By Your Love for One Another

Our collaboration from 2012

John 13:34-35 (NIV)

³⁴ “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵ By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

What a wonderful community we have as Australian Christian Writers.

 Having lead Omega Writers for four years, I’ve had the privilege of seeing connections made, friendships formed, cooperation enacted, partnerships agreed upon. In the few years since I passed that mantle onto Penny Reeve, that glorious network has continued to grow. It warms the heart to see a thriving community of Christian writers. As our region of the world is small (in numbers) there is so much to be gained by standing together to encourage and promote creative writing.

But that doesn’t mean we will always experience roses and sunshine.

 The closer we become, the more chance there is of us finding out each other’s faults. This likelihood is increased when authors choose to work together in cooperation on certain projects.

Just like every other family or community, there is going to be diversity of character, personality, experience.

Each of us will have a different way to write; a different way to discipline our process; different achievement goals; different perceptions of God’s Grace, and how it works; different social justice understandings, and how they should work. Goodness, we will barrack for different teams in sport, or won’t follow sport at all.

The thing about this wonderful colourful depth of experience and personality is that it is like two echidnas falling in love. How they come together must be done very carefully.

The thing we all have in common is our love for God, through the wonderful saving power of His son, Jesus Christ. That, and our passion for engaging a message of hope through writing.

Through my work with various Christian leadership and creative teams, I have found that this diversity means I work with leaders who don’t always agree. But so far, the grace of God in our midst has allowed most leadership teams to find consensus and move forward in grace and peace.

Most writers are leaders. A person who can discipline themselves to learn and apply from conception through to product is a person who has the ability to lead themselves, and most likely others around them.

I’ve worked in Christian leadership situations since I was sixteen. I’ve seen the good, the bad and the beautiful over forty something years. Sometimes we can be ugly. Sometimes we are offended. Sometimes we are reactive. Sometimes we are tired. Sometimes we are frustrated. And sometimes others see a version that is not our best self.

What do we do in these situations?

The opening Scripture: “…everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” sounds like good advice, but if we are honest, we don’t always feel very loving. Sometimes we’d like to give someone a piece of our mind.

In my long experience of conflict management (can you believe I’ve ever had conflict in my life? Joke) loving someone means submitting everything to God and asking for his wisdom and grace. We need His strategy in how to navigate towards restoration and His peace.  It isn’t always easy. Actually, I’ve never found it to be easy. 

That is the thing about love. If it is easy, it probably isn’t deep, abiding, Christ-like love.

I have a strong and bossy personality. A number of people have told me this over many years. I don’t like hearing it, as it’s usually delivered in a derogatory sense. Sure there might be a chuckle to go along with it, but I want to believe I’m a sweet easy-going personality. Needless to say, there has been more than one occasion when I’ve put my foot in my mouth, and followed it up by opening my mouth to change feet.  I don’t want to hurt anybody. But it is an inevitable part of being a strong and confident personality. So what do I do when someone reacts.

My human nature wants to fire up and shoot back, but the grace of God, which has grown to some degree in my life, calms me down, and I pause to reflect.

What have I done to cause this reaction? Has the other person got the wrong end of the stick, or have I been insensitive? Either way, I need to open up dialogue when the time is right, and apologise. Sometimes the apology goes like this: “I’m sorry that you were hurt by what I said. I perhaps didn’t express myself properly. This is what I really meant.”

Sometimes I realise I have been insensitive and what I said was a trigger or unnecessarily harsh. I just need to straight up apologise.

I have learned, however, that waiting for the right time is important. Blundering into a volatile situation, even with the best intentions, often adds insult to injury. Best to wait on God for His timing. But I keep the situation before him in prayer, and ask for the courage, grace and wisdom to reach out when it is right.

As our Christian writing community continues to grow, and as many of us form connections and working relationships, I encourage us all to reflect on the love and grace of God.

 One thing I know we would all want is for those around us to know we are Christians by our love for one another.

Blessed be the name of the Lord, Jesus Christ.

 

Please look out this month for the release of 'My Funny Valentine' box set of sweet clean rom coms (NB not Christian Fiction). Our romantic comedy 'Daring Mr Darcy' is featured in this set. Loads of fun from Carolyn Miller and myself. Available for pre order now.

Also, a group of Australian Christian authors (+ one Kiwi and one American) have banded to release a series of contemporary Christian romance novels. The Trinity Lakes Romance series will start at the end of February with Narelle Atkin's 'Never Find Another You'. Available for pre-order now. 

My title, 'The Ocean Between Us' will be released next month.

 Meredith Resce, author of the 'Luella Linley - License to Meddle' series and the 'Heart of Green Valley' series. For more information please visit her website www.meredithresce.com

 

 

20 Books to 50K, Adelaide: a review

On January 6, 2023, my wife Sue and I, with about one hundred others, attended the 20 Books to 50k one-day seminar in Adelaide. Attendees were from all over Australia, and there were casual get-togethers the night before and afterward, to network.

If you are in the dark about 20 Books to 50K; that is not a set formula, but it is aimed at people who aspire to ethically make money from their writing purely by self-publishing, either exclusively on Amazon or across a spectrum of sales channels. And to succeed, you must understand how to market your writing and how to grow your author business. So, you need the right tools—ideas and strategies—and know when and how to use them. And your failsafe is your wider support networks.

Good writing sells, but the cream does not automatically rise to the top. Platforms such as Amazon are crowded with millions of offerings. It takes know-how to put yourself in a position where readers will see your work—and be persuaded to part with their money for your content, whatever that might be. Then, it’s an art to keep those people on board so they buy from you again. The good news is that it can be done, but if it’s not done properly, your efforts will just be part of the literature fog.

Craig Martelle, who is an urban fantasy, thriller and sci-fi author from Alaska, chaired the seminar. Here is a small sample of his fictional offerings.

Martelle, together with Michael Anderle, started 20booksto50k as a Facebook Group in early 2016. It has 68000 members now—so, yeah! His mission through 20booksto50k is to aid the professional development of authors via shared opportunities, camaraderie, and targeted philanthropy. He looks to spend everything he makes, not just on advertising and business costs, but on helpers, other authors and travel. Because Craig’s mission is to empower writers to make writing their business (rather than a hobby or side-hustle), he bankrolled the other seminar speakers and venue hire, meaning the attendees only had to fork out for the catering. Like, wow!

He saw family in Australia, ran the seminar in Adelaide, then did a little tourism before popping across the ditch to run another seminar in Auckland. 

Here are his craft books (links to Amazon). He was rather busy in 2022, also churning out 10 new fiction books, as well, plus some collaborations.

If you are interested in viewing YouTube content of his craft seminars, there was a three day event in Las Vegas last year: search “20Books Vegas”. If that doesn’t hit the spot, you are hard to please!

My main takeaway from the seminar was:

Writing to market

Writing to market does not mean writing to the latest trends. For instance, I personally have no desire to write in sub-genres that, by their nature, cannot honour Christ. One such romance sub-genre, reverse harem (RH), is at the top of the pops right now. And, at the gathering, I talked to well-meaning, otherwise sensible people who were writing just that, as it would sell.

But trends come quickly and can disappear at the same speed. But romance itself will always be in style. It is generally an honourable genre. After all, Christ gave up his life to buy back his bride, us, so we could have union with him, God. It is not called the Great Romance for nothing. 

Writing to market involves writing in categories so people know what to expect. There is literary fiction which is always character-driven and usually a study of the human condition when faced with real life challenges and then there is genre fiction. Readers who want mystery might expect to follow a crime or some abnormality (such as a disappearance) from its happening to its solution; and likewise, genres such as romance, life story, thriller or suspense, speculative fiction, women’s fiction, etc., all have their standard form and content which caches the storyline. There are some genres that fit together well, like mystery-thriller or historical romance.

The problem comes when a story, the story you are trying to sell, doesn’t fit so nicely into one of these established categories. The power of the market is a rather broad but finite range of product-types, each having its own niche in that market. But just like that product you can’t find on the supermarket shelves, if your work is an unusual mix of genres, it can be difficult to place.

So, if you are struggling to select the appropriate ‘shelf’ of the online bookstore for the book you have written, your readers may not enjoy your book because it was not quite what they expected. And if it’s not on the first page of a targeted search, you are not going to get chance buys, as few potential buyers will browse past the visible window.

As well as genre, readers are guided by familiar tropes. Now, there’s a whole separate topic here—tropes are to do with your story premise—for example: good versus evil, or rags to riches—use them too much and the story is hackneyed. Use them too little and the readers get lost without familiar guideposts.

So, I guess, writing to market is really important if you want the general public to buy and read your books.

Of course, if your market is your family or a niche group, then all good. You know what they expect. Carry on. You’ve got this!

Writing Sprints

The seminar wasn’t all speculative, as most of the participants had already published something. They simply needed guided affirmation that they were doing the best they could. 

Sue enjoyed the seminar too, although she had seen some of these concepts before. The greatest benefit for her was networking with other authors doing well. To maintain the rage, she organised writing sprints (timed periods of writing) with people she met at the seminar. This was as much for accountability, as the shared experience.

But you can't go to a seminar about writing, without well, um...writing. All attendees were given a writing sprint exercise--three times during the day.

And the question for today, is how do you describe the smell of peppermint to someone who has never had the sense of smell?

Try it now. Think laterally. Set the timer. You have five minutes. Happy writing!

Marc Jeffrey is an Adelaide-based author and poet who loves to craft words in times when his beautiful wife and lively dog (Shih tzu cross Chihuahua) are asleep. He writes of hope and justice, depositing his characters in the nexus between the ‘what is’ and the ‘what if’ – while wondering if he can leave the house without waking anyone up. 

He is long-time member of the ‘Literati’ writing group, that grew out of the Tabor Adelaide Creative Writing program. When he’s not writing, Marc listens to his favourite music, which ranges from Cold Chisel to Claude Debussy

Back to Beginnings

 This past weekend I spent much of my time in the pages of my debut novel. It’s been ten years since it was fresh off the press and, in advance of a new novel release later this year, my first book baby is getting a facelift for a revised edition to mark this anniversary.

For those who have navigated the book-release path, have any of you re-read something you published early in your writing journey? Did you want to put a pen through some of the passages your “older self” (in a writing context) would have never worded that way? Did the structure and pace still work for you? Did you find yourself falling in love with your characters and story all over again? Did you have a little cringe when you noticed things that could have done with a little extra context and background research? None of the above? All of the above?

For me, it was an “all” experience. But it also revealed to me how much I’ve grown as a writer since those early publication days (and reminded me how much I’m STILL learning—that never stops!). Several times I’ve heard authors apologise for their early work, yet I have gone on to thoroughly enjoy those stories. Yes, there may have been little pieces here and there that could have been reworked, but the heart and soul of the story was still solid and the characters captivating.

In those “sorry, it was my early work” moments, I’ve always had mixed feelings. As a writer, I sure do get it. Some of my manuscripts never saw the light of day—well, not yet—and I am SO grateful for that. However, those beginning works are also an essential part of our writing growth, and there cannot be any future “more developed” works without that first publication.

It can be a challenging thing to share your writing drafts when you’re in those early days, especially with someone outside your safe circle. To send all your blood, sweat and tears off to a professional for critiquing or editing can be enough to make one nauseous. Do you know how many writers never get published because they found the path to publication too hard? Many more writers give up than the ones that see their stories in print.

So if you are a published author, I encourage you to celebrate that achievement, including your first “book baby” and all the “firsts” it brought you.

If you are yet to be published, I encourage you to keep writing and learning and if you’re feeling discouraged and a bit bumped and bruised, it might be time to pick yourself up again, set some goals, and get back on that writing horse. It’ll probably buck you off a few more (multi-dozen!!!) times, but each hard landing and consequential bruises are valuable learning, so long as you allow them to be and don’t succumb to offense or discouragement.

And as CWD members, what a joy to celebrate each person’s writing journey! I love that about this group. (Not to mention as a reader I’ve discovered a wealth of awesome books along the way.) If you take nothing else away from this post, why not invest a few minutes to do something encouraging for a writer whose work has marked your world for the better? That might be a review, a recommendation, an email, or even a shout out in the comments below. Whatever it might be, do something. I know you will make some writer’s day. 😊

Queensland author Adele Jones writes young adult fringe and near-science fiction exploring the underbelly of bioethics and confronting teen issues that include disability, self-worth, loss, domestic conflict, and more. She also writes historical fiction, poetry, inspirational non-fiction and short fictional works, with themes of social justice, humanity, faith, natural beauty and meaning in life’s journey. Adele’s first YA novel Integrate (book one of the Blaine Colton Trilogy) was awarded the 2013 CALEB Prize for unpublished manuscript. As a speaker she seeks to present a practical and encouraging message by drawing on themes from her writing. For more visit www.adelejonesauthor.com or contact[at]adelejonesauthor.com

Things are Not what they Seem!

by Anusha Atukorala

When Covid came to visit South Australia, I settled down to a long season of hibernation, like a sleepy old bear at dead of winter. My only trips outdoors were to the supermarket or for exercise. No church. No coffees with friends. No nothing. Last September, Covid knocked on my door and then squashed me flat for several months! Once I got better, I was surprised to find, that like stumbling across a bright red rose in the middle of a scorching desert, Covid had brought with it a number of unexpected blessings. For a start, I now had the greenlight to step out of my front door and to start doing life again. 

What a precious gift!

God had led me out of my former church - and it was time to find a new one. After visiting several churches, I was a little discouraged. Would I ever find a church that was right for me? Silly question and I should have known better. God is always faithful. The first time I visited my now church home, they had a service of celebration, with God as the focus – not our human agendas but Jesus alone! Of course, it was the right home church for me. 

Thank You God!

Recently, I was delighted to hear of a prayer initiative at church which would span four consecutive weeks. The mid-day time slot worked well for me, so on the first Wednesday, I drove to church excitedly, spotting numerous cars in the car park. I thrilled to the fact that so many had turned up to pray. When I went into the sanctuary, though, it was empty. One of the pastors came out … only two of us were present for that lunch time prayer-session. I’d been fooled by the cars in the car park. Apparently they were there for a weight watchers session next door! Very disappointing!

It’s easy to draw the wrong conclusions through outward appearances, isn’t it? In reality, it turned out to be a wonderful God-exalting time of praise and prayer. A holy hour it was! I can now vouch for the fact that sometimes, two is the best number after all.

If two of you shall agree on earth concerning anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in Heaven. Matthew 18:19-20  

Thank You Jesus!

Dear friend, how are you doing today? Has life bashed you around ... like a delicate silk scarf being tossed around in a dryer? I do understand. Life happens, often with its own ideas of fair play, leaving you and me gasping for breath and scratching our heads in bewilderment. But here’s the thing. What we might think is no progress as Christian writers may actually be our best stint after all. As we writers know so well, often, things are not what they seem! It's true in the stories we write and it happens in real life too! The problem is that while I enjoy plot twists in the novels I read, I don't relish those plot twists in my own life. 

God is at work behind the scenes in ways you and I have no idea. Against my better inclination, I have been forced to concentrate on my health issues for a number of years, so my writing has taken a back seat. But what seemed to be years of little output are in retrospect years of research. His plans … ah! They are the good ones. They are the best ones. I’ve spent hours at His feet, seeking Him, finding Him and learning all about living well and what life in the kingdom of God looks like. What better way to get ideas and input for my next book than through life’s training school? Thank You God!

So tell me, dear friend, what has your journey been like in the last year or two? If your progress has not been as fast as you’d like, a New Year might be the right time to change that? Don’t be fooled by the enemy’s proposal that it’s too late. Not true. He’s the Father of lies, so don’t believe him. Are you discouraged at the lack of your book sales? (I hear you! It’s time I did something about mine. Arrrrgh!) Do you feel a failure? You are never a failure when you’ve been obedient to what He’s called you to do. Success in the world’s terms and God’s are very different, as different as a stagnant pool compares to a swirling stream.

Do you think that you’ve little to offer the world? Now that's the enemy’s voice! Who you are and what you do matters! It matters a lot. 2023 might just be your best year yet. He has good plans for you. Your path might look different to others’. But that’s totally okay. It’s only in eternity that you will understand what God did, with what you may think were detours or wasted hours and years.

Is God writing a different story through your life than what you envisaged or hoped for? Are you tempted to take back His pen into your own hand? Let’s not be fooled by the enemy’s whispers, whenever trouble dogs our steps. God’s Authorship is one we can trust. It may look as if He’s not in control but we know better, don’t we? We can trust His Word. We can trust Him to write a page-turner in and through our lives.

Let’s pick up our pens and write as He leads. He will bless the world through our yielded hearts. If you feel down or discouraged, do know that God’s got you in His mighty Hands. The Holy Spirit goes before you. He sings songs of deliverance over you today. And as you trust Him, He will use you this New Year, 2023 to bring His kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

Keep writing. Keep living.

Keep being YOU!

The world needs you. And God does too!

Anusha’s been on many interesting detours in life, as a lab technician, a computer programmer, a full time Mum, a full time volunteer, a charity director, a full time job chaser, until one golden day (or was it a dark moonless night?) God tapped her on her shoulder and called her to write for Him. She has never recovered from the joy it brought her. She loves to see others enjoying life with Jesus and does her mite to hurry the process in her world through her writing and through her life. The goodness of God is her theme song through each season, as she dances in the rain with Jesus.

Her first book Enjoying the Journey contains 75 little God stories that will bring you closer to your Creator. Her 2^nd book ‘Dancing in the Rain’ brings you hope and comfort for life’s soggy seasons. Her 3rd book, ‘Sharing the Journey’ is a sequel to 'Enjoying the Journey'.

 

Do drop in on her two websites to say G’day! She’d love to connect with you.

Dancing in the Rain - https://anusha-atukorala.webnode.page/

Light in the Darkness- https://light-in-the-darkness00.webnode.page/

The Interaction of Characters and Their Settings

 

Have you ever read a book that had some lovely passages of description, but you still wanted to skip over them? You might be the kind of person who prefers action, and you want to get on with the story rather than knowing the intricacies of Aunt Muriel’s petunias. But another reason is that the description is sitting all by itself and not interacting with poor Aunt Muriel.

I was a social psychology lecturer for 25 years, and environmental psychology was one of the topics I taught. In a nutshell, environmental psychology looks at how people and settings co-influence one another.

• People affect natural and built environments in both positive and negative ways.
• Natural and built environments affect people in positive and negative ways.
• Unlike the boy band, these effects do not just go in One Direction. They interact with each other, such that people affect the environment, which in turn affects people, who in turn affect the environment and so on. (And yes, I realise One Direction has broken up.)

So, what has all of this got to do with writing fiction? Think about it in terms of your setting. Are your characters interacting with their settings or are you just telling us what’s in the setting? Let me give an example.

Interacting With Settings

An Example

I read a manuscript extract in which a woman came home and went into the kitchen to make dinner. The author then gave a long paragraph describing the kitchen. She had really put a lot of thought into it and had excellent skills at technical writing. The walls weren’t just blue or yellow, they were particular shades, like the types you would find on a painter’s chart. Kitchen utensils and pots were hanging from hooks on the ceiling. There was a clear description of the layout of the room, including a window over the sink that looked out across the yard.

However, there was just one problem. The description was static. It was as if the character stood to one side while the description of the setting played out. There was no interaction between the character and the setting. 

Show, Don't Tell

Some good old ‘show don’t tell’ would have gotten across the same information. Instead of the author telling us that pots were hanging from the ceiling, the character could reach for one of the pots and put it on the wooden bench. She could open up the pantry cupboard and move aside the cereal boxes to find the pasta. She could go over to the sink and look out the window while rinsing the cutting board she needs to use. That kind of writing is much more engaging than simply giving us a description. By showing the character interacting with the environment, we're not only getting an idea of the setting, but we're also learning about the person.

Avoid Information Drops

Another advantage of having your character interacting with the setting is that you can drop information in a bit at a time when needed, rather than doing the dreaded info dump that encourages a reader to skip over the boring bits. We don't need to know that Grandpa's hunting knife is in the kitchen drawer until someone uses it to carve the Sunday roast.

Setting as Character

In some books, the environment plays such an important role that it is like a character in itself. For example, Susan May Warren set about half of her novel The Way of the Brave on the snowy slopes of Denali in Alaska, where the characters had to fight the elements to stay alive. If you write biblical fiction, think about what it would have been like for Noah and his family to spend so long in the Ark while waiting until the ground was habitable again. Or what would it have been like for the Israelites to spend 40 years in the wilderness? How would you have liked living in a tent with your family for all those years?

Questions to Ponder

Now think about your current work-in-progress.

• Are your characters riding the boundary of their drought-stricken farm to check the livestock? Show us the desolation of the land and the riders.
• Are two people walking through the CBD of a large city? Maybe the traffic is so loud that they have trouble hearing each other, so they have to shout or move to a quieter location.
• Are they stuck in a crowded elevator? Give us a sense of the claustrophobia and panic as it sets in. Is he loosening his tie? Is she thumping the call button?
• Do they go fishing and toss their empty drink cans into the river? Or do they spend Saturday mornings doing litter parade at the beach?
• Do they rearrange the tables and chairs in a coffee shop so that everyone in their group has plenty of room, or do they squish up so there’s four in a booth that usually seats two?

There is a myriad of possibilities, but whatever decisions you make, be sure that your descriptions are advancing character or plot. Don’t just have it rain for the sake of it. Have it rain so we can see how the caterer copes with the quickly rejigged garden party, or so the hero and heroine have to stand close together under a tree to stay dry.

Do you have examples of novels that have done a particularly good job of showing the person interacting with their environment? I’d love to hear your examples.

Author Bio

Nola Lorraine (aka Nola Passmore) has a passion for faith and social justice issues, and loves weaving words that inspire others with courage and hope. Her inspirational historical novel Scattered was published in 2020, and she also co-edited the Christian charity anthology Glimpses of Light with Jeanette O’Hagan. She has more than 150 short publications, including fiction, poetry, devotions, true stories, magazine articles and academic papers. She and her husband Tim also run a freelance writing and editing business, The Write Flourish. She’d love to connect with you through her website: www.nolalorraine.com.au

Photo Sources

Author photo by Wayne Logan at WRLPhoto.

Surfing dog by StarFlames on Pixabay.

Happy New Year from Omega Writers!

Welcome to 2023!

Omega Writers has lots planned for 2023 ... with more ideas in the pipeline. Make sure you don't miss out on any important information by signing up as a member of Omega Writers. Click here to find out more.

The 2023 CALEB Award

The 2023 CALEB Awards will be for unpublished writers in the following categories:

• Unpublished Adult Fiction
• Unpublished Young Adult Fiction
• Unpublished Nonfiction

The contest is open to Australian and New Zealand Christian writers with a completed manuscript. Note that the 2023 contest is for unpublished writers. However, published fiction authors will be permitted to enter the nonfiction category, and published nonfiction authors may enter one of the fiction categories.

Entries will open on 1 April and close on 30 April, so now is the time to finish your manuscript to ensure you're ready to enter.

Conference

Omega Writers won't be running an in-person conference this year, but there will be an online conference in October. Dates, speakers, and cost will be available later in the year.

As always, members of Omega Writers will be able to register for a discounted rate.

Chapter Groups

Local Omega groups and special interest groups will continue. Omega currently has several groups who meet in person on a regular basis. These are based in:

• Sydney
• Wollongong
• Brisbane
• Toowoomba
• Melbourne
• Geelong
• Adelaide
• Tasmania

There are also two Zoom groups:

• Tasmania
• Fantasy/Science Fiction

Click here to check the Omega website for further details.