Monday, September 19, 2005

Spooky Stuff

Okay, I said I'd try to do a better job of maintaining my blog, and I blew it. Look, there's weeds all over the place and the mums are a lovely shade of rust brown. This time, I won't promise anything, but I'll really really try, okay?

I went to the ACFW conference in Nashville this weekend. For those of you who attended, you know what's coming. The first thing I learned is "It's ALL Good." The second thing I learned is that a southerner can say "bless your heart" and apply about a hundred different meanings to it. It's kind of like when a New Yorker says "with all do respect." You can follow that with ANYTHING and get away with it (ie. "With all do respect, you're a moron." The southern equivalent: "Bless your heart, you've got less brains than a squirrel on Botox.")

Okay, enough of that. The best thing that I got out of the conference was the confirmation, from editors and agents alike, that spooky Christian fiction is the "in" thing now. It's about time. Not that I'm opposed to a nice romantic novel, but you gotta throw a corpse in there every now and then to shake things up a bit. I was thinking even a nice horror/chik lit subgrene, "Buffy the Vampire." (The audience groans)

Seriously, though, I met all these odd people I've only known through the internet and, guess what? They really are odd. But loveable. I also met a few folk who posessed my inclination toward the "darker" side of the craft. Let's face it, the Bible contains a lot of scary stuff--demons, fallen angels, weddings. There are more of us out there, so beware. The "Christian Fiction" shelf at Border's isn't all that safe anymore.

Keep the lights on, folks, it's getting interesting.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Ron, I had to check out your blog to see if you had really updated.
As far as the horror meets chick-lit,with all do respect, back off, that's what I write. No kidding. You can have lad lit meets horror. Deal?

Can't wait to hear more about what you learned. We'll have to get an official name for us spooky christians. Randy Ingermanson just coined the phrase "ick lit".
My first novel deals with Wicca. So that's probably, "wic-lit"

Your story ideas looked excellent. Can't wait to see what you got when you're finished.