B.J. Hoff's Blog, page 4

The Third Cross

 

Two crosses stood upon upon a hill

Where soon a third was raised.

Two criminals awaiting death

Looked toward the third, amazed

To see who hung between them,

Suffering quietly as He died--

The humble son of Joseph--

Why should He be crucified?

And still across the centuries,

The question sounds today:

Why would the gentle Son of God

Meet death in such a way?

If die He must, why not a death

Of honor and acclaim--

Why choose to be identified

With sinners and their shame?

And yet his death upon the cross

Enables us to see--

He comes to us right where we are,

Not where we'd like to be.

Amid our darkness and disgrace,

Our suffering and our sin,

The Savior comes to each of us,

Time and time again.

    (From Thorns and Thrones)

BJ

(But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Romans 5:8)

And What Would You Be Wanting to Know about the Irish?

Among my personal collection of research books and just-for-reading-pleasure books is a treasury of books about Ireland and the Irish, the Irish  American immigration experience, Irish history, Irish poetry, proverbs, and short stories, Irish ways and Irish wisdom (oh, yes, there's a wealth of it), and just about anything you've ever wanted to know about the Irish or Irish Americans. 

In anticipation of St. Patrick's Day, this seemed like a good time to offer a few suggestions for those of you who might be looking to fill the gaps in your own knowledge of Erin's Children. Following are just a few of my favorites. Keep in mind that the list could go on and on.

BJ

 

The Story of the Irish Race by Seumas MacManus

Ireland and Her People by Terence Sheehy

The Book of the Irish Countryside (Collection) The Black Staff Press

A Seat Behind the Coachman by Diarmaid O Muirithe

The Green Flag (Volumes One, Two, and Three) by Robert Kee

Ireland Past and Present edited by Brendan Kennelly

Irish Traditions edited by Kathleen Jo Ryan and Bernard Share

Heritage of Ireland by Brian de Breffny

Hall's Ireland edited by Michael Scott

The Great Hunger by Cecil Woodham-Smith

This Great Calamity: The Irish Famine 1845-52 b y Christine Kinealy

Paddy's Lament by Thomas Gallagher

Famine by Liam O'Flaherty

The Great Shame by Thomas Keneally

Of Irish Ways by Mary Murray Delaney

Ireland: A Cultural Encyclopaedia Brian De Breffny, General Editor

Going to America by Terry Coleman

Emigrants and Exiles: by Kerby A. Miller

A Portrait of the Irish in America by William D. Griffin

Wherever Green Is Worn by Tim Pat Coogan

100 Irish Lives by Martin Wallace

May the Road Rise to Meet You by Michael Padden and Robert Sullivan

Celtic Design by Iain Zaczek

Ireland's Traditional Crafts by David Shaw-Smith

Irish Cooking by Ethel Minogue

Songs of the Irish by Donal O'Sullivan

Popular Irish Songs edited by Florence Leniston

An Irish Country Christmas by Alice Taylor

The Irish Christmas Book edited by John Killen

How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill

A Gift of Irish Wisdom by Cyril A. Reilly and Renee Travis Reilly

Emerald Isle (Poems and Quotations) compiled by Anna Nicholas

A Garland of Irish Verse edited by Gwynn Hayes

Ireland in Poetry edited by Charles Sullivan

 

 

 

Interview at Nick Harrison's Blog

Ever wonder where all those people come from who fill the pages of my books?

So do I!

Nick Harrison, Sr. Editor at Harvest House Publishers, helps me take a closer look at them in his interview with me on his blog.

BJ

 

 

Wanting to Be There

Not too long ago, another writer asked me what I, personally, look for in a story's setting. That's one of those thought-provoking questions that, when confronted with it, I couldn't answer right away but had to consider it as it related to some of the novels I've read ... and remembered.

I finally decided that I look for a setting that can draw me into the thick of it, that can make me forget my immediate surroundings and become a part of the story's center, enabling me to see and feel and taste the place, to live there in the midst of its characters and experience their world with them. As a writer, I know that requires a great deal more than the "travelogue" type of description or a quick overview of a landscape. A writer has to work for encapsulated reality, for mood and atmosphere, and relation to character--all of which involve significant, intricate details, all carefully chosen.

Here are a few examples that accomplish what I'm talking about better than I could ever explain it:

From Homer Hickam, Jr.'s October Sky (the novel on which the movie was based): "There was a breeze coming down the hollow. The dogwoods low on the mountain waved as if asking me to look at their glory. They were like white bouquets God had stuck in the stands of ancient oaks and hickories, glistening green in their own new growth. I heard something and looked up and down the road for its source. It wasn't just a single sound. It was Coalwood moving, talking, humming its eternal symphony of life, work, duty, and job. I stood alone on the side of the road and listened to my town play its industrial song."

From Irene Nemirovsky's Suite Francaise--a masterpiece of a novel. Set at the beginning of the Nazi occupation of Paris in 1940, Parisians are fleeing the city in an eerie hush: "Silently, with no lights on, cars kept coming, one after the other, full to bursting with baggage and furniture, prams and birdcages, packing cases and baskets of clothes, each with a mattress tied firmly to the roof. They looked like mountains of fragile scaffolding and they seemed to move without the aid of a motor, propelled by their own weight down the sloping streets to the town square. Cars filled all the roads into the square. People were jammed together like fish caught in a net, and one good tug on that net would have picked them all up and thrown them down on to some terrifying river bank. There was no crying or shouting; even the children were quiet. Everything seemed calm. From time to time a face would appear over a lowered window and stare up at the sky for a while, wondering. A low, muffled murmur rose up from the crowd, the sound of painful breathing, sighs and conversations held in hushed voices, as if people were afraid of being overheard by an enemy lying in wait ..." 

From Denise Giardina's novel, The Unquiet Earth: "The coal camps are strung along Blackberry Creek like beads on a necklace, and each looks much the same. Every house is painted white with black trim. Some of the houses hang from the hillsides, their fronts supported by fragile columns of brick and wood. Others sit in the creek bottom on streets of mud and red dog from the slate dumps, raised at four corners by short brick piles with space beneath the house for spare tires and sleeping dogs. Fences of wood and wire separate each house. In winter a truck comes from the mine and fills the coal houses in the corner of each yard so people can feed their stoves. Several times a day the black trains scream through the camps, and often the whistle at the mine blows for an accident ..." 

This is what I mean when I say that, as a reader, I want to be there. And as a writer, I do my best to take the reader there.

BJ

 

Pandora's Magic

Writers--and readers--seem to have a fondness for soundtracks: film scores from movies. Many writers like them playing in the background as they work. Unfortunately, that's one pleasure that's lost to me--I get too caught up in the music and it can easily derail me from the book. I'm one who needs quiet and no distractions when I'm writing. However, I do a lot of writing away from the laptop, and that's when I'm almost always playing film scores. Actually, unless I'm writing,  there's almost always music playing somewhere in my house.

I have dozens of favorite scores--some from movies I've never seen but were recommended to me. It gets expensive, though, to purchase or download many of these, and at some point I called a halt to buying entire scores, other than a very few "nust-haves."

Thanks to Pandora, the internet music service, I've found a solution. Simply type in the name of one of your favorite scores, followed by the words "film score"--"Braveheart" is one of mine--click to make it a "station," and you'll have access to lots of excerpts from some of your favorites. At the same time you'll probably discover some you might not have thought of. For example, even though I'd seen the movie, Forrest Gump, I'd forgotten what a beautiful score it had. Came across it the other day on Pandora and was surprised to realize how much I enjoyed it. 

So even though I can't listen to them when I'm actually working at the laptop, I can enjoy them throughout the day when I'm "thinking" a scene. (They also help take the monotony out of cleaning!)

Writers--and probably readers, to0--often exchange ideas for favorite soundtracks. It's one way we build our "library." Some of mine include "Gettysburg," "Band of Brothers," "Dances with Wolves," "The Mission," "Braveheart," "Gladiator," "Glory," "Mr. Holland's Opus," "The Last of the Mohicans," "Master and Commander," "Chariots of Fire," "First Knight," "Far and Away," "Air Force One," "We Were Soldiers," "The Secret of Roan Innish," "Lawrence of Arabia," "Gone with the Wind," "Dr. Zhivago," "Pirates of the Caribbean--Curse of the Black Pearl," "Titanic," "Pearl Harbor," "The Godfather," "Schindler's List," "Rudy," and "Dragonheart." Also, you can almost always count on any score from Jerry Goldsmith, Hans Zimmer, James Horner, and John Williams. 

BJ 

Favorite Folks (as in Fiction)

After recently reading an article about characters in fiction, I started thinking about some of my favorites: memorable folks from books read in the past and some more current, but ones I already know to be unforgettable favorites from now on.

From years past, a few I must include: all-time favorite Atticus Finch (To Kill a Mockingbird), Jane Eyre (Jane Eyre), Francie Nolan (A Tree Grows in Brooklyn), Jonathan Ferrier (Testimony of Two Men), Abraham Lincoln (William Safire's Freedom), Conor Larkin (Trinity), Jean Valjean (Les Miserables), Huw Morgan (How Green Was My Valley), Douglas Spaulding (Dandelion Wine), Jo (Little Women), Harriet Delvaney (Menfreya in the Morning), Michael Devlin and Rabbi Judah Hirsch (Snow in August) Hod Pierce (The Enduring Hills),  John Galt (Atlas Shrugged)--and, yes, I'll admit it: Rhett Butler from Gone With the Wind). And many, many more!

More recently, I know I'll not forget Aibileen and Minny (The Help), Father Tim (Jan Karon's Mitford Years novels), Johnny Merrimon (The Last Child), "June Bug," (June Bug), Will Mullet (Levi's Will), Amir (The Kite Runner), Odd Thomas (the Dean Koontz novels featuring that character), and "Trixie"  (Dean Koontz's A Big Little Life: Memoir of a Joyful Dog [non-fiction]). Too many others to name!

Surely you have favorites, too. I'd love to hear what they are!

BJ

 

Resolutions? Not

Around this time, I feel like a bit of an outcast. I seem to be one of the few I know who makes no New Year's resolutions. Actually, I've never made a New Year's resolution--probably never will. 

If that makes me sound like a terribly unorganized, shiftless sloth, I'm really not. I do plan on occasion--the rare occasion. You see, after a few years of living I came to believe in the thing about "the best laid plans of mice and men ...etc." No, my way of handling the beginning of a new year is to slip into a season of prayer, to daily bring before God my family members, close friends, and those concerns and events that the rest of us have no control over. 

After I've spent several days of this, I return to my usual routine of each morning rolling out the day ahead to the Lord and asking His provision for every hour of it and for those same loved ones I've previously bathed in prayer--indeed, for all who may be  a part of  the day to come. It seems a freeing thing to me to watch God work through each new day as He wills while I simply try to follow along and not get lost. In trusting His will for my loved ones, my work, and my entire life I can't pretend to take onto myself any specific goals or "resolutions" that, for all I know, may not be a part of God's will for me.

In truth, it took years to relinquish control, and sometimes I still battle the urge to make a list of what I intend to do, what I plan to accomplish or decide where I want to go and how I'm going to get there--not only at the beginning of a new year, but throughout the course of a day. It takes only the royal failure however, of one of these "resolutions" to snap me back to reality and turn over the reins, once again, to the One in charge. 

Besides, I rather like the no-guilt feeling of not keeping my New Year's resolutions ... because I didn't make any. No pressure. 

BJ

 

New eReader?

Have heard from many of you that you received ereaders--Kindles, Nooks, etc.--as gifts this Christmas. You're going to love them!

Just so you know--you can find most all of my books on these devices now at very reasonable prices. Enjoy your new readers--and try out my novels on them!

Happy New Year!

BJ

 

Family Gifts

My family knows well by now just how to "gift" me at Christmas:  Music and books.

Music: Michael W. Smith's newest "Glory" CD (a collection that will make you weep with its sheer beauty and ... glory ...) Andrea Bocelli's new "Concerto: One Night in Central Park" (his incredible voice is a gift to the entire world) ... "The Essential Yo-Yo Ma" (one of my favorite musicians) ... "The Symphonic Celtic Album" (The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra--a new and wonderful discovery for me) ... and others. My iTunes library is going to be so bloated. 

And books, of course: a pre-order for Dean Koontz's new novel, (77  Shadow Street) ... a couple of other new novels and Christmas short story collections transferred to my Kindle Fire.  

The best of all family gifts, of course, was their presence--the warmth and love and laughter and memories--oh, the memories! Thanking God for all the gifts, especially those that go on shining, those that endure, through every season.

God bless you with the lasting gifts!   

BJ

A Christmas Prayer

May this be the Christmas when the world greets Him, not as a stranger to be swaddled in a manger, but as the sovereign King of everything, the Prince of Peace. May this be the Christmas when all the world becomes a Bethlehem, with every heart an open inn, where Christ, Emmanuel, may always dwell as Lord of Lords.

Christmas blessings

BJ