February 25th, 2008 — speculative fiction, podcast, CSFF, inspiring
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.
September 18th, 2007 — speculative fiction, CSFF
Yesterday, I wrote my thoughts on The Return‘s front 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.
September 17th, 2007 — speculative fiction, CSFF, blogtour
To be fair, I should judge The Return by a little more than its cover, right? But we do need to start at the beginning with…
1) The cover
As a science fiction fan, this cover gets my attention. I recognize that photo from NASA’s archives. Looks like a genuine Rover shot, but I’m not really sure.
My feeling that The Return could actually be good, sound, technical science fiction is reinforced by the blurb on …
May 24th, 2007 — poetry, speculative fiction
You get a poem called “Garden of Stone and Flesh.” My attempt at blank verse for the time being.
April 23rd, 2007 — faith and work, speculative fiction, thehighcalling.org, blogtipping
Are you making a difference or are you earning a check? That’s the key question we ask readers at one of the sites I edit: TheHighCalling.org. And its something I’d like to think about philosophically for the next few days as part of the High Calling Blog Tour.
We just went live this weekend with our new design, and I have to say I am just pleased as punch that this thing is off the ground.
April 9th, 2007 — models, fantasy, speculative fiction
It seems things got pretty serious around here last week. And that’s a good reminder for writers. The business of writing can be a serious business at times.
But all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. And Jill’s not much fun either. Pretty soon all they do is fetch water and break their crowns and make unscheduled and expensive visits to the dentist. Anyone up for a little game this week?
March 31st, 2007 — christianity, speculative fiction, blogging
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Hey, God, cool blog, man. (Or whatever. I guess Jesus is the son of man, right?) I love it when CEO types start blogging. It’s so easy to think people in control aren’t even normal people. Not that you are normal. But if you are willing to blog, at least you’re meeting me where I’m at—speaking my language, you know?
February 8th, 2007 — editing, models, writing, sentences, speculative fiction, publishing, sentence tips
In my last sentence tip, I completely oversimplified one effect of short sentences. You have to start somewhere right? I freely admit that I oversimplified things on purpose.
And I’m going to do it again. Heh heh heh.
January 24th, 2007 — fantasy, speculative fiction, blogtipping, CSFF
The blog tour is over. I know some of you readers tolerate these times when I indulge here. I just love fantasy and science fiction. In fact, to celebrate, I’m starting to read my new issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction tonight. (You can read six AWESOME stories for free online, right now.) One thing I think every aspiring CSFF writer should do is read good fantasy and science fiction. That magazine is a good place to start.
Tina Kulesa summed it up best. She wrote, “As a whole we don’t want to be preached at and we don’t want lip service paid to our favorite genre. We want the best. And Wayne Thomas Batson shows us that it’s all possible.”
I was also encouraged by Wayne’s admission that this first set of books was a thirteen year project. Whew! I thought I was slow here in year six or seven, but I’m not slow. I’m just impatient.
Thanks, Wayne for being the kind of person you are. And thanks to everyone on the tour:
Nissa Annakindt, Jim Black, Jackie Castle, Valerie Comer, Karri Compton, Frank Creed, Gene Curtis, Chris Deanne, Janey DeMeo, Tessa Edwards, April Erwin, Linda Gilmore, Beth Goddard, Todd Michael Greene, Leathel Grody , Karen Hancock, Katie Hart, Sherrie Hibbs, Sharon Hinck, Joleen Howell, Kait, Karen, K. D. Kragen, Tina Kulesa, Lost Genre Guild, Kevin Lucia, Kevin Lucia’s The Bookshelf Reviews 2.0 - The Compendium, Rachel Marks, Shannon McNear, Rebecca LuElla Miller, Caleb Newell, Eve Nielsen, John Otte, Robin Parrish, Cheryl Russel, Hannah Sandvig, Mirtika Schultz, James Somers, Stuart Stockton, Steve Trower, Speculative Faith, Daniel I. Weaver
January 22nd, 2007 — writing, fantasy, speculative fiction, CBA, publishing, podcast, CSFF, readers
It’s that time finally! The January Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour. Whooo Hoo. I’m pumped. I’m excited. I’m proud to be a geek.
In preparation for this month, Wayne Batson and I created a little podcast on the phone: Good Word Editing Podcast #3 - Interview With a “Righteous Fantasy” Author! It’s exciting just to type out the title.
There’s a special treat at the end for READERS when Wayne reads ”The Betrayal,” a powerful excerpt from The Door Within—with voices and everything.
Wayne also talks about . . .
I'm Senior Editor for The High Calling, High Calling Blogs, and Faith In The Workplace.
