Question for Fiction Readers

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I love the Sister Frevisse Medieval mystery series by Margaret Frazer. Sort of like the Brother Cadfael books, Sister Frevisse is a nun in medieval times who always seems to run across mysterious deaths and to be the only person smart enough to solve them. As she’s a woman and a nun she has to reveal the solution in some way that doesn’t offend the crowner, the man sent by the king to look into suspicious deaths,
The part I really enjoy is her reliance on prayer to keep her steady in the midst of confusion and danger. You’d think reading about a fictional character’s prayer life would be boring, but not so. She makes the daily round of the nuns’ prayers seem very appealing.
 
Edit:

I just noticed the actual question of the feed. Sorry for posting a long review of a book.

I enjoy fiction but get little time to read it, and much of what I end up reading is non-fiction. However I believe there could be an audience for Catholic themed literature…after all there is a market for religious themed books in general.
 
I would say no. That genre of fiction does not really interest me.
 
Anyone read James Rollins? He has a series of novels (not sequential series, no reading order is necessary) about an American group of scientist-soldiers. Anyway, one of the recurring characters is Monsignor Vigor Verona who is a Vatican Archaeologist. He’s pretty well written, smart, and as far as I can tell has no “dark side”. Unlike the Vatican characters in Dan Brown’s books.

He also has some really neat Church History stuff that I didn’t know, and as far as I can tell (again), the representations are honest.

Rollins grew up Catholic, but I don’t believe he’s a practicing Catholic anymore, but he’s a good action/adventure writer. I never miss any of his books.

The books with Monsignor Verona are “Map of Bones” and “The Judas Strain” (about a strain of a virus, it’s just a name).
 
RascalJones said:
Anyone read James Rollins? He has a series of novels (not sequential series, no reading order is necessary) about an American group of scientist-soldiers. Anyway, one of the recurring characters is Monsignor Vigor Verona who is a Vatican Archaeologist. He’s pretty well written, smart, and as far as I can tell has no “dark side”. Unlike the Vatican characters in Dan Brown’s books.

He also has some really neat Church History stuff that I didn’t know, and as far as I can tell (again), the representations are honest.

Rollins grew up Catholic, but I don’t believe he’s a practicing Catholic anymore, but he’s a good action/adventure writer. I never miss any of his books.

The books with Monsignor Verona are “Map of Bones” and “The Judas Strain” (about a strain of a virus, it’s just a name).
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So, in short, writing good stories where you have characters you want is important. Don’t force the story for the sake of the message. Always write a good story first, with your characters in mind.
 
Writer to writer, I do have one crucial bit of advice (learned the hard way). Don’t ever force your character to be someone he’s not. This tends to happen a lot in Christian fiction (some of the more “fluffy” stuff). No one is perfect; neither should your characters be perfect, especially if you’re trying to force them into stereotypical “good Christian” role. If he’s bad-tempered, let him be bad-tempered; if he indulges in a little too much drink or food once in a while, don’t hide that; if he’s vain, etc. You get the idea. Likewise if he goes to perpetual adoration at 2 in the morning every Tuesday, let him. Or he carries a rosary in his pocket, etc. Let him be himself.

In a writer’s group I once belonged to there was a woman wanting to write Christian fiction. She was in a quandary because it was crucial to her novel’s plot that her main character smoked cigarettes… but in her mind (and probably some publishers’ minds), good Christians didn’t smoke. The story was intriguing, but she was trying to find a way around the smoking thing. She ended up making her character a non-smoker, changed the whole plotline, and instead of having an interesting character with flaws, she had a squeaky-clean parody of a “good Christian” who was hard to relate to.

If your character changes during the course of your story, that’s fine. It happens in real life all the time–smokers quit smoking, drug addicts get help, short-tempered people learn self-control, etc. BUT LET YOUR CHARACTER MAKE THE DECISION TO CHANGE–don’t change him yourself! See the difference? That’s what makes your story interesting, regardless of what audience you’re targeting.

It’s all about the characters. Ray Bradbury once said, “Find out what your hero wants, then just follow him!”

Good advice.
 
If you guys want Catholic fiction, check out the new issue of Dappled Things. It’s got one sci-fi-ish story by Eve Tushnet and one in a sort of Victorian style by a promising young author called Eleanor Bourg Donlon (she’s very witty!).

And, actually, check out all the other issues they have in their archives as well. The past issue has the prequel to the Donlon story in the current issue, as well as a story called Happy Hills that deals with the subject of abortion in a way Evelyn Waugh would be proud of. My favorite, though, is a short short story by JB Toner called “The Last Ship.” It’s less than a page, but it’s a gem. You can find it in the previous issue, through their archives. as I said. Go read it and then tell me if it isn’t an awesome little story, kind of like it’s hero (you’ll see what I mean).
 
I’ve contemplated writing a fiction novel with a Catholic theme before. I’m not much of a writer though 😦
 
Thanks for the recent advice. I definitly am trying to let my plot and characters be realisitc and not “fake” to fit a Christian mold. Hopefully it will pay off.

Thanks
 
I lean towards the poetic in fiction – writers who struggle with the ineffable and try to express it anyway. Cormac McCarthy would be the prime example. There’s a speech near the end of Cities of the Plain that sounds like McCarthy had just finished praying over Lumen gentium and Ut unum sint!

This may seem odd, but Louise Gluck’s poetry, especially The Wild Iris, epitomizes the Christian struggle, even though she identifies herself as a (mostly) secular Jew.

Creative Writing 101 tells you that fiction must draw the reader into struggle or conflict. I have no interest in fiction that ends with secular answers to that struggle, which amounts to practical atheism. That means I’m very open to secular writers, however, who glimpse the answers in belief, even if they’re not ready to go there themselves. Don DeLillo would be a good example of this, as would early Raymond Carver.
 
alh5184 said:
I was wondering if you are an avid fiction reader would you purchase/read books that were more Catholic Fiction. In other words if the characters were truly Catholic no matter the genre?

If yes what kind of books would you like to see? (ex. Romance, Historical, Adventure, coming of age)

As some one who is interested in writing novels, if possible with Catholic character and/or overtones, I wondering how much of a market there is.

Thanks for your honest answers.

alh5184
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Enormously popular best-selling author Dean Koontz frequently features Catholic characters. I love his books!
 
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