The Secret Life of Becky Miller

I never thought in a million years that I would read a "chick-lit" book. I would have never guessed that I would enjoy it either.

I figured that I would take a look at The Secret Life of Becky Miller after I heard about its LCMS connection. Yes, denominational loyalty goes a long way with me. I wasn't sure what I would find exactly. I had never read chick-lit or "Mom-lit" before.

The story was instantly engaging. Becky Miller is a stay-at-home mom who is trying desperately to stay ahead of the game. She's trying to balance three young children (one of whom has health issues), her husband's work woes, her somewhat eccentric friends, and especially her desire to do Big Things for God. Unfortunately, Becky's plans never seem to work out quite like she planned. For every step she seems to take toward her goal, she's forced to take several backwards. For every door that God closes, it seems like He slams shut two windows. It seems like whenever Becky hits rock bottom, she's tossed a shovel and told to keep digging....

I trust you get the idea.

Hinck weaves several threads through the overall plot: Becky's desire to work full-time for her congregation's women's ministry, an impending article for Women of Vision magazine, just to name two. The chapters are short which is a definite plus, seeing as I was always tempted to "read just one more, read just one more" (hence why I finished this in a day and a half). Hinck's writing made me laugh out loud on more than one occasion and yes, I even teared up on two occasions (get to the twist toward the end and see how dry-eyed you remain, those who judge me!).

Will I read any chick-lit again? I'm guessing the answer is no. But I certainly am looking forward to Hinck's Restorer series!

Settling Accounts: Drive to the East

Just last night, I finished reading Settling Accounts: Drive to the East by Harry Turtledove. Turtledove is the master of counterfactual historical fiction. In other words, Turtledove takes history, changes something about it, and then susses out how that might have made things different.

Drive to the East is the latest in a long series of books that Turtledove wrote along this counterfactual line: what if the Confederate States of America won the Civil War and became their own country? He started this series with How Few Remain (a book that I haven't read). I started reading when the series took up World War I. Turtledove reckoned that the South would be allied with Britain and France while the North would ally itself with the Kaiser in Germany.

Since I started reading this book, the North has won World War I, subjecting the Confederates to a crushing set of conditions for peace. They've also wrested Canada away from British control and occupied it. But what's truly interesting is what happened in the South. Embittered by the South's defeat in the Great War, a man named Jake Featherston wrote a scathing book in which he blamed the big-wigs in Richmond for the loss as well as the African American people (not the word used in any of these books) who rebelled against the CSA as well. Jake eventually joins a new political party, the Freedom Party, which eventually takes over the country with Jake as its president.

Yes, that's right, in this alternate timeline, the Nazis rise in the southern United States and then start World War II with the North.

When Drive to the East picks up, the offensive of the CSA had smashed through US lines, driving up through Ohio to Lake Erie, dividing the US in half. Now they're threatening to march east, eventually destroying Pittsburg. The USA has to counter that threat and quickly or else they'll lose the war.

The plot is a lot more complicated than that, of course. One thing about this series is that Turtledove slathers on the characters. I wouldn't say it's a cast of thousands, but it's pretty darn close! In some ways, it's understandable why he does that: you need that many people to keep up with all the action that takes place in this alternate time-line. You need someone to describe the war in the Pacific and Atlantic; you need people to describe the inner-workings of both the USA and CSA's governments. You need the perspective of the African American people who are rounded up and taken to concentration camps for "population reduction". The problem is, Turtledove piles on so many people that it's a little tricky to keep up with them all.

There were two other things that bothered me as I read this book. First of all, Turtledove is extremely repetitive in his writing. He kept using the same phrases over and over and over, often using them, almost word for word every other page. Worse, if one character had a massive revelation about something, you could almost guarantee that at least three others would have the exact same revelation within a dozen pages and that Turtledove would almost repeat it word for word.

The other thing that bothered me is that Turtledove seems to assume that his readers have very short memories. Perhaps its because he loads up his story with so many characters. It seemed like he had to expound on his characters' backstories every other time we encountered them. At the beginning of the book, that's helpful. It had been a while since I'd read one of his books in this series and I needed the refresher. But when I'm three-quarters of the way through the book, I don't need to be reminded for the fourth time that Yossel Rosen is Flora Blackford's nephew or that Sergeant Michael Pound has been in the Army since the Great War. I know that already.

But while I was annoyed with those two things, it's not enough to keep me from reading the next book in the series. After all, I need to see who figures out how to make a uranium bomb first, the US or the Confederates. My money's on the US, but with Turtledove, you just never know.

Inspiration Strikes

So I went for a haircut today and came away with an idea for a short story.

I've been putting off getting a trim for a while now. I wanted to time things so that I could get one right before I went to the ACFW conference so I could look my best. Problem is, my hair grew a little faster than I expected and it was beginning to bug me.

The man who normally cuts my hair is sick, so I decided I would try out a hairstyling place in downtown Blue Earth. As the lady got me ready and quizzed me about how I wanted things cut, I noticed her coffee mug:

Blessed are the hairstylists, for they bring out the beauty in others.

Uh huh. Don't remember that in the Beatitudes.

But as my hair was falling to the floor, the sentiment on the mug got me thinking. A hairstylist can certainly bring out the outer beauty in someone, but that usually won't lead to inner beauty. As a matter of fact, it would normally lead to....

Inspiration struck. I have at least the beginning of a short story. Now I just need to find an end for it.

Crown of Fire

I just finished reading the last of the Firebird trilogy, namely Crown of Fire.

Firebird's story concludes in this volume as she is called back to her homeworld of Netaia. Due to her older sister's abdication of the Netaian throne, Firebird will be confirmed as an heir in the Angelo family. But Firebird and Brennen are really setting a trap for their deadly enemies, the Shuhr, in hopes of destroying the threat of Three Zed.

At the same time, though, the Shuhr are setting an ambush of their own. Will Firebird, Brennen, and the Sentinels succeed with the Speaker's help? Or will the Shuhr destroy the only thing standing between them and complete domination of the Whorl?

No, I didn't steal that summary from the back cover of the book. It kind of stinks; I can sum up someone else's book, but write a synopsis for something I wrote and it's like pulling teeth....

I digress, sorry.

Like the other two books in this trilogy, Crown of Fire is excellent and sets the standard for all Christian sci-fi. Tyers does a masterful job blending faith with sci-fi. If you're looking for a great Christian story, you can't go wrong with the Firebird trilogy, especially since you can get all three books in one volume now. I just saw it at my local library today.

* * * *

One of my friends commented recently on my blog that I seem to be doing a lot of reading lately. That's true. I have been. I'm not exactly sure why. I suspect that part of the reason is because I'm trying to charge up my writing batteries. I've noticed (and I'm sure any authors who may have stumbled onto my little niche of the blogosphere can attest to this as well) that when I haven't read that much, I have a hard time writing.

Well, lately, I haven't been doing that much writing, even though I've been doing a lot of reading. I'm not sure what the problem is.

Part of it, I think, is the fact that I'm getting ready for the ACFW conference. I'll be pitching my own sci-fi trilogy, or at least the first book of it. Getting everything ready (one-sheets, business cards, four copies of a full proposal just in case) has been attention consuming, especially on top of my duties as a pastor.

Part of it is distraction from another situation that I can't discuss here. At least, not yet. How's that for suspense building?

Whatever the case, I think I took some good strides tonight. Jill and I went to Mankato to pick up my business cards for the conference and to release some books into the wild. As we were wandering the River Hills Mall, some elements dropped into place for a story that I've been mulling over for a while. I've also been doing some brainstorming on another Christian sci-fi book and I may be ready to start working on it. I'm even thinking of using the Snowflake Method to see if that will help.

Anyway, hopefully my super-saturation of literature over the past couple of weeks has helped me get ready for some great writing. We'll just have to wait and see.

We're Slowly Taking Over!

It's been an interesting 24 hours for me. If I were one to try to read into things, I'd think that perhaps Someone was trying to send me a sign.

As my profile says, I'm a proud member of The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. I've belonged to this denomination all my life and I can't imagine myself ever leaving. Well, that's not entirely true, but that's a discussion for another day.

As you also know if you've read my blog for a while, I'm also an unpublished author. Up until today, I thought that there weren't that many LCMS authors out there. 24 hours ago, I was aware of only one, Dr. Paul L. Maier, author of my favorite book. I always thought that if I were to be published, I would be a rarity: an LCMS author.

Turns out, we're not as rare as I thought.

Yesterday I sent out a mass e-mail update to my family and friends. I mentioned in the update that I would be attending the ACFW Conference in Dallas. Shortly thereafter, my Uncle Paul wrote back to me and said, "You know, the LCMS pastor in Fairmont (a town about twenty miles to the west of where I live) is a Christian author. He's had some stuff published."

I was stunned. I've met this man and never knew! So I did some digging and sure enough, there he was. I made a mental note that the next time I saw him, I'd have to pick his brains a little.

But the hits just keep on coming! Jill's Mom occasionally will send Jill articles from the Minneapolis paper or other sources. Today, Jill received a copy of the Concordia Academy - Bloomington Highlights, the newsletter of her high school alma mater. The front page story?

The Secret's Out: Author and Lancer alumna keeps focus on faith, faimly, in 'Secret Life of Bekcy Miller' novel

Turns out this lady wrote a speculative fiction piece about a daydreaming housewife. That piqued my interest. After all, speculative fiction is the broad umbrella term for stuff like sci-fi and fantasy, things I'm keenly interested in. I read about the "Mom-lit" book she wrote, but then I hit a paragraph that made me sit up and take notice:

Hinck plans to continue her writing and has additional books already in the works. Sharon's eyes light up when she speaks about the first book she wrote which will be published as part of the Restorer series by NavPress in June 2007. The series, with some analogies to the story of Deborah from the book of Judges, tells the story of a woman who is "pulled into a world waiting for a promised restorer."

I just about flipped. I had heard about this already! One of the wonderful folks in the ACFW forum, Mir, posted a story about how Jeff Gerke, then an editor at NavPress, acquired this book through Steve Laube, a literary agent. So I knew this speculative fiction book was in the works; I had no idea it was written by an LCMS author!

So I guess, if I'm fortunate enough to get published in the near or not-so-near future, that I won't be the only or even one of the few LCMS authors. But hey, that's all right. There's strength in numbers.

Fusion Fire

Late last night, I finished reading the second book of Kathy Tyers' Firebird trilogy, Fusion Fire. It actually kept me up later than I wanted or should have been up. I'm paying for finishing this great book today. A little sleepy.

This book continues the story of Lady Firebird from the first book. She has married the Sentinel who saved her at the battle of Veroh, Brennen Caldwell, and, as we join Firebird, we discover that she's pregnant with twin boys. But Tyers doesn't hesitate to thrust Firebird into danger. It turns out that Firebird and Brennen have been targeted by the Shuhr, the Sentinels' distant cousins who are not guided by the Sentinels' ethics. Think Sith to the Sentinel's Jedi, and you get the basic idea.

But the Shuhr aren't the only thing threatening Firebird's relationship. Firebird discovers she's carrying a horrendous secret, one that could steal all the happiness from her life, especially as Brennen travels to Three Zed, the home base of the Shuhr, to rescue Firebird's estranged sister, Phoena. Then there's the political machinations of occupied Netaia to deal with ... well, just writing about it makes me want to go home and start reading Crown of Fire, the last book of the trilogy. I won't, though, because I don't want another late night tonight.

This is a good continuation of the story and starts to build on the foundations forged in the first book. Since this is the second time I read it, I was surprised at how much I misremembered. I originally thought that the Shuhr were an invention of the second book. Having read Firebird, I realized that Tyers dropped some major hints about their involvement in the storyline. I also had to wrestle with sympathy for a character named Ellet Kinsman. Before I reread Fusion Fire, I thought she wound up badly abused in the story. Now I have little sympathy for her. Read the book; you'll probably see what I'm talking about.

What resonated most strongly for me was Firebird's struggle with the concept of evil. It's not just the big quesiton of "Why does God permit evil?", although Firebird certainly dives into that philosophical tangle. Firebird must also struggle with the more personal question of "Am I evil?" That resonated quite strongly for me. I mean, hey, I'm a pastor, I know what the Bible says about original sin and such, but even I have to admit that I'd rather think that I'm a good guy deep, deep down. Firebird struggles with that idea as well and it helps move the plot along.

Rereading this book also makes me curious. Like I said, the first two books of this trilogy were originally written as secular science fiction. Tyers was able to go back and weave Christian concepts more tightly into the plot and republish them. I've only read the Christian version. After seeing how tightly woven Christian concepts are into this story, it makes me wonder what the original looked like. I'm not sure I'd be able to find an original version, nor am I sure I'd really want to read it. It just has me curious.

Anyway, one more Firebird story to go. At least, one more to go before Kathy finishes her current work-in-progress. Then I guess I'll have to look forward to more sleepless nights.

Firebird

(AKA Trojan Horse for the Force Part II)


As promised, I went back after finishing DragonKnight and I've started Kathy Tyers' Firebird trilogy, starting with, appropriately enough, Firebird. Like I said before, this book is the reason I read Christian Sci-Fi/Fantasy at all. Simply put, this is one of the best.

Firebird is the story of Firebird Angelo, the third-born daughter of the ruling family of a planet called Netaia. Because of her position in her family, Firebird is what's known as a "wastling". She is a back-up heir for her mother, the queen of Netaia. Should anything happen to her two older sisters, Firebird would be able to assume the throne. But as soon as her older sister, Carradee, gives birth to her second daughter, Firebird's life is forfeit and she will be expected to die for Netaia. In Firebird's case, this death will come during an invasion of a planet called Veroh.

Firebird's plans, however, don't work out when she is captured by Veroh's defenders, members of the Federacy, a galaxy-spanning government. More specifically, she's captured by Brennen Caldwell, an ace pilot on the fast track to the High Command of the Federacy. Brennen is also a Sentinel, a member of an ancient and somewhat secretive religious order. Brennen surprises Firebird by not only treating her with great dignity and respect, but by insisting that she not throw her life away for Netaia. Why would he do that?

Well, you're gonna need to read the book to find out!

The one thing I noticed during this second re-reading is how closely parallel some of the concepts of this story are to another epic space opera set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. The Sentinels especially sound like Christianized Jedi more than once. But that's not necessarily a bad thing; it gives readers a "point of contact" that allows them to slip into the story a bit easier. They're dealing with familiar concepts with a not-so-subtle twist. Hence my "Trojan Horse for the Force" comment.

Tyers does a marvelous job working with this story and she really captures the emotional content of Firebird's journey from death to new life. You won't be disappointed with this one.

As for me, now it's on to the next book, Fusion Fire.

Accepted

Tonight, Jill and I had to take a trip to Fairmont to get her a new cell phone. Hers died last weekend, most likely because her contract expired and the phone company wanted us to buy a new one. So we decided as long as we were in town, we might as well take in a movie.

The movie we took in was Accepted. In the interest of all fairness, I went into this with very low expectations. Sure, the commercials looked funny, but that's the job of advertising executives. The fact that the previews included one for a certain movie made me worried that what we were about to see was going to be very, very low-brow.

In some ways, it was. I mean, all you have to do is consider the name of the fake college that's created by our intrepid hero, Bartleby Gaines (yes, that's his real name): the South Harmon Institute of Technology. Well, maybe not the name. The initials then. Figure it out yourself. They make liberal use of the initials almost to the point of eye rolling.

There were also some logical lapses in the plot, which in some ways was entirely predictable. I know one of my faults is that I overanalyze movies too much, but there was one glaring plot hole that just did not make sense to me at all. After careful consideration, I won't share what it is. It does kind of give away big chunks of the early plot, so I'll leave it to my intrepid readers to suss out what the plot hole was.

But now onto why I left the theater with a big smile on my face. First of all, the movie was fun. It was. Predictable or not, the story was a fun ride. I'll give you an example to look forward to. If you're paying attention, you won't be all that surprised by the way the movie ends. But it was still a great ending nonetheless.

Second, Justin Long did a fantastic job in this movie. At least, I thought he did. He evoked a sort of new millennium Ferris Bueller in his performance. He did seem to rely on slapstick gags a bit too much, but it was enough to truly drive me bonkers. It's almost enough for me to overlook those abominable Mac commercials.

Third, Lewis Black was a stitch every time I saw him. Loads of fun.

So there you go. Fun movie, go and see it.

DragonKnight

So I've now finished the third of Donita K. Paul's dragon books, DragonKnight.

Instead of following the story of Dragon Keeper Kale Allerion, this story follows Squire Bardon, a character introduced in the last book. Bardon sets off on a sabbatical, a time for him to spend in seclusion to decide whether or not he wants to dedicated himself to the service of Paladin. But as soon as he arrives at the secluded cabin he's supposed to live in, he finds himself thrown into a quest with three women to save a group of knights held captive by an evil wizard's spell. Bardon reluctantly agrees to put his sabbatical on hold while he tries to help the women.

Soon Bardon's troubles grow as more and more people are added to the questing party. But on the way, he learns more and more about himself and who he really is. Trust me, if you read all three books, you'll understand what that's about.

I thought this was simply a phenomenal book, perhaps the best out of the three. You know those little gripes I had about the second book? They're not in this one. The story was a great read and actually kept me up late last night as I kept thinking, "One more chapter before I go to sleep. One more chapter! Oh, I have time for just one more."

So if you're in the mood for a great fantasy adventure, this is definitely one to read.

A Trip to Barnes and Noble

So this afternoon I went to Barnes and Noble. I did my usual swing through the Christian fiction section but didn't see anything that caught my attention (the usual lack of sci-fi/fantasy. Hopefully that will change soon!). I moved on to the regular sci-fi/fantasy section where I picked up Harry Turtledove's Settling Accounts: Drive to the East. I'll add it to the pile (which I think includes Kathy Tyer's Firebird trilogy and Karen Hancock's Legends of the Guardian King books).

On my way out, I went through the new books section and noticed the novel version of John Cena's upcoming movie, The Marine. Fair enough. It was what was sitting next to it that made me cringe:

Seriously. What the heck is this? Torrie Wilson holding a gun? Before I knew what was happening, the book was in my hand and I turned it over to read the back to see what this was about. This is what I learned:

December 2001: Vince McMahon steps out of a snowy night into a diner in upstate New York for a meeting with old friend Phil Thomson, now a highly placed government official. Thomson has a strange proposition: creating a new covert black-ops group using the Superstars of World Wrestling Entertainment. The WWE's talented men and women are perfect. Highly skilled athletes with the ideal cover, they travel all across the country and the globe; no one would find it unusual to find them in a town one day and gone the next. The government would train and support the wrestlers in every way possible except one: no one must know the truth.

March 2006: The Superstars have been handed their latest assignment -- take down a commercial-grade methyl-amphetamine plant that is bankrolling terrorist activities in Europe. Their mission seems simple and straightforward, until a member of their team is taken prisoner. Now all that they've worked so hard for is in jeopardy, and one of their own might be killed...

Seriously. I am not making this up. What scares me even more is the fact that people gave it such positive reviews. A few might be sarcastic, but really.

I guess the one nice thing about this fiasco is this: Yes, this travesty was published by WWE Books. But if this can get published, then I have to have a good shot. Heck, maybe they'll need some help with the sequel. Vince, call me!

Trojan Horse for the Force

Okay, this is a day late, but here we go.

Like I said, I started reading Kathy Tyers before I knew she was Christian or had written any Christian science fiction. Because of this, I had a rather interesting experience reading Balance Point, her second Star Wars novel and part of the The New Jedi Order series of books. If you haven't read the books and ever plan to, don't check out that link. Major spoilers. Anyway...

I don't want to give away too much. The basic idea is that Jacen Solo (the son of Han and Leia Solo and a soon-to-be Jedi Knight) has to face off against a Yuuzhan Vong in a fight to death. Jacen has been having visions of this conflict for most of the book. At one point in the fight (either during it or immediately after; I honestly can't remember), Jacen has another vision where he is immersed in the Force.

Much to my surprise, the Force spoke to Jacen. In a fatherly voice, the Force addressed Jacen's fears and calmed him. It was an interesting scene, one that left me saying, "Huh?"

Let's face it, up 'til that point, the Force was supposed to be an amorphous, impersonal energy field generated by living beings that could be manipulated by Jedi (both Light and Dark) and the Sith (although after what got added in Episode I, who can say?). To suddenly have the Force actually talking to a Jedi threw me for a loop.

But now that I can look back on it, well, duh! Trojan Horse! It was an interesting moment, seeing a little touch of Christianity sneaking into the Star Wars universe. Kind of fun.

CSFF Blog Tour: Kathy Tyers

Well, better late than never, I guess....

To get the word out about Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy, the good folks at American Christian Fiction Writers have been conducting blog tours. This month's subject is a fantastic author named Kathy Tyers.

Ms. Tyers is the reason why I read Christian Sci-Fi. I converted to CSF in a sort of round about way. The thanks, believe it or not, goes to Star Wars.

See, I read the Star Wars novels obsessively. I've got one big shelf in my house filled with them. So naturally, I was aware of Tyers' two novels, The Truce at Bakura and Balance Point. I also found a copy of Shivering World. The hard science fiction of terraforming kept me engaged, but I was surprised by the Christian references in the book. By the time I was done reading it, I was wondering if Kathy Tyers was Christian.

Then one day, I was browsing the Christian Sci-Fi and Fantasy section at Christian Book Distributors, hoping to find something that piqued my interest. I came across a trilogy of books, the author of which had a familiar name. I just couldn't place it.

I kept repeating the name to myself over and over and over again, finally looking up at my massive collection of Star Wars novels. It was there that I say Ms. Tyers' name. I decided, "What the heck. I'll give this trilogy she's written a shot."

What was the trilogy in question? The Firebird Trilogy.

I know I haven't reviewed this on my blog yet. I won't post a review here yet. These books are on my list to re-read; once I'm done with Donita K. Paul's latest book, I'll re-read Firebird and review the books here.

At any rate, I absolutely loved Firebird. It was simply a great story. But here I'm getting ahead of myself again.

Anyway, there you go. As far as the blog tour is concerned, I've only had a chance to read Beth Goddard's two part interview with Kathy Tyers. But I'll be poking through the other blogs, and so should you. Here's a list of the participants:

Jim Black
John J. Boyer
Valerie Comer
Bryan Davis
Beth Goddard
Rebecca Grabill
Leathel Grody
Karen Hancock
Elliot Hanowski
Katie Hart
Sherrie Hibbs
Sharon Hinck
Pamela James
Jason Joyner
Tina Kulesa
Rachel Marks
Shannon McNear
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Cheryl Russel
Mirtika Schultz
Stuart Stockton
Steve Trower
Speculative Faith

Perhaps tomorrow I'll write about one of the "Trojan Horse" moments I had reading some of Kathy's secular stuff. We'll see.

EDIT: After poking through some of the other blog tour participants' posts, I realized I should clarify something. Apparently Kathy originally published the first two Firebird books and Shivering World as secular books. Since that time, Bethany House Publishing has reprinted them and allowed Kathy to pump up the Christian content.

The reason I thought I'd share this is because I think the copy of Shivering World I found in my local library was the original version. I haven't had a chance to read the re-release yet. That's why, at the time, I wondered if Kathy was a Christian.

Yet Another Web Comic

I know, I know, I know. I need to stop finding these things.

This time, I was checking the website for "Striptease" (get your mind out of the gutter and read my post; it's not about that) when I noticed a very well done banner ad for another web comic called Talismen. The above isn't the banner ad itself; I couldn't download the image from it. Instead, it's an "incentive poster" that the artist drew.

The cool thing is, the artwork in this webcomic is that elaborate on every page. A lot of webcomics I've peeked at are simply stick figures (or worse) not really worth reading. Talismen, on the other hand, is richly illustrated.

The story of Talismen is about a group of children who are banished from a magical kingdom to our world. In the first story arc, one of them, named Ollie (the marine in the poster above), is brought back to the magical kingdom. He falls in love with a woman named Astrina and learns about his past. They're now working to bring the other exiles back to face the evil Lord Ba.

I can't wait to see how this story unfolds. It should be really good, especially since I can see a love triangle forming amongst some of the exiles. Make sure you keep tabs on this one! It promises to be good.

Yet Another Crazy Idea!

So I've been mulling over a crazy idea for the past couple of days....

As my more loyal readers (what few there are) know, I've blogged about the similarities between the movies The Clonus Horror and The Island. I was first tipped off about the similarities between the two movies and the fact that the latter may have plagiarized the former by The Agony Booth, a great website for reading about really, really bad movies. Think Mystery Science Theater 3000, but only on the Internet.

Anyway, I recently read the Agony Booth review of "The Island", which included a section on the similarities between Michael Bay's "masterpiece" and "Clonus". And that got me to thinking. Maybe I should see if I can spot the similarities as well.

I actually have a copy of "Clonus". MST3K ripped this movie apart during one of their last seasons on the Sci-Fi Channel. Getting "The Island" would be easy enough as well. I'm thinking that on one of my days off, I would devote a morning or an afternoon to watching the two back-to-back, "Clonus" first and then "The Island", just to see how much Bay ripped off.

I've done stupid things like this before. One time, in college, I decided to watch Ed Wood and then Bride of the Monster back-to-back. I had seen "Bride" before (again, thanks to MST3K), but I had always fallen asleep while watching it. But after watching "Ed Wood" first, I was able to appreciate "Bride" a bit more because most of "Ed Wood" is concerned with the filming of "Bride". Good stuff.

So will I do it? Who knows? But if I do, I'll let you all know what I discover.

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers

I found out about this book from Randy Ingermanson, a Christian fiction author who also teaches a number of on-line courses about writing. I've taken one of them and so should you (if you're a writer) and he has an e-zine he publishes once a month. It was in one of the latest editions of this e-zine that he mentioned this book. More specifically, he said that if you're a writer and you seriously want to be published, you should get and read this book immediately. I realize it's hyperbole, but hey, it's worth a shot, right?

Self-Editing for Fiction Writers is a really good book about some of the mechanics of fiction writing. Renni Browne and Dave King are independent editors who have worked with writers over the years, polishing up their work to get them ready for publication. In the introduction, they lament the fact that in modern publishing, a lot of manuscripts don't get the editing job they need to turn them from good into magnificent. Their book is designed to "sit in the gap", so to speak, to train writers to edit their own work.

They cover such topics as showing and telling, point of view, dialogue mechanics, and voice. There are many examples taken from workshops that they've led and published novels to illustrate their lessons. What's really nice is that at the end of each chapter, they have a detailed checklist with suggestions on how to check your manuscript for problems as well as exercises you can do to test yourself on the concept.

I agree with Randy Ingermanson. If you're a writer, you'll want to read this book!

The Good News, The Bad News

This makes me so excited! I'm a huge fan of Karen Hancock's books. Her Legends of the Guardian-King series have been a real joy to read. Perhaps I should re-read them and post reviews on the blog....

Whatever the case, I finished the third book in the series a few months ago. I've been eagerly waiting to get my hands on the fourth and final book.

Well, today I went over to the website of Bethany Publishing House to do some research. I'm hopefully going to meet one of their editors in a month at the ACFW Conference so I can pitch my sci-fi trilogy. From what I've read, when you're pitching a book, you're supposed to be able to tell the editor why your book would fit into their publishing line. So I wanted to see what other sci-fi books Bethany had listed (strange thing is, I know that they've published more sci-fi than they've listed! I should know, I have those books on my shelves!).

At any rate, I checked the "speculative fiction" section and I noticed this cover! Doesn't it look cool? Very heroic. It made me smile to see this cover.

But there's always a smidge of bad news to go with the good. This book isn't scheduled for release until April of 2007. So while I can smile and drool over the cover art, I have to wait to find out how this terrific story ends.

Oh well.

"It's Just That He Finally Shrugged"

After looking over my previous post, I realized that I may have come off a little harsh about Dar the doneel winking all the time. Perhaps if I explained why....

As my faithful readers/friends will know, I'm an unpublished author myself. I've been writing since the fifth grade (not that anything I produced at that time is any good; most of it will never see the light of day ever again) and lately, I've been working on a Christian science fiction trilogy that I call The Leader's Song.

I've been working with a critique group from Ameican Christian Fiction Writers help me polish up the first book in the trilogy, The Rune Enigma. One of the things these wonderful ladies in my critique group has helped me realize is that I have four pet words that I constantly use. I incorporated all four into a sentence to help me remember to search them out and destroy them.

My four pet words are: just, that, finally, shrugged.

Notice the last one. It seems like on every page, I have a character shrugging, often when there's absolutely no logical reason for them to do so. I've had to grit my teeth and groan whenever I encounter one of these words.

I suspect part of the reason why Dar the winking doneel bothered me is because I'm too hypersensitized. And, like I said in the previous post, I loved DragonQuest. The constant winking wasn't enough to stop that.

DragonQuest

I'm always a sucker for a good Christian book series, and Donita K. Paul's dragon books are no exception.

This sequel to DragonSpell continues the tale of Kale Allerion, a Dragon Keeper in the service of Paladin. In this book, Kale and her numerous friends are sent on a number of quests. The overall plot is to rescue a "meech dragon" from the evil wizard Risto. Along the way, Kale encounters two different women who claim to be Lyll Allerion, Kale's long-lost mother. Along the way, Kale grows into her role as a servant of Paladin by working with the stodgy Bardon, the always amusing Dar, and a number of minor dragons that have bonded to her.

Once again, Paul does an excellent job creating a unique world. Rather than retread the usual fantasy races (elves, dwarves, etc.), Paul created her own races, such as the diminutive, light-bearing kimen, the tumanhofers who love to dig into mountains and into books, the color-shifting emerlindians, and so forth. Paul shows incredible creativity in creating this world, especially when it comes to creating dragons. Kale, as the Dragon Keeper, has hatched four dragon eggs so far and each new dragon surprises me. It turns out there are different kinds of minor dragons, differntiated by their colors. Each type of dragon has its own color and corresponding abilities. The first minor dragon Kale hatches, Gymn, is a green dragon and has healing abilities. Seems pretty standard for a fantasy novel, right? Well, things get a little interesting after he hatches. The next minor dragon to hatch is a purple dragon named Metta who has musical abilities. A green and yellow dragon named Dibl comes next. His ability is to make people laugh. The fourth is named Ardeo. During the day, he's dull and silver. At night, he shines like the moon. These dragon abilities stunned me the first time I read them. I would never think of having a singing dragon or one that makes people laugh, but Paul weaves these abilities into the story wonderfully.

There are really only three minor things that I didn't like about this book. The first is the more problematic. The plot in DragonQuest shifts and swings rapidly and oftentimes, plot threads that get started get resolved "off-stage" so to speak. For example, at one point, Kale and company are sent to investigate who attacked the city of Vendela with Creemoor spiders. But before they can complete this quest, they're sent on another quest, leaving the spiders to be resolved by another band of heroes. This wouldn't be a problem, but this happens several times in the book. Kale and friends are given an assignment but, before they can complete it, they're sent off on another errand. The quest they were on is then fulfilled by another group and we're barely told what happened.

Part of this stems from the fact that Paul tells the story only from Kale's point-of-view. This is admirable and very well done, but it means that many of these seemingly important quests are finished "off-stage" and then we're simply told what happened.

The second kind of grows out of the first. The end of the book was too abrupt for me. I don't want to give the ending away. Suffice it to say that there's a big build up towards something that never happens. I can understand why it happened and how it fits into the plot. But given the number of quests that are resolved "off-stage", this disappointed me.

The last thing that kind of bugged me by the end of this book is the number of times one of the characters, Dar, winks. It seems like every other page, Dar is winking at Kale. It's overused in my opinion and detracts from the story. Every time I encountered Dar winking, I kind of sighed and had to steel myself to keep reading.

None of that should keep you from reading these books, though. Once again, Donita K. Paul has put together a great fantasy read, one that can be enjoyed and appreciated by people of all ages.

Web Comics Have Seized Me!

I suspect I've always been a closet comic book fan.

When I was younger, I used to check out a dozen or so from the library every week or so. The problem was that our local library did not have a good selection; I usually wound up checking out the same issues of The Avengers or Archie over and over and over again. The other problem was that since they were basically kept in a big heap, making it pretty impossible to keep up on storylines.

Through the years, I've dabbled in comics every now and then. I subscribed to Star Trek: The Next Generation for a while until the writing of Michael Jan Friedman drove me away. I bought a series of Punisher, where the Punisher goes on a rampage throughout Europe (I can't seem to find these anymore). I also made sure to buy the issue where Superman died and I've even gone onto e-Bay to purchase the entire Captain Carrot and His Amazing Zoo Crew series. That one might seem a little inexplicable, but they were comics I found in the library's heap and I had to see them again.

I'm also a big sucker for graphic novels now. 1602, The Watchmen, Superman: Red Son, The Runaways ... okay, I'll stop.

What I've gotten into in the past couple of weeks, though, are web comics. A friend of mine on Red vs. Blue clued me into the one that got me started (thanks, Swooper).

The first one is Dr. McNinja:



That's right. He's a doctor. And an Irish ninja. He's battled Ronald McDonald, a child who grew into Paul Bunyan, a group of pirates who kidnapped his family, and most recently, a man with such well-developed abs that he grew an organic jet-pack. Yes, you read that correctly. Dr. McNinja is truly bizarre and quickly got me hooked. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, you can guarantee I'm checking the site to see if the newest page is up.

One day, while reading the latest page of Dr. McNinja, I noticed a banner for another web-comic, one named Stuff Sucks:





It piqued my curiousity, so I clicked and found myself in a comic written by Liz Greenfield. It's the story of Daniel who works in a record store. The plot got started a little slow, but soon I was enraptured as a con artist named Zemi made Daniel's life difficult by trying to steal the ring he bought for his girlfriend. Sounds like an odd premise for a comic? Maybe, but I check this one at the beginning of every week for new art.

And then, one day, I noticed a link at the bottom of Stuff Sucks that caught my attention. The name itself was enough for me to raise my eyebrows. I mean, Striptease?




Get your mind out of the gutter. It's not about that. Instead, it's the story of a guy named Max who draws a comic called "Neato-People". Last night, I decided to get caught up on the six years worth of back issues there was. Yes, it took me a while, but it was worth it.

The story was a little slow at first but things really picked up. Max falls in love with a girl from a rival comic company named Alli, who his editor and friend, Emily, doesn't approve of. Things get a little hairy as Alli's boss blackmails her into stealing Issue #2 of Neato-People. Things just get more convoluted from there as more and more people come out of Max's past, which only complicates the on-going rivalry he's developed with an evil comic book writer. When we last left our heroes, they were trying to rescue their Goth friend from the Cage of Apathy in a fetish night club. Yes, you read that correctly too.

Striptease is a bit more adult than the other two but the stories are so engrossing, I really didn't mind. Sure, they're not that realistic (pay attention to the storylines that deal with Alli's evil twin sister, Naomi, and you'll see what I mean), but the relationship between Max and Alli will keep me coming back. Only problem: the writer/artist who does this one has to take the summer off to work in a caricature booth in an amusment park and doesn't have the time to really update it. That's okay. I can wait.

I'm sure I'll stumble across more as I go, but it's kind of fun to let my inner comic book guy out once in a while.

Alternate Generals

I'll be the first to admit, I'm a sucker for counterfactual history. This is history with a twist, where a learned (or not so learned) writer takes "the way things were" and throws in a major "What If?" factor that sets everything on its head.

My favorite counterfactual author by far is Harry Turtledove. Mr. Turtledove is perhaps the master of the genre. I've read a number of his books, most of them set in an alternate history where the South won the Civil War. He's made it up to World War II now and I keep tracking down his books to see what happens.

Jill, my wife, knows that I love reading Turtledove books, so one day she came home from the library with Alternate Generals, edited by Harry Turtledove. She found it on the library's free bookshelf, where anyone in the community can leave books they're done with so someone else can take them. She thought I might enjoy it.

I have to say, I was a bit hesitant at first. The back cover copy made me roll my eyes:

At Gaugemela the Macedonians had Alexander and the Persians had -- Darius. Result: world conquest. But what if the Persians had -- Erwin Rommel. Or what if George S. Patton had commanded Southern forces at Bull Run, and Lincoln had become a Confederate prisoner?

When I saw that, I feared the worst. Were they simply going to transpose major historical figures into battles they weren't connected to?

Thankfully, that wasn't the case. This is a pretty good collection of counterfactual short stories, all revolving around famous battles and wars. Some of them are very well done. Some of them aren't.

Part of the problem is with me, I suspect. In some cases, the author picked a battle obscure enough that I didn't know what the original outcome was, which then made it difficult to revel in the cleverness of the counterfactual proposal. In one case, I didn't enjoy the style. But there were some great tales in here:

• The Test of Gold by Lillian Stewart Carl - The tale of the Romans conquering the British Isles. Very well done and, as the first story in the collection, whetted my appetite for more.
• The Charge of Lee's Brigade by S. M. Stirling - What if America never gained its independence and a General Robert E. Lee went to the Crimean War as part of the British Army?
• The Craft of War by Lois Tilton - Written as a Socratic dialogue, Sokrates discusses how an exile from the East helped the Persians win their battles against the Greeks. The exile's name, in Greek, was Sontseus. Can you guess who he was?
• Billy Mitchell's Overt Act by William Sanders - By far, the best story of the bunch. What if the Americans had intercepted the Japanese fleet before they could strike Pearl Harbor? What if the Americans fired the first shot in World War II? Great, great stuff.
• A Hard Day for Mother by William R. Fortchen - This one was just very well done. It involves the Battle of Gettysburg.
• Bloodstained Ground by Brian M. Thomsen - A has-been, washed out Samuel Clemens is sent on assignment to cover the funeral of President George Custer.
• Vati by R. M. Meluch - What if the Nazis had jets before D-Day? Sound weird? This is a great story too.

There were other stories in here but I just didn't enjoy them. Some were so bad that I simply skipped over them. I guess I did learn one thing about myself: I don't enjoy naval stories.

Oh well. This one was good, but not good enough to keep. It's going to be released on Book Crossing eventually.