Serials and Scenarios - Christine Schaub's Driving Music

Happy Friday all.

Christine Schaub was kind enough to share her thoughts with us. I loved what she had to say, I think you will, too.

I didn't investigate the missing font color button ,alas, so I will BOLD her answers. On a side note...last night Pat reminded me of a story I'd blocked out for some reason. "Pat goes to the Park." I still haven't shared Pat's Rooster Dance or the Bees Knees - ahhh - I see a Pat marathon coming up. And I had a moment in an grocery store yesterday - public scream laughing is frowned upon, apparently.

Now back to Christine. Thanks, Christine. I'd love to see you write about rubber tree adventures.

Fiction character you would most like to be or most identify with and why?

When the movie “Pride & Prejudice” came out, I immediately identified with Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennet and returned to the literature to find out why. Like Elizabeth, I am a woman “out of time”—i.e., my natural inclinations don’t seem to fit into society’s expectations of how today’s woman should sound, act, desire, achieve. This makes us exhilarating to some and perplexing to many…admired and loathed…quite often too much, too challenging for the masses.


Some out there in writing land have strange rituals. Share yours.

I write out of order. Because I’m a rabid outliner, I choose a chapter or scene that appeals to me at the moment, then start writing. Of course, that leaves the unappealing parts for last—when it’s a race against the deadline—and I hate myself for it. But it always works out in the end.


What crayon in the box describes you on a good day? Bad day? Which one do you aspire to be?

Oh, for a box of crayons at my fingertips! Is there a “cerulean blue”? That would be me on a good day—the color of the sea and sky along the Amalfi Coast that almost hurts your eyes, it’s so pure and alive. For a bad day I’d have to go with “burnt sienna”—an angry orange-red you find in the coats of the predatory animal kingdom…fascinating, but don’t go near them. I aspire to be a crayon somewhere in the middle—maybe the color at the point where the sunset meets the ocean and blends.


Character, plot or prose? Which grabs you by the heart? Why?

I’m a sucker for really good prose—when the writer can make a scene or sentiment come alive simply by word choice and arrangement. I think particularly of Jacquelyn Mitchard’s The Deep End of the Ocean…such lyrical, heart-stopping descriptions of a mother’s long-term struggle with the disappearance of a child. You don’t have to be a mother to understand: “And so she had made the choice, it seemed now, to not heal. Instead, she would try to live around the friable edges of a crater, to tread softly and avoid what she had come to think of as the avalanche.”


Pink iguana, purple cow, periwinkle giraffe. Which one and why? Can be negative or positive.

I’m gonna have to go with the periwinkle giraffe—not only because it’s fun to say, eg. “So I stood there in the dressing room, looking like a periwinkle giraffe…”—but also because it’s great imagery…like, Jurassic Park gone cartoon.


Favorite turn of phrase or word picture, in literature or movie.

I love (and have stolen) Tom Hanks’ line in the movie “You’ve Got Mail” to describe his girlfriend: “She makes coffee nervous.” Isn’t that great? Imagine a force of personality that has the power to give a stimulant the shakes.


If you were assured of writing a best-seller, what genre would it be? Give us a sliver of information, a characteristic or glimpse of a scene.


I’d write action/adventure with humor—something like Evanovich’s “Stephanie Plum” series. Here’s a glimpse of something I’m working on:
I was hanging upside down from a rubber tree, watching my carefully-packed items bounce around on the ground, thinking this situation would only be funny in a Jerry Lewis movie. Oh, and it was raining.
I started swinging toward the nearest trunk, reaching out for a handhold. I looked up. The chute seemed to be holding in the canopy. The trunk slipped away from me and I tried again.
This time I caught a vine and hauled myself upright. With my left hand on the vine and my legs gripping the tree, I reached down with my right hand and worked the jungle knife out of its sheath in my leg pocket. It was a wicked weapon—black and almost a foot long. I sawed through the parachute lines, felt a moment of freedom, then plunged all the way to the ground in a barely controlled trunk slide.
I sat on the jungle floor for a moment, trying not to let my already foul mood get any fouler. The jump had been hot and sticky, and just so we’re clear: landing in rubber trees is not like landing on a pile of bouncy balls. They’re freakishly tall and skinny with slippery, slap-happy leaves and creepy vines. I hate them. Passionately.


What period of history intrigues you the most?

I’m intrigued by the customs and mores of the late-19th century, when the world was on the edge of exploding technology and people were reinventing themselves with optimism and ingenuity. At the same time, men were overtly masculine and women were happily feminine, and that was freely embraced by the masses. An excellent description of this period is Jack Finney’s time-travel novel, Time and Again.


What makes you feel alive?

I have a risk-taking personality, so I feel most alive when I’m doing something daring, something my mother might call “stupid,” like jumping a snowmobile over a snow bluff or skiing down a mountain in an ice fog, or even traveling to New York City alone. I’m in control, but the fringes of the activity are a little…lunatic.


Favorite season and why?

I love the Fall because it brings colorful leaves, wood-burning fireplaces, football and school supplies. The long, uneventful summer has ended and we’re heading into sweaters and Thanksgiving and, if you live in the North, blowing smoke out your nose.


Favorite book setting and why?


I enjoy books set in Washington, DC because I thrill to the patriotism and power in that city, and the reader usually gets a tour of the monuments and emblems that define America.


Which compliment related to your writing has meant the most and why?

One reader wrote and told me my books read like classics. That was refreshing, as I try very hard to write dialogue that matches the time period, using words and concepts that might be wholly unfamiliar to 21st-century readers. I want my readers to feel like they’re living in the past with my main characters, but not be thinking, ‘Thither? What does that mean?”


What criticism has cut the deepest and why?

I’ve never had a “don’t-quit-your-day-job” bad review, but one reviewer wrote about Finding Anna (which opens in the midst of the Great Chicago Fire of 1873): “Although the opening is weak and somewhat confusing, the writing improves as the novel progresses.” Now, this reviewer also printed my name as “Straub,” so there may have been less attention to detail than I desired. Nevertheless, each review is only one person’s opinion…and a writer is never going to please everybody.


Creative Corner : )

Pick a scenario, recipe or story starter from the list below and create a paragraph for us. Feel free to change anything or if you want to get really creative start from scratch.


If Alex had known the body of the senator was in the bathtub, she would've taken Jim's offer for coffee.

So now she had no Starbucks peppermint mocha, no chance of catching a seven o’clock movie, and scant time to freshen up before her favorite detective arrived. Oh—and the senator was starting to stink. She breathed through her mouth while applying lipstick and surveyed the scene: bullet hole over the left eye, closed in peaceful slumber; jacket missing, but shirt and tie neatly arranged; pricey watch and cufflinks intact; dark hair falling across the brow in Robert Redford fashion that made the female politicos swoon. When the door-pounding started, she jumped—not so much from the sound as the last-minute realization that the world was about to witness and photograph her skanky tub ring.

Serials and Scenarios - The Longing Season

Come back tomorrow for Christine's interview...

The Book:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764200607

The Author:http://www.christineschaub.typepad.com/


The Review:

High school history books should be this beautiful, I would've done so much better on tests.

"The Longing Season" is written as a fully fleshed story wrapped around historical facts. The hand and love of God within the stories of Horatio Spafford and John Newton fill me with wonder. Schaub tackled Spafford in "Finding Anna," her previous novel. Fictionalized accounts of historical people bring their testimonies to life and end up teaching us more than bare facts.

Schaub takes her time and develops the characters in a style closer to literary than pop fiction. She has painted a realistic and almost shocking hero in John Newton. The story behind Amazing Grace has always intrigued me, and that was before I knew of the separation and longings of two young people who communicated not through instant messaging but by letters written and transported by ship.

If you are a fan of Jack Cavanaugh's "Storm" you should find much to appreciate in "The Longing Season."

If you yawn at richly woven prose and descriptions or at hymns, you might not appreciate this amazing story. If romance is your thing, you might feel a bit cheated because the story focuses on the longing and waiting, or the journey rather than the trophy at the end of the long, dusty trip. Some descriptions read closer to PG-13 than PG so if this is something you'd like a child to read for the rich history lesson make sure you preview it.

As for me, I'm going back to pick up Schaub's "Finding Anna."

Scribbles and Scrambles - Pratfall Pat #2

Continued Pratfallian Memories..... Yesterday we visited Pat's silent dance of fall avoidance. Today we have the audio version.



The next tumble I remember witnessing was one of great sound and no visual. My brothers (though it seems there was usually only one brother’s name on my parents' lips) borrowed tools often.

Apparently, a project needing a screwdriver and basement stairs had been completed earlier that fateful day.

Someone didn’t get the screwdriver returned to its proper home but had instead left it lying on the wooden basement stairs.

This was in the day of glass soda bottles.

Full glass soda bottles containing sugary soda lined the basement stairs.

Pat returned home from work as the children innocently did homework at the kitchen table or helped with dinner preparation.

No man in his right mind would stop and ask the children if anyone had created a death-trap on the basement stairs.

No right-minded child of Pat’s would dream of creating a death-trap with Pat’s name on it.

So we’ll chalk it up to childish oopsidity.

Pat began his descent.

I think we’ve all forgotten what he needed from the basement.

A roar. A crash. A thumpity-whumpity-whump-thump poured out of the dark basement doorway. A crescendo of tinkling shattering glass then joined the rhythmic whump, thump, bump.

To say that all blood left the faces of the children in the kitchen would be an understatement. With large alien eyes we glanced nervously around the room bouncing our eyeballs from one sibling to the next to the mom who stood statue still with a tomato in one hand and a lip firmly captured between her teeth.

A long few seconds followed where no one breathed.

But suddenly, a giggle tickled the base of my brain. The sounds, the crash, the thought of my father sweeping the steps clean with his body began to torment me. I too, chomped on my lip.

A fist, holding a screwdriver appeared from the basement, followed by my non-too-thrilled father. “Who put this screwdriver on the stairs?” The words were a bark which only added to my need for a guffaw.

The boys scattered, a noise, issued forth from Pat. A snort. A chuckle? He shook his head, Mom put her hand to her mouth and let loose a nervous giggle. The flood gates opened.

We laughed and then we cleaned up soda pop.

Next week I'll share the private and public side of Pat's amazing pratfalls.

Scribbles and Scrambles - Pratfall Pats #1

I suppose my delight with excellently executed tumbles stems from my upbringing, maybe as far back as birth because many of my memories are peppered with falling Pats.

It’s been awhile since I shared a Pat. And for those of you who haven’t been introduced, Pat is my dad. He has two distinct personas. Not personalities, but personas. He is a starched-white professional, church pillar and all around go-to guy. On the other hand he is a wild-haired crazy man who does his own stunts and sometimes other’s stunts as well. I believe I’ve mentioned the leg toss…this is when someone begins to tumble and Pat’s leg shoots out in some bizarre attempt to catch the person which really only adds another humor beat and an occasional bruise.

Pat, over the years, has mastered the art of the tumble. One could go as far as to say that Pat might be the Chuck Norris of falls. (If you don’t get this reference, Chuck is da man in many circles.)

My first Pat Pratfall encounter would be something I witnessed via home movies. This technology won’t ring a bell for the younger readers of this blog so I’ll explain it thus: think camcorder without sound which captures rapid-style still pictures on film which is then threaded through a machine, not unlike threading a sewing machine needle, for viewing pleasure.

My mother or grandparents had captured a slippery battle between man, car, child and snow – on a hill. Much sliding and twisting occurred. The child, clutched in Pat’s arms stared wide-eyed over his shoulder as she swooped and dipped in his dance to open the ice glazed door on the station wagon. Pat ended on a triumphant note in that little skirmish, which is good because I was said child.

He held me because I sported a war wound I’d received while playing in my closet and stepping on a huge nail attached to a six foot piece of woodwork. Which is a story for another day.

Tumble number two tomorrow.

Serials and Scenarios - Robert Liparulo Under the Microscope

Ha - get it. He wrote Germ....Under the Microscope. Sorry, I just cracked myself up.

Hmmm. Updated blogger.com where is the color option? Usually I get colorful. Today we'll just have to be boring black and white. I've bolded Bob's answers to my questions.


A man and woman sit at a table in an upscale restaurant. They each have a cell phone to their ear. What are you overhearing? Tell me about this couple…..

She: I hope we’re not late. I love the first act.
He: We have plenty of time. Don’t worry. Have you decided what you want, yet?
She: You order for me. No, wait... the Veal Oscar sounds good.
He: Are they still listening?
She: Yeah, the guy’s even leaning closer. Say something provocative.
He: I told you not to call me here!
She: Now they’re totally confused. Let’s call the waiter...
This is a fun-loving couple who call each other and chat when other people are eavesdropping, simply to freak them out.



Favorite turn of phrase or word picture, in literature or movie.

It’s from Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings, the movie (but lifted in spirit from the book). Gandaldf to Bilbo in Moria: “We cannot choose the time we live in. We can only choose what we do with the time we are given.” So often, it’s easy to complain about the situation we’re in, but the important thing is how we handle ourselves, despite the situation.

A close second: “We’re going to need a bigger boat.” From Jaws.


What would you write if there were no rules or barriers? (epic novels about characters in the Bible, poetry, greeting cards, plays, movies, instruction manuals, etc.)

Comes a Horseman, Germ, Deadfall (the manuscript I’m just finishing), and whatever comes next. I always write as though there were no barriers or rules. I write what I want to read. I write what tickles my curiosity. I’ve been blessed to have had short stories, articles, and novels published, and to have sold screenplays. I’ve been able to make a living writing what I want to write. Most writers are rebels to some extent. Otherwise, we’d all have corporate jobs. And if you’re going to rebel, why pander to rules?


What makes you feel alive?

Many things, but primarily, being with my family. Huddled on a bed, watching a movie, playing a board game, hiking in the woods, building sand castles on the beach—no matter what we’re doing, as long as we’re all together, I feel the most alive. If I have to narrow it further, I’d pick that last scenario: building sand castles on the beach with my family... on Maui... on Big Beach.


How does something worm its way into your heart? Through tears, truth, humor, other?

The “worm” thing isn’t a nice image, but I getcha. What gets me the most is unfulfilled expectations of happiness: The failed marriage, the promise of a great day that doesn’t happen. I was in the ER the other day because of a cut on my arm. Parametics wheeled in a boy of about eight on a gurney. He was moaning over and over and calling for his mom. She was behind the gurney and the parametrics, reassuring him. “I’m here, sweetie.” He went past me and he looked miserable. Blood and bruises on his face. His pain made me sad, but what anguished me was his pain in the context of what he expected the day to bring when he woke up that morning: certainly not that. That dichotomy between what-could-have-been and what-is gets me every time.


Which compliment related to your writing has meant the most and why?

Well, the compliment that gave me the biggest thrill wasn’t a review. I was in the lobby of a New York City hotel, where the first meeting of the International Thriller Writers organization was taking place. The lobby was filled with authors whom I had admired for years: David Morrell, Lee Child, John Lescroart, Tess Gerritsen. In walked the brilliant writer David Dun. David had given Comes a Horseman a glowing endorsement, and I approached him to thank him in person. In a really loud voice, he said, “I hate you! You’re a better writer than I am!” Of course he was joking, but I looked around and all these great writers were staring at us. I just beamed.


What criticism has cut the deepest and why?

I don’t mind criticism... too much. I know what I write isn’t for everyone. But I don’t like it when people pass judgment without getting the facts. A friend of mine won’t read my books, because he’s afraid they’re too violent or too scary. I understand not liking certain genres, not liking to be scared, but I wish he’d give me the benefit of the doubt and at least start one of them. He’s an important part of my life. It’s disappointing that he can’t share in something else that’s important to me.


What would you do today if you knew you had only a week to live?

Spend it with my family. I’d want to have fun with them, but I’d also want to make sure they realized where I was heading and that everything would be all right. My number one task in life is to tell my children about Christ, to get them thinking heavenward. Three of them have accepted Christ and are showing the fruit of that. But I’d want to assure them that my passing shouldn’t shake their faith. (My youngest is only fourteen months.) They I’d go about making as many memories as we could squeeze into a week.


Pick one of the following recipes and give me a paragraph or two.......
Unidentifiable antique, the scent of pipe tobacco and the drizzle of rain – make a scene.


Curtains blew in from the open window. Raindrops, flashing silver as they caught the moonlight, rode the wind to land on the leather chair, the side table, a pipe in its stand. Recently extinguished, the meerschaum exuded a fragrance like walnut and cherries. The beads of water pattered onto the ancient and worn item resting on the table, beside the pipe. Grey threads of steam hissed up from a dozen spots. Then it moved, rotating like a head on a neck. Thin rods, spindly as spider legs, piston out and down, clicking against the wood. The body of the contraption rose, now resting on the rods... the legs. A noise outside the study made the thing jerk around. It crouched low, seeming to wait for whoever was coming.

If you missed the links to Germ -http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0785261788

or Bob's website - http://www.robertliparulo.com


Have a great weekend. And keep warm. Unless you are in a balmy location then "pfffttt" enjoy your weather.

Scribbles and Scrambles - Wait Just a Second

This isn’t a post about spectacular tumbles. It’s about the way our minds work and process information. See, I can be normal. I'm not twisted all the time.

One of my favorite patients came to see me today. A routine visit so he was feeling fine. Since he’s pretty healthy I only see him every once in awhile.

He stepped into my x-ray room and we took a few 8 x 10 glossies. We usually get an annual chest x-ray and then while they are dressed (or undressed) for that we jet them across the hall for an EKG. It usually works well but sometimes the EKG’s get bogged down and the patient has to wait awhile in my room. I’ll come out of my dark room and find patients weeping on the scale, playing with my model of the spine or reading medical posters.

Today, I stepped out and my patient said. “Can I ask you what that is? Is it a level?” He pointed to my clock. It’s a drug clock so it has product information on the face and sported the colors of the medication. Often drug paraphernalia is gimmicky, funky numbers, odd shapes, usually not your normal items.

So I stared where he pointed. “Well…it’s the second hand, it fell off.”

He turned red and laughed. “Oh, I thought it was a statement about how the drug leveled something out and the level was crooked so it wasn’t good advertising.”

Isn’t that funny? Our surroundings determine the way we look at things sometimes. He expected some weird gimmick so he didn’t even consider that the item was what it was. In another setting he wouldn’t even has questioned the fact that it was a second hand. It was that obvious. But because he saw things differently in light of his location, he questioned what he knew to be true or likely.

How’s that for a spiritual lesson? Do you ever second guess what you believe to be true because of your surroundings? Does your faith feel foreign in some situations? Do you avoid entering a church because you expect that reality changes and things will be skewed, that somehow in a church a second hand isn’t a second hand anymore?

Serials and Scenarios - Germ

Hey kids. Germ is the focus of the water cooler discussion in Christian fiction this week. Germs and water coolers, doesn't sound like a good idea. Keep reading...it gets worse.

Robert aka Bob Liparulo even answered some of my questions. I'll shoot those into cyberspace on Friday.


Germ: The details.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0785261788



Germ: The author link
http://www.robertliparulo.com



Germ: The Review....

I anticipated the release, even itched, to get my hands on "Germ." I didn't read "Comes a Horseman" but followed comments and reviews of Liparo's first novel. I knew "Germ" would be a book that generated conversation.

Violence and gore is one of the charges leveled against "Comes a Horseman," " Germ" contains blood and guts, too. This isn't an easy read. The subject matter is rough. But the gore isn't gratuitous or sensational, its sharing a story that is very visual and sense oriented. So much so that if you can't do suspense or strong violence you may want to avoid it. I can't watch war movies because of what the death and violence do to my spirit, but I clipped through "Germ," so use that as a guide if you are squeamish.

Another topic of discussion that's come up is the "lack" of strong Christian threads throughout Liparolo's work. I have a few comments about that, too. There is no prayer printed on the last page, or extremely evangelical characters, but I found a realistic and positive protrayal of a Christian character that presented love and forgiveness within the pages of "Germ."

What do you want from your Christian fiction? If you are looking for a salvation plan based story, you probably won't be satisfied with the Christian content in "Germ." But if you like art that points out the differences between redeemed and unredeemed with the themes of love and redemption swirled throughout the story like subtle brush strokes adding light on a painting, you'll likely appreciate Liparulo's subtle touches.

As far as story goes. I can see why there is talk of a movie. I had actors picked out for most of the parts. This story is suspenseful, thrilling, twisty and edge of seat. A scenario so not farfetched that it hits a little too close to my comfort zone.

The book is also well written with some vivid and often beautiful descriptions (or vivid descriptions that just might curl your toes.)

"Germ" is a great read. I recommend it.