Serials and Scenarios ~ Up Pops the Devil

Here's my review. Interested in more, just scroll on down and check out the first chapter.

And now I'm going to bed.



Preacher, a new Christian fresh from two years in prison, reenters life with hopes and dreams and crashes into the reality of his past. All of the consequences have been waiting for him, curled up like dormant rattlesnakes, and once he attempts to pick up pieces the rattles begin. A glimpse into a Hades gives further tension as spiritual puppetry is revealed.

These characters are ones that I grew to care about and I hoped for Preacher as he faced serpents all around. Sensitive or conservative souls may want to use caution. The characters behave like sinners saved by grace who need a lot of forgiveness. Solid storytelling and writing skills make the novel an escapist read that ends up challenging and teaching.

Serials and Scenarios ~ Angela Benson Pops In.

Hiya Dreggites. Angela Benson, author of Up Pops the Devil popped in with a few answers to the Dregs' questions. I'm still reading Devil so I'm going to be back with a full or partial review tomorrow. In the meantime, visit here to read the first chapter. And click on the book cover to check out the book and here to get to know Angela a little better. Thanks, Angela.

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

I don't know if it qualifies as strange but I re-read Writing the
Blockbuster Novel by Donald Maas before I begin each book. It's my way
of refreshing myself on the key points of effective storytelling.

If you could change something in any novel, what would you change about it and why?

There's a horror story surrounding my second novel, For All Time, so
that's the one I would change. What would I change? Well, I'd have
them publish the right version of the story. A book goes through
several edits before it's published. The major edits come after you
turn in the manuscript and the editor sends back her revision letter.
After you address the issues raised by your editor and re-submit the
book, the editor re-reads it and, hopefully, accepts it. A while
later you get another set of edits from a copy editor. You make those
changes and resubmit the manuscript again. A while later you get the
final galley pages where you have to make sure no errors have been
introduced into the book during the production process.

At the galley stages of For All Time, I realized that the publisher
had typeset the original manuscript I submitted which had none of the
revisions I had made. I was floored and near tears. A frantic call
to my editor didn't avail much. I was told to make all the changes
on the galley pages and they'd get them in the book. They didn't. If
I could change something, I'd have them publish the revised
manuscript. Believe me, it was much stronger than the original I
submitted.

To this day, I don't read my books after they're published. Too much stress.

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

Easy. Rhett Butler in Gone with the Wind. You know the phrase.
"Frankly my dear. . ."

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

The compliments that mean the most are those that mention how the book has encouraged their lives or touched them in some way.

Something along the lines of a recent review of Up Pops Devil by
Armchair Interviews means a lot: "As I read this book I could feel
the characters' struggles because I had similar ones. To relive my
conversion again through Preacher's story was magnificent. I would
absolutely recommend this book to everyone."

This reader comment about Up Pops the Devil is also a good example:
"The situations are so real and on point several times I found myself
pausing and thinking of my own testimony in which God's love brought
me through."

What criticism has cut the deepest and why?

That's an easy one, too. The review of The Amen Sisters by Black
Issues Book Review contained this line:

Although The Amen Sisters is touted as a story about church culture,
some may question if it is simply a story about a dysfunctional family
in the church.

Ouch. That hurt a lot. It hurt so much because the reviewer missed
the entire meaning of the book and didn't grasp the characters at all.

I thank God that readers didn't respond the same. From the mail I
received, the Lord used that book in a mighty way. You can read some
the reader responses HERE:


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

Stop dreading the planning and get married already. I'll have been
engaged a year in October. The whole idea of planning a wedding just
makes me tired. Although to be honest, I'm enjoying being engaged. I
just feel the pressure building when people ask, "When's the wedding?"

Serials and Scenarios ~ Trespassers Will Be Baptized

A book review...for those of you who come for details from my life, so sorry, I have much to share though. A wicked wipe-out in a cornfield, music festivals and drama will be appearing soon.


My Review:


I've read a few memoirs in my day and I'm drawn to the entertaining storytellers who both tell it like it is and also manage to paint reality a little more 3-D, a bit glossier, or even smellier. It is a rare person who can touch on the childhood struggle of figuring out our own little acre and put that immature angst into adult language and rich visuals. Elizabeth Emerson Hancock has that gift. Her story of growing out from underneath the crushing burden of the Preacher's Kid label caused me to smile and sometimes laugh. Hancock has a knack with stringing just the right words together to make her guided tour down memory lane amusing and recognizable to anyone who has spent hours at church potlucks and in Sunday best outfits with thigh backs glued to polished oak pews.

But as well written as this series of life-lessons named for the Fruit of the Spirit is, I couldn't help but struggle with sadness while I read it. Some characters are so human (i.e. awful) I wondered if the author needs to consider forgiving them for the pain they caused in her life. I'm all for laughing, but some of these lessons on the road to faith felt a touch bitter. I know people can be hideous and mean-spirited. Church people can be some of the worst. And it's unfair for adults to put expectations of perfection on kids. I appreciate the emotional cost the author paid out to bare her soul for the world. I can't imagine the toll she paid for the expectations she placed on adults who disappointed her and crushed her tender heart. But Jesus did die for every mean Baptist Sunday School teacher, too. And He is willing to equip us to forgive and move on. I also don't think He wants us to make other human beings all-powerful in our lives and let them steal, kill and destroy our joy, peace or faith long after they perpetrated against us. Elizabeth has every right to tell her story, but I wonder whether some of her thoughts may have been better left "unsaid."

This may be one of the more difficult books I've read this year. I want to love and recommend it, but in spite of all the humor and great writing, I can't help but feel melancholy after visiting her childhood.

Click on the book cover to read more reviews at Amazon.

Serials and Scenarios ~ Kristin Billerbeck's Back to Life

Kristin Billerbeck has made me laugh, cry and sigh. I didn't get the "back to life" in time to read it for review, but I've read enough of Kristin's other novels to know I'm going to find a lot to like. Here is the book premise and a link to read chapter one. And then go here to visit Kristin's site, click on the book cover to go to Amazon, and here to see her trail at Scrambled Dregs. (Scroll down, there's lots to look at.)

About the book:

Lindsey realized when she married Ron, a man 17 years her senior, that the odds were he’d see heaven before her, but she never expected to be a widow at 35. There’s too much of life left for her to just sit around in mourning. But she can’t seem to kick start the rest of her life.

That is until she gets some help from Ron’s first wife, Jane, who shows up unexpectedly at her door one day as the executor of her husband’s estate. Jane is everything Lindsey’s not… independent, stubborn… and a lot older. Plus she has one surprise after another… including a son named Ron Jr. (she insists he’s not “really” Ron’s son). But an unlikely friendship develops as each woman begins to reevaluate what is really important, and owns up to the mistakes they’ve made in the past.

Told in the alternating voices of Jane and Lindsey, and with the return of many of the witty characters of The Trophy Wives Club, this book is a lighthearted, relatable read for when life goes in a direction you never planned. With faith and friends, there’s always light at the end of the tunnel.

If you would like to read an excerpt of chapter 1 of Back To Life, go HERE.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Friday, Again

A little bit of Friday celebration. Shed that week. Embrace the three day weekend!

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Really Milking it Now

Kim wonders if she's missed something about me. Like maybe I'm a bit off. (It's okay, Kim, I read between the lines. Creative license for this here milking of the cat e-mail forward...)

Well, they do say what we know we assume to be "normal." (Actually, they don't say that, I did, which is probably why you just had to go back and give it another read or three before understanding dawned.)

As a five-year-old child my pet was a black and white cat named Lucy. (Creative spelling by yours truly -- Lousy -- but that's another story and my first book.)

Lucy birthed kittens. I discovered a delightful yet kind of disgusting thing about kittens. Their breath. Kittens have sour milk breath. Yes, it's true. How would I know this you might ask. Because I became addicted to smelling kitten breath. If I picked them up, and there were a bunch of them, they'd meow and I'd sniff. Ahhhh. Olfactory nirvana. I even became so intent on sniffing kitten breath that I remember squeezing a little kitten tail now and again to force a meow. I did try to sniff Lucy's breath because squeezing kittens seemed mean somehow. Hoo boy. Did that once.

Good news! The kittens survived and were likely even stronger because of my involvement in their nurture. And I got over the whole kitten breath thing when they began eating Friskies. Trust me.

However, have you smelled a human baby after it eats Cheerios. Smells almost as good as sweaty toes.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Monday Musings Continued on Tuesday

Jenny, Jenny, Jenny. Here's something that can make your life much easier. You don't need a skeleton pattern for poor Howard kitty. Voila. Skeleton kitty paint- by-number kit for your perusal.

Alas, no pigs for Aunt Fatty catty, but I love the plaid. You could make her resemble a footstool.

For Feral. Hmmm. This is tough. With the excessively long fangs I don't think cutesy or storybooky would work. I think a maroon bolero jacket and poofy cream pants. I'd paint a silver curved dagger looking thing to dangle at his side.

Then, new idea here, I could decorate my bandages with varicolored Sharpies and make cool rectangular temporary tattoos.