Entries Tagged 'reading' ↓

To be fair, she’s in the first grade now, but she did begin reading chapter books last year. I was the typical proud dad, but I only recently realized what most kids are reading at her age. The contrast is startling.

I guess I could pat myself on the back about all of the wonderful things we did, including pass down some apparently awesome genes. But that’s obnoxious, and probably untruthful.

So instead of gloating, I thought I would talk about the easy things we do that have probably helped our kids learn how to read. Most of them are accidental. Here they are in no particular order: Continue reading →

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?

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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?

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It’s time for the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Tour again. This month we’re focusing on, Fearless, the second installment of Robin Parrish’s trilogy.

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Modernism is when the mirror began to crack. If there is any hope of understanding our current world of broken mirrors, we need to remember why the mirror cracked to begin with.
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Last week, I posted my eBook of poems. Since then I’ve devoted myself entirely to prose. But I’m still editing new poems. Here’s a little lyric about the dangers of light and electricity—especially when they travel in bulk to my incorrectly wired dryer at 220 volts.

Notice, how I distanced myself from the truth of this experience by casting it in 2nd person. That has the effect of protecting me from my own stupidity. But it also helps you feel the stupidity I felt. The whole poem becomes a kind of fated encounter leading each reader toward the inevitable (and temporary) darkness.

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Sharon Hinck has potentially done something really interesting in her latest book The Restorer—help more women understand the draw of fantasy.

After Wayne’s wonderful cautionary post about reviews, I admit I’m a little scared to review the book.

First, the prose. Karen’s prose is professional and smooth and typical of current successful Christian fiction. I can’t tell you how tired I get with bad prose. Her sentences are good. That goes a long, long way for me.

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Several years ago, the National Endowment for the Arts warned America: Reading is at risk. They proclaimed that literary reading is declining rapidly among all groups, especially the very young.

Two weeks ago, in one of the breakout sessions at Book Expo America, Jeff Gomez wondered about that study. Is print really going to die? he asked. As the director of internet marketing for Holtzbrink Publishers, he has probably earned the authority to state his bold answer.

Print is dead.

Go to Writer… Interrupted to read the rest of this essay.

A free gift to my readers. If you like it, share it with a friend.

The story goes like this. Mark Twain was reading the paper one morning, smoking a cigar and running his fingers through that nappy white afro. When he reached the obituary section, he saw his picture. Immediately, he picked up the phone and called the editor to say, “Sir, the news of my demise has been greatly exaggerated.”

In a racy little commentary over at MediaPost, George Simpson has a few words to say about the brewing war between social media and mass media. 

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