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| C. Kevin Thompson |
I thought to myself, “My writing is pretty tight. I have a
good chance.” So, I paid my contest fee, sent in my first three chapters, and
waited.
When I arrived at the conference, I received my manuscript
packet. Inside, my three chapters were stapled together with a cover sheet from
the editor of a publishing house who was charged with the reading of my work.
This editor—being honest, I’m sure—wrote on the form, in the comment section
these words: “Not suited for Christian market. Submit to general market.”
As you can imagine, I walked away a little discouraged.
Borderline depressed, actually. What I thought was good writing for the CBA
market had just been annihilated in nine words. As I walked away, I wondered
why I was there. If my work is not suited for the CBA, then why stay at a Christian writers conference?
I wanted a reason. A note. A critique of how this conclusion was
reached. But there were no comments about the level of the writing itself. No
words of encouragement. No critique whatsoever. Just the editor’s name, the
publishing house represented, and the comment.
Because there was no reason given, I had to speculate, and
that’s the worst thing to do when you’re depressed and discouraged. I
concluded that people having affairs and subsequently getting eaten by giant
sea serpents didn’t fit the scope of the bonnet and buggy crowd. And, I
thought, because this editor only got to read the first three chapters and not
the entire manuscript, the redeeming value of the story was missed.
Now, here I sit, reading the last chapter in 1 Samuel. A book
in the Bible, no less. And the gore depicted in this story rivals, probably
exceeds, anything I’ve written.
This chapter describes the demise of King Saul. The
Philistines had already killed his sons, and now, Saul asks his armor-bearer to
“run him through” with his sword so that his enemies cannot torture him. Saul’s
armor-bearer refuses, so Saul takes his own sword and commits suicide.
Terrified, the armor-bearer does the same thing.
The carnage didn’t stop there. The Philistines went through
the region, occupying towns and taking any and all possessions. They even
raided the dead bodies fallen on the battlefield. When they come across King
Saul and his three sons, they stripped them of their armor, then beheaded
Saul’s dead body. They sent news via messengers throughout the land, no doubt,
using Saul’s head as the proverbial king’s seal of authenticity.
If that wasn’t bad enough, Saul’s armor was taken, along with
his body, to the Philistine temple of Ashtoreth. There, his armor was put in
the temple (v. 10). And to top it all off, Saul’s body was fastened to the wall
as a sign to the worshippers that Ashtoreth was supposedly greater than the God
of Israel.
This was reprehensible to the people of Jabesh Gilead, so they
entered the temple, removed Saul’s body, burned it, and then buried the bones
(vv. 11-12).
I guess God should have written this for the general market.
Oh, wait. He did.
Hmmm…
And therein lies the rub.
As a writer, it’s easy to write Christian novels that ooze
with Christianese and always end “happily ever after.” Everybody gets saved,
finds God, gets filled with the Holy Spirit, wins the girl of his dreams, finds
the man of her dreams, or whatever. When I say “easy,” I mean Christian
publishers always look for these kinds of stories because they sell. But
interestingly enough, that’s not how the Bible was written. Yes, there are the
romantic suspense stories of the Ruths of the Bible. There are the dramatic
stories of the Marys. However, the Bible doesn’t contain those kind of stories
only. God chose to write stories depicting people, godly people at times, with
all their spiritual warts, psychological scars, and psychopathic tendencies.
Sometimes, committing horrendous atrocities.
And the most important thing to remember is that God wrote the
Bible so that others could be saved.
Imagine that. People can
get saved reading about violence and sin…so long as the violence has a
redeeming purpose and sin is sin.
So, for those of you who write stories that don’t involve
Amish women or historical figures of the wild west who hate each other in the
beginning (but you know they’ll end up together), take heart. There is a place
for your story in the plan of God…so long as there is a redeeming purpose in
the pages. So, be patient and keep writing. God will take care of the rest.
Oh, and by the way, about those first three chapters I
mentioned earlier…they were the first three chapters of my debut novel, The
Serpent’s Grasp. This novel won the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian
Writers Conference’s 2013 Selah Award for Fiction-First Novel and was a
finalist in Foreword Review’s 2012
Book of the Year Awards in the Science Fiction category.
A publisher picked it up at that same conference referenced
above.
It was a good thing I stayed, huh?
Something
ominous lurks under the waters.
Dr.
Evelyn Sims, a brilliant marine biologist, is being watched. Her husband's
mysterious death at sea—with the only survivor of the Greenback telling a
shocking, unbelievable tale—has thrown her personal life into chaos. Her
scientific views are being scrutinized. Her husband's office and their home are
investigated. Called in by the FBI to help solve the mystery, Evelyn is thrust
into her toughest research project ever...and forced into a maze of deception
and betrayal.
Micah
Gregson, the Coast Guard captain who rescued the Greenback, is determined to
find out why a special unit at the FBI—the one assigned to cryptozoological
cases—is involved.
Together
Evelyn and Micah will uncover a plot more deadly than anything the ocean could
ever produce. One that will either save Evelyn's life and redeem her career, or
destroy everything she—and myriad others—stand for.
C. KEVIN
THOMPSON is an ordained minister with a B.A. In Bible (Houghton
College, Houghton, NY), an M.A. in Christian Studies (Wesley Biblical Seminary,
Jackson, MS), and an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership (National-Louis
University, Wheeling, IL). He presently works as an assistant principal in a
middle school.
His Blake Meyer series is out! 30 Days Hath Revenge - A Blake Meyer Thriller: Book 1, is now
available! Book 2 of the Blake Meyer Series, Triple Time, is now available! Book 3, The Tide of Times, will be out Labor Day weekend! Also, the second
edition of his award-winning debut novel, The
Serpent’s Grasp, is now available!
Kevin is a huge fan of the TV series 24, The Blacklist, Blue Bloods, and Criminal Minds, loves anything to do with Star Trek, and is a Sherlock Holmes fanatic, too.
To connect with Kevin and learn more, please visit:
Twitter: @CKevinThompson
Goodreads: C. Kevin
Thompson
