KA Hitchins

Author

Is ‘Christian Fiction’ an Oxymoron?

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I don’t know about you, but when people talk about ‘Christian fiction’ my heart tends to sink. Who wants to read a pie in the sky story with a heavy dose of sermonising and saccharine thrown in for good measure? And isn’t ‘Christian fiction’ an oxymoron? Surely the point of Christianity is that it calls its followers to tell the truth, speak the truth into every situation and follow the One who calls himself ‘the Truth’ (John 14:6).

I am a writer and I am a Christian. Although I’m writing for the general market, I’ve found it impossible not to let my world view filter through my writing. And that’s because I believe the universe has meaning, purpose and design from the most infinitesimal particle to the vast cosmic expanses of space and time. Not for me the pick and mix world where we all make it up as we go along and live in our own bubbles of subjective truth!

Now that I’ve been published by a Christian publisher, I have to come to terms with the fact that my books fall under the Christian fiction category, and during the last year I’ve begun to have a look around and see what other authors in the genre are creating. It’s been a revelation!

Christian authors are writing great books. Intelligent, imaginative, uplifting, thought-provoking, risk-taking books. These books tackle difficult issues head on, portraying the sins people don’t want to speak about in church in a non-gratuitous way. They portray the messiness of life through characters from diverse ethnic, cultural and geographical backgrounds, exposing the grittiness of life and the marvel of grace and redemption. Christian messages are woven in organically as a natural extension to character and plot. They are books that can be read and enjoyed by anyone, not just Christians, and leave the reader enriched and challenged.

It’s my very great pleasure to introduce one such author, Katherine Blessan, whose writing has been deeply influenced by the years she spent teaching in Cambodia. Living in an impoverished country and seeing so much injustice around her, including child-sex trafficking, was the catalyst for the themes and issues in her first novel, Lydia’s Song. It’s a powerful story about child prostitution in Cambodia seen through the eyes of a young Vietnamese girl who is sold into slavery by a man she should have been able to trust.

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lydias-Song-Story-Child-Woman/dp/1909728195/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1500022534&sr=8-1&keywords=Lydia%27s+song

 

Katherine has written the story in two halves. The first is from the point of view of Lydia, a young and idealistic English teacher working in a school in Cambodia. When she finds Song in her garden late at night scavenging for food, she brings her into her home and into her heart. Unable to formally adopt the child, Lydia nevertheless takes on the responsibility of becoming Song’s ‘mother’. There’s a sense of impending doom when a handsome young man charms himself into their lives and into Lydia’s heart.

The second half of the book tells Song’s story. It’s a heartrending account of innocence brutally snatched from a child. The book does not pull its punches as it describes the nonchalant evil of the perpetrators of this sickening trade in human flesh. I don’t want to give any more spoilers away except to say that ‘Lydia’s Song’ is a gripping and challenging read which concludes with a message of hope.

Humanity is deeply flawed. Fiction that speaks the truth should include characters who are damaged and who suffer at the hands of others who are also flawed and damaged. Good stories entertain us, but great stories also open our eyes, change our perceptions, and encourage us to fight for a better world. Jesus died a messy death to save us from our messy lives. Let’s not shy away from stories which depict difficult issues. They can also offer a picture of faith through suffering and joy through pain.

Lydia’s Song is a work of fiction, but it contains truths: truths about fallen humanity and truths about God. I love reading real life testimonies about how God is working today in people’s lives, but I also love stories which share spiritual insights and I believe there’s a place for them on our bookshelves. After all, the greatest teller of stories with spiritual meaning is Jesus Christ himself through his parables.

 

 

It’s an honour to be kicking off Katherine’s Blog Tour. Why not follow her journey as she travels through the blogosphere, catching up with her again here on Wednesday 26 July when I have the privilege of interviewing her. As well as writing, Katherine works as an English and Creative Writing tutor and an Examiner, together with juggling parenting and volunteering in the community. She is married to Blessan – yes, her surname is his first name! – and they travel widely and love to meet new people. Katherine lives with her family in Sheffield, UK.

 

Katherine tweets @kathblessan

Check out her website at: http://www.katherineblessan.com/

 

Other stories by Katherine Blessan include:

The Kingdom of Heaven is Like a Bunch of Keys

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The other Sunday I lost a bunch of keys which included my front door key, car keys, and a strange little key I’ve carried around for years and which belongs to an unknown lock. They fell out of the pocket of the raincoat I’d slung over my arm whilst walking the dog. Our walk had taken us across fields, though woodlands, alongside lakes and down overgrown paths. I think you can imagine my horror when I returned to the car hot and tired and realised Harley and I were stranded.

I’m not sure what I would have done in pre-mobile phone days. Thankfully I was able to ring my husband and he raced to the rescue bearing the spare car key.

It’s an expensive and inconvenient business having car and door keys copied. I was fed up with myself, particularly as the situation should never have arisen. My husband usually walks the dog before church while I’m shoe-horning the kids out of bed and getting a head start on the lunch preparations. But we were celebrating our son’s fifteenth birthday and an exciting present had to be assembled IMMEDIATELY after breakfast. For technical and weight reasons, this was obviously a man’s job.

Although I’d just washed and styled my hair, put on a new dress and applied make-up – and despite the fact that the BBC was forecasting rain – I volunteered to go out with the dog. To avoid looking like a Mothers’ Union garden party at Glastonbury, I dragged out of the cupboard a little used mac  that covered the dress and slipped on a pair of sensible shoes.

As soon as I stepped out of the car, the grey and rainy morning prophesied by the Met Office unexpectedly became a blazing sauna of heat and humidity. I took off the coat, releasing the full glory of the new dress, and hurried along the path, not wanting to make the whole family late for church.

But the pleasant weather had also released a sudden succession of early morning dog walkers necessitating time-consuming small talk and bottom sniffing (I’ll let you judge who did which), and frequent bending down to attach the lead to stop Harley running off with his chums.

Then, just as we were nearing the gate to the car park, I spotted a notorious local dog with his owner. Deciding to take evasive action rather than risk a disagreeable rumpus, I doubled back down an overgrown path, broke into a jog, stumbled through the long grass, my dress and coat catching on the brambles, my hair and make-up frazzled, my face damp with sweat, my bare legs scratched by branches and stung by nettles.  If that wasn’t bad enough, I then experienced the horrible realisation that the keys were gone and the birthday plans for the day were under threat.

I didn’t get to church. Instead, I delivered the dog back home, dropped the kids at their church groups and returned with my husband to retrace my steps.  We walked the circuit together, and then we split up and completed the route in opposite directions.

By now my regular dog walking chums had dragged themselves out of bed and wanted to know why I was out and about without Harley and poking around in the undergrowth. News travels fast by bush telegraph. Soon I was bumping into people who already knew I’d lost my keys, having just met hubby and been told the tale of woe. There was much sage wagging of heads about the dangers of shallow pockets. They all promised to keep their eyes peeled. Eventually I gave up. There were teenagers to pick up and a celebration birthday lunch to prepare.

The incident was frustrating, humiliating and inconvenient. I was determined not to be beaten. The following morning I was out again with Harley, encouraging him to sniff out the keys. I parted the long grass, I kicked aside dead leaves, I worried, I prayed. I asked that God would direct my eyes to the right place.

I was reminded of the woman in the Bible who had lost a precious coin and turned the house upside down looking for it. The instruction, ‘Seek and ye shall find,’ echoed around my mind and I contrasted the single mindedness I was displaying looking for my keys and the often haphazard approach I have to seeking the Kingdom of God.  Having mused on this point, I internally patted myself on the back. Surely this was a message God had wanted me to learn! Now I had learned it, the keys would miraculously appear . . . But no.

I went out the following day. Nothing. I returned home, finally admitting defeat, and almost immediately had a phone call from a dog walking friend, who had spoken to another dog walker who had seen something on Facebook. Someone was going to ring me with the details, but never did and I didn’t have their number. So I scoured the local St Albans’ Facebook Groups and eventually found what I was looking for. Hallelujah! I messaged the lady, arranged to meet up at her house and went round with a bunch of flowers and a very grateful heart that my keys were restored.

What did I learn from this? Don’t go walking the dog in inappropriate clothing? Have a similarly determined approach to seeking the Kingdom of Heaven as I had looking for my keys?  God answers prayer in unexpected ways and through the kindness of friends and strangers?

No!

What I eventually learned from the whole thing, after re-reading the parable of the woman with the lost coin (Luke 15:8–10), is that I had misunderstood the story completely, having cast myself in the role of the woman, with the Kingdom of God being the coin/bunch of keys. But that is not the case at all.

God is the seeker and we are the precious coin. He seeks us unrelentingly and with singular devotion. He searches for us amidst the brambles and nettles of our lives, and allows other people the joy of helping us to be found and reconnected to the Father.  It’s not a question of me working harder, screwing up my determination and trudging on in search of truth and meaning.  It’s understanding that He seeks me out because I’m precious. He is the one who is proactive, always wanting our relationship to deepen.  All I have to do is respond and celebrate that I’m found in Him.

What I Learned Walking the Dog

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In 2011 we rehomed a 16 month old Rhodesian Ridgeback called Harley. He’d been living with a young couple and their new baby in a one bedroom flat with no garden. Every time the baby cried the dog barked. Every time the dog barked the baby cried.

I’d been searching for a dog for some time. I didn’t want a puppy because there was a lot going on in the family at that time and I didn’t think I would be able to dedicate myself fully to the house training. Conversely, we didn’t want a dog who was too old to learn new tricks. My husband wanted a big dog. It’s a macho thing. I wanted a short-haired non-moulting dog. It’s a vacuuming thing! Harley was perfect in every respect.

 

 

Neither my husband nor I had lived with a dog before, although I always wanted one. I loved the idea of the kids coming out with us on long family walks at the weekend, and all of us curling up together on cold winter nights. What I was less sure about was the thought of walking the dog every day in all weathers.

Six years have passed and, as it turns out, walking the dog has been the best part of being Harley’s ‘Mum’. I’ve seen the seasons change in ways that would have been unimaginable to me during my 20 years of commuting to London: frost on cobwebs, striped caterpillars on nettles, ears of wheat clicking in the shimmering heat.  I’ve learned the names of trees and wild flowers. My fitness has improved. I’ve made new friends. And the slow rhythm of walking and looking and thinking and breathing has kick-started my writing career.

 

 

Those family rambles never materialised. It’s as much as I can do to get our teenagers out of bed and down the stairs for lunch at the weekend. And they’re too busy curling up with their play stations and iPads in the evenings to worry about their parents or Harley.

So, here in brief, are some valuable things I’ve learned from walking the dog.

  • You have to do it regularly (at least once a day).
  • You have to do it whether you feel like it or not.
  • It gets easier the more you do it.
  • You will start enjoying things you never thought you would.
  • There will be unanticipated rewards.
  • Your observational skills will improve.
  • Your insight will deepen.
  • You will need to shake up the routine to keep things fresh.

I’ve discovered that these truths apply to many other aspects of my life: housework, cooking, communicating with teenagers, helping with GCSE revision, writing my next novel, and  – last but not least – spiritual growth.

Who would have thought that walking the dog would teach me so much about walking with God?

 

Judge a Book by its Cover: ‘Twilight’ by Stephanie Meyer

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One of my favourite book covers is Twilight by Stephanie Meyer. It’s simple but also deeply symbolic. The book is about desire: Bella Swan’s love for the vampire, Edward Cullen, Edward’s love for Bella and his equal and opposite desire for her blood.

 

 

The colours on the cover are limited to white, red and black and perfectly encapsulate the love triangle that develops through the Twilight Saga. Edward, the near-god who wants to recover his humanity, has cold, white skin. Bella is the loving heart with irresistible blood pumping through her veins. Jacob ‘Black’ is the fly in the ointment. He also loves Bella and is the antithesis of Edward.

The apple reminds us that Eve offered a piece of forbidden fruit to Adam in the Garden of Eden. In the Genesis story, eating the apple brought death into creation. In the fictional world of Twilight, where vampires and humans are predators and prey, loving each other is the forbidden fruit. The tension in the book is perfectly poised between Edward’s longing for Bella’s blood and his desire to protect her from harm, and Bella’s wish to become a vampire so they can live forever in perfect bliss. Edward resists the temptation to taste her blood because of his concern that she will lose her eternal soul.

The Christian allegory is clear: fall into temptation and you will be lost, but it’s only by being lost that you will discover your need of a Saviour and find immortality.

Although in some circles Twilight gets a bad press because it’s not ‘great literature’, it’s very cleverly plotted, playing around with eternal themes of love, desire, death and immortality. I liked the simplicity of the cover so much that I decided to use the same colour scheme in the cover design for The Girl at the End of the Road. Both books deal with the theme of romance across a seemingly impossible divide. Both stories tell of the redeeming and transformative power of love.

 

Author Spotlight: Fiona Veitch Smith

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I’m delighted Fiona Veitch Smith has agreed to be interviewed for my first ever ‘Author Spotlight’.

 

(Cartoon of Fiona busy at work by Chris Bambrough)

 

I became aware of Fiona in January when a friend lent me The Jazz Files, the first in the Poppy Denby Investigates series. It took me back to my teenage years when I voraciously read Agatha Christie. There’s that same sense of an era which, despite its crimes, has a certainty and confidence about morals and manners. But in contrast to Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot, Poppy Denby inhabits a world of real historical characters and events. This adds extra depth to the novel, the protagonists and the plot. Here’s my review.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1888534926

 

 

Of course, I couldn’t wait to read the second book in the Poppy Denby series, The Kill Fee. Once again, the fledgling journalist finds herself smack bang in the middle of a murder myster, this time connected to the political fallout from the Bolshevik revolution. You can read my review here.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1902343348

 

 

I was intrigued to find out more about an author who could blend history and fiction together with such panache, and sent her the following questions.

 

Why do you write?

Writing is part of who I am. I would not feel complete without it. Like an athlete who does not run, or an artist who does not draw, I would not feel that I was expressing who I really am if I didn’t write. When I have not written for a while, due to other work or family commitments, I start to feel on edge and irritable. I need to write to get back into balance. For me, it’s a way of connecting with my soul. It’s a spiritual thing and a physical thing.

 

How long have you been writing?

All my life. I have made up stories and plays since childhood. I did a degree in journalism and worked as a journalist in my 20s and early 30s. I also spent some of that time working for a theatre company writing plays.  I left full-time journalism when I was 32 (although I still did some freelance work) and have been pursuing a career as a professional creative writer ever since – I’m now 47.

 

What is one thing you wish you knew when you started out?

How hard it would be to earn a living as a professional writer. I thought it would just be a matter of time until my earnings picked up to the same level they were when I worked as a full-time journalist. Fifteen years later I now earn the UK minimum wage. But I can’t give it up. Creative writing is so much part of who I am now. I get frustrated at times by how little I earn compared to my professional peers – and how much better off I would have been, financially, if I had stuck to full-time  journalism – but then I remind myself how much more I have gained by being true to myself and following a career I love.

 

How would you describe the genre you are writing in?

I have written in many genre and media. I write for theatre, film, animation, children’s picture books and adult novels. I have also written Christian devotional material and of course journalism. I have even written marketing copy for an estate agent! When you are earning a living from writing it is helpful to be able to turn your hand to whatever work comes along – and pays. However, in recent years, I have started to find the most success in writing adult mystery novels and children’s picture books. So they are now my main focus. I am currently working on a series of picture books for SPCK about the biblical Joseph (of the rainbow robe fame) and for Lion Fiction, a series of murder mysteries set in the 1920s about a female investigative reporter. I think that is where you first came across me, Kathryn, when you reviewed the first two books in the Poppy Denby Investigates series.

 

How did you come up with the character of Poppy Denby?

The idea came when I visited suffragette Emily Wilding Davison’s grave and thought it might be interesting to have a murder mystery set against the backdrop of the suffragette movement. I had previously started, but then abandoned, a contemporary mystery novel about a young female reporter sleuth, but I decided to try it again, this time set in 1913. However, after trying to get the story started for a month or two I felt that the period just wasn’t working for me. I decided instead to move the story forward to 1920 and instead of having the reporter as a suffragette, made her the niece of a suffragette inheriting the freedoms won by the sacrifice of others. Poppy is from Morpeth, like Emily Wilding Davison, and like the historical character, moves to London. She is also based somewhat on me as a young journalist, struggling to forge a career in what was then a male dominated world.

 

How often do you write and what is your process?

That varies according to how much teaching work I have on at the time (I sometimes lecture at my local universities). Also, if I have a new book out, I need to spend a lot of time promoting it. My most productive writing time is May – September when I have no teaching and usually no books coming out (my books usually come out in the autumn). During the summer I write every day, Monday to Friday. Other times of the year I snatch writing time where I can between other work; but never at night and rarely at weekends as I try to keep that as ‘family time’. I find my best writing is done in my bedroom on my bed. It’s a lovely sunny room and calming. I have a separate computer and room for my non-creative work – admin, lecture prep, editing, marking, and social media – so when I sit propped up on my bed with a cup of coffee to hand and my creative computer open, I’m ready to write.

 

Do you write with an outline?

Yes. It’s very important when writing mysteries that all the threads tie up. But the outline changes as I work. I still maintain flexibility within it to follow different paths and ideas.

 

How do you market yourself and your book?

I am active on social media via Facebook and Twitter. However, I rarely do any blogging (I used to before the days of FB, but my FB account attracts lots of followers, far more than when I blogged, so now I just maintain a website as a ‘shop window’). I also speak at writing groups, book groups and occasionally festivals. I also do interviews like this one for book blogs, websites and print magazines.

 

What writing advice can you give?

Be prepared to grow into your writing and work on it. And be prepared to take criticism and guidance from people who are more experienced than you. But don’t expect to get it all for free! Creativity is God-given, but learning how to craft and apply it is something you need to work at and, at times, pay for, like anyone learning a new profession. However, if you want to write as a hobby – and not earn a living from it – that’s perfectly valid too. Just write and enjoy it!

 

Can you create a short writing prompt?

Think of a person. What do they look like? What are they currently thinking about? Now, see them standing at the foot of a flight of stairs. What happens next …?

 

Fiona Veitch Smith is a writer and writing tutor, based in Newcastle upon Tyne. She writes across all media, for children and adults. Her mystery novel The Jazz Files, the first in the Poppy Denby Investigates Series (Lion Fiction) was shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger award in 2016. The second book, The Kill Fee is currently a finalist for the Foreword Review mystery novel of the year, and the third, The Death Beat, will be published in October. Her novel Pilate’s Daughter  a historical love story set in Roman Palestine, is published by Endeavour Press and her literary thriller about apartheid South Africa, The Peace Garden, is self-published under the Crafty Publishing imprint. Her children’s books The Young David Series and the Young Joseph Series  are published by SPCK.

 http://fiona.veitchsmith.com

www.poppydenby.com

www.youngbibleheroes.com

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