Author Interview

Meet Athol Dickson

His name is Scottish and is pronounced with a long A and O, like “eighth-ol,” with the accent on the first syllable. Born in the fifties, Mr. Dickson’s life journey has been filled to the brim. He’s been a clothing salesman, carpenter, architect and more. After years of diversity he took yet another path and in the mid 1990s began writing.

His novels have been award winners, and have made the top ten on best novel booklists, such as Christianity Today and the Christian Fiction Review. The Gospel According to Moses, River Rising, The Cure, and Winter Haven are a few of his titles. Raised in Texas, Mr. Athol Dickson currently resides in California with his wife, Sue.

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Reviewers Corner

This month's featured reviewer:

Laura Hilton (www.laurahilton.com) lives in Arkansas with her husband, Steve, and their five children. Laura has more than a thousand book reviews published with Dancing Word, Faith Webbin, A Romance Review, and Armchair Reviews and has two fiction books, Shadows of the Past and Hot Chocolate published with Treble Heart Books.

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Genre Happenings

Why Read Category Romances?

I have been writing for Steeple Hill’s Love Inspired line since 2000 and have enjoyed creating over eighteen Love Inspired and nine Love Inspired Suspense books, some still to come out at the end of this year and in 2009. Writing for a category inspirational romance publisher has challenged me and helped me to grow as a writer.

I’ve learned a lot writing category romances. First and foremost, I’ve learned how to tell a story in a concise way. People don’t have time to read a boring book. So stories must pull the reader in, and do so quickly. To do this I had to learn to pick and choose what was important to tell the reader, which isn’t always that easy to see, especially when you are so close to the story. The hero and heroine should be introduced in the first chapters so the reader gets a sense of who the protagonists are in the present before they learn about how the got in their current predicament.

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Multicultural Fiction

The White’s and Colored’s Only Fountains

More than fifty years ago, Dr. Martin Luther King quoted the Reverend Billy Graham saying, “Eleven o’clock Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America.” That this statement was true in America, this august land of opportunity, fifty years ago is bad enough. That it remains true today is a sad commentary on race relations among American Christians.

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Spine Chiller Thrillers

Through the Eyes of Brad Pitt

The credits rolled and I sat stunned in the dark theater. While some stories sneak up on you, Se7en (a philosophical thriller featuring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman) hit me between the eyes. I knew of the seven deadly sins categorized by Catholicism, yet to see them portrayed in such chilling fashion underlined the battles we all face to rise above cultural apathy and the sinful nature.

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Devotional

Collecting Attributes

I’m a collector from way back. As a child I collected fancy paper napkins. In high school, candles, pitchers, irises, fans. I’ve enjoyed my collections, even as I’ve abandoned one for another. Joy is in the searching, joy is in the gathering, and joy is in the sharing. And for me, the search usually starts wherever I find antiques. My favorite haunts are antique shows where dozens of dealers assemble their booths, teasing me with aisles and aisles of displays, just waiting for me to dive in—and drool.

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