The Bark of the Bog Owl

... or really, really, really late CSFF Blog Tour! Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa, I missed the original blog tour for this book. But I feel bad and I've had "review that book" at the top of my to-do list for a while now.

What book is that? The Bark of the Bog Owl by Jonathan Rogers. The best way to sum up this book is if Mark Twain told the story of King David. Well, if Mark Twain wasn't an avowed atheist, that is.

In this book, Aidan Errolson dreams of joining the Corenwald army and becoming a warrior but the many letters he sends to King Darrow are never answered.

But Aidan's life is turned upside down in a number of ways. First of all, he meets Dobro Turtlebane, one of the feechiefolk, a group of half civilized swamp dwellers who live to fight and tussle and get into trouble. Dobro had me laughing out loud after he popped up on the scene and I absolutely adored the feechiefolk. The more of them I see, the better.

More troubling is the pronouncement by Bayard the Truthspeaker, an old man who declares that Aidan will one day be king of Corenwald. That odd prophecy sends Aidan on a wild adventure as Corenwald faces off against the Pyrthen Empire, their traditional enemy.

This was a great read (hence the reason why I've felt so guilty for not posting this review during the blog tour). Rogers captures the south and transplants the story of King David into that cultural milieu with a great deal of humor. Like I said, the feechiefolk were my favorite part and often had me laughing out loud.

The one minor complaint I had about this book is the fact that, if you knew David's story, you knew exactly what was going to happen all along the way. A little bit of deviation from the script would have been okay by me. It's not a bad thing per se, but it would have made this book spot-on perfect.

I know I won't be able to participate in the next blog tour due to the move, but I'm hoping I'll be back on board for December. And hopefully I won't get so blasted far behind again.

AWOL

Yes, I know. I've neglected my duties as a blogger. I missed the October CSFF Blog Tour (and I feel horrible about that. I.O.U. one book review which I hope to get to sometime this week). So why the disappearing act from yours truly?

Well, it's because I have a new job.

No, I haven't quit the pastoring game. Instead, I'll be pastoring in a new place soon. I was recently "called" to be pastor at Concordia Lutheran Church in South Saint Paul, Minnesota. And after close to a month of deliberations, I accepted said call. So I'll soon be leaving Blue Earth and heading "up north" to the Twin Cities to start in my new position.

Needless to say, it's been a stressful month. The week of the blog tour, I was actually up in South Saint Paul meeting with the congregation to gather more data and see what kind of housing is available.

Now that I've taken the call, Jill and I need to find a house. That's proven a bit tricky. We thought we had found a great one. It had been foreclosed on and was an absolute mess, but it was in great shape under the mess. Sadly, by the time I made my decision, it had already been sold.

Yesterday we looked at six houses, five of which weren't do-able. The sixth could work but head clearance is an issue. This morning, we found another house that's a little bit pricey but could be do-able so we're hoping to look at it soon.

So anyway, a lot of stuff might be on hold for the time being as we try to figure this out. For example, I had to pass on NaNoWriMo this year because I knew there was no way I'd have time to bang out 50,000 words.

But anyway, hopefully we'll have all this figured out and will be settled in very soon.

Hopefully.