World Hunger

In a world capable of producing enough food to eradicate hunger and starvation, it is astonishing that we seem to be slipping further and further behind. Almost 850 million people in the world are malnourished, with over 5 million children perishing each year of starvation. As bleak as this picture seems, it is likely to get much worse. On a worldwide basis, the cost of food has jumped almost 50 percent in the last year. Rice, the staple food of over half of the world’s population, has gone up 100 percent. Factor in the expected storms, droughts, and other natural disasters, plus political unrest and war, and you have a bleak picture that will probably get even worse than the current estimates. Relief organizations are already overtaxed. It is time for churches and other private organizations to do what they can. Check with your church, synagogue, or mosque and see if they already have a program in place. If they don’t, you might want to start an effort yourself to elevate some of the suffering.

DON'T FORGET THE SMALL MAGAZINES

I was pleased when NEWN Magazine printed the first chapter of Abraham’s Bones in their Spring Issue. NEWN is a small but prestigious magazine that has served writers since 1994. During those years they have published many hundreds of stories, poems and essays, many of them by beginning writers. At the end of the year they will cease publication, but will continue to serve writers with correspondence courses, workshops, and personal contact. I salute Glenda Baker and the fine staff who have meant so much to struggling writers through the years.

Are we headed toward another boycott of the Olympics?

The origin of the Olympics is shrouded in mystery, but we know the first competition was organized more than 3000 years ago. Combat in that era was frequent and intense, but it was agreed that any battle would be postponed for the duration of the competition. This was a worthwhile goal, but in reality it has not been realized. Today, politics has often reared its ugly head in the form of boycotts, riots, and terrorism. There has not been an Olympics in recent years that was not effected in some way with political protest. Sixty-two nations supported us when we banned our athletes from performing in the Moscow events, 22 African countries boycotted the games in Montreal, and the Russians boycotted . . . well, I can't remember the reason for that. In all of this political posturing, we seem to forget the poor athletes. All of them have trained long and hard for their chance, and we ban them from participating because . . . I will let you fill in the blanks. I have a suggestion. Why don't we ban rocking chairs, or inline skates, or how about coffee, and leave the athletes alone. Banning any of the aforementioned makes just as much sense, and would probably accomplish just as much. That is my suggestion. What is yours?

Looking for the perfect weight loss program?

A friend of mine was a little heavy, not fat mind you, but just a few pounds more than she should have been carrying on her five foot four inch frame. The men who liked her used the word ‘ample’ to describe her figure, while a few of the women referred to her as ‘chunky.’ Dieting was a frequent topic of discussion when she was in the break room. These discussions were usually instigated by the ones who ate like a bird and had never carried an extra pound in their life.

Tired of the subtle hints and the sidelong glances from some of her coworkers, she searched and found the perfect weight loss program. It came in a box that looked remarkably like the ones containing a game called Monopoly. I could not see what the cards and pads had to do with losing weight, so she explained it to me. The most interesting item was a little cardboard envelope shaped like the ones they use to serve fries in at the fast food places. This was called the ‘point container,’ and you were supposed to keep it nearby—in a shirt pocket or in the top of a purse—where is would serve as a reminder.

Leaving off an extra helping of potatoes earned you a point that went into the ‘point container.’ A large slice of chocolate cake was worth two points. The goal was to try to accumulate 35 points in any given week. Now here is the good part and I can whip up an appetite just thinking about it. You could redeem the points by trading twelve of them for a banana split or nine for a small T-bone steak.

“I don’t think this is going to help,” I told her as gently as I could. “Here is what I do to control my weight,” I began, but I had only reached the middle of the second sentence when she interrupted.

“What do you know about dieting?" she demanded. "You have never carried an extra ounce in your life! I have talked to Bill about this and he thinks it will work.”

At that time, Bill weighed around 300 pounds, and none of it was in the right places. I tried again, explaining that she should talk to someone who was thin, and see what they were eating and the size of the portions.

“Look, you idiot!” she screamed at me. “Bill has been on a hundred diets during his lifetime. Why should I talk to someone who has never had any weight problems?”

There is a strange logic in her way of thinking. If I figure it out—and I am still working on this—I am going to use it in a novel.

What time is it? A writer's minor nightmare.

Someone asked me recently what was the most irritating thing about writing. For a moment I thought she had asked, 'what is the most difficult thing about writing,' and I was prepared to launch into a long list of difficult things and let her take her pick. With this unexpected question, she had brought to mind one of those little irritating things, almost as bad as finding a tangle in your kids hair on 'picture day' at the elementary school. A lot of tiny things will drive the most level headed among us up the wall. We are programed to solve BIG problems, and the tiny things will drive us nuts. I encountered an especially irritating one when I was working on my last novel. The plot involves part of the characters -- located in Washington -- having to communicate with their counterparts in Israel. Different time zones, and as I continued to plot out the story, I discovered there was a larrrrrrrrrrrrge problem with one group in bed while the other group was in the middle of their workday. Most books occur in the same time zone, or at the most, involve two people having to communicate across no more that the width of United States. I found myself having to work out the current time in both places with irritating frequency. Then I ran across a website at http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/ that listed all of the major cities around the world and the current time. Today, with increased travel and so many of our friends and loved ones in uniform, this might be a good link to write down and keep handy. A lot of people aren't really happy at being awaken in the wee hours of the morning.

Christian Stories Taking Over Hollywood? What in Heaven's name is going on!

There is a story circulating in Hollywood that Mel Gibson offered his screenplay, Passion of the Christ, to every studio in town, only to have it rejected by each and every one. Having faith in the message it proclaimed, Gibson decided to finance it himself. After earning over 300 million dollars, the heads of the studios are wondering at the business decisions that caused this colossal financial mistake. There can be no doubt that Christian fiction is hot right now, with publishing companies like Harvest House, Tyndale, or Zondervan leading the field. What is behind this phenomenon, many people are wondering. Christian fiction has been around for a long time, but more and more readers are discovering these wonderful stories and the uncanny way they have of offering a solution to the problems in their everyday lives. It seems that television and the movies are becoming less interesting to most of us, as they continued to offer nothing but sex and violence. More and more people are turning to older programs and books, even though most of them are about an America that half of our population has never experienced. Readers demand something that speaks to today's world. The next time you are in a bookstore or browsing at Amazon.com, take a few minutes to check out the religious section. You will find every genre there except porn and erotica. There is romance, mystery, suspense, thrillers, westerns, and science fiction, just to name a few – and they all have the kind of satisfying events and endings you would like to see occur in the lives of your best friends. Try Christian fiction. I’ll bet you can’t read just one!

Joe Prentis

Got some books taking up needed space? What to do with them.

An increasing number of books have a note inside the cover about the environment and the fact that their book is printed on recycled paper. Recycled paper does, indeed, save a lot of trees and this is a trend that is commendable. Landfills are filling up and books contribute a large part of the waste that goes into them each day. So what are we to do with the books we have read, but aren't going to keep on our library shelves? How about recycling them by passing them along to someone, or even better, to some organization that can put them to use. Most communities already have an organization that collects books and supplies them to libraries, hospitals, and to jail ministries. What do you do if there isn't one in your area? You might want to consider starting one yourself. You can perform a good service, and save a few of those trees that play such an important role in our environment.

Christian Fiction? What's it all about?

If you mention Christian fiction to the average reader, they will think you are talking about stories taken from the Bible or something that would have fit into a 1950s TV series. On those weekly television events, the father always knew best, the mother did not seem to have any character flaws, and if the children were not perfect, their imperfections were so insignificant and appealing you could scarcely tell the difference.

Christian fiction has finally come of age, and I am excited! The stories written and published by Christian writers run the full range of today’s fiction. You will find mysteries, science fiction, love stories, stories of the Old West, about war, crime, drugs, divorce, and every other problem known to humankind. Stories that fall into the classification of Christian fiction are stories with an ‘attitude.’ They deal with the difficult problems that sometimes happen to good people, but they are upbeat, inspirational, and accurately portray human behavior in a difficult world – and above all, they give us hope. Below this article is the first in a series of books that will be featured on this blog. Please take a moment to read the information and check out some to the other blogs and websites where other writers will be featuring Delia’s novel, Goldeneyes. The presentation of these novels is called a Blog Tour, and its purpose is to introduce you to some of the best fiction publishing has to offer and some of the writers who are producing it. Thank you and happy reading.

How do you create believable characters in a book?

Every writer struggles with the problem of trying to create characters that will be believable, appeal to the reader, and most important of all, be the kinds of characters we will always remember. A lot of writers have accomplished this difficult task. Who could forget Scarlett O'Hara, or James Bond or Harry Potter? When starting any story, the author will quickly find himself in possession of reams of notes, charts, and those all-important biographical sketches of the main characters. I want to know what he or she looks like before I start. What do they do in their spare time when they are not wrestling with my plot? Do they have hobbies? Have they been in love, and if so, was it a pleasant relationship or did the many details of the story sweep them away from the one they loved. When I am in these initial stages, I sometimes find myself flipping through magazines looking at faces, examining the way someone stands, the way they look into my eyes. I am looking for the little things . . . . the things that make me or you have a distinct personality. Most of my character crafting was done in my head, and then I discovered this wonderful 3-D drawing program that allows me to pose a character in any fashion, just as you would pose a real person. In the picture above you will find Daniella Siedman, one of the main characters in Abraham's Bones. She has something in mind -- something mischievous, and judging by the way she is looking, she is going to get her way. Writing, to me, is very exciting. I hope I have captured the essence of Daniella in this picture . . . enough that it will make you want to discover her for yourself in the pages of Abraham's Bones.

Silent Spring?

When Rachel Carson published Silent Spring in 1962, the book was immediately attacked by the chemical companies who said that Carson was unqualified to speak on the subject of chemical effects on the environment. She had sounded a dire warning that the continual use of DDT, the most widely used and effective pesticide, was damaging wildlife and was harmful to humans. She warned that its continual use might produce a ‘silent spring’ in which there would be no birds to herald the season. A frightening scenario, but as I look around me at the fields and meadows normally populated with dozens of species of birds at this time of year, I am beginning to wonder if her warning has not become true. This time the culprit is not DDT, but something not yet identified. Is it Avian Influenza or could it be something else? Will we have, as Miss Carson warned, a silent spring in which our feathered friends are absent from around our bird feeders? Will there be a frightening increase in mosquitoes and other harmful insects? I do not know the answer to that, but I wonder how many of you have noticed the diminishing bird population, and what you think might be the problem.

How Safe are your kids?

Every parent’s worst nightmare is having a family member fall prey to someone wanting to harm them. In recent years, schools and other institutions have increased safeguards to protect the innocent. Security cameras are everywhere and those responsible for the safety of our children are increasingly vigilant, but somehow this is not always enough. This is the reason I have placed the Amber Alert on my website and a link to a government site that lists the names and addresses of sexual predators in your city or community. When the website appears, you can type in your address and it will show you a map of your area. The small rectangles are the homes of convicted sexual offenders. You owe it to the ones you love to take a careful look. Click on this link.

Joe Prentis

Violence. What can we do about it?

No one can deny that violence in America is increasing. You don't need to look any further than you local newspaper to confirm this. Discussions on the evening news and in magazines offer suggestions to what can be done, but nothing seems to work. Fingers have been pointed at various institutions that have failed -- our school system, the family, government, social programs -- but little, outside of throwing more money into the system, has been proposed. I think there is a solution and it is easy, simple, and it will work. The solution is called personal responsibility, and it involves a set of values almost as old as time. How does it work and how do I start to do my part? I think each of us has to start with self. Think about some of the terrible crimes reported in the newspaper in the last year. In one of them, witnesses waiting to testify in court, did nothing when a young woman was sexually assaulted. People with cell phones stand at a distance while banks, stores, and businesses are robbed, and do not make that 911 call that could make a difference. During national disasters we revert to a dog-eat-dog mentality where we ignore the cries of others, while an extended hand could pull someone to safety.

The second rung up the ladder toward sanity, is collective responsibility. What do you do when you are in a public meeting and something is proposed that is clearly wrong? Do you speak up or you do the 'safe' thing and hope some other person will express your views. This 'safe' option is rapidly becoming obsolete as more and more people try to express themselves in violent ways that might eventually involve you.

The third options is rather interesting. Why are we in this mess? I think it is mostly because we are allowing ignorant and uninformed people to speak out while we remain silent. When a young woman shot a dangerous and misguided young man in the foyer of a church a few weeks ago, there was an outcry on the Internet concerning her rights to protect the congregation and herself. We have wallowed in so much goofy 'rights issues' that we have come to believe that there is a 'right' to riot, to kill the innocent, to destroy the happiness of individuals, families or communities. This is all done with the distorted idea of protecting the rights of a few. Am I advocating vigilante action? Certainly not, but I am suggesting that we need to aid the police, the courts, and the others whose duty it is to protect us. We can make a difference, and it can only began with us. Do you like what is happening all around you? Maybe it is time for you to speak out.