Here’s a 7-minute video about a real tiny house community in Kansas City created for veterans!
Berly Charles, my tiny house builder in my novella “Big Love,” would have been all over this project. She would have definitely participated with her company, La Petite Maison, LLC.
In fact, in the novella Berly organizes a charity build in Indianapolis, IN, very similar to what this video talks about, except she calls it “Tiny House/Big Love.” She finds a bunch of people from the community and her church who want to participate and uses the time to work through her sadness about the apparent demise of her relationship with Nathan “Rafe” Rafferty.
But is it really over?
Well, I’ll just say, the genre for the novella is contemporary romance. But I guarantee the scene at the charity build will have you laughing out loud.
Michael Ehret loves to play with words and as the author of “Big Love,” he is enjoying his current 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, proofedited for Abingdon Press, worked in corporate communications, and reported for The Indianapolis Star.
I have a habit of looking for God in secular culture because I believe God can, will, and does use anyone to plant the whispers in our lives that often, if we’re listening, lead us to him.
Sometimes the creative person participates in giving God an outlet, sometimes she doesn’t. I do not care either way. But looking and listening for these breakthrough moments when God gives the world a nudge is a fun, and ultimately rewarding, hobby.
For instance, J.K. Rowling and her Harry Potter books. For me, there are echoes of the gospel simply bleeding from those stories. I get that others can’t see past the wizardry, and that’s OK, but that’s not me. I am interested in using whatever tools come my way to shine a light and communicate truth. See, if we can get the heart open sometimes we can insert truth.
I heard another whisper today while listening to a song from Carole King’s 1972 album Rhymes & Reasons, “I Think I Can Hear You.” You can listen to it below.
Disclaimer: I have no idea what King’s inspiration for this song was. I haven’t even tried to find out. For me, it’s a prayer—and I have sung it to God as my prayer—of commitment and dedication.
As a creative Christian—and if we’re made in God’s image and God is the ultimate Creator shouldn’t all Christians be creative? —I often struggle with finding a creative outlet within an evangelical mode. How can I communicate truth in a world that increasingly rejects the very idea of truth? It’s a toughie.
This song’s opening questions expose my desires and insecurities about my place in this world: “What can I do(, God)? How can I serve you? Is it (even) true what I do is a way to be near you?”
Sometimes those questions are answered, sometimes we’re left wondering, as the next statement suggests, whether we can even hear God when he answers. Regardless, it’s true, as the verse’s closing line suggests, that just thinking about God (praying?) can soothe the restless, creative heart.
Right now, I’m struggling with a new novel I’m writing. Is the idea not good? Do I just not have enough information? Have I gotten ahead of God? (I’m only 3,500 words into it, so I don’t think so.)
The tone and tenor of this story are quite different from my last novella, which was a light-hearted, humorous tale of finding big love in a tiny house. For this story, I’m writing about a man who has made humor his lifeline, who discovers what’s left after it seems the joke is over. It’s anchored on the hymn, “Be Still My Soul,” about living in God’s peace amidst chaos.
That ties beautifully into King’s second verse:
But I’m here, and life is dear, And I guess that’s a good enough reason to say Just let me do What you put me here to Let me be what you want me to be And I hope it’ll cheer you.
No, my character is not going to hear King’s song played on a radio or some other contrived occurrence; the song won’t even be in the novella. But that place of belief, that place of “but I’m here and life is dear” acceptance, is exactly where I need to get him by “The End.”
I’m going to sidestep the universalism in King’s third verse—I’m no theologian—but after spending a decade pretty much self-sidelined in my writing by a lack of belief (and a world of crushed hopes and dreams), I do find lasting comfort in knowing, now, that God never stopped believing in me. As King sings, “Even when I thought I didn’t believe, you believed in me.”
I can’t help thinking about Mathew 18:12-14 and the kind of shepherd I have: “A shepherd in charge of 100 sheep notices that one of his sheep has gone astray. … God’s shepherd goes to look for that one lost sheep…”
Where in secular culture do you find God? Leave a comment here or on Facebook!
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, proofedited for Abingdon Press, worked in corporate communications, and reported for The Indianapolis Star.
One of the reasons I wrote my novella “Big Love,” which is now available to pre-order from Scrivenings Press through Amazon, was to play around a little with the idea of using tiny houses to address the issue of homelessness in our country.
Now, I don’t want to pretend my story is something it’s not, because it is mostly a humorous “will they fall in love?” type story. But my protagonist, Berly Charles, builds tiny houses for a living in Indianapolis, IN. One of the key scenes in the story revolves around a community-wide build, similar to a Habitat for Humanity build, where Berly and her friends come together to construct tiny houses for homeless citizens. Her interest in tiny houses and the homeless stems from a key childhood incident.
So that’s one side of the love equation. The other side is Nathan Rafferty, a prestigious journalist for the architecture industry, who thinks reporting on the tiny house craze is beneath him. He looks down his very upturned nose at the idea of tiny houses—also for reasons that stem from his childhood.
When they come together, they are undeniably drawn to each other. So, there’s plenty of conflict, misunderstanding, and humorous mayhem to go around.
Since writing the novella, I’ve remained connected to parts of the tiny house community and have been interested, particularly, in ways to use tiny houses to address the issues associated with homelessness. Not too long ago a story from HuffPost’s “Road Trip: Listen to America” series caught my attention. Watch the 7:55-minute video.
A solution to homelessness?
Here’s another interesting possibility that was featured on the Tiny House Talk website—stackable tiny houses built out of concrete water pipes that “measure just 100 sq. ft. and cost about $15,000. They can be stacked and therefore used as a temporary housing solution in places like shipyards, under highways, or even in-between buildings.” (Tiny House Talk)
Lastly, here’s a link to an idea currently being tested in my hometown of Elkhart, IN. I love this! Faith Mission has tiny house shelters that are a key part of their efforts to integrate people without homes into society.
What do you think about these ideas? Do you have other ideas for how to address the housing needs of the homeless? Share in a comment.
“Big Love,” is now available for pre-order on Amazon. If you’re intrigued by the idea of using tiny houses for the homeless, or about tiny houses at all, or you just love a good, quirky, funny romance, this would be a good one to pick up. This version of the book has a brand new epilogue that moves the characters forward. Pre-order now and have it available on March 23, 2024!
“Michael Ehret’s novella, ‘Big Love’, tackles the hard topics of homelessness, revenge, how memories change you and finally the biggest of all: forgiveness.” — From an Amazon reader review of the “Coming Home” edition (no longer available).
Michael Ehret loves to play with words and as the author of “Big Love,” he is enjoying his current 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, proofedited for Abingdon Press, worked in corporate communications, and reported for The Indianapolis Star.
Stumbled across this video of an amazing tiny house called the Escher (named after both the owner’s child and M.C. Escher, one of the world’s most famous graphic artists). If my main character in “Big Love,” Berly Charles, lived in a tiny house it would be something like this.
There is much more to Escher than just his impossible constructions, but those are what he’s most known for. No doubt you’ve seen a couple, even if you didn’t realize who the artist was. My oldest sister introduced me to Escher when we were in high school. With Salvador Dali, he’s still one of my favorites.
If you’re entranced by tiny houses (I am), you’ll probably enjoy “Big Love.” (Originally published in the novella collection “Coming Home” but newly updated with a new epilogue that hilariously moves the characters forward.) I’d love for you to give it a try and let me know what you think. If you have a link to another cool tiny house, feel free to share here in a comment. I will definitely visit.
Michael Ehret loves to play with words and as the author of “Big Love,” 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, proofedited for Abingdon Press, worked in corporate communications, and reported for The Indianapolis Star.
Sometimes the creative person participates in giving God an outlet, sometimes she doesn’t. I do not care either way. But looking and listening for these breakthrough moments when God gives the world a nudge is a fun, and ultimately rewarding, hobby.
Writing On The Fine Line 