Tony Denn's Blog - Posts Tagged "never-the-sinner"
Never the Sinner - My First Novel
Never the Sinner is my first novel. At least, the first novel that I feel ready to show the world, and to have the confidence to people charge money to buy.
It’s making me rather nervous.
Introducing…
When Detective Roland Recht is assigned the murder of a local cult leader, it seems obvious that a former member must be responsible.
But when Recht suffers an off-duty personal attack, he and his partner follow the trail from their small Nevada town to the heart of Reno, where the truth behind the murder grows murkier at every turn.
As Recht’s superiors and even the FBI push to attribute the killing to a hired gun and close the case quickly, Recht’s devout religious beliefs drive his conscience in a different direction, forcing him to choose between true justice and the need to see justice done.
The Beginning
Never the Sinner is a story that started sometime after I completed my second novel-length work, and I somehow found myself thinking about protagonists and the sort of detectives I have read in the past. Pretty soon I got to wondering about religion (don’t ask me why) and how this affects a person’s work, and I liked the notion of a man of absolute cast-iron faith doing a job that requires absolute proof.
I “umm”ed and “ahh”ed and wrote out several ideas, mini-treatments where the detective happens to be a religious type, but during the investigation he loses/questions his faith and regains it in time for the final showdown, blah, blah, blah…
I know. You’ve seen it all before, right? Yeah, me too. So I didn’t do that.
I started to craft the notion that Recht himself verbalises in the novel: “Being a cop is what I do. Being a Christian is who I am.” Which left me with the question of how religion affects a person’s work.
And the simple answer is: it doesn’t. Or shouldn’t. Not really.
At least no more than other outside elements inform the sort of coffee shop barista you are, or the sort of bus driver or orthodontist or midwife or teacher or postman or movie director or… or whatever you choose to do. A person’s religion, no matter how devout, should only affect their work, really, if the personal and the professional cross paths.
So this, first and foremost, is a detective novel. But in all detective novels, the personal must impact the professional, whilst not overwhelming it. The readers will be the judge of whether I succeed or not.
The Audience
An early beta reader said to me that I was writing in a similar genre to her – Christian Mystery Fiction. This was news to me, as I didn’t even know that was a genre (or sub-genre). It hadn’t struck me until then that readers of Christian fiction would be all that interested.
Yes, I know Christian literature isn’t all stereotypical happy-clappy feel-good stuff. I know works like William P. Young’s The Shack is also an excellent fantasy-drama and Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins’ Left Behind saga is as compelling as any supernatural thriller you might care to mention (I’m working my way through the series right now), so why shouldn’t I include the Christian readers in my audience?
I hope I don’t dehumanise anyone by stating this, but it’s a large market, so I shouldn’t simply ask crime fans to enjoy my work. There may be some cross-over, with fans of crime and Christian fiction enjoying this on the same level. My worry is, of course, that the thin intersection of the veng diagram in my head is all the audience I will attract, but as I said, the readers will be the ultimate judge.
In a Nutshell
Recht is a devout man in a violent world that makes less sense the more you think about it, and this is what the novel explores.
There are themes of sacrifice, of right and wrong, of personal faith, but it is set in the real world. That means occasional violence (albeit not teeth-grindingly gratuitous), strong swearing in appropriate places, and a number of sexual references. It is about a man’s struggle to find his place amongst all that, whilst staying true to his faith.
Oh, and solving the murder. Plenty of solving the murder.
It’s making me rather nervous.
Introducing…
When Detective Roland Recht is assigned the murder of a local cult leader, it seems obvious that a former member must be responsible.
But when Recht suffers an off-duty personal attack, he and his partner follow the trail from their small Nevada town to the heart of Reno, where the truth behind the murder grows murkier at every turn.
As Recht’s superiors and even the FBI push to attribute the killing to a hired gun and close the case quickly, Recht’s devout religious beliefs drive his conscience in a different direction, forcing him to choose between true justice and the need to see justice done.
The Beginning
Never the Sinner is a story that started sometime after I completed my second novel-length work, and I somehow found myself thinking about protagonists and the sort of detectives I have read in the past. Pretty soon I got to wondering about religion (don’t ask me why) and how this affects a person’s work, and I liked the notion of a man of absolute cast-iron faith doing a job that requires absolute proof.
I “umm”ed and “ahh”ed and wrote out several ideas, mini-treatments where the detective happens to be a religious type, but during the investigation he loses/questions his faith and regains it in time for the final showdown, blah, blah, blah…
I know. You’ve seen it all before, right? Yeah, me too. So I didn’t do that.
I started to craft the notion that Recht himself verbalises in the novel: “Being a cop is what I do. Being a Christian is who I am.” Which left me with the question of how religion affects a person’s work.
And the simple answer is: it doesn’t. Or shouldn’t. Not really.
At least no more than other outside elements inform the sort of coffee shop barista you are, or the sort of bus driver or orthodontist or midwife or teacher or postman or movie director or… or whatever you choose to do. A person’s religion, no matter how devout, should only affect their work, really, if the personal and the professional cross paths.
So this, first and foremost, is a detective novel. But in all detective novels, the personal must impact the professional, whilst not overwhelming it. The readers will be the judge of whether I succeed or not.
The Audience
An early beta reader said to me that I was writing in a similar genre to her – Christian Mystery Fiction. This was news to me, as I didn’t even know that was a genre (or sub-genre). It hadn’t struck me until then that readers of Christian fiction would be all that interested.
Yes, I know Christian literature isn’t all stereotypical happy-clappy feel-good stuff. I know works like William P. Young’s The Shack is also an excellent fantasy-drama and Tim LaHaye & Jerry B. Jenkins’ Left Behind saga is as compelling as any supernatural thriller you might care to mention (I’m working my way through the series right now), so why shouldn’t I include the Christian readers in my audience?
I hope I don’t dehumanise anyone by stating this, but it’s a large market, so I shouldn’t simply ask crime fans to enjoy my work. There may be some cross-over, with fans of crime and Christian fiction enjoying this on the same level. My worry is, of course, that the thin intersection of the veng diagram in my head is all the audience I will attract, but as I said, the readers will be the ultimate judge.
In a Nutshell
Recht is a devout man in a violent world that makes less sense the more you think about it, and this is what the novel explores.
There are themes of sacrifice, of right and wrong, of personal faith, but it is set in the real world. That means occasional violence (albeit not teeth-grindingly gratuitous), strong swearing in appropriate places, and a number of sexual references. It is about a man’s struggle to find his place amongst all that, whilst staying true to his faith.
Oh, and solving the murder. Plenty of solving the murder.
Letting Go, Getting it Out There
There comes a point when you have to stop revising. I have hit that point. I’ve decided on a release date, designed to be long enough away to allow me to complete any line-edits that crop up, but close enough to give me a serious sense of foreboding.
After months of editing, revising, brilliant beta readers, and much self doubt, the time has come for me to start getting it out there. To that end, Never the Sinner is now available for sampling on Smashwords ahead of the June 27th release date. I have an interview live here if you are interested: http://is.gd/O88Jk9
I chose Smashwords initially because they have a pre-order service that allows people who find the novel on sites such as Barnes & Noble to download a sample and, if they like it, buy it straight away so it arrives on their device on release day. NOTE: it is not available on the retailers' sites just yet. I'll announce excitedly when it is. The pre-order, once available, is a great service for indie publishers, especially those like me who are not as disciplined as we should be. Amazon’s Kindle and Createspace editions don’t allow pre-orders, but it will be available on the same day there too – I just have to press “Go” on their websites.
I could spend the next couple of months polishing every paragraph, but I’ve done that twice now. I’ve beta-tested the heck out of the plot so I'm reasonably sure the story and characters are in good shape, and it will be with a line-editor for a final going-over prior to the full release date, which means that’s all I have left to do.
Wow. Letting go is hard. I feel both deflated and elated. How odd.
http://wp.me/p4DeFG-4Y
After months of editing, revising, brilliant beta readers, and much self doubt, the time has come for me to start getting it out there. To that end, Never the Sinner is now available for sampling on Smashwords ahead of the June 27th release date. I have an interview live here if you are interested: http://is.gd/O88Jk9
I chose Smashwords initially because they have a pre-order service that allows people who find the novel on sites such as Barnes & Noble to download a sample and, if they like it, buy it straight away so it arrives on their device on release day. NOTE: it is not available on the retailers' sites just yet. I'll announce excitedly when it is. The pre-order, once available, is a great service for indie publishers, especially those like me who are not as disciplined as we should be. Amazon’s Kindle and Createspace editions don’t allow pre-orders, but it will be available on the same day there too – I just have to press “Go” on their websites.
I could spend the next couple of months polishing every paragraph, but I’ve done that twice now. I’ve beta-tested the heck out of the plot so I'm reasonably sure the story and characters are in good shape, and it will be with a line-editor for a final going-over prior to the full release date, which means that’s all I have left to do.
Wow. Letting go is hard. I feel both deflated and elated. How odd.
http://wp.me/p4DeFG-4Y
To Change the Title?
Original Blog: http://wp.me/p4DeFG-5b
A few weeks ago I belatedly Googled the name of my book, Never the Sinner, hoping to be directed to my brand-spanking-new website (this one), at which point two things became apparent.
1) I need to learn about SEO in more depth (that’s Search Engine Optimisation for the non-webby types out there)
2) There is another book in the world called Never the Sinner.
This was problematic for me, since I thought I’d already done this, but I reaslised I’d actually checked originally for the first title I came up with, which was NOT the Sinner. Somewhere along the way, Never the Sinner sounded better and it just stuck.
Never the Sinner: The Leopold and Loeb Story is the true story of a pair of “thrill killers” operating in 1920s Chicago. They kidnapped and murdered a 14 year-old boy largely to see if they could get away with it.
So, I thought, I’ll revert back to the original name before publishing. But but but – that just didn’t feel right. "Never the Sinner" is more forceful, smoother on the tongue, prettier when written down. Never is all the things Not isn’t.
I asked a couple of forums and people were nice enough to try and help, but rather predictably I got the mix of “Yes, absolutely change it” and “Nah, it’s not that important.”
My first instinct was to change it. That’s what makes sense in my mind. Be different, be original. So I brainstormed ideas. I wanted to stick to similar ground, a Christian-sounding adage (since my protagonist is commited to that faith) but a titel that sounds like a crime novel (for that is what I’ve written). Never the Sinner jibed thematically with the content, with Detective Roland Recht hunting a killer, but with many other sins and sinners obstructing him.
Sins and Sinners! No, that sounds just too… I don’t know… religious. Too focused on judgement and people. This is a crime novel that features a Christian detective, not a Christian novel told through the medium of a detective. An important distinction.
I took a whole day to write down so many titles, so many ideas, and each one just felt WRONG for this. I don’t know if it’s simply because I’ve been too close to the project for too long, or if I’m being a stroppy artist who doesn’t like being told his ideas are lacking.
But then someone said to me, “Lots of books share titles. Don’t worry about it.”
“Huh,” I thought. “Maybe that’s right.”
It was the other half of that binary “yes”/”no” advice from a couple of forums. So I checked some generic titles on Amazon. On the front page only (UK site) I found:
5 x Kidnapped (9 if you include different editions of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel)
8 x Disappeared
3 x Killer
Note: I included in the count those with subtitles and with “The” and “A”.
How about other genres?
4 x Guardian
4 x Finding love
3 x Life
3 x Crusade (not including the pluralised “The Crusades” which pushes that up to 6)
So there are a lot of other books sharing titles, most of them also sharing the same genre. My Never the Sinner is crime fiction, while the other is True Crime and subtitled “The Leopold and Loeb Story”, so I think on that front I’m fairly safe.
I guess it comes down to how famous the other work is. If I wrote a novel about a bunch of prisoners refusing to eat, I couldn’t call it “The Hunger Games” or even simply “Hunger Games” even though it would be accurate and it would exist in a different genre.
The Leopold and Loeb Story is most famous as a play, one that is acted in high schools across America to this day, sometimes called “Thrill Me” but is also been performed as “Never the Sinner”, written by Samuel French (which is where, as far as I can tell, John Logan got the title for his book).
So how famous is the book? I think the answer is “not hugely”. It’s the sort of title, I think, many people will find sort-of, kind-of, maybe familiar, but not so much that they will aim a flaming finger my way and accuse me of riding the coattails of some classic auteur. After all, I came up with it myself, in isolation.
In conclusion, I’m keeping the title. It reflects the theme, hints at plot elements, matches the mood for which I am aiming, and does not infringe on an existing work in any meaningful way.
Do check it out. Purchase and sample options are on my novel’s main page http://wp.me/P4DeFG-p
A few weeks ago I belatedly Googled the name of my book, Never the Sinner, hoping to be directed to my brand-spanking-new website (this one), at which point two things became apparent.
1) I need to learn about SEO in more depth (that’s Search Engine Optimisation for the non-webby types out there)
2) There is another book in the world called Never the Sinner.
This was problematic for me, since I thought I’d already done this, but I reaslised I’d actually checked originally for the first title I came up with, which was NOT the Sinner. Somewhere along the way, Never the Sinner sounded better and it just stuck.
Never the Sinner: The Leopold and Loeb Story is the true story of a pair of “thrill killers” operating in 1920s Chicago. They kidnapped and murdered a 14 year-old boy largely to see if they could get away with it.
So, I thought, I’ll revert back to the original name before publishing. But but but – that just didn’t feel right. "Never the Sinner" is more forceful, smoother on the tongue, prettier when written down. Never is all the things Not isn’t.
I asked a couple of forums and people were nice enough to try and help, but rather predictably I got the mix of “Yes, absolutely change it” and “Nah, it’s not that important.”
My first instinct was to change it. That’s what makes sense in my mind. Be different, be original. So I brainstormed ideas. I wanted to stick to similar ground, a Christian-sounding adage (since my protagonist is commited to that faith) but a titel that sounds like a crime novel (for that is what I’ve written). Never the Sinner jibed thematically with the content, with Detective Roland Recht hunting a killer, but with many other sins and sinners obstructing him.
Sins and Sinners! No, that sounds just too… I don’t know… religious. Too focused on judgement and people. This is a crime novel that features a Christian detective, not a Christian novel told through the medium of a detective. An important distinction.
I took a whole day to write down so many titles, so many ideas, and each one just felt WRONG for this. I don’t know if it’s simply because I’ve been too close to the project for too long, or if I’m being a stroppy artist who doesn’t like being told his ideas are lacking.
But then someone said to me, “Lots of books share titles. Don’t worry about it.”
“Huh,” I thought. “Maybe that’s right.”
It was the other half of that binary “yes”/”no” advice from a couple of forums. So I checked some generic titles on Amazon. On the front page only (UK site) I found:
5 x Kidnapped (9 if you include different editions of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel)
8 x Disappeared
3 x Killer
Note: I included in the count those with subtitles and with “The” and “A”.
How about other genres?
4 x Guardian
4 x Finding love
3 x Life
3 x Crusade (not including the pluralised “The Crusades” which pushes that up to 6)
So there are a lot of other books sharing titles, most of them also sharing the same genre. My Never the Sinner is crime fiction, while the other is True Crime and subtitled “The Leopold and Loeb Story”, so I think on that front I’m fairly safe.
I guess it comes down to how famous the other work is. If I wrote a novel about a bunch of prisoners refusing to eat, I couldn’t call it “The Hunger Games” or even simply “Hunger Games” even though it would be accurate and it would exist in a different genre.
The Leopold and Loeb Story is most famous as a play, one that is acted in high schools across America to this day, sometimes called “Thrill Me” but is also been performed as “Never the Sinner”, written by Samuel French (which is where, as far as I can tell, John Logan got the title for his book).
So how famous is the book? I think the answer is “not hugely”. It’s the sort of title, I think, many people will find sort-of, kind-of, maybe familiar, but not so much that they will aim a flaming finger my way and accuse me of riding the coattails of some classic auteur. After all, I came up with it myself, in isolation.
In conclusion, I’m keeping the title. It reflects the theme, hints at plot elements, matches the mood for which I am aiming, and does not infringe on an existing work in any meaningful way.
Do check it out. Purchase and sample options are on my novel’s main page http://wp.me/P4DeFG-p
Should I use the #ChristFic hashtag for Never the Sinner?
I wrote my first novel, Never the Sinner, as a straight detective story, a police procedural where the protagonist, Roland Recht, happens to be a devout Christian who believes in the absolute word of the Bible. People have since asked me if it’s a “Christian” novel.
My knee-jerk answer was “no”, because I never considered it such while I was writing it.
However, after looking around the web, I have discovered there are a lot of sub-genres, which branch into romance, mystery, sci-fi, and even horror. So, much like when Netflix lumps all non-English language films into one category (a major bug-bear of mine), Christian fiction can cross over into many genres, the only stipulation is that it reflects Christianity in its plot, or heavily in its themes. Also, no swearing, sex or gratuitous violence.
Therefore, my novel is not suitable to list in that category.
But there’s another twist: Christian viewpoint fiction.
This is where the Christian protagonist relies on his faith to drive him through the plot. It is what makes him (or her), him (or her… let’s just go with “him” for now, okay?). There are no holy moments, no direct interaction with Jesus or overt miracles occurring. It’s just a Christian person, living in the real world, surrounded with a genre plot.
Never the Sinner most certainly fits that category. Here is my pitch:
A dead cult leader
Friends and allies keeping secrets
A devout detective seeking the truth
For almost two years, the Congregation of Saul lived in near isolation awaiting God’s judgment upon the Earth. But when His wrath failed to materialize, the group fractured and started to disband. Now, with only a handful of devotees remaining on the compound, their leader has been tortured to death, and the only witness is the group’s newest and youngest follower.
As Detective Roland Recht investigates the alleged cult, it seems obvious that a former member must be responsible. However, after Recht suffers an off-duty personal attack, he and his partner follow the trail from their small Nevada town to the heart of Reno, where the truth behind the murder grows murkier at every turn.
Soon, Recht’s superiors and even the FBI push to close the case quickly and with the minimum political fallout, but Recht’s devout Christian beliefs drive his conscience in a different direction, forcing him to choose between true justice and the need to see justice done.
___________________________________________
The question is, “Should I use the #ChristFic hashtag for Never the Sinner?”
Well, that’s tricky. My dilemma is that Never the Sinner has swearing in it – quite a lot. I mean, it’s not Tarrantino or the Coen Brothers, but it features hard-bitten atheist cops, gangsters, general lowlives, racists, and an frightened young cult member who witnesses a murder. It has no sex “on-screen” so to speak, and the violence is not teeth-grindingly gratuitous (also it’s fairly sparse).
BUT – it does maintain the Christian protagonist’s perspective for 90%+ of the novel, switching only briefly to other POVs to move character forward.
So with that in mind, I think I can justifiably use the #ChristFic hashtag, albeit directing those who click on it to THIS page, so they know what they are getting into.
I really hope that readers from all faiths enjoy Never the Sinner – atheist, agnostic, Christian or whatever faith you subscribe to. It was written with people who enjoy genre crime fiction in mind, fans of the murder-mystery and police procedural. But if it crosses over into new territory, that’s great.
___________________________________________
Never the Sinner will be released fully on Sept 6th from most retailers of electronic books priced at $2.99 including pre-orders from:
Amazon (U.S.) http://is.gd/8XDlRD
Amazon (U.K.) http://is.gd/9mAd1M
B&N (Nook) http://is.gd/EctWbY
Kobo http://is.gd/MFYI0o
Apple iBooks http://is.gd/Rix0CR
Smashwords (for samples only until Sept 6) http://is.gd/SUTVXc
My knee-jerk answer was “no”, because I never considered it such while I was writing it.
However, after looking around the web, I have discovered there are a lot of sub-genres, which branch into romance, mystery, sci-fi, and even horror. So, much like when Netflix lumps all non-English language films into one category (a major bug-bear of mine), Christian fiction can cross over into many genres, the only stipulation is that it reflects Christianity in its plot, or heavily in its themes. Also, no swearing, sex or gratuitous violence.
Therefore, my novel is not suitable to list in that category.
But there’s another twist: Christian viewpoint fiction.
This is where the Christian protagonist relies on his faith to drive him through the plot. It is what makes him (or her), him (or her… let’s just go with “him” for now, okay?). There are no holy moments, no direct interaction with Jesus or overt miracles occurring. It’s just a Christian person, living in the real world, surrounded with a genre plot.
Never the Sinner most certainly fits that category. Here is my pitch:
A dead cult leader
Friends and allies keeping secrets
A devout detective seeking the truth
For almost two years, the Congregation of Saul lived in near isolation awaiting God’s judgment upon the Earth. But when His wrath failed to materialize, the group fractured and started to disband. Now, with only a handful of devotees remaining on the compound, their leader has been tortured to death, and the only witness is the group’s newest and youngest follower.
As Detective Roland Recht investigates the alleged cult, it seems obvious that a former member must be responsible. However, after Recht suffers an off-duty personal attack, he and his partner follow the trail from their small Nevada town to the heart of Reno, where the truth behind the murder grows murkier at every turn.
Soon, Recht’s superiors and even the FBI push to close the case quickly and with the minimum political fallout, but Recht’s devout Christian beliefs drive his conscience in a different direction, forcing him to choose between true justice and the need to see justice done.
___________________________________________
The question is, “Should I use the #ChristFic hashtag for Never the Sinner?”
Well, that’s tricky. My dilemma is that Never the Sinner has swearing in it – quite a lot. I mean, it’s not Tarrantino or the Coen Brothers, but it features hard-bitten atheist cops, gangsters, general lowlives, racists, and an frightened young cult member who witnesses a murder. It has no sex “on-screen” so to speak, and the violence is not teeth-grindingly gratuitous (also it’s fairly sparse).
BUT – it does maintain the Christian protagonist’s perspective for 90%+ of the novel, switching only briefly to other POVs to move character forward.
So with that in mind, I think I can justifiably use the #ChristFic hashtag, albeit directing those who click on it to THIS page, so they know what they are getting into.
I really hope that readers from all faiths enjoy Never the Sinner – atheist, agnostic, Christian or whatever faith you subscribe to. It was written with people who enjoy genre crime fiction in mind, fans of the murder-mystery and police procedural. But if it crosses over into new territory, that’s great.
___________________________________________
Never the Sinner will be released fully on Sept 6th from most retailers of electronic books priced at $2.99 including pre-orders from:
Amazon (U.S.) http://is.gd/8XDlRD
Amazon (U.K.) http://is.gd/9mAd1M
B&N (Nook) http://is.gd/EctWbY
Kobo http://is.gd/MFYI0o
Apple iBooks http://is.gd/Rix0CR
Smashwords (for samples only until Sept 6) http://is.gd/SUTVXc
