AngelaBenson.com

Well, it’s happened. The spammers have found this blog and have decided to camp out here. My mailbox is flooded with their comments. Fortunately, you don’t get to see them. Unfortunately, there are so many of them that other stuff in my mailbox gets lost in the clutter. I apologize to anyone who has written to me in the last few weeks. If you don’t hear from me today, please email me again. I’ve tried to sort through all the garbage, but I have no doubt that I missed something good in the process.

It’s been a while since I’ve blogged and a lot has happened. We had a tornado here and I lost my Internet connection for a few days, not to mention about half of my roof. This tornado marked the first time that I took refuge in the bathroom like you’re supposed to do. Before Katrina, I kept doing what I was doing, totally ignoring the danger. I’ve become a bit wiser since Katrina.

The day my Internet connection was restored I went on a weeklong trip and I’m just getting back to town. As you can imagine my mail (snail mail, this time) is calling my name. There’s a lot of it and almost none of it is SPAM so I have to wade through it.

I hope to be back blogging in the next few days. I ask that you pray for me as I’m making some major life decisions over this coming week. It’ll be good to know that you’re with me.

I pray that you and your families are well and enjoying Spring. I haven’t forgotten our Eat Healthy Challenge though I have been a bit distracted. Let me know how you’re doing with it. I could use the encouragement.

Blessings!

April 22, 4-7pm
Faith and Fiction Function, hosted by Kingdom Baptist Church
Nepperhan Community Center
342 Warburton Avenue
Yonkers, NY

The other day I was thinking about characters and the power we as authors have in our creation of them. We have goals for our characters and in our execution of those goals we take our readers into a land we created and ask them to join in with us. Some enter and decide to stay with us, while others decide our land is not the place for them. That’s the truth that authors have to embrace: Everybody is not going to like your book. That’s hard to hear, but I deal with it by telling myself that if everybody who reads my books likes them, then I didn’t have very good distribution. You see, I’m good at turning lemons into lemonade.

I remember the first time I wanted to write to an author. That author was Julie Garwood. Yes, Julie Garwood, the then historical romance author. Okay, the then NYTimes bestselling historical romance author. In the 90’s, she wrote For the Roses. That book had me boo-hooing. Not because I was sad, but because I was touched. You see, For the Roses had a black male character as a member of Rose family, four orphans who banded together because no one wanted them. Three white men, one white woman (a baby when the teen-aged boys formed their family) and Adam.

In For the Roses, Julie Garwood took me into a world I had never entered. In Julie Garwood’s world, Adam’s “brothers” didn’t take rooms in the fancy hotel while Adam stayed in the livery. They didn’t ride in the comfortable passenger cars and leave Adam alone in a cattle car. In Julie Garwood’s world, Adam’s brothers loved him and showed that love by the way they treated him. In her world, Adam was the wise older brother, whose love and care for his family was returned in full measure.

Later, I read somewhere that For the Roses was among Julie Garwood’s worst-selling books. Still, a bestseller, but not as much so as her other titles. I hope that’s not true. I also remember reading one reader characterizing the book as unrealistic. I’m not sure what she meant, but I wonder if what I found touching in For the Roses, other readers found unrealistic. You see, in most books set in that time period, good ole Adam would have been left alone in the livery and the cattle car with a smile and a “take care.” But in Julie’s world, love worked differently.

I think now that I should have written to Julie Garwood and thanked her for writing For the Roses. From her, I learned the power that we as authors have. We choose the reality of our stories. We write fiction; we make up stories. We decide what to show and what to leave to the imagination. We decide what’s important and what’s not important in the worlds we create. And, in doing so, we hope to present the reader the truth that is reality. Now that’s a hard job. Some might even think of it as a calling.

My hat is off and my heart is open to my brother and sister authors who attempt to do this everyday with Christian fiction. We’re not going to please every reader every time, and sometimes we’re not going to please each other, but what we can do is give each other the space to tell the stories that God gives us. What may not work for me, could be life-saving for somebody else. Now that is reality.

Have a great day, everybody.

I haven’t forgotten that we start First Place today. I’m going to put this placeholder here and update it when I finish today’s study some time later tonight. If you are joining the journey and want to post your starting comments, please do so. Also, don’t forget to read the last Bible in 90 Days entry, right below this one. I think the scriptures there really apply to this new challenge we’re taking.

UPDATE: I had a midnight deadline on a work project so I had to crash afterwards. Check this page tomorrow night for another update. I may have one by morning by I can’t guarantee it since my brain is now officially mush. And this is after vegging out for an hour.

UPDATE2: Okay, I’m back on track. Well, sort of. I hope you all have had a good start to our healthy living challenge, or whatever you’re calling it. I had my first Bible Study in the First Place book today. I have to admit it was a bit hard bouncing around from book to book, OT to NT, after going through 90 days of reading the books in context. After I got over my reluctance, I enjoyed the study. It began with Deut. 30:11.

“This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you to understand or perform. It is not up in heaven, so distant that you must ask, `Who will go to heaven and bring it down so we can hear and obey it?’ It is not beyond the sea, so far away that you must ask, `Who will cross the sea to bring it to us so we can hear and obey it?’ The message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so that you can obey it. -Deut. 30.11-14

As you can see, I couldn’t help but put it in a bit of context. Anyway, I think that’s a powerful scripture to begin our journey. Nothing God asks of us is to difficult for us to understand or do. Now what does He ask of us? Try Romans 12:1. Again, I had to add a verse for context, but I did resist the urge to use the King James Version.

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice–the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask? Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is. -Rom. 12:1-2

You remember from our OT readings that sacrifices had to be without blemish; they had to be the chosen of the lot. That we’re called to be living sacrifices means we’re that to God, or He wouldn’t want us. This verse calls me to total acceptance of myself as I am now, not as I want to be in the future. There have been times when I’ve thought, as soon as I do this or do that (be it lose weight or get the last kid out of the house or fill in the blank), then I’ll be ready to be used by God. Then I can be a great witness for Him. How wrong that thinking is! Today is the day He is calling and today is the day we must answer.

Something happened recently in my life that made me realize fully how important it is to cherish the person I am and the life I’ve lived. The same goes for you. The things we have endured and experienced are all part of who we are today. Like Jesus, because of the things we’ve suffered, we can have compassion on others who suffer; becuase of joy we’ve experienced, we can rejoice with others. Thank God for those experiences, for the life that we have and will have.

So we move forward this week knowing that we are empowered to live lives dedicated to God. The healthy living challenge is an exercise in obedience from which we’ll learn a lot about ourselves and our Lord. I’m a bit anxious, I admit, but I’m also expectant. Let’s enjoy the journey.

Well, Day 90 was actually about 10 days ago, but we celebrate today. Thanks to all of you who have taken this blessed ride with me. It has been a life-changing experience. As I was reading Revelations and had thoughts back to the OT prophecies, I knew I was making connections that I would not have made had I not read the entire Bible in such a condensed time period. I’m going to have to do this again, but not any time soon. Maybe next year. If you’re not finished yet, I encourage you to continue. We’ll be posting each week about our Bible-based healthly living plan and you can kee us updated with your progress.

Since the last post, we’ve read 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 & 2 Peter, 1-2 & 3 John, Jude and Revelation. That’s a lot of books but not really that many pages. I was still pretty impressed by the hearts of the letter writers towards the people they wrote to. That letter writing made me think of this blog. If blogs had the Internet had been around in Paul’s day, I can imagine him using it to keep in touch with the different churches. You know, I haven’t met many of you who visit and post but this blog allows us to encourage each other. We’re sorta doing what Paul and the other NT letter writers did. Sorta. Anyway, I feel priviledged to share with each of you and to have you share with me. I hope we continue to grow together.

The two scriptures I’ll share this week are perfect lead-ins to the healthy living challenge we’re starting tomorrow. I know I’ve read these before but they really struck me when I read them this time:

And I want women to be modest in their appearance. They should wear decent and appropriate clothing and not draw attention to themselves by the way they fix their hair or by wearing gold or pearls or expensive clothes. For women who claim to be devoted to God should make themselves attractive by the good things they do. - Tim. 2:9-10

And,

Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty that depends on fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should be known for the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. -1 Peter 3:3-4

Neither of these scriptures is saying that women shouldn’t look their best. It’s not even saying that we shouldn’t wear things that make us look our best. Of course, we should. But we shouldn’t base our worth on that. 1 Timothy is saying that instead of drawing attention to ourselves by what we do to fix ourselves up or how we look, we should draw attention to ourselves because of our “the good things we do.” 1 Peter is saying that instead of being known because of how we dress and how we look, we should be known for the “unfading beauty” of our spirt.

I am encouraged by this because it puts us all on the same level playing field. Our society rewards physcial beauty and many times tolerates bad behavior in “the beautiful people.” God’s not like that. He created us all so we’re all beautiful to Him. We get His attention, not because of the way we look or the way dress but because of the way we live.

I’m going to keep these two scriptures in mind as I begin the healthy living challenge tomorrow. My goal is not to impress others by looking better, though I admit my upcoming class reunion does loom large in my mind. But I have to focus on making sure my spirit not only “looks good” but “is good” because that’s what people will see in the end.

That’s it for me. Let me know your thoughts. And don’t forget to share what you’re learning.

I’ve been getting quite a few messages from new writers lately and I thought I’d make you all aware of the writing resources on this web site. If you look down the right panel, you’ll see a section with the heading Writing Resources with two links listed. The first link takes you to some my personal writing tips, which I encourage you to browse.

Also, if you’re in the NYC area on April 22, you might want to check out the Faith and Fiction Function being hosted by Kingdom Baptist Church in Yonkers, NY. I’ll be there, along with Tiffany Warren and LaTonya Mason. We’ll have a time of praise, prayer, fellowship and sharing what we know about publishing in the Christian fiction arena as well as in the general market.

Don’t forget the Faith Based Arts Conference. At lot of your favorite Chrsitian authors will be in attendance. I’m teaching a Writer’s Workshop. It’ll be a great time! Oh, yes, and for $75 you can get a professional critique of the synopsis and first chapter of your manuscript.

In the new few weeks, we’ll be wrapping up the Taking Back the Past series. Any ideas for publishing topics that we can tackle then?

Finally, another Taking Back the Past post! We’re now up to Between the Lines, my third book for Arabesque and the third entry in Harlequin’s recently released 3-in-1 re-issue, Sweet Passion. Between the Lines marks two significant events in my writing history: acquiring an agent and doing research.

As I told you in an earlier post, I negotiated (or, didn’t negotiate) my first tw0-book contract with Arabesque. I don’t quite remember how exactly when I acquired an agent, but I do remember that the agent negotiated the contract for my second two-book contract. I learned a couple of things from this experience. First, having an agent doesn’t necesssarily mean that you’ll get more money. I remember the disappointment I felt when my agent came back with an offer from the publisher that was not very different from the offer for the first contract. I assumed that I had paid my dues with that first contract, and now as a published author, I would be compensated accordingly. Not so.

Conventional wisdom puts the average advance for a new author at $5000. Quite a few make less and many make more. This was true in 1994 when I sold my first book and it’s still true today. I won’t tell you where I was, but by the tone of this post, I’m sure you can guess.

I know some of you are crying about now because you had dreams of getting rich, quitting your day job and buying a new house from the advance for selling your first book. All I can say is, “Wake up!” Now, a lot of writers do a lot better than I did. I started out writing romance, genre fiction, where big, fat advances are not very common. As I recommended in an earlier post, you really need to sell well with the first book because that book determines the floor (and in many ways, the ceiling) for subsequent advances. For example, if you start out with a $5000 advance, it’s highly unlikely that your next advance is going to be $50,ooo. Not impossible, but highly unlikely.

But there is the reality of publishing. $5000 may be selling well for you and your book. You only know that you’ve gotten the best deal that you can get if you shop your book around. Good agents know the price that a book should bring and they fight for that price. Typically, an advance is based on the expected first year sales of the book. So, if publishers expect a book to make $5000 in the first year, then you get a $5000 advance. Some publishers, like Harlequin, tend to pay a standard advance rate but their first year earnings typically exceed that amount. At least, that’s been my experience.

So how do you figure out how much you’ll make on a book? If your book is a mass market paperback (those books you see in the racks at the grocery story), it probably sells for $6.99. Your contract will specify a royalty rate of 6 or 8 percent; I’m not sure which is standard these days. That means that for each book that sells, you get 56 cents (8%) or 42 cents (6%). At the 8 percent rate, you’ll have to sell around 10,000 books to make $5000.

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Has anybody finished the 90 Day plan yet? Had we stayed on schedule, we would have finished on Friday. As it stands now, we’ll finish this Thursday. It’s been a great ride, hasn’t it?

Since the last posting, we’ve made it through Acts, Romans, I Corinthians, 2 Corinthinans, Galatians, Ephesians, Phillipians and Colossians. Acts was wonderful as it is everytime I read it. Now that’s a book somebody ought to make into a movie! There’s so much action. It starts when the Holy Spirit falls on the believers on the Day of Pentecost and never lets up. What really struck me was that every kind of miracle that Jesus performed in the gospels, His disciples performed in Acts. Jesus was not there in body, but His work went on in full speed. It’s not suprising then that onlookers would would call His followers Christians, because they were like Him.

Then we move on to Paul’s letters. Reading those letters drove home for me what it means to be a minister: to love and care for the people that God has called you to serve. In those letters, Paul was clear to let the recipients know that his heart for full of love for them and hope that they would continue to walk in Christ. Yes, he challenged them, chastised them, and corrected them, but he also praised them, reminded them of who they were in Christ and let them know that he was pulling for their success. That’s a great model for a minister. He said something at the end of Phillipians that I had not noticed before:

As you know, you Philippians were the only ones who gave me financial help when I brought you the Good News and then traveled on from Macedonia. No other church did this. Even when I was in Thessalonica you sent help more than once. I don’t say this because I want a gift from you. What I want is for you to receive a well-earned reward because of your kindness. At the moment I have all I need–more than I need! I am generously supplied with the gifts you sent me with Epaphroditus. They are a sweet-smelling sacrifice that is acceptable to God and pleases him. And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus. Now glory be to God our Father forever and ever. Amen. -Phillipians 4:15-20

Here he’s telling the people that he doesn’t need them to send him anything; that his needs are met. Now that’s something. Paul probably could have gotten more from the Phillipians but he was clear to let them know that he didn’t need more. That’s a sign of trust in God to me because it goes against the tendency to store up for a future day. Paul had enough, and he clearly said it. Can you imagine a minister telling the congregation not to give money today because it wasn’t needed? It’s something to think about.

I’ll end on that note. Have a great week and don’t forget to share what you’re learning.