Christmas Giveaway! & Donita K. Paul discusses her new trilogy

I recently requested an interview with Donita K. Paul who is well respected for her Dragon Keeper Chronicles books. She has announced a new series and the concept was so unique that I just had to pose some questions to her.

Note: After you read the interview, please post a comment to be entered for the Christmas Giveaway!

 

Q: Lately the Christian fiction market has announced a couple new fantasy novels that are original in their concepts and well-written. Can you tell us what prompted you to write "One Realm Beyond" and what most excites you about this story?

Mrs. Paul: I’m always excited when I get to let my imagination loose. I’ve incorporated images from fantasy movies that I love. You want to know what they are? Stardust, Ella Enchanted. Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, Return to Oz, and Enchanted. Not that a reader would be able to pick something out of the book and trace it back to a movie, but when I watch something like those wonderful movies, sparks fly in my head. I’m visual so Pinterest is very good for me. I see pictures that make ideal portals, or stunning backdrops, or hint at character and personality. I think the thing that most excites me about this book is the changing relationship between Cantor and his dragon and between Cantor and Bixby.

As to what prompts me to write a particular story, it’s usually characters chattering inside my skull and never leaving me in peace.

Q: How long did it take you to write "One Realm Beyond"?

A: About a year. It usually takes me a year to write a fantasy. I can write a romance in two months and a picture book in about six weeks. But fantasies need time to brew in the pot. More interesting things bubble to the top if I allow time for the mixture to age. Also the sharp flavor of Christian fantasy needs to mellow. I hope my work is not didactic, and I think the time element has something to do with not coming across as proselytizing.

Q: Because you target the Christian fiction market, what is your response when people ask why you write fantasy?

A: I’ll let the greats say it for me.

G. K. Chesterton:

• Fairy Tales are more than true; not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.

C.S. Lewis:

• Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.

• Reason is the natural order of truth; but imagination is the organ of meaning.

Chesterton tells us that stories allow our imagination to conceive what we cannot physically see. In that abstract determination, we can also see how to remain upright in fighting of overwhelming obstacles.

Lewis tells us that through story we experience more than our everyday world and while engaging this literary world we discover attributes which are needed, such as courage, integrity, persistence, hope, compassion, and a host of other noble traits. Having plowed the field and planted these seeds, the story encourages our desert soul to bring forth a triumphant character.

And, Lewis also reminds us that truth can be represented in facts, (one plus one equals two) meaning is rooted in imagination (if I have one apple and you give me another, I have two apples to make an apple tart).

Q: You have become a household name with many readers. What components do you feel have made your writing career successful?

A: Well for one thing, I didn’t have anything to do but invest time in my career. The old adage

“Don’t quit your day job.” is sound advice. However, my day job kind of quit me. I had a crippling infection in my leg and couldn’t teach full time anymore, and then I couldn’t teach at all. So I was at home, driving my mother batty. (She lived with me and my two teens, or we lived with her.) She was used to having the house to herself all day. In order to protect her sanity, she ordered me to my room to write a book. I had always wanted to and now was my chance. Bless mothers! So years of being a Christian, years of reading, and obeying my mom opened the door to being an author.

Q: So many readers have loved your Dragon Keeper Chronicles. Are you finished with that storyworld, or is there a possibility you will revisit it in new books?

A: I’m afraid so. There are a couple of short stories on the website under Librettowit’s Library.

 I may write more of those, but I’ve met these other characters and we’re exploring a different world together. 

Many thanks to Mrs. Paul for answering the questions! You can learn much more about her and her books on her website www.DonitaKPaul.com 

Now, on to the Christmas giveaway. Two random comments will be selected by a random generator on the internet, and those two individuals will win one of these two items from Mrs. Paul:

1st Prize: a copy of "Two Tickets to the Christmas Ball" 

2nd Prize: a fairytale necklace (if a guy wins he can give it to a girl as a Christmas gift!)

I will announce the giveaway winners Saturday December 7th. Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Secular or Christian Fantasy (part 2) Author Worldview in Fantasy Novels

In a previous post I talked a bit about The Lord of the Rings and what a slew of responses I received! It was invigorating. However, upon listening to the many comments, I realized that I need to break ground at a new point if the discussion is to have any logical continuity.

Each and every one of us comes from a unique background. Whether we admit it or not the way our parents were raised, the way they raised us, and the people we grew up with made us the individuals we are today.

My father was raised in a large Catholic family but became a born-again Christian when he was in his late teens. My mother was raised in a Protestant home with, again, a large family. Not wishing to let the public school system raise their kids, my parents homeschooled me. My father worked long, hard hours to provide for his family, and my mother served as homemaker and teacher. I grew up in the kind of family many kids only dream of. My father was the most patient, kind man I know. My mother was gentle and a patient teacher, but also a consistent disciplinarian. If I were to summarize my growing-up years, I’d say I was raised in a very loving, disciplined home.

Watching my parents I strove to attain their dedication to family and God. They were the finest examples and I attribute my success as an author mostly to them. My father was such an incredibly hard worker that I always felt I could never keep up with him. I wasn’t as physically motivated as he was so I turned my energies into academic pursuits. And when I decided to write for a living, it didn’t enter my mind that I would never finish the project or fail—because by example I had learned that perseverance led to success and that the road is not easy, but it is worth it.

There have been a lot of blog posts, recently, written by publishing professionals warning authors not to set their hopes too high on success. They say that success does not always come, that only a few writers make it into the elite number of full-time career authors, and so it is better to think “realistically” . . . then they proceed to detail all the intricacies of the market, how it’s changing, and remind everyone that there are few very successful authors.

This troubles me to no end. Why? Because I was raised in a home that trained me to believe in my dreams, to KNOW that I could succeed at anything I set my mind to, and these professionals would rather focus on the business end, rather than the passion behind the art.

When in 2008 my novel was rejected by the publisher, rather than letting it bring me down (though I admitted a level of disappointment) I worked hard, studying the intricacies of creating my own publishing company. My goal was to sell a thousand copies of my books, by hand if necessary, getting it out there into the public until at some point a major publisher offered me a contract. And that is exactly what I did. But was it chance that led to my success? Was it that the right wind just happened to catch my sails and push me in the right direction? No, it was perseverance and patience. Consistency was key, consistency in my childhood trained me to achieve and never accept failure.

One of my favorite movies is Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan and my favorite line is when Captain Kirk says, “I don’t believe in no-win scenarios.”

Well, neither do I. And whenever an aspiring author asks me what they need to do to get published and make their book a success, I tell them it is a lot of hard work but that if they persevere they can succeed (and they mustn’t seek shortcuts).

I say all this to point out that I believe every author has a message in his/or her stories, whether apparent or not, their world-view plays an inevitable role in their writing. Tolkien came from a Roman Catholic background and so his Lord of the Rings and other such works do have an all-powerful god, of sorts. But the Roman Catholic church is strong on form; their worship is full of rites and rituals to which they strongly adhere. So, in The Lord of the Rings, wizards such as Gandalf utter spells that are keyed to certain form, certain ordering.

Donita K. Paul in her Dragon Keeper Chronicles has wizards. But her background is, I believe, Protestant Christianity. Her characters don’t, to my recollection, utter spells. Instead they have abilities to interact with their environment within the confines of Wulder’s will.

J.K. Rowling is, by all accounts I’ve read and from every interview I’ve seen, a secular Humanist. In keeping with her world-view, Harry Potter knows no God, and determines right from wrong based on how the situation affects him and those he loves. He uses the same magic as the dark wizards, just for a better cause.

Bryan Davis author of Dragons in Our Midst also falls under Protestant Christianity (though he would be careful to distinguish his beliefs from the majority). But his protagonists gain special abilities through their dragon ancestry, though at times Merlin seems to wield almost magical powers.

Phillip Pullman is an interesting one. He is an atheist and he once stated in an interview I read that he was using his book The Golden Compass to ‘…kill God in the eyes of children.’

In my own novels I am seeking to be as faithful as possible to my world view. My protagonists have difficult sacrifices to make to reach their goals, and all powers are either from Creator God, or demonic worship.

I have seen many Christian fantasy writers whose work makes me cringe; not because of the writing, but because of their use of magic in the story. I’m sure that the Egyptians looked upon Moses as a magician for all the signs he wrought, but he always attributed credit to God. I find very few fantasy novels have an accurate, pure worldview. And for those of you who think otherwise, yes, I think Tolkien’s work falls into that category. Don’t be offended: he wrote it, you didn’t. I can still enjoy these other works, but I must evaluate them based on a consistent, God-honoring worldview.