Karina Sanchez

I love the Scarlet Pimpernel books too, @sarah-h! And I actually thought the romance was pretty well done, compared to a lot of other books.
I’ve also read Within the Palace Gates, and I did enjoy it— but I have a little bit of a personal problem with authors taking a Biblical story and filling it in with their imagination. I’m sure it’s not…[Read more]

Oh yes, all the time. 😉

Douglas bond has a trilogy on the covenanters. I wouldn’t call him an amazing author, but he is good. I’ve never read that trilogy myself, but I have read one of his other books.

I thought I’d throw in an endorsement for The Hidden Hand here. Great book.

What? 😛

Pearl Maiden by H. Rider Haggard. The Eagle of the Ninth, The Silver Branch, and The Lantern Bearers, all by Rosemary Sutcliff. Those last three are one hundred percent fantastic.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, Hostage Lands by Douglas Bond, The Red Keep by Allen French, Rolf and the Viking Bow by Allen French, Men of Iron by Howard Pyle, The Black Arrow by Robert L. Stevenson, Scottish Chiefs, by Jane Porter, Beyond Sing the Woods by Trygve Gulbranssen, The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas, The Edge on the Sword by…[Read more]

Well there are two types of historical fiction. There is historical fiction which takes place in a certain era at a certain place and helps you get a bit of a feel for what it might have been like, but most of the plot is based on personal conflicts not historical conflicts. I have read many good books like this. There is nothing inferior about…[Read more]

As soon as I come up with a new character, I get this mental image in my mind. It is not really a photograph, but it is a very rough painting, blurry, more of an outline. It is hard to explain. There is also a sort of emotion that I feel in each character. I can tell if that feeling is significantly different from the one I sense for another…

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You forced me to actually think through how I go about characterization. I discovered that I have a somewhat strange system. What it really comes down to is impulsive consistency. Most of the time I almost surprise myself when I introduce a new character. The idea generally pops into my mind shortly before I write them. I think though, that…[Read more]

Yes, that sounds far more pleasant.

ask yourself what drove her to do it after all. Maybe she picked it up looking for encouragement or justification. If that was the case, you could have it so she didn’t find the encouraging verses, but the verses she really needed to read.

Yeah that. Just forget whatever I said. I’ll see if I can come up with any more points too, only without g…[Read more]

Talk to them. If your characters aren’t real enough to hold a conversation with, they won’t be real to the readers. So ask them questions— ask them how they feel about their life, how they feel about what you make them go through. Ask them what they would change about your story— ask them what they’re afraid of, and why they are afraid. Ask…[Read more]

Don’t worry, @rolena-hatfield, our name gets misspelled and mispronounced just like that ALL THE TIME. 😛 It is a little bit of an odd name. 😉

Yes, I’m loving this topic too. I can’t believe I didn’t introduce this discussion earlier!

As for the Bible question, there are many different ways you could do that correctly. Just base the scene off…[Read more]

Oh, ay @kate-flournoy. Looks like Rolena tried to tag you but got one letter off. Thought I might as well fix it.

@rolena-hatfield (In goofy western slang) I luuuuuuve Bin-Herr!

How I would approach the bible situation is to think how her reading the bible will effect on her in more than one way. The first way is obvious – the words she reads are training her, but there could be an influence entirely outside of the words she reads. Maybe there could be a…[Read more]

Well then I forgive you. 😉 😛

And yes @Daeus, Gandalf does have some absolutely fantastic quotes. And I totally know what you mean about Edmond— and that line ‘wait and hope’… oh man, just thinking about it makes me tear up and get shivers. 😛 It was the perfect way to end the story.

@Daeus, yes! Gandalf has so many great quotes. My favorite is probably “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.” 🙂

@writefury: Great thoughts! Honestly, I forget to pray. A lot. And that’s not how it should be. But a lot of times, that’s the way people are; they need help, and suddenly they remember that…[Read more]

Absolutely @writefury! And the point is not so much ‘put as much Christian behavior as you can’ as it is ‘write your story inside out with Christianity at the center, and the Christian behavior will follow.’ It will flow naturally and realistically and characteristically into the story if it is the heart of the story.

I think it was @reaganramm…[Read more]

Excellent thoughts, @Daeus! And yes @gretald, what you said was completely true. @Daeus covered that a little in his reply— Christianity, and Christian themes and messages, shouldn’t just be slipped or fitted in and hoped to be gotten away with. You shouldn’t say ‘Oh boy I have this really cool story! Oh… yeah, I’d better put some element of…[Read more]