613 Media — Telling the Story

Maybe I’m a bit jaded. One of my best friends recently called me. He was excited because a literary agent had received his book proposal and was excited about its prospects. However, the agent warned, “I have to run it by our committee” to see if it is publishable. Later on, a letter arrived that said his book’s topic was not a salable item right now.

Now, I wondered what that meant. Does it mean his book is one out of many books with similar topics? Or, does it mean that the topic is too lame? Or, even more worrisome, does it mean the topic is too controversial? How do major publishers decided what we the readers get to see on our shelves? Is there some magical, mystical guru out there who can foretell what will sell in two years (thats how long it takes traditional publishers to get a book on the shelves)?

A few years ago, Sean (my son) and I went to the last concert by a group some of you may remember, the Normals. It was in Kilgore, Texas in a small auditorium with about 100 people showing up. The Normals were splitting up, much to my son’s dismay. Why? I’m not sure, but I sensed that like many of the groups of their era, they were running into the same restrictions on their music that many of the “Christian” writers were running into in the publishing industry. Out of that long, lonely time many of these artists formed “The Square Peg Alliance”. You should Google it and check it out. This loose knit group of song writers and singers have gone independent and, I must say, their music has triumphed over mediocrity.

Maybe it is time for Christian writers to do the same. It is for this reason that I “self-published” my first two books of the Jonathan Steel Chronicles. It is interesting that the publishing industry has labeled such “publishers” as vanity publishers. It is their disdain for these publishers that gives this industry a bad name. True, the vast majority of books produced by this industry are memoirs written by Aunt Trudy about her love affairs during the Crimean war. But, every now and then you will find an independent, struggling author who wants to have more control over the material; more control over the marketing; and more control over the time it takes to get to the book shelves. Censorship is a terrible thing. And, I wonder, but I cannot prove, that the major publishers are involved in a form of censorship by refusing to look at certain books because of their content or their genre. It is understandable. To do so is to take risks. And, taking risks is not a Christian thing anymore. Jesus took risks but today, we are far too comfortable in our cozy, self righteous corners. However, if we are not careful, our comfort will be out downfall. Oh, sorry, it already is underway!

This is evident in our poor ability as Christians to make the world understand our message. Take, for instance, Harry Potter. Believe or not, J. K. Rowling claims to be a believer. Yet, she will be vilified by both unbelievers and believers. After all, isn’t she teaching Wicca to our young children? Sort of like Tolkien taught black magic in “The Lord of the Rings” or C. S. Lewis taught cold magic in “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”? If you’d like to understand this better check out this website, 

http://librarylily.blogspot.com/2007/09/christians-sanctity-and-harry.html 

and read a blog that speaks volumes about our ability as Christians to answer the criticisms of the day. For instance this was the response of a Christian’s thoughtful analysis of the Harry Potter books by a non-believer critic: 

Perhaps it should not have surprised me that the first review on Looking for God in Harry Potter was a vitriolic piece of undiluted spite against Christianity. It amused me somewhat, especially since the reviewer called the well-read and intelligent Granger “some dolt christian fundamentalist puke”, called Christians ignorant in a sentence that used the wrong terminal punctuation, and referred to the Christian finding of Christian ideas in books written by a professing Christian as a “ruin [of the] the sanctity of … the Harry Potter novels.”

It would seem that those artists who choose to couch their messages in a form that is not perceived as perfectly “Christian” face the same kind of criticism from their brothers and sisters in Christ. Maybe it is time for the reader to go out and find the underdog and buy their books. Maybe it is time for the Christian artists to band together and demand changes, pave new roads and take huge risks.

As to the criticism from the non-believer regarding, Harry Potter, I hardly think that my book, “The 13th Demon” is “dolt christian fundamentalist puke”. But then, I would challenge the non-believer to actually read it first  before passing judgment. That is the problem. Most of these critics (believers and non-believers) don’t even bother to read what the criticize. They just assume it is “puke”. If they read it, they would have to actually think about what they read. And, if they actually think, they might have a change in their mental perspective about what they have read.

Hmm, sounds like some of our publishing agents and editors, doesn’t it? I can’t fault them for throwing unsolicited manuscripts on the slush pile. After all, this is a business and they have to balance time and money. But, somewhere in that slush pile, buried beneath mediocrity and “puke” is an undiscovered gem written in the spirit of Harry Potter by the next C. S. Lewis or J. R. R. Tolkien. Maybe they should slow down and take a chance. Maybe they should think like the members of the “Square Peg Alliance”. You know, find the square peg that doesn’t fit into their round hole but may prove to be the next book that changes the world!

Out of the cocoon.

What does this mean?

There are many who look upon the butterfly and see something special and beautiful. But, there is something very special about the very word!

First it is butter and second it is fly. The two have nothing to do with each other unless you consider that sometimes a fly might land on your butter. Two words with harsh, disparate meanings. But, put them together into one word and from their polar opposites comes a word that depicts beauty, freedom, delicacy, art, transformation, completion.

Butterfly.

For those who have not read “The 13th Demon” I include this short passage from near the end of the book.

 Jonathan Steel looked away, suddenly uncomfortable. “I feel like I’ve only lived for three years, Claire. I can’t remember most of my life. I’m not ready to die.”

 He felt her hand on his cheek. “Silly, I don’t want to die, either. I said I’m not afraid to die. Imagine you’re a caterpillar.”

 Steel raised an eyebrow. “A caterpillar?”

 “Just go with it, Jonathan. Your whole life is spent crawling along a leaf and eating. That’s all you do. You have no appreciation of where the leaf is. You have no idea of how far you are from the ground if you were to fall. You never see the bird that swoops down to devour you. Your appreciation of the universe is limited. And then, one day you feel this horrible sensation of dread. Your body begins to grow old and you feel a change coming. You’re going to die. You dread it. You fear it. You go on eating and crawling pretending it’s not going to happen. It happens. You spin yourself into a cocoon of death and know no more.” Claire’s eyes were wide with emotion. The night air grew still and close, thick with humidity. Time seemed to slow. Steel wanted to drink in the sight of her eyes for an eternity.

“And, then Jonathan, you awaken. Your body stirs and you realize you’re no longer dead. Your cocoon falls away and you spread out huge, luminous wings. You crawl away from your death shroud and you take to the air! You’re no longer a caterpillar. You’re a butterfly! You fly through trees and fields of flowers. You see the sun and the stars. An entire universe you never could have imagined is yours to appreciate. And suddenly, you spy a caterpillar crawling along its leaf. You watch your former self and you wonder how you could have ever wanted to stay like that.”

 “That is death, Jonathan. We’re fat, clumsy caterpillars waiting for the day of metamorphosis. We fear the cocoon. But, when we emerge on the other side, we’ll look back from God’s eternal perspective and wonder how we could ever have wanted to stay like this.”

I never imagined the depth and import of those words when God moved me to write them. Here is an email I received:

“Your analogy of the caterpillar and the butterfly was a wonderful contrast of this life with the next and touched me to tears as I read it.  I don’t know whether this was an original idea with you but even if it was not, you expressed it so beautifully. For a believer, such a picture would be of great comfort in the loss of loved ones.”

And just this week one of my dearest friends shared that a loved one read my book before she passed away and the story of the butterfly touched her life.

I have decided to pursue a ministry of sorts on the basis of this analogy. It will be called “Out of the Cocoon” and will mainly be for women. I’ve discussed this with Jeremy Johnson and we may be soon looking at putting together some items with this phrase and the symbol of a butterfly.

Why? To make money? No, what I do with my writing has nothing to do with money. I’ve lost so much putting forth my books I fear I will never see a profit. I write to fulfill God’s purpose in my life. That’s why I’ve still got a day job.

So, why?

So that if someone wears a visor with this phrase they have an open opportunity to tell any questioner how there is more to this existence than the life we live on earth. They can tell them of a wonderful Place our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is preparing for us where we will become something wonderful and fulfilled in His presence. We will pass from this earthly cocoon and our caterpillar existence to soar with Him as butterflies!

Hope.

Destiny.

Purpose.

An eternal Future.

Out of the Cocoon.