Yup. We’re off. We borrowed a van, scrimped for gas, and headed out for a tour of the south with stops in Galveston Island (aunt and uncle), Texas; New Orleans, Louisiana; Starkville (grandma), Mississippi; and Ruston (brother), Louisiana.
High gas prices, you say? Pshaw.
No piddly increase in the cost of gas can stop the tradition of American Road Trips!
Here’s the craziest part. I’m not taking a computer. No internet. No hyper-connectivity on my phone. Nada. Just me and the wife and the kids and the open road.
Update: First leg in Galveston went well. New Orleans is fun. A little over 18 in places we learned, but we plan to avoid all of that for the next two days.
Second, DragonLight
While I’m gone, I’m missing the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour.
Yesterday after we had our new pastor over for an old-fashioned pot roast lunch, complete with my wife’s to-die-for homemade chocolate pie, I found myself weeping while I did the dishes.
The pie really was that good, but it didn’t make me weep. And the pastor wasn’t picking on me. Or at least, he didn’t make me cry.
Stephen Eley, Ken Scholes, and Edward Bear did that.
I presented on blog tours last week, and I’ve been working hard with L.L. on her presentation at Mt. Hermon (which Becky will hopefully have small role in as well) . Now, it’s time to set aside the numbers and research and fancy quotes from famous people, and get to work on a real tour.
This month, CSFF is featuring Chris Walley’s The Shadow and Night from Tyndale. (You may remember them as the little press that exploded in the 1990s with a series called Left Behind.) You can read more about Chris Walley on his site and his blog. Frankly, I’m excited about this one. So without further ado, here’s page one. Review to follow.
Ok, not really. And I don’t want folks to think this is some kind of weird self-promotion, branding thing. But really, if you are part of the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour by all means grab the widget for your sidebar or for a permanent page on your blog.
Several months ago, I began book critiques that I call Page One Reviews.
Here’s the premise: I look at a book as if I’m an acquisitions editor and ask, “What if I got this first page as an unsolicited manuscript? What works? What questions does it raise?”
For Christmas, the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Folks are featuring the second issue of the ezine Wayfarer’s Journal. The journal has had a bit of a slow start, only publishing two issues last year, but there are a few stories and poems to browse through.
My favorite elements of the site are nonfiction. For example, Brandon Barr’s discussion of Christian themes in Cordwainer Smith or Terri Main’s article on Luke Skywalker vs. St. Luke (great title). Terri Main concludes, “In all literature a character’s Christianity should set him or her apart from non-Christian characters. They must not only believe differently, they must also act differently. That means that they cannot use carnal weapons, either figuratively or literally, to win a spiritual war. They cannot confuse the agents of the enemy for the enemy himself.”
Now, that makes me think. I agree with the sentiment, but I wonder what kind of advice that becomes for someone who is sitting down to tell a ripping good yarn.
On their home page, Wayfarer’s Journal states that their mission is to “publish and review science fiction with a spiritual dimension.” Although that mission only implies that they are looking for ripping good yarns, focusing on the spiritual dimension is still a worthy, ambitious goal.
And it raises an important question for writers of Christian science fiction–or Christian fantasy, Christian fiction, Christian poetry, Christian drama, even good old fashioned Christian nonfiction.
What makes something spiritual?
(Keep reading, and I promise I’ll get to the picture of the fishheads.)
There’s been a lot of talk and some fear in Christian circles about the new atheist fantasy for kids. As usual, the critics agree we’ve made much ado about nothing.
Stephen Lawhead may just have the perfect author’s name, and the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour is featuring his new book, Scarlet, this week.
Since I was at an N. T. Wright retreat at Laity Lodge, I couldn’t post until today. (”Bishop Tom” is one of my heroes, and this weekend was about as wonderful as I could have dreamed. We talked about everything from theology to poetry to fantasy. After I dropped him and Mrs. Wright at the airport, I cried.)
Speaking of fantasy, I’m supposed to be reviewing page one of Lawhead’s fantasy of King Raven.
I’ve been emailing Austin Boyd back and forth a bit this week about his blog tour, trying to get his impression of its value. He gave me permission to post his comments here on my blog.
To set the context, Austin Boyd’s book The Return was featured on the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour two months ago. (Go here to read my blog’s Page One review of the book from the tour.) Austin has a little bit of perspective on the event, and I asked him the hard question:
Now that the dust has settled on the CSFF blog tour, I’d be curious to hear how you felt about it.
Yesterday, I wrote my thoughts on The Return‘sfront cover, back cover, endorsements, and stuff.
Today, I’d like to do a quick community review of page one. As Camy Tang said recently, most readers give a book a page or two to hook the reader. She figures that’s about 20 seconds.
Yesterday after we had our new pastor over for an old-fashioned pot roast lunch, complete with my wife’s to-die-for homemade chocolate pie, I found myself weeping while I did the dishes.
It’s time for another blog tour experience.
Several months ago, I began book critiques that I call 
For Christmas, the 
I’ve been emailing 
