Fiction by Catholic Authors

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Cat said:
One of the first things that I learned from these books is that everything should be written in active voice, not passive voice.
Example: “She ran through the streets trying to escape from the monster.” NOT-“Running through the streets, she tried to escape from the monster.” A clue that you are using passive is lots of “ings.”
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Cat - could you give another example? While ‘ing’ would be a clue now to me, I have still have no idea why the first is active voice and the second is passive voice.

THANKS!
 
Dandelion_Wine said:
Cat - could you give another example? While ‘ing’ would be a clue now to me, I have still have no idea why the first is active voice and the second is passive voice.

THANKS!
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Active means the action is happening, passive means the action is being watched (that’s my understanding).

Passive: Walking across the lawn, Miss. Doe greeted her neighbor.
Active: Miss. Doe walked across the lawn to greet her neighbor.

That’s probably not a good example, but I’m not the best when it comes to examples. Heh.
 
Cat said:
Eucharisted, I’m so glad you posted! I got a PM a few weeks ago, but then all my PMs got deleted (dumb accident).

Anyway, I work today, but I’ll try to get some time to write back.

I’m not very good at fantasy, so I admire your talent. I did write a “future” story that will be published this year in Synchronized Skating Magazine, but that’s skating, and it’s real. But I agree with you, it was fun creating the “future”–e.g, in my story, everyone wears “inbuds” (communication devices).

My first suggestion is to plan on spending at least a year or more working on the novel. I’ve written several novels, and generally finish a first draft in a month or so (about 4 hours a day writing, and ten to twelve hours on a weekend). But then I spend two to four years re-writing, editing, researching, correcting, and polishing.

I think it would be even more important with a fantasy novel to spend a lot of time perfecting the novel. You are creating a whole new world and characters, possibly even different "beings’… You really need to give this plenty of time and work hard at making it utterly believable, otherwise the novel will sound like a fairy tale. Nothing wrong with fairy tales, but they’re pretty shallow when it comes to setting, character development, dialogue, etc.

Write the novel, then put it aside for a few weeks, then come back to it. That’s how you will recognize time-line problems, plot muddles, etc. It’s so important that a plot is feasible, and even more so when you create a new reality.

AND–you need to make it grammatically perfect, even if you create a new langauge (e.g., Elf language in LOTR). From what I understand, Tolkien not only created the language, but also the grammar and syntax for the language. The classic book for writers is The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. Use it constantly.

I read a ton of books on novel writing when I first started writing. Go to the library and check out whatever you can find. I’ll try to come up with titles, but honestly, almost anything is useful and eye-opening and will help you immensely.

One of the first things that I learned from these books is that everything should be written in active voice, not passive voice. I never knew this, because in school, teachers seemed to give big points for writing in passive. But it’s all wrong for novels.

Example: “She ran through the streets trying to escape from the monster.” NOT-“Running through the streets, she tried to escape from the monster.” A clue that you are using passive is lots of “ings.”

I’ll try to get back to this later. Have fun!
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Thank you for the reply 🙂

Thank you, also, for the excellent advice!

I’ll check out The Elements of Style and I’m sure it’ll help me out. Thank you again!
 
Hey I have written a fantasy novel at 100,000 words but it is not published though I’m still trying. Any other fantasy people out there, email me at orenjd@hotmail.com. We’ll talk…just write catholic fantasy in the subject and i’ll know it’s you!
 
Hope you won’t mind if I make a brag and a shameless plug.

Leaps of Faith, edited my my husband Rob and me, placed #8 in the Preditors and Editors readers poll for best anthology of 2008. This is an anthology of Christian science fiction, with several Catholic stories.

Magic, Mensa and Mayhem, the first DragonEye, PI novel, comes out March 1, but is available for pre-order now. Publisher’s Weekly reviewed it, which is thrilling in itself. Here’s what they said:

*Religion and humor suffuse this well-imagined and densely plotted comedic mystery, based on a short story of the same title. Cursed by St. George to serve the Faerie Catholic Church, dragon detective Vern now sleuths in the mundane world. His latest (unpaid) assignment is to babysit a group of faeries attending a Mensa meeting. Vern quickly has his claws full juggling crises, from invisible brownies to two elves whose rivalry threatens to become interdimensional war. Distinctly memorable and occasionally silly supporting characters, from Brunhilde the Valkyrie to Native American trickster Coyote, steer the action. While the conclusion sticks perilously close to genre formula and the narrative is jumpy throughout, most readers will forgive the clichés (and Vern’s groan-worthy puns) and chuckle all the way through. *

So, I’m pretty excited about it all. Thanks for letting me brag.
 
Tsk! Not having visited this site for sometime (two years in fact!) I wonder why the discussion came to a dead stop with Karina posting her bit about her book, Magic, Mensa and Mayhem. [Hmm, did I get that in the right order?]

I think nobody quite succeeded in getting Catholic fiction off the ground so well as Karina and her husband Rob.

If you get her two books of anthologies, “Leaps of Faith” and “Infinite Space, Infinite God” you will find a range of laudable and creative stories, as Catholic as you would like them. Even the Christian pastor who authored one had a theme that was Catholic. And nobody apologised for putting forth Catholicism.

These can be about as literary as you would like, and not “popular” in the sense some of you defined it earlier in this thread of postings. And Universities can study them too, even if under a theme “Development of Catholic Fiction”. Or a thesis on “The Rise of Religion in the modern literary scene.” Don’t be fooled by the expectations that religion, especially Catholicism, will make a book unworthy of study or consideration.

Have you read Walter M Miller Jr’s “A Canticle For Leibowitz”? I remember Tim Drake making a comment he was surprised when reading it. He didn’t expect it to be “so Catholic”. It won the Hugo Award – the highest accolade for science fiction. Then it sold all the years from 1955 to the present. It will never go off the fiction book scene – a classic for all time.

Karina’s two anthologies presented themes like nuns who protect the future space travellers, relics created from the DNA of saints, the human side of androids, time travelling to the time of Christ, and such. You’ve got to read the books to believe how good they are.

One of the books was a finalist for the Eppie Award, before it got into print form. The other won the Appie Award. That should say a lot for them. They will sweep away all the misconceptions about Catholic fiction and that the audience hates things Catholic and therefore you have to skirt around presenting situations and events that are blatantly Catholic. If a book has good writing and good ideas, and is Catholic as well, there would be no need for hiding the Catholicism in the book.

Karina, your one fault is not knowing how to hard-sell your books – because you don’t know how good they are, perhaps. And you know, introducing yourself with your MMM book here gave the impression that it is a kiddy thing, for tots who like dragons. Who’s to know this is your fun effort after two stupendously Catholic books that are well accepted?

Everybody, go buy “Leaps of Faith”, “Infinite Space, Infinite God” , and “A Canticle For Leibowitz”. You will be stuffed with Catholicism by the time you finish these. And you will be amazed and highly entertained and very inspired by the content.

Han May (Joan Hon)
Author “Star Sapphire”
Winner of “Highly Commended Award”
NBDCS.
 
Yva said:
Tsk! Not having visited this site for sometime (two years in fact!) I wonder why the discussion came to a dead stop with Karina posting her bit about her book, Magic, Mensa and Mayhem. [Hmm, did I get that in the right order?]

I think nobody quite succeeded in getting Catholic fiction off the ground so well as Karina and her husband Rob.

If you get her two books of anthologies, “Leaps of Faith” and “Infinite Space, Infinite God” you will find a range of laudable and creative stories, as Catholic as you would like them. Even the Christian pastor who authored one had a theme that was Catholic. And nobody apologised for putting forth Catholicism.

These can be about as literary as you would like, and not “popular” in the sense some of you defined it earlier in this thread of postings. And Universities can study them too, even if under a theme “Development of Catholic Fiction”. Or a thesis on “The Rise of Religion in the modern literary scene.” Don’t be fooled by the expectations that religion, especially Catholicism, will make a book unworthy of study or consideration.

Have you read Walter M Miller Jr’s “A Canticle For Leibowitz”? I remember Tim Drake making a comment he was surprised when reading it. He didn’t expect it to be “so Catholic”. It won the Hugo Award – the highest accolade for science fiction. Then it sold all the years from 1955 to the present. It will never go off the fiction book scene – a classic for all time.

Karina’s two anthologies presented themes like nuns who protect the future space travellers, relics created from the DNA of saints, the human side of androids, time travelling to the time of Christ, and such. You’ve got to read the books to believe how good they are.

One of the books was a finalist for the Eppie Award, before it got into print form. The other won the Appie Award. That should say a lot for them. They will sweep away all the misconceptions about Catholic fiction and that the audience hates things Catholic and therefore you have to skirt around presenting situations and events that are blatantly Catholic. If a book has good writing and good ideas, and is Catholic as well, there would be no need for hiding the Catholicism in the book.

Karina, your one fault is not knowing how to hard-sell your books – because you don’t know how good they are, perhaps. And you know, introducing yourself with your MMM book here gave the impression that it is a kiddy thing, for tots who like dragons. Who’s to know this is your fun effort after two stupendously Catholic books that are well accepted?

Everybody, go buy “Leaps of Faith”, “Infinite Space, Infinite God” , and “A Canticle For Leibowitz”. You will be stuffed with Catholicism by the time you finish these. And you will be amazed and highly entertained and very inspired by the content.

Han May (Joan Hon)
Author “Star Sapphire”
Winner of “Highly Commended Award”
NBDCS.
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I read A Canticle for Liebowitz earlier this year. Certainly it’s an excellent book, deserving of highest honors in the field of literary fiction. Very sobering for modern man. I think that it should be required reading in high school Honors English classes. And I think that adults who haven’t read it should sit down and read it and discuss it with other adults. It’s very deep and thought-provoking.

But it’s sooooo darn depressing! Not the kind of book most women want to curl up on the sofa with and devour with a cup of cinnamon tea.

I’m sorry, Yva. I’m probably one of those people you refer to in this thread who earlier talked about “popular” fiction. I get the feeling from your post that you perhaps think people like me are Philistines when it comes to literature.

Then I am a Philistine, or more accurately, a modern woman who can only take so much literary fiction.

I want to read stories with a God-centered universe about women like me who face conflicts that challenge them to rise up and conquer or be conquered. A nuclear holocaust that destroys most of human civilization is just a little too much conflict for me and I believe for most other women. Not exactly great beaching reading. How about a story about a woman with a husband who is a policeman who disappears in the line of his duty? (That’s the plot of one of my novels.)
 
Dear Cat,

I thought this would be the end of the thread. But I am glad you prolonged it by reading A Canticle For Leibowitz. I wonder why I read it, mesmerised. The ending was good, and full of hope. Mankind has returned to its self-destructive silliness.

But a small remnant of mankind, with greater sensibility, builds a rocket ship and reaches out to the stars to escape the silliness on Earth.

Mrs Grales has a new being grafted to her shoulder. This is an indestructible person, without sin, who is immaculate like the Virgin. This sounds heretical, but hey, this is speculative fiction. What if atomic radiation brings about a purging of human nature to make it pure as Adam and Eve again?

Rachel, the new being, has complete power over her environment by force of a purified primordial will. She won’t die. And if there are other beings like her arising spontaneously from nuclear destruction, then the human race won’t die, but will be changed.

I find this speculation on my part exciting and this makes the book a source of wonder and hope for me. I don’t find it depressing. In the midst of destruction, there will be salvation and resurrection.

If you want a feminine angle to science fiction, read Han May’s Star Sapphire. YOu can get it if you write to hopepublishers@yahoo.com.sg. And I think you won’t regret this one. Go google “Han May Star Sapphire” for a very Catholic experience.
 
Yva said:
Dear Cat,

I thought this would be the end of the thread. But I am glad you prolonged it by reading A Canticle For Leibowitz. I wonder why I read it, mesmerised. The ending was good, and full of hope. Mankind has returned to its self-destructive silliness.

But a small remnant of mankind, with greater sensibility, builds a rocket ship and reaches out to the stars to escape the silliness on Earth.

Mrs Grales has a new being grafted to her shoulder. This is an indestructible person, without sin, who is immaculate like the Virgin. This sounds heretical, but hey, this is speculative fiction. What if atomic radiation brings about a purging of human nature to make it pure as Adam and Eve again?

Rachel, the new being, has complete power over her environment by force of a purified primordial will. She won’t die. And if there are other beings like her arising spontaneously from nuclear destruction, then the human race won’t die, but will be changed.

I find this speculation on my part exciting and this makes the book a source of wonder and hope for me. I don’t find it depressing. In the midst of destruction, there will be salvation and resurrection.

If you want a feminine angle to science fiction, read Han May’s Star Sapphire. YOu can get it if you write to hopepublishers@yahoo.com.sg. And I think you won’t regret this one. Go google “Han May Star Sapphire” for a very Catholic experience.
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Hi, Yva,

I posted my comment about Canticle a year ago (2009).
 
I think Yva must have known I needed a reminder to post here.

Infinite Space, Infinite God II is now out! This is a second anthology of Catholic science fiction and I’m really pleased with the quality of storytellers we found. Some of the authors were in ISIG I, and some are new. All are awesome. Here’s the synopsis:

The history of the Catholic Church is full of heroes: men and women of courage and conviction. Not only did these Catholic heroes live and die for their faith, but they saved others, fought valiantly, inspired the masses, and influenced nations.

Now, Infinite Space, Infinite God II honors that legacy with twelve science fiction stories featuring Catholic heroes. Meet a time traveler who sacrifices his life to give a man a sip of water, and the nun who faces venomous snakes to save a friend. Share the adventures of priests who battle aliens and machines in order serve the greater good.

Infinite Space, Infinite God II spans the gamut of science fiction, from near-future dystopias to time travel to space opera, puzzles of logic to laugh-out-loud humor and against-the-clock suspense. A great read for any science fiction fan–a must-read for the Catholic sci-fi lover.

Learn more at www.isigsf.com. You can order it from Barnes and Noble online: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/books/product.aspx?box=1606192310&pos=-1&ISBN=1606192310

This one also earned the Catholic Writers’ Guild Seal of Approval.
 
Good suggestions here. As a working editor, I see a lot of manuscripts. And as a Catholic who also writes, I require myself to include Catholic elements in my stories. It could be a reference here or there but most of the time, I make certain to not include things that the world calls “edgy.”

At this time, there is no excuse for not being an author if you really want to write. There are print on demand sites that will print your book in tiny quantities for very little money. You could release your book as a PDF.

Agents? Not really necessary. Unless your goal is to see your book in a bookstore window, then give it a try.

Creating a world, then creating specific settings, and then filling that world and settings takes time to master. There are no shortcuts. The learning curve never goes away. But there are certain basic story skeletons on which you can hang your characters.

Most action-adventure and some science-fiction stories revolve around a simple series of events. It’s almost paint by numbers. Your job is to create interesting characters and interesting dialog. All I do is imagine myself as each character.

Good guy hears about or witnesses something the bad guy is doing, bad guy gets away. Good guy learns more about bad guy and tries to determine his next move. Bad guy does something bad. Good guy tries to stop him but is unsuccessful. Interwoven in all this are individual scenes that reveal more about each character, and people they are close to. Finally, the last confrontation where the bad guy has the good guy on the ropes, but the bad guy dies/runs away to fight another day/is captured.

That’s it. No, it’s not all-inclusive. But once you know how to layer the elements together, you’ll have interesting lead characters and supporting characters. The story can involve technology you’ve created, or borrowed from a science fact publication, to add color and plausibilty to the setting plus a certain “wow” factor for your reader.

Hope this helps,
Ed
 
My beautiful disaster sounds great! Where will it be available when published? My friend is currently working on a pro life novel as well. To see her progress and details go to cristinehan.wordpress.com

cheers
 
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