9/11 by Jim Hart

I had another blog written for today, but then I noticed the date. 9/11. A significant day in the history of our nation.  It’s important for us to pause and remember this day.       

I may not have a completely satisfying answer as to why God allowed 9/11 to happen. But I do know that the Lord is still good, and He’s faithful. He is merciful, and He is mighty. And John 3:16 is still true.

I also know that our cities are of this earth. They are temporary and can be destroyed. But as Christians we are citizens of a city that is not of this earth, is permanent and can never be destroyed.  This is where our hope is found. This is our future.

Numerous times in Scripture God is described as “gracious, compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love”. I also read in the Bible that “God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked”. And yet Scripture clearly teaches that one day He will bring terrible justice on the world to those that have rejected Him.
 

But let me be clear that I do not hold 9/11 was God’s specific judgement on our nation. I know many hold to that view, but I’m not convinced this was the case on 9/11. And yet must acknowledge His Word is clear that “He makes nations great, and destroys them; he enlarges nations, and disperses them.” (Job 12:23)  And also “He created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and He determined their boundaries. “(Acts 17:26) 

But I’m still reminded of the words of that great theologian, and songwriter, Bruce Cockburn: “Everybody loves to see justice done, on somebody else.” I also know the Bible reminds us "it is time for judgment to begin with God's household; and if it begins with us, what will the outcome be for those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17)

Most will agree that since 9/11 our nation continues to move further and further from God. So if He were to ever bring judgement, I think it would be now.  I find it striking that since 9/11 there seems to more tolerance for any religion other than Christianity. Maybe that's society kicking back at a belief system that holds mankind accountable and has a much higher standard for our behavior. A way of living that requires total submission to the One True God. A lifestyle of putting others’ needs before our own. Remember Jesus tells us because the World first hated Him, they will also hate us (John 15:18).

He also announced that He did not come to bring peace to the earth, but a sword. (Matthew 10:34). And yet Jesus assures us "I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33) And He says “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.” (John 14:27) Citizens of the City of God have this peace.

So what is our response to 9/11? As peace begins inwardly, I think prayer is our best response. And lots of it. We must pray for our national leaders. We should pray for the safety of our land. We can pray for our military. And we must pray that Jesus will become known by those who don’t know Him.

But what about an outward response to the anniversary of 9/11? Here are two things we need to keep doing:

1) We keep loving our enemies. On the cross Jesus prayed for the very ones that put Him there. Their forgiveness was of great concern to him. Those religious people truly thought they were doing God’s will, but they didn’t realize what they were doing. We need to be aware of just how significant this is.

We also remember that true love keeps no record of wrong-doing (1 Corinthians 13). We can remember who was responsible for 9/11, but we let the Lord, and Him alone, hold them accountable for their actions. This love compels us to pray for those trapped in Islam, who long for true peace and for true freedom. Who think they are doing the will of God. I keep hearing amazing stories of Muslims who are seeing visions of Jesus Christ and coming to faith in Him. This should be cause for great rejoicing! Our attitude should be the same as the Prodigal’s Father, and not his brother. We rejoice because a sinner has come home. And that leads to our second response:

2) We keep sharing the Gospel.  Years ago I came to the realization that when extreme circumstances beyond our control and understanding cause us to feel helpless, confused and angry (like 9/11), the best way to fight back is telling someone what Jesus has done for us. When we confess that Jesus Christ is the one true Son of God, the Savior of the World; that He longs to bring forgiveness and salvation; and how He reconciles us to God, making peace, through His blood, shed on the cross (Colossians 1:20) the gates of Hell will not prevail. Victory means robbing Hell and populating that eternal City, to which we are citizens.  It may be Friday, but Sunday’s coming soon.

Pray, love and share. That’s our 9/11 remembrance.

Terry is Retiring

I retired from a career in chamber of commerce management after more than 25 years service.

I retired from working with a community service organization after more than ten years service.

I’ve been with Hartline for over ten years, seven as an agent. After much prayer and discussion my wife and I have decided it is time to retire yet again.

It’s not been an easy decision to make. I have a great group of clients that are together in an online group where we talk daily. They are more than clients, they are good friends. Doing this agent gig has been something of a mission effort for me. I have had a heart for trying to help debut Christian writers get started, whatever it took. Seeing them get their work out has been very satisfying. Of course focusing on debut writers has not been very rewarding financially, but that was a decision I made.

I’ve seen a number of clients move on to other things after I helped them get started.

But it has required a huge investment of time and effort as well as a lot of stress. To tell the truth even though I will miss it, making the decision brought an immediate feeling of relief. I told Joyce it would be effective November first which will give me a couple of months to wrap things up and to try and help my clients get placed elsewhere. A number of them will be picked up by other Hartline agents.

I owe Joyce a debt of gratitude for helping me get started as a writer, serving as my agent. Further she allowed me the opportunity to be an agent myself. I’m very grateful for her help and for her believing in me.

I am going ahead and making the announcement this far ahead to keep people from continuing to submit to me when I am no longer taking submissions. For much of the time I have been working in this role I have attended a couple of conferences a month and received thousands of submissions allowing me to meet quite a large number of writers in person or on paper.  It is an amazing thing having friends spread all over this country. It has been a real blessing.

My daughter and a couple of my clients are hosting a “virtual retirement party” over on my facebook page. Leave a comment here or drop by there and sign the “virtual guest book.”

God bless you all . . .

Terry

5 Mistakes Authors Make When Writing for the Young Adult, Teen, or Middle Reader Market

The reason many submissions are rejected by agents and editors is due to the writer not understanding their true audience. Take a look at these very common mistakes that often cross our desks in relation to writing for the younger audience.

1) Label your novel as targeting the age of your main character.

Young readers ‘read up’. Readers want to read about characters that are older than they are. If your main character is 14 your reader might be 8-12. Incorrectly labeling your reader market is a common mistake our agents see all of the time in submissions of this type.

 

Wikipedia says: The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) of the American Library Association (ALA) defines a young adult (reader) as someone between the ages of twelve and eighteen. Authors and readers of young adult (YA) novels often define the category as literature traditionally written for ages ranging from sixteen years to the age of twenty-five, while Teen Fiction is written for the ages of ten to fifteen. [2]

 

Think of your widest possible audience. The protagonist is usually on the older side of your readership. That means a 12- or even 13-year-old hero for MG and a 17- or 18-year-old for YA. If you have a college age protagonist, this pushes you into the New Adult category. (In the general market this means ‘very sexy’.)

 

2) Write a 100,000 word literary novel for a MR audience.  Generally a Middle Reader novel is between 30,000 to 50,000 words and a YA between 50,000 to 75,000 words.

While fantasy fiction can be the exception to the rule, you better write like J. K. Rowling if you are going to present a debut novel that large. And every word needs to count. Edit out all unnecessary words, and tighten the writing. This audience is a digital sound bite one. Think instant messaging and Tweeting. Write to them in shorter, no fluff sentences.

 

3) Forget the age of your reader and use throw back cultural language they will not get. Example: “Laverne and Shirley aren’t capping bottles in Detroit anymore, if you get my drift.”  Total disconnect. And while they might know what an Elvis impersonator is, you would have to make it relevant to the reader. Perhaps they ran away, and took a bus to Vegas when an Elvis Impersonator conference was going on. What a nightmare for a child! Or the protagonist’s grandfather is raising him/her and they have to tag along when he works the stage as one. J    

 

NOTE: There is a huge difference in interests between a 5^th and 10^th grader.

 Many retired school teachers have a heart for the young reader BUT are two generations separated from them in culture. It will take some serious research for them to catch up enough to be relevant when writing to that audience.

4) Use a lot of slang that will quickly outdate your book. Trying too hard at being hip and cool can backfire. It is best to stick to words that never go out of style. Cool, sweet, awesome, and phenomenal might work. Hip and cool are back, so one might use them as well. A good publishing editor will know and guide you. I cannot see one or two mischosen words causing a rejection, but beware; overuse of them absolutely will.

 

5)  Bypass the parental preferences or library gatekeepers and offer your reader inappropriate material. You know better how mature your reader is and what their emotional needs are. Go ahead and write inappropriate material.

Keep in mind the book buyer. MR’s do not generally purchase their own books. Their parents do. Over use of swear words, violence and sexuality will not fly. Good literature is not smutty.

 

In contrast; it is not a good thing to preach at your reader. A good story can awaken a God consciousness in a reader, and introduce a reader to biblical principles, but do not sneak in, or brow beat the reader with your doctrinal preferences. Leave that for the parent and Sunday school teacher, unless you are writing a bible study or a themed workbook. Author Jill Marie Richardson did an outstanding job of taking a cultural hot topic and relating it to our faith.  In Hobbits, You, and the Spiritual World of Middle-Earth, published by Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas, Jill overlays the Bible with the The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, giving us a peek into God's world of wonder and awe. This book guides readers in discovering the deep spiritual truths found in J.R.R. Tolkien's classic characters and shows how they might apply them to their own epic tale. A great book for use by families or youth groups. NOTE: This book is upfront about its mission. Nothing sneaky about the way it approaches the subject.    

  

TIP: Find a group of unbiased test readers of the age in your market. Prepare a list of questions for them with a YES or NO they can circle. This makes it easier for them to critique.  

• Did you want to keep reading after the first two pages? YES or NO
• Did you feel like the situation was believable? YES or NO
• Was there any place you got bored while reading? YES or NO
• Where did you get bored if you did? PAGE _________ and PAGE _______
• Was the main character likable? YES or NO
• and Could you relate to his or her troubles? YES or NO

Getting this kind of feedback will help you become a better writer and nail your target audience. Adding the results from research like this into your proposal is very helpful info.

INTERESTING STAT: 40 % of Young Adult readers are adults.

Hiding, Finding Easter Eggs by Andy Scheer

Readers in the know will smile.

Last week I found an Easter egg. Not the type that gets hidden in the spring, but the kind some authors place in books.

In Death on a Vineyard Beach, Philip R. Craig needed a detective on Cape Cod. So on page 72, he writes the client had hired “a man named Aristotle Socarides.”

For most readers, that’s just another name. But for those in the know, “Soc” is the protagonist of a Cape Cod detective series by fellow New Englander Paul Kemprecos.

In the course of a novel, you need many supporting characters. So why not include some people you know?

When he was learning the craft, now-bestselling author Steve Berry met regularly with a writers group. Two of its members were Nancy Pridgen and Daiva Woodworth. In Steve’s second published novel, The Romanov Prophecy, his protagonist works for an international law firm: Pridgen & Woodworth.

For years, thriller writer Jack Du Brul has known book collector Wayne Valero. When Jack needed a name in Corsair for an Undersecretary of State for Mideast Affairs, the assignment went to Wayne’s wife, Cristie. Though Wayne knows all the co-writers for thriller grandmaster, Clive Cussler, he’s still waiting to find his own name in a novel.

That could be a good thing. There’s a well-known quote attributed to Mary Higgins Clark: “When someone is mean to me, I just make them a victim in my next book.”

The prize for the most-included name may go to Leigh Hunt. In a dozen or more of his Dirk Pitt novels, Cussler included his friend—often as a character who got killed in the prologue.

Or you could even include yourself in your own books, much the way Alfred Hitchock gave himself cameos in many of his movies. If you want a precedent for this, look again to Clive Cussler.

I was typing a description of Pitt and a classic car he was exhibiting at a concours meet. In the scene, he walks over and extends his hand to the old white-haired, bearded man who was exhibiting the car next to him. I wrote, “Hello, my name is Dirk Pitt.” The old fellow shook his hand and said, “I’m Clive Cussler.”

I immediately thought, Why did I do that? I meant to change the name, but the more I thought about it, the more it seemed fun to leave it in. ... Now readers wait for me to show up.

You might not want to go that far, but your novel does have room for quite a few names. As long as you don’t defame someone, why not?