ARE MY FAVORITE CHARACTERS AS INTERESTED IN REFUGEE MINISTRY AS I AM?

 

 

Remember being introduced to my 20 favorite characters last year? I thought about doing an update and if there are any changes to the line-up. I'll probably wait at least two years before tweaking this line-up. (If you want a reminder who they are, you can put your cursor over the photo and it will remind you.)

One ministry that fascinated me since I first learned of it was ministry to refugees. By the way, I read just yesterday the difference between a refugee and a displaced person - the latter has to move but still remains in his home country, while the refugee relocates to a new country. 

Well, one of the most reminders of this interest was skimming through a bio about an author and finding out that one character was actually a refugee. 

So I looked at my collection of characters, asking myself if the characters I like reflect my interest in refugees. How many of these characters either aided/worked with a refugee, married a refugee, or was either temporarily or permanently a refugee?

Would you believe six? That's 30%. Considering that refugees were not a major theme in most stories I read, I'd consider that a notable number.

Let me list those six, starting with the back-row and going left to right.

1. Brennen Caldwell (second from left, back row), from the Firebird novels by Kathy Tyers. His wife, Lady Firebird, willingly became a refugee from her home world Netaia. On that planet, rulers were allowed two heirs, and following children were called wastelings, who were obligated to die and were assigned to suicide missions for that purpose. Lady Firebird was the third-born. Having failed on her suicide mission, she became a refugee.
2. Fightmaster Loretus (sixth from left, back row), from Tales of the Infinite by R.J. Larson. Kien Lantec, normally a diplomat, was exiled from his homeland, and Loretus was assigned to help him in his fighting skills. 
3. Crusader (first from right, back row), from Numb by John Otte. Crusader was a hit-man who became expendable and by the end of the story he relocated to another planet.
4. Arvandus the griffin (first from left, front row), from The Firebrand Chronicles by J.M. Hackman and
5. Dorann the tracker (fourth from left, front row), from Tales of Faeraven by Janalyn Voigt had similar experiences. Their home countries were captured by the bad guys and found themselves as refugees in other territories until the good guys reclaimed their territory.
6. ...No, I'll wait to reveal the final one.

I will add that other characters, while currently not involved in refugee work, would be quick to help. Suppose someone came to the dinner where my twenty favorite characters were and told them a batch of refugees were arriving and were in need. Father Antony (back row, fifth from left, from Donna Fletcher Crow's Monastery Murders) would immediately be heading out the door to aid them. Felix McClintock the Zealot and Arianna Sloan (front row, seventh and eighth from left, respectively from The Merely Mortal by J.P. Leck and the Teen Mission series by Jill Williamson) would be right behind him. Vythian Blix (back row, fourth from left from Paul Regnier's Space Drifters trilogy), after learning what they were doing, would desire to join them, but was discouraged from going because they didn't want Blix to scare the refugees (Arvandus probably was the most effective in discouraging Blix). Meanwhile, Drew Farthering (front row, second from left, from the Drew Farthering Mysteries by Julianna Deering), Duke of Marshington Ryland Montgomery (back row, fourth from right, from An Honorable Masquerade by Kristi Ann Hunter) and Agatha Christie's world famous detective Hercule Poirot (front row, sixth from left) would be making sure that any funding needs were fully covered. 

By the way, here's a fact you might not know. Post WWI England had refugees from other countries, including Belgium. Ah, the light comes on. Yes, Agatha Christie was aware of those refugees. Yes, when she created a detective for her first novel, that detective was a Belgian refugee. 

So maybe Hercule might be encouraging me to consider working with refugees, with assistance from the others. (And if Loretus gets involved, I'll make haste.)

 

WHICH NOVELISTS HAVE I READ THE MOST NOVELS BY? AND IS THAT LIST CHANGING?

Courtesy of ereaderlove.com via Sharon Kirk Clifton

I have been comparing how my list of authors I've read the most have changed over the years. 

NOTE - I did not say my favorite authors. I may have read more novels by an author I really like than one I absolutely love, for various reasons - primarily, because the one I like has written more novels than the one I love.

Let me start with 1978, when I left Cottonwood and started Bible College. At that point, the novelists I read the most looked like this:

1. James Blish - 11 books. 
2. Ian Fleming - 10.
3. Agatha Christie - 5.
4. Ellery Queen - 5.
5. John R. Cooper - 4. 

What did that list tell about me? Well, for one, I got in binges. My interest in Baseball got me hooked on John R. Cooper's Mel Martin YA series. After seeing James Bond movies, I read Ian Fleming. Following the '74 version of "Murder On The Orient Express," I started reading Agatha Christie (and Ellery Queen benefitted from that interest in mysteries). Most of the books I've read by Blish were his novelizations of the episodes of Star Trek The Original Series; the only Blish novel I read was titled "Spock Must Die" (the first ST novel).

Now, let me fast forward twenty plus years to '00. This period of time had two phases - a lot of novels read between '81 and '86, and not much reading done afterwards. Here's what my list looked like at that point:

1. James Blish - 13.
   
2. Agatha Christie - 12
3. Ian Fleming - 10
4. Stephen King - 8
5. Allistair MacLean - 7

I debated on leaving it with the top 5, or including those who I've read more than five novels by, and I decided at this phase to do the former. I did read a 6th Ellery Queen novel, which left him in 6th place.  You'll notice Agatha Christie jumped up on the list, as well as the entrance of Stephen King and Allistair MacLean. 

I previously mentioned comparing the lists of '86 and '00 (which is the one I'm using). There are only two differences. First, in '86 MacLean would have been tied for fifth with Queen at six novels apiece. A co-worker brought in an audio version of a MacLean novel, and I'm counting that on my list. The other was that in '00, my two favorite authors would be MacLean and Frank Peretti, who was lower on the list because I didn't read as many of his novels.

Three items of note took place by '10: I started reading more books (fiction and non-fiction), I started writing my novel, and I discovered Amazon and learned of new authors that way. As a result, here's how the list changed:

1. James Blish -13
2. Agatha Christie - 12
3. Allistair MacLean - 11
4. Ian Fleming - 10
5. Stephen King - 8
6. Randy Singer - 8

You may notice that the top five names were the same, with MacLean jumping up two spots from 5th to 3rd. Likewise, you'll see that MacLean was the only one of the five to increase, giving you a hint that some writers I used to read a lot of I wasn't reading as much. (One of them would have a resurgance - you can guess which one if you wish.)

But then in sixth place (technically, tied for fifth) is a new name. Randy Singer took over Peretti's place as my favorite author (MacLean remained in second). I also started reading more books by women. Amy Wallace had a trilogy I absolutely loved.

I mentioned I had wrote my novel. You may know that I attempted to self-publish and the company went belly-up in spectacular fashion (it's collapse was on the front page of the Indianapolis Star and reported on the TV broadcasts). This led me to get involved with the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW), which not only helped in my writing but also got me hooked on more authors. 

In 2013, I took part of a challenge from author Janalyn Voigt, set a goal to read 20 books (both fiction and non-fiction) and succeeded. The next year, I went on a rampage and read 29 novels (not counting non-fiction books). I haven't matched that since, though I do read about 25 novels a year. 

Previously, I've done looks at every ten years - this time, I'll only move ahead five years to 2015. And presto:

1. Agatha Christie 17
2. James Blish 13
3. Allistair MacLean 13
4. Randy Singer 13
5. Ian Fleming 10

Not very over-whelming, is it? True, Agatha Christie and Randy Singer added five books each to their total. 

However, I've been adding other authors to the list. At that time, I considered five novels to be the Hall of Fame pre-requisite. At 2015, besides Stephen King and Ellery Queen were Frank Peretti and Amy Wallace. But other authors were knocking at the door, with Donna Fletcher Crow, Julianna Deering (aka DeAnna Dodson), and Nancy Mehl joining in the list. 

So let me expand past the top five on the list at this moment in 2021:

1. Agatha Christie - 23
2. Donna Fletcher Crow - 15
3. Allistair MacLean - 15
4. Nancy Mehl - 15
5. Randy Singer - 14
6. James Blish - 13
7. Ian Fleming - 10
8. Kerry Nietz - 9
9. Stephen King - 8
10. Jill Williamson - 7

Tied for 11th place at 6 each: Jackie Castle, Julianna Deering, Sandra Orchard, John Otte, and Ellery Queen.

Tied for 16th place at 5 each: Jodie Bailey, Frank Peretti, and Amy Wallace.  

Again, does this mean that Agatha Christie is my favorite author? No. I could pick on several authors on this list (and some not on the list, such as J.P. Leck), but I'll choose John Otte. I like John Otte better than Agatha Christie. But John Otte's bibliography is half of the Miss Marple series, which is a third of the Hercule Poirot collection. (And yes, Christie has a lot of stories that are neither Marple or Poirot.) Otte needs to go on a tear for me to read as many of his books to catch up with Dame Agatha.

Which authors have you read the most by? Are the authors you read the most by the same as your favorite authors?

WHEN MY 20 FAVORITE FICTIONAL CHARACTERS GOT TOGETHER FOR DINNER.

 

Above is a picture of my twenty favorite fictional characters, who got together in my fictional world Chrysostom. We chose that place because the atmosphere kills off COVID-19 germs so they didn't have to wear masks.

Unfortunately, photography doesn't exist on Chrysostom, so I had to draw the characters, which is hampered by my  drawing skill. So if the characters look more like my impressions of them than what the author intended, my apologies. 

Allow me to introduce you to them, front row first, left to right:

Arvandus the Gryphon from the Firebrand Chronicles by J. M. Hackman. A voice of wisdom to the main character.

Drew Farthering and Nick Dennison from the Drew Farthering Mysteries by Julianna Deering. Set in Depression Era England, these two friends do a great job solving the crimes, and I love how they relate to each other. By the way, both married American ladies.

Dorann the Tracker from Tales of Faeraven by Janalyn Voigt. Some characters capture me without having a reason, and Dorann is an example.

Mortuary Beautician Hilde Higgins from the Curl Up And Dye Mysteries by Nancy Mehl. Hilde also has a pug named Watson, a fish named Sherlock, a love for cooking with Spam, and a phobia of clowns. Her boyfriend, by the way, does charity work where he dresses up as a ... oh, you know already?

Hercule Poirot. Considering that 19 of the 23 Agatha Christie novels I read features him, as well as the first two novels where Sophie Hannah picked up rather recently, no question why he's on my list.

Felix McClintock, a.k.a. The Zealot, from The Merely Mortal by J. P. Leck. His path is a little more ... what shall I call it? Intense? ... than other characters, this Christian can hold his own against evil spiritual forces and their earthly incarnations.

Arianna Sloan from the Teen Mission Series by Jill Williamson. Considering the fact that she's the same age as main character Spencer Garmond, she has a major spot in this series.

Debuggers ThreadBare and BullHammer from The Darktrench Shadow series by Kerry Nietz. Threadbare is one of the characters I can really relate to, but I also enjoy when his buddy BullHammer shows up.

Back row:

George Sullivan, director of the Office of Joint Liasions (OJL) from The Fast Track Thrillers by Suzanne Hartmann.

Brennan Caldwell from the Firebird Trilogy by Kathy Tyers. He gave one of my all time favorite quotes - "Don't think like a wasteling."

Tanner Calhoun from the Serena Jones Mysteries by Sandra Orchard. A FBI Agent with a sense of humor.

Blix, the peaceable Vythian warrior from Space Drifters by Paul Regnier.

Father Antony Sherwood from the Monastery Murders by Donna Fletcher Crow. My all time favorite character, who I also relate to.

Fightmaster Loretus from the two latter books of the Books Of The Infinite by R. J. Larson. My second favorite character. One of those who manages to be both tormentor and friend at the same time.

Ryland Montgomery, Duke of Marshington and spy, from An Honorable Masquerade by Kristi Ann Hunter. Yes, those familiar with the book will wonder why a historical romance shows up on my list. But when Kristi and I were in the same critique group, I looked forward to her contribution each week.

Wilder Flynn - who loves to tell stories and is obsessed with his hair - from Dangerous Obsession by Jessica Patch. This story is the third part of the Security Specialists triology, and Wilder is the director. Considering we're talking Love Inspired Suspense here, my hunch is he's more of a supporting cast member in the first two books.

Attorney Wyatt Jackson from Rule Of Law by Randy Singer. Jackson has a dog named Clients. When someone calls for him, his assistant tells them he's with Clients. He also calls his mobile home Court.

Crusader the Assassin from Numb by John Otte. He served the overly religious government known as the Ministrix to maintain order, helped by the job that he was without feeling, either physically or emotionally. But then, something happens.

Have you had the honor of reading the adventures of these characters? How would you like to join this group for dinner? What kinds of conversations can you imagine between this group?