Writing Forum

I need to take a look at your two stories. I finally got a book called, "Miserere, An Autumn Tale" from the library that I'm busily reading now. It is very deeply immersed in at least a patina of religious terminologies. It supposes a Woerld (the name for the place) between hell and our own plane of existance that fights magical and medieval wars against the forces of Hell, bent on conquering Woerld then giving them access to Earth and finally to Heaven.

This is Teresa Frohock's first book and despite a few obvious typographical errors it has been very involving. It does make my point though, in a sense. Frohock's fantasy world is close enough and uses enough elements from our real world that it seems to be making clear comments on religion, many that I don't agree with. Is it necessary? I'm undecided.

I wrote a story that involved a Christian monk character facing a magical creature. I confess I had to hack it to pieces to make it fit the length requirements of the contest and it did not translate well, but the two reviews I got were very different. One insisted more than once that the story wasn't their cup of tea and rated it down, but the other was very positive and this reviewer shared the outlook of the character, namely Christianity.

I suspect that when religion is involved, unless one is VERY careful, your reader can find your message not to their taste. I suspect if I was to extend my story to the novella length I think it would best fit into, my first reviewer would hate it as much or more and my second would sing its praise. I'm not sure of that because of the horrible mess I made of the edited down version, but I think I'm probably correct.

Looking forward to your stories,

LSO