John Ford

Into the Light is out!

2008-07-05T09:30:00.002-04:00

We finished the editing process, and the book is posted for sale! Go HERE. Should be a print version available in the future as well.

In Other News...

2008-06-22T13:59:00.002-04:00

A short story I wrote has been accepted for publication by New Love Stories Magazine. New Love Stories is a new magazine that will be publishing (surprise!) love stories. Don't know if it will in their inaugural issue or not, but that would be kinda cool. And of course, getting paid is very cool.

First Edits

2008-06-15T19:50:00.002-04:00

Got my first edits back from Joy Calderwood today. Not too much blood on it, which makes me happy. I really appreciate all the folks who read over it before Joy got in. They helped me get rid of most of the errors and a lot of the inconsistencies. So thank you Sakina, Anissa, Tom and Deb. I owe you.

Since we have a pretty clean manuscript already, it doesn't look like the editing will be a very long process. Could it be that the end is in sight?

Why Electronic Publishing?

2008-01-18T10:41:00.000-05:00

So why pursue electronic publishing over traditional print publishing? The first reason is obvious: because an electronic publisher is the one that offered me a contract. :)

Let's face it, traditional print publishing is difficult to break into. It's hard enough to get a publishing house to look at a first time writer. Add to that: 1) Novellas by first time writers are doubly hard, 2) While Christian fiction is fairly popular, most of what gets published fits into quite comfortably into the conservative Christian box. Into the Light does not.

Still, I submitted to numerous traditional houses (and agents). Because, really, seeing my book on a bookstore shelf was something I always wanted. It was part of the dream. But after receiving numerous traditional rejections, I began to rethink my resistance to electronic publishing.

There are many advantages. Electronic publishers are willing to take greater risks with unconventional stories. Because their overhead is lower, the royalties are higher. And, for those of you care about such things (and you all should!), ebooks are more environmentally friendly. Add to that that ebook reading hardware & software, after a poor showing in their early incarnations, have really improved.

So if you've never read an ebook, give it a try. They cost less. The quality of the product and presentation is good and getting better. And you are more likely to find a new and fresh voice. After all, isn't that one of the reasons you fell in love with reading in the first place? Because it takes you to places you've never been?

The Strange Path of Inspiration

2008-01-16T11:53:00.000-05:00

I started writing "Into the Light" back in September of 2006. I had just finished reading Matthew Pearl's "The Dante Club," which lead me to do some research on Dante, which inspired further investigation into the history of thought and teaching concerning heaven & hell. Which lead me to re-read one of my favorite books: C.S. Lewis' "The Great Divorce." It's a story about people who make the trip from hell to heaven, and what happens to them. And that got me thinking...

Background: I grew up conservative. Liberal was bad. Liberals were undermining the foundations of our country, of our church, of our faith. Liberals must be stopped, and I was on board in the cause. But Jesus kept getting in the way. Because, well, he seemed kinda liberal to me. He gave liberally of himself. Always healing people. Always reaching out to lepers and prostitutes. Making lots of food out of a little, and then giving it way. Turning water into wine, for Pete's sake! So I started asking questions. I found some answers in reading about the emerging church. (There are lots of good sites out there on the subject. My favorite, and one I frequent regularly, is The Ooze.) There is a great deal of freedom of thought in the emerging church. A lot of rethinking what we thought we knew. A great belief in the power of story to transform people. I really identify with things.

So, back to my research. One of the things I have been rethinking is my own concept of the afterlife. And it struck me that, while the emerging church talks a great deal about the power of story, there is very little in the way of "emerging fiction." And it hit me that there was no better way to unpack how my thoughts on "whatever comes next" than to place some characters there and see what happened. It worked for C.S. Lewis, didn't it?

And that is how "Into the Light" came about.

Bio & Cover

2008-01-15T15:00:00.000-05:00

Well, my bio is up on the Calderwood website. I have to admit, I'm not very good at selling myself. One of the reasons I like reading and writing fiction is, well, real life is so boring. As my buddy Ted says, "Reality is for people who can't handle sports." So I tried to keep the bio whimsical, without getting too corny.

The cover is also up. Jennifer Macaire really did a fine job capturing the vision. Only took two revisions. It was a little too dark at first, especially for electronic reading. And the font was (how do I say this?) a little too, um…"girly." Lots of curlicues. I wanted something a little more "Lord of the Rings"-ish, and I think we're there now. But really, the graphic hit the nail on the head from the beginning. Thanks, Jennifer!

Rejection, rejection, rejection

2008-01-09T20:03:00.001-05:00

It's hard to write something, to create a story in your imagination and then put it to paper. But that is not the hardest part of being a writer. The hardest part is the rejection.

"Thank you for your interest, but this project is not for us."

"Thanks for thinking of us, but we do not publish novellas."

"We are not accepting first time authors at this time."

Some rejections are better than others. Some offer a bit of hope, a constructive critique. Most do not. And even those that are constructive are not pleasant. It is like giving birth, only to have the nurse say, "Damn! That is one ugly baby!" Ouch!

It's those times that I have to remind myself why I write. To get published? No. I write because I have to. Short stories, poems, songs, little plays, and now a novella. The stories have to come out.

I had the pleasure of hearing the Christian singer/songwriter Chris Tomlin speak at a conference. He said the biggest question he gets from other songwriters is "why do some songs get sung and others don't?" Chris' answer: "I don't know." Because the songs that are getting sung are not necessarily any better than those that don't. It's just that God raises some songs up, for whatever His purposes are, and not others.

Recognition is great, but the goal of creative people should be to create. So if you are a writer, don't be discouraged. (And for God's sake, don't keep a scrapbook of your rejection letters!) Just write.