The Power of SMALL - Smart Tips for Storytellers

There is another sub-genre in Christian Fiction that has gained significant popularity in recent decades that also gets its basis from what is evil in the world.    Oxford Languages defines Dystopia as:   “ an imagined state or society in which there is great suffering or injustice,  typically one that is totalitarian or post-apocalyptic.   Dystopian stories flow from the precipice of a breakdown in the world as we know it. A catastrophic event has shattered the fabric of society, or some totalitarian government has oppressed the majority past the point of recognition. Often in these stories a character will rise up to take down the evil that is in power and restore freedom to the people, seeking redemption for themselves and the world as a whole.                One could argue that this is already what Christians believe has happened in the world. It seems to me that the definition of “dystopia” is just another way of expressing the Christian worldview. Christians, by definition, beli

[THIS BLOG is written by MOLLY TURNER, Acquisitions Editor for Encourage Publishing.] There is a genre of Christian Fiction that is swarming with stories of darkness, evil, and demons…and people love it. They love stories that accentuate the spiritual world and show the reader how it works, exposing how it entangles with our everyday lives. Interestingly, in my experience, these works tend to rely on using extremes to be the catalyst to move the story forward.   What leads so many Christians to be preoccupied with a topic that the Bible is amazingly uninterested in explaining to us? Jesus, who regularly was engaging with demons while on earth, wasn’t interested in giving us a rule book on fighting the devil’s army, but rather said to put our trust in Him because He has overcome the world. And then there is of course the apostle Paul, who when charging the church of Ephesus to fight in spiritual warfare, rather than give a map of where evil lives or various tactics to expose or exorcize

Remember when the Toyota Prius first came out on a large scale in the United States? In 2000, the first mass-produced hybrid vehicle hit U.S. car lots, and immediately the Prius became the darling of the ecologically “woke” elite, proud to leave their status rides in their five-car garages to be seen tooling around in their fuel-efficient, ozone-saving statement cars. Orlando Bloom in a Prius? Yes, please! In fact, many of my celebrity favs drive this cozy beauty: Tom, Julia, Leo, I see you, I do.  Unfairly, when the Toyota Prius first came out it became known as the “Ugly Duckling” of the hybrid industry—but we all know how that fairy tale ended, don’t we? It took a few more years, and lots more competition, but by 2022 Toyota’s footprint in the hybrid industry remains dominant, even considering the flashy scene-stealing prowess of Tesla. Fuel efficiency of over 50 mpg is impressive, particularly given the current price of gas.  Even with Americans’ love of power under the hood, a gro

  When it comes to vehicles, I’m not much of an aficionado. I want something that makes me smile, will get me from Point A to Point B, and won’t kill my budget. But if money weren’t an object, I’d get this dreamy ride. I’m smiling just thinking about it. I was an inch away from owning a vintage VW camper van in college, but my sensible father “steered” me away from it. Dreams crushed, I settled for a pale green Ford wagon with no heat and rusted-out wheel wells, a steal for $100 that got me through a couple years of commuting to Ohio State. This beauty, a yellow and pewter all-electric 2024 VW Microbus, is my new car crush, as cool as it gets and totally my personality. Park this anywhere and a crowd is sure to gather. Drive it around and enjoy the front-to-back window roof and sleek interior. Ooh, yes. People everywhere have a car crush on VW bugs and camper vans, their emotional heartstrings all aflutter whenever they see one. VW’s slogan says it all: fahrvergnügen! This means, loo

CHICKEN SOUP FOR THE PUBLISHER'S SOUL: 5 Remedies to Protect Your Small Publishing Business from COVID-19 [This post is more for my fellow colleagues in the publishing industry, but anyone with their own business or side gig could benefit from this same recipe for surviving tumultuous times. And, if you are facing an obstacle of a different sort, read on for a little chicken soup.] You may have stocked your personal shelves with soap, toilet paper, medicines, and canned goods, but what would be the equivalent to help your small indy publishing business survive disruptions caused by COVID-19? How vulnerable are you, and what can you do now to protect your business? Look at the publishing events cancelled or postponed to date, and you know the dominoes are falling. Bookstores in high-risk areas around the world show seemingly insurmountable sales loss. We’d like to think books would be the perfect answer to ‘social distancing’ and sheltering in place, but jittery marke

If you’ve been in a coma the last few weeks of January 2020, then you may have missed the release of American Dirt (Jeanine Cummins, Flatiron Books/ MacMillan, 2020, New York), its synchronous pick for “Oprah’s Book Club,” and the immediate backlash against the author and publisher, as well as Oprah Winfrey, and basically against the entire publishing industry. Two issues were illuminated: First, the claim from certain spokespeople for the Latino community that the Latino voice was grossly misrepresented in the book, written by a “white woman” who they say had no right to speak for them, who stole their identity, and whose publisher made inexcusable errors in both the edit and marketing of the book. I read the book and wrote about this issue, and my take on it, here  in an article titled, "STOP hating on American Dirt - PART I   [Spoiler alert: I don’t entirely disagree, but I still devoured and liked the book.] Second, the assertion that the publishing industry as a

What does Matthew McConaughey share with 90% of Authors? Easy. Both are stars in their very own “Failure to Launch” movie.  While Matthew’s character, Tripp, managed to enjoy a happy ending, it took a powerful motivator to get him to budge; the most powerful motivator, in fact. If you are trapped in your own “failure to launch” scenario, unwilling to fully invest yourself in your book launch or afraid to go this far out of your comfort zone, you may need to get back to your “why.” “It’ll take a stick of dynamite to get me to do a book launch!” Sound like you? Let’s face it. Doing a book launch can be terrifying, costly, and time-consuming. There’s a reason only the powerfully motivated are willing to do it, even though a well-executed book launch can mean all the difference in the success of a new book. The rest of us have to tap in to our mission, that prime motivator that carried us through the painful writing and editing process. We have to remember why we wrote the book,