Read Your Genre

I write middle-grade fiction, but it has been a long time since I was in that age group. So should I stick with my own generation during my reading time?

No way. Not only do I enjoy middle-grade fiction on its own merits, but reading it helps me improve my own work. That’s true for genre, too.

The age of the intended audience is a category, not a genre. Middle-grade fiction covers many genre, from fantasy to mystery to horror to historical. People who write for children should read books at that age level as well as in the same genre. But the point is the same for both.

Since I write historical fiction, I read adult historicals as well as middle-grade ones. And I read middle-grade fiction in other genres, as well. This provides multiple perspectives, but mostly it helps me understand what my readers want.

It can even help me find my way around a roadblock.

I don’t believe in writer’s block. When the writing gets hard, I force myself to keep working. Most of the time, the ideas start flowing again fairly quickly, although they sometimes take a different route than I had originally planned. But once in a very long while I get so stymied on a particular story that I set it aside without knowing if I will ever pick it up again. That’s what happened with a book I was going to write about the Pullman strike. I set it aside and moved on to my next idea, which had the ideas flowing faster than I could write them down. And the next project on my list is gaining that same momentum long before I am ready to work on it.

But after that, I may go back to the book about the Pullman strike. And how did I get around the roadblock? By reading (or rather listening to) The Strangers, a middle-grade fantasy by Margaret Peterson Haddix. And it did it simply by reminding me that an author can add life to a book by using multiple point-of-view characters with different perspectives. It also didn’t hurt that the oldest POV character is a boy.

So far, all of my POV characters have been girls. But the idea forming in my mind has twelve-year-old twins as the POV characters, and one of them is a boy. That challenges me to see the world through male eyes and sets up a conflict between the twins as they support opposing sides during the strike.

Reading within your genre (or in this case, audience age level) can tell you what stories and writing styles attract your audience. But those books can also spark ideas.

From time to time I hear people say they don’t read what they write. I’ve even tried that myself.

But reading within your genre can only make you better.

Copyright Bullies

Last week I talked about the importance of copyright in encouraging creativity, and I commended Penguin Random House for the wording it used on a copyright page. But not all publishers are that polite and insightful. In fact, some are downright copyright bullies.

As I mentioned last week, the copyright law’s fair use doctrine ensures that copyrighted works can be borrowed—within limits—to promote knowledge. “Fair use” is a complicated concept designed to ensure that information can be shared without impairing an author’s basic right to control the use of his or her material. Additionally, certain materials are in the public domain, which means there are no use restrictions whatsoever.

Publishers who try to deny you these uses are copyright bullies, and I have ranted about them before. With minor changes, this post is a reprint of one I originally wrote for the Indiana Writers’ Consortium on April 24, 2013 and reprinted on this blog on September 15, 2014.

Copyright Bullies

These days we hear a lot about children and teens who bully their classmates. We also hear about the copyright police—the ones who remind bloggers and middle school music pirates to honor copyrights. But we rarely hear about the copyright bullies.

Copyright bullies are those publishers who try to scare us out of using their materials for any purpose whatsoever (with the sometimes exception of book reviews). The law reserves certain rights to the public, but these copyright bullies and their lawyers don’t want us to know that.

Many books have this warning in the front: “No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without permission in writing from the publisher.”

Wrong. There are a number of what the law calls “fair uses,” and brief quotations in printed reviews is only one of them. To make a general and far too simplistic statement, a fair use is one that takes a short excerpt and uses it in a way that transforms or complements the copyrighted material rather than replacing it. You can find a detailed discussion of fair use in my book, Writers in Wonderland: Keeping Your Words Legal (KP/PK Publishing 2013), which is available from Amazon and other retailers.

Then there are those works that have been around so long that copyright laws no longer protect them. These works are in the public domain. People can use public domain materials any way they want, although they should attribute the source.

I found the most flagrant attempt at copyright bullying in a book that compiles several of Lewis Carroll’s works—all of which entered the public domain decades ago. In that book the warning states: “No part of this publication may be reproduced in any way or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or stored in an information retrieval system of any kind, without the prior permission in writing from [Publisher], except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.”

Huh? All the material in that book is in the public domain, which is where the publisher got it from in the first place. The reader is free to copy at will without worrying about copyright infringement.

We should all be careful not to violate copyrights, and some warning is necessary.

But don’t be intimidated by copyright bullies.

Copyright Champion

I recently looked for the copyright date in a book published by Viking, which is an imprint of Penguin Random House. Instead of the normal copyright warning, it made this statement:

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

I agree.

Some people argue that copyright inhibits creativity and knowledge by restricting what people can copy, but those people are wrong. First, I don’t understand how anyone can think that copying is creative. And boiled down to its basics, that’s all copyright restricts others from doing. So how can it inhibit creativity when the only activity it prohibits is the very antithesis of creativity?

Copyright is protected by the U.S. Constitution precisely because it encourages creativity. It isn’t a reward: it’s a bribe. It isn’t wages for an author’s or artist’s finished work: it’s motivation to start working in the first place. In other words, a writer doesn’t receive the copyright because he deserves it. He gets it as an incentive to keep writing.

Second, the law’s fair use doctrine ensures that copyrighted works can be borrowed to promote knowledge. “Fair use” is a complicated concept that is beyond the scope of this post, but I will cover it briefly next week.

Although I am a strong proponent of copyright protection, I do believe that the law can be improved. The U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to give authors the exclusive right to their works “for a limited time” but lets Congress decide what that time is. Right now, copyright lasts for the life of the author plus seventy years (or for 95 years for certain works where the legal “author” isn’t a known individual). I think that’s way too long. Copyright shouldn’t end with the life of the author since that penalizes writers and other artists who are 80 years old or dying of cancer, and they should be encouraged to write, too. But I could easily live with the life of the author plus twenty years and with 40 or 50 years for works without an individual author.

Copyrights foster creativity, and, like Penguin Random House, I support them.

But read next week’s blog post to discover how I feel about copyright bullies.  

Come Quickly

During Advent, my church choir sang “E’en So, Lord Jesus, Quickly Come” by Paul Manz. Then, when I was visiting my brother in Nashville, his church choir sang the same anthem. It’s a beautiful song and fun to sing. Here is a link to a YouTube performance posted by the publisher. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjtMJxtoooI 

Even though it is no longer Advent, the song works at any time. Based on Revelation 22, it is a plea for Jesus to come quickly.

According to an old saying, “Red sky at night, sailors delight. Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.”¹ This saying has scientific validity and is also Biblical. In Matthew 16:2-3, Jesus says, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.” (NIV)

Just as a red sunset indicates that the next day will be pleasant, so the Second Coming ushers in a wonderful new world for those who trust in Jesus.

As the new year begins, we don’t know what it has in store for us. But regardless of whether it is filled with good experiences, with heartbreak, or with some of each, Christians find their hope in the Resurrection and the Second Coming. When Christ comes, those who trust in Him will know only joy.

Paul Manz ends his song this way, with words that paraphrase Revelation 22:5.

E’en so, Lord Jesus, quickly come,

And night shall be no more;

They need no light nor lamp nor sun,

For Christ will be their All!

Come quickly, Lord Jesus.

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¹ According to The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (Fifth Edition), the original 14^th century saying was “Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight; red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning.” But as a former sailor, I’m more familiar with the other version.

Dr. Donald Calvin Page (1949-2019)

My older brother died on Saturday after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease. He finally won the war and is resting in peace and joy in his Heavenly Father’s arms.

Donald was two-years-old when I was born. He was one of the few constants in my childhood as our minister father moved us from one church to another and even from one country to another. Growing up, we lived in Shelby, Michigan; Elmira, Illinois; LaPrairie, Illinois; Amman, Jordan; DeTour Village, Michigan; Edinburgh, Scotland; DeTour Village, Michigan, again; Lake City, Michigan; and Schoolcraft, Michigan. Actually, Donald started college when we moved to Lake City and doesn’t have much of a history there, but he lived with my parents at Schoolcraft while earning his master’s degree.

Donald was a typical Page in many ways. Aside from being a committed Christian and having a strong work ethic, he also exhibited the other two dominant Page traits: a belief in higher education and a love for travel.

On the education front, Donald received a master’s degree from Western Michigan University and a PhD from the University of Michigan. His degrees were in communication, with an emphasis on television and film production. Between college and his master’s degree, he worked for a television station in Lansing, Michigan as a cameraman.

After receiving his PhD, Donald took a teaching job in the Department of Communications at Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee. He told me at the time that he planned to teach for five years and then he’d try something different—perhaps producing documentary films—for the next five. He expected to change positions every five years or so because he wanted to be challenged and to keep learning.

Fast-forward to 2017, when Donald celebrated forty years on the TSU staff. When I reminded him of his five-year plan, he laughed and said there was always something new to learn right where he was. I’m sure he would have taught for many more years if his Parkinson’s hadn’t forced him to retire in 2018.

Already widely traveled, Donald’s biggest regret near the end was that he wouldn’t get to visit some of the other places on his list. His final trip was to Japan in March with my brother Gordon and nephew Ian. Donald’s Parkinson’s created complications on that trip, but he was glad he had done it.

Shortly after Donald’s return, he fell and ended up in the hospital and eventually in a nursing home. He went downhill quickly after the fall, and I’m grateful for his final relief from pain and from the helplessness that he experienced these last few months.

Although I will miss Donald, I’m happy for him.

Death is swallowed up in victory. Halleluiah!

Christmas Wishes

I make my own Christmas cards, often using a photo I took during that year’s vacation. My card for 2019 highlights one of the reliefs on the outside of the Helsinki Cathedral in Helsinki, Finland. I used only the nativity scene, which you can see in the first picture. But the reliefs also told the rest of the story, as you can see from the second photo showing Christ rising from the dead and coming out of the grave.

Few churches in the United States tell the story of Christ’s life on their façade where it witnesses to those passing by. Even stained glass windows usually face inward so that you have to be inside to see them clearly.

To some extent I understand why American churches do it that way. A church is where we hear God’s Word preached and receive the full power of the message through that Word. Those who already know Christ are comforted and strengthened in their faith by seeing the story as well as hearing it.

But it wouldn’t hurt to share the message on the façade, as well.

Have a blessed Christmas.

Writing Outside Your Culture: Dealing with Religion

Creating Esther is written for a secular audience, but religion was a part of both the Native American culture and the white culture that officials tried to implant at boarding schools. So some mention was necessary for authenticity.

Yes, some Native Americans were Christians by then, but it was still an anomaly. And the boarding schools did not understand how to integrate Christianity into the local culture. Since I wanted to show a realistic picture of what it would be like for most of the children attending the Indian boarding schools in 1895 and 1896, I had to include the conflict between Ojibwe religious beliefs and Christianity as taught by the boarding schools. My challenge was to be sensitive to Native American religious practices while remaining true to my Christian beliefs.

In the end, I decided to show the conflict between the two without resolving it. Here is a passage from the protagonist’s first boarding school Christmas:

“What is Christmas?” Ishkode asked Mrs. Hansen. “Everyone talks about it coming next week, but what is it?”

“It’s the day Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus.”

Even though Ishkode had been attending chapel every Sunday for three months, she still didn’t understand who Jesus was. Sometimes he sounded like Wenebojo, who was born of a human mother and a spirit father. But she had asked a minister after chapel one day, and he said Wenebojo was not Jesus.

Now Ishkode rubbed her forehead. It was too confusing.

Actually, the book even shows the negatives about how the boarding schools practiced and taught Christianity. The Christianity I found in my research is not the Christianity I find in my Bible. I’m sure many of the teachers and administrators were sincere, but they were also misguided.

Boarding school staff tried to convert the Native American students by forcing religion on them. That approach doesn’t work in life, and it doesn’t work for fiction writers, either.

So use a soft touch when writing about religion.

__________

I took the photo at the Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture and Lifeways at Mount Pleasant, Michigan while on my 2015 research trip.

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This post is a revision of the December 22, 2016 post I wrote for the Hoosier Ink blog sponsored by the Indiana Chapter of the American Christian Fiction Writers.