Author Archives: Darrick Dean

What is Your Choice?

Posted on May 19, 2017 by Darrick Dean

So many people get lulled into a day-to-day existence of hitting their marks, getting stuff done, running place to place — to do it all again the next day.  And the next.

Every so often there are tuggings on our minds, glimpses and reminders, that we are meant for more than just staring into televisions, playing with our phones and letting society tell us who we are and what we should be.

For brief moments we realize that we are part of an epic tale.  All is not what it seems to be. A war rages in us, around us. A question demands an answer: What is your part in the story? Will you embrace it or walk away into a bottomless abyss of whatever others have decided for you?

Milena chose to step through the veil. Ethan conquered the Darkness and embraced his strength. Kane stopped fearing what he was. Duncan would find his place among those like him. Kyra made the shadows flee from her. They all stood together against the impossible.

Among the Shadows not only tells their stories, but of what simmers in us all.

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Categories: fantasy, Fiction | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Some are More Equal than Others

Posted on May 17, 2017 by Darrick Dean

After seeing this video on judging people equally, I was reminded of this famous quote from George Orwell’s classic, Animal Farm:

All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

Animal Farm, both allegory and satire, was published in 1945 as a commentary on the totalitarian communist regime of Stalin. Yet it is still very much relevant today in that people seem to unwittingly allow ideas of inequality and fake tolerance into their thinking. We tolerate unless it offends us. We are inclusive if we agree with the included. We preach equality, but judge differently.

It is easy to caught up in causes, movements and emotion. These are the times we should be most on guard, for this is when others can take advantage of us. When we aren’t thinking clearly, and chaos is around us, we should stop and clear our mind. As Orwell wrote:

In a time of deceit telling the truth is a revolutionary act.

And so is defending truth.

Categories: Critical Thinking, Fiction | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

“I must tell you a story”

Posted on May 5, 2017 by Darrick Dean

Why do people read? Why do writers tell stories? in Epic, John Eldredge writes:

It goes far deeper than entertainment…Stories nourish us…we hope to find in someone else’s story something that will help us understand our own…Stories shed light on our lives. As Daniel Taylor has written, “Our stories tell us who we are, why we are here, and what we are to do…” That is why, if you want to know someone, you need to know their story. “But in order to make you understand,” explained novelist Virginia Woolf, “to give you my life, I must tell you a story.”

Tell yours, read that of others. Find your place in the Story.

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Not Going at it Alone

Posted on April 23, 2017 by Darrick Dean

Why are so many stories about people banding together in small, close-knit groups (or ones that become that way)? Even the brooding loners eventually join a team — Logan joins the X-Men, Ironman goes with the Avengers. This theme permeates writing, film and history, as John Eldredge writes in Waking the Dead:

When Neo is set free from the Matrix, he joins the crew of the Nebuchadnezzar…[and] the small fellowship [is] called to set the captives free…a family bound together in a single fate. Together, they train for battle. Together, they plan their path…each has a role, a gifting, a glory…You see this sort of thing at the center of every great story. Dorothy takes her journey with the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, the Lion, and of course, Toto. When he left Rivendell, Frodo didn’t head out with a thousand Elves. He had eight companions. When Captain John Miller is sent deep behind enemy lines to save Private Ryan, he goes in with a squad of eight rangers…[even] Jesus had the Twelve.

It is in our nature, our very design, to not go at it alone. This is why our art, our writings, and our history, so often remind us of this. Eldredge concludes:

Though we are part of a great company, we are meant to live in little platoons. The little companies we form must be small enough for each of the members to know one another as friends and allies. Is it possible for five thousand people who gather…to really and truly know one another? …how about five hundred? One hundred and eight? It can’t be done…It can be inspiring and encouraging to celebrate with a big ol’ crowd of people, but who will fight for your heart?

Our stories are reflections of who we are and remind us not to forsake our nature.

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Know your First Lines? Then win a copy of AtS!

Posted on April 17, 2017 by Darrick Dean

Ready to choose your side in the War Among the Shadows? Answer who wrote the following first lines, and in what book or poem they are found, and you’ll win Among the Shadows for your Kindle!

1. April is the cruelest month.
2. Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary…
3. Call me Ishmael.
4. It was a pleasure to burn.

Use the Contact form to send the answers, and I’ll be sending up to three winners their own Kindle copy of Among the Shadows. Good luck!

Update: Congrats to Julie D. for winning! Here are the answers:

1. April is the cruelest month. – The Waste Land, T.S. Elliot
2. Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary… – The Raven, Edgar Allen Poe
3. Call me Ishmael. – Moby Dick, Herman Melville
4. It was a pleasure to burn. – Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

Categories: Books | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Are Slow Writers Doomed?

Posted on April 16, 2017 by Darrick Dean

The answer is no.

The mantra to pump out stories as fast as you can is doomed to fail. Readers will tire of repetition and lack of originality (and quality). Anne R. Allen goes into more detail in Are Slow Writers Doomed to Fail in the Digital Age?.

Write your story, your best story, and not someone else’s.

Categories: Writing | Leave a comment

100 Books Every Man Should Read

Posted on April 11, 2017 by Darrick Dean

The Art of Manliness has created a list of 100 Books Every Man Should Read. Not that these books were written particularly for men — most were not — even though the majority were written by men about male characters. The point of such lists are to remind people of important and classic books and the impact they have had.

Many books are written, many more forgotten, and only a select few are remembered.

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From Bios to Goodreads and a little #WIP

Posted on April 2, 2017 by Darrick Dean

Around the web this week for writers:

In Anne R. Allen’s “Your Author Bio: Does it help your Book Sales or Stop Them Dead?,” writers are reminded their books aren’t the only place to improve their craft. They should periodically review their book blurbs, copy, taglines and author bios wherever they may appear. Test what works and improve.

Jessica Strawser writes on the importance of the writer community in “5 Reasons Fellow Writers Are Essential to Your Writing Life.” No one understands the process authors go through better than other writers.

“What Goodreads’ Explosive Growth Means for Writers and the Broader Economy” in Forbes details how Goodreads can be a powerful tool for authors in connecting with readers and other writers.

If you want to promote and talk about your Work in Progress, join Bethany Jennings‘ latest #WIPjoy and, while you’re at it, check out her excellent new short story Threadbare.

Categories: Writing | Tags: , , , , | 1 Comment

Why Does Every Story Have a Villain?

Posted on March 17, 2017 by Darrick Dean

In Waking the Dead, John Eldredge writes:

Little Red Riding Hood is attacked by a wolf. Dorothy must face and bring down the Wicked Witch of the Wast…Frodo is hunted by the Black Riders…Beowulf kills the monster Grendel…Saint George kills the Dragon. The children who stumbled into Narnia are called upon by Aslan to battle the White Witch and her armies…

So why does every story have a villain?

“…Because yours does.”

What are the villains in your life, your Story? Addictions, vices, work, bad habits, crazy people… As Eldredge writes, we are “born into a world at war.” He is coming from the perspective of Evil long ago unleashed in the world, seeking to undermine all that is good.

Stories have villains because stories are inspired by real life. Fiction is only fact in different clothes.

Categories: Books, Fiction, Writing | Tags: , | 1 Comment

Have you Abandoned your Story?

Posted on March 12, 2017 by Darrick Dean

Every wonder why stories speak to people as they do? Is it, as Brent Curtis and John Eldredge write in The Sacred Romance, that it is written into our very beings?

Life is not a list of propositions, it is a series of dramatic scenes. As Eugene Peterson said, “We live in narrative, we live in story. Existence has a story shape to it. We have a beginning and an end, we have a plot, we have characters.” Story is the language of the heart. Our souls speak not in the naked facts of mathematics or the abstract propositions of systematic theology…Contrast your enthusiasm for studying a textbook with…read[ing] a novel, or listen[ing] to the stories of someone else’s life.

Is it any wonder why stories of people finding their purpose, their part of the Story, never go away? A little Hobbit defeats evil and saves Middle Earth…frail Steve Rogers becomes Captain America…Luke Skywalker doesn’t want to stand on the sidelines anymore… Perhaps it is because we too often abandon our story?

Children aren’t a bad place to look when we’re trying to get beyond the cynicism of adulthood…Before skepticism takes over (what we mistakenly call maturity), children intuit the true Story as a fairy tale…the best fairy tales aren’t romantic in the poor sense of the word. They are realistic, only more so. There are ogres and evil sorcerers and wicked stepmothers, to be sure. But they are neither the whole story or the heart of it. There are genuine heroes and heroines and a cause to live for that is worth dying for. There is a quest or a journey strewn with danger and the stakes could never be higher.

Choose to not ignore that you are part of something bigger than your day to day tasks and busyness. Find your place in the Story.

It is not too late.

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