So Much Stuff I Can't Recall

In the past month I’ve read two spiritual-warfare thriller novels: House by Frank Peretti & Ted Dekker and The Hidden by Kathryn Mackel. If your spiritual-warfare thriller novel budget allows you to only buy a single novel until the next fiscal quarter, don’t let the fact you may be more familiar with the names Peretti and Dekker discourage you from picking up Mackel’s book.

Depending on how your fiscal quarters are structured, you may be able to get both books on Thursday, but I still recommend The Hidden over House. Then again, maybe that’s not the ringing endorsement I intend: I recommend the nutrition panel on a cereal box over House (not quite as much cardboard and contents that are maybe even more scary—pyridoxine hydrochloride? <shiver>).

Set in rural Colorado (with Boston-based bookend scenes), the novel deals with a family whose emotional and psychological and spiritual scars rival those found on the back of a young man found shackled in a cave at the bottom of a ravine. The characters are complex if a bit angsty. And while some of conversations are thinly veiled “tell me your problems” info dumps, there is genuine character development and believable working-out of conflicts. Mackel spreads the grue with gusto in a few places (your mileage may vary, but I prefer extra-chunky grue on my road pizza) as a serial-killer stalks our hero(in)es, although she pulls her punches occasionally (and there’s a segment or two where the narrative gets sketchy in order to maintain the villain’s secret identity). Overall, however, there’s a lot to recommend the book (OMG ponies!!!) as a beach read or in-flight entertainment—and enough chills to suggest you not read it whilst spelunking.

I sent off a handful of questions to Kathryn, and she graciously didn’t file a restraining order:

1. Which “darling” (character/scene/plot element) was most painful to kill?
   
   Interesting question.
   
   My original conception of the story and my pre-first draft opened with Susan dreaming she was working in a beautiful garden. We hear wheels and see three-year-old Christopher riding around on his little bike. As the scene expands, we realize it’s the rooftop garden of her penthouse apartment, a place of beauty where she feels perfectly safe because she’s literally above it all, and the walls are so high. Christopher knocks over a plant and she lovingly shoos him in another direction. She tracks him by listening to the creak-creak-creak of his wheels. Then the creaking stops. She brushes off the dirt and goes looking for him.
   
   She finds him, still on his bike, poised at an opening in the wall that is not supposed to be there. “No!” she cries out but he bravely puts his foot to the pedal and pushes hard. He remains suspended for an impossible moment, looking back with a sad smile. And then he falls.
   
   It perfectly captures Susan’s torment and sets her up for the real opening of the story. (The middle-of-the-night phone call about her father’s fall from the horse.) But it was too intense, I thought, to open the book. You might, however, see it in the movie!


2. A major theme of the book deals with kids who feel their parents have let them down (and in some cases it's more than a “feeling,” the kids have been let down). Any advice for readers who feel that way? [Note to my parents and in-laws: this has nothing to do with you...]
   
   One of the hardest elements of faith is trusting in a heavenly Father when our own earthly parents may have not only let their children down but—in my character Susan’s case—actively tormented them. We come to the Father through the Son, and this is the best avenue of contact for a broken-hearted son or daughter. We can live in the Gospels and enjoy the Son of God—also known as the Son of Man—who showed such incredible compassion, tenderness, and even rebuking to those He loved.
   
   A practical way to help move past a rocky childhood is to connect with older ‘saints’ in our church. They become our true mothers and fathers in the best sense of the word. Eventually, they can help us come to the forgiveness that is impossible on worldly terms. In The Hidden, Susan can’t even start the road to forgiveness until she speaks aloud the damage that was done to her—and her fury at a God who allowed such damage.
   
   There is a time to admit such things, and a time to move past them. I’m not speaking in theory here. My parents loved my sisters and myself with a strong love. But their alcoholism created havoc for each of us in different ways. It was only through writing The Hidden that I had that “duh” moment in which I realized I needed to stop holding them responsible for what I consider the slings and arrows of my own personality.


3. If/When a movie is made of The Hidden, which style soundtrack would you prefer: an Ennio Morricone Western score or a John Williams Thriller?
   
   One of the desires of my heart is to write a movie splendid enough to merit a John Williams score. The Hidden would be a quieter story than what he normally tackles, but he’d do splendid justice to the mountains and the horses. If a filmmaker could be persuaded to include Jacob’s creation and crucifixion experiences, then Williams could write on the most epic scale imaginable. Whoa...you’ve got me going now.


4. And a another question about horses and songs, Which of the following do you like best? “Mustang Sally” by Wilson Pickett, “One Trick Pony” by Paul Simon), “Horse with No Name” by America?
   
   Okay, you’ve outted me. I’m not a big music buff, except for classical music and Steve Bell. But, at the risk of inserting a plug, Victoria James has written an incredible song for The Hidden called “Be Still.” Vicki has been writing songs for my books since I needed a lullaby for The Surrogate. What’s amazing is that, when she finished the song for The Departed, she also sent me “Be Still.” She said she had no reason why she should be sending it but I nearly cried when I heard it. She knew nothing about The Hidden and yet the Holy Spirit had completely moved her to write the perfect song for the book.
   
   Since I’m way overdue on updating my website, folks can listen to it on hers (www.victoriajamesmusic.com). It is SO worth the visit. Sometimes I wonder how I could possibly be more blessed than through our partnership in story and song.


5. Your story takes place in Colorado, as does Ted Dekker’s recent Showdown (pivotal scenes of Stephen Kings’s The Stand, too). What’s so scary about The Centennial State?
   
   The Centennial State scary? Nah. Colorado is majestic, which is what drew me to set the story here. And, to further illustrate the Lord’s provision, let me tell you this. I’m in the Northeast, near rural New Hampshire where we have plenty of horse farms. But when I went calling around for some help on my horse stuff, no one returned my phone calls or emails! Last year at this time, I had already started the book with scads of xxx’s where all the horse stuff should be. [Note for beginning/non-writers and folks who arrived at this post by googling xxx: the xxx’s she’s referring to are placeholders, not porn or anything to do with Vin Diesel, though maybe he’ll be in the big-screen, John Williams-scored version. Continue, Kathryn...] At the Colorado Christian Writers Conference, I mentioned at breakfast that I was totally out of time for finding expert help (and wondering why God wasn’t answering my prayers on the matter!) This person said, “Oh, I’ll send Jo Lauter to see you.”
   
   Jo was in the Arabian industry for thirty years, a fellow writer, and simply out-of-this-world passionate about horses. She leaped at the opportunity to be my expert.
   
   But here’s the amazing thing. I still hadn’t found a suitable locale that would combine horse farms with nearby mountains. “Easy,” Jo said. “Steamboat Springs, where I’m from.”
   
   Okay—get ready. Here’s the big God thing among all His glorious provision for this book. A few months earlier my husband and I had booked a vacation to follow the conference. You got it—Steamboat Springs!
   
   So how could I possibly think of Colorado as scary. Because for me, it’s the place where “I sing the mighty power of God, who makes the mountains rise!”

Find out more about Kathryn at her website, kathrynmackel.com and her other stops on this month’s Christian Fiction Blog Tour (the tour continues through tomorrow, so the list will keep growing over the next 48 hours).

(Other links of note: Colorado Christian Writers Conference, the music of Steve Bell.)

Labels: Book Chat, Book Reviews