B.J. Hoff's Blog, page 13

A Prayer for the People of Haiti

 I've heard the question raised more than once as to how we should pray for the people of Haiti.

In the midst of such unthinkable horror and devastation, the incredible loss of life--possibly in the tens of thousands or even more--how, indeed, do we give words to the ache in our hearts for the victims, their families, and all those reeling from the effects of the recent earthquake? 

God doesn't require elegant words or exemplary speech. He'd rather hear the honest and fervent outpouring of...

How It All Began

 I love finding out the origins of things: the how-it-all-began stories for legends and songs and inventions and slang expressions and customs we take for granted, usually without knowing how they came into existence. 

For example: did you know that "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer" first began as a poem--a free handout to department store shoppers? And that "Rudolph" might just as easily ended up as "Rollo" or "Reginald?" It started in 1939, when Montgomery Ward wanted a poem in booklet...

Afterglow

Hear the silence? That's the sound of After-the-Holidays: Absence of car horns and traffic jams. Company now gone. The blessedly inactive calculator. Children soon to be back in school. The end of squawking, dancing Santas at the mall and frantic shoppers vying for position.

Unfortunately, it's also the sound of missing Christmas carols, gone from the airwaves until next year. Silenced silver bells. Fading echoes of church cantatas and carillons and singing children. Sighs and lingering...

My Wish for You ...

I'll be away from Grace Notes until after the holidays, so I borrowed something I wrote for my web site some time ago to offer as my Christmas wish for all of you...

If I had three wishes for Christmas, I would wish for:

The love of Christ to fill every home, every heart, throughout the world...the healing of Christ to touch the heartbroken, the helpless, and the hopeless...the mercy of Christ to seek and save the forgotten, the abandoned, and the lost.

If I could give three gifts to the world...

The Gift of Time

 When we think of the time we devote to writing a novel, it's doubtful that we consider it in terms of a gift. In fact, if we think of the time factor at all, the word "work" is more than likely what comes to mind. So much goes into the development of a novel, and all of it requires time in one form or another: doing the research; naming characters; constructing the plot; the actual writing of the story; rewriting; working with the editor on any changes, including a review of the proofs--it...

S is for Simplicity

 Like many writers, I have a genuine love for language, for rhythmic, lyrical--even elegant--prose ... when used carefully and at the right time and place. Even so, while I hope for a certain distinct rhythm in my fiction, I try not to clutter the page with too many words that will need to be looked up by my readers or me-talk-pretty phrases that rhyme by design or virtually drip alliteration.

Little annoys me more (in the field of fiction) than a novel that seems to have been written for...

Reaching for Infinity

 In continuing the letters that make up the name of  Christ, I chose "I" for the word Infinity. It may not be the easiest thing to do--even the idea may sound somewhat nebulous--but writers: when you're thinking about gifts you can give your readers, don't forget to offer a sense of the infinite. Reassure them that there really is something larger, something beyond this world where war and tragedy and suffering--and evil--are all too commonplace.

Do you live with that sense in your everyday...

R is for Real

 You've probably noticed by now that in thinking about the gifts a writer might bring to her readers, I've been using the letters from the name of Christ. "R" wasn't the easiest one to identify with a gift, but it finally occurred to me that there is a gift--and a very important one at that--beginning with that exact letter: realism. 

Relating this to my own writing, I have to think in terms of fiction. So what does that have to do with realism? Well, for starters it means that I can't...

What Better Gift Than Hope?

 If the books I write leave my readers with only one gift and one alone, I pray that gift will be Hope. I can think of nothing else this world needs more. If there is a common lack, an emptiness, that can kill the very soul, it's the absence of hope. Nothing can dull the senses or wring the life from a heart or bring on the deadliness of despair more completely than the total loss of one's hope.

In a culture where the arts increasingly spread meaninglessness and helplessness and...

About Gifts ... for Writers and Those Who Aren't

I'm about to take a brief leave of absence from Grace Notes to prepare for the holidays and spend a little extra time with my family doing so. There's still a deadline looming, though, along with all the seasonal preparations. So over the next few days I'm going to republish some of the Christmas entries I've offered in the past. For some, these will be new; for others, not so new. Whichever the case, I hope you enjoy them, and may they help to touch even your internet experience with a "a...