More Good News!

I just found out yesterday that I sold another short story. This one is called Irruption and was accepted by Dragons, Knights, and Angels. I'm not sure when it'll be published, but I'll be sure to throw a link here so everyone can go and read it.

So that's two short stories I can put on my publishing resume. Good times, good times!

CSFF April Blog Tour: "Double Vision" - Day Three

We're continuing our look at Double Vision, but instead of talking about the book, let's talk instead about Randall Ingermanson, the man who wrote it. More specifically, let's talk about the fact that Mr. Ingermanson is more than willing to allow writers to "sit at his feet," so to speak, and learn the craft from him.

I was privileged to take his course at the 2006 ACFW Conference. Even though I had to leave often in the middle of the sessions (both my editor and agent appointments were scheduled then), I still got a lot out of it.

But you don't have to plunk down the money for the airfare, hotel stay, conference fees, and what not to gain from Mr. Ingermanson's wisdom (well, you still should because the conference was a blast, but that's another story). Instead, you can head over to his website. Make sure you sign up for his e-zine on writing while you're there.

And also pay special attention to the Snowflake Method. I was able to use it to help condense my sci-fi trilogy's first book into a solid one-sentence summary. I'm also planning on using it to help organize my thoughts about a fantasy book I've been ruminating on for the past four years.

While you're at Mr. Ingermanson's website, be sure to read the story about Shaving Babbitt. Wish I had been there to witness it in person.

Also be sure to visit the others on the blog tour:

Nissa Annakindt
Jim Black
Grace Bridges
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Frank Creed
CSFF Blog Tour
D. G. D. Davidson
Janey DeMeo
Tessa Edwards
April Erwin
Beth Goddard
Marcus Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Leathel Grody
Katie Hart
Sherrie Hibbs
Sharon Hinck
Christopher Hopper
Jason Joyner
Karen
Tina Kulesa
Lost Genre Guild
Kevin Lucia and The Bookshelf Reviews 2.0 - The Compendium
Rachel Marks
Shannon McNear
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Caleb Newell
Eve Nielsen
John W. Otte
Robin Parrish
Rachelle
Cheryl Russel
Hanna Sandvig
Mirtika Schultz
James Somers
Tsaba House Authors
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Daniel I. Weaver

CSFF April Blog Tour: "Double Vision" - Day Two

We're continuing our look at Double Vision today.

As I mentioned yesterday, this book is labeled as "romantic suspense." That's not inaccurate. The main character, Dillon, is indeed caught in a romantic triangle that helps drive, if not the main plot, then at least the almost as important subplot. I know I was as confused as Dillon about who he should choose and pursue romantically.

But here's the thing: the book, in my mind, might suffer a bit from that distinction. Here's why: the MacGuffin for the story is a quantum computer. Specifically a biological quantum computer. Using this device, anyone would be able to decrypt any encoded database or message (truth be told, the plot reminded me of the movie Sneakers. That's not a bad thing. I love that movie). There are several times when we get lost in the technical explanation of how the quantum computer works and why it's such a big deal. During those times, the book seemed to stray very close to "hard science fiction," which isn't a bad thing as far as I'm concerned.

But I wonder what romantic suspense fans thought of those moments. I fear that they may have been turned off by it. Maybe not. I have no idea. I don't read romantic suspense normally, so I don't know what keeps readers interested and what doesn't.

This highlights one of the problems we have as a writers of Christian science fiction. It's obvious that, for whatever reason, the market is closed to blatant science fiction tales. Does that mean we should instead try to sneak them in, Trojan horse style, by pumping up a lesser quality and marketing it as a completely different genre?

In some ways, I think this might be the way we can begin to soften the market, so to speak. If people are exposed to genre elements in other stories (i.e. biological quantum computers) and like it, they may be more willing to try out "harder" sci-fi. Think of it as reverse innoculation.

At the same time, though, I suspect that there's a bright line that non-sci-fi and non-fantasy fans won't cross. A quantum computer as a MacGuffin? Well, okay. But a book with aliens? Forget it!

Time will only tell. Hopefully the market will open up to the harder stuff someday. In the meantime, we can celebrate when sci-fi or fantasy elements get "snuck into" a story.

Be sure to visit the others on the blog tour:

Nissa Annakindt
Jim Black
Grace Bridges
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Frank Creed
CSFF Blog Tour
D. G. D. Davidson
Janey DeMeo
Tessa Edwards
April Erwin
Beth Goddard
Marcus Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Leathel Grody
Katie Hart
Sherrie Hibbs
Sharon Hinck
Christopher Hopper
Jason Joyner
Karen
Tina Kulesa
Lost Genre Guild
Kevin Lucia and The Bookshelf Reviews 2.0 - The Compendium
Rachel Marks
Shannon McNear
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Caleb Newell
Eve Nielsen
John W. Otte
Robin Parrish
Rachelle
Cheryl Russel
Hanna Sandvig
Mirtika Schultz
James Somers
Tsaba House Authors
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Daniel I. Weaver

CSFF April Blog Tour: "Double Vision"

This month, we're focusing our attention on Randall Ingermanson's book, Double Vision.

Now, normally, I'm not that on top of things. No, it's true, I'm not. I'm cluttered, disorganized, and I usually put things off until the very last minute.

But not this time! Oh no! I actually did my review of this book several months ago. So rather than just repeat myself, I'll just ask you to kindly click here and see what I had to say. Cheating? You betcha!

Actually, I'll ask you to please click on these happy friendly links as well and visit the blogs of the other tour participants:

Nissa Annakindt
Wayne Thomas Batson
Jim Black
Grace Bridges
Jackie Castle
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
CSFF Blog Tour
Gene Curtis
D. G. D. Davidson
Janey DeMeo
Tessa Edwards
April Erwin
Kameron M. Franklin
Linda Gilmore
Beth Goddard
Marcus Goodyear
Andrea Graham
Leathel Grody
Katie Hart
Sherrie Hibbs
Sharon Hinck
Christopher Hopper
Jason Joyner
Kait
Karen
Tina Kulesa
Kevin Lucia and The Bookshelf Reviews 2.0 - The Compendium
Rachel Marks
Shannon McNear
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nicole
Eve Nielsen
John W. Otte
John Ottinger
Robin Parrish
Rachelle
Cheryl Russel
Hanna Sandvig
Mirtika Schultz
James Somers
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith
Daniel I. Weaver

Tomorrow I may ramble a little on whether or not Double Vision should have been marketed as a romantic suspense. Or maybe not. We'll just have to see.

Ruminations on parenting

Two thoughts have kind of been bouncing around in my head recently, one for a while now and I've finally found the time to put it in the blog.

Ever since Isaiah has come to live with us, people have been extremely generous. We've gotten so much clothing from hand-me-downs to brand new outfits that it's boggled our minds. That being said, I've been developing a theory about the people who design clothing for infants: half of them are childless and have never spent a significant amount of time with the children for whom they're designing.

What's my proof? The absolutely asinine way that they design some outfits. Let me tell you what my wife and I have come to discover: snaps along the inside of pant legs are a gift from heaven. That way you don't have to completely strip down the child when you have to change him or her. We absolutely adore outfits that have this feature.

But, naturally, not all of them do. Some of them have a zipper down just one leg. That is an okay design and still easy to work with. Some people, though, make the ridiculous choice of having no snaps. In other words, to change your child, you have to remove the pants entirely. Granted, this only takes an extra second, but when you're trying to keep a struggling six month old calm while you change him, those extra seconds can be a pain.

There are two outfits, though, that just annoy me to no end. What genius decided that buttons were a good choice for baby clothing? I mean, honestly! Isaiah rarely sits still long enough for us to get half a dozen buttons down the front of his shirt. Use snaps, people!

And the other outfit that drives me loco? Some genius put the snaps on the back of the outfit! Now you tell me, how did that moron think this was going to work, especially if the child had to be changed?

But enough about clothing. Here's the other thing that's annoyed me recently.

This past Saturday, my brother-in-law and I went to see 300. I was curious to see how it all hung together, especially since I had read that they filmed the whole thing on a sound stage and digitally added stuff like backgrounds, the army, blood, all that stuff later. I thought that aesthetically, the film was great. My one gripe would be the many times the director seemed to fall asleep on the slow-motion button. Ratcheting up the drama is one thing; overusing it is another.

The thing to keep in mind is that 300 earns every inch of its "R" rating. Lots of blood, lots of violence, lots of naked people, the usual stuff that gets things an "R." So as I'm watching this movie, I heard someone cough in the theater. I turned to my right, and there were at least half a dozen kids, all of whom couldn't have been older than ten, sitting there with their parents.

Now, I realize, none of those parents will likely stumble into my blog. Moreoever, even if they did, I can't tell them how to raise their children. But taking kids to see 300? Really? How, exactly, is that a good idea? Personally I hope those kids have nightmares for a few weeks and keep their parents up all night.

My Favorite Novel Comes to Life

So a funny thing happened the other week. My favorite novel has come to life ... and quite frankly, I'm none too pleased about that.

My absolute favorite book of all time is A Skeleton in God's Closet by Paul L. Maier. It's the story of an archaeological dig in Israel that uncovers something rather startling ... namely the apparent skeleton of Jesus Christ. Paul Maier takes us through a speculative fiction rollercoaster ride: what would happen if the mortal remains of Jesus Christ were found? How would Christians react? How would the faith survive if its very foundation, the empty tomb, were suddenly removed?

Do you see where I'm going with this?

That's right, that asinine documentary that James Cameron produced. Now, I'm sure there's plenty of stuff out on the web to discredit Cameron and company, but I thought I would direct what few readers stumble onto my blog to what I consider some of the best.

After I heard about this documentary, I was tempted to write to Dr. Maier and ask his opinion on the Talpiot tomb. I was also going to tease him a little for his apparent prophetic gifts.

Turns out he beat me to it. He even knew people would tease him about the similarities between the documentary and his novel. But I point you all in his direction in case you're curious.