Traveling Along the Writing Road

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“Writing is a solitary occupation. Family, friends, and society are the natural enemies of the writer. He must be alone, uninterrupted, and slightly savage if he is to sustain and complete an undertaking.” ~Jessamyn West, Quaker author

Writing is a solitary life--I've heard that over and over since stepping back on the writing road. Today, I did a bit of research and found out exactly who should be credited with that thought: Jessamyn West, a Quaker author who wrote novels and articles.

But, with all due respect to Ms. West, I must disagree with her.

Oh, sure, there are times when it is me and my computer and words, words, word. Writing and rewriting. Or maybe it's me and my computer and no words--and a high level of frustration. Pretty solitary, that.

But there is so much more to my writing life--and it involves all the other people I've met along the writing road. The ones who've encouraged me as a writer. Mentored me. The ones who said, "Let me help you out here," expecting nothing in return.

There are the people I've been able to lend a hand to--maybe an editorial hand, reading through a manuscript before it's submitted. Maybe it's posting a book review or just posting a blog entry about an upcoming contest.

Don't get fooled into thinking the writing life is a solitary one. You'll miss half the fun of meeting all the other folks sharing the writing road with you!

Don't forget that The Writer Mama is having a wonderful contest all month long and giving away prizes every day! Check it out over at her blog!

In Memory: 9-11-01

May we never forget

Word Painting in Fiction

I’m a minimalist when it comes to description. My journalism training taught me brevity, so I always look for extraneous words to cut. Haven’t we all been in a hundred different kitchens? If I write “galley kitchen” or “country kitchen,” does that draw a picture in your mind? That’s all I need to imagine the perfect kitchen for the scene, but it’s not enough for most fiction. We’ve got to dig deeper and paint the scene with our words.

Here’s the first draft from one of my Works in Progress:

Arriving for work at The Hot Tamale, a restaurant on San Antonio’s Famous River Walk, April tried to ignore her problems and do her job. She greeted customers with a smile and took their orders. She sashayed between the crowded tables, careful of the heavy tray she carried filled with tamales, enchiladas, refried beans and rice.

I pulled a good bit of my hair out, but I stayed in my writing chair until I produced this revised version:

April hustled out the door to her job at The Hot Tamale, a restaurant located on San Antonio’s scenic River Walk—three miles of riverfront, winding under the bridges and busy streets of the downtown.

The colored lights and festival atmosphere had charmed April when she’d first arrived. She loved strolling among the cafés, boutiques, street vendors, and hotels that lined the shallow, murky water. Anonymous in the crowd of tourists, Latinos, and cowboys, who flooded the riverbanks seeking entertainment. No one called her name. No one needed more than she had to give. She was free!

But the sultry afternoon heat drove her into one of the air-conditioned restaurants. In the evenings, she sipped margaritas and sat beneath one of the bright umbrellas at tiny, wrought-iron tables next to the river, listening to Mariachis—musicians wearing traditional black, short jackets and tight pants. The musicians filled the air with the rich sounds of their vihuelas, or round-backed guitars, along with their sweet violins and brilliant trumpets.

One night, April rode in one of the guided, flat-bottomed boats, meandering among the buildings and ancient cypress trees. From her seat, she watched an inebriated customer lose his footing and fall in the San Antonio River.

Now that she worked on the River Walk night after night, the place had lost its allure. Tonight, the carnival atmosphere wearied her. April tied a red apron around her waist and tried to ignore her problems. Mindful of tips, she took her customers’ orders with a smile, then sashayed between the crowded tables, careful of the heavy tray she carried filled with tamales, enchiladas, refried beans and rice as scents of chili peppers, spicy meat, and garlic wafted in the air.

Join me in digging deep to paint the best fiction we can.

~Roxanne Sherwood~

How Do Your Beliefs or Faith Affect Your Writing?

"It was my Southern grandmother who once charged me to "never speak of religion or politics in polite company." She may have been right, though I have done little else ever since. Still, her counsel was not lost on me, for I realized even those many years ago that she was urging me toward a gentler manner with others, one of graciousness and consideration rather than the sharp and divisive way."—Stephen Mansfield, The Faith of Barack Obama, (p.145)

But By The Grace of God—There Go I
The Faith of Barack Obama tapped into many feelings of mine and others—both positive and negative. I found my emotional responses to content in this book swinging from strong agreement to equally intense disagreement. This book was a real seesaw of a read. Many times, I stopped to reread word for word for context, because my first visceral reaction re-contextualized what Mansfield wrote to reinforce misinformation or my partialities.

I find it interesting that Mansfield will not be voting for Obama, yet he wrote an evenhanded book about a man many people view as controversial. I asked myself, Could I write about someone without trying to influence the reader’s opinion one way or another about that person?

I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of political pundits and writers on the secular left and the religious right slamming the other. I'm repulsed by those who prejudge or condemn those who don't agree with then. How do we, as writers, communicate with wisdom and grace, respectfully considering someone else’s opinion with whom we strongly disagree? Am I a mature and secure enough writer to let others draw their own conclusions?

God's Inspired Writing
God respects every person’s decision to accept or reject Jesus or biblical guidelines for living, yet God’s heart stays ever fixed upon each individual on planet earth. Nothing I do, say or believe nullifies God’s love for me. His love never wavers not if, but when my faith, my opinions and my actions are hurtful or reveal immaturity. Why is it so hard for people to love and respect others the way God loves and respects us?

God continually redirects me back to living authentically before and for him. The most difficult task in my life also challenged Mark Twain who once said, “It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.” How can my life exemplify God's precepts that I already know? I can write about the “shoulds,” and “don’ts,” but is my life a spontaneous living example of my faith? How do I usually respond when my beliefs about God and others are challenged? Do I challenge others to rethink their biases?

Facebook asked me to describe my religious and political affiliations. I am a "conservative independent liberal." Conservative describes my theology and moral choices. Independent describes my political self, voting based upon the person's character and issues important to me. I’m liberal when it comes to listening to and examining all sides to stimulate my personal understanding and growth. I do not limit my reading or relationships to people who agree with my faith, my culture, my ethnicity, or my viewpoints. In fact, I read and listen to those who think differently. I enjoy testing my faith and beliefs.

I don’t want my current understanding of biblical values or politics or theology to blind me to discovering deeper biblical context, to curtail spiritual intellectual pursuit, or to limit personal inquiry into truth. An unexamined life or beliefs cannot reveal my true self—a sinner saved by grace. God helps me to examine my heart, my motives, my unbelief, my prejudices.

How Does Your Heritage Expand or Limit Your Writing?
I am deeply grateful for my biological and spiritual heritage. Eight generations ago, my family and Abraham Lincoln shared the same grandfather. Nancy Hanks Lincoln was Abraham’s mother. When I was two years old, Christ radically changed my parents' lives. Nancy Hanks Springfield, my mother was a Methodist and Billy J. Springfield, my Daddy, was a pagan. As first generation Christians, their zeal for Jesus' message transformed prejudice into compassion, hatred into love, and their life purpose into Christ's passion.

Their examples taught me to love God's Word, to think for myself, to embrace my personal faith, to respect the life of every child that God weaves together in the womb—whether they are believers, nonbelievers or make believers—and to resist the ugly underbelly of sin, immorality, greed, hypocrisy, and religious and political intolerance.

If we are to write honestly about our lives, our flaws, our wrong choices, our maturity, and our faith that directs or draws others to Christ's love, God calls for us to judge ourselves—first.

What beliefs, mentors or cultural influences inspire your writing?

Factoids from "The Faith of Barack Obama"

Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, made an offer to bloggers to send a free copy of The Faith of Barack Obama in exchange for their agreement to write a book review. He did not require that the reviews be positive. Since I knew that Barack Obama said he is a Christian, I was curious about his faith. Michael Hyatt’s blog links to all the other bloggers’ posts. If you are interested in reading other bloggers reviews, click here.

The Writing Road does not endorse any political candidate. However, we review books—some that readers may consider controversial. We welcome your feedback.

Obama has won more Grammy awards (two, for the recordings of his books Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope) than Jimi Hendrix and Bob Marley combined (zero). (P. xx)

Should Barack lose the presidential race in 2008, he can run for office as often as he likes for the next twenty-four years and still be younger than John McCain. (p. xxii)

If Obama ascends to the presidency, he will be the first American president to do so having not been raised in a Christian home. (p.2)

Elected to the U.S. Senate, Obama was assigned the same desk that Robert F. Kennedy used, the culmination of a political journey begun forty years to the day after Kennedy was sworn in on January 4, 1965. (p.xxi)

Obama voted in the Illinois senate against the Induced Infant Liability Act, which sought the same treatment for babies who survived abortions as was routinely provided for babies born premature and thus given lifesaving medication attention. A federal bill—called the Born-Alive Infants Protection Act—became law. The National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), one of the nation’s most powerful pro-abortion advocacy organizations, issued a statement declaring, “NARAL does not oppose passage of the Born Alive Infants Protection Act. State Senator Obama voted against the Illinois version. (pp. 96-97)

His rating by the National Abortion Rights Action League? 100 percent.
His rating by the American Civil Liberties Union? Around 80 percent.
His rating by American Conservative Union? Always in single digits. (p. xxii)

Obama’s grandmother rose to become the first female vice president of the Bank of Hawaii and did so without a college degree, an astonishing achievement for a woman in that era. (p. 10)

Obama’s biological father, Barack Obama, Sr. was sent abroad by his government to study on a scholarship created for rising leaders for Jomo Kenyatta’s Kenya. (p.10)

Barack Obama Sr. rejected the Muslim faith of his youth just as he rejected the babblings of all witch doctors. (p. 11)

Barack Obama Sr. was married in a Kenyan village ceremony long before he met Ann and already had other children. (p. 11)

Barack Obama Sr. and Ann Dunham conceived Barack Obama out of wedlock and married when she was six-months pregnant. (p.11)

I Can't Decide

My younger kids pester me with a game they call, “Would You Rather . . .?” Would you rather be totally hairless or be covered in fur? Would you rather be boiled in oil or frozen in ice? Would you rather eat a truck full of ice cream or drink a pool full of cherry slushy? The game always deteriorates into the utterly ridiculous. Would you rather have a swollen lip the size of a football field or fifteen knees on the left leg?

My teenagers ask for on-the-spot decisions. As one walks out the door, “Mind if I go to Harry’s?” I agree, then realize I won’t have a baby-sitter later. “Can we eat out?” I don’t know. I haven’t checked the budget. “What if I wanted to get married at eighteen?” No, I don’t panic. This one isn’t currently dating. But she constantly asks hypothetical, paragraph-long questions. My fear is that she’s recording my answers and will hold me to them in future, non-hypothetical situations.

I’m directionally challenged, so it’s ironic that I worked through college by routing car trips for AAA. My problem isn’t reading maps. I just can’t decide if I want 410 East or 410 West when I’ve come from a different direction. Have I gone too far or not far enough? As a result, I spend a lot of time making U-turns or asking for directions.

Some people thrive on making decisions. Not me. I hate making them. Not having the money to replace mistakes, I’ve lived with my decisions for a long time—even small, unimportant ones, like choosing curtains that I wish were a different shade or the shoes that didn’t match an outfit the way I’d envisioned. So I hate making a quick decision. I was raised with the philosophy that you sleep on it, then decide in the morning.

In my novel, my heroine hates making decisions too. As she says, “I hate being responsible for the consequences.”

Our fictional characters need to make wrong decisions. Let them regret their choices. Ask them what they want, then make the opposite happen. (Yes, these “people” talk inside your head, so go ahead and interview them.) Give them terrible consequences as the result of their decisions. Bad decisions increase the conflict. This compelling conflict will keep our readers turning pages.

If only I could decide what my hero does in my latest chapter . . . Will he leave to provide medical care for orphaned children or stay to marry the woman he loves? Is the medical mission in Columbia or Kazakhstan? If he stays, what keeps the heroine from saying yes too soon?

(Sigh.) I can’t decide now. Maybe I’ll sleep on it, then make a decision in the morning.

Colored Blind: A Book Review of "The Faith of Barack Obama"

“You must read this perceptive and well-written book. Then you will know why Barack Obama has such a passion for justice and equality, such a gift for filling people of different generations with a newfound hope that things can and will change for the better. His inspiration comes from his faith; he is an ardent believer. Yes, he is a Christian and proud of it.”—Desmond Tutu, Nobel Laureate

Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers, made an offer to bloggers to send a free copy of The Faith of Barack Obama in exchange for their agreement to write a book review. He did not require that the reviews be positive. Since I knew that Barack Obama said he is a Christian, I was curious about his faith. Michael Hyatt’s blog links to all the other bloggers’ posts. If you are interested in reading other bloggers reviews, click here.

The Writing Road does not endorse any political candidate. However, we review books—some that readers may consider controversial. We welcome your feedback.

Book Review
Stephen Mansfield
THE FAITH OF BARACK OBAMA
164 pp. Thomas Nelson, Nashville. 2008. $19.95.
By Scoti Springfield Domeij

When I was six-years-old, I visited Meemee, my grandmother, for the summer in Kosciusko, Mississippi. As my bare feet scampered over Kosciusko’s red earth, so did Oprah’s. I don’t know if Oprah ever sipped water at JC Penney, but I did. Two signs hung over two water fountains. The tall fountain’s sign proclaimed it to be “white.” The word on the sign over the short fountain sign said “colored.”

My first thoughts upon reading the signs were, “We don’t have colored water in Indiana. Is the water is pink or blue?”

Like Goldilocks in The Three Bears, the short fountain seemed “just right.” With excited expectation, I pushed the button. To my disappointment, white water spurted from the short fountain.

I wondered, Why isn’t the color working?

Every day that summer, I checked to see if pink or blue water would gush from the short fountain. Before leaving with my parents to return to Indiana, I insisted on running downtown.

I just wanted to see if the color was working yet. It wasn’t.

I consoled myself. Maybe next summer when I visit Meemee, the color will work.

What Color Is Barack Obama’s Faith?
In “The Faith of Barack Obama," Stephen Mansfield, the best-selling historical and bibliographical author, reveals how Barack Obama’s step onto the political stage has aired national wounds and sins that need healing. This book challenges individuals to look beyond politics to “be more Christian than Republican, more American than Democrat, more noble and righteous than crassly and callously politically.” Readers are invited to consider “if a man’s faith is sincere, it is the most important thing about him, and that it is impossible to understand who he is and how he will lead without first understanding the religious vision that informs his life.”(p. xxiii)

This short book recounts Barack’s eclectic exposure to differing faiths in his childhood and what influenced his personal decision to submit to God’s will and commit to Jesus. It refutes the “Barack is a Muslim” poison-pen email smear campaigns. While this is the only book that deals with “The Faith of Barack Obama,” it deviates by looking at the faith journeys of Jeremiah Wright and Barack’s political rivals.

The Parallel Universes of US Versus THEM: The Reds, The Whites and The Blues
Whether you plan to vote for or against Barack Obama, you will find justification in this book to defend your political support—or lack of. Many pro-life, neoconservative Christians may slam this book shut before finishing the Introduction (p. xv) that quotes Obama’s bold statement:

“Those of us on the political Left who believe in a woman’s right to choose an abortion and who defend the rights of our gay friends and who care for the poor and who trust that big government can be a tool of righteousness—we also love God.”

The best way to read this book is to put aside bias, note your emotional responses to the content and thoughtfully consider, How do others judge my faith and compassion?

Chapter 1: To Walk Between Worlds: This chapter provides a compelling backdrop of Barack’s loneliness and "otherness" that tugs at the reader’s heartstrings. Obama’s white grandparents went against the red versus blue religiosity of their day when Madelyn Payne, a middle class, Methodist, married Stanley Dunham, a blue collar Baptist. Madelyn rejected the gossipy, cruel, racist, intellectually thin, and zealously intolerant hypocrisies of rural Kansas. Her astute observations of religious pretense—that still exists today—did not go unnoticed by their firstborn and only daughter, Ann.

Obama’s mother intellectually embraced the baby boomer counterculture. Barack’s mother and grandmother were thinkers and post moderns at heart—intellectually, religiously and culturally—before their times. Both Obama’s father and stepfather’s examples rejected their Muslim heritages. Obama’s eclectic background and “otherness” reflects the cultural and religious diversity of today’s American culture. What Barack’s parental role models could not give, he embraced—discovering God’s grace and truth for himself.

Chapter 2: My House, Too: Mansfield offers a gentler, less strident look at Jeremiah Wright, his biography, personality, theology, and his church, Trinity United Church of Christ. In this warm Christian family, Obama found Christians engaging in the world’s struggles—not retreating from them. Mansfield provides context for readers who have never attended black churches, to understand the black plight and the role of the black church in the lives of African Americans.

Chapter 3: Faith Fit for the Age: Obama reflects the respect that his mother taught him for all people and religions—including the father who abandoned him. Her assorted religious beliefs and atheism condensed down to The Golden Rule, “underlying these religions was a common set of beliefs about how you treat other people and how you aspire to act, not just for yourself, but also for the greater good.” (p. 55) This chapter will disconcert those wanting to pinhole Obama into their particular faith tradition. “The Faith of Barack Obama” celebrates God’s ability to draw a lonely, searching soul to Him and champions spiritual growth in sinful men that is ongoing, not static.

Chapter 4: The Altars of State: Individuals who need to hear Obama speak Christianese to affirm his faith and agree with their pro-life views on abortion, may brand his conversion “less than.” Barack Obama challenges liberals to stop rejecting people of faith and find common ground. When he urged believers to engage in respectful dialogue and not to use faith as a tool of attack to divide and belittle, it unleashed the fears and prejudgments the religious right targets towards Barack. I suffer from religious self-righteous burnout and zoned out when Mansfield provided a theological and philosophical discourse regarding civil religion.

Chapter 5: Four Faces of Faith: Digressing from “The Faith of Barack Obama,” this chapter examines the biographical faith journeys for John McCain, Hillary Clinton, and George W. Bush.

Chapter 6: A Time to Heal: This chapter pointed out shocking details I wasn’t aware of, but my southern-born mother knew. For example, our government behaved like Nazi’s when they used 400 black men with syphilis as test subjects to study the effects of how syphilis spreads and kills. The men were not advised of their medical diagnosis nor were they given antibiotics to clear up their STD. And political pundits deride Rev. Wright for distrusting our government?

Obama approaches the pain of poverty, race, religion, and age with a detached perspective not as one still trying to recover from pain or suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Mansfield brings up the question: How can compassionate Christians ignore injustice in our democracy? Is the faith community merely religiously fluent, like Bill Clinton, or is our faith sincere that confronts double standards with Christ’s love, mercy and grace?

Who Owns the Religious Voice of America?
Rather than espousing shrill judgmentalism, Mansfield presents a fair and well-rounded backdrop for Obama’s life, faith and political views. So fair, in fact, that those who differ with Barack’s political agenda will most likely question the validity of his faith, and those who agree with his politics may be irritated by his openness about his faith in Jesus.

Subtly the book presents Barack’s sense of destiny, linking him with Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, and bringing healing to our wounded nation. The author points out refreshing characteristics that endear Barack to those repulsed by self-righteousness: transparency about admitting wrong choices, unselfconscious spirituality, unapologetically Christian, questioning certain tenets of his Christian faith, and comfortable co-existence and respect for non-Christian religions. What a sharp contrast to the US versus THEM religionists who wear the I’m-right-and-perfect masks, only admitting sin when caught with their pants down.

The Outsider
This book purports that Obama’s cultural disconnection derives from being a mulatto. However, Barack reveals many of the characteristics of Third Culture Kids (TCKs), which includes Missionary Kids (MKs)—children who have spent significant time during their developmental years in one or more culture(s) other than their birth or parent’s culture. TCK’s will relate to Obama’s struggle and the search to find his “own tribe.” The advantages of growing up in a cross-cultural world allows TCK’s, like Obama, to process their views through a multicultural lens, to comfortably cross between cultures and build relationships, and to assimilate aspects of those cultures into their personal “third culture.”

What Color Is Your Faith?
Blacks versus Whites: Our country has made some strides forward regarding racial prejudice, but is it enough? I think not.

Us versus Them: Will we ever make headway to overcome “pet” theological hardheartedness or religious prejudice? A balanced spiritual life includes more than just claiming fire insurance through the redemption of the cross or debating "Who's going to heaven or hell."

Reds versus Blues: Can Barack Obama “wed faith to a political vision that leads to meaningful change in our time”? (p.144)

As for me, I prefer to embrace others with eyes of grace and compassion and remain colored blind.


Don't Miss Interesting "Factoids from The Faith of Barack Obama" on Friday, September 5, 2008

Read How Do Your Beliefs or Faith Affect Your Writing? on Monday, September 8, 2008