BECOME A FICTION WRITER AND THANK THE GOOD LORD FOR YOUR LOUSY CHILDHOOD

This article was originally published on Novel Rocket April 2015 by Christine Lindsay.

You Cannot Write Unless You’ve suffered

Ouch! These days I thank the good Lord for my lousy childhood. But it wasn’t until I became a fiction writer that I could say this. Before that I suffered the same battles with bitterness as the next person, as the grown child of an alcoholic. Not to say that your novel can wallow in self-pity—how boring stories like that are. Same can be said for fictional novels with an agenda. Stories with a heavy line to preach are an easy turnoff to readers. So, it’s true, a lousy childhood is a great place to start as a writer, but unless you’ve reached the stages of healing you have nothing to offer your readers. 

What would the shadows in a painting be without the sunshine—only a dark painting.

Good Paintings Have Shadows

Have you ever noticed that the best paintings have shadows? The shadows are a foil for the sunshine. Often when I view a painting it’s the dim corners that intrigue me, because I want to know what’s down that murky trail or around that shadowy alley.

Remember---the Resurrection came after the Crucifixion.

The same with writing. I love to read short pieces on humor, but after a while if the stakes aren’t raised, if danger isn’t imminent, if there’s not a chance the hero or heroine will have their heart broken, I’m bored. Stories that keep me rapidly turning the pages are those filled with the pain of suffering, but with the hint of hope on each page, leading to a climax of joy.

Reach Down Deep into Your Gut to Remember what that Hurt Feels Like

• In a romance we need to know what it feels like to be lonely, dumped, forgotten, a wall-flower.
• In a mystery we need to know what it feels like to be scared, our heart pounding, have secrets kept from us.
• In writing a drama we need to know what it feels like to be abused, poor, sick, neglected, etc., etc.

Tap Into Feelings that are Similar

Now granted we don’t all need to know what it feels like to be attacked, or God-forbid—raped, or live through a war or a kidnapping, but we can tap into feelings that are similar.

I remember the day my middle son disappeared. All the neighbors were out looking for him, people were praying. An hour later, he waltzed home, smiling to beat the band, and clutching a posy of dandelions in his grubby little hand for me. Thank the Lord I do not know what it feels like to have my child kidnapped, but I can tap into those feelings of the “Day of the Dandelions” as it is known in our family for all perpetuity now.

The dark shadows of my fear for my little boy only made the sunshine of our reunion all the brighter.

Tapping Into My Lousy Childhood

Memories of my alcoholic father inspired portions of my multi-award-winning historical series Twilight of the British Raj. But it only works because I reached healing a number of years ago. I have something to offer my readers.

If you have not reached emotional healing--you have nothing to offer your readers. 

HEAL FIRST, WRITE AFTERWARD. 

My entire series Twilight of the British Raj shows the healing of a family first tainted by a father’s alcoholism. In book 1 Shadowed in Silk, my heroine Abby Fraser stands up to her drunken and abusive husband. 

In book 2 Captured by Moonlight my Indian heroine Eshana stands up to her fanatical Hindu uncle who won’t allow her to live as a Christian. 

And in the final book 3 Veiled at Midnight my character Cam (who was a boy in book 1) and is now a man, faces his inner demons that he has inherited his father’s addiction to alcohol.

All that trauma and what I call Big Love Stories too.

A dark childhood can be changed into a bright and beautiful life. Mine was. And I promise my readers a happy ending in all my books because I’ve seen happy endings in my own life through my faith.  

In triumph I write not about drunkenness, but the tingling feeling of when God makes everything thing new.

Veiled at Midnight is Book 3 the Explosive and Passionate Finale to my multi-award-winning series Twilight of the British Raj.

As the British Empire comes to an end, millions flee to the roads. Caught up in the turbulent wake is Captain Cam Fraser, his sister Miriam, and the beautiful Indian Dassah.

Cam has never been able to put Dassah from his mind, ever since the days when he played with the orphans at the mission as a boy. But a British officer and the aide to the last viceroy cannot marry a poor Indian woman, can he?

As this becomes clear to Dassah, she has no option but to run. Cam may hold her heart—but she cannot let him break it again.

Miriam rails against the separation of the land of her birth, but is Lieutenant Colonel Jack Sunderland her soulmate or a distraction from what God has called her to do?

The 1947 Partition has separated the country these three love…but can they find their true homes before it separates them forever?

READ THE FIRST TWO CHAPTERS FREE—click here Chapters one & two of VEILED AT MIDNIGHT

CONNECT WITH CHRISTINE LINDSAY on her website http://www.christinelindsay.com/ follow her on Twitter and be her friend on Pinterest , “Like” her Facebook Page, and  Goodreads

I HATE SNAKES--by Christine Lindsay

As long as I can remember I've been terrified of snakes. Can't even look at them on TV or a picture in a book. You'll never catch me walking in a jungle. So, in my newest release I wanted to have not just one snake scene, but two. My way of being as brave as my heroines, I suppose.

My husband helped me with the research. He'd print off the articles from the internet, but before he gave the articles to me, he'd cut out the pictures of the snakes using scissors. That's how I got what I needed for the following scene.

 Snake Bite Scene # 2 from Captured by Moonlight

Searing pain jabbed into Adam’s calf.

He cried out. Light from the headlamps reflected two pinpoints of light. A snake scuttled into the bush, and Laine started to rush in his direction.

“Wait, Laine. Don’t come closer.”

“What is it?” she shouted over the gale.

“A snake.” He clenched his fists and bit down on his lip with the throbbing in his leg. “Ruddy thing bit me as I plodded along in my size ten boots. Blast! I should have known better.” He looked back at her. “Stay where you are. There might be more than one.”

He studied the ground in the dim light. Unable to see any sign of movement, he shivered. The blasted reptile had gone. All he’d been able to see in that quick flash was that it was green.

Laine, heedless of his warning, joined him. “Where is the wound?”

“I told you to stay where you were.”

“Is it your leg?”

“My calf.”

She slipped her shoulder under his arm and swung her arm around his back. “Stay calm. Do you hear me? No panic. Lean on me. Put as little weight on that leg as possible. I want to get you onto the truck box.”

He put his weight on her shoulders, and she walked him back to the vehicle.

“Balance yourself against that,” she said. “I’m going to hop up there, and if you push with your arms then I’ll pull. I’ve got to get you lying down.”

“I can make it up.”

“Sorry, me luv, but I’m giving you a hand anyway.” She spoke in a fake Cockney accent, no doubt the one she used to cajole many a soldier into treatment or help them withstand the terror of dying.

She hauled him up, and without a word had him soon lying down, covered with a blanket that the rain quickly soaked.

Her hair dripped and hung down as a curtain to frame her face as she pulled off his boot and ripped the bottom of his trouser leg up to his thigh. She bent to examine the punctures at the side of his left calf and then left him to go to the cab. A moment later she returned with her medical bag. “You know the routine, no panic.”

“I know, and I assure you, Matron, I’m doing my best.”

“No talking. Save your strength. That’s the ticket.”

He watched Laine screw open the wooden cylinder of the snake-bite kit and remove the lancet. He did know the routine only far too well. She had to clean the wound and hope the crystals did the trick. After that, unless he could get to a dispensary they could only pray the snake hadn’t injected a fatal amount of venom.

“What kind of snake was it?” she asked in her no-nonsense nursing tone counterbalanced with the jovial Cockney.

“Not sure...there are two types of green snake in this area. If it was the least venomous, the whip snake, I’ll be sick for a few days but live.”

“And the other?”

“Bamboo pit viper. I think you should know...if it was the viper...the outcome is...less optimistic, I’m afraid.”

She stopped momentarily. So momentarily only someone who knew her as well as he did would notice. But she resumed her brisk composure and took the lancet in her hand with the container of potassium permanganate on the floor at her side. “Well, you’re my patient now, and I don’t allow morbid talk on my ward. As I’m sure you’re aware, this will hurt. So lie back, soldier. Grit your teeth. And think of England.”

Captured by Moonlight Prisoners to their own broken dreams…

After a daring rescue goes awry, Laine Harkness and her friend Eshana flee to the tropical south of India…and headlong into their respective pasts.

Laine takes a nursing position at a plantation in the jungle, only to discover that her former fiancé is the owner…but fun-loving Laine refuses to let Adam crush her heart like he had years ago. 

Eshana, captured by her traditional uncle and forced once more into the harsh Hindu customs of mourning, doubts freedom will ever be hers again, much less the forbidden love for Dr. Jai Kaur that had begun to flower.

Amid cyclones, epidemics, and clashing faiths, will the love of the True Master give hope to these searching hearts?

About the author: Irish-born Christine Lindsay writes award-winning historical novels, and delights in weaving the endless theme of God’s redemptive love throughout stories of danger, suspense, adventure, and romance. The Pacific coast of Canada, about 200 miles north of Seattle, is Christine’s home.

 

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Interview with Christine Lindsay

Narelle here. I'm delighted to have the pleasure of interviewing ICFW member Christine Lindsay today on our blog.

Irish-born CHRISTINE LINDSAY writes award-winning historical novels. In Shadowed in Silk and Captured by Moonlight, Christine delights in weaving the endless theme of the Heavenly Father’s redemptive love throughout stories of danger, suspense, adventure, and romance. 

The Pacific coast of Canada, about 200 miles north of Seattle, is Christine’s home.

Prisoners to their own broken dreams… 

After a daring rescue goes awry, the parched north of India grows too hot for nurse Laine Harkness and her friend Eshana. The women flee to the tropical south…and run headlong into their respective pasts. 

Laine takes a new nursing position at a plantation in the jungle, only to discover that her former fiancé is the owner…and that Adam has no more to say to her now than he did when he crushed her years ago. Why, then, is she still drawn to him, and to the tiger cub he is raising? 

Eshana, captured by her traditional uncle and forced once more into the harsh Hindu customs of mourning, doubts whether freedom will ever again be in her future, much less the forbidden love that had begun to whisper to her. Is faith enough to live on? Or is her Savior calling her home? 

Amid cyclones and epidemics, clashing faiths and consequences of the war, will the love of the True Master give hope to these searching hearts?

Narelle: What was your inspiration for writing Captured by Moonlight?

Christine: Two characters from the first book, Shadowed in Silk, insisted I tell their story. They are Eshana, the young Christian woman who served in the mission, and Lieutenant Laine Harkness of the Queen Alexandra Imperial Military Nursing Corp. 

Eshana’s story of being a child Hindu widow needed to be told, so I had someone come out from Eshana’s past to capture and imprison her for being a Christian. 

Laine also needed to be imprisoned by her emotions for her former fiancé, Adam. Things become interesting for her when she finds Adam in a refuge-like plantation in the thick jungle. 

But the overall inspiration was India, and the many Christians in India. Indian women like Pandita Ramabai who did so much for suffering widows and children, American missionary Dr. Ida Scudder, and Indian preacher Sundar Singh, who I wanted to share with modern-day readers.

Narelle: Does Captured by Moonlight include many characters from Book 1, Shadowed in Silk?

Christine: Captured by Moonlight includes Geoff and Abby in a tiny way. But the story is predominately about the adventure and danger that Eshana and Laine are thrust into when they must flee the north of India. The police are seeking these two women for rescuing young Indian girls from the sex slave trade, and the Hindu population is up in arms about that.

Narelle: What do you find most fascinating about the British Raj period of India’s history?

Christine: To me the British Raj is more exciting that even the Wild West is to the Americas. British Colonial India was a time caught in a capsule. It could not last, because it was built on an imperialistic attitude of Britain. But oh, such a time of memsahibs and sahibs, cavalry officers and their steeds, huge Indian armies, grand glittering palaces, beautiful women in saris, the grandeur and beauty of India. Color and spice. Romance in the desert or a flower-perfumed jungle. Need I go on?

Narelle: Captured by Moonlight touches on the historic sex trade in South East Asia. What inspired you to write about this issue?

Christine: You can’t study much about India before realizing the Hindu caste system is one of the cruelest philosophies in the world. It is the height of injustice to believe that some people are of more importance simple because of their lineage as a high-caste person, versus the horror and filth that the lowest class of people (the untouchables) must live with. Even Gandhi did his best to stamp this out. 

One of the practices of Hinduism is called Devadasi. This is where a young girl is “married” to a Hindu deity and dedicated to service in a temple for the rest of her life. Sometimes these girls were from high-caste families who thought they were pleasing their gods by giving them their daughters. Many times the girls were from the untouchable class, who were simply brought in to be prostitutes for Hindu men who came to worship in the temples. This practice is often debated that it really happened this way. But if you read the writings of women such as missionary Amy Carmichael, Dr. Ida Scudder, or Indian heroine Pandita Ramabai, then you know these horrible practices took place. These godly women were just a few who rescued young girls and women from the atrocities of the sex trade. 

I weave part of these truth injustices into Captured by Moonlight. The current-day sex trade is still as strong and still as horrendous as in the days of my fictional story. Something we as Christians nowadays need to be aware of and concerned.

Narelle: What faith issues do your characters struggle to overcome in the story?

Christine: Eshana has been happily living as a Christian and serving God in the medical mission that was built by her mentor, Miriam from Shadowed in Silk. After Miriam’s death, Eshana is convinced it is God’s will for her to administer the mission in her mentor’s footsteps. But God allows something terrible to happen. Eshana is captured by her traditional Hindu uncle and imprisoned for living a life as a Christian. He forces Eshana to be dressed in the course white funeral clothing of a widow and have her head shaved. 

Eshana must go through a sort of death to her own dreams and ambitions. She learns like I am learning—to die to myself so that Christ may live His life and complete His plans through me. Eshana learns that the Lord’s plans are far more wonderful than anything she or I could ever devise.

Narelle: How has your faith influenced your writing?

Christine: I would not be writing if it were not an opportunity for me to show in story format who Jesus Christ is, and what a yielded life to Him can accomplish. What I learn in my devotions at the feet of Christ is what comes out in my character’s journeys.

Narelle: Please tell us about your upcoming releases. Are you planning to write more books in the Twilight of the British Raj series?

Christine: I had always wanted to write a series that would take the reader from what is the beginning of the end of the British Raj and up to its total end in the Partition of India. 

Book 1 Shadowed in Silk starts out with the Jallianwala Bagh massacre that pushed the Indian independence movement into high gear. 

Book 2 Captured by Moonlight carries on with that and focuses on British people who had been born and raised in India. With the end of the Raj nearing they aren’t sure what nationality they are. They’re not truly India. Nor are they quite British. 

Book 3 Veiled at Midnight will finish this series. It will showcase all the glory of the British Raj leaving India. That leaving brings about the Partition of India into a new independent India and the new country of Muslim Pakistan. This was a brutal time in history. But through that I hope to inspire people that God can gather His people from all four corners of the world. No matter where you go in this world, He will find you and care for you.


Christine, thanks for providing us with a fascinating insight into your latest release, Captured by Moonlight. If you'd like to learn more about Captured by Moonlight or connect with Christine, please check out the following links.

• Book Trailer for Captured by Moonlight
• Amazon Purchase Link for Captured by Moonlight
• Barnes and Noble Purchase link for Captured by Moonlight
• Kobo purchase link for Captured by Moonlight
• website www.christinelindsay.com
• Facebook Author page, please drop by and 'like'
• Join Christine on Twitter
• Join Christine on Pinterest

NARELLE ATKINS writes contemporary inspirational romance and lives in Canberra, Australia. She recently sold her debut novel, set in Australia, to Harlequin's Heartsong Presents line in a 6-book contract. Her first book, Falling for the Farmer, will be a February 2014 release. 

She has published Bible Studies on Smashwords and blogs regularly at http://30MinuteBibleStudies.wordpress.com 

Narelle is a co-founder of the Australian Christian Readers Blog Alliance (ACRBA) http://www.acrba.blogspot.com 

To learn more about Narelle, please visit her website.

THE REGRETS OF AN EMPIRE by Christine Lindsay

PM David Cameron laying a wreath in Amritsar India, Feb. 20, 2013

This past February 20, 2013, an event took place that took my breath away. During the last day of his three-day-trip to India, British Prime Minister David Cameron visited the site of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. In his speech the Prime Minister spoke about an inhuman episode that occurred almost a century ago in the city of Amritsar, northern India. From the viewpoint of Indian people, that episode was the bloodiest murder which the British Raj inflicted on India, during their colonial rule.

The PM expressed regret over the episode. I for one was delighted to hear this, and said to myself, well it’s about time.

Now don’t get me wrong—on my passport it clearly states that I was born a citizen of Great Britain—I’m proud to be British. One of the things I love about this fun group of international writers is that many of the countries represented are members of the Commonwealth or are nations who still have strong ties with Britain.

But there are times in life when as individuals and as nations that we must apologize or express our regrets.  

Times sure have changed for good old Britannia, though, haven’t they?

If you were a kid about 100 years ago, studying a map, you would have seen a great many pink areas designated as belonging to Great Britain. Those days the sun never set on the Empire. Countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Burma, parts of China, Africa, the Caribbean . . . oh goodness, I’ve probably forgotten some. And of course at one time, the United States was a British colony until the Boston Tea Party. 

So when did The Empire cease to be an empire?

For that answer we need to look at the birthing of “said” Empire. 

It started out with a need for assets. In the Tudor days when Drake, Magellan, Columbus, to name a few, were trying to find better routes to the Far East for the spice, silks, all the money that could be made in those fertile tropical lands. They wanted to get to India—the treasure trove—and therefore created the British Raj of India. Raj, being the Indian word for rule.

But there were rumbles in the kingdom, most infamous the 1857 Mutiny where the Indian people revolted against British rule, and later in April 1919, that awful massacre in the Jallianwala Bagh, when British General Rex Dyer ordered his troops to mow down 1000 peaceful Indian demonstrators with rifle-fire.

Winston Churchill called the event monstrous, and said, "This was a deeply shameful event in British history.”

Even though Britain never ordered such an atrocity, the event has blighted British/Indian relationships to this day.

But the massacre took place in 1919, and India did not gain her desired independence until 1947. So what convinced Britain to release her hold on India almost 30 years later? Why money of course.

After WW2 Great Britain’s coffers were pretty much empty. This tipped the scales. Not the shame of what we Brits did to the Indian subcontinent, but simply because we could no longer afford to keep them.

The day India gained her independence was the day the Empire ceased to exist, and sadly Great Britain became simply . . . Britain.  

And I wonder--after all this time--why has at long last, a British Prime Minister come to India to express his regrets? Makes me wonder if that too is about money. Trade, perhaps. 

Funny how the more we think things change, the more they stay the same.

It is this decline of the British Raj that fascinates me, and has become the era and setting of my series—fittingly called—Twilight of the British Raj. A time of action, adventure, exotic settings, in Shadowed in Silk, and Captured by Moonlight, and Book 3 Veiled at Midnight coming 2014.

Book 2 of the Twilight of the British Raj

 Purchase links for Captured by Moonlight and Shadowed in Silk

Amazon link for Captured by Moonlight 

Amazon link for Shadowed in Silk 

Barnes and Noble link for Captured by Moonlight 

Barnes and Noble link for Shadowed in Silk

Kobo link for Captured by Moonlight

Kobo link for Shadowed in Silk 

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