Fantasy Friday - I Need Your Help

Last Week to Vote
The first ever Readers Choice – Clive Staples Award for Christian Speculative Fiction (CSACS) has one week remaining. If you’ve planned on voting but haven’t gotten around to it, now’s the time. If you’ve meant to tell your friends about the award, especially your friends who love and read all things Christian speculative fiction, now’s the time. The survey will close at the last tick (Pacific time) November 30, one week from today. Requirements for voting? You must hav

CSFF November Top Tour Blogger
If you were unable to read all the posts last week for the CSFF Blog Tour for Curse of the Spider King by Wayne Thomas Batson and Christopher Hopper, I understand. After all, there were over sixty articles. I have to tell you though—and this is not some kind of promotional hype—there were some of the best, most thought-provoking, interesting pieces written during this tour, everything from interviews to personal experience encounters with the authors to reviews to literary analysis. I want to encourage you to take a look at what these bloggers said (entire list of participants available at the end of

Evolution’s Narrow View
Last night I watched part of a PBS program hosted by Alan Alda. Yes, the Alan Alda of Mash fame. The program, Scientific American Frontiers, has some really interesting material, but all from an evolutionary point of view. So, too, last night’s show. This one discussed researcher Jane Goodall and her work with chimpanzees, in particular some of her groundbreaking observations. Chimps can and do use tools. They have minimal rational thought, not just imitative behavior. They form “nation” groups with differing traits from one another. They exhibit emotions and even prejudice

What I’ve Learned from CSFF and CSACS
The last few days I’ve gained some insights into the publishing business as I’ve flitted from blog to blog reading what participants in the November CSFF Blog Tour for Curse of the Spider King had to say, and as I’ve counted votes for the Clive Staples Award for Christian Speculative Fiction (CSACS). (No worry – voting isn’t over until November 30. I just didn’t want to wait until the end and then try to count all those votes. And double don’t worry – I’m not givin

CSFF Blog Tour – Curse of the Spider King, Day 3
Review, Part 2 of Curse of the Spider King by Wayne Thomas Batson and Christopher Hopper. More Strengths. I wanted to mention a couple other things I really enjoyed about this book—primarily things important to writers and less so to readers. First, I thought Wayne and Christopher created an incredible mood through their writing, evoking tangible creepiness, even fear. Some of this was accomplished by creating such diabolic