I Love My Books

How do you define success for an author? Getting an agent? Getting a book deal? Getting a second book deal? Keeping your agent and your publisher well into a lucrative career? NYT bestseller list? Keynoting writers' conferences? Some level of fame?

I define it like this: writing books you love and getting them into the hands of people who will also love them. And that I have done and hope to continue to do. What I write is not based on what is selling or trending at the moment. It's not the result of a formula found in a "how to plot a bestseller" book. It's what I want to read.

I never understand it when an author says he doesn't read his own books. If you don't even want to read them, why should I? I'm busy at the moment, writing another suspense title, but if I weren't...I'd gladly crack open one of my novels and I'd enjoy it. Why, everything happens just as I would want it to. What more can you ask for? Sure, I'm not surprised by it. There's no nail-biting, but there never is when you re-read.

Even though I meet less than half the above criteria for what makes a successful writer, I'm often asked for writing advice. And this is the best advice I can offer: write books that you love. Books you want to read. There will be others who will share your taste in reading materials and that will mean more than chasing a trend, a hot genre, or the ever-elusive book market.

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Read Some Scary-Exciting Christian Fiction This Halloween!

Playing Saint is available as a paperback, ebook, or largeprint hardcover. Click here..

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"It's Halloweeeeeeeen." -Capt. Raymond Holt

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Con Men and Fanny Packs

Sometimes Mr. Midlist gets to...

...fly down to Texas and spend three days with his favorite author, shooting guns, smoking cigars, hearing incredible stories, and having unforgettable experiences. Hear more about this trip on the next episode of the Gut Check Podcast.

Praise to our God and arrows to our enemies!

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You can do it.

“…You can do anything, anything
They told me not to rap or sing a thing
I failed music; they said, ‘Don’t do it’
I put down acoustics and started a movement
If I can do it, you can do it
If you can do it, they can do it
If we can do it, what we doing?
Let’s start moving”

                        -Manfest, “Bounce”


Have an awesome day. Do something amazing. Maybe write something amazing.




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Playlist.

Not much time to blog today. I #amwriting the YA suspense novel I've told you about.

As I've mentioned before in numerous blogs, interviews, and writing conference talks, I always put together a playlist of music that evokes the atmosphere and vibe of the book. It's not usually my favorite music, but there's something about the aggregate effect that gets me quickly into the right head-space to pick up where I left off.  This book's playlist is just beginning to form, but here is where it stands so far:


Yes, I realize one of these songs was on the Lego Movie preview; my book is very different, I promise. Also, while there are several songs below with nonsense-lyrics, I promise Clinch will be coherent. :)

 The Rend Collective - Create in Me a Clean Heart


Weezer - My Name Is Jonas


Of Monsters and Men - Dirty Paws


I Am They - From the Day


The Boondock Saints - Holy Fool


Plankeye - Open House


Burlap to Cashmere: Chop Chop


Flatfoot 56 - Brotherhood


Avicci - Wake Me Up

Pushstarting a Locomotive

So I read The Secret when it was all the rage because I’m a pastor and I feel like I should keep up to date on the religious trends of our culture. I couldn’t believe how stupid it was. The “Law of Attraction,” which basically says that if you kick out positive vibes to the universe, the universe will deliver positive things back to you, seems like the sort of thing you’d only ever encounter on a sitcom, when a writers’ room is trying (lazily) to establish a character as a flaky, New Age nut.

But people have bought tens of millions of copies. I don’t get it. I mean, it’s one thing if God is rewarding your positivity (although the Christian Scriptures certainly don’t say a peep about that), but . . . the universe? In the words of Don Draper, “The universe is indifferent.” I even find it a little superstitious when Dave Ramsey tells people that having an emergency fund actually makes emergencies less likely to happen (Murphy stands in for the universe in that case).

And yet . . . it was shortly after I decided to start writing again and committed to finishing serializing my book Out of Sardis online (because no publisher wanted it) that the book got a nibble from a publisher who wanted a look at it. Then another possibility opened up. Long story short, the book is off the interwebs and back in play. Coincidence? Maybe. Matthew 25:21 in action? Ehhhh, maybe. Awesome? Potentially.

The fresh excitement of my writing life in general, though, is more explainable. I’m reinvigorated about a number of projects and am working pretty steadily on a YA manuscript that I really believe will be my best book yet. It’s got a slow-burn mystery wrapped up in a rather frantic plot, not unlike The Last Con, but with the addition of a claustrophobic, isolated rural town (which is something I loved about some of Peretti’s earlier stuff). I can’t wait for you guys to read it.

I’ve got no use for Murphy or the benevolence of the Universe, and I know that God doesn't necessarily wait to help us until we help ourselves, but now that I’ve push-started this locomotive once again and it’s picking up speed, the will to write is no longer a precious commodity. I’ve got more than I know what to do with.

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