Artful Conversation
Monday, November 9, 2009
Interviewing novelists is an art form. Most radio interviews I've done have been pretty disappointing, because the person asking the questions clearly didn't understand fiction, and didn't have a clue about how to take us into interesting territory without giving away too much of a novel's plot. But Victor and Alicia Gentile at Kingdom Highlights are masters at doing exactly that, and they truly understand the purpose and meaning of literature.
Recently Victor and Alicia interviewed me for the second time. They began our talk with a discussion of the idea that authors can use style and voice in the service of a story rather than being tied to one style or voice for every story.
In other words, should an author "sound" the same in every novel, or are there good reasons to adjust one's voice for the telling of particular stories? Victor then led us into a critique of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, and an exploration of the passage of time in the written word. From there we sailed off into how story ideas come to writers, using the inspiration for my latest novel, Lost Mission, as an example
That took the conversation deep into the state of the church in America today and how American Christians are perceived by Christians in the rest of the world (Alicia is from Peru and offered first hand knowledge of that topic). We then segued into the importance of following God's vision rather than asking God to bless our own vision, and from there we got into the difference between the prosperity gospel's view of blessings and the true nature of blessings.
For me it was a fascinating conversation, so if you have the time I hope you'll head on over to Kingdom Highlights, click on "Listen to our Guests," and then "Athol Dickson - Lost Mission". I think you'll find it very interesting.
Posted byAthol Dickson at 9:40 AM
Labels: Lost Mission, Other People's Novels, The Jesus Way, Winter Haven, Writing
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