Michael Ehret loves to play with words and as the author of “Big Love,” a novella published by Scrivenings Press, he is enjoying his playground. Previous playgrounds include being the Managing Editor of the magazine ACFW Journal and the ezine Afictionado for seven years. He also plays with words as a freelance editor and has edited several nonfiction books, proof edited for Abingdon Press, worked in corporate communications, and reported for The Indianapolis Star.
Visit Michael Ehret online
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Big Love
Berly Charles remembers the days before her father was a successful business tycoon in Indianapolis. Growing up a razor’s edge from homelessness planted a tiny desire for home in her heart that she now, as the owner of Le Petite Maison, LLC, fills for others by building their tiny home ideals. Now she has the opportunity to take her tiny house company big time—is this the chance she’s been waiting for? Nathan “Rafe” Rafferty is a writer for the nationally reputed architecture journal who is used to calling his own shots and covering the biggest and the best architectural accomplishments of the modern world. But when his hipster, much younger, editor assigns him to cover a new trend—tiny houses—the assignment stirs unpleasant memories and thoughts of revenge.
- ISBN: 1649173814
- Publisher: Scrivenings Press
Interview with Michael Ehret
You wear many hats – many related to writing and editing. What led you in this direction?
Growing up and in school there was always one thing I was good at: Writing. But I never thought of it as a vocation. You can’t make any money at writing, you know.
In fact, I was told that early on: “You can’t make any money at writing, unless you’re insert famous horror writer here – and you’re not.” That unsolicited comment stifled my development for years. We need to be really careful about what we say to young people who are testing talents in various areas. Unkind, uninformed “advice” can be deadly.
But, regardless, writing was always the thing for me. I just didn’t know what it meant. Much, much later, as an adult, when I finally completed my 27-year bachelor’s degree, my professor, Kim Peterson, encouraged me in ways nobody ever had.
More than that, she forced me to join ACFW as part of my novel writing class. That’s where I finally found my people, my tribe. People who thought like me, heard voices in their heads, and sat about devising ways to cause trouble for those people.
The editing came later. In critique situations, I found I had the ability to constructively improve other writer’s prose without stifling their voice. As I pursued that, editing opportunities presented themselves. But it really started, again, with ACFW. I was allowed to be the assistant editor of a long ago newsletter. That job blossomed into the editor for several years, then editor of the print magazine (ACFW Journal) and a new ezine, Afictionado.
I loved those jobs and was very sad when they came to an end. But they led to others, some good, some not so good. God’s plan has been, and pretty much remains, a mystery to me. But I walk along, being as faithful as I’m able. And He leads.
Your website is “Writing on the Fine Line?” Tell me the story behind that and what it means?
I finally started a website when I was forced to. I was in between jobs in a location where I felt abandoned. So the website was an attempt to bring in some editing jobs—and money—during that time.
It was an abysmal failure because I’m a writer—self-promotion is difficult for us. LOL.
But I think the idea of the site was good, it was just my execution that lacked. As I was developing the site, I found this great quote:
“The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
George Bernard Shaw
That resonated with me as a Com/Marketing person and as a writer of fiction. You’ve heard the phrase, “There’s a fine line between ‘this’ and ‘that’.” I see fine lines everywhere. For instance, there’s a fine line between:
• Being ready for publication and being published.
• Having completed a manuscript and having that manuscript ready for publication.
• Having the desire to write and having the determination to complete a manuscript.
Imagine you’re a tightrope walker. The secret to keeping your balance, other than intense practice, is to focus on where you’re going. Look down and you’re history.
As Shaw suggests, there’s also a fine line in communication–that place where what you’re trying to say gets jumbled up with what the reader is hearing.
Are you getting through? Is your message clear? Writing on the fine line is tricky—but rewarding!
Who/What spurs you to write? Where do your story and character ideas come from?
I have this on my website:
“A lot of writers claim they have been writing, and/or reading, since early on, often spinning tales of stealing away to read with a flashlight under their sheets at night when they should have been sleeping.
“Or, they write in tortured prose about their art being driven by inner demons—alcohol, lack of self-worth, inner pain turned toward creativity, that kind of thing.
“Well, I really was sleeping. Not that I didn’t love to read–still do!–but I loved to sleep, too. And I am driven by an Inner Being—but He’s no demon. He’s the Son of the living God and Savior of the world. His name is Jesus Christ. I hope you see Him reflected in my writing and editing. If not, let me know.”
As to where my ideas come from. I wish I knew. I suspect they are often dredged up from the pit of things I’m afraid of and are my way of working through stuff. I’m a Seat of the Pants writer in the very truest sense. I sit down at the computer, pray, and start writing—no outline, no idea written down, no character descriptions, interviews, or any of the stuff people say helps them.
Except for the Lord, I am completely without “help” in my chair. If He doesn’t come through, the story doesn’t happen. I start at “A” and write to “Z.”
Tell us about this Novella. Characters, new epilogue and it being re-issued.
I love Big Love! I’ve loved it since I first wrote it for the self-published novella collection, “Coming Home,” with six ACFW friends. I’m so blessed that Scrivenings Press saw fit to publish it as a standalone novella.
Big Love tells the story of two people who faced homelessness in different forms as children and how those experiences shaped them. My female lead, Timberly “Berly” Charles, grows up to build tiny homes in Indianapolis for people who have no home. My male, Nathan “Rafe” Rafferty, is an egotistical writer for an Architectural Digest type magazine in Chicago who thinks reporting on the tiny home phenomenon is beneath him.
That is, until he realizes it may help him find the revenge he’s been looking for since he and his mother were made homeless by a bad investment.
In between Chicago and Indianapolis, right along I-65 the Interstate that connects them, is West Lafayette, the home of Purdue University and the location of one of architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s last Usonian style homes, Samara.
Samara, an actual place you can visit and tour (https://www.samara-house.org/), is the key location of the novella and the place where magic—and despair—happens.
While I loved the original ending of the novella (it’s still there, intact and unchanged), I’d been thinking there was more to Berly and Rafe’s story. This republication of Big Love was my opportunity to revisit my friends and carry them forward a bit with an Epilogue.
What do you think makes your style of storytelling unique?
I’m not afraid of trying things. My writer’s voice is risky. For instance, in Big Love, the chapters in Berly’s point of view are written in first person and the chapters in Rafe’s point of view are written in third.
I don’t write first person, generally, but when Berly started talking she would not be denied the immediacy if first person. Rafe, of course, is more reserved. It works really well. I think it works and I’ve been told it works.
I wouldn’t change a thing and I hope I can stay open to stepping into the open air and believing the floor will appear below my foot.
Reflecting back, what do you see as most significant to your publication journey?
At an ACFW conference I was about at the end of my writing journey. I really only went to see my friends. My writing was non existent. My career was dead. Lifeless. I’d been told “You’ll never be a writer.”
I don’t remember many of the details, but in a workshop with Allen Arnold, he handed out notebooks to each participant in which he had prayed, not knowing who the book was for, over what to inscribe in each one. I still tear up thinking about this workshop (not that I remember any of the content; I wasn’t there for the content. I was there for the notebook, though I didn’t know that.)
In my notebook, Allen had written: “Aslan is on the move.” That was a word of favor from God straight to my beaten up and nearly dead writer’s heart. It was still a long road back, but that day started the trip.
How do your faith and spiritual life play into the picture and affect your storytelling?
I work really hard to write my stories so that faith isn’t wedged in, it’s weaved in. I don’t move characters from lack of faith to faith. I don’t put in “salvation” episodes, those kinds of turning points.
My writing is anchored in Romans 12:2: Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
I write about not conforming. I write about being transformed, which I believe is a little step by little step process. My characters don’t have epiphanies, they move closer to the light.
Growing up and in school there was always one thing I was good at: Writing. But I never thought of it as a vocation. You can’t make any money at writing, you know.
In fact, I was told that early on: “You can’t make any money at writing, unless you’re insert famous horror writer here – and you’re not.” That unsolicited comment stifled my development for years. We need to be really careful about what we say to young people who are testing talents in various areas. Unkind, uninformed “advice” can be deadly.
But, regardless, writing was always the thing for me. I just didn’t know what it meant. Much, much later, as an adult, when I finally completed my 27-year bachelor’s degree, my professor, Kim Peterson, encouraged me in ways nobody ever had.
More than that, she forced me to join ACFW as part of my novel writing class. That’s where I finally found my people, my tribe. People who thought like me, heard voices in their heads, and sat about devising ways to cause trouble for those people.
The editing came later. In critique situations, I found I had the ability to constructively improve other writer’s prose without stifling their voice. As I pursued that, editing opportunities presented themselves. But it really started, again, with ACFW. I was allowed to be the assistant editor of a long ago newsletter. That job blossomed into the editor for several years, then editor of the print magazine (ACFW Journal) and a new ezine, Afictionado.
I loved those jobs and was very sad when they came to an end. But they led to others, some good, some not so good. God’s plan has been, and pretty much remains, a mystery to me. But I walk along, being as faithful as I’m able. And He leads.
Your website is “Writing on the Fine Line?” Tell me the story behind that and what it means?
I finally started a website when I was forced to. I was in between jobs in a location where I felt abandoned. So the website was an attempt to bring in some editing jobs—and money—during that time.
It was an abysmal failure because I’m a writer—self-promotion is difficult for us. LOL.
But I think the idea of the site was good, it was just my execution that lacked. As I was developing the site, I found this great quote:
“The single biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
George Bernard Shaw
That resonated with me as a Com/Marketing person and as a writer of fiction. You’ve heard the phrase, “There’s a fine line between ‘this’ and ‘that’.” I see fine lines everywhere. For instance, there’s a fine line between:
• Being ready for publication and being published.
• Having completed a manuscript and having that manuscript ready for publication.
• Having the desire to write and having the determination to complete a manuscript.
Imagine you’re a tightrope walker. The secret to keeping your balance, other than intense practice, is to focus on where you’re going. Look down and you’re history.
As Shaw suggests, there’s also a fine line in communication–that place where what you’re trying to say gets jumbled up with what the reader is hearing.
Are you getting through? Is your message clear? Writing on the fine line is tricky—but rewarding!
Who/What spurs you to write? Where do your story and character ideas come from?
I have this on my website:
“A lot of writers claim they have been writing, and/or reading, since early on, often spinning tales of stealing away to read with a flashlight under their sheets at night when they should have been sleeping.
“Or, they write in tortured prose about their art being driven by inner demons—alcohol, lack of self-worth, inner pain turned toward creativity, that kind of thing.
“Well, I really was sleeping. Not that I didn’t love to read–still do!–but I loved to sleep, too. And I am driven by an Inner Being—but He’s no demon. He’s the Son of the living God and Savior of the world. His name is Jesus Christ. I hope you see Him reflected in my writing and editing. If not, let me know.”
As to where my ideas come from. I wish I knew. I suspect they are often dredged up from the pit of things I’m afraid of and are my way of working through stuff. I’m a Seat of the Pants writer in the very truest sense. I sit down at the computer, pray, and start writing—no outline, no idea written down, no character descriptions, interviews, or any of the stuff people say helps them.
Except for the Lord, I am completely without “help” in my chair. If He doesn’t come through, the story doesn’t happen. I start at “A” and write to “Z.”
Tell us about this Novella. Characters, new epilogue and it being re-issued.
I love Big Love! I’ve loved it since I first wrote it for the self-published novella collection, “Coming Home,” with six ACFW friends. I’m so blessed that Scrivenings Press saw fit to publish it as a standalone novella.
Big Love tells the story of two people who faced homelessness in different forms as children and how those experiences shaped them. My female lead, Timberly “Berly” Charles, grows up to build tiny homes in Indianapolis for people who have no home. My male, Nathan “Rafe” Rafferty, is an egotistical writer for an Architectural Digest type magazine in Chicago who thinks reporting on the tiny home phenomenon is beneath him.
That is, until he realizes it may help him find the revenge he’s been looking for since he and his mother were made homeless by a bad investment.
In between Chicago and Indianapolis, right along I-65 the Interstate that connects them, is West Lafayette, the home of Purdue University and the location of one of architect Frank Lloyd Wright’s last Usonian style homes, Samara.
Samara, an actual place you can visit and tour (https://www.samara-house.org/), is the key location of the novella and the place where magic—and despair—happens.
While I loved the original ending of the novella (it’s still there, intact and unchanged), I’d been thinking there was more to Berly and Rafe’s story. This republication of Big Love was my opportunity to revisit my friends and carry them forward a bit with an Epilogue.
What do you think makes your style of storytelling unique?
I’m not afraid of trying things. My writer’s voice is risky. For instance, in Big Love, the chapters in Berly’s point of view are written in first person and the chapters in Rafe’s point of view are written in third.
I don’t write first person, generally, but when Berly started talking she would not be denied the immediacy if first person. Rafe, of course, is more reserved. It works really well. I think it works and I’ve been told it works.
I wouldn’t change a thing and I hope I can stay open to stepping into the open air and believing the floor will appear below my foot.
Reflecting back, what do you see as most significant to your publication journey?
At an ACFW conference I was about at the end of my writing journey. I really only went to see my friends. My writing was non existent. My career was dead. Lifeless. I’d been told “You’ll never be a writer.”
I don’t remember many of the details, but in a workshop with Allen Arnold, he handed out notebooks to each participant in which he had prayed, not knowing who the book was for, over what to inscribe in each one. I still tear up thinking about this workshop (not that I remember any of the content; I wasn’t there for the content. I was there for the notebook, though I didn’t know that.)
In my notebook, Allen had written: “Aslan is on the move.” That was a word of favor from God straight to my beaten up and nearly dead writer’s heart. It was still a long road back, but that day started the trip.
How do your faith and spiritual life play into the picture and affect your storytelling?
I work really hard to write my stories so that faith isn’t wedged in, it’s weaved in. I don’t move characters from lack of faith to faith. I don’t put in “salvation” episodes, those kinds of turning points.
My writing is anchored in Romans 12:2: Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
I write about not conforming. I write about being transformed, which I believe is a little step by little step process. My characters don’t have epiphanies, they move closer to the light.
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