I'm sitting here, listening to Michael W. Smith's song, Christmastime, while I type away. Then I always skip ahead to We Three Kings. They tie into each other so well. The design of the artist, to be sure.
Despite the theological and historical issues I have with the lyrics of We Three Kings, I still like the music, especially this version. Maybe it's because there are no lyrics sung in this particular rendition.
This little song list dance I play reminds me, every year around this time, how much being biblically accurate and theologically sound matters to the King of Heaven. There will be a great many folks - good-intentioned souls, mind you - standing before Jesus someday, convinced that they have been servants worthy of God. They probably are fans of the lyrics to songs like We Three Kings too. Sadly, though, despite their busyness, they will find out - too late - that they were biblically and theologically in error (Matthew 7:21-29). Wrong thinking does not lead to righteous living, no matter how good it sounds to the human ear.
Therefore, I am challenged again, to dedicate myself to the God Who became flesh, Emmanuel. Like John the Baptist, I must decrease so He can increase. I must become a beggar, poor in spirit, so I can begin to taste the Kingdom of Heaven. I must mourn over my sin, for it is then and only then when I can be comforted. I must become humble and meek, like a bridled horse (power under the control of another), so I can inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. I must hunger and thirst for righteousness that is of God and His ways, for if I do, I will be filled without limit. I must be merciful, remembering what a poor beggar I really am so that I can be shown mercy at the throne of the Almighty. I must be pure in heart if I wish to see God both now and forevermore. I must be a peacemaker, bringing the only thing to people that can bring about peace, the gospel of Christ, for it is the pathway to the only true peace that exists on this angry globe. If I do this, then God will call me His child. Then, I must be willing to be persecuted, which should not be surprising after bringing the gospel of peace to that angry world who hated my Lord so much, they saw to it He was put to death for delivering that gospel the very first time. I must rejoice and be glad because if I live thusly, my reward in heaven will be great (Matthew 5:3-12).
Being a believer in the Babe from Bethlehem is not for the strong and mighty.
It's for the weak and lowly. So they can become strong and mighty in the righteousness of God.
From all of us at ckevinthompson.com, may the King of kings and Lord of lords become that real to you this holiday season!
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Now, that brings us to our latest guest to the stable of ABTS writers we have amassed over the last five years! Please welcome fellow Scrivenings Press author, Suzanne Bratcher!
To kick us off, in ABTS fashion, Suzanne, give us a quick bio. In fifty words or less, who is Suzanne Bratcher?
Jerome, AZ; Chaco Canyon, NM; and the hills around Pikes Peak, CO. Adventures sparked by a mystery, the stories grow from these unique settings.
Ah...from one snowbird capital (where I live) to another (where you live), thanks for being willing to take some time to help our readers get to know you.
Tell us about your educational background.
I probably have more education than is good for anyone! My family moved three times while I was growing up, so I went to two high schools: Shawnee Mission East in Overland Park, Kansas, and Waynesboro High School in Waynesboro, Virginia. I also went to two colleges while I was working on my Bachelor’s degree. I attended The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, my freshman year because my family was living in Virginia when I graduated from high school. I qualified for in-state tuition, and I loved wandering around colonial Williamsburg that year. But the social life at William and Mary revolved around campus fraternities and sororities and lots of alcohol. Because I didn’t drink, I had a hard time making friends. My sophomore year I transferred to Baylor University in Waco, Texas. At Baylor the social life revolved around church activities, so I enjoyed my time there. Over the next fifteen years I went to three graduate schools. After five years of teaching, I began a Master’s degree at Baylor. Three years later I completed the degree at the University of Louisville in Kentucky. Shortly after that, I took a job in the English department at Northern Arizona University and was told I needed to get a doctorate. Over the next five years, I completed a Ph.D. at Texas Woman’s University in Denton, Texas. I was an English teacher all the years I was in school, so taking classes became an integral part of my life. When I finally finished my doctorate, I wondered what I was going to do with the extra time I suddenly had.
Wow. That's a lot of school and traveling. So, if you had your life to live over again, besides being an author (which we guess would be your obvious answer), what profession would you choose? (And semi-professional student doesn't count.) :-)
If I could go back in time and be something other than a teacher, I’d work with plants. I might own my own plant nursery, I might work in a botanical garden, or I might be a landscaper. Whenever I’m frustrated or upset, I head for the nearest nursery, even if it’s just the outdoor area of my neighborhood hardware store. I prowl up and down the aisles looking for an exciting new variety of ivy or the comfort of an old favorite like a red geranium. I might work with xeriscaping--gardening without extra water, a real necessity in the dry Southwest. For years one of my favorite places in Flagstaff, Arizona, was the Native Plant and Seed Company. There I discovered ground covers, deciduous trees, and colorful flowers that thrive in the high desert. I’ve always had a garden or planters filled with a constantly-changing variety of plants. Over the years I’ve lived in the mountains of Colorado, on the plains of Kansas, in the desert of Arizona, and even on the seashore on Guam. Everywhere I’ve lived, I’ve enjoyed learning the names of the native plants and trees. These days I live in an apartment, but I have plants growing in front of a bay window, including one enthusiastic Begonia, that I have to keep cutting back. I can’t bear to throw away the leaves, so I put them in water until they root and then give the new plants to friends and neighbors.
Besides storytelling, what talents do you have?
I don’t know if I would call making quilts a talent because I learned how to design and piece quilts by taking classes—many of them twice! When I was in school, geometry was the one class I almost failed, and quilt patterns are based on geometry. It hasn’t been easy to get good at making quilts, but I love bright colors and a variety of patterns. Whenever I walk into a quilt shop, I get the same feeling I had as a child walking into a toy store: there’s always something new to play with. In the last thirty-five years, I’ve made probably a hundred quilts. I still cut beautiful fabrics into squares and triangles and piece them together in new patterns, but I’ve downsized from queen bed quilts to wall hangings and pillow shams.
"Math. Why did it have to be math?" (That was the real line in the first Indiana Jones movie, I think, but they changed it to snakes. Just kidding.)
Of all the stories/books you have written, which one is your favorite? And what compelled you to write this story?
I guess I’d pick Kokopelli’s Song. Kokopelli is an ancient petroglyph of a flute player carved in rocks along trails from the tip of South America up into Canada. His song is, of course, a mystery. The title Kokopelli’s Song knocked around in my head for two or three years. I finally discovered found the story to go with the title at Chaco Culture National Park in New Mexico. I first visited Chaco driving from Arizona to Colorado. I saw the park on my map and decided to stop. I was amazed at the ancient ceremonial center I saw there. Built in 850 CE, people came from the four corners states and as far away as California to attend religious ceremonies. The center was active for four hundred years. The buildings are in ruins, of course, but you can still see three-story walls, and the outline of many kivas, or ceremonial centers. Intrigued by Chaco, I returned twice and read archaeological research. I also visited satellite sites that were part of the Chaco culture. The Young Adult novel that emerged follows three teens (Amy, Mahu, and Diego) as they race against a waxing moon to prevent ancient evil from entering our world and tipping the universe into chaos. Like a fairy tale, the story takes place in our contemporary world. It was a delightful book to write, and I was thrilled when Kokopelli’s Song won first place in YA in the prestigious Selah Awards (2021).
Congratulations!!
So, tell us about what project you are currently working on.
Right now I’m working on Tommyknocker’s Gold, the next book in the four corners folklore fantasy series. (Kokopelli’s Song, set in New Mexico was the first book in the series.) Tommyknocker’s Gold is set in Colorado, another of the four corners states: New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah. Like Kokopelli’s Song, it’s a young adult novel that revolves around a character from folklore. Instead of a petroglyph, however, this character descended from the Irish leprechaun. Like a leprechaun, a tommyknocker is a tiny magical creature with a hammer. But instead of a hammer for mending shoes, the tommyknocker carries a miner’s hammer. A tommyknocker is every bit as unreliable as a leprechaun sometimes leading a miner to a rich deposit of ore, sometimes to an empty mine shaft, where the unlucky miner falls to his death. Like all my books, the contemporary mystery is sprinkled with history, this time the history of the Irish who came to Colorado during the potato famine. It’s early days in the writing process, but Tommyknocker’s Gold promises to be another fun adventure.
Sounds interesting, as does its predecessor.
Readers like to know what writers do during the day. Tell us about your writing day. How do you go about making the blank page come alive?
When I first retired from teaching, I wrote from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. every morning and from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. most afternoons. Three years after I retired, I was diagnosed with Relapsing-Remitting Multiple Sclerosis. When I was in remission (a lot of the time) I kept to that writing schedule. But MS is a progressive disease, and I’ve entered the Secondary Progressive stage. Now my energy is different every day. Some days I can write for two hours; other days fifteen minutes is all I can manage. Some days I sit at the computer and write. Other days I sit in my recliner and dictate words that become a rough draft. Some days I begin writing at 2:30 p.m. Other days I don’t start until 4:00 p.m. I’ve had to learn to be flexible! When I was writing four hours a day, I could complete a book in one year. After my MS diagnosis, I needed two years to write each of the first two books in the Jerome Mysteries Trilogy, The Copper Box and The Silver Lode. My most recent book, The Gold Doubloons (Book 3) took three years. I’m writing more slowly these days, but I’m still writing!
So sorry to hear this. However, blessed are the flexible, for they will never bent out of shape. Right? :-)
Has your writing crossed over into other areas? If so, how? If not, will it?
During the thirty-five years I was a teacher, except for
poems and a handful of short stories, I wrote nonfiction. Besides hundreds of
handouts, I wrote dozens of articles for professional journals and three
textbooks about teaching writing. Since I retired from teaching, I’ve focused
on writing fiction. In the last couple of months, however, I’ve started
outlining a nonfiction book, tentatively called Starting from Setting: Another Way to Imagine a Story. Based on a
workshop I’ve given to writers, the book looks at how to develop characters and
a plot from setting, rather than the other way around. So far all of my novels
have started this way. I got the idea for My Jerome Mysteries Trilogy (The
Copper Box, The Silver Lode, and The Gold Doubloons) in the very real
town of Jerome, Arizona. In the same way, I got the idea for Kokopelli’s Song began in Chaco Canyon,
New Mexico. And the story for Tommyknocker’s
Gold started when I was hiking in the hills around Pike’s Peak, Colorado.
Most writers have been taught to begin either with characters or plot, so
starting from a setting offers an interesting alternative.
You've talked a lot about where you have lived and currently reside. Why do you live where you do?
I live in Prescott Valley, Arizona, a town of about fifty thousand. The most important reason I live here instead of in Arkansas (where I lived until a year ago) is that it’s only an hour and a half from where my daughter and her family live in Phoenix. When I relocated, I chose Prescott Valley because it sits at five thousand feet, four thousand feet higher than Phoenix. (Altitude is important in Arizona because it determines climate.) Phoenix, of course, is in the desert, and summer temperatures regularly climb above 110. But less than a hundred miles from Phoenix here in Prescott Valley, summer temperatures rarely go above 90. Since heat makes my MS much worse, Phoenix wasn’t a good choice. A third reason I live where I do is that I can watch the sun come up over Mingus Mountain (where Jerome is).
What Bible scripture has impacted your life the most, and why?
I suppose the scripture that has impacted my life the most is Romans 8:38-39: For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
I think most people cling to this scripture because it promises that death won’t separate us from God’s love. But for me, the critical promise has been that life can’t separate us from God’s love. My grandparents were missionaries, and when I was a teenager, I felt called to follow in their footsteps. But except for occasional mission trips, I’ve never been a missionary. I also believed I would get married and be a stay-at-home mom with three or four kids. That didn’t happen either. I’ve been married and divorced twice. I have one child that my ex-husband raised. I taught my entire working life. My life has not conformed to what I believed God was calling me to. Every time I faced another rip in the fabric of my life, I clung to this scripture. Life, no matter what it threw at me, has never been able to separate me from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Suzanne, thank you for being a part of ABTS! Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers about you, or anything we didn’t cover?
I’d like readers to know that I write for fun - both for readers and for me as I write. My books begin in an interesting setting as I imagine what sort of adventure could happen there that couldn’t happen anywhere else. Usually I find a mystery running through the adventure because mysteries keep characters (and readers) guessing: who isn’t what he/she seems? As the adventure unfolds, I discover the theme embedded in the story. Often, as I look back at a book I’ve written, I see that I was working out a personal faith challenge. For example, in The Copper Box, Marty and Paul were both paralyzed by the past. The theme that emerged was the Apostle Paul’s example of putting the past behind so he could run the race God was calling him to (Philippians 3:13b-14). Because my life has taken so many unwelcome turns, I’m sometimes tempted to be paralyzed by the past. And as my MS has progressed, I’ve had to give up hiking and travel, two activities I really enjoy. Writing provides me with a reflection of past fun as I imagine myself with my characters. In Kokopelli’s Song and The Gold Doubloons I explored ancient ruins. In The Silver Lode it was abandoned mine tunnels. In The Copper Box it was an old Victorian house and a big hotel. I hope my readers have as much fun reading my stories as I have writing them, and I hope in the process they are encouraged in their faith journey.
Readers, if you want to find out more about Suzanne and her writing, you can find her at these
"cyberspatial" locations:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorsuzannebratcher/
Website: https://suzannebratcher.com
Because our next guest won't be until March 2023, here's wishing everyone a blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Kevin
PS - And in case you didn't know, I also had a new book come out a few days ago! It's called The Near Distant, a novella series with two other Scrivenings Press authors, Erin Howard and Brett Armstrong. It would make a great Christmas gift for a Young Adult reader in your family, or a regular adult too!
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