29 Friday May 2009
Posted in General
New month, new banner…for June, we feature an exhibit at the best railroad museum ever, the California State Railroad Museum, in Sacramento. The museum offers both indoor and outdoor displays, including rides on working steam trains. Image is from the California State Parks website, http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=25616
This train, like all the others featured on this blog, runs on subjective time., and looks pretty sharp doing it.
28 Thursday May 2009
Posted in Writing
May was very, very busy. Work and personal life issues mostly trumped writing this month, but I still found some time to do a little re-writing and submitting. Still in a bit of a slump, but the trend is upward. Had one story sale and a few rejections. I’ll put my rally cap on next month.
I also finished the first draft of a short story based on Robert and Karina Fabian’s Sisters of Our Lady of the Rescue universe (many thanks to the Fabians for letting me muck around in their corner of space), which I’m pretty excited about, but I still need to tweak it a little before it’s ready for prime-time.
Work trip coming up in June, which usually provides good opportunities for both reading and writing when I’m off-shift. I plan to spend a lot of that time finishing work on The Muse, so we can stay on track for a late-November/early-December release.
The May Scoreboard:
1 May: “A Quiet Afternoon at the Alabaster County Ladies’ Sewing Circle and Patchwork Society” submitted to Residential Aliens.
6 May: 5-day acceptance from Residential Aliens for “A Quiet Afternoon at the Alabaster County Ladies’ Sewing Circle and Patchwork Society.” Should appear sometime in late June/early July.
9 May: 101-day rejection from Escape Clause for “At My Table.”
11 May: 73-day rejection from Every Day Fiction for “A charl13brn Turing Test.”
20 May: 45-day rejection from flashquake for “Insubstantiation.”
24 May: “Insubstantiation” submitted to A Fly in Amber.
Still awaiting responses from Doorways Magazine for “Prison Dreams,” Three-Lobed Burning Eye for “Come You Back to Mandalay,” and Atomjack for “An Eternal, Unbroken Chain.”
“One Smile at a Time” will appear in Mindflights soon, expect early June, date to be announced.
“The Silver Tree” is scheduled for publication in Kaleidotrope, Dec 2009/Jan 2010.
Links to all my stories online or in print and to the fine publications hosting them are listed on my Publications page.
26 Tuesday May 2009
Posted in Writing
Tags
One of the nice features of blogging with WordPress is the stats page. It gives me a running total and graphics of how many hits my site gets every day, which posts were most active, where my visitors are coming from, who’s linking to me, and what links people are clicking when they arrive.
I have what might be charitably called a “low-traffic” site. That’s okay with me, since I’m not primarily a blogger. I use the blog as a sort of public diary and a means to promote my writing to a wider audience. I’m not in it to become an internet personality or garner ginormous amounts of internet traffic. It’s still fun to watch the numbers, though. Sometimes they surprise me.
Here’s a quick summary of how things are going so far this year:
- My site traffic has increased from about 30-40 hits per month at this time last year to around 250 per month (not counting a big spike this month for a single post, more on that later). Traffic spikes to about three times the weekly average every three weeks, roughly corresponding to the scheduling of the CSFF Blog Tour (no big surprise there).
- My most popular posts are book reviews, though my About page and list of publications also get a lot of hits. That’s all good, since this blog is mostly about my writing (and writing about other people’s writing).
- Top post to date is my review of the Katawa Shoujo preview earlier this month, which already has more hits than my Publications and About pages combined, since the blog’s inception. No strategy on my part–as I usually do, I stumbled on something I thought was interesting and wrote about it. Perhaps this means I should give up writing fiction and take up full-time commentary on Japanese-style visual novels, or maybe I just happened to put out some early press on a buzzy topic (the number of hits on this post from search engines supports the latter theory).
20 Wednesday May 2009
Posted in Book Reviews, Writing
Day 3 already? This tour has flown by like an arrow launched from a Welsh longbow. Time to lift a few “points” with (or from) some of our other merry outlaws.
You Had Me at Hardcover: Cris Jesse and I were both mightily impressed by Thomas Nelson’s classy offering of a beautiful hardback review copy of Tuck. It looks very sophisticated on my bookshelf. Margaret posted images of two different cover versions, but I think Grace Bridges has captured the essence of our beloved Friar on her webpage.
Pat, I’d Like to Buy a Vowel: Lawhead’s re-setting of the Robin Hood legend in Wales brings with it a heaping helping of musical, multi-consonanted Welsh names. Knucklehead me flipped so quickly to Chapter One, he completely missed the thoughtful pronunciation guide at the front of the book, so there was a lot of unnecessary beepity-beeping over the many conglomerations of double-f’s and l’s.
Psst…They’re Twitterpated: Terri Main employs a cool review technique, live-tweeting her reaction to the book as she reads.
Your Mother Was a Hamster, and Your Father Smells of Elderberries: I thought Lawhead’s portrayal of the French Norman occupiers as uniformly thoughtless, obnoxious louts fell perilously close to parody, but became more balanced toward story’s end. They do say history is written by the victors…
Watch As I Put a Clothyard Shaft Through His Wishbone: Steve Rice discussed the revolutionary impact of the longbow on medieval warfare, a topic Lawhead takes some pains to elucidate in an afterward at the end of the book. Yes, a small force with superior tactics and technology, and an intelligent selection of battlefields, could, did, and will continue to win battles over numerically-superior opponents. It’s not a fairy tale.
You Mean the C in CSFF Stands for Christian? Really?: Rebecca Miller offers some thoughtful analysis of the spiritual themes in Tuck, expressing some disappointment that they weren’t a bit stronger. John W. Otte (if he’s really “the least-read blog on the web,” there’s no justice), enjoyed the variety of religious perspectives, and noted Tuck’s bewilderment at the religious “innovations” imported by the Normans, something that struck me as well. It’s easy to forget that until about 1054, there was only one church, with a common practice of faith. Like John, I’m waiting for an epic historical-fiction reimagining with a Lutheran, or Presbyterian, or maybe even a Wesleyan hero. I can see it now: I Am Not a Merry Man! by Fred Warren…
That’s it for my contribution to this month’s tour. Get ready to have the willies scared out of you next month, as we review Tim Pawlik’s Vanish.
Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Keanan Brand
Rachel Briard
Grace Bridges
Valerie Comer
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Alex Field
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Ryan Heart
Timothy Hicks
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Terri Main
Margaret
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Caleb Newell
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Epic Rat
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Robert Treskillard
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Phyllis Wheeler
Jill Williamson
>>This review is based upon a copy of the book provided to me free of charge by the publisher, a courtesy I appreciate, but which does not guarantee my recommendation. I strive to evaluate every book I review purely on its intrinsic merits.<<
19 Tuesday May 2009
Posted in Book Reviews, Writing
It took me awhile to warm up to Tuck. I think part of it was coming into the story on the third book of a trilogy, having to get oriented as the tale of Rhi Bran and his band of outlaws was building to a climax.
The Robin Hood legend is familiar and comfortable for most of us, I think, but Lawhead throws it akilter by setting it in an historical Wales with a Robin who’s more than just a dashing redistributor of wealth. He’s a dispossessed prince, a man who should be king, and he’s carrying a load of emotional baggage, not the least of which is the death of his parents at the hands of Norman raiders.
Great, I thought. A brooding, orphaned aristocrat who runs around in the dark fighting evildoers, wearing a scary costume. Bruce Wayne in the year 1000. I wasn’t liking him much at the beginning.
Fortunately, I kept reading, mostly because of Friar Tuck. He’s an unlikely hero–short, round, bowlegged, and not particularly handsome. We experience most of the story from his point of view. Far from the jolly, insubstantial pseudo-priest of the cinema, Tuck is a man of deep faith and simple convictions. He’s equally at home offering blessings to poor families and breaking the heads of enemies foolish enough to underestimate him. He is at turns brilliantly insightful and childishly naive. He wants nothing more than to live at peace, tending a little flock of country parishioners, but his conviction of the rightness of Bran’s cause leads him perpetually into danger, a situation he accepts with weary patience and good nature. It helped my understanding and appreciation of Bran when I began to see him through Tuck’s eyes.
Tuck has faith that God will bring Bran and his followers safely through their war against impossible odds and grant them victory. His faith is ultimately vindicated–victory is secured not primarily through force of arms, or shrewd alliances, but through a change of heart. The peacemakers don’t have an easy time of it in this story, but in the end, they are clearly proven right, and blessed. It’s a powerful message.
This is a character-driven story. Lawhead doesn’t spin a lot of purple prose in blow-by-blow analysis of battles or breathtaking travelogues of the Welsh countryside, though there are some nice action scenes and enough imagery to provide a decent mental anchor for medieval Wales. We watch Rhi Bran’s transformation from a bandit leader to a worthy king, with the help of wise advisors and loyal friends. Lawhead also shines a welcome spotlight on some of the supporting players who don’t get a lot of press, like Will Scarlett and Alan a Dale, as well as a few we’ve not met before. I was particularly intrigued by Angharad, the shaman/wisewoman who is Bran’s principal advisor and mentor. It’s unclear whether she is a converted Druid or someone who has discovered the one true God via His witness revealed in nature, but she illustrates the fact that despite its embrace of Christianity, Britain was at this time only recently emerged from paganism, and the memories and influence of the old ways were still strong. Even Tuck defers to her authority at times.
Tuck is a good read, with strong spiritual and moral themes. I enjoyed it, and probably would have enjoyed it more had I read the other two volumes of the trilogy first. I’ll probably go back for them at some point, but Tuck actually left me more eager to check out Patrick, Lawhead’s novel about the Irish saint.
Tomorrow, I’ll trade slings and arrows with the other folks on the tour, and perhaps buy myself a few vowels, but for now, please stop by their websites for more reviews of Tuck.
Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Keanan Brand
Rachel Briard
Grace Bridges
Valerie Comer
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Alex Field
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Ryan Heart
Timothy Hicks
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Terri Main
Margaret
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Caleb Newell
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Epic Rat
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Robert Treskillard
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Phyllis Wheeler
Jill Williamson
>>This review is based upon a copy of the book provided to me free of charge by the publisher, a courtesy I appreciate, but which does not guarantee my recommendation. I strive to evaluate every book I review purely on its intrinsic merits.<<
18 Monday May 2009
Posted in Book Reviews, Writing
This month’s CSFF blog tour selection, Tuck, is the third installment of Stephen R. Lawhead’s re-imagining of the legend of Robin Hood. I haven’t read the other two books, which puts me at something of a disadvantage trying to provide a synopsis of the story, but I’ll trip along merrily and do my best.
The curtain rises on Rhi Bran (Robin), dispossessed heir to Elfael, a Welsh kingdom conquered by French Norman invaders, as he and his followers plod dejectedly back to the greenwood. William Rufus, King of England, has reneged on a promise to restore Bran’s domain, handing it over instead to the treacherous Abbot Hugo and his thuggish allies.
What’s an exiled princeling to do? If he’s a Welshman, he fights back, hard. Tuck describes Bran’s escalation of his guerrilla war, disguised as the mysterious King Raven, against Hugo and the Norman oppressors–always outnumbered, but prevailing on the strength of superior wit, deadly skill with the longbow, and faith that God will aid his righteous cause.
However, Bloody William isn’t one to tolerate disorder in his realm. When the king arrives in Wales with a thousand knights and men-at-arms to settle Rhi Bran’s rebellion, it seems a miracle will be necessary for Bran to lead his band of outlaws to victory, free Elfael from its tyrannical overlords, and recover his lost domain.
It’s mostly Bran’s story, but much of it is told from the perspective of Friar Aethelfrith, “Tuck,” a simple country priest who wishes for a simple, peaceful life but finds himself trudging from battle to battle as Bran’s de-facto chaplain. Tuck is a working-man’s cleric, possessed of a practical faith, striving for peaceful solutions while acknowledging that sometimes a sharp rap to an enemy’s noggin with a stout quarterstaff is the only reasonable course of action. His penetrating insight and dogged persistence make him one of Rhi Bran’s most valued advisors.
And Tuck believes in miracles.
More by way of a review tomorrow, but in the meantime, please pay a visit to the other fine stops on this month’s tour:
Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Keanan Brand
Rachel Briard
Grace Bridges
Valerie Comer
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Alex Field
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Ryan Heart
Timothy Hicks
Christopher Hopper
Joleen Howell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Kait
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Terri Main
Margaret
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Caleb Newell
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Epic Rat
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
Hanna Sandvig
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Robert Treskillard
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Phyllis Wheeler
Jill Williamson
>>This review is based upon a copy of the book provided to me free of charge by the publisher, a courtesy I appreciate, but which does not guarantee my recommendation. I strive to evaluate every book I review purely on its intrinsic merits.<<
14 Thursday May 2009
Lots of things in flux right now, which has put writing on the back burner for a while.
We’re changing to a new simulation at work, so the last couple of months have been busy getting myself trained up so I can now train other people the rest of the year.
My wife has qualified to teach English Language Learners (formerly, the less-PC English as a Second Language), and will likely be changing jobs soon.
My oldest son is finally graduating from college (the five-year plan wasn’t plan A, but sometimes you just have to roll with the punches).
My daughter is moving from junior high to high school, with driver’s ed coming up this summer. Oy.
And, my brother just landed a full-time National Guard job in Dodge City, Kansas, which will make things easier, once he gets settled.
Hopefully, things will mellow out in June, but for now, it’s just one thing after another. On the bright side, I’ve got a story coming out soon at Mindflights, and it’s CSFF Blog Tour time again next week, and Stephen Lawhead’s Tuck was a fun read.
Onward and upward.
09 Saturday May 2009
Posted in Book Reviews, Family
Still reflecting on last time’s post, about Katawa Shoujo, Act 1. It’s a good story, or rather, five good stories that branch and intertwine, and despite my reservations about the developers’ strategy for completing the visual novel, the story has some resonance for me.
As you interact with the story, you make a lot of decisions that don’t appear very important on the surface. Something as simple as introducing yourself, choosing to take a walk, or taking an interest in someone’s artwork. The action seems insignificant, but a few scenes later, you may be invited to lunch or not given the time of day, depending on what you chose to do. You may meet someone at the beginning of the story who seems standoffish or not particularly interesting, only to have them reappear later in a different context, revealing a complexity you never knew existed. Decisions you made long ago will determine whether a misstep on your part will be endearing, or fatal.
Not unlike real life. Not unlike my life.
I met my future wife the day I walked onto my new high school campus my sophomore year. We’d just moved into town, and I came in to school a week early to talk to the football coach. Some girls were sitting on a wall adjoining the parking lot, near the sidewalk that led to the gym. The girl I would marry eight years later waved and called out to me, and we had a brief conversation. She welcomed me to the school, and I thanked her.
I didn’t think much about it. In fact, I didn’t even remember it until after we got married and she reminded me. We exchanged maybe a dozen words during high school, most of them when we happened to land at the same cafeteria table a week before I graduated. I was happy to see her then. I’d always thought she was a nice girl, but we moved in different social circles, so we’d never really interacted. I thought at the time that it was a shame I hadn’t gotten to know her better, and of course, I hadn’t a clue that she was interested in me and had been since our first encounter.
If I’d ignored her that first day, or a couple of years later in the cafeteria, things might have turned out much differently. In the interim, we dated other people, none quite right for either of us. We corresponded in college, pen-pal stuff, after our fathers became friends and “suggested” it.
Then, like some cliched plot twist, I had a personal crisis, and she was there when I needed her the most. I noticed all the wonderful qualities she had that I’d never paid attention to before. We were married a couple of years later, despite a few missteps on my part (Helpful tip: Don’t wait three weeks to call a girl after you tell her you love her).
We make hundreds of decisions every day, and have numerous encounters with other people, some planned, some seemingly random. Every decision has a consequence. Some consequences are trivial, and some have repercussions you’ll never know about.
Some consequences will change your life.
07 Thursday May 2009
Posted in Book Reviews, Writing
And now for something completely different.
A few days ago, I ran across a blog post recommending the preview version of a visual novel entitled, Katawa Shoujo, Japanese for “Disability Girls.” The story was about a high-school-age boy who falls victim to a heart ailment and is transferred to a boarding school for disabled kids, with a specially-trained faculty and medical facilities on-site. It sounded interesting, so I took a look at it.
A visual novel is a very simple wedding of storytelling and technology. Text is accompanied by pictures, music, and sound effects, and the reader is offered a choice of actions at key points during the story. The reader’s decision changes the story’s outcome. It’s part book, part movie, and part game. Some of them have in fact been ported to videogame consoles, and they’re very popular. If it’s done well, a visual novel creates an immersive atmosphere that can draw the reader into a story in a way the plain text may not. If it’s not done well, you’ve got a noisy “Choose Your Own Adventure” book.
Katawa Shoujo is basically a coming-of-age story. I like coming-of-age stories. I write a lot of them myself. They highlight one of the most dramatic moments in life: the moment you stop being a young pudd’nhead, just a little bit, and realize you’re not the center of the universe. Some people never get there, but if you do, it rocks your world.
The preview is Act 1 of the story, about 15% of the planned final product, and it takes a couple of hours to work through, reading at a moderate pace.
After a dramatic near-death experience, the protagonist of Katawa Shoujo begins awkwardly assimilating into his new school. It’s harder than usual, because he’s still struggling with the reality that he’s disabled, and he’s not sure how to interact with all these handicapped folks–is it more polite to acknowledge and talk about someone’s disability or to ignore it? Should he feel sorry for them, or will they find that attitude insulting? He meets an assortment of staffers and fellow classmates, including several young ladies, all of whom have some physical challenge–blindness, deafness, missing limbs, burn trauma–but most have come to terms with their handicaps and challenge him to stop seeing himself as a freak and begin taking action to make his life better. He even makes friends with his goofy, paranoid dorm neighbor, a loner who’s convinced of some global feminist conspiracy.
So far, so good. The character depictions were sensitive and tasteful, and although the writing wasn’t polished, there was a surprising amount of sophistication and humor in their interactions and some thoughtful introspection. There were some very nice backgrounds (a combination of photography and graphic illustration), and the music and sound effects enhanced the atmosphere of a boarding school in a woodsy suburban area. Frankly, I’d never seen anything in a story/game format that confronted disabilities in such a straightforward and affirming manner, but maybe I don’t get out enough. Pretty cool, thought I, especially for an amateur production.
Then I clicked over to the developers’ blog & forums, hoping to gain some insights into how they came up with this idea, and how they planned to complete the project.
Sigh. They plan to conclude the various story arcs with a physical consummation of the romance. There were the usual arguments for explicit content you find in any media: it’s reality, teenagers fall in love and hook up–get over it; there’s nothing wrong with erotic art if it’s tastefully done; censorship is bad and we shouldn’t submit to it; if people don’t like this, they don’t have to look at it; nobody will pay attention or take this seriously if we omit the explicit scenes; we’re already committed, and it will be too hard to change things now; and so on.
I wasn’t terribly surprised. A lot of visual novels fall into the category of “dating sims,” where a character must figure out how to approach a girl, considering her personality, likes, and dislikes, and form a relationship with her, usually concluding with an obligatory hooking-up. It’s a genre, and the audience has certain expectations.
The initial review I read had me hoping this one was different, and the preview made an even stronger impression. The teen romance seemed secondary to the protagonist’s journey toward becoming a more mature and complete person. Aside from one scene with some strong language, there wasn’t anything depicted that went past a PG rating. The story didn’t need anything beyond that, and most of the feedback I saw in the forums reflected that fact. People were fascinated enough with the unique concept, characters, and storytelling to keep reading, and they appreciated the hard work and talent evident in the product’s design and execution.
An interesting theme that emerged in the forum comments was that a couple of the developers seemed to experience a “coming-of-age” moment themselves and realized they’d created something with an uplifting element they hadn’t expected, something that carried a profound positive message. There were suggestions to tone down the mature content or omit it entirely, or perhaps create a parallel “clean” version. The final compromise was to provide a switch in the options menu that would black out any explicit visuals in the final product. Of course, they’ll still be there, embedded in the program files, available at a mouse click. Do I want that lurking on my hard drive? No, I don’t.
I have no interest in censorship, as if I or anyone else could possibly enforce it
(UPDATE, 28 May 09: Actually, the U.S. Government seems quite willing to enforce on this issue. If the developers proceed as planned, they’ll be on some very thin legal ice with regard to the Protect Act of 2003. Creation or possession of drawings of even fictional minors fall under its purview, and an American manga collector was recently convicted for violation of this law. Do they really want to explain to a federal judge why their artwork shouldn’t be interpreted as obscene or exploitative? Another reason to just not go there).
I was simply disappointed to find that a group of people who spent so much time and effort showing how wrong it is to objectify and stereotype people based on physical appearance and other external issues, and demonstrating how it’s possible to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles with determination and ingenuity, are about to obscure that message by catering to simple-minded adolescent lust. There’s nothing particularly mature or even edgy about doing that. It takes something special and turns it into just another dating sim.
Who knows? Maybe the positive message will still win through, but it shouldn’t have to compete with the noise. A lot of people who could benefit will avoid the story based on the content tags it will inevitably accumulate in the final version. The people who come for the ‘naughty bits’ won’t be listening anyhow–they’ll be speed-scrolling through the story, looking for the path that unlocks a particular shot of their favorite ingenue.
Katawa Shoujo Act 1 offers an intriguing story concept and a hint of the potential of the visual novel format for storytelling, but the decision to include explicit content in the full version of the story undermines some very positive central themes about accepting other people’s differences and overcoming adversity. Great start, very disappointing finish.
(UPDATE, 4 Jul 09: Requests for a non-explicit “all ages” version of the final product continue on the Katawa Shoujo forum, including posts from a couple of folks in the UK, whose laws regarding explicit content in electronic media are stricter than in the US, and about to get even tougher. The developers basically told them to get lost, and tossed them a link to a freeware data encryption program that promises “plausible deniability.” Classy. In support of those people who tried to be an island of reason in an ocean of stupidity, I’ve removed all links on this site to the Katawa Shoujo web page. If you feel the need to go there, use a search engine.)
(UPDATE, 5 Jan 2012: The full version of Katara Shoujo released on 4 Jan 2012. I probably won’t review it, given the problems I’ve discussed above with downloading what are likely to be sexually explicit illustrations, in the blind. Even if I select the option to black out explicit content, the images are still present and accessible on the hard drive and may cross the line into pornography. The developers have also indicated in their blog that some story content will be lost with the “blackout” option, which makes a review problematical. We’ll see. If mainstream Christian reviewers don’t seem to have trouble with the content of movies like Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, which I expect is much more extreme than anything that’s going to be offered in KS, maybe I’m being too restrictive here, and I’ve thrown quite a few darts at this product sight unseen, based on blog comments from the developers. I need to mull this over a few days.)
(UPDATE: 9 Jan 2012: After reading some of the initial feedback on the KS forum, I’ve decided not to review the full version of Katawa Shoujo. Potential users should note that the blackout filter option apparently does not restrict all explicit images, just those actually depicting sexual activity. Several viewers using the blackout filter were surprised by images of female teenage characters in various states of undress.)
05 Tuesday May 2009
Posted in Writing
Tags
April’s storms have passed, and the outlook for May is breezy, sunny, and, alas, still very, very busy. This month’s reading list will be brief.
Read in April:
Saving Fish from Drowning, by Amy Tan
The Android’s Dream, by John Scalzi
Collected Lenten Readings from the Church Fathers
To Read in May:
Tuck, by Stephen R. Lawhead
Flashpoint, by Frank Creed
Leaps of Faith, an anthology edited by Karina and Robert Fabian
