GUIDELINES FOR WRITING CHRISTIAN FICTION - C E Maychild - One Free Book

What would you like for readers to know about you personally?

C.E. Maychild is my pen name. Currently I'm residing in Nigeria, West Africa, where I make home and run a Christian Writing and Publishing Programme to help raise and nurture Christian fiction writers who will fill that part of the world with the light of hope through the stories they tell.

Besides mentoring writers, missions is my other passion. I looking forward to spend the next few years traveling all over English-speaking West Africa sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, eating unfamiliar foods and, hopefully, picking up authentic story ideas.

Have you written other non-fiction books?

Yes, I have written a small volume titled Raising Godly Teens and edited a work of poetry, A Writer's Apology, which is a book of Christian poetry in free verse originally presented the author's note in John Bunyan's classic, The Pilgrim's Progress.

It was while I was working on issuing the abridged version of the book to be used as Christian Literature in schools and colleges in West Africa that I fell in love with the resplendent poetry tucked away in its preface and I wanted so much to share it. It is often left out of newer editions of the book, but in it the writer sets forth his struggle with his reason for putting pen to paper. It is his attempt to justify his motives. Oh, I cried and laughed quite a bit on this project. I could absolutely relate with all those voices in one's head, and external ones too, telling you it is all meaningless writing stories when the world was dying and beset with all these other serious issues. I know that a lot of other writers can too!

Do you have any other books in the works?

I have gone back to my project on The Pilgrim's Progress which I hope to complete in the late Fall. It's coming along slowly as I also have to facilitate our annual online Christian Creative Writing Workshop at this time and keep a part-time job. Hopefully I can make the November deadline. 

What kinds of hobbies and leisure activities do you enjoy?

I am not a very outdoorsy person but I enjoy an occasional game of squash rackets. I love to bake and cook. Whenever I taste something new which I like I want to know how to prepare it. I experiment a lot with food.

Why did you write the featured book?

I had the idea to put together the lesson notes for the online workshop I mentioned facilitating earlier because I wanted more space to share more than just a few salient points on creative writing with my students. I also wanted to provide more of the writing and reading activities which are such a hit on the workshop, and also provide more illustrations than there was room enough for on a workshop forum.

The other thing was that in the course of facilitating this workshop, I was confronted with the reality that some of the people who applied to the workshop came with the fancy idea of becoming famous and world-acclaimed writers. I really wanted to address that issue and speak to their hearts about the real import of writing Christian fiction. Again, there didn't seem to be room enough for this on the workshop itself so I had written a separate treatise on what it means to be a Christian fiction writer and the notion that God does indeed call people to write “mere” stories, and basically letting those interested in writing Christian fiction know that the call to write fiction is a call to affect lives and point people to the Lord rather than to self. So, that became Part One of the book, Guidelines for Writing Christian Fiction: A Comprehensive Help for Aspiring Authors, which I give away as a 5-chapter Free Sample E-book on the workshop (the last of the free sample chapters is a creative writing one). Part Two (about twenty-one chapters) is purely creative writing topics. Well, so, before I knew it, I had a 460-paged book on my hands!

What do you want your readers to take away from the book?

I hope that readers will be better off in their writing for reading Guidelines for Writing Christian Fiction, but I want also to see their hearts in the right place as they sit at their desks toiling over their stories. I want so that all will not be in vain when our works are tried by fire, and our oeuvres will show themselves of a commendable sort, able to withstand the fire of judgment wherein the things we do for the Lord will be tried in the last day (I Co. 3: 13).

Is there anything you'd like to tell my readers about you or your book?

I also co-own a newly established small publishing house, Cedar and Cypress Publishing Co., where we offer all the boutique author services usually provided by a publishing house. We will also be outsourcing those services to indie authors.

Guidelines for Writing Christian Fiction: A Comprehensive Help for Aspiring Authors is published in-house.

Where on the internet can the readers find you?

I can be reached by e-mail on: authormaychild@gmail.com

Or contact me through the W and P Programme website at www.christianmonthlylibrary.org

The book can be found online here:

Amazon.com:

http://www.amazon.com/Guidelines-Writing-Christian-Fiction-Comprehensive/dp/9789366531/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1401647854&sr=8-1&keywords=Guidelines+for+Writing+Christian+Fiction

 Amazon Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JYCV69E

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