CSFF Blog Tour: The Vanishing Sculptor

Okay, so I feel like I'm shirking my duties a little. I hate to say it, but I think this is going to be my only post for this tour. Yesterday evening, I came home from the ACFW National Conference in Denver and boy, are my arms tired. Wait. I think I screwed up that joke.

But seriously, folks, I am wiped out. Mentally, emotionally, physically, and even a little spiritually. Lots of good stuff, but that's another blog post for another time. Right now, I should be discussing The Vanishing Sculptor by Donita K. Paul.


We're back in the familiar world of the DragonKeeper series, only this time, we're half-way around the world. A young emerlindian named Tipper is faced with a serious problem. Her father, the famous sculptor Verrin Schope, disappeared years ago, leaving Tipper to fend for herself and care for her mother, a woman who is just a bit eccentric. But then, two strangers pop into her life (although they aren't strangers to fans of Paul's work), taking her on an adventure to find three of her father's missing statues so that not only can her father come home, but the whole world can be saved as well.

I really enjoyed this book. Those of you who hang around The Least Read Blog know that I was a little hard on Donita the last time I reviewed one of her books, so I was a little apprehensive about reading this one. But I really had fun with it. Her characters were fun and engaging, full of life. I also enjoyed learning a bit more about Paladin (again, those who have seen my rambling musings know that Paladin's identity has confused me in the past), namely about who he is and where he came from. And like I said, the two "strangers" are anything but to fans of Donita's previous books.

There are two "negatives" that I noticed. Well, one's not a negative necessarily, maybe more a word of caution. Like I said, we once again drop into the world of the Dragon Keepers, and so we have a bunch of minor dragons flying about. I had no problem understanding who the dragons were and what abilities they had. But I wondered if a new reader would grasp it as easily. I seem to recall more explanation in the previous books about that sort of thing. Not a bad thing, necessarily. A reader would probably be able to figure it out, but it was something I wondered. If you were someone who read this book and hadn't read Donita's previous books, leave a comment and let me know what you think.

The "negative" that I have is a minor gripe. The final battle of the book seemed hastily set up. It was great and I loved the bad guy's villainous plot, but a few hints about it earlier in the book might have made it work a little bit better. I seem to remember thinking, "Oh, really? Well, I guess if you say so..."

But really, those are minor things. I really loved this book! It was a lot of fun and I think a lot of people will get a great deal of joy from it!

And Donita ... once again, congratulations on your "Mentor of the Year" win at ACFW this year!

Go and see what the other tourists have to say:

Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Justin Boyer
Rachel Briard
Karri Compton
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Linda Gilmore
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen (posting later in the week)
Nissa
Lyn Perry
Crista Richey
Cheryl Russell
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Phyllis Wheeler
Elizabeth Williams
KM Wilsher

Kanye feel the love?

Okay, so I should be getting ready to head out to the airport, but I found this gem and thought I had to share:

So do you want to have the Taylor Swift experience and have Kanye West insult your own website? Head on over here.

I'm going to wait for my three or four apologies now...

Wordcount Wednesday

So I guess I have no real wordcount update to make. The past week has been spent working on a novel proposal for Numb and getting my gear ready to head out to Denver for the 2009 ACFW National Conference.

I'm off!

An Interesting Post on Healthcare

So the other day a certain president who shall remain nameless came a-callin' on the Twin Cities to stump for health care reform. And while I probably should have watched his speech, I didn't. I don't remember what I was doing exactly. I think I was working on my book proposal for Numb. The ACFW Conference is less than a week away and I've been a horrible procrastinator yet again.

Anyway, this is about health care, not my writing. It's not Wednesday, after all. I noticed that my friend Jamison (who occasionally stops by and leaves me comments on my blog) had written an article about how the current health care debate intersects with Christianity. So I hopped over to read it.

It left me a bit humbled.

Now I'm not the most political of individuals. I have watched the current debate (or furor, depending on who I'm watching) with casual interest. But I think Jamison has some valid points that we should consider.

Just sayin' is all.

Myth of a Christian Religion

I expected this one to shake me up a bit and boy, did it.

The Myth of a Christian Religion is a sort of sequel to Gregory Boyd's previous book, The Myth of a Christian Nation. For those of you unfamiliar with the previous book, Boyd is a pastor in the Twin Cities. During the 2004 election, he was pressured by many people, both from outside his congregation and within, to officially endorse George W. Bush since it would be the "Christian" thing to do. Instead, Boyd preached a four week sermon series about the proper relationship between Christianity and America. The end result is that 1,000 people left his church (he retells this story in the opening pages of The Myth of a Christian Religion).

When I read Christian Nation, it shook me up and gave me a lot to think about. When I saw Christian Religion, I knew that Boyd would give me even more food for thought.

Boyd's basic thesis is that Christ came to establish a Kingdom unlike any on Earth before. This kingdom is one of love, of transformation, of forgiveness. The problem, he says, is that the followers of this kingdom have compromised themselves by buying into attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of the rest of the world. He identifies a number of idols that people wind up worshiping other than Christ and urges his readers to rid themselves of those idols and return to Christ's beautiful revolution.

In some ways, this book is simply a retread of the arguments Boyd made in Christian Nation. This is especially true of the chapters entitled "Christ and Caesar," "The Revolt Against Nationalism," and "The Revolt Against Violence." But he does touch on a number of other topics, such as individualism, greed, racism, creation care, and secularism. In essence, he holds a mirror up to modern American Christianity and points out where the warts are.

What's interesting is the fact that the last "chapter" are actually action-ideas from Boyd about how to overcome these issues. Admittedly, I skimmed this (not because I don't need the advice; it was late when I finished reading the book), but I'm excited to try some of them. "Prayer stalking" especially.

It's a convicting read. I don't know if I agree with all of Boyd's ideas, but they are certainly important for every Christian to consider. If nothing else, it will spark some new thoughts about how we live as God's Kingdom people.

Wordcount Wednesday

So I'm doing this a little early this week. Normally this is something that I remember to do at the very last minute, sometimes even Thursday morning, and I have to frantically throw together a report. Well, this past week has been frantic, but in a good way.

Allow me to explain why. This past Monday, we were out celebrating my parents-in-law's 41st anniversary. We went to Famous Daves and we were having a good ol' time, making small talk, trying to get my son to eat his "mackerel and cheese" (that's what he calls it; no fish are actually involved). And in the back of my head, I was ruminating over some of the things that Sharon Hinck had said to me about the first 20 pages of Numb. And I was also thinking about some of the advice I had read in Donald Maass's book Writing the Breakout Novel. And suddenly, all those thoughts converged into a massive brainstorm.

See, I've been struggling with my antagonist's motivation. I knew what he wanted and why he wanted it. But it all seemed way too small. I needed to up the stakes for him, make it all bigger. And sitting in a restaurant with a mouthful of Georgia shredded pork, I suddenly knew what I had been missing. I knew what the antagonist wanted.

More than that, dozens of smaller ideas started to emerge on how to work this bigger idea into the existing plot. And plugs for other smaller holes began forming as well. I was having a veritable cornucopia of ideas pouring out of my barbecue-addled mind.

Small problem: I had nothing on which to write any of this stuff down. And I knew that if I didn't record my thoughts, they'd be gone before we got home.

I turned to my darling wife and asked her if she had any paper in our son's backpack. She said the only stuff she had was coloring book pages. Well, I'm not so heartless a writer as to deprive my son of coloring book pages, so I went after the hostess and asked if she had any paper.

All she had was receipt paper from the cash register. So I grabbed that, a pen, and startled scribbling furiously.

When we made it home, I had even more ideas that I jotted on Post-Its and put it all up around my computer:

So I set to work. But as I did, even more ideas started forming, requiring even more notes:

So the past two days have been pretty wild. I've been diving back into the text of Numb with both feet, trying to incorporate all of this. And I think I did an okay job of it.

But the end result has been interesting. Two new chapters have sprouted within the book. And as of this noon, Numb clocked in at 80,314 words (as opposed to the 76,599 words from last week).

So what's next? Well, I think I may take the rest of the day to catch my breath a little. Play some Sims 3. But then, starting tomorrow, it's prepping a book proposal and one sheet for Numb as best I can. The ACFW National Conference is upon us!

Comes a Horseman

Late last night I finished reading Comes a Horseman by Robert Liparulo. I noticed in the "happy blurb" section that people were comparing this book favorably with The DaVinci Code. And after reading it, I have to agree. The similarities are startling and that's not a good thing.

But let's talk plot first. Liparulo puts together an exciting thriller. FBI Special Agents Brady Moore and Alicia Wagner are on the trail of a man they call the Pelletier killer, a supposed serial killer who is literally cutting a bloody trail through the western United States. Little do they realize that their investigation is also putting them on a collision course with a man who believes that he is the Antichrist, the prophesied destroyer. Soon they're in danger for their very lives as they try to unravel the plot.

I'm not sure I can go much more into the plot than I already did without giving a lot of it away. That was part of the fun in reading this book. The plot was pretty complex, with seemingly unrelated strands that started to come together only toward the end. That's what kept me reading: how was the killer related to the Antichrist? Why did he target his victims? And when we learned the answer to that question, it just raised more.

There were definitely some very action packed sequences that kept me on the edge of my seat. One in particular had me sweating profusely for Brady and his adorable son, Zach. And Alicia, while a bit crude around the edges, was a fun breath of fresh air for the most part.

The book itself is extremely edgy, especially for Christian fiction. I'll be honest, I was a bit surprised at some of the graphic details that were included. For example, in the first chapter, we have an individual hiding in a bathroom ventilation system trying to peek at a woman using the facilities. And the Pelletier killer ... well, I'll leave that alone right now. Let's just say that what he does isn't sugarcoated in any way. So I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you're squeamish, this one isn't for you.

As much as I wanted to really enjoy this book, though, there were a few things that got in my way. First of all, there were craft issues galore. Liparulo is a wordy individual (and I say that as a fellow wordy guy). I suspect he could have really tightened this book and trimmed a lot of excess verbiage. Toward the end, I was literally skimming the book, leaping over elaborate descriptions that could have been summed up in a paragraph or two.

More problematic is his seeming fascination with flashbacks. Two thirds of the chapters seem to start with a character remembering something. And usually, that something didn't have much to contribute to the overall plot. A few times, I got a bit confused because I thought that the flashback was actually happening right then and there. As a matter of fact, I thought at one point that Brady and Alicia kissed in the back seat of a taxi. Could have knocked me over with a feather. And then I reread it and realized that no, Brady was just remembering a flirtatious encounter with his wife. To put it simply, Liparulo did waaaaay too many flashbacks.

But what really annoyed me (and this is the part that really reminded me of The DaVinci Code) is the fact that Liparulo played fast and loose with facts, things that he should have known better from a little research.

For example, at one point, he says that Hasidic Jews wear black "to symbolize the sect's mourning of the destruction of King Solomon's temple in AD 70." Yes, that's a direct quote. Does anyone else see a problem here? Like the fact that Solomon's temple was actually destroyed in 597 BC by the Babylonians? Or that it was the temple built by King Herod that was destroyed in 70 AD? I know, it's nit-picky, but come on! This is something Liparulo should have caught easily. Most Bibles have this information in their footnotes or, if they have articles about buildings like the Temple, the information is there.

Now if this were the only thing, I wouldn't be all that upset. I'd readily admit that it's nitpicky. But what really maddened me was the fact that Liparulo played fast and loose with the belief system of the Roman Catholic Church. About three quarters of the way through the book, we hear a Catholic Cardinal discuss the Antichrist and he basically parrots what dispensational premillennialists believe about him. He'll be a political figure, descended from Rome, who preaches peace but really intends for war. He'll be closely allied with Israel. He'll rule a conglomeration of 10 kingdoms. So on and so forth.

Small problem: Roman Catholics are not dispensational premillennialists. In other words, a Roman Catholic Cardinal would not describe the Antichrist that way. Having those words come out of this man's mouth is as incongruous as hearing a dyed in the wool Republican supporting a public option in the current health care debate. Okay, so maybe that's not the best example, but you get the idea. It just would not happen.

It's further evidence and the worst example of the unfortunate homogenization of Christian fiction. I've railed about that before, but this one really torked me off. It's not just that differing viewpoints are glossed over. Now the "accepted theology" is being crammed into the mouths of people who would never hold it. It'd be like having a Lutheran pastor preach a sermon filled with decision theology, or a staunch Baptist espouse infant baptism. It's not realistic and it completely shattered my enjoyment of this book. After I encountered that point, I only kept reading to see how it would all end.

And speaking of the ending, I was a bit horrified at how the main plot resolved itself. I can't get into too many details right now, but the cavalier attitude of one character over the resolution just sickened me, especially given that this is a Christian book. Sure, it was all done by unsanctified hands, but even still.

Don't get me wrong, Liparulo is a very imaginative reader. His backstory for the Pelletier killer is imaginative and very reminiscent of The DaVinci Code (and that's a good thing in this case). But if he would have done better research, this might have been a great book.

The Firstborn

I'm not quite sure what to make of The Firstborn by Conlan Brown.

Let's start with the plot. The Firstborn are the descendants of the people who were raised from the dead when Jesus was resurrected. God gifted this group with three distinct powers. Some could see the past. Some gained insight into the present. Some can read the future. But rather than work together as a unified whole, the Firstborn have spent most of their existence fighting with each other, sometimes with bloody results.

Now the three separate branches of the Firstborn are going to unite under the office of Overseer because they face a tremendous threat. But some of the Firstborn, namely Devin Bathurst, John Temple, and Hannah Rice, are about to discover that the problem isn't coming from without but from within.

Let's talk positives first. The story is action packed. The men are heroic. The women are too. And the central themes that emerge as the Firstborn wrangle with the horrific threat they face are very good and spot on, definitely worth considering in this day and age. An (possibly) unintended benefit was presenting a valuable perspective on terrorists and why they're motivated to do what they did. But while I considered one of the terrorists sympathetic, one with valid points that should be considered by Christians, I suspect that his words will be ignored by most readers simply because he's (and read this with a bit of sarcasm) the "bad guy."

That's perhaps the one thing that bothered me most about this book was the uber-patriotism that went unchallenged throughout the book. It seemed as if America and Christianity were presented as synonymous, that what benefits one definitely benefits the other. Granted, most of those arguments were delivered by the real "bad guys," but they mostly went unchallenged in the book.

Another problem I had was that while the Muslim viewpoint was presented, I fear that what the characters had to say will be lost by the fact that every Muslim in the book is a "bad guy," a terrorist. A few more sympathetic Muslim characters may have helped Brown's overall points better but sadly, they were lacking.

What truly bothered me, though, was the attitude of the Firstborn. They seemed to think that they were the ones who had to bear the sword of God's justice on Earth, that their powers and ability somehow gave them that right. It's an unbiblical belief that, at first, isn't challenged. Eventually, though, some of the Firstborn seem to grow beyond that attitude ... only to fall right back into it in the end. That's problematic to me because it confuses what God's people should be about. Here's a hint: it's not vengeance or justice.

All those things aside, this was a pretty decent book. Not phenomenal by any means, but certainly thought-provoking. If nothing else, it made me grateful that the Firstborn are only a fictional creation. Because I fear that if Christians really did have these powers, what Brown describes would come true.

Wordcount Wednesday

What an interesting week it's been.

First off, the minor update. I mentioned last week that I thought I could turn Return of the Mourning Dove into the first book of a possible series. And I'm pretty sure I'm going to try to do that. I've envisioned a four- or five-way conflict that could be fun. I've also been writing a fun scene in the back of my head in my free moments, based around three paths to immortality in this universe: binding, draining, or swapping. On top of that, I think there's some fun conflict brewing between former friends. I need to get cracking on that soon so I can shop it around, see what happens.

But what's really been interesting is my rewrite of Numb. Last week I reported that I was about half-way through the rewrite. Well, I finished it. Kind of. More on that in a bit.

Anyway, when I finished the first draft of Numb, it clocked in at 76,294 words, and I was pretty sure it was a hot mess. Well nigh unsalvageable. But working through it made me realize that it's not all that bad. So I did some cutting, some reworking, some additions, moved a chapter completely, and in the end, I came out with 76,599 words. So I wound up picking up a few more words along the way.

When I finished that run through it, I realized that there was at least one scene missing from the story. Possibly two. So I need to get back in there and get that stuff added in.

But then I received some fantastic help. Sharon Hinck, Christian author extraordinaire, took a look at the first three chapters. And she really helped. She helped me realize what Crusader, my protagonist, really wants and what motivates him. She had very encouraging words for what I've written. And after incorporating her suggestions, I have a slightly modified word count for the first three chapters. Before Sharon saw chapter one, it clocked in at 1,947 words. Now it's at 1,907. Chapter two was at 1,598 but now it's 1,593. While chapter three was at 1,493, it's now at 1,480.

So there you go. Work will continue on Numb for a while. I need to figure out how to add in details for Crusader's motivation. I need to figure out where those two missing scenes will go. And I have to prepare myself for the ACFW National Conference which is only - gulp - two weeks away.

I'd better get to work.

A Clash of Kings

And the saga continues. In the wake of the tumultuous events in A Game of Thrones, the land of Westeros is torn by war. King Joffrey reigns from the Iron Throne in King's Landing, but he's not the only one who claims the throne. There's Renly Baratheon, the younger brother of Robert Baratheon, the former occupant of the Iron Throne. There's also Stannis Baratheon, Renly's older brother who believes he has the better claim. And there's Robb Stark, the King in the North, who seeks to punish Joffrey and his family for what they've done. And lurking beyond the sea is Daenerys Targaryen, last member of the former dynasty that Robert deposed. Plus there's the wildlings north beyond the Wall, and ancient grudges, and ... wow.

Martin's storytelling continues to be superb in A Clash of Kings. The plots are thick and twisted, the betrayals are fast and furious, and you get the feeling that no one is truly safe, not from each other and definitely not from Martin himself. He's created a rich and detailed world with its own histories, mythologies, geographies, and a bunch of other -ies that make this a living, breathing world. And it's a harsh world as well. These books are still not for the faint of heart.

What really has me intrigued is this idea of a growing power, something that's stirring within the world. I have this feeling that in future books, we're going to see even more factions come into play, more so than they are now.

I also love the fact that there's no one side to cheer for in this multi-fronted war. I stand with King Robb for sure. But I also wish Daenerys the best of luck. And I also root for Tyrion Lannister whenever he graces the stage. Would that I could see the three of them on one side. Those of you who have read the book, if that's what happens (or even if it's not), keep it to yourself. I want to find out on my own.

My only gripe (and it's a minor one) is that I saw one of the twists coming. If it hadn't been a twist, it would have made for a sheer, stunning "whoa" type of moment. With the twist, it was more of an "eh, I suppose" moment. That's not necessarily bad. It kept a lot more options open for storytelling and should make future installments fun.

But I'm hooked and ready for the next one. But I may have to take a breather first. This is a lot to digest, but I'm all for a rich, literary meal.

Wordcount Wednesday

So I've actually accomplished something this week! Hooray for me! Last Wednesday I reported that I had read Numb and marked it up. Over the past week, I've gone through and started making the changes that I could. I don't know if they'll be enough, but it's a good start.

I could bore all of you with a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the changes but I won't. Suffice it to say that I've gone through 22 of the 45 chapters. When I make it through the rest, I'll post a comparison between the old wordcount total and the new.

But Numb is not the only thing on my mind right now. The other day I was thinking over Return of the Mourning Dove and I realized that if I made a few minor changes to the ending, I could set myself up for a sequel or two. Not that those sequels would have to be written; the story stands alone just fine on its own. But it would be a nice option to have open for myself.

So that's about it. Maybe by this time next week I'll be done with Numb. We'll have to see.

CSFF Blog Tour: Offworld Day Two

Yesterday I compared Offworld by Robin Parrish to a summer blockbuster. Maybe I should get a bit more specific about that comparison. To me, Offworld is a popcorn flick ... er, book. While it was an entertaining read and I enjoyed it while I read it, once it was over, I didn't feel really satisfied.

The reason why is because this book seemed really light in terms of Christian elements. Oh, sure, there are some vaguely spiritual elements to it (i.e. Commander Burke occasionally offers up a generic prayer before a particularly action-packed scene), but the Christian content is light to say the least.

Now I know what some of you are saying. But what about the [--- PLOT ELEMENT REDACTED ---] at the heart of the [--- PLOT ELEMENT REDACTED ---]!?! That was Christian!" Yes, it admittedly was. But the aforementioned redacted plot element was, simply put, a MacGuffin.


What's that, you ask? A MacGuffin is a term popularized by the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. It's the supposedly important item that drives the plot of a story and sets the protagonist and antagonist against each other. Yet here's the thing: a true MacGuffin isn't important in and of itself. It could actually be exchanged with something else and the plot wouldn't be affected, not in any significant way.

Sadly, the entire Christian element of Offworld is one gigantic MacGuffin. It has absolutely no intrinsic value to the storyline as a whole. If we were to perform a literal deus ex machina on this story and replace the Christian MacGuffin with a non-Christian one, very little about the overall story would change. Burke and company would still be heading for Houston. They'd still be facing the same ... well, I won't get into that right here. Not much would actually change in terms of plot.

In other words, the Christian content of Offworld isn't central. It's more of an afterthought. At least, that's the way it seems to be from where I'm sitting.

Now there is one other Christian element that exists in this story, but given the sheer repetition of this element in non-Christian fiction (think Harry Potter in The Deadly Hallows), it's not enough to classify this book as truly Christian fiction. It's fiction with Christian overtones.

That doesn't mean that I didn't enjoy this book. I did. Like I said, it's an entertaining read. But I didn't see much more to it than what's on the surface.

Am I wrong? Let me know. And don't forget to enter the contest so you can get a copy for yourself. Go and see what everyone else has to say:

Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Gina Burgess
Canadianladybug
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Linda Gilmore
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen (posting later in the week)
Nissa
Lyn Perry
Steve Rice
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Stephanie
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Elizabeth Williams

All Things Are Better in Koine

I wholeheartedly agree! Makes me want to brush up on my Greek and do some exegesis right now.

CSFF Blog Tour: Offworld Day One

Imagine, if you will: you are an astronaut returning from the first manned mission to Mars. On your way home, your ship suffers an apparent communication failure and you find yourself unable to call home. Then you get home and discover that the problem wasn't with your ship. It was actually with Earth itself. Everyone has disappeared without a trace.

That's the premise of this month's book, Offworld by Robin Parrish. The astronaut in question is Commander Christopher Burke, the leader of a four person team. He and his teammates arrive back from Mars to discover that everyone everywhere is gone (as it says on the back of the book). There's no indication of where they went. The only clue they have leads them to Houston. But it seems like someone ... or something ... doesn't want them to make it. Now Burke has to struggle to keep his team together while he also grapples with memories of something that happened to him on Mars. Can they find out where everyone has gone? Or will they be the next victims?

Offworld was a good read. A quick one. Parrish has a compelling visual style to his writing. I often felt like I was watching an action movie. As a matter of fact, if I had to describe Parrish's style, it'd be that of a summer tentpole movie. Lots of action, a healthy dose of explosions, and a bunch of one-liners from a smart-alecky crewmate. If I were going to pick someone to write an action blockbuster, Robin Parrish is the person I would go to.

But in many ways, I was a bit disappointed with this book. But I'll save that for tomorrow.

One other thing that I almost forgot! I have a copy of this book to give away! If you want to win it, just leave me a comment on this post saying that you wish to enter the drawing. Also include your e-mail address in disguise (such as "name" [at] "domain" [dot] "whatever") to avoid the evil of spammers.

For now, go check out what the other tourists have to say:

Brandon Barr
Jim Black
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Gina Burgess
Canadianladybug
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Jeff Draper
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Linda Gilmore
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen (posting later in the week)
Nissa
Lyn Perry
Steve Rice
Chawna Schroeder
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Stephanie
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Elizabeth Williams

A Game of Thrones

A few months ago, I read a short story by George R. R. Martin and enjoyed it so much, I figured I had to take the plunge and try the first book of his A Song of Fire and Ice books, namely A Game of Thrones. One of my youth actually recommended this book to me many years ago but I didn't read it then. I'm actually kind of sorry that I didn't. It's an incredible book.

It's hard to pin down one main character; the story jumps through multiple viewpoints throughout its many pages. But I think I can safely say that the story revolves mostly around the Starks of Winterfell. They are a noble family charged with taking care of the northern end of the Seven Kingdoms. Their world gets up-ended when King Robert demands that Lord Eddard Stark become his Hand. Eddard is reluctant but finally agrees, moving down to King's Landing with his two daughters, Arya and Sansa. There he finds himself embroiled in plots and counterplots, mysteries and danger, stemming from the Lannister family, who are connected to the throne through marriage.

Those of you who have read this book are probably frustrated and think I did a poor job of summing up the story. And I admit, that probably is one of the worst plot summaries I've ever written. That's because Martin's plot is complex. There are plots, counterplots, political and familial tensions woven throughout the story.

The characters are superb. No one is what you would call a "good guy." Everyone is shot through with shades of gray. While there are truly despicable characters (Viserys Targaryen leaps immediately to mind), there aren't what you would call superlatively noble characters. Everyone is flawed in some way and it makes for truly believable characters.

And Martin clearly doesn't get too senetimental about those characters. Or, if he does, he doesn't let that get in the way of messing with them, sometimes in brutal ways. That was a good a reminder for me. I tend to be too "nice" to my characters when I'm writing. Martin's book has reminded me that often, the best thing an author can do is dump on his characters. A lot. In horrific ways.

What's truly incredible is the world that Martin has created. There were times I wanted to see a chart of this world's solar system to try to figure out its odd seasonal pattern (years-long summers followed by years-long winter). And I was delighted to discover that modern sciences played a big role in the plot (although the characters wouldn't understand that). Genetics. I'll leave it at that. And the language, the gritty pictures, it all adds up to a superbly crafter story world that breathes and has a life of its own.

A word of caution to those who offend easily. There is blood. Lots of it. There is foul language aplenty. And there's quite a bit of sex too. If you can't stomach that sort of thing, then this book isn't for you. But if you want a somewhat disturbing, very real story with gritty characters and an incredible plot, then check this one out. Just don't wait years to do it.

District 9

In the interest of fairness, I'll just say here that I haven't seen the G.I. Joe movie or the new Transformers movie. But even in my present state of ignorance, I think I can safely say that neither of those movies can compete with District 9. The reason I say that is because District 9 has two things those movies lack: brains and heart.

Don't get me wrong, there are explosions in District 9. There's a lot of gore, so much at times that I had to close my eyes and wait for it to pass. But this was a powerful movie with a superb story smartly told.

For those unfamiliar with this movie, it's about a group of aliens that drop out of the sky over Johannesburg, South Africa. The ship is filled with aliens the humans derisively label "prawns." After several tense years, the prawns are herded into a slum called District 9 where they are forced to live in absolute squalor.

The movie picks up as MNU, the corporation that runs District 9, prepares to relocate the prawns from District 9 to their new home outside of Johannesburg. They leave this task to Wikus Van De Merwe (played by Sharlto Copley), a complete and total corporate tool. He's being filmed for a documentary about the move and, for the opening parts of the movie, we see what the documentary film crew sees. This is interspersed with "talking head" footage, where experts spin out the backstory of where the prawns came from, how they've gotten along with humans, and so on. And it's pretty clear from what they say that something bad is going to happen to Wikus.

The something bad happens as Wikus is trying to evict the residents of District 9. He winds up getting sprayed with some goo and things pretty much go downhill from there.

This was a great movie. It's smart and original (for the most part; when I first heard of District 9, I couldn't help but draw a parallel between it and Alien Nation), painting a very ugly picture of humanity in general and multinational coporations in particular. There's a dreadful sense of reality to the story, even though it's cloaked in a science fiction premise. Part of what made this movie so gripping is that I could see something like this happening because, let's be honest, humans don't exactly have a great track record of loving people different than them. That's part of the reason why the setting of Johannesburg works so well. If this story had been told in New York, we could wrap ourselves up in a cloak of denial and say, "No way." But with the constant reminder of apartheid and especially District 6.

But if I may, I'd like to diverge for a moment onto the subject of special effects.

Hoe. Lee. Cow.

Weta Works, Peter Jackson's company in New Zealand, outdid themselves with this one. Simply astounding work. I'd say Industrial Light and Magic has a major competitor now.

So definitely go and check this one out. I don't want to get my hopes up by predicting "Oscar" or anything like that. But if ever there was a science fiction opus that deserved a little gold man for Best Picture, this one does.

Wordcount Wednesday

Okay, so I guess it's been a while, huh? I made a decision a few weeks ago that I wouldn't waste anyone's time by posting if I had nothing to post. Yeah, I've been a bad writer. But I was able to kind of kick it into gear this week and dove back into the world of Numb, my latest Christian sci-fi novel.

You may recall that I wasn't all that pleased with it when I finished. I was worried that the whole thing was a pile of broken garbage. I even harbored the sneaking suspicion that it was broken beyond repair.

Silly, silly writer.

Turns out I was being a bit hard on myself. Over the past week, I sat down with a red pen and marked it up pretty badly. I went over the notes I kept while writing and inserted them through where I could. Some stuff will be left out for now. Some stuff still needs to be put in. But by and large, this can be fixed. It can be made better.

So starting tomorrow, I'm diving back in. I'll post before-and-after wordcounts on Wednesday, either for individual chapters or for the whole thing, depending on how long the project takes.

See you in a week.

Win a bunch of books!

No, not from me. But from ubertalented chick-lit author Camy Tang!

Those few of you who follow my blog know that I loved Camy's Sushi series. Well, tonight I noticed that she is giving away boxes and boxes of Christian fiction. I hopped on over to her website immediately and wound up drooling all over my keyboard at the selection.

Okay, granted, most of the books in the box aren't my cup of tea. Or can of Coke, as it were. But there are enough good ones in there that I entered immediately. Personally, I'm hoping for Box #14. Or maybe not, now that I took another look at the list. That first book has me a bit wary...

But whatever. You want books? Camy has them for you! Go and check out the details of her contest. GO GO GO!

Batman: Arkham Asylum

A few days ago I snagged the demo for Batman: Arkham Asylum off of Steam and late last night, I decided I would take it for a spin and see what the game was all about.

Wow. I am impressed with what I saw so far.

As near as I can tell, the overall story of the game revolves around (you guessed it) Arkham Asylum. Batman has returned the Joker to the Asylum, only to have Joker escape almost immediately. It turns out that Joker wanted to go back because he's set a trap for the Batman. Batman is trapped inside the Asylum with Joker in control of everything through his right hand gal, Harley Quinn. I'm guessing Batman will have to fight his way through the thugs and villains housed in the Asylum before squaring off with Joker himself.

First things first: the look. Gritty, grimy, and very realistic. I snagged this screenshot of Harley at one point just because I was so impressed (and I have a soft spot for Harley):

There's a definite dark feel to the game, which is only appropriate. And the voices! According to imdb, it's an all-star cast, all of whom have had experience playing their respective good guys and villains. I mean, you can't do much better than Kevin Conroy for Batman's voice. And while Heath Ledger is the best Joker I've ever seen hands-down, if you're going to have someone do the Clown Prince of Crime's voice, I'd go with Mark Hamill any day.

On to one of the things that Batman does best: fighting.

This was, perhaps, the greatest surprise for me. When Joker unleashed the first wave of thugs after me, the game prompted me to just left click. And I did. And my jaw promptly hit the floor.

I expected just a few simple punches. What I got was a gymnastic display worthy of the Caped Crusader. Flips, kicks, roundhouses, Batman did it all ... and only from left clicking! The game choreographed a spectacular fight just from me doing some button mashing.

This might actually be a drawback. There are a few special moves you can do that require more than left-clicking, but the fighting controls almost seem too simple. It was great late at night when my brain was half shut down, but when I'm more alert, I might want more of a challenge.

Of course, the challenge might grow through subsequent levels. This is a demo, after all, and there weren't any boss fights.

But there's more to Batman than just throw haymakers. I was able to use his grappling hook, take down a few thugs silently, and use "detective mode," which apparently is Batman activating some sort of sight overlay device in his cowl (think the infamous sonar mode from "Batman Forever," only not quite as stupid). That last one bugged me a bit, but I got used to it and switching between it and the regular view was seamless.

Having said that, there were a few things that bugged me.

One is pure aesthetics. For some reason, when Batman was walking, the camera moved so that Batman was on the left side of my screen. I'm used to games like this having the main character dead center on the screen and it made navigating a bit tricky at first. I don't know why you'd do something like that. Maybe there's a way to fix it.

The second was the fact I could tell that this was a cross-platform game. It's easy to tell from throwing the batarangs. Just get the aiming reticle near your target, then lock-on with a mouse click before you throw. It's pretty obvious the system was designed primarily for systems that don't have a mouse. Not insurmountable, just a minor annoyance.

So overall, I liked it. I'm not planning on buying it right away when it comes out in September. I'll be at the ACFW Conference in Denver in September and my discretionary entertainment budget is earmarked for lots and lots of books. But I think I'll be chasing Joker through Arkham Asylum again at some point. I can't wait for the hunt.

Fanboys

I have not laughed this hard in a long time. Seriously. And I have Fanboys to thank for it.

Maybe you haven't heard of this movie. I don't think it got that wide of a release. More's the pity. Such a good movie.

The story is set six months before The Phantom Menace was released. A group of childhood friends, Star Wars fans all, set out on the ultimate adventure. They are going to break into the Skywalker Ranch and steal a copy of The Phantom Menace because one of their friends has terminal cancer. So they set out from Ohio, crossing the country and getting into one misadventure after another.

Great premise, right? I hadn't seen it, but I had heard really great things about it, so much so that I bought it pretty much sight unseen.

Well, not completely unseen. I did find this on YouTube (I'd love to actually post the video, but embedding is disabled for it). After watching that, I decided I had to risk it. I bit the bullet, bought the DVD, and tonight, I finally got the chance to watch it.

And I loved it. There's a lot of crude humor in it, but there's even more nerd and geek references, great nods to the original Star Wars trilogy. The many, many cameos were tremendous. And the last line of the movie? Icing on the cake.

It may not be cool to admit it, but I'm a fanboy. Have been for years. This is a great "love letter" to guys like me.

The Writer's Digest Guide to Query Letters

Lesson learned. Don't grab Writer's Digest books only because of the title. Actually take a moment to flip through them to make sure you know what you're getting. At least I learned something from The Writer's Digest Guide to Query Letters.

Well, maybe that's a bit too harsh. I'm sure that someone could learn quite a lot from this book. But here's the problem that I ran into: the book is mainly geared for freelance writers hoping to query magazines about articles. There is information in there about querying book publishers and agents, but it's buried toward the back.

The other problem is that the information is very, very basic. Beginner stuff, really. I'm not saying I'm an expert on writing query letters, but the information contained in this book was stuff I had picked up from other books, articles, and classes. In other words, it was largely repeated.

So if you're a beginning writer, this is the one for you. If you're not, you probably know what this book offers already.

The Johnstown Flood

You know, sometimes I'm a sucker when it comes to reading books.

One of my parishioners loaned me The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough, saying that I had to read it. And I decided to give it a whirl, especially since I didn't know what the book was about. For a little while, I thought this was about the earthquake that rerouted the Mississippi River in Missouri way back when. Nope, not about that at all.

Instead, this is the horrific story of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a good sized town that was wiped out when a dam burst after a freakishly large summer storm. The disaster basically wiped the town out, killing thousands of people.

Like I said, I had never heard of Johnstown or this disaster before. A quick flip through the center section of pictures and drawings certainly got my attention, especially when I came across a photo similar to this one:

So I dove in and, sadly, I think I might regret it.

McCullough is apparently a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and he certainly shows that much attention to detail. Every person who crosses the book's stage is given a thorough biography, even if they aren't all that important to the overall story. There are a lot of details given that, quite frankly, I could have done without (i.e. the list of individual contributions made by different organizations to the relief effort). Some of it is quite helpful; the faulty dam's pedigree helped set the stage nicely for the disaster to come. But the overall effect was simply dry reading, which isn't exactly what you expect from a book about one of the worst floods in American history.

Overall, I'd say that if you're interested in this time period or in Johnstown in particular, this is a good book to pick up. Otherwise, you could probably let it go without missing much.

And the winner is...

And the big winner for a copy of The Enclave by Karen Hancock is Rachel Starr Thomson! I've sent her an e-mail to let her know. Thanks to everyone who entered. See most of you next month for the next blog tour!

CSFF Blog Tour: The Enclave Day Three

Hmmmm. It seems I may have stirred something up yesterday with my comments. A little something, good earnest debate. And that's the sign of a good book, right? It gets us thinking and talking about stuff like this.

The discussion has been so interesting for me that I decided to chuck out what I was going to write about today (namely whether or not the cartoonish supervillainy of Director Swain is a negative portrayal of atheists or not) to address some of the points raised by people who stopped by my little corner of the Internet.

Jason hit the nail on the head yesterday. I mentioned the three books I could remember that dealt with Nephilim. Well, I forgot about a few others. The sheer number of books I've read in recent years that focus on the Nephilim and Genesis 6 in general doesn't necessarily mean that there shouldn't be any more. Perhaps I overstated my case there. My problem is that the previous books were, for the most part, bad. So bad that they left a lingering bad taste in my mouth, one that tainted my enjoyment of The Enclave. That's not Karen Hancock's fault. Not by a long shot. But it's the reality of the situation.

Becky Miller (hail the Blog Overlord! Sorry, do you want me to stop that?) also stirred up some more thoughts with her comment, where she suggested that the sons of God and daughters of men mentioned in Genesis 6 might refer to unfallen children of Adam and Eve, produced in Eden before the Fall. A tantalizing theory, that. I'm not sure if I buy it, but I'd read a book about that in a heartbeat. Why? Because it's a new theory, one that gives me something to think about.

That, perhaps, is why I'm having such a negative reaction to Nephilim. Whenever they're portrayed, it's almost always the angel/human hybrids. It's further evidence of the unfortunate homoginization of Christian fiction (and not just speculative fiction) where doctrinal positions that don't fit into certain molds get thrown out completely. I mentioned something about this back when the CSFF blog tour did Tuck.

Maybe this stems from the fact that I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Lutheran, but I really do wish that the industry were open to ... dare I say it ... dissenting viewpoints. Why is it that the Nephilim are always human/angel hybrids? Why does fictional eschatology always hew so closely to dispensational premillenialism (with the exception of Chris Walley's excellent postmillennial books)? Why can't we, as Christians, be more open to people with doctrinal differences, if for no other reason so we can be exposed to other ideas, other concepts, if for no other reason than we take an honest look at our own dearly held beliefs a little more critically?

You know, maybe I owe Karen Hancock an apology. Like I wrote a few lines up, none of this is her fault. She approached this from where she comes from and did so honestly and openly. Good for her. And like I wrote on Monday, I am a fan of her other books. This one just didn't do it for me, maybe because I have too much baggage to go with it.

Well, enough out of me. Just a reminder, today is the final day to toss your name into the hat to win a copy of The Enclave.

Go see what the rest of the tourists have to say:

Brandon Barr
Jennifer Bogart
Keanan Brand
Grace Bridges
Canadianladybug
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
Emmalyn Edwards
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Heather R. Hunt
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Mike Lynch
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Stephanie
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Elizabeth Williams

The Sims 3

This post has been a long time coming. While I know no one has been waiting for this with bated breath, here it is: my review of The Sims 3.

I actually bought this game back when it came out, in the beginning of June. Various computer issues, now apparently resolved, kept me from giving this a good once over. But the past week or so, I've been able to dive in-depth into the game and I can form a pretty good opinion of it. To put it bluntly, I'm hooked.

I've been a fan of the Sims franchise since the original. There have been some hits and plenty of misses as they expanded the original game. But for the most part, they've made forward progress. For example, in the original Sims game, your Sims didn't age. Not really. They remained largely static. In The Sims 2, your Sims could age and eventually die. And with the expansion packs, they could also go to college, own their own business, have hobbies, pets, and eventually, enjoy the seasons. But when you played one family, the others froze in time. They could come over to visit, but as a result, you could get weird situations like children being older than their parents.

No more. With The Sims 3, the entire town ages at the same rate. You can only play one family at a time, same as always, but the other families age and progress without you. It's a great addition. Now the town seems much more vibrant.


This can lead to some weird situations. For example, in one game, I created a woman for one of my Sims to eventually marry. I moved her into a vacant house and left her there for about a week or two (game time, obviously). When they finally did get married, much to my surprise, she moved in with a baby. I didn't give her a baby when I created her. But there he was.

Speaking of the creation process, it's a lot more versatile. You can create just about anybody with any body type. The level of detail is absolutely astounding. The other interesting change is the inclusion of personality traits. There are dozens of them and over a Sim's life, you can pop in five. Most give benefits. Some don't.



While all of this is well and good, there are some minor issues that make me a bit upset. For one thing, there's no way to easily tell the difference between "young adults" and "adults." This may not seem all that important, but when you've got a nice young adult lady looking for a life-long relationship, you want to find someone close to her age, not an adult about to transition into his elder years. If anyone knows of an easy way to figure this out, please, let me know.


But what's annoying are the little glitches. Little bugs that, in my not so humble opinion, should have been squashed before the game shipped.

Let me give you three examples: the first game I played, my Sim was going to get married. He threw a party while his maid was there cleaning. He and his blushing bride wound up getting married in a back bedroom of his house. The maid wound up standing in the door of the room, clapping and cheering. And she wouldn't stop. Or move. The happy couple and half their guests wound up trapped by the immobile cheering maid, so long that the groom soiled himself in front of everyone.

But the horror didn't end there. I couldn't get rid of her. I finally had to knock a hole in the wall to let everyone out. And I couldn't fix it because the maid was there. I tried dismissing her. I tried firing her. Nothing doing. She was bound and determined to remain in that doorway, cheering and clapping. I thought maybe she'd starve to death. Nope, not Terminator-Maid. I finally had to move my couple out, thinking that maybe the house would reset itself. Nothing doing. Any family that moved in would find their new home equipped with a cheering, clapping maid. I wound up deleting that game.

Second weird quirk: in my current game, I have a young woman who likes to go fishing. So I had her fish whenever she could to improve her skill. Strange thing is, for about three days, her skill kept improving even when she wasn't fishing. Even when she slept, it just kept growing. She gained two whole skill points that way.

The most disturbing glitch I've seen multiple times is what I like to call the elastic baby syndrome. You take a toddler, set him or her behind a chair, and then turn on a TV on the other side. They will start watching the TV and, occasionally, their torso (and arms) will stretch so they can see the TV. It scared the bejeezus out of me the first time it happened.


Those are admittedly minor problems and they haven't kept me from enjoying this game. And I really mean it. Let me put it to you this way: I'm seriously considering selling all of my Sims 2 games and expansion packs. I have this feeling I won't be going back.

CSFF Blog Tour: The Enclave Day Two

So here we go, gripe #1 about The Enclave by Karen Hancock. But before I dig into it, allow me to post the following:
So if you want to keep the ending of the book a secret, you'd better stop reading now.

Like I said yesterday, part of the plot centers around a set of ancient sarcophagi. Director Swain, the head of the Kendall-Jakes Institute, believes that these large pods hold the secret to immortality. Of course, that's not what the pods contain. Instead ... are you ready for it? ... they contain sleeping Nephilim, the boogie men of Genesis 6. I suspected that's where the story was going, but when I got to where this is revealed for sure, I rolled my eyes and said, "Not again."

To be frank, I'm getting sick of the Nephilim. It seems like Christian speculative fiction always comes back to the Fallen Ones of the antedeluvian world. Quite frankly, I'm getting sick of it. I can think of at least three books that center around the Nephilim and both of them were lousy. The Enclave wasn't as bad as them, but I'm not letting it off the hook.

Part of the reason why I have such problems with the Nephilim is because I disagree with their traditional origin story. Most people believe that they're the product of angelic and human sexual unions. The proof text that gets trotted out for that is Genesis 6:2 and then the proponents for this view trot out a bunch of pseudopigraphical texts from intertestamental times, none of which are considered canonical (although I did see some convoluted logical gymnastics once to bootstrap one of these books; it failed to persuade).

What it comes down to for me is that Genesis 6 in no way says that the Nephilim are the children of the sons of God mating with the daughters of men. I don't even think that "sons of God" in this case does refer to angels. My personal read on this story is that the descendants of Seth (the "sons of God") interbred with the descendants of Cain (the "daughters of men"). If you look at the genealogical information in Genesis 4 & 5, we see the family trees of both Cain and Seth. In Cain's tree, the seventh generation is Lamech, the guy who boasts to his two wives that he killed a man for looking at him funny (that's a loose paraphrase). In Seth's family tree, the seventh generation is Enoch, the righteous man who walked with God and was no more because the Lord took him. As the old cliche goes, "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree." Seth's descendants were more upright than Cain's. The union of the two branches of humanity resulted in the bad dragging down the good.

My other major problem with the portrayal of the Nephilim in The Enclave is how fantastical they are. They have laser beam eyes, they can set off electromagnetic pulses. And Hancock at one point details how there were three castes of Nephilim. I don't remember what they were at this point, but I do remember scratching my head and wondering, "Where did she come up with that?" I'm all for dancing on the end of tree branches when it comes to speculative fiction. Some of this book was too much of a flying leap for me.

So what did you think? Are the Nephilim a dead horse that we should stop whipping? Or am I just letting my theological convictions get in the way?

And if you don't feel like telling me off, you can submit your name for the drawing. Even those of you who entered yesterday, feel free to enter again.

Go check out what the other tourists have to say:

Brandon Barr
Jennifer Bogart
Keanan Brand
Grace Bridges
Canadianladybug
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
Janey DeMeo
Jeff Draper
Emmalyn Edwards
April Erwin
Karina Fabian
Beth Goddard
Todd Michael Greene
Heather R. Hunt
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Mike Lynch
Melissa Meeks
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Eve Nielsen
Nissa
Steve Rice
Crista Richey
James Somers
Speculative Faith
Stephanie
Rachel Starr Thomson
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Elizabeth Williams

Healing Grace

I saw the ending coming. But that's only because I got to read this one before it was published. Insert big cheesy grin here.

No, seriously, it was my pleasure to read Lisa J. Lickel's book, Healing Grace. Lisa is one of my fantabulous critique partners and I got to read the end of this one when we first met. So for me, it was interesting to see how the book started.

It's the story of Grace Runyon. Grace is from a small town in Tennessee, a Christian community where gifts of the Spirit are alive and well. Grace has the gift of healing. Or at least, she did. But then tragedy up-ends her life in a major way and she runs as far as she can, all the way to the town of East Bay, Michigan. There she tries to recover from her loss.

Only to find herself on the verge of a new one. The house she buys belonged to a single father named Ted Marshall. Ted is battling serious health problems that will likely prove to be fatal. Even though Grace is still suffering from the traumatic scars of her previous life, she finds herself falling in love with Ted. That's a problem, because it seems as if God and her gift have abandoned her. What can she do when she's falling in love with a man that she could have healed but can't anymore?

Lisa's book was great. You really feel for Grace as she tries to cope with her loss and tries to construct a new life for herself. It isn't as easy as it sounds, especially since there are undercurrents in East Bay that threaten to take her down. Lisa especially weaves together some great mental images with her words, conjuring up the area around East Bay and making it live. And Eddy Marshall, Ted's son, has to be the most precocious fictional kid I've met in a long time.

So go and check this one out for yourself. You won't be disappointed!