Tell a writer. Tell the world.

With easy-to-do yourself book publishing through Amazon Kindle and easy-to-do blogs via Google’s Blogger aka Blogspot, poets and writers have become more and more likely to publish their own work. Equally enticing, both forms of self-publishing are free!

A big obstacle arises though in getting out the word about the words written. With none of the advertising or publicity help that traditionally published poets and writers can rely on, the self-published author counts on you the reader to let friends, fellow readers, and social media followers know which books and blogs might be worth their reading time.

You don’t have to be a writer yourself to help the publishing community or literary world! Just tell people what you like as though you’re talking to them in person. Be specific about the unique aspects you found especially appealing or why you’re drawn to the work of a particular poet or writer.

If, however, you run across a “bad read” you wouldn’t recommend to anyone, don’t say a word – at least not in public! Instead send a note to the poet or writer if there’s something you feel strongly about; otherwise, let it go. It could be that the work hit a nerve or that whatever bothered you simply conflicts with the personal preferences or beliefs to which you’re both entitled.

As you review and laud 5-star books on Amazon and other sites, you add your voice to the literary community. You influence other readers, and your show appreciation for work well done. You may never know for sure, but your reviews can encourage a poet or writer enough to give momentum for the next book. At least, that’s what happened to me.

After decades of researching what the Bible says and shows about prayer, I “suddenly” knew I wanted a book that collected Bible prayers into a contemporary prayer book we can use to refresh, deepen, and empower our prayer lives. The immediate responses to the Book of Bible Prayers were so positive, I began the next book right away before my enthusiasm waned.

Maybe that’s why I’m up, writing this appeal before daybreak! Of necessity, poets and writers spend much of their time in solitude in order to get any work done, so your encouraging words matter a lot! And, who knows? Your positive review might give the momentum needed for the next manuscript that inspires and encourages you!

Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2019

…

Drawn in Bible Study: Mary, the Mother of Jesus

When I heard about Mary: Seeing God through the Eyes of a Mother by Eugene H. Peterson, I immediately requested a review copy from Tyndale Blog Network for at least three reasons:

1. The work of Eugene Peterson, translator of The Message (MSG), is consistently worth reading!

2. Positive writings about Mary, the Mother of Jesus, have been too few, except among Catholic book publishers or devotional writers, who annually focus on the Nativity.

3. The idea of a “Drawn in Bible Study” appealed to me greatly for its fresh approach to study and discussions about God’s Word.

Those aspects of this book by NavPress do not disappoint, despite a couple of negative reactions on my part. To get those out of the way, my first “Oh, no!” concerns the tight binding of the paperback cover, which does not lay flat or cooperate well if you want to color pages as the publisher most likely intended.

My other regret for this book concerns a couple of Bible verses chosen to be illustrated: 1.) “The starving poor sat down to a banquet; the callous rich were left out in the cold,” from Luke 1, MSG. 2.) “They suspected He was getting carried away with Himself,” from Mark 3, MSG.

Perhaps the publisher felt those verses needed to be emphasized. Regardless, the other quotations from scripture edify readers and build faith. Indeed the overall content of the text makes an insightful, innovative, spirit-filled way to invigorate a Bible study and get better acquainted with Jesus’ Mother Mary.

As part of the “Drawn in Bible Study” series, this highly recommended book also includes:

• artwork and spaces in which you can color or draw,

• contemporary verses from The Message,

• questions to help you connect your life with scripture,

• comments from Eugene Peterson,

• leader’s notes to encourage you to involve others in this refreshing study of God’s Word.

Reviewed by Mary Harwell Sayler, © 2017, poet-writer, Bible reviewer, and lover of God’s Word.


Mary: Seeing God through the Eyes of a Mother, Drawn in Bible Study, paperback

31 Women of the Bible

If you like to read books for Christians and have a relevant blog, you might want to sign up (free) to be a B&H/Lifeway Blogger. Broadman published my first books years ago, so I joined their bloggers and soon received a review copy of 31 Women of the Bible by Len Woods.

As the Introduction says, the book includes, “A concise summary of each woman’s appearance in Scripture, viewed through the lens of our modern culture.” In addition, the hefty, slick-paper pages in this quality edition present “Helpful prompts for applying the principles of each woman’s story to your own life” and “Thought-provoking questions to help you find common ground with heroes of the Christian faith.”

For example, a quick study of the first woman Eve offers “The Takeaway” of how “life works best when we trust and obey the explicit Word of God.” Then, a sidebar entitled “Food For Thought” asks questions related to the text such as “We’ve all experienced loss, but Eve lost paradise. What do you think that was like?”

Those of us who had an idyllic childhood have probably felt the same way, especially in preteen and teen years when we were caught between being little kids and grownups. (No wonder that age group often has a hard time!)

Christians in general, however, often have a hard time dealing with difficult Bible people or situations. Because of this tendency, the book’s goal of viewing Bible people “through the lens of our modern culture” could add fuel to disturbances that already inflame, rather than helping us to understand more about where Bible people were coming from in a particular time and place.

For instance, the profile on Hagar, Sarah’s maid and mother of Abraham’s child Ishmael, ends with a takeaway that offers no insight into the situation yet states the obvious way this story is now viewed: “As a servant and concubine, she was treated like property…. And she was sent into the desert by the father of her child.” Although it’s true for most of us that “You can’t study Hagar’s life without wincing,” many of us want to get beyond that tragedy and find out things like why were women in Egypt sold into slavery in the first place or why did Hagar think it would be okay to make Sarah feel worse about being childless or why is Hagar – a woman from the continent of Africa – illustrated as an overwrought white woman?

Indeed, almost every beautiful painting used as an illustration in this book shows tones from stark white to ruddy skin but does not feature women who look like they’re from countries in Africa or the Middle East. Also, I recognized some of the paintings from ones I’ve seen in art books or museums, so I tried to find acknowledgements of the artists and titles, but the “Art Credits” in the back matter merely point to stock photo companies found online.

Regardless of these shortcomings, the book makes an interesting one-month devotional to help readers see how human nature hasn’t changed, nor has our need for God. Each woman portrayed in this book comes with a unique personality and strong character from which we can learn more about ourselves or the women in our lives.

However, I’d most recommend this book as a 31-week (or more) guide for a Bible discussion group where members are encouraged to read the text, consider the questions prior to meeting, and come up with questions of their own. Then, oh, what lively discussions would most likely occur!

Reviewed by Mary Harwell Sayler, poet-writer, Bible reviewer, ©2016

31 Women of the Bible, hardback with ribbon bookmarker



…

Joy to the World

If you have heard the Christmas story your whole life, as I have, you might think, as I did, that you have considered almost every aspect of the Nativity. Nevertheless, I requested a review copy of the new book, Joy to the World: How Christ’s Coming Changed Everything (And Still Does), published by Image books. I figured that if anyone would have new insights or a fresh perspective into this vital, 2,000-year old story, it would be Bible scholar, Christian author, former pastor, Catholic theologian, and university professor Scott Hahn.

From the first chapter “A Light Goes On in Bethlehem,” we receive this insightful light:

“The Christmas story has an unconventional hero – not a warrior, not a worldly conqueror, not an individual at all, but rather a family…. We see the swaddling bands and know they’re for a baby, but someone had to do the swaddling…. We hear tell of the manger-crib where he lay, but someone needed to place him there…. The family is the key to Christmas. The family is the key to Christianity....

That, indeed, is one of the most profound implications of the Christmas story: that God had made his dwelling place among men, women, and children, and he called them – he calls us – to become his family, his holy household.”

Today, many people have no family. Many, including children in this country, have no home. They’re homeless, lonely, and alone.

“Without Christ, the world was a joyless place; and anyplace where he remains unknown and unaccepted is a joyless place. Everything has changed since Christ’s birth, but everything remains to be changed, as people come to receive the child in faith.”

With the joy of Christ in the world, no one needs to be without home or family. In the church, we can find loving, forgiving fellowship with one another as the Family of God. We can be grafted into Jesus’ family tree.

As Dr. Hahn points out, “The New Testament begins not with a discourse or a prophecy, not with theology or law, but with a simple declaration of family relationships.”

So the book of Matthew begins with a genealogy or, in Greek, a geneseos, which gives the root for genes, genetics, genomes, or generations and can be translated as “beginning” or “origin.” Therefore, “…the evangelist was suggesting a new Genesis, an account of the new creation brought about by Jesus Christ.” Likewise, “In the fourth Gospel, Saint John accomplishes something similar when he begins by echoing the first words of the Torah: ‘In the beginning’.”

In the book of Luke, we get Mary’s perspective and Jesus’ family line going back to Adam to show how Christ came for everyone. Matthew, however, wants to show his Jewish readers how they’re connected to Christ through their family heritage, and so his long list of begats begins with Abraham, the father of the Hebrew people.

“As the roll draws to its close, however, it identifies Joseph not as a father, but as ‘the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born who is called Christ’.” Dr. Hahn goes on to say, this “final link breaks with the preceding pattern. Joseph is not called father, but spouse. The evangelist wants to be perfectly clear that Joseph had no biological role to play in the conception of Jesus.”

When time came for the infant to be born, what a birth announcement! One angel visited the shepherds, as messengers from God often did in Old Testament Times, calming fears and announcing Good News. But this time, a multitude of heavenly hosts then appeared, singing “Glory to God in the highest,” and lighting up the whole sky with angels!

Later, when the magi visited the Holy Family, Matthew 2:10 reports, “When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.” Dr. Hahn then asks us to “linger on that single line. For it captures the very moment when God gave ‘Joy to the World’ – not merely to Israel, but to the whole world: the nations, the foreigners, the Gentiles.”

In the Family of God, the church Body of Christ, love holds us together, and joy radiates from the center. Or, as Dr. Hahn says:

“If we truly celebrate Christmas, we’ll exude a joy that people will want to share.”

To be realistic, though, “there are those who would steal our joy by trying to steal our Christmas – by snickering at the lot of it: the Trinity, the virginal conception, the incarnation, the shepherds. How should we respond? By inviting them to the feast. By enjoying the feast ourselves, and by enjoying it for all of its infinite worth.”

Amen!

May your Christ-mass be filled with love and overflow with joy, joy, joy in Jesus’ Name.


©2014, Mary Harwell Sayler is an ecumenical Christian poet, writer, and lifelong lover of Christ, the Bible, and the church in all its parts.


Note from Mary: I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review, but you can order it from Amazon.

Joy to the World: How Christ’s Coming Changed Everything (And Still Does), hardback



…

Imagination redeemed: Glorifying God with a Neglected Part of Your mind

As an active Christian poet, writer, and occasional poetry editor, I know how important imagination can be. More often, however, I heavily rely on prayer and observation – listening for God’s guidance and paying attention to the details that make a poem or post or book come alive. So I have to admit: I often think imagination is over-rated or, worse, a way to conjure up unlikely thoughts or inadvisable ideas!

Reportedly, God’s people have had similar concerns from the beginning as Genesis 6:5 reminds us, saying, “...the imagination and intentions of human thinking is continually evil.” Ouch! But wait!

What if Christ has redeemed our imaginations along with everything else about us?

I love that idea, don’t you? So, when I saw that Crossway had recently published Imagination redeemed by authors Gene Edward Veith Jr. and Matthew P. Ristuccia, I immediately requested a review copy, which the publisher kindly sent.

The subtitle reveals even more about the authors’ intentions: Glorifying God with a Neglected Part of Your Mind. Excellent idea! But, how do we do that?

Second Corinthians 10:4-5 gives us the short version:

For the weapons of our warfare
are not of the flesh,
but empowered by God
to bring down strongholds.

Therefore, with God’s help

we can bring down everything opposed
to what we know of God,

– that knowledge that comes to us through the Bible, our experiences, our conscience, and our God-given ability to think and reason –

taking every thought captive
in obedience to Christ.

Authors Veith and Ristuccia fully develop that idea in their book Imagination redeemed, beginning with this definition from Gene:

“Imagination is simply the power of the mind to form a mental image, that is, to think in pictures or other sensory representations…. Imagination lets us relive the past and anticipate the future. And it takes up much of our present. We use our imaginations when we daydream and fantasize, to be sure, but also when we just think about things.”

In providing biblical examples from Ezekiel throughout the book, Matt had this to say:

“It is hard to imagine a more difficult faith crisis for Old Testament people of God than what Ezekiel and his fellow exiles faced. The combined loss of hope and reassurance of divine presence were overwhelming. God’s people were in desperate need for something bigger than an oracle. Their thoughts had wandered too far astray to be called back by prophetic logic alone. Instead, they needed to see what they could not see: God’s loyal providence…. So the Lord went after Ezekiel’s imagination, and through him the exiles.”

As Matt goes on to say:“If you capture someone’s imagination, you capture his mind, heart, and will.”

Typing that quotation now, I’m reminded that Matthew 22:37 reports Jesus’ word to us: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

Our imaginations can free us to capture our love for God – in our minds, in our writings, and in our lives.

With vibrant words and poetic imaginations, prophets such as Ezekiel give us examples to consider, which this book also does throughout the text. Sometimes, though, I found the references to Ezekiel distracting and would have preferred the text divided by each author’s emphasis, perhaps in separate chapters, parts, or even separate volumes. Nevertheless, I highly recommend this book and the excellent ideas behind it.

Like the authors, I believe, “…the part of the mind known as the imagination – the ability to form mental images – is important in the life of the Christian. Though a realm in need of discipline and sanctification, the imagination is a God-given superpower, making possible some of the greatest achievements of human beings. It makes possible empathy and compassion, shapes our worldview, and is the way into our heart.”

For Christian poets, writers, editors, and other communicators for Christ, I pray that God inspires us and stimulates our imaginations to write in all genres with such winsome words and creative ideas that we bring countless readers to Christ and the church. Imagine what we can do in Jesus’ Name!


©2014, Mary Harwell Sayler is an ecumenical Christian poet, writer, and lifelong lover of Christ, the Bible, and the church in all its parts.


Imagination redeemed: Glorifying God with a Neglected Part of Your Mind, paperback



…

The church: where we're going, why, and with whom

In the last post, we looked at “The church: where we’re coming from and where we’ve been” as individual and denominational parts of the Body of Christ. This time we’ll consider where we’re going, why, and with whom.

Fortunately, we don’t have to rely on our own assumptions and opinions. For the last couple of decades, the Barna Group has interviewed thousands of men and women with no church affiliation or ties. Editors George Barna and David Kinnaman then presented their findings in the book, Churchless: Understanding Today’s Unchurched and How to Connect with Them, published by Tyndale Momentum, an imprint of Tyndale House Publishers.

As a highly ecumenical Christian who has loved Christ and the church in all of its parts since my early childhood, I welcomed the complimentary review copy of Churchless from Tyndale Blog Network. For one thing, I cannot imagine a world without the church, but more importantly, I cannot imagine – nor do I want to! – a life without Christ.

When I was growing up almost everyone “went to church.” In recent years though, Christians have begun to see and say, “We ARE the church.” So, I’m wondering: Are people falling away from Christ or from us?

In requesting this review copy, I wanted to see how other people see Christ. I wanted to know why church doors are closing and why Christian fellowship isn’t being sought. I wanted to find out if statistics can help us to assess and address relevant issues in our churches and/or our writing lives. But mostly, I just wanted to know what we can do!

Although the book did not answer all of my questions, the editors immediately laid out a statement that, typographically, slows down our reading and summarizes the situation:

“If we perceive the gap
between ‘us’ and ‘them’
as W I D E and
essentially uncrossable,
we are less likely
to get close enough
to offer ourselves
in real relationships.”

To that summation, the editors later added, “We hear again and again, both from the unchurched and from local churches that are deeply engaged with the unchurched in their communities, that loving, genuine relationships are the only remaining currency readily exchanged between the churched and the churchless.”

Thinking of ourselves as poets, writers, publishers, or other communicators for Christ, we might ask:

With whom will I get up close and purposeful?

To whom will I offer my poems, books, or other manuscripts?

How might my writing help draw others to Christ and the church?

To find out what we’re up against, I appreciated the quick overview of stats at the beginning of the book that offered this information:

• The Minimally Churched (8%) Attend church infrequently and unpredictably

• The Actively Churched (49%) Attend church at least once a month

• The De-Churched (33%) Were once active in church but are no longer

• The Purely Unchurched (10%) Do not currently and have never attended a church

And so, right away, we find out that 57% of the 20,000+ American adults interviewed do go to church, while 43% do not or never have. To put those present statistics into perspective with the past, only 30% of the people were churchless in the 1990s.

In those earlier years, of course, the Internet did not provide social outlets that meet or, perhaps, mask our need for fellowship. Not only that, but the “digital shift” shifted “the expectation, especially among young people, that they can and should contribute, not just consume. Online technologies… enable any connected person to add his or her image, idea, or opinion to the digital mix. If you consider how most churches deliver content – appointing one person as the authority and encouraging everyone else to sit (consume) quietly while he or she speaks – it is easy to see how that delivery system may come into conflict with changing cultural expectations.”

That same digital connectedness, however, gives poets, writers, and other communicators for Christ direct, instantaneous access to people from the proverbial four corners of the earth!

Nevertheless, we have gaps to fill and negative views to overcome. For example:

“Of those who could identify one way Christians contribute to the common good, the unchurched appreciate their influence when it comes to serving the poor and disadvantaged (22 percent), bolstering morals and values (10 percent), and helping people believe in God (8 percent)./ Among those who had a complaint about Christians in society, the unchurched were least favorably disposed toward violence in the name of Christ (18 percent), the church’s stand against gay marriage (15 percent), sexual abuse scandals (13 percent), and being involved in politics (10 percent).”

With “one out of every five young adults… an exile who feels lost between church culture and the wider culture he or she feels called to inhabit and influence,” we can help by coming together as one Body ready to love, serve, forgive, and heal cultural differences, perhaps through communal outings or community concerts or concerted efforts to reach the underprivileged in our local areas.

We can help by forgiving one another and encouraging others to forgive.

We can help by counseling and educating people about the work of the church throughout history, for example, in establishing some of the finest universities in the world and establishing – throughout the world – orphanages, hospitals, and other missions that meet needs.

As Christians come together, our primary purpose is to worship and fellowship with God, which gives us fellowship, too, with one another. This connection makes us one in spirit and one part of the larger Body of Christ, where we then have the strength, power, and purpose – as a church – to educate, influence, and evangelize others in Jesus’ Name.


©2014, Mary Harwell Sayler, reviewer, is an ecumenical Christian poet, writer, and lifelong lover of Christ, the Bible, and the church in all its parts.


Churchless: Understanding Today’s Unchurched and How to Connect with Them, hardback



…

The church: where we’re coming from and where we’ve been

When we’re with good friends or family most of us can express ourselves without having to explain every little thing. Those who are close to us know us. They know where we’re coming from – most of the time anyway, and hopefully, we know too.

Jesus did. According to John 8:14, He said, “I know where I came from and where I'm going.”

Cultural backgrounds, family histories, and past experiences help to define who we are, where we came from, what we need, and where we’re going. Understanding those aspects of ourselves and those close to us can help to relieve anxiety, suspicions, and misunderstandings.

Similarly, the more we know about the Family of Christ, the more we recognize our ties to one Lord and one faith.

And, the more we know why other Christians believe as they do, the more we begin to appreciate their sincerity and respect their choices.

And, the more we embrace each part of the Body of Christ, the more effective the church becomes in forgiving, loving, and working together in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Such beliefs made me want to know the histories of various denominations, so I can better understand where they’re coming from and what we have in common – in our common union in Jesus Christ. This caused me to request a review copy of God Has Spoken: A History of Christian Theology, which Crossway kindly sent.

In this highly recommended, hefty volume, research professor Gerald Bray shows us how Christian doctrines came about and what struggles caused theological differences or new developments in how people thought. For such a book to accomplish its goals, heavy-duty research and fair-mindedness are a must.

In the Preface, for instance, Dr. Bray shows where he’s coming from by saying: “…very few people would now assert that what their particular church teaches is absolute truth to the exclusion of everything else.” Most Christians today would not welcome a history of the church “whose main purpose is to debunk or defend a particular denomination.”

That said, Dr. Bray also recognizes that “We all have our preferences, of course, but anyone who argues that only the Baptists, or only the Roman Catholics (or the Reformed, the Eastern Orthodox, the Lutherans, or whoever) are right while everyone else is wrong is now regarded as a propagandist, not as a historian – and is dismissed accordingly. At the present time it is universally agreed that the historian must rise above his own bias and be as fair as he can be to others, accepting that even disagreeable facts must be analyzed and explained in their context, even if he might privately wish that the past had been different.”

We now take many principles of faith for granted, but from the earliest days of the church onward, various issues or problems arose that had to be resolved. Each solution brought a new resolution or another step in theology, and then other concerns came to light.

As Dr. Bray says, “Just as a piece of cut glass reveals different aspects of the light according to how it is held, so the New Testament appears in a new light when looked at in response to the different theological questions that have been put to it.”

For example, in the early church, “Christians who prayed to God as their Father had to stress that he was the God of the Old Testament – the Creator and Redeemer are one.... After that was established, the identity of the Son was next on the theological agenda,” which meant expressing “this great mystery in a way that would affirm both the divinity and the humanity of the incarnate Son without compromising the integrity of either.”

Beliefs about the Holy Spirit, the sacraments, and a calling to the ministry needed to be considered too, whereas present-day concerns often center on “the suspicion that either there is no God at all, or that all religious beliefs point to the same transcendent deity.”

Simply reading the Preface of this book will give you an overview of the denominational histories and diverse theological developments in the churches, but, as you might expect, these 1260 pages have more to say! Fortunately, the scholarly author has a conversational style that retains reader interest. Or, the book can be used as a reference guide to church denominations, key figures in Christianity, and historical events.

To organize this wealth of material, Dr. Bray divided the book into eight sections as follows:

Part One
The Israelite Legacy

Part Two
The Person of the Father

Part Three
The Work of the Father

Part Four
The Person of the Son

Part Five
The Work of the Son

Part Six
The Person of the Holy Spirit

Part Seven
The Work of the Holy Spirit

Part Eight
One God in Three Persons

For example, Part One discusses “A Shared Inheritance” among Christians and Jews, while Part Six talks about “The Inspiration of Holy Scripture.”

Regarding the latter, the early Christian theologian Origen considered “the overall purpose of the Holy Spirit in inspiring the Scriptures in the first place. As he saw it, the Spirit had two principal aims in view. The first was to instruct believers in the deep things of God, which only he knows. The second was to help beginners in the faith, who need guidance and can be reached only when the deeper mysteries are expressed in the language and concepts of everyday life.”

For biblical examples of this, consider the settings for Jesus’ parables in a vineyard or field or dimly lit home. Or, consider how the resurrected Christ identified Himself with the individual needs of seven churches in Revelation, letting Christians in Laodicea know He is the “beginning of creation” and not a created being as some thought. Or how they needed Him to clothe them and anoint their eyes, even though the area was known for woolen cloth and eye salve!

Only a God-inspired word could be so relevant and alive – then and now – in Christian lives and churches. God does not change, but circumstances, times, and languages do, causing Christians throughout the centuries to pray about and express their beliefs, so one generation to the next can understand.

As Dr. Bray says in closing, “God the Father has spoken to us in the Word; God the Son calls for us to hear and respond to that Word, which is found only and fully in him; and God the Holy Spirit gives us the understanding and the will to accept that Word and allow it to transform our lives by uniting us to Christ, in whom we dwell in the heavenly places and have fellowship with all three persons of the Godhead.”

May this book help us to have fellowship with one another as we consider each part of the Body of Christ, joined in love, in Jesus’ Name.

©2014, Mary Harwell Sayler, reviewer, is an ecumenical Christian poet, writer, and lifelong lover of Christ, the Bible, and the church in all its parts.


God Has Spoken: A History of Christian Theology, hardback



…

Literary Forms in the Bible

When we think of the Bible as the written word inspired by God, the laws (teachings) and history will most likely come to mind. However, poetry covers about one-third of the Bible, which also contains almost all of the other literary forms. Hopefully, this will interest Christian readers in general, but as poets and writers, we do well to study these forms and their usages to expand our literary options in what we write.

We can do this by ourselves, of course, but if you’ve ever read one of the many books by writer, editor, and university professor Leland Ryken, you’ll want to see what he has to say on this subject. I certainly did! So I warmly welcomed the review copy I received of A Complete Handbook of Literary Forms in the Bible, recently published by Crossway.

In the Introduction, Dr. Ryken defines literary forms as “anything pertaining to how a passage expresses its content.” So the focus is not on the content or the what of the text but on these categories as listed by the author with my notes added in parentheses:

1. Literary terms (discussed in this alphabetized handbook)
2. Genres (fiction, nonfiction, poetry)
3. Literary techniques (for example, theme and variation)
4. Motifs (pattern or theme)
5. Archetypes and type scenes (recurrent patterns or symbols)
6. Figures of speech (metaphor, simile, hyperbole, paradox)
7. Rhetorical devices (for example, an envelope structure or inclusio, which “consists of bracketing a passage with the same statement”)
8. Stylistic traits (features of style from high to conversational)
9. Formulas (such as a number formula “for three transgressions and for four” or a “woe formula)

You might feel like saying “Woe is me!” if those terms are new for you, but take heart! The A to Z (make that "W") format of the book enables you to look up the entry you want on your own need-to-know terms.

Since I wanted to give the book a thorough reading, though, I began with “Abundance, Story of” and kept going, soon coming to the conclusion that, when I catch up on my stack of review copies, I’d like to read this again and give myself a writing exercise for each entry to which I'm drawn.

For instance, I’ve enjoyed writing acrostics, which, in Bible literature, means, “An Old Testament poem in which the successive units begin with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in consecutive order.” Mine were written using the English alphabet, but the Hebrew Bible includes acrostics in several Psalms where “The most elaborate acrostic poem in the Bible is Psalm 119. The poem is comprised of twenty-two eight-verse units. The units unfold according to the Hebrew alphabet, but in addition, all eight verses within each unit begin with the letter that the unit as a cluster highlights.” To make Psalm 119 even more difficult to write, the poet consistently included words referring to the “law of the LORD” such as “precepts, “statutes,” “commandments,” thereby adding to the impression that the Bible consists primarily of rules.

Dr. Ryken, however, reminds us of so much more in the “Adventure Story,” “Allegory, “Apocalyptic Writing,” “Beatitude,” “Benediction,” “Christ Hymn,” and even the “Comedy,” which he describes as “A kind of plot structure, with accompanying traits, that forms a U-shaped story in which events first descend into potential tragedy and then rise to a happy ending.”

Who would expect that, from a literary perspective, “comedy rather than tragedy is the dominant narrative form of the Bible and the Christian gospel.” For example, the Bible “story begins with the creation of a perfect world. It descends into the tragedy of fallen human history. It ends with a new world of total happiness and victory over evil” – which is surely more than enough to make us smile!

Other examples of the literary form include the stories of Joseph, Ruth, Esther, and Job – none of whom endured the laughing matters we expect to see in a TV sit-com or humor story. Nevertheless, each lived through a U-shaped story where events went from bad to good, shaping their faith and also the lives of readers who welcome the relief of a happy ending based on biblical truths.

Continuing through the alphabetized entries, we find “Drama” and “Dramatic Irony,” such as “Pharaoh’s daughter unknowingly paying the mother of Moses to take care of her own son.” And, in “Epic,” we see that “The biblical story that most obviously fits the description of an epic is the story of the exodus.”

When I came to the entry for “Epistle,” I thought of the form many Christian writers use in their blogs! As a fixed form in the New Testament, the epistle has five main parts, which, according to Dr. Ryken, consist of the following (parentheses his, this time):

• opening or salutation (sender, address, greeting)
• thanksgiving (including such features as prayer for spiritual welfare, remembrance of the recipients, and eschatological climax)
• body of the letter (beginning with introductory formulas and concluding with eschatological and travel material)
• paraenesis (moral exhortations)
• closing (final greetings and benediction)

Instead of focusing on parables, paradox, penitential Psalms, and other forms you’re most likely familiar with, I’ll turn to the entry for “Paraenesis,” which frankly I’d never heard of before, perhaps because, as Dr. Ryken notes, “No English word has gained currency as a designation for this fixed ingredient in the Epistles.” As he explains, however, paraenesis is “A section in the New Testament Epistles that lists moral virtues and vices, or a collection of commands to practice specific virtues and avoid specific vices.”

Hmm. Interesting. Even without know what paraenesis means, I’ve been seeing a lot of it in blogs by Christian writers when I’d much prefer to see the use of literary forms such as the “Penitential Psalm,” “Praise Psalm,” “Quest Story/Motif,” “Witness Story,” or “Worship Psalm,” each of which has specific characteristics and/or patterns (forms!) you might want to study, practice, and enjoy in your Christian writing life.


©2014, Mary Harwell Sayler, reviewer, is the poet-author of 27 traditionally published books in all genres, many of which can be found on her Amazon Author Page.


Literary Forms in the Bible, paperback



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Writing Irresistible KidLit

When writers of children’s books have a specific story in mind, it’s often their own. Yet the opening chapter of Writing Irresistible KIDLIT by author and literary agent Mary Kole immediately informs us, “As you strive to publish, you’re no longer the solitary scribe shut up in some attic; you are part of a vibrant and rapidly changing industry.”

Yes! So you can see right away that this book thinks bigger than our closed up and personal stories!

As attested by the review copy Writer’s Digest Books kindly sent me to discuss, Writing Irresistible KIDLIT is “The Ultimate Guide to Crafting Fiction for Young Adult and Middle Grade Readers.” Having now thoroughly read the book though, I have to say that writers of novels for pretty much any age will welcome this lively text with all sorts of helpful, step-by-step information.

With middle grade (MG) and YA ( young adult) readers the primary concern, however, the first couple of chapters describe the reading audience, give you the typical lengths of manuscripts for each age group, then help you slip into “The MG and YA Mindset” where “tweens are focused on themselves,” and “thinking about how how others perceive them.”

As readers reach teen years where concerns grow faster than bones, they “feel everything very intensely, and two things in particular: An interest in romance and darkness.” Since fears and fantasies abound, “they use fiction to explore these issues in a safe way.”

The same can be said for big people books too, but regardless of the age group we write for, we want our work to be distinctive. As Mary Kole says, “It’s not the story, per se, it’s how you express it, the theme you project upon it, the characters you create, and your own unique voice.”

To get there, we go past a helpful list of cliché characters to avoid and consider the goals and motivations of each story person with whom we people our book. As the author explains:

“We root for people in life when we know their desires and goals. Will they persevere (like we want to with our own goals)? Will they fail (like we’re afraid to)? We start to care once we see a person in trouble. This empathy is an important bond to create between reader and character, and you should do it as early as possible.”

Although we don’t want characters to be too conflicted, we do want them to face conflicts, whether internal conflict such as loneliness or fear that “exists in the character’s head alone,” or external conflict, which can be a societal conflict that “happens on a grand scale” or an interpersonal conflict such as “a fight with a boyfriend, problems with the parents, a forced summer job, a bully at school, etc.”

Also, “Being forced to so something you really don’t want to, or being kept from your one true goal, are two enduring thematic conflicts in MG and YA” but can work well in adult fiction too. To know how this will work for any character of any age though, your characters need you to develop their character.

To give you a few examples from a character worksheet in the book, ask:

• What are a character’s primary objective and two secondary, smaller ones?
• What motivation does your protagonist have for each of the above?
• What value does she hold highest above all in herself and in other people?
• What is his core identity based on the above virtue?
• What is his vision of moral right and wrong?
• What is her worldview?

Although this book addresses manuscripts sought by secular publishers, you can see how the above questions will also help to guide the books you want to write for Christian children and teens and, yes, for adults too.

A novel offers more than a portrait, though, as the main character moves from one scene to another where “The most effective scenes flip action, plot, or character in unexpected ways. They shift mood. They make waves that will affect everything else that happens after. We should also learn something new in every scene; otherwise it’s not worth keeping.”

Similar to actions in a movie, the author advises us to “Vary your story’s rhythm by giving us long scenes and short scenes in a pattern. If we have long scene after long scene, no matter how tight, your readers will start to drag. Too many short scenes in quick succession and your audience will get whiplash.” Keep in mind, too, “You can’t choreograph every moment of your scene, so don’t even try. Leave gesticulation to your reader’s imagination.”

Other chapters break down what works and what does not in plotting plots and setting scenes or people in proper surroundings for a story to maintain credibility and retain reader interest. You’ll also find out more about distinguishing voices, including your own. When you’re ready to release your work to an editor, publisher, or literary agent, this book will show you how to go about that too.

Since I did that on more than one occasion when my now-grown children were growing up, I wanted to see if the time lapse had created an abysmal gap or if I could still relate to MG and YA readers. This book reminded me that trends change, in and out, but kids are kids, people are people, and a memorable story is well-written regardless of age.

© 2014, Mary Harwell Sayler

Writing Irresistible KidLit, paperback



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Timeless Bible questions to answer

As Christian poets, writers, pastors, and/or communicators for Christ, we often begin our articles, books, and sometimes poems by asking questions our readers might ask then thoroughly researching information to provide the solutions or answers needed. In The Jesus Code: 52 Scripture Questions Every Believer Should Answer published by Thomas Nelson and kindly sent to me for review by BookLookbloggers.com, prolific author O.S. Hawkins gleaned many, many questions from the Bible then narrowed them down to one a week for a year. Although I liked the idea of the book in general, two premises especially appealed to me:

1. Timely questions asked by the Lord and/or Bible people will most likely be timeless.

2. Each Bible-related question gives a theme and purpose for poets and writers to focus on, research well, and address in all genres of writing.

Both of those aspects make this evangelically-oriented book recommended for poets and writers, regardless of denominational preferences.

For example, the first timeless but troubling question began in the beginning and is still being asked today: “Has God Indeed Said…?” Or, to put it another way, “Does God really mean _______?” (fill in the blank.) So, if I were looking for a new topic to write about, I’d pray about it and ask God to bring to my attention specific scriptures people often question or water down or, in some way, say, “Well, God does not really mean that for us now.”

Another of the many questions the Bible asks is, “Where Can I Go from Your Spirit?” The answer, of course, is nowhere! God is everywhere, and as the text says, “What a wonder! God knows you… your e-mail address… your phone number… your worries… your hurts… your fears… your dreams. And He loves you.”

Thinking again about our potential readers and writing interests, we might ask ourselves, “Who most needs to hear this?” Would people in prison be glad to know God has not forgotten them? Would Christians weighted down by dark thoughts or chemical imbalances or financial woes be relieved to hear that, yes, God is with them? Or, if you’re into politics or social needs more than mental health or legal issues, the Bible question “Who Is My Neighbor?” will surely appeal to you.

If we look carefully into each page of the Bible, we could eventually locate these questions ourselves, but O. S. Hawkins has done this for us with pastoral guidance we can prayerfully translate into that poem, article, or book God has put on our minds and hearts to write.


© 2014 Mary Harwell Sayler - poet-author of Living in the Nature Poem and the Bible-based poetry book, Outside Eden -


The Jesus Code: 52 Scripture Questions Every Believer Should Answer, hardback, imitation leather




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Dancing on the Head of a Pen: book review

The enticing title, Dancing on the Head of a Pen: The Practice of a Writing Life by Robert Benson, drew me to request a review copy from Blogging for Books – a site that provides review copies of a variety of books in exchange for an honest assessment. Fortunately, that's what I aim to provide, whether I'm discussing a new edition of the Bible or reviewing a traditionally published poetry book or a book about the writing life in general, as happens here.

Published by Waterbrook Press, this particular book also appealed to me because the author knows how to write! That might seem to be an obvious prerequisite, but I’ve discovered a new world of newbie writers who blog about writing and sometimes pass along assumptions, rather than reliable information. Conversely, Robert Benson has written many books and knows the in’s and out’s of writing and publishing. So, believe him when he says: “Most of the time, writing a book more closely resembles digging a ditch than participating in some transcendent creative experience.”

How we go about “digging” depends on what we dig. As Benson says, “Any of us – writer, designer, potter, painter, sculptor, architect, and on and on – wisely studies the habits practiced by the artists who inspire us in the first place. Those habits can guide us as we try to learn to do the work ourselves.”

For each of us, the work and surrounding habits will differ, not only from one another but also our own earlier selves as we experiment, pick up ideas, and find workable ways to write and continually improve our work. Most of us, though, will do well to heed Benson’s call to be quiet.

As he explains, “Solitude is likely necessary to be in touch with the things deep inside you. Silence may be required for you to hear what those things are saying to you. Do not be afraid to be quiet. Never be afraid to be alone./ Wandering around in wide-open spaces, especially spaces offered by a blank page, may be the key to making some art of those things found in the silence and the solitude.”

By now, you may be wondering if this book provides a devotional guide or tips on writing or suggestions for establishing your own routine or more than the sum of those parts, and to all, the answer is: Yes!

Once we’ve heard ourselves think enough to know what we’re to write next, we have to decide what type of writer we want to be. Like Benson, “I want to write. I may even need to write. But I want to be read as well.”

Knowing this about ourselves helps us to know whether we want to write for publication. If so, we need to have some type of reader in mind and some idea of whether anyone else might be interested in our chosen topic.

The author says, “When I begin to write a book, I ask myself some questions. Who do I think might read the writing I am about to do? Who do I expect to be interested in the stories I am trying to tell? Who do I hope will discover and enjoy and be moved by them?” And always, “Write for those you love.”

As Benson also says, “A writer has three jobs. Write the work. Make the work as good as possible. Find the work a home and a crowd of folks to love it.”

More than this, however, Robert Benson tells us, “I spend most of my time, metaphorically speaking, as a kind of explorer, out wandering around in the philosophical dark, lost in the spiritual words, searching for a deep something I often cannot even name, following trails leading to dead ends and darkness as often as not.” But then, “The spiritual life is not so much about answers as it is about better questions. Writing can be the same.”


©2014, Mary Harwell Sayler, reviewer, authored 26 books in all genres, primarily for Christian and educational markets, before writing the Christian Writer’s Guide e-book on Kindle.


Dancing on the Head of a Pen, hardcover



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Modern Poetry and the Christian Tradition

Who would expect a book written over 50 years ago to give serious poets and poetry students such a timely word about Christianity and culture today? Nevertheless, Modern Poetry and the Christian Tradition manages to do just that.

Written by the late Amos Wilder – a New Testament scholar, poet, literary critic, clergyman, and brother of Thornton Wilder – the book, kindly given to me for review by Wipf and Stock Publishers, provides a highly intelligent look at ways we can relate Christianity to the culture in which we live.

Interestingly, the poets Wilder highlighted for significant contributions in this area are the ones I also recommend: Fr. Gerard Manley Hopkins, T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Wallace Stevens, W.H. Auden, and others.

Why does this matter? As Wilder said, “We recognize that the creative, imaginative expressions of culture are often our best clues to the diagnosis of men’s hearts and the deeper movements of the age.” Furthermore, “of all the arts, poetry, since it is an art of language, of the word, will often retain and sustain a varied relation to religion.”

Attesting to the insight that “poetry is praise,” the author acknowledged different views “held as to what is important and unimportant, what is healthful and harmful, what is Christian and un-Christian, in the tangled skein of cultural traditions” as we find “differing judgments as to the true spiritual heritage of the West and especially as to the Christian tradition in our English-speaking lands. Thus different values can be assigned to such main factors as Catholic order, the Protestant revolution, scientific empiricism, all of which have had their changing roles through the centuries and which have entered into special combinations with more recent phases of culture….”

With a fair-minded presentation of the many factors involved in the “story of what happened to the modern world’s faiths and assumptions” in literature, the author stated how, “We note first the loss of absolutes in our world.”

This loss led to devaluing traditions and communal roots until we reached a general “depersonalization” of mankind. If we take a sec now to think about the ads, television programs, popular books and movies today, we can see how timely or, perhaps, prophetic, Wilder’s words were in saying, “The depersonalized psyche, the numbered and enervated worker, requires high-tension stimuli to recover a transient awareness of his own identity.”

Insightful!

In other words, the more insensitive society becomes, the more it takes to awaken individual readers, help them to feel again, know themselves again, and/or draw them to Christ, the church, and the Christian faith.

So, how are we, as Christian poets and writers, to respond to this dilemma? As Wilder reminded us, “It is the spirit, as the Christian understands it, which searcheth all things and which underlies all the dynamic impulses of our crisis. Therefore the Christian is in the best position to understand them, to diagnose the age, to ‘interpret the times’.”

While acknowledging that a “diagnosis of our time in terms of its imaginative literature allows us to speak rather of directions than of solutions or conclusions,” the author gave us insight into Catholic and Protestant poets and writers who found ways to connect with readers during their lifetimes and also with readers now.

As I mentioned earlier, Wilder selected works to discuss of the very Christian poets and writers I’d also recommend for careful study and enjoyment. What I did not mention, though, is that it took me years of reading and searching on my own to “discover” and recommend those same literary artists as mentors I turn to again and again.

Be forewarned, however: You might need a dictionary, as I did, to clarify some words in Wilder’s heightened vocabulary, but his insights will give you a wide view of the impact and Christian influence your poems and writings can have on our needy society now.


© 2014 Mary Harwell Sayler - poet-author of Living in the Nature Poem and the Bible-based poetry book, Outside Eden - also wrote the Christian Poet’s Guide to Writing Poetry e-book, based on the home study course she used, one-on-one, with poetry students and other poets for years.


Modern Poetry and the Christian Tradition, paperback



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Seeing Beauty and Saying Beautifully

What pressed me to request a review copy of this highly recommended book from Crossway was the title, Seeing Beauty and Saying Beautifully, which expresses my yearning for poetry – both yours and mine.

If you have searched and searched, as I have, for Christian poet-mentors to study, you know how difficult it can be to find one who does not see beauty as saccharine and who does not write unrealistic poems that tap-tap their iambic feet onto paper from Miss Goody's two shoes! And so this slender hardback comes to our rescue, featuring three poets, writers, and pray-ers worth emulating: George Herbert, George Whitefield, and C.S. Lewis.

Although each of these writers makes use of different genres to address their honest doubts, worries, and concerns, they all keep searching for God until they find, see, and express the beauty that's bound to blossom with fresh words and refreshed faith and hope.

As the sixth book in The Swans Are Not Silent series by John Piper, this book was most likely written with Christian educators and pastors in mind, rather than poets and writers. Regardless, the book speaks clearly to any communicator for Christ, exhorting us to consider the poetic effort in the poetry of Herbert, preaching of Whitefield, and creative writings of Lewis.

The Introduction defines that premise by saying, “This effort was the God-dependent intention and exertion to find striking, penetrating, imaginative, and awakening ways of expressing the excellencies they saw. My thesis is that this effort to say beautifully is, perhaps surprisingly, a way of seeing and savoring beauty.”

Whether in writing or speaking, we choose our words and how we use them – hesitantly, softly, boldly, accusingly, or beautifully. We want to move people to hear and heed, which “may be one reason why the Bible is filled with every manner of literary device to add natural impact: acrostics, alliteration, analogies, anthropomorphism, assonance, cadence, chiasmus, consonance, dialogue, hyperbole, irony, metaphor, meter, onomatopoeia, paradox, parallelism, repetition, rhyme, satire, simile…and more.”

Anglican pastor, George Herbert (1593-1633) “called his poems the record of his conflict with God,” and yet “his skill in the use of language has earned him the high praises in the twentieth century from T.S. Eliot, W.H. Auden, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Elizabeth Bishop, and Seamus Heaney.” Never aiming for “art for art’s sake,” Herbert consecrated his poems to God’s glory, aiming to “feel the love of God and to engrave it in the steel of human language for others to see and feel.” In this role as the secretary of God’s praise, “Herbert discovered… that the poetic effort to speak the riches of God’s greatness gave him deeper sight into that greatness.” In other words, “this effort to see and savor the glory of Christ was the effort to say it as it had never been said before.”

Oh, how great such an aim with no thought of a brand or platform!

Similarly, in the 18th century, George Whitefield’s sermons became “a phenomenon not just of his age but in the entire two-thousand-year history of Christian preaching. There has been nothing like the combination of his preaching pace and geographic extent and auditory scope and attention-holding effect and converting power.”

“Whitfield’s poetic effort focused on the making of sermons” where “specific biblical passages and doctrines were chosen, and specific words, sequences, consonances, assonances, cadences, images, narratives, characters, tones, pathoses, gestures, movements, facial expressions – all combined for an astonishing impact on believer and unbeliever alike.” In other words, his “poetic effort to speak and act in suitable ways wakened in him the reality he wanted to communicate. For him the truths of the gospel were so real – so wonderfully, terrifyingly, magnificently real – that he could not and would not preach them as though they were unreal or merely interesting.”

Closer to our time, C.S. Lewis came to Christ through logic and reason, which “led him to see that truth and beauty and justice and science would have no validity at all if there were no transcendent God in whom they were all rooted.” However, he reasoned that “if the key to the deepest meaning of this world lies outside this world then the world will probably be illumined most deeply not simply by describing the world as what it is but by likening the world to what it is not.” By using “metaphor, analogy, illustration, simile, poetry, story, myth – all of these are ways of likening aspects of reality to what it is not, for the sake of showing more deeply what it is.”

So, how does this affect us in our writing and speaking endeavors? As series author John Piper says, “Groping for awakening words in the darkness of our own dullness can suddenly flip a switch and shed light all around what it is that we are trying to describe – and feel. Taking hold of a fresh word for old truth can become a fresh grasp of the truth itself. Telling of beauty in new words becomes a way of tasting more of the beauty itself.”

Sometimes this simply means praying before we speak or write, giving our work to God, and giving God and the work the time needed to speak beautifully to us and others. As one of my favorite Bible verses says it, “With You (God) is the fountain of life, and in Your light we see light” (Psalm 36:9.) Amen!

© 2014, Mary Harwell Sayler, reviewer and poet-author of Living in the Nature Poem and the Bible-based poetry book, Outside Eden


Seeing Beauty and Saying Beautifully, hardcover



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The Golden Rule of book reviews

According to the Bible, the Golden Rule urges us to treat others as we want to be treated. If we apply that biblical thinking to our work as Christian poets or writers, we might say:

Review unto others as you would have others review unto you.

To consider this from both sides, let’s talk about the two views of reviews:

Giving a book review

Getting a book review

Either way, Christian writers and readers need helpful reviews of books in any genre, and most of us want to encourage each other whenever we can.

To give book reviews, start by letting publishers and writers know you’re willing to review books in your favorite genre. This will give you a free copy of a book you can read, enjoy, and learn from as you aim to improve your own writing too.

If you absolutely love the book, great! You have added to your personal library at no cost. If, however, you hate a book, you do not have to give a glowing review nor be brutally honest by saying the book, writer, and writing stink! Just decline the review. If the person presses you, pray to say something unhurtful and generic such as, “I didn’t connect so am not the best person to review your work.”

Since you have already reviewed the book yourself though, make a point of re-viewing the book for errors or anything you did not like in order to learn from that writer’s mistakes.

Similarly, reviewing a well-written book can help you to stretch toward higher literary quality too, but frankly, it’s easier to pinpoint what does not work than to see what works well! Nevertheless, as you read a well-written book, make a point of noticing the development of the characters in a novel or the theme in a nonfiction book. Notice the transitions, too, since a skillful writer will be especially subtle in getting readers from here to there in a smooth move of time, thought, or place.

As you continue to do book reviews, keep these tips in mind:

Be fair.

Be thorough.

Be specific in stating what you like.

Begin with positive comments, but, if you must make a negative remark, be honest but kind.

Be particular about the books you review to keep from getting bogged down in your own library. For instance, I’m only interested in reviewing traditionally published books for children or traditionally published poetry books for any age group.

Be particular about where you place your reviews. Some publications pay for book reviews; others do not. Although most of us prefer getting compensated for the time we spend reading a book and writing a review, payment should never sway our opinion.

Some book reviewers have their own blog to post reviews, and, if you enjoy reviewing, you might set up a free blog on Blogger or WordPress. (I use and like both.) Posting reviews does not fit the focus of my blogs though, so I occasionally write reviews on the Amazon site where I often order books that interest me.

As you become the kind of reviewer you hope to find, you will soon develop your own voice and approach. And, as you approach people about doing reviews for your book, the Golden Rule will again apply and guide.

For instance, I do not like receiving books out of the blue to review, so I do not feel free to mail someone a book of mine that I want reviewed. Instead, a short letter or email with a short blurb about the book and a request for a review shows respect for the reviewer's time and also saves you or your publisher the expense of mailing a book that the potential reviewer has no interest in reading.

To find interested readers, check out writers’ groups on LinkedIn or Facebook, join Group discussions, and look for people with whom you connect who might be willing to review your work.

Notice, too, the people who post helpful reviews on Amazon or other bookstore websites for the kinds of books you write. If you do not know the person, you can probably find a contact on their Amazon review page or, with a name search, on the Internet.

As you consider your options, I need to tell you that some writers are willing to pay for book reviews, but I’m not one of them. Nor do I accept payment for the promise of a shiny-bright review. I do, however, offer honest critiques of devotionals, book proposals, poetry, and children’s picture books at a reasonable fee for your eyes only. If you want that kind of professional help, visit the Critique, Edit, and Writing Consult pages on The Poetry Editor website for more information.

Meanwhile, may God bless our reading and writing life and rule each of us Golden!

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© 2011, Mary Harwell Sayler, all rights reserved.

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