I'm always interested in learning more about the motivations from various authors. This book provides another window into 40 different Christian novelists. If you read Christian fiction, then the authors in this book are among the top in their field and consistently on the bestseller list such as Jerry B. Jenkins or Francine Rivers or Karen Kingsbury or Beverly Lewis. With each story, Diane Eble has done an excellent job of detailing interesting aspects of their lives. Of course since this book was published in 1992, new authors have come on strong into today's fiction market. It's not comprehensive but many of these authors are still actively writing new books. I loved this book.
Fresh, but Filtered, Air
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 22 years ago
This is a great idea. I couldn't pass it up when I caught the ad in a book club mailer. Any aspiring Christian writers will find encouragement "Behind the Stories" of these authors.The good: I appreciated the variety and sheer number of Christian authors represented in this volume. Each had a tale of struggle and triumph on the road to publication. I found worthy lessons in each chapter. Randy Alcorn's financial sacrifices, Dee Henderson's steady planning, Bodie Thoene's physical limitations...all of these, and more, were uplifiting and challenging to any would-be authors such as myself.The bad: The editor decided to underline the evident lessons with spiritual platitudes and trite endings. The stories--as should be, from any fiction writers--spoke for themselves. Unfortunately, the mini-sermons wore on my patience. In addition, I got the feeling at a number of points that the authors' true struggles had been tidied up a bit for the Christian audience.Thankfully, the authors who do attempt full disclosure manage to breathe fresh air into this book, even if we can't fully appreciate it. Still, any fresh air is worth it in the lonely world of a writer.
Inspiring!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 22 years ago
What an inspiration it was to read about the faith journeys and writing journeys of some of my favorite Christian authors. I thought I would just skim through and read about the authors I'm familiar with, but each story was so interesting and unique that I read the book cover to cover--and found some new authors I'd like to try out. This book was a great idea! I'm always curious about the authors of the books I read. I can't believe someone didn't think of writing a book like this before.
An inspiring read!!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 22 years ago
Readers of Christian fiction should *not* miss this book. The authors' stories will leave you changed.
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