Or even the deep twilight of a storm. One of my favorite songs that I sang in grade school choir was “Carol from an Irish Cabin.” In it, the singer asks that the light set in the window banish fears of the sea and storm, and “the star guide the lost and forsaken” safely to the door of the cabin. We don’t know who the lost is or are, but that’s not important. The light is what matters.

We tend to write to entertain. Or at least, the Mad Genii write to entertain and make a little pelf. We write to entertain, make a little pelf and …

Ahem. Where was I? Oh, yes.

I think one of the big trends I’ve seen in skimming tradpub and small press covers over the past four years or so is how … unfun … so many are. Not all, no, and I’m sure some readers find the stories encouraging or at least entertaining, but so many are about flawed people in horrible situations making depressing choices. They don’t strike me as fun, or encouraging. I’m not sure how many of the titles will ever become someone’s Golden Book.

A golden book is one that comforts, or encourages, or inspires people when they need it. It might be Fine Literature, or it might just be a great story that spoke to them when they needed it the most. Such books are candles in the darkness, little sparks that inspire and encourage, entertain and provide an escape, or a bit of hope. As authors, we don’t usually sit down at our desks intending to write a book that makes the world better, if only for a moment, for a reader. We want to tell fun stories, to entertain, and to earn a bit of money. And yet, for one reader, that story glows in the darkness.

Back several years ago, Sarah Hoyt bemoaned the rise of Grey Goo, the morally grey, anti-people, “woe is us the world is doomed because of us” stories that are often lauded by the critics. They might be wonderfully written, but often leave the reader (like me) feeling somewhat dingy and soiled. Everything’s terrible and getting worse, and it’s the reader’s fault, somehow. Climate change dystopias were big for a while, and zombies caused by a corporate research program that went wrong, or pollution kills the planet, or “pick any two.” The protagonist is often almost as bad as the antagonist. Sarah argued that we needed more of what she called Human Wave books, a branch of what John C. Wright and others called “superversive,” stories that encourage people as well as entertain. Readers don’t mind a dystopia if it gets cleaned up and fixed by good people. Happy endings, solid relationships, good families, virtue being rewarded and vice punished, that sort of thing. Lots of colors other than grey.

This year, a Feast of Lights and Christmas Eve for the western Christian Church coincide. Both are about light lasting in a world of darkness, light that comforts and encourages, that helps people continue fighting for what is good and right.

May your stories be someone’s Golden Book, a tale that encourages and inspires your reader while entertaining him.

Image source: Image by Ricco Stange from Pixabay