Dairy-Free

When Keven first presented the idea of the New Authors’ Fellowship alumni starting our own separate blog, I was totally on board. And then he proposed the title. I admit, I did like it, but my first thought was, “Cheesecake? Unfair! I can’t EAT cheesecake.” (Before you ask, I’ll go ahead and answer–no, I’m not “lactose intolerant.” I have a dairy allergy. No, I won’t stop breathing or anything, but I will get a killer sinus headache.)

My response to him: “Fine, I’ll be the ‘dairy-free’ person on the blog!”

Oddly, my little joke is actually quite appropriate.

BTW–Right now, if you go to the author page you’ll see four of us, but that will soon be increasing, and I am including the soon-to-be’s in my explanation as well.

We here are all Christian authors. You’ll know that because we tell you so, in our lives, in our posts, in our writing… Wait, no. Not entirely true on that last one for me. In my non-fiction writing, yes, but not so much my fiction. I tend to keep things subtle, if present at all.

If you look at the novels by my fellow writers here (and soon to be here) you will find direct references to God and Christ, or at the very least allegory that is recognizable by just about any Christian reader. But if you open my novel, you will have to dig much, much deeper.

My short story writing is much the same. I have exactly one  short story that has a direct reference to God, but every other one is either completely secular or uses symbolism that is subtle enough that the stories have been published in secular markets. In other words, my fiction generally does not come across as “Christian” even though I consider the stories Christian in their ultimate nature. I tend to write “Christian free Christian stories.”

Get it now? Cheesecake by nature must have dairy in it. Sheesh, it is the main ingredient when you think about it! And while Christ is the main ingredient in Christian fiction, my stories never reference Him directly, or even indirectly in many cases.

So it makes perfect sense that on a writers’ blog with a cheesecake theme I am the “dairy-free” one.

I’m used to it, though. I’ve  been the oddball in many situations. I’m lucky to have friends–like the authors here and at NAF–who accept me for (or despite) those oddities. Most of them are oddballs in their own ways as well, even if my oddities are different. We’re all word-nerds and speculative fiction fans, but…

I’m the only one with an obsession for beetles. I draw them, I wear them, I gaze adoringly at them any time I visit science museums. They are some of God’s coolest creations.

I’m also the biggest Whovian of the group. Yes, I have a t-shirt that says, “The Angels have the Phone Box,” an eleventh-Doctor sonic screwdriver, and a replica of the Tardis key.

I have more piercings than everyone else here put together. That’s a self-portrait over there to the left, although my hair has grown out since drawing it.

I’m not the only artist among us, but I’d bet I’m the only one who does faceless self-portraits.

The list could go on, but then so would the word count of this post. So I’ll leave you here. Glad to meet you if you’re new here, and thanks for following along if you originally found me on NAF.

Have a slice of cheesecake before you go…maybe you’re brave enough to try dairy-free?