For Writers and Readers

less IS more

from Ken Kuhlken, who is quite proud of the latest Hickey and McGee trilogy, Midheaven, The Very Least, and the Answer to Everything.

THE CHURCH AND I

My paternal grandma delivered me to Christian Science Sunday school. I escaped out the back door, went to a friend's house, and returned in time to meet grandma out front after the service.

As a young adult, I attended a crusade, got inspired, tried attending churches and hardly agreed with their politics.

I discovered a rather apolitical church and lived some years as a trusting evangelical until the election of Obama prompted me to suggest to the pastor that we sing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", to celebrate the long-belated end of the Civil War. He replied it wasn't in the church's "range". Whatever exactly that meant, it troubled me.

Meanwhile, I had helped create Perelandra College hoping to inspire Christians to write the whole truth and write it well.

The whole truth is a rare commodity in churches, which I understand. Suppose I was in charge of a big, expensive church. If I gave my audience the whole truth as I saw it, attendance would most likely decrease and I would need to sell church property and cut my salary.

Lately, since the church I used to attend, and to which I may one day return, only features online messages, as I am not restricted to its programming, I've been also listening elsewhere. One podcast is by Mary DeMuth, a writer I met at a conference, who recently delivered this impassioned message.

And I encountered this plea from Christianity Today.

Brave writers are freer to give the truth than preachers are. Too bad for churches.

FOR WRITERS, A WARNING

A few months ago, I was granted the rights to my Hickey family crime novels originally published by St. Martin's and Poisoned Pen Press. I decided that, before I would send them back into the world, I would read and edit and perhaps revise a little.

Book one (The Biggest Liar in Los Angeles, copyright 2010) and book two (The Good Know Nothing, copyright 2014) required some touching up but no substantial revision. Book three (The Venus Deal, copyright 1993) is quite a challenge.

A warning: either don't even read your work from long ago, or get ready to labor.

HOW TO GET A PODCAST

My friend Toni let me know that she went to Google play and found that Writing and the Spirit didn't show up when she requested it to. I suggested she try the whole name, The Writing and the Spirit Podcast. I hope that worked.

She also mentioned the end of iTunes podcasts. What this means, I will ask one of my tech-genius daughters and report.

Meanwhile, should you get the podcast, you may be delighted to learn that it's not all about good spirits but also about demons, whom most folks find much more interesting than angels.