John Edgell - Author

Distinctive fantasy fiction stories that delight the mind and stir the soul.

  • Home
  • Books
  • The Place of Faith
  • About

Writing Compelling Fiction

February 1, 2019 By Author John Leave a Comment

Writing Compelling Fiction

Compelling Fiction You’ll Love to Read

Writing Christian Fiction

Writing FictionWriting Christian fiction is different from being a Christian writer writing fiction. Writing compelling fiction is about story, about entertaining the reader, and yet about much more. Many Christian fiction writers write what I would classify as pseudo-Christian fiction, fiction with values of decency, but not necessarily with a Christian takeaway, because their desire is to appeal to a crossover market. As I have commented in other blog posts I have had a Christian writer tell me that a story should not have a message. But a story without a takeaway robs the reader.

Writing Compelling Fiction Informed by Biblical Truth

In another blog post, quite some time back, I mentioned a story of mine being critiqued by the members of the writer’s group I was a part of and being told it was a quaint story, but there was no takeaway, i.e. not worth reading. I had to rewrite the story to give it value. My stories focus on being engaging stories with underlying and/or somewhat overt messaging, but messaging that is natural to the story, not contrived or superimposed. They are in one way or another grounded in biblical truth. Rather than simply being written from a Christian worldview, they are written from a biblical worldview.

Writing FictionA biblical worldview does not gloss over the realities and ugly details of our sin-sick world, because the Bible does not gloss over such things: David and Bathsheba, Samson and Delilah, Judah and his daughter-in-law, and on and on. A biblical worldview is simply the foundation on which a story is built, as opposed to a secular godless worldview. Evil is evil and good is good. Wrong is wrong and right is right. However characters struggles with understanding and living out those realities is itself still a reality, even as it is with this writer and each reader.

Some of my stories are moral tales; some are allegorical while others simply integrate symbolism; and then there are those that illustrate some major biblical truth, such as: Choices have consequences, Baruch—God figure—can be trusted to keep his word in spite of catastrophic consequences that result in the advances of evil forces (Seed of the Defiled); or a simple truth like, people’s lives have value (The Myth).

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Author Blog Tagged With: biblical worldview, Christian fiction, Christian worldview, Christian writer, compelling fiction, crossover market

Confessions of a Christian Author

July 4, 2018 By Author John Leave a Comment

Christian Author

Confessions Relative to the Existence of God

God Thoughts from a Christian Author

The primary meaning of the word “confessions” is “acknowledgment; avowal; admission.” Now, I confess that I am a broken sinner saved by grace, being transformed into the image of Christ by grace as I look to Him. But that is not my primary point of confession here. My primary confession is that there has never been a time in my life that I have not believed in God. That does not mean that I have always been a Christian. It does mean that from my earliest memories of childhood I believed God was there. That has always been a given to me.

ConfessionaHave there been moments of doubt? Sure. We all have those moments, attacks of the enemy trying to undermine reality and truth. I stop, focus my mind on the reality of things, smile and nod—yep, God is there! You might ask, “But how can one be sure?”

Ultimately my assurance rests in my real and personal relationship with Christ—either I am insane or He is real, and if He is real God is real. But there are many reasons to believe in God. And in truth, no other concept or philosophy makes sense of all that is.

Life can be looked at as a dance, a drama being played out, or even a symphony. And as I point out in “The God Question,” if there is no God, existence is absurd and the symphony has no meaning. Furthermore, the very idea of telling me what I should or should not believe becomes absurd. For that matter, social order is absurd if there is no God; and death? Death becomes its own Black Hole. If there is no God neither the individual nor society as a whole has meaning. In fact, meaning itself becomes an arbitrary thing without meaning.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Author Blog Tagged With: Author John Edgell, Christian fantasy author, Christian fiction, Christian fiction author, christian stories, Christian worldview

A Terrifying Journey

June 27, 2018 By Author John Leave a Comment

A Terrifying Journey
A Search for Meaning

A Prefatory Note

This AuthorTower of Death is a captivating allegory about the ultimate search for meaning in life, choices of paths, and the consequences of those choices. This allegory takes Leander, Davina and Fenton on a terrifying journey to the Tower of Death.

Leander reaches the crisis point. He has to decide, “What will I do with my life?” He sticks his hands come of age, having celebrated his twenty-fifth birthday just yesterday. It irritates him that his parents have reminded time beyond counting that he should have already decided on an occupation by now.

Quoting the from the book

Alwin the cobbler had taught him how to make shoes. He had been the best in a class of five apprentices, and Alwin had told him he would be honored to have him work in his shoe shop when he came of age. He liked making shoes, but he was not sure that he wanted to make cobbling his occupation. Yves, a craftsman, had taught him the bow making trade. He also had done well in that apprenticeship as well, but it just did not seem to be what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He had also tried his hand at fireplace building, tool forging, and had considered other possibilities. All of these pursuits were fine, but something was missing. There was a void in his life that those trades did not fill.

Tower of DeathA number of his friends expressed feeling a similar void, but found that fretting over it accomplished nothing. Older hobbits laughed and told him that after they had chosen a field of endeavor and poured their lives into it, the feeling of emptiness eventually went away—for the most part.

But why was it there? What caused the emptiness within? That question plagued Leander and kept him from making a choice. If only he could know!

“You’re going where?” Leander’s father’s voice grated with fury. “That is not only outrageous, it’s forbidden. No one is allowed to go to that dreadful tower.”

“But father, who forbids it?” Leander set his jaw. “If, as you say, there is no king, no ruler, no one in charge in the land, then, who can forbid anything? If I am my own king and sovereign, then I can say ‘yes’ or I can say ‘no’.”

His father’s face turned as scarlet as the kerchief hanging from the back pocket of his overalls. “Blast it boy!” He flung his hands upward in a demonstration of exasperation. “I don’t know who forbids it! It doesn’t matter who forbids it! All that matters is that we all know it’s forbidden, so it’s forbidden!”

Leander’s mother sat at her spinning wheel, seemingly uninterested, though every time her husband’s voice raised the wheel whirled a little faster. She glanced up at her son. My how she wished he would do something worthwhile with his life, but it was not her place to nose in, so she stayed with her work.

“Fenton and Davina are going with me,” explained Leander. “We are leaving in the morning. I’m sorry it does not please you, father.”

And so begins their terrifying journey to the Tower of Death.

Extraneous Stuff

If you read or have read Tower of Death writing a review at Amazon and B&N would be appreciated. Also, your comments here are always welcome.

You can find this book at Amazon in paperback and digital form and at Barnes & Noble in paperback only.

Filed Under: Through a Looking Glass Tagged With: Christian fantasy, Christian fantasy fiction, Christian fiction

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 5
  • Next Page »

Get a Free Story

* indicates required

John Edgell, Author

John has experience as a school teacher, a pastor, and has been a writer of stories since his two sons were knee high to a gnome.

Read more about John.

Through a Looking Glass

The God Question

Asking the God Question

Introducing the God Question Proof for the Existence of God My book, The God Question, has gotten … [Read More...]

More Posts from this Category

Bestsellers

  • Acceptable Fruit
  • The Princess and the Orc
  • Tales of a Church Mouse
  • Phantom Island Chronicles: A Pirate Fantasy
  • The Helot
  • Son of Cain

Introducing Quick Read Books

https://youtu.be/14QU9CuANIQ

Search the Site

Share Your Favorites

Copyright © 2021 John Edgell · Books