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.
I mean that in a good way. As some of you know, I really like horror films, horror novels, and horror stories. In fact, I’m writing some of my own. (It might also be a thriller, rather than horror, but I’m still a little fuzzy on the difference.)
That’s why I’m always interested in strange things like the new animated Dante’s Inferno I found this through Greg Wolfe on Facebook. (He’s editor of Image Journal–great magazine.)
Here’s a link to the preview if you’re interested. This one’s definitely, definitely not for kids, though. Startling, disturbing images. You’ve been warned. I was going to embed the youtube, but my wife didn’t think that was a good idea.
So here’s the question. Is there something wrong with me that I enjoy this stuff? I love horror. I really do. The stark justice of it is really interesting and, oddly, inspiring. Am I just crazy?
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?”
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.
Yesterday, I met Bob the Tomato. And Mr. Lundt. And Pa Grape. Any American Christian with kids my age, probably knows those names. They may even know the name Phil Vischer, the founder of Big Idea.
At the Religion Newswriter’s Association Conference last night, Big Idea and Lovell-Fairchild previewed The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything. There’s an embargo on reviews, so I’m not going to review the movie or share spoilers.
Here it is Wednesday, and I’m just now getting to the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour! My apologies to everyone for the weak showing this round. All that to say George Bryan Polivka’s The Legend of the Firefish looks awesome. He’s got a new blog, too.
I thought it would be fun to play acquisitions editor based on the first page. What if I got this first page as an unsolicited manuscript? What works? What questions does it raise?
Spaghettipie tagged me for this meme. It’s a little bit like an interview with myself. I have some questions for all of you readers at the end, so skip down if you don’t care about my answers.
1. What’s the one book or writing project you haven’t yet written but still hope to?
It’s time again for the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour! This month, we’re talking about The Sword Review, an online magazine project of Double-Edged Publishing, Inc.
Some of my blogging friends are still talking about Karen Hancock’s Christian fantasy novel, Return of the Guardian-King. I thought I would highlight some of my favorite bits of wisdom they’ve shared over the past two days:
Several months ago, I began book critiques that I call 
Here it is Wednesday, and I’m just now getting to the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour! My apologies to everyone for the weak showing this round. All that to say George Bryan Polivka’s 
 
