Wordcount Wednesday

Given the computer drama from the previous week, it's taken me a while to get back into the swing of things. I managed to write 5,992 words this week, bringing my total to 86,217 for Failstate. I'm feeling pretty good. I'm just a chapter away from the big third crisis and then it's all downhill. I hope.

CSFF Blog Tour: Lost Mission Day Three

One of the things I found interesting about Lost Mission by Athol Dickson was the way that most of the main characters went into the story with good intentions, only to have those good intentions blow up in their faces.

Lupe, for example, believed her holy mission was to convert the Americans, so much so that she missed what I think her true calling really way. Delano, so hurt and scarred by his many losses, wished to build a place of sanctuary, but by doing so, he created a false sense of peace. Tucker, the young pastor, began his ministry with the best intentions, but he allowed his own piety to blind him with arrogance. The same is true when it came to Alejandro's fellow Franciscans.

I think the reason why (in my not-so-humble-opinion) is because in each of these cases, each person lost sight of what God really wanted. They trusted in themselves and their own abilities and ultimately, they wound up seeking after their own will. We've seen it time and time again that when that happens, God's people usually wind up in trouble.

Maybe I'm mistaken. Maybe one of my fellow tourists will have a different opinion. Be sure to check out what everyone else is saying:

Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Amy Browning
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Timothy Hicks
Jason Isbell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
Donita K. Paul
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher

Horrible Turn

I stumbled across another Joss Whedon-related item a few weeks ago and I finally took the time to check it out. One of the things that really "turned me on" to Joss Whedon's creations was Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog. Before that point, I had heard of the man. I had watched a few episodes of Buffy (mostly because of a girl I wanted to be dating at the time). I had heard of Firefly but never checked it out. But when I heard about Dr. Horrible, I knew I had to see what this was about. Doogie, a singing bad-guy? A fullblown musical, filmed for and released on the Internet? What's not to like? And, as it turned out, it was something that I loved. And because of it, I had to check out Firefly. I had to watch Dollhouse.

So when I read on Entertainment Weekly's website that a group of people had actually put together an almost full-length Dr. Horrible prequel, I had to check it out.

Here's the trailer for Horrible Turn:



The whole thing is about an hour long, so budget your time appropriately if you wind up watching it.

I went in, uncertain of what I was going to see. Obviously it wouldn't quite have that Whedon-spark. I mean, not many people can turn a phrase like Joss and the music in the original is truly inspired. The music in this one is okay, for the most part. Nothing that struck me as worthy of getting stuck in my head all day. The actors did their level best with their characters and, for the most part, did okay.

But the guy who played the nascent Captain Hammer bugged me. His whole manner was too affected. I mean, I know that Nathan Fillion played Hammer with a smirk and a certain odd lilt to his voice, but the Hammer-wannabe overdid it.

The plot also seemed a bit . . . off. I don't quite know how to explain it, but it could have had more. I expected something different. I wish we could have found out more about what Johnny Snow was up to. And I think Billy's motivation to become Horrible should have been more . . . well, horrible.

Now, having said that, I did enjoy the movie. I loved the way they crammed in nods to other Joss Whedon projects, such as Buffy, Firefly, and Dollhouse. The camera work was great and, given the fact that they didn't have a lot of experience on their side, their achievement was incredible. I would love to see what this team could do on their own instead of creating a film that shoots high but falls a bit short.

At least I can look forward to Dr. Horrible 2. But in the meantime, enjoy this related silliness:

Avengers Assemble!

I just saw on Entertainment Weekly's website some incredible news. Apparently Joss Whedon is in talks to direct the upcoming Avengers movie.

Wow. Are you as excited as I am?

If not, you should be. I've heard good things about how Whedon handled a run with the X-Men a few years back and, I believe, he took a crack at a few other comic book franchises recently also. And when you've pretty much created one of the coolest on-line superhero stories in years, I think you've got the cred needed to put together a great movie.

And besides, it's not like he has anything else better to do, like say helm his own series. No, I'm not still bitter about that, why do you ask?

CSFF Blog Tour: Lost Mission Day Two

Today we're continuing our look at Lost Mission by Athol Dickson.

One of the themes that interested me was Lupe's mission. She becomes convinced due to a miraculous vision to leave her shop in Mexico and travel north to America to preach the Gospel. She wants to be a missionary to the lost and hurting people she hears about on her neighbor's radio. And so she leaves everything behind and crosses the border. This, of course, only sets her on an incredible adventure, one that will shake her to her core (and that's all I'm saying about that).

In the additional material in the back of the book, Dickson reveals that part of his inspiration came from hearing about African and Latin American bishops coming to America to offer us advice on mission work and how South Korea now sends out more missionaries than America (I'd heard the latter when I was in seminary too). It's kind of jarring, but as it turns out, America is becoming a prime mission field. Again, when I was in the seminary, we were told that by the time we graduated, there would be more Lutherans in Africa than in the United States, something that really hit close to home for us.

For many years, the American branch of the Church (or, at least, many mainline denominations) were content to send the missionaries overseas while they relied on what I call "horizontal evangelism" to grow the local congregations (i.e. having children). Sadly, that trend isn't helping anymore. Now those countries that we used to send missionaries to are sending missionaries to us! Wow.

One of the things that this book helped me realize is that what Jesus said is still true today: the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Maybe it's time for us to roll up our sleeves and get to work in the harvest field.

Go and see what else my fellow tourists have to say:

Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Amy Browning
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Timothy Hicks
Jason Isbell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
Donita K. Paul
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher

CSFF Blog Tour: Lost Mission Day One

This time around, we'll be considering Lost Mission by Athol Dickson.

This book follows a variety of different character whose lives intersect and collide at different times and in many different ways. There's Lupe, a Mexican shop owner who decides to leave everything she knows to travel north to be a missionary to the Americans. There's Tucker, a young pastor who faces difficulty and hardship, not just because he creates a church to minister to the Latino community but also because of his personal choices. There's Delano, a wealthy Christian who allows his personal pain to spur him on to a supposedly grand plan. And threaded through all of their lives is Fray Alejandro, a Franciscan brother who lives four hundred years earlier. All of these characters are faced with hard choices and heavy consequences.

Truth be told, I had to struggle with this book. I had to force myself to keep reading through the first half. Somewhere a little past the half-way point, I was surprised to find I wanted to keep reading. Then past the three-quarters mark, I had to keep reading. I suppose you could say that the book grew on me.

Dickson is definitely a talented writer, no doubt about it. It took me a while to appreciate that. He skillfully wove together each chapter, starting with Alejandro's time period and then thematically linking what the brother experienced with a character in modern times.

My initial reluctance regarding this book is more my problem than his. I reacted badly to his style; Dickson writes this book in a sort of detached manner with a sort of omniscient narrator handling most of the story. Plus every chapter contained a sort of mini-sermon. When I first started reading, the omniscient voice threw me and the mini-sermons kind of turned me off. I got used to the former and wound up skimming the latter.

But that's just me. I want to make that clear. And I did come to enjoy the story toward the middle and, by the end, I had to stay up late one night to finish reading it.

So would I recommend this book to other people? Sure. It's well written and in the end, it left me profoundly uncomfortable (and that's a good thing; it's one of those "afflict the comfortable" type of books).

Go and see what the other tourists had to say:

Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Amy Browning
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Timothy Hicks
Jason Isbell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
Donita K. Paul
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher

This does not inspire confidence...

As I wrote in my previous post, our home computer broke the Saturday before Easter. We took the tower in to Best Buy's Geek Squad to see if they could suss out what was wrong and either repair it or pronounce it dead. The tower would beep three times, wait a few seconds, and then repeat the same sequence. It reminded me a little of Morse Code.

At any rate, the resident Geek who checked it in said that either the memory had gone bad or the motherboard had died. If it was the former, we'd just replace the RAM and move on. If it was the latter, well, then the computer was DOA and we'd need to get a new one.

This past Friday, we finally heard back from them and we were told that the motherboard was, indeed, dead. They had attempted replacing the RAM and had no luck. So yesterday I bought a new desktop with a bit more oomph to it (twice the RAM, better graphics card, faster processor) and asked the Geeks to transfer the old hard drive into an external case. This afternoon, I was able to pick up the new computer and the old hard drive. They also handed over the "case notes" for the old computer. I think they forgot to remove some of the paperwork. I found this note in the file:

In case you're having trouble reading it, the first entry reads "Have no idea why unit is like this." Someone else wrote under it, "My suggestion would be to turn it on and investigate the issues." Three days later, the writer of the original entry added "Unit beeps when turned on."

Three. Days. Later.

This does not inspire confidence.

Wordcount Wednesday

I should have known better. I said last week that I hoped I'd be able to get Failstate done for my birthday. Yeah, that didn't happen. Part of the reason is Holy Week. It was foolish of me to think that I'd be able to wrap things up and add on the however many words I need during one of the busiest times of the year for me.

But then our tempermental computer decided it would be a great time for its latest breakdown.

About two years ago we upgraded our home computer and bought an HP Pavilion something-or-other. It's an odd machine. It suffers from occasional slow-downs. Well, that's actually a misnomer. "Occasional" in this case means "at least once a month" and "slow-downs" means "crawls along at a pace that makes me think it'll crash at any moment." I've gotten to know the folks at the local Best Buy Geek Squad quite well since purchasing this machine. The maddening thing was, the Geeks couldn't pinpoint the problem. Sure, the computer would be slow for them when I brought it in, but they would never be able to find anything actually wrong with it, neither hardware nor software.

Things got a little better when I upgraded from Vista to Windows 7 but the problems still persisted. The difference was, now the slow-downs did become occasional and they usually resolved themselves within a few hours. I figured things were looking up.

That is until this past Saturday when the computer crashed and, when I restarted it, it would only beep at me. That's a new one.

I called the Geeks and they suggested I bring it in. After looking it over, I was told it was probably one of two things. It was either bad memory (which could be fixed fairly easily) or a bad motherboard (which can't be fixed). With no computer in the house starting Saturday evening and stretching through Tuesday, I got very little writing done this week. I had to bring my laptop home from church to do any at all.

But I did get some done. As of right now, Failstate is 80,225 words long and, I'm guessing, will stretch out to at least a hundred thousand words when all is said and done. I'm thinking that will come down once I begin the rewriting process. We'll have to see.

And while I was computer-less, I tried to figure out the ending to this book. I have three "major events" that have to take place. I have a gaggle of lesser events that have to happen as well. And a week ago, I had no idea how they would all line up. I've got a better idea now, at least good enough to proceed.

As for my self-imposed birthday deadline . . . yeah, not happening. I am cautiously optimistic I might have this done by the end of the month, though. Having said that, of course, it'll be at least until Memorial Day before I'm done.

Oh, and as far as the computer is concerned, I'm kind of torn. I honestly don't know what I'm hoping for. On the one hand, I'd hate to have to spend a lot of money to replace it and go through the work of transferring all my data to a new one. But at the same time, it might be a blessing in disguise to drop this lemon and try again. Best Buy actually has a much better system (twice the memory and a better graphics card) on sale this week for about what we paid for the broken desktop, so there's an option if worse came to worse. I checked in with the Geeks earlier today and it sounded like they were in the middle of the diagnostic. So hopefully I'll know sometime tomorrow what the verdict is.

Of course, if I do wind up with a new tower, that means I'll be even more distracted from my writing. Sigh. I guess I just can't win this month. Happy birthday to me.

Son of Hamas

You know, by and large, I'm relatively apolitical. I'm not sure that politics or government can solve the world's problems. It doesn't matter who is in power or what kind of ideals they're trying to pursue, government isn't the solution. Doesn't matter what size, doesn't matter how much or how little they interfere or help with people's lives. The problems of the world will just go on.

My attitude is especially true when it comes to Israel. I can't say that I'm an expert on the region. I'm not even sure I want to or could choose sides in the on-going conflicts. Yes, the Palestinian terrorists have blood on their hands but then, so do the Israelis. Add to that the fact that I'm an ardent amillennialist who believes that any divinely granted Jewish claim on the Holy Land was invalidated back in the days of the First Temple and that the Holy Land doesn't have a role to play in salvation history anymore, and you can see why I'm not all that worked up about it. So far as I'm concerned, Israel and Palestine should be able to co-exist peacefully side by side. Give the Palestinians at least some of the land that was stolen from them and allow them to have an actual state.

But at the same time, when I heard about the book Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef, I had to read it. It was a sort of snap decision and one that I don't regret. It's taken me a while to get around to reading this one, but I'm glad I did.

Mosab Hassan Yousef is the son of one of Hamas's founders. He grew up in the unique position of seeing this organization become a terrorist threat to Israel. More than that, because of his association, he had to endure torture (or, at the very least, harsh interrogations) at the hands of the Israelis. He also saw the horrors that Hamas inflicted upon their own people. It was enough to make him willing to work for Shin Bet, informing on Hamas and doing his best to bring down the terrorists while protecting his father. More interesting for me was the fact that this decision was also influenced by Yousef slowly becoming a Christian.

I wasn't entirely sure what I was going to find out when I read this book. I certainly didn't think that Yousef was an incarnation of James Bond or Evan Bourne. I mean, come on, those are fictional stories. There's not a lot of action in this book, but that's okay, because Yousef opens his family and his culture to his readers, giving us glimpses of what life is like in the occupied West Bank. He shares his frustration with how the Palestinian leaders seemed to sell out their own people, content to pursue power and influence rather than peace.

So if you've got an interest in the Middle East and Israel in particular, I'd say you can't go wrong with this book. I learned quite a bit and I know that Yousef, his family, and his people will be in my prayers. After all, there is only one who can legitimately be called the Prince of Peace. Would that everyone who seeks peace turned to Him first.

Legends of the Guardian-King Revisited

This one took me a while to get through, a lot longer than I thought it would. Since I recently revisited The Sword of Lyric series, I decided I would take a swing through another Christian fantasy series, namely Karen Hancock's critically acclaimed Legends of the Guardian-King series. This one has four books, namely The Light of Eidon, The Shadow Within, Shadow Over Kiriath, and Return of the Guardian-King. This would be at least the second time I've read them all (I can't recall how many times I read the first two; possibly multiple times each new book came out). I've really enjoyed this series in the past and it's always lurked in the back of my mind to be reread at some point.

The overall story follows young Abramm Kalladorne, a member of the royal family of Kiriath. Abramm begins his journey, both spiritual and otherwise, as a member of a religious order called the Mataio. The Mataio worship a god named Eidon whose son, Tersius, supposedly sacrificed Himself to create a phenomenon called the Holy Flames, a mystical fire that keeps the dreaded Shadow at bay. But before Abramm knows what's happening, he's caught up in political intrigue and deception. Who can he trust as his life is torn from his grasp.

Soon he's on a crazy journey, one that he never thought he'd take. It's definitely not one that he wants to take, as it takes him on a phenomenal rise to power and brings him into a romance with a princess from the neighboring kingdom of Chesedh. And finally, he finds himself in an epic showdown with the forces of evil.

I don't want to say more than that because even though these books have been out for a few years now, you never know when someone unfamiliar might stumble across this blog and I certainly don't want to ruin anything for them. Nor do I want to bust my Godzilla spoiler sign every time I write a review.

So was this read-through just as good as the first one. It was. I still marvel at Hancock's willingness to write some darker and edgier Christian fiction. I remember the first time I read The Light of Eidon, my eyebrows nearly launched off my face at the way one chapter ended. Another character has to deal with what can only be described as clinical depression over the way her life has turned out. This is no happy romp through gilded fields, that's for sure.

Due to its edginess, Hancock deals with weightier issues and, as a result, I think the faith content is a bit stronger than in some Christian books. The best part is, these weightier topics are dealt with in a way that isn't too preachy, always a plus.

But there were two things that bothered me this second time through. One deals with craft, the other with theology.

Craft first. Hancock created an incredibly rich and detailed world for this series. She gave a lot of thought to history, cultures, religion, and so on. That's good; it's something that should be done for a fantasy epic like this one. The problem is that she often introduced new concepts and ideas with little or no warning, dropping them into the story as if the reader should just automatically know what it is she's talking about.

A few examples: in the second book, she starts talking about kohals and Terstmeets with very little explanation as to what they are. The reader has to piece it together quickly that kohals are pastors and Terstmeets are "worship services" or "Bible studies" or something along those lines. In the fourth book, out of nowhere, we're introduced to something called a "warmstar," a cousin to the Terstans kelistars (another term that was introduced out of the blue). I'm not saying that Hancock has to hold our hands as we walk through her world; far from it. But a little gentler landing might have been nice.

More problematic for me was the theological concern that slowly reared its head as I read these books again, and it has to deal with the bizarre way that Chesedhan Terstans are portrayed, specifically the royal family.

Five of them are said to be devout Terstans. And apparently they worship differently in Chesedh than in Kiriath. We're told that Chesedhan worship services have altars and gilded kelistar holders. In other words, it sounds a lot more liturgical than the Kiriathan worship services. As I read through the last three books, I kept getting this image that Kiriathan Terstmeets were non-denominational worship services and Chesedhan worship was more traditional, liturgical services.

Now this, in and of itself, would not bother me. I understand that it's a matter of adiaphora in the real world and I'd be willing to chalk it up to cultural differences in the books. But the way Hancock portrays it, I was a little offended.

Here's the reason why: we meet five members of the Chesedhan royal family. Four of them go to the more formal and liturgical kirikhal services. They seem to prefer them, as a matter of face. One of them prefers the Kiriathan Terstmeets. And by the end of the series, the four royals with the liturgical disposition lose their faith and are crushed by the enemy. Only those who go to the apparently better Terstmeets can survive the assaults of Moroq (the devil analogue in the series). Even worse, Moroq, it turns out, wishes that the surviving royal would go to the kirkhal (the implicit reason being her faith will weaken and she'll fall).

I'm sorry, but that's not cool. Maybe I'm reading into things here, but the implied message seems to be that traditional, liturgical worship is somehow inferior to non-liturgical, so-called "contemporary" worship (a misnomer if I've ever heard one; all worship is "contemporary" since it's happening right now) and those who use altars and candlesticks somehow will not be as strong in their faith as someone who doesn't.

Now, like I said, I may be overreacting to this. Maybe. But this does point to a larger problem in Christian fiction, namely the lack of theological diversity in these fictional worlds. Everything has to be shoved into the same cookie-cutter form when there's a lot of rich diversity out there in worship forms and practices. It'd be nice if the CBA would reflect that better.

But I'll get off my high horse soapbox now. My concerns over Terstmeets vs. kirkhals didn't derail my enjoyment of this series and I would gladly recommend it to just about anyone. If you're in the mood for some epic fantasy with some solid Christian roots, this is a great one for you.

8-bit Doctor Horrible

This is just beyond awesome:

May the laugh track be with you

Lucasfilm is working on developing a Star Wars sitcom.

About the only thing keeping me from weeping and pulling my hair out is the fact that they're bringing in folks from Robot Chicken to consult. The Chicken crew did some awesome work on their Star Wars specials, so hopefully they'll keep this absurd project interesting.

Wordcount Wednesday

So close and yet . . .

It would appear that my self-imposed deadlines and limits are falling to pieces. A few weeks ago, I thought I was doing pretty good and quietly decided that I would try to finish Failstate by Easter. Yeah, that's not gonna happen now. While I'm getting closer to the endgame, I'm nowhere near enough to finish by Sunday, especially not with Maundy Thursday and Good Friday in between there.

Also somewhat discouraging is the fact that my self-imposed target wordcount is going to be blown as well. I had originally targeted 80,000 words for this book. As of right now, Failstate weighs in at 74,894 words. That means I've added 14,216 words to the manuscript this week.

Whoa. I hadn't realized it would be that many.

But doing the math reveals my problem. If I were to make my target, I'd only have a little under 6,000 words to work with and that isn't going to happen. One of the big crises of the book is coming up. I still need to resolve several of the loose threads. I have no idea how many more words I'm going to need, but it'll be more than 6,000, that's for sure.

Not that I'm too worried about the project overall. I most likely wandered aimlessly in the first few chapters that can be pared down, maybe even cut. We'll see what happens on the rewrite, but I could maybe get this down to 80,000 words yet.

But it might be a while. Maybe by my birthday? I think a finished first draft would make a great present for myself, don't you?

Area 51 Veteran Breaks Silence

I just spotted this piece on Google News: an Area 51 veteran breaks his silence and talks about what went on in the super secret base in the '60s. And, as much as I hate to admit it, his story makes sense. I mean, part of me wants to believe that the government is hiding alien carcasses somewhere. Well, actually, I don't hope for that. But the fact that they were only testing planes like this one:



just kind of takes the fun out of things.

The A-to-Z of Awesomeness

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the A-to-Z of Awesomeness. And to my great "shame," I have to admit that I don't understand all the references. But I do get most of them!

Wordcount Wednesday

Well, I guess it couldn't last forever.

I've been pretty pleased with myself over the progress I've made on Failstate the past few weeks. But unfortunately, real life has slammed me pretty hard. We had an organ dedication at my congregation this past weekend. Family came in to visit. All of that is awesome, believe me, but something had to give, and it turns out it was my forward momentum. I had to take a few days off to keep up.

As a result, I was only able to add 5,377 words, which brings the grand total to 60,678.

So there we go. And seeing as Holy Week is only days away, I'm pretty sure this next week or two won't be much better. We'll just have to see.

The Problem of Susan

Poking around the web today, I found an essay by author R. J. Anderson (the author of Faery Rebels; maybe you've read about that somewhere recently?) regarding Susan from the Chronicles of Narnia books. A lot of people have complained about how she seems banished from Narnia at the end of the series and several people have tried to correct that. I remember being profoundly disturbed by Neil Gaiman's attempt at correcting the problem.

But I think Anderson hits the nail on the head as to what the issue really is and who is ultimately responsible for Susan's exclusion. Why not take a gander for yourself?

CSFF Blog Tour: Faery Rebels Day Three

So today, we're concluding our tour on R. J. Anderson's Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter. And I almost asked what's becoming my stock question about this book, a question that I've asked in many of these tours before. Is this book even Christian?

Pardon me while I go put on my asbestos undies. In the past, when I've asked this question, I tend to stir up a bit of trouble. But I couldn't help but wonder that as I read this book.

On the one hand, I'd be tempted to say, "No, not really." After all, this is a mass market book. The only time a human mentions God is in the book's dedication (an oblique reference, to be sure) and in the acknowledgments. In other words, it's not the characters, it's the author!

In the Oak, the faeries are constantly invoking an individual that they call the "Great Gardener." While their belief in this Gardener is never explicitly explained, I got the feeling that the Gardener is their title for God. It certainly evokes such stories as Genesis 2-3 or Isaiah 5 or Matthew 21:33-46.

But while the title may evoke such Biblical stories, that's all it does. One could also argue that given the preponderance of magic in the story, with its usual division into light and dark magic, that the Gardener is a little-g god rather than the big-G God. The Gardener could even be their title for some impersonal force of nature (although that might be stretching it a little).

With those thoughts in mind, I was ready to ask my usual question and then duck. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that maybe there is a somewhat Christian message in this book and it all focuses around the Sundering.

Oh, before I go on, I think Godzilla had better make an appearance. Hang on . . .

Now that that's out of the way, I'll continue.

The faeries of the Oak are in a bad way. They've been cut off from the magic and they're becoming more and more selfish and self-centered, shallow and petty. Faery society is all about bargaining and debts. Knife is completely confused when she first observes human beings because they're so open with each other and willing to help. By the end of the book, we learn why this is so (and don't worry, in spite of the sign, I'm not going to go into great detail). As I considered this and my "usual question," I realized that this book has a lot to say about our Sundering, our separation from God.

Just like the faeries of the Oak, we human beings have been cut off from our "magic," from the supernatural, from God. It's a condition that's existed since the Fall and our Sundering has a similar effect on us, similar to the one the Faeries face. Love for God and love for our fellow human beings goes hand in hand. If there's problems with one, we're going to naturally have problems with the other.

That seems to ultimately be the problem with the faeries. Their lack of community feeds the Sundering; the Sundering increases their distance from each other. It's a self-destructive circle that ultimately has no end and must be fixed from the outside. It's not something that the faeries can fix for themselves.

Wow. Where have I heard that before?

Now maybe this is just me rambling and I'm reading too much into things. That's certainly happened before. Oh well. Go and see what the rest of the tourists have to say:

Sally Apokedak
Brandon Barr
Amy Browning
Melissa Carswell
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Timothy Hicks
Jason Isbell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
Nissa
John W. Otte
Donita K. Paul
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
Andrea Schultz
James Somers
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher

Dear Hollywood

MAKE THIS MOVIE. NOW! And all will be forgiven!

"Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" from Aaron Paul

CSFF Blog Tour: Faery Rebels Day Two

Today we're continuing our look at Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter by R. J. Anderson. While reading this book, I was reminded of an old cliche, namely "you can't judge a book by its cover." Because, sad to say, that's exactly what I did.

When I received my copy of this book, I pulled it from the package and immediately groaned. I mean, let's take another look at the cover:


After seeing this, I made the assumption that there was no way I could enjoy this book because first of all, I'm the wrong gender and second, I'm probably three times the age of the intended audience. This isn't exactly the first time I've had that problem. Like I said in yesterday's post, my assumptions were incorrect. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. But I think it might be important to think about the one thing I didn't like about this book: the cover.

What does this cover tell me about the book? Pretty much nothing. We've got a pretty young faery looking out of a tree at us, a faery that, let's be honest, reminds me of someone else . . .

Just saying. I doubt the artist was trying to intentionally evoke Tinkerbell, but that's who I thought of immediately. I thought of the latest Disney video series that I've seen advertised about girly-girl faeries, led by Tink, getting into all sorts of adventures. And I assumed that this book would be similar, that this would be a story about flowers and dresses and fireflies and . . . I'd better stop, shouldn't I? As a matter of fact, my darling wife burst out laughing when she saw the cover because she assumed the exact same thing.

And while we're at it, what's with the title? Not to give out too much information, but I didn't see how Knife was a "spell hunter." Well, I guess that's not entirely true, but it's still not the most evocative of titles.

Put all together, I'm not sure that the publisher did R. J. Anderson any favors with this cover art. I'm not saying that it should give away everything about the plot but it should give us at least a hint of what the story is about. I didn't expect to find the main character so tough and brave after seeing the cover. Maybe if we had seen a scene of Knife facing off against a wild animal, or visiting with Paul, or something like that. I don't know.

I mean, let's compare the cover to the British version (where this book is apparently called Knife):


Now if I had opened a package and found this cover, I would have been intrigued. The faery here is clearly not a girlie-girl. She looks tough and ready to fight. Granted, this doesn't give me much more to go on in terms of plot, but it does give me better insight into the character's personality and the story's overall tone.

I'm not saying that it's right to judge a book by its cover, but people do that all the time. The cover art and title of a book is the first obstacle that potential readers have to get over. If either are lacking, an author won't make a sale.

But hey, what do I know? Maybe one of the other tourists disagrees with me and loved the cover. Go on and see if that's true:

Sally Apokedak
Brandon Barr
Amy Browning
Melissa Carswell
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Timothy Hicks
Jason Isbell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
Nissa
Donita K. Paul
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
Andrea Schultz
James Somers
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher

CSSF Blog Tour: Faery Rebels Day One

So after a four or five month hiatus, I'm back with the CSFF Blog Tour and, I have to say, I've missed it. And this month, we're looking at Faery Rebels: Spell Hunter by R. J. Anderson.


This is the story of a faery named Knife. Knife has always been a precocious faery, brave and daring. She lives in the Oak with about four dozen other faeries and life is not easy for any of them. They lost their magic decades ago. Their numbers are dwindling. They have all become self-centered and petty. Worse, a disease called the Silence is slowly killing them. They're locked in a fierce fight of survival and Knife is on the front lines when she is named the Queen's Hunter. It is her job to go out and . . . well, hunt, obviously. It's a dream come true for Knife because she can finally leave the confines of the Oak.

It's on one of these trips that she meets a human named Paul who lives in "the House." She can't quite figure him out. But she still strikes up an unusual friendship with him, going out to visit and even help him through some tough situations.

What she doesn't realize is that this new relationship could easily destroy both of them. She's suddenly embroiled in a much larger adventure, one that could change life in the Oak forever.

I'm actually surprised that I liked this one. I definitely did not go into this story expecting that (more on that tomorrow). But Anderson's prose is easy to read and quick to read as well. Her characters are interesting and the faery society she created is fascinating to explore. I thought that I would have to force myself to read this one, but the deeper I got into the story, the more I wanted to read it, even to the point that I stayed up late one night to finish it.

Anderson also crafted her story well enough that I couldn't predict what was going to happen. I thought I had things figured out in the early going, but it turned out that I fell for Anderson's misdirection. I won't go into details (spoilers and whatnot), but I was pleasantly surprised when everything was resolved and I understood the larger story.

It would appear that there's a sequel in the works (at least, according to what I saw on Amazon). I don't know if I'll try to get said sequel when it comes out, but I'll be tempted.

Make sure you go see what the other tourists have to say:

Sally Apokedak
Brandon Barr
Amy Browning
Melissa Carswell
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Timothy Hicks
Jason Isbell
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Rebecca LuElla Miller
New Authors Fellowship
Nissa
Donita K. Paul
Crista Richey
Chawna Schroeder
Andrea Schultz
James Somers
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
KM Wilsher

The Sounds of Lent: Crowing Rooster

Instead of focusing on Peter, let’s talk about the rooster and the role he played in confronting Peter with his denial.

Text: Luke 22:54-62

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Wordcount Wednesday

So I don't have long to check in tonight. Gotta love Wednesdays during Lent. I'm not sure the alliteration I intended for this on-going posting is worth the hassle some nights.

It's been another productive week of writing. In fits and spurts, some long hours and a few minutes here and there, I've gotten Failstate up to 55,301 words. That means I added about 10,000 words since last week, which isn't too shabby. If I can keep that up, I might wrap this project by mid-April. Of course, that's only if the plot doesn't inflate out of control in the meantime and you never know. I set a goal of 80,000 words, but I have a feeling I'm going to overshoot. Not a horrible happenstance, mind you, but still somewhat problematic.

So here's a fun question for you. Can a book have a soundtrack? I know of only one that tried. For some reason I keep having the following song going through my head when I write. Hmmmmm.

Wordcount Wednesday

So two weeks ago, I decided to take a week-long break from Failstate to prepare my entries for the ACFW Genesis Contest (a process that I haven't quite finished yet) and to try to regroup from the mess that is this first draft. Now that I've had another week to start writing again, I'm not sure the break was a good idea.

Last Thursday, as I sat at my computer and willed myself to start writing again, I was at a complete loss. It was almost as bad as starting at the beginning of a novel. Where had I left off? Oh, that's right. Is that where I should pick up? I already know that the last scene I finished before the break would be moved to an earlier part of the book during the rewrite, so it didn't make sense to pick up right where it ended. I finally picked an arbitrary spot (the wrong one, I think), and started writing and hoped for the best.

The first page or two was agonizing but before too long, the words started flowing. Failstate now stands at 45,516 words, just a little over my self-imposed halfway point. I suspect the book might be shorter than I originally intended, but we'll see.

The structure is still a colossal mess. I'm thinking when I begin the rewriting process, I'll need to tape a time-line to a wall somewhere and use Post-It Notes to figure out the way the scenes are really supposed to go. I'm not really looking forward to that. I suspect I'll be tearing my hair out at some point.

I also had some fun earlier this week. I've been having trouble picturing my characters, especially in their superheroic alter-egos. I actually wished I was still playing City of Heroes so I would still have access to their powerful character creator. But in lieu of that, I found this gem: HeroMachine 2.5. Not quite as versatile as City of Heroes, but it still got the job done.

For behold, five of my Failstate characters in their costumes:











I personally like how Failstate and Meridian turned out. Well, I'll just keep plugging away.

Dead Reckoning

I met Ronie Kendig through ACFW. Our paths have crossed at the national conference three times now. So I was excited to read her debut novel, Dead Reckoning.

Shiloh Blake is an underwater archaeologist who makes a life-threatening discovery at a dig site in Mumbai, India. The minute she finds it, a member on her team is killed and another is seriously injured. What did she find? Why do people want her dead now? And who is the man following her? Is he a friend? An enemy? How will Shiloh get out of this alive when she doesn't even know who she can trust?

Or hey, maybe you'd rather see the professional book trailer that Ronie put on her Facebook profile recently:



I really enjoyed this book, although I suspect I missed something somewhere along the way. I don't think I really understood the "big pictures" stakes. I understood what Shiloh's motivation was, I could track with Reece Jaxon, the other main character, but I really do think that I missed some explanation of what was going on. It had something to do with nuclear non-proliferation, but beyond that, I wound up "going with the flow." I want to make this clear: the fault lies with me on this one. I'm pretty sure I'm the one who missed something.

I could tell that Ronie has done her research and I really appreciate the evocative detail throughout the book. Plus the action sequences were great and kept me on the edge of my seat.

I've already got my pre-order in for Ronie's next book, Nightshade, and I'm looking forward to its arrival.

Hey! You! Check out my cloud!

I spent some time today labeling all of my posts. All 500+ of them. The system isn't perfect, but if you look in the far right column, you'll see a little cloud of labels. Clicking on any of them will bring up any post that fits within said label.

Ain't technology grand?

Glenn Beck to Jesus: "Drop Dead"

You know, I'm fairly apolitical. I don't get into rabid policy debates by and large. As a result, I don't have a lot of time or interest for the bloviating talking heads on any news network. But Glenn Beck really needs to knock it off. He clearly doesn't understand what Christianity is really all about.

Now I'm not saying that the Church should become just another political organization of lobbyists out to change the world for the disadvantaged. Doing so would be a betrayal of our mandate to go out and make disciples of all nations. But at the same time, we should pay attention to what the Old Testament prophets had to say about social justice. We should remember what Jesus commended people for in Matthew 25. We should follow Paul's example, someone who worked to not only spread the faith but to take up a collection for the poor in Jerusalem. We should remember that James says Christianity is a faith that works.

Glenn Beck, I've seen in the past, claims to be a Christian. Perhaps he should take some time off the air and take some courses on basic Christianity. He clearly needs them.

Is "Scrubs" Going Off the Air? (and do I care?)

This is really odd. Earlier tonight, I was on Facebook and I saw an update from "Scrubs" that said that the series finale would be coming up soon. The exact wording was thus: "Scrubs is inviting you to celebrate the series finale - share your favorite Scrubs memory in the fan photo gallery."

Bah-wha? Did I miss something? I searched the fan page for any official link. Then I headed over to both ABC's and Entertainment Weekly's website and even did a Google News search. Nothing. So that left me wondering: is Scrubs on the way out?

But it provoked a more important question: do I even care?

That's the strange thing. I used to love Scrubs. I've mentioned that before, yes? I loved the off-beat humor, the strange fantasy sequences, and especially Dr. Perry Cox. I was not happy with the way NBC dumped on it in the seventh season. I loved the way it got its mojo back on ABC for the eighth. And I was cautiously optimistic when they rebooted the series, keeping a few of the regulars and retooling it to be about med school.

And then the show went on hiatus. I honestly can't remember the last time I watched a new episode (although according to IMDb, it was back in late January). This past week, as I was trying to figure out the new post-Olympics schedule, I realized that Scrubs would be on this Wednesday.

Now you'd think that a show I've enjoyed for eight years would prompt, oh, I don't know, excitement or anticipation. In this case, it prompted a profound "Huh." No excitement. No anticipation. Just a note that I'd better set the VCR.

I guess if push comes to shove, I won't be sad if Scrubs is done after this year. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed this season. There have been some laugh-out-loud moments, but nowhere near as great as the early ones. The new cast doesn't have the sparkle or the depth of the original. Lucy, for example, is a pale imitation of JD. While the whole thing is serviceable, it's not stellar. Scrubs deserves better.

So if this is truly the end, my friends, bon voyage. Thanks for the memories. It's been nice to know you. If only you had gone out with your head held high.

Bioshock 2

Let's go back to Rapture, shall we?

Last night, I completed my first play-through of Bioshock 2, the sequel to a pretty phenomenal game. I loved the originals deep philosophical foundation and the story had a killer twist (pun sort of intended?). So when I heard that we would get another chance to visit Andrew Ryan's dystopian fallen paradise, I couldn't wait to see what was in store.

Things have certainly changed. For starters, it's ten years after the first game and Rapture is still falling to pieces. Why that is, I'm not too sure, because there's a new despotic leader in town, Sofia Lamb, who is basically the polar opposite of Andrew Ryan in terms of governing philosophy. Where Ryan placed value on individual freedom (a concept that the developers skewered with considerable glee in the first game), Lamb emphasizes the collective over all else. So it makes me wonder, if Lamb got everyone on the same page, why is Rapture still a dump ten years later? She's waiting for Extreme Underwater City Makeover to call?

At any rate, this time around, you play a Big Daddy named Delta, one who could use plasmids and weapons at the same time, a definite improvement over the original. I did fumble a bit with my offensive abilities. The original key-bindings seem counter-intuitive: you fire plasmids with your left hand and shoot your weaponry with your right, yet to shoot the guns, you left click and use plasmids with a right click. At the suggestion of the folks at the PC Gamer Podcast, I reversed that, only to remember that most games are shooting guns with a left click. It took a level or two for me to get used to it, but once I did, it worked out okay.

Another interesting twist is how you relate to the Little Sisters. In the original game, once you took down a Big Daddy, you could either "rescue" or "harvest" them (the latter a colorful euphemism for killing them). You still have that choice in this game, but before that, you can "adopt" them, going out with her to harvest the all-important adam from two corpses. This leads to a mini-tower defense game. You have to set up traps and be ready to protect her from all the baddies that will quickly swarm over you to try to get her.

The new sequel also features some fun new plasmids such as "Scout" and new twists on the established ones. They also revamped the hacking mini-game, making it more logical. That, plus a raft of new weapons, and you've got a pretty worthy sequel.

The one place where it seemed to be lacking was in terms of story. Simply put, it doesn't quite measure up to that of the original. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I don't think the developers set out to top the story from the first game. But there are some seeming plotholes in it. They do attempt something of a twist, a small one, but they gave it away in the middle after one comment, so that when I hit the actual "twist," I just nodded and said, "Well, duh." There's also something of a muddled chronology to the story as well; when I first started playing, I assumed some of the events happened after the first game, only to learn that they actually happened before it, and it didn't make a whole lot of sense to me.

I did have a few gut-wrenching moments in terms of plot, though. The developers took care to really work out a more complex morality feature to this game. In the original, there were two endings. Which one you got was based on how you treated the majority of the Little Sisters. In this case, though, there are six possible endings, all based on certain moral decisions you make throughout the game. I, apparently, messed up. I was a bit too bloodthirsty and clumsy (I accidentally harvested a Little Sister because I hit the wrong button), and so I wound up with a sick feeling through the last levels. Let's just say my moral choices came back to haunt me. It does make me curious to see what would happen if I did better.

There's also an on-line game, set during Rapture's civil war of 1959, but I've only played that once and I'm not too sure I'll be back. Part of the problem was that I got thrown into a match with people who out-gunned me pretty severely. If they did a better job of ensuring complete noobs like me don't get thrown in with the experienced vets, that might be better.

So in terms of replayability, I'd say that I'll be back eventually. I'm not eager to do it right now, but I definitely want to see some of those other endings. And who knows, maybe I'll give the multiplayer another shot. See you in Rapture, folks. Just be sure to bring a towel.

Wordcount Wednesday

So my week off from writing is almost over. I was able to do most of the work I had to and now it's time to get back to work on Failstate. I'm still not entirely sure where I am in the story thanks to the fractured nature of the story thus far, so I'm just going to start a new scene and get going and see where I wind up. That's probably only contribute to the problem, but hey, it's better than not writing at all!

Oh, please, NO!

Dear Hollywood;

Enough already.

Sincerely,
The People You Expect to Watch This Nonsense

Parenthood

So um, yeah. I checked out the premiere episode of Parenthood on NBC tonight (which, by the way, was sponsored by Nissan). Ahem. Well. Let's get on with it, shall we?

The show seems to be about an extended clan named the Bravermans. Or would that be Bravermen? Never mind. There are four adult children, two of them married, most of them with kids. But each of the Braverman siblings have issues, ranging from the mundane (Julia is a workaholic lawyer whose little girl who wants her daddy to do everything for her) to the more serious (such as Adam and Christina's son being diagnosed with Asperger's). Lots of potential drama in there, I suppose, what with Sarah moving home with her two delinquent children and Crosby being forced into life-changing situations.

By the way, did I mention that Parenthood was brought to us tonight with limited commercials because of NISSAN? No? Well, there you go . . .

So why would I watch this show at all? It's not my typical fare, that's for sure. You can blame Lauren Graham. It's no secret that my wife got me hooked on Gilmore Girls a while back. And while Amy Sherman-Palladino disappointed me post-Gilmore, I was curious to see if I could watch Graham act in another role without having my brain lock up in cognitive dissonance and wonder why Lorelai isn't in Stars Hollow where she belongs.

Sadly, my internal IFF refused to accept Graham as Sarah. Perhaps Graham's range as an actor prevented that from happening, I don't know. Maybe it's the way the character was written. Hard to say. It probably doesn't help that the writers seem to be recycling a character arc from the first two seasons of Gilmore Girls. In the season preview at the end of the episode, it was revealed that Sarah was going to crush on her daughter's teacher (who looked an awful lot like Rider Strong, although I could be wrong; his IMDb page doesn't list this as one of his roles). Gee, where have I heard that before?

Oh, and before I forget: NISSAN!!!!!

A pleasant surprise was realizing that Sam Jaeger played a very scruffy Joel Graham. It took me a while to realize I had seen him in something else recently and it took a trip to the official website to realize he had been on Eli Stone.

I really don't know what to think of this show. It didn't ring any bells for me, not the way, say, Castle or Chuck does. I might keep watching; I suppose that'll depend on if my wife wants to. I know I can take it or leave it, especially given the ridiculous pandering that was done for a certain car company that shall remain nameless.

Mass Effect 2

This evening, I finished my first play through of Mass Effect 2. I say first because it definitely will not be the only one.

Truth be told, I had to warm up to this series. I bought Mass Effect for cheap, if I remember correctly. Part of the problem was the sheer repetition of some of the missions: land your rover on a planet, drive around looking for stuff, go through cookie-cutter copies of the same base. Rinse, repeat. The player had to sort through myriad armor sets, weapons, modifications. Wow. It was a complex ordeal. The game grew on me eventually, in no small part because of the intense story. I honestly wasn't sure if I would be interested in the sequel, but when I heard the rave reviews for Mass Effect 2, I decided to pull out the original and play through it again. I had so much fun with it the second time through, I immediately played it through a third. And then I knew I had to get the sequel.

I'm glad I did. The designers at BioWare did a great job rebuilding the game engine. Gone are the repetitive level designs. Gone is the driving around on planet surfaces looking for junk to salvage and minerals to survey. Gone are the complex inventory screens and arsenals. Everything is stripped down and much cleaner. In some ways, it was almost too simple. I missed being able to "dress" my squad with their own armor and weaponry.

And much prettier too, I must say. I was actually very worried about whether or not my desktop could handle the graphics. It turns out my concerns were unfounded. I took the images for this post from the official website and my experience wasn't quite as sharp, but it was pretty close.

Since this is an RPG, there's not as much action as in other games. As a matter of fact, my wife referred to both Mass Effect games as "choose your own adventure" games because there is a lot of talking. A lot of talking, in this case. BioWare does not scrimp on conversation but they keep it interesting by letting the player choose how they respond to what is said. They've also added a fun "interrupt" function, where you can occasionally cut a conversation short in either a good or bad way.

What also makes this game fun is the fact that you can import the character you created in the previous game into this one. It was kind of surreal seeing my version of "Commander Shepherd" running around again but kind of nice too, not to have to start over again. It's like playing with an old friend.

Where this game really shines, though, is in its story and characters. The story opens quite literally with a bang with Commander Shepherd once again plunged into an adventure to save humanity from a threat called the Reapers. To do so, Shepherd must recruit the best of the best for an impossible mission. There's Jack, a psychotic criminal. There's Tali, a genius engineer. There's Mordin, a scientist who knows his way around a gun. The list goes on and on. Shepherd needs to keep his team strong as they face almost certain death to protect the rest of the galaxy. And yes, I short-changed the story to sum it up.

What's really awesome is the voice talent. BioWare pulled out some heavy hitters for this game. Adam Baldwin, Keith David, Seth Green, Tricia Helfer, Yvonne Strahovski, Carrie-Anne Moss. And Martin Sheen! Holy cow! The voice talent helped create some intriguing characters. My personal favorites are Garrus and Tali. And Mordin. Ah, Mordin, crazy, fast-talking Salarian that he is. I mean, how can you hate this:



Ahem. Where was I?

Well, the upshot is this: I had a blast playing this through the first time and I'm looking forward to taking another run through it soon.

And hey, one of the loading screens promised I'd be able to import my characters into Mass Effect 3. I can't wait. It should be fun.