C.S. Elston

Worshipper, Husband, Author, Screenwriter, Home Cook, Fan

My Intended Audience

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I have slowly been rolling out my answers to questions I received in an interview I did on Twitter back in November for #MounceChat / #HealthyFaith. This post is a continuation of that rollout.

A little over half way through the interview, a participant named Rachael Colby asked me, “Who is your audience? What age? Are they written for the Christian market, secular or both?” Here is how I responded:

I’d say “The Four Corners” series is written for kids older than eight. My wife is a teacher and she helped me put together a literary unit for schools which is a free download on the publisher’s website. We wrote a group Bible Study for families for that one, as well, which is also a free download. And, for the record, I know that a lot of adults have enjoyed the book, too.

Similarly, “The Gift of the Elements” series is written for teenagers and above but, I’ve had adults tell me that “The Gift of Tyler” is their favorite book. Hopefully, they feel the same way about “The Gift of Rio” and the others that haven’t come out yet.

The next series I’m planning (which is several books away) will be mostly for adults but,

I do like writing for a younger audience. Also, my hope (carried over from the earlier questions about faith and defining Christian novels) is that my books can be enjoyed by both Christian and secular audiences but, my faith is so much of who I am that I have reached a point in my life and my walk that I refuse to hide it and I’m sure some people will be turned off by that while others will identify with and appreciate it.

At this point in the interview, a participant called @mim526 joined in and asked, “I noticed in the description of The Gift of Rio that it’s chronologically book 1. For someone new to your books, do you recommend reading it first or after the Gift of Tyler?” Here is how I responded to their follow up:

The first four “The Gift of the Elements” books are stand-alone stories that are all connected but can be read in any order. “The Gift of Tyler” was the first book but the events in it technically happen fourth. You’re good either way.

I hope those questions and answers clear things up for people. More (from both the Twitter interview and elsewhere) to come!

The Influence of My Faith in My Storytelling

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I have been posting my answers to an interview I did on Twitter back in November for #MounceChat (which I believe has since merged with #HealthyFaith.) As I mentioned previously, this started because a participant, Rachael Colby, suggested I turn some of the questions and answers into blog posts. Solid advice. Since the third question was on a topic I have covered in a previous blog post, I’m going to skip ahead to the fourth question I was asked which was, “How does your faith influence your writing?? Here was my response:

C.S. Lewis said, “To love at all is to be vulnerable.” I think the same can be said of writing because to write at all is to expose yourself to your reader. My faith is who I am so, it comes out very naturally in my writing.

I grew up thinking that Christian music, movies and novels were mostly pretty cheesy. And, to be fair, a lot of it is. Certainly, a lot of it was. But, when I was younger, that caused me to run away from it instead of becoming someone who could try and improve upon what was out there. In my youth, I said I would always be a Christian and a writer but, I would never be a Christian writer.

So, on a number of projects I actually made an effort to write and keep certain things from coming off as “Christian.” But, it always felt dishonest because I was holding back a huge part of who I am. I used the excuse that Jesus came to heal the sick, not the healthy. It’s a truth Satan can twist to distract us from our mission.

Shortly before I started writing novels I began to realize that’s the same excuse people use when they water down the gospel or become preachers for selfish gain instead of fully giving themselves over to the Lord to be used by God the way God chooses. Contrary to what our attitudes sometimes suggest, He doesn’t need any help in deciding how to handle anything. To suggest otherwise would be to pretend we belong on that throne. Scary thought.

It’s a struggle everyone has because it’s the essence of sin itself. It’s pride and it’s wrong. What He wants, instead, is for us to let go and allow Him full access and full control. So, I’ve finally embraced it. It’s a decision that brings peace.

I’ve been encouraged as Christian music and even Christian movies have gotten better. But, I’ve also gotten closer to the Lord since I got married and now it feels like to hide that part of who I am would be to hide the whole of me. Quite frankly, if I did that, I don’t think my writing would be any good at all. I think that embrace really shows in my most recent book, “The Gift of Rio” more than in anything else I’ve ever written. Some of the people close to me, who have read most of the things I’ve written over the years, have told me that they think it’s the best thing I’ve written to date. I know this, it’s the most personal. And, that typically makes the writing better.

The Kind of Stories I Most Enjoy Telling

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As I mentioned a few posts ago, I did a #MounceChat interview on Twitter back in November and a participant, Racheal Colby, suggested I turn some of the questions and answers into blog posts. This is the second time I am taking her advice. The second question I was asked was, “What kind of stories do you most like to tell?” Here was my response:

I’ve always had a wide array of tastes. I like music from just about every genre (as is evident in a number of my blog posts) and the same is true of books and movies that I read and watch. So, of course, that greatly influences what I write.

As a screenwriter, I had the opportunity to try my hand at just about every genre out there. I hope that the same can be said when I’ve written all of the books I’m going to write. However, so far, with only three books under my belt, I have pretty much stayed in the fantasy lane. Not Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones type of fantasy – although I am a big LOTR fan – but fantasy nonetheless.

My first book, The Four Corners, I’ve always put in the same category as the Narnia books. Others have compared it to Bridge to Terabithia and A Wrinkle in Time. I hadn’t read either of those when I wrote it but, I’ve read the latter since and I can see why that comparison has been made.

The Four Corners starts with a family that is falling apart at the seams. The parents have essentially fallen out of love with one another and the oldest child, their daughter, is practically raising her younger brother on her own. When the young boy, Kinsey, hears the word “divorce” finally uttered in the midst of a screaming match, the emotions he has been bottling for years finally explode out of him and open a door that transports him to another world. When his sister and his parents go looking for him, they are transported to that world as well.

In this strange place, controlled by a demon named Raum, they are all separated onto different islands where they meet other people in their own gender and age categories who are also separated from their respective families. This gives them the opportunity to realize how much they love and miss one another and it becomes a story of finding their way back to one another.

My 2nd and 3rd books are a little trickier when it comes to finding comparisons. They are each part of the same series and I haven’t found too many novels that I think are accurate comparisons. They blend elements from stories in other media forms that I think work better. An example would be the 1995 movie Powder and even some comic books like Spider-Man, Superman and the X-Men.

In a nutshell, each of the first four books in the series are stand-alone stories about one person per book who begins to develop the ability to control an element. The first two are Tyler, who controls earth, and Rio, who controls water. Next will be Mattias who controls fire and then Amanda who controls the wind. It’s their journey in discovering who they are and why they were created. Their purpose is to show this fallen world that miracles still happen and that God, who gave them these abilities, still loves us.

But, I also have books I plan to write that are nowhere near the fantasy genre. I just haven’t gotten to any of them yet. I’m a planner by nature so, I already know the next 5 books I’m planning to write and one of them does happen to be one of those from outside of the fantasy genre.

Stay tuned . . .

When I Knew I wanted To Write Fiction

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I recently did a Twitter #MounceChat interview and a participant, Racheal Colby, suggested that I turn some of the questions and answers into blog posts. I’m taking her advice and thought, why not start with the very first question which was “When did you decide you wanted to be a fiction author?” So, following her advice, here was my response:

I was a very imaginative child. Whether I was playing with matchbox cars or out in the woods with friends (or, even alone) I was always creating plot. I didn’t know what it was called back then. But, that’s exactly what I was doing. One of those plots, I later thought about turning into a screenplay. Then Pixar made Cars and I decided that I didn’t want to look like a copycat.

As soon as I began to learn how to read, I started writing stories down. I was also an athletic kid so, if the weather permitted, I was outside throwing or kicking a ball. But, growing up in the suburbs of Seattle, a lot of days were rainy. On those days, I was inside writing. I tried to get my friends to write with me. They accommodated me at times but, for the most part, I was the only one truly interested. While I thought of myself as one of the neighborhood jocks, I suppose I was also one of the neighborhood nerds.

All that to say, I think I always wanted to write fiction. Even before I knew what that truly meant. I said I was going to be an author from the time I was a little boy. I took a detour when I fell in love with movies and became a screenwriter. But, then I met Andrea (now my wife) and decided to move back to my hometown and write my first novel. Three books later, that’s now what I’m doing full-time and I’d be happy if I never did anything else.