Kait: “Brain candy.” Love it!

Rebecca: I never thought of that! SO TRUE! We were still a MacDonald’s culture back then, but no where near where we are now in my estimation! Great point.

Thanks for chiming in gang! You make my blog so rich!

CH

As to the slow pace, I found it interesting that, from something Pam quoted of Chris Walley’s, he started writing these books as far back as 1988/89—before much of the writer-rule-of-thumb list was formulated. His book, therefore, does read much slower.

But there’s also this, and it may be a question I explore in my post tomorrow. Since fiction is built on conflict and his world, at the outset, was in essence perfect, how do you create the tension to move the pace along faster?

Yeah, if I remember, I’ll write more of that tomorrow.

Becky

First, I love this question, “What if?” So here we go.

Personally, I would manipulate all the naive “innocents” into a scheme that combines MLM, envelopes with $1 in them, and a vitamin selling pyramid scheme. Using the millions of dollars that I would generate in this venture, I would build the Death Star and hold entire worlds ransom. As payment for a peaceful existence, all of humanity will be required to by my books so that I continuously hold all of the NY Times best-seller records along with holding the Amazon #1 sales rank.

On a side note CH, it was coincidental, not ironic.

- mooney

For me personally, my writing is to convey morality, yes, truth, yes, commentary, yes…but it’s also to entertain! And part of entertaining means knowing my audience and making sure they are having fun and enjoying the book.

Honestly, with regard to Chris’ work, if I didn’t have the blog tour, I may have not gotten into it (which would have been a shame because somewhere right around page 175 or so it really got my heart pumping and I would have missed out on a very compelling story). Granted, I don’t have a lot of time to sit around and read so I’m much more particular with what I pick up. But the fact certainly stands against him that if I didn’t have the CSFF tour, he wouldn’t have a fan. That should speak for itself.

The two main schools of thought at the moment are:

1.) Hook your reader by the nose and get out of the gate fast. RUN! Action. Suspense. Drama. Crisis.

and, on a completely other note…

2.) Introduce a character (and story) slowly and establish his or her amiable qualities, then pit them against circumstances that will test their adherence to those personal morals.

Crazy, right?

Personally, I find that there is a balance. Books are written on characters…at least good ones. But no one wants to read 300 pages of “boring.” That’s why people read in the first place, because we need a break from the monotony of our own lives! Get into space! Go to Africa! Deep sea adventure! Spiritual battle! You name it… But in the end, people want something that’s fun, I think. I wrote my books with one thing in mind: I want people who don;t like to read to like these. (As I was writing them for myself!). I also knew that a large part of my audience would NOT be highly educated (not saying they can’t be) so that meant I didn’t need to be C.S. Lewis when it came to logic; I also knew they were not in it for some huge long dissertation on what a forest looked like (why they can read Tolkien). My audience would be unique and I wrote for them.

If Walley was trying to bring the epic scope of Tolkien to his space thrillers, then I guess he succeeded, but I’m not sure that’s today’s audience.

Hope that helps at least a little.

Valerie: Thanks for stopping by! Hope you get grand-babies soon!…my parents are different people around ours! Ha!

CH

As an author, can I ask you a question though? I am at page 125, and I am not remotely invested in the book other than “the blog tour is coming”. As a wannabe, you always hear the first 10/25/50 pages are so important to catch people’s attention. How can you take a chance on such a slow build if everything a potential author hears is “It has to catch them quickly”?

Thanks!
Jason

Rebecca: I find it SO ironic that as I was just reading your comment I was contending with my three year old daughter to not talk back to her mother, and with my one year old son to “release” his sister’s leg. If Walley’s “Intervention” was a communal sanctification, it would HAVE to include the sinful natures of children or else I want a refund! lol But in all seriousness, my experience is that MY OWN human heart is desperately wicked (“who can know it?”) and is in need of a Savior.

Michael: Thanks for the kind comment and for gracing my site with your presence!

Blessings!

CH

Michael A. Heald