cardboard people. My “good guys” have personal struggles, and my bad guys aren’t 100% bad. Even with my Nazi officer, I try to get into his head to provide motivations for why he does what he does—not always moral motivations, but motivations all the same.
         So in essence war and Christian fiction are not contradictory. The Christian aspects of my novels deal with the people who are involved within the war.
 
Most women stayed home for WW-II, but your main characters, Mary and Lee, are both war-correspondents. Is your intended audience women? 
         I would say that most of my audience is women, but I also have a lot of male readers too. In addition to Mary and Lee’s point-of-view, the story is also told from the point-of-views of Eddie, a B-17 Navigator, and Hendrick, a Nazi officer.
         My favorite male readers are the WWII veterans I’ve interviewed, of course. Here is what one of them said:

It was a fascinating pleasure to watch the development of the author’s courageous young reporter. The description of airbase activities and flight in a B-17 bomber out of Bassingbourn, England brought back poignant memories of my personal wartime experiences.
I too flew with the 91st Bomb Group out of Bassingbourn as a Pathfinder Navigator. The descriptions of flight conditions are thought-provoking and accurate. Further, the author has pieced together an intriguing story with different segments. She skillfully guides the reader through peaks and valleys of why we fought, the struggle to win, nail-biting suspense, divine guidance, and . . . sweet victory.
Tricia Goyer has effectively captured the robust ‘Can Do’ spirit of World War II.
~~ John Howland
Pathfinder Navigator
91st Bomb Group
 
Is there a feminist message in Arms of Deliverance? 
         I suppose all of WWII could be considered “feminist” in nature, not out of rebellion, but out of necessity. Women were forced to do the jobs of men, as their husbands, boyfriends, and brothers went off to war. My characters are no different. They use this opportunity to excel in jobs once only held by men. They struggled in these roles, and as my novel shows, some choose to continue with their careers while others return to more traditional roles.
 
This is your fourth and final book in this series; are you looking forward to a new project?
         Yes, I’m currently working on a three book series on The Spanish Civil War. This war took place in Spain right before WWII. Hitler and Mussolini supported Franco and the Rebels. Russia and International Brigades from all over the world supported the Spanish people and their elected government. The first book, A Valley of Betrayal, (which I’m still writing!) will be out February 2007 . . . so I’ve been deep in the heart of Spain in my writing world.
 
I don’t believe in luck, so I’ll wish you His will. Where can we pick up a copy of Arms of Deliverance?
 
Arms of Deliverance is available at local Christian bookstores or at on-line bookstores such as Amazon.com. You can find out more at http://www.triciagoyer.com 
Thanks so much!
 
Thanks for the interview!

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Check out Tricia’s new release Arms of Deliverance at:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0802415563/ref=cm_arms_pdp_dp/102-3823501-9095348?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155

Plot Synopsis:
         The fourth and final novel in this exhilarating series capturing the tales of men and women swept into World War II. Two friends, Mary and Lee, land similar reporting jobs at the New York Tribune on the eve of the war’s outbreak and soon they become competitors. Mary’s coverage of a bombing raid over Germany leads to a plane wreck and an adventurous escape attempt from across enemy lines. And when Lee hears of Mary’s plight, she bravely heads to war-torn Europe in an effort to help rescue her friend. Will there be enough time for diplomacy or will war get the best of everyone?

“Frank,
Great blog. Good information. For me, an outline is extremely
necessary, because it helps me keep the story organized. It shows me
where I’m repeating myself, where the story is contrived, etc. Often,
when I’m writing an outline, I get so deep into the story and
characterization that I start writing actual dialogue and mixing it
with the chapter synopsis. When that happens, I get a much stronger
handle on the whole project. I remember the story better, so that
when I don’t get the chance to work on it, it’s still with me quite
strongly.”
 

For those who outline in depth, Donna’s method must be a wonderful tool. Such a detailed outline would mesh well with the subconscious mind for creative inspiration. Because of a mental handicap that cripples my short-term memory, I’m stuck with re-reading pages of notes plus my chapter-in-progress in order to “tune-back-in”. My own inspiration only comes either in light-bulbs throughout the day (that I scribble down and transfer into my three-ring-binder), or, more
productively, as my left-brain is running SO full throttle that I can’t type fast enough to capture all my thoughts.
 

Reflecting upon Donna’s technique brought back a conversation that my father (who was also a writer), and I had years ago. He’d been experiencing a period of writer’s block. As he lamented about his problem, it occurred to me that because I’m so used to troubleshooting ways around my mental condition, I’d been manhandling writer’s block for well over a year!
 

This was my e-mail reply to Donna:
 

“I’ve experienced that detailed kind of hyper-outlining before, but this topic leads into my definition of writer’s block. I don’t believe in it. Creative writing is left brain stuff. If I find myself sliding into creativity, I open my WIP and go-to-it. When word-count refuses to turn a phrase, that means my right brain is switched “on”. That’s when I work on my marketing plan or pull out my writer’s notebook and organize thoughts.”
 

A writer’s best quantitative standard of productivity is word-count; we set goals and we record daily figures. Then we get so focused on this single unit of measurement that we forget about less quantitative
aspects of the craft. Those one or two thousand words are our eight-days-a-week mandatory discipline; but what about e-mail, research and critiquing? I once read that there are other spheres of life beyond
writing: like enjoying family, community, worship and creation around us. It’s so easy to get caught-up. Balance your spheres, and engage yourself in His moment’s gift.”
 

We who escape into our craft are not unlike junkies; once we admit our problem we can balance our lives. Once we balance our live’s spheres, we’re living as He’d intended. –Frank Creed
 

CREDITS:
Thanks to my guest quotationist:
 

Donna Conger
http://www.donnaconger.com
I urge anyone who questions whether or not true love exists to read
Forgotten. You will know it is alive and well. –Janet Elaine Smith
http://janet_elaine_smith0.tripod.com/

THE TABS:
These will vary depending upon one’s form and genre. I write
speculative and fantasy fiction so my own look like this:

MARKETING/BUSINESS PLAN
NAMES LIST
SLANG DICTIONARY
ONE LINERS & PHRASES
SETTING AND BACKGROUND
CHARACTER PROFILES
RESEARCH
RPG/COMIC NOTES
WRITING TIPS
WISDOMS
NON-WIP IDEAS
SEQUEL NOTES

I’ll detail each of these categories in coming months, but a recent
question from the Fellowship of Christian Writers Newsgroup makes me
focus on the last in this list: the nebulous SEQUEL NOTES.
gificor@gmail.com asked, “I am trying to organize some of my short
story ideas into coherent story outlines.  Does anyone have advice and
examples?” The following methodology serves either long or short
fiction:
I begin with a concept, an inkling of story-line and characters, then
turn to my SEQUEL NOTES tab to gather up some particulars. My loose
outline is left intentionally rough in order to accommodate brainstorms
that occur as I create.

Themes: this is where I start. Meaningful fiction carries messages.
List here the social concerns that have weighted your heart to address
in future fiction.
Plots: I’ve begun with a kernel, but this treasure of notes fleshes out
the skeleton.
Scene Ideas: little mind’s-eye concepts that add silk leather and
velvet to each tale.
Characters: the heart of any story. By now I have enough of the story
constructed that I can fill one page bios.
Concepts: The little things that would otherwise slip the cracks
between characters and construct: symbolism, misdirection, strategy,
etc.
Snappy Lines: a record of THAT’S-what-I-should-have-said. One of the
advantages of our craft is time.

Every writer’s bag of tricks is of unique cloth, but each of us dumps
it out our work must have details and depth.
“Trifles go to make perfection, and perfection is no
trifle.”–Michelangelo Buonarroti

To God be the glory,
Scott “Frank Creed” Morris
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
e-mail: frankcreed@insightbb.com
Home: http://www.frankcreed.com
Blog: http://www.frankcreed.com/blog
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The news yesterday of my father’s death obviously blew the day’s
creative productivity right off the itinerary. I am so thankful for the
sixteen years He allowed dad and I to have together.  My mom and dad
divorced when I was about five, and she kept him out of my whole
childhood. It wasn’t until 1989 when I was living in the Chicago burbs
that my sister located dad here in Lafayette Indiana, and set up our
first meeting in nearly two decades. Over the next five years we
visited regularly and developed a wonderful relationship. In May of
1994 I moved to Lafayette and stayed at his house until I got
established. Back then I was working on my fantasy work, White Iron.
Dad had focused his lifelong creative efforts into entrepreneurism, and
had started several companies, but never enjoyed any degree of success.
My bouncing ideas off the old guy nourished a drive that he never knew
he had, and in the late nineties, he funneled his creative energy into
his first fantasy novel. Like the work of any new fiction writer, it
was bad, but he had a natural gift for plot-development and in six or
seven years really learned how to turn a phrase. I’d been driven to
write my whole life, so my father’s new interest opened a commonality
that gave a new depth to our relationship. A few yeas ago dad
discovered elfwood.com, the web’s largest fantasy and science fiction
site. He made many friends there and after a year, founded Fantasy
Writers International, a writer’s club for aspiring novelists. In
January of 2005 he solicited FWI’s members for contributions to an
anthology of high fantasy. The anthology’s completion was delayed my a
family crisis involving his sister in California. He and my grandmother
flew to California to support my aunt. The trip dragged out longer than
anticipated, and the decision was made that dad would fly back to
Illinois and drive my grandmother’s car to San Deigo. On the evening of
April first, somewhere around Fort Worth Tx, the car left the road and
rolled. He was ejected from the vehicle and found some fifteen feet
away by paramedics. Dad was immediately alert and responsive, but once
in the ICU the only movement of which he was capable below the waist
was the movement of his big toes. Then he went unconscious. My brother
informed me that dad coded four times in the early AM hours of April
second and never regained consciousness. At about 7:30 PM my brother
again phoned phoned, this time with the news that dad had been declared
brain-dead.
C.S. Lewis wrote A Grief Observed after Joy, his wife of three years,
was taken by cancer. After weeks of his soul’s torment Lewis turned a
corner. At this point he wondered why he couldn’t see that there was
nothing to do with suffering but suffer it. In 1996 these words
comforted me when my mother died of complications brought about by
Multiple Sclerosis. Lewis’ same words sustain me now.
Dad was so happy in the last years of his life, and although he was not
able to hold the finished book in his hands, assembling this anthology
for his fantasy fiction club was his dream come true. My wife, Cynthia,
is the anthology’s editor and told me last night that she’s decided to
see this project’s completion. Dad’s dream will be posthumously
realized. It has, over the last twenty-four hours, slowly occurred to
me that this book will stand, in my mind, as a memorial. Regardless of
any future success that I may enjoy as a novelist, this secular fantasy
anthology will undoubtedly stand as my life’s most meaningful published
work. It will be a physical symbol to the years with my father with
which He blessed us.
Thank you Father for the time with my father.

Do you feel there is a stigmatism that says, “self-published writers aren’t as good of writers as ‘traditionally’ published writers”?
“In 1994 Barnes & Noble reported that books from the 10 largest publishers accounted for thee quarters of their purchases. By 1997 these 10 leaders accounted for less than half of the books bought.”–Jump Start Your Book Sales, by Marilyn and Tom Ross. Indies and SPs are biting into traditional houses’ market shares, which is why the big boys only solicit famous authors, why it’s harder than ever for a new author to receive an acceptance letter, and why Random House has entered the POD game. RH is either trying to snatch up all the little fish, or has entered into the if-you-can’t-beat-em-join-em wisdom. Even if a ‘traditional’ house accepts an author, all they get is a little shotgun marketing; you’re accepted not because you’re good, but because you can sell books. The days of holing-up with a muse and a keyboard in a comfortable apartment, are over. The only person who’s going to publish a new author is the new author. This concept is what changed my mind about SP.

I’ve also seen Peter Bowerman’s self-publishing strategy reflected in the January’s Writer’s Digest (cover story I think, but the cat messed on it and we had to toss it out). The upshot is that internet has forever changed the industry because SPs now have access to all the privileged information that used to keep us at the mercy of the
pedestaled ‘traditional’ houses. I own a 2002 Writer’s Market (stop laughing), and in that year compiled a list of Christian Fiction publishers. In 2004 I subscribed to WM online, and discovered that MORE THAN HALF of the publishers on my list were either out of business, or ceased accepting unsolicited unagented manuscripts. As long as one has a polished edited manuscript and successfully creates market demand, booksellers will be driven to the SP. I’ve spent a decade on Flashpoint, and now I’ve CHOSEN to make five dollars per copy instead of bowing before the altar of tradition, and netting less than one dollar. In order to use the talents He’s invested in me as a
full-time income in our modern world, I have to make ends-meet, and pay the bills. If I can do that on one fifth the book-sales of tradition, then SP seems the wiser choice.

From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down I was
convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it. — Groucho Marx

By Frank Creed
 
           In my youth there existed a large demographic of Bible-believers who referred to Christian Rock & Roll as demonic. Their argument ran something like this: If you’d lived in the puritanical Fifties like we had, and you saw Elvis-the-Pelvis move like that, you’d have crossed yourself with holy water.
           Given the times, I probably would have.
           But this is a different millenium. Every television two-minute-commercial-break, North America is spammed with sexually-explicit-cubed. Our animated-G-rated “children’s” movies are seeded with adult comments once-per-minute, yet we’re trying to raise a new generation of  ambassadors from Heaven in this place? We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God was making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God (2nd Corinthians five, verse twenty, (NIV)). Me-thinks that if there were a New-World to which we could all sail and start anew, most would be packin’ even as I type. But we’re fresh outta’ new worlds. We can no longer flee the Biblical command to be in the world but not of it. Since we’re stuck here, what do Christian children think when we allow them to watch Cinderella, Snow White, and The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, then curse Harry Potter? Why is Star Wars okay, but Isaac Asimov bad, and why on Earth do Christians file Role-Playing-Games in the same mental box as Ouija boards? With this kind of confusion, how will they be equipped to make proper distinctions when encountering the mysterious?
           Now back to Elvis. In the late Seventies and early Eighties, when it finally occurred to Christian record-producers that they could imitate pop-music and reap healthy profits (yes, it took some twenty-five years—we are a slow bunch) they met with outcry from old-school Bible-believers. Rightly outraged grandparents argued that rock-music was of Satan, and could not glorify God.
           I submit that this was impotent hand-wringing.
           Inanimate objects are neither morally Satanic nor Theistic. Art forms may be employed to either worship or blaspheme. The old-school was wrong.
           Yet in our new millenium, the people who haven’t figured out how to diagnose sin, still bemoan that which threatens them, that which they don’t understand. Is rock-music inherently evil? What if it’s Christian rock? Have you ever read any Creed lyrics (my personal favorite)?
           Are ideas of intelligent alien life-forms blasphemous? Do you believe in angels?
           Is magic the equivelant of Satanism? What about Fairy Godmothers and the Good Witch of the North?
           I am not saying that morality is shades of grey, it is indeed very black and white. I am saying that we who are quick to judge must not do so from some instinctive and ignorant fear. Our sub-culture is in full retreat from popular culture. Because of this we fall into the Islamic mindset of idealizing an earlier golden-age that never existed: an age when Fantasy (Snow White), was not yet a taboo genre. We protectively cocoon our children, and purchase firearms (I personally have and use an Indiana hand-gun license-to-carry).
           With her children’s best interests enshrined, our mother secluded my sisters and I behind a trusty societial curtain. She ignored Second Corinthians: three through six: For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weaopns we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we will take captive every thought to make it obiedient to Christ (NIV). Rather, Mom tucked us safely away within the folds of her Christian subculture.
           Her problem was, we grew up, moved out, and faced the world, with wide eyes. She’d not thought that far ahead. Rather than exposing us to limited doses of ‘secular’ and using given opporutunities to discuss current events, Mom forceably stuck our heads in the sand. Without revealing personal demons, suffice-it to say that my siblings and I met the real world naked as a monk on brown-robe-laundry-day.
           But Mom got one thing right—the exception to our cultural isolationism. She allowed us to play Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.
            I know, the unforgivable sin; take a deep breath and read-on.
         She had faith in her ability to teach us the difference between Biblical reality and magical fantasy. She allowed us to fantasize, and therefore encouraged our imagination (the result is that I’m a novelist and my sister, Lydia, is a Blogging poet). But once Mom had heard the media’s controversial reports on gaming, she became attentive to our past-time, feigning interest, asking confusing questions that had nothing to do with AD&D but everything to do with weirdness. Our being baffled at weirdness convinced Mom that we were just having fun, and in the end she came away convinced that we were safe.
           My point is that Harry Potter and The Matrix are discussion-points for Christian families, not taboo materials. Fantasy and Sci-Fi explore human ideas, as will our children. These genres seek answers to important questions, questions to which the Bible contains thunderous answers.
           Someone once said that Fantasy and Sci-Fi are the handmaidens of philosophy, because they explore the possibilities behind reality. Sooner or later, our children will face these boundaries. They’ll face them either with, or without us. Parents too busy to provide real guidance will be ignored.
           Since we have the wisdom of experience, the logical arguments of theologians, and the loving trust of our children, let’s not cement those ill-mannered rascals behind brick-walls. Rather, communicate His answers to their curiosities. For centuries, both believers and unbelievers have tried our own solutions in place of His, and for centuries we’ve failed
           When will we learn to trust Him?