Read "In Stasis" for FREE!

Several days ago I finished my revisions on “In Stasis”, my first (and probably best) Will Vullerman short story. For all purposes, the story is ready for publication. While I have yet to format it for Kindle, and the cover art is still in concept form, the story itself is polished and ready for readers.

And, as I promised, you guys get to read it...for free!

Here are the instructions:

First, you must be a follower or “chronic reader” of this blog at the time of this post to be eligible for a free copy of “In Stasis”. That just means that you have to be one of the 129 current Google followers of this blog, or that you're someone who has been reading this blog for a while.

Second, I need to receive an email from you in order for you to get your free copy. Send me an email at jtbdude [at] gmail [dot] com requesting a copy of the story, letting me know for verification purposes that you're a follower or a reader of this blog.

Lastly, make sure and tell me the format in which you'd like to read the story. I can supply three versions: .odt, PDF, and .doc. Since I haven't formatted the story for Kindle, I won't be able to give out .prc files.

Once I get an email from you, please be patient. It may take up to a week or longer for me to reply with the story attached. African internet is less than stellar when it comes to uploads.

There are no strings attached. While I'd value your opinions and critiques, they are not required for you to receive the story.  If you wish to send me your thoughts on the story, however, I'd love to hear from you.

Please be aware that this offer is not indefinite. (Wow, I sound like a salesman...) This is only available to blog followers from now up until the time the story is published.  After the story is published, this post is no longer valid. So make sure and hurry if you want to read the story!

I hope you enjoy it! :)

Boring Updates: in which Tornado C's outline is being stubborn, and Will Vullerman is climbing out of my ear.

I have a penchant for creating grab-you-and-never-let-you-go titles, don't I? This one just screams "READ ME" like nothing else.

I'm also horrible at subtle sarcasm.

Guess what? It's update time - a time in which I shall bring you up to speed on what's going on in the writing section of my life.

So I was supposed to start writing in Tornado C. Easier said than done. I've told you guys repeatedly to write first, edit later. Now that I'm getting the hang of outlining, however, this terrible vice has come back to bite me.

How can I do that? you may ask. Well, it sounds more complicated than it is: but in essence, I'm revising the novel before I ever set pen to paper.

But not in a Doctor Who kind of way. I'm actually tweaking the detailed outline I've written for Tornado C. I originally started out with a mildly exciting outline. (My plot always gets better once I write it.) Once I had finished said outline, I had planned on starting the first draft ASAP.

One problem...I didn't think my outline was good enough.

So what did I do? I revised it.

Guess what? After I did the revisions, it was awesome. I tightened the plot and added some theme. I was so pumped to write this novel. Then I went to bed, woke up, and realized something.

It wasn't good enough.

So I revised some more, added a subplot, and generally made things better.

Went to bed, woke up, realized something.

It wasn't good enough.

Do you see the cycle? It's pretty obvious.

Now I'm working on adding another supporting character ("three's a company") and trying to figure out whether or not I actually killed off all of the remaining heirs to the Celamar throne. Gulp. That was a major plot problem. Tell you the truth, I hadn't actually realized that they were all dead until last week, even though I had killed them off (in my head) several months before. (Hey, when you're juggling half a dozen stories in your head at once, sometimes you overlook things!)

And also, the first three chapters of the novel (aside from the epic prologue) are pretty much run away, almost get caught, run away, almost get caught, and then we finally come to our senses and run away to a place that actually has to do with the plot. *headdesk* I still need to find a suitable subplot for that section. It's pretty much "butter scraped over too much bread" right now. It's trying to be more important than it is.

But that's one of the things I have found that I actually like about outlining: I can fix plot problems before I get to them. I don't have to go through the weary process of plot revision after the novel is finished; I can do it beforehand, in my head.

Except, outlining is still a major pain. If I write an idea down, I have to write down specifics, and that's something that my brain hates doing before it's time to actually write that idea into prose. Eurgh.

Aside from my fair-weather friendship with outlining, I've also been working on other writing-related things. Lately I've been shaping out the next four or five Will Vullerman short stories in my head. Included in this is the groundwork for an earth-shaking conclusion to Will Vullerman's saga, which I can't wait to write. I have no idea how many stories I'll write before I finish them off with the conclusion, but once I do, it'll be blow-your-socks-off epic.

But the next five WV stories are a 25k+ project, so I'm painfully abstaining from writing them until I actually get some prose work done in Tornado C. Gah! So much to do, so little time in which to do it!

Speaking of Will Vullerman, however, I've also been hammering out concept cover art with my sister, who does photography. We've got the cover for one of my stories (The Thirteenth Call) already finished and the rest are coming - I can't wait to show them all to you!

But cover art and, more importantly, publication, will have to wait. I have to do some extensive revisions on the stories first. And those edits come after I work on Tornado C. Blech. I've got my hands full this summer, no mistake.

But don't worry, I've gotten some solid writing done. My pen gets restless when I do nothing but brainstorming. So what did I do?

I've written and revised a 5,000 word short story titled The Flame That Does Not Burn, and yes, it tries to be as mysterious as the title implies. It's a fantasy-allegory chock full of little theme tidbits - and I tried out a new experiment. The story's narrator - and many of the other characters - use their native language pretty extensively, in little bits and pieces. If my style worked, then it'll add quite a bit of depth to the story; if not, it'll make the reader confused. Time will tell.

I sound busy, I know. But hey, it's the rainy season. Rain, rain, rain, 24/7. And it's cold. (By West African standards.) I actually have an excuse to stay inside and get some writing done!

How's your writing coming along? If you're not doing much writing (or even if you are), how is life coming along in general? I hear that it's hot! Y'know, right now, it's actually cooler here than it is in most parts of the States...

Oh, and do you have any writing topics that have been bothering you lately? I've been stumped about what sort of articles to write. I've exhausted quite a few topics and I'm looking for more.

Gotta go. Until next time!

Some Thoughts on Revision

I've always prided myself in having high-quality prose. In my head, I knew that good books aren't written; they're rewritten. But still, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, right?

Thus, I've felt that I didn't need revision quite as much as other people. I thought I could create good books without too much editing. I mean, I do use revision quite a bit, but in the case of my Will Vullerman stories, I've done little to no revision and they turned out pretty well.

Was I wrong? Absolutely.

I received a critique of The Thirteenth Call the other day that was pretty critical of the story. To the critiquer's credit, he told me what was wrong with the story with fantastic politeness and respect and really did a great job. Still, it hurt a little bit. Wasn't the story "good enough"? If that story wasn't good, what was?

I think, in a way, that critique was a bit of a knock on the head from God. Learn from my experience, fellow writer: don't get so puffed up in the head that you don't see mistakes when you make them! I was feeling pretty good about myself up until then. But I'm not supposed to feel good about myself; I'm supposed to feel grateful to God that He has used me to write such stories. I need to hold my stories to a higher standard, and cut off Pride's head while I'm at it.

Now that I've had some time to mull it over, I realized my mistake: I thought that The Thirteenth Call was good enough not to revise, in addition to that silly thing called Pride.

Here's my advice: always look for places to better the story. Don't settle for "good enough". And most of all, don't think that great prose makes a great story. That was the downfall of The Thirteenth Call. What I needed to revise was my plot and character, not my prose.

Revision means looking critically at EVERYTHING in the novel, not just the prose. The pacing of the story was good, the prose was good, the dialogue was good; but that blinded me to the fact that a few of the characters were shallow and one-dimensional, and that there was very little emotional difficulty in the story.

Now that I'm finished with The Immortal Man (finished it yesterday at 8.5k), I plan to set my Will Vullerman stories on the shelf for a while, and then pull them out to revise later on. I'm planning on some pretty heavy-duty rewriting for The Thirteenth Call especially.

Take it from me, writer. Your story always needs revision, no matter how good you think it is after you finish it. Send it to people and they'll identify your flaws for you. But send it to more than one person, and don't rely on critique from your family. (I've found that their critiques often amount to, "It was good.")

And as a side note, wait 'til the story's done to revise. Otherwise, you'll get distracted.

You'll find that revision will make your story shine. It'll turn out so much better if you look at everything with a critical eye and try to find places to improve.

And a great story that's been polished is what's going to get your name out there, not a decent story with little revision.

What Is This Theme Stuff, Anyway?

What exactly is theme? Why does it matter? How do you even write it?

This is yet another of those rehashing-stuff-I've-mentioned-or-written-about-before posts. Yet every time you look at something, you get a new insight. An apple appears red at first; but then you can tell it's darker in some places and lighter in others. Then you get past the simple look and find that the inside isn't really red at all. And it tastes good, too.

My point is, theme is one of the most important parts of fiction for the Christian fiction writer, and must be studied, therefore, more than once. You get new stuff out of it with each fresh look.

What is theme?

Theme is simply the meaning in the story you write. This is not to be confused with the subcategory of theme, which I've nicknamed story-with-a-theme, partners to story-with-a-message and story-with-a-faith. (Rather confusing on my part, sorry.) In this post, however, theme simply means the meaning in a story and encompasses all three categories.

Now, theme is an essential part of every story. Without theme, a story is meaningless. It's fluff. It has no impact on your life. It's escapism. Not bad in itself, but why waste your time on a meaningless story when you could be doing something that's actually constructive?

Theme, however, is a big subject. There's a multitude of different ideas about how to do theme. I divide it into three aforementioned categories: theme (a "moral of the story"), message (a more concealed Christian theme, such as in allegories and Narnia), and faith (the kind of story in which faith in God is an integral part: Bryan Davis and Christopher Hopper's books are examples of this).

In this post, however, I'll address the action and abandon the analytics. (Alliteration. Hah!) Before you read much further, however, make sure you're in the right place. Your writing isn't yours, remember. It's God's. If you're trying to manufacture a theme without Him, and all truth is in Him, then are you really making a theme?

Now, there are many different opinions about writing theme. Writing genius Jeff Gerke, whom I respect quite a bit, suggests that story is king; you'll write a story and discover that you'll get a theme on the way. I disagree.

I am of the opinion that you need to find your theme to write it. I manage to work pretty well off the seat of my pants, but before I ever touch pen to paper, I know my theme.

How do you find your theme, then? What do you find in a theme? How does a theme work?

List time!

1) A theme must come integrally from the plot and characters. They all work together.

In my Will Vullerman short story, The Reality Ring, my character gets into a mess because he rather recklessly traps himself in an alternate reality. Why? Because he was a little bored with life. Running missions for the ASP was his life, and when that was taken away, he didn't have much left. The theme of the story was about Will rediscovering his purpose in life, and having a pretty rollicking adventure along the way. The story was tied to the theme, and vice versa.

This is why theme is often hard; because you're trying too hard. If you look closely, you'll find the theme was in there in the plot all along. All you need to do is find it and show the reader what it is. In battles, you'll find courage, heroism; in the quest, you'll discover perseverance, fortitude; in the long journey, friendship, fellowship, camaraderie; in the characters, redemption, love, and sacrifice. The themes are there, but like a diamond in the rock, you need to dig them out and make them shine.

2) A theme often involves character change.

As we saw in the above example, the theme is often found in a character change. In other words, my character learned something.

In The War Horn, my main character embarks on a quest, and the quest changes him. In the end, he can't be who he was anymore. He gives up himself and becomes a better person as a result, learning what freedom truly is. The theme drove the plot, so to speak. As Daniel Schwabauer puts it, a character changes when the cost of not changing becomes too high.

The theme quite often revolves around the character. Because in the character, we see ourselves. If we truly empathize with a character, it's because we understand him. When the character changes, we find that we can change too.

3) To show theme, thread it through the story.

Once you've discovered your theme, to make it most effective, you need to thread it through the story. Another of my Will Vullerman stories, In Stasis, had the theme of God's mercy woven throughout it. The ending was meaningful because I had foreshadowed it, so to speak, by introducing the theme in the beginning of the story. Again, in The Reality Ring, the theme was introduced from the very first page and tied up in the ending.

In The War Horn, my character repeatedly was given opportunities to truly see freedom as it must be, and not as he saw it. He failed each time, and each time the stakes grew higher. But by the end, the cost of not changing became too high, and he finally chose correctly. In that way, the theme was continued throughout the story, and finally resolved in the end. In fact, the last word of the book is free.

4) To help in showing theme, embody it in a symbol.

I first came up with the concept of a war horn after listening to an inspirational One Year Adventure Novel lecture called Symbols. In that lecture, Daniel Schwabauer explained that a theme or an ideal can be embodied in a symbol.

In The War Horn, the horn is the symbol of freedom, and also a reminder of my main character's lost father. At the climax of the story, rather than saying that my character chose freedom, I used the war horn to show my character's choice. (But for the full details of that theme, you'll have to read the book yourself!)

Symbols often make the reader dig for meaning. They create a feeling of satisfaction deep within the readers' souls that a simple statement can never do.

5) Reach out of the story and into real life.

The thing that makes a theme a theme is that it matters to us. The characters we love are the ones that spur us on. In a way, we say, "If he did it, so can I."

Thus, a theme shows us something that matters in actual life. In The Thirteenth Call, yet another Will Vullerman short story, Will comes to the conclusion that he can't do his mission alone. Time has run out and he has a slim chance of saving his friends' lives; and all the time he is haunted by the failure from his past. That's relevant to all of us, because we all have failures in our past that haunt our present, and we all need to know that there is Someone who is sovereign over it all.

Ultimately, our job is to point to the greatest Author of all. We reach out of our tale and show our reader that the God of this story is the God of their story. He's the Author of the saga of this world, and His gospel can be traced throughout the world's bloody history, the light in this otherwise dark tale. And He can take the darkness in each of us and transform us in His light.

So what do you think about theme? Are there any other ways you can think of to write theme? Can you think of any great themes in books you've read? Theme's one of my favorite subjects, after all. Let's talk.

Thousand-Dollar Writing Advice

A blank screen, a blank page

And a blank mind as well;

If this life of mine's a stage

Where is inspiration's well?

—"Writer's Block?" (A recent poem of mine.)

Sometimes I think that the bane of a writer's existence is a fella named Procrastination. You'll remember him. He's shadowy, dark (at least since he lost his plastic raincoat), and makes smileys on his swords.

However, dramatizing Procrastination will do little-to-no-good if you're trying to get out of his grip. In fact, I'd say that by writing this post, I'm procrastinating. It's sad but true.

Here's a thousand-dollar piece of advice for ye olde writers: write. Always write. The more you write, the less you procrastinate. Sometimes you'll write junk, but the more you write, the less junky your junk writing will get. Don't procrastinate. Turn off the internet if you need to. If you really want a kick in the pants, do NaNoWriMo (and take it seriously).

Because you can't sit around and wait for inspiration to show up. You have to go looking for him if you're ever going to find him.

Obviously, I haven't yet mastered this piece of advice, which is one of the many reasons why I don't have a thousand dollars. Actually, I'm pretty much being a hypocrite by writing this post while I'm supposed to be working on the Immortal Man.

So my wise and pithy saying for today is, in essence: go and write.

There's not much more to it than that.

Have fun. I need to go work on my story. Feel free to give me a kick in the pants if I don't have two thousand words written by this time tomorrow.

POST SCRIPTUM, approx. 1 1/2 HOURS LATER:

I wrote a thousand words. Hurrah for not-procrastinating! ^_^ Here's a snippet from a character I really like, while he and my MC were playing word games:

--

"You're smart. Brave, maybe, if that means anything."

"Thanks." Will eyed the man's stun rod. "You're quick."

"Maybe that's not as flattering. You can't exchange a compliment with a compliment?"

"I haven't had an opportunity to find a redeeming trait."

A hoarse laugh erupted from the hooded man. "All too true. I doubt you'll find much to compliment in me."

Something about the man's voice unnerved Will. He tried to put on a more bold face. "You're calm and collected. Aloof and analytic. Is that part of your mysterious aura?"

"I dislike alliteration, if you don't mind."

Will answered with another question. "Do you ever let anyone see your face?"

The hooded man stopped. Will thought he saw the glitter of the man's eyes in the shadows. "Only when they're about to die."

--

I'm going to go now, but remember: always write. Keep writing. Don't stop for trivial things.

And watch out for Procrastination.

Writing Plans: What's Now and What's Next

Hullo, blog readers! Read on if you're of the curious sort. This post is entirely about my writing, so there's not much constructive about it. Still, it may prove to be interesting reading!

All right, so here's what's happening: in this post, I'm going to attempt to explain my current (and ambitious) writing plans. This is partially for your benefit and partially to organize my chaotic thoughts. You'll note that there are a lot of occurrences of "probably" and "hopefully". Most everything on this list is tentative, but that's the way writing works, right?

Okay, here goes!

Today is 10th of June. I have, max, until late August to concentrate completely on writing; August is when school will come back and I'll have to put writing in the backseat. So I have two and a half months, give or take, to focus on these projects. Afterward, my writing will probably be restricted to evenings and late nights.

So what's first up?

Foremost on my list is completing, revising, and publishing my Will Vullerman short stories. I'm 2k into The Immortal Man (and procrastinating), which is the last of the WV stories in the foreseeable future. Afterward, I'll revise them and then format them for Kindle. Since that's a fairly small project in comparison to the actual writing of the stories, I can probably multitask and combine my time with another project. (Once my revision is done, however, keep your eyes peeled for a Will Vullerman post; I'm planning on offering to send the stories to whoever wants to read them, first come first served.)

Next up is my newest novel, codename Tornado C. Work will begin as soon as I finish my outline, which will only take a couple of days or so once I set my mind to it.. I probably won't start writing in it, however, until The Immortal Man is finished.

The time required to write Tornado C is a mystery, however. I'm aiming for 50k+ words with twenty-four outlined chapters, but the story may take some unexpected turns or decide to be stubborn. We'll see. If I'm REALLY lucky, I'll have it finished by the end of the summer. Once it is finished, I'm hoping to submit it to the 2012 OYAN Novel Contest.

This is where my schedule begins to blur. However, here's what's most likely: I'll revisit The Prophecies. While one of the core concepts of the series is cliche and originality is sorely lacking, I can't stand leaving the story and the characters unfinished. And it's pretty good, other than that concept. The Prophecy of Einarr, for instance, has some of my best writing in it. It's an extremely fun series to write, too!

We'll see what I'll decide to do with the series, but I'll probably finish The Prophecy of Einarr sometime before November and then write book #3. (Actually, I have this sneaking suspicion that book #3 will be my 2012 NaNoNovel. After all, the previous two books were a result of NaNoWriMo, so I should probably follow the pattern!)

Somewhere along the line, I'd like to also revisit Revolution, a story I began some time ago. I love the concept, which is somewhat allegorical; and the style of writing is alluring. (It's highly narrative and dramatic with an emphasis on vivid description. A joy to write, but sometimes a pain to read.)

And if the Will Vullerman stories are well received with my readers, I'd like to write more of those, too. I've even got the first inklings for a grand-finale type ending to these sci-fi stories somewhere in the very distant future. Pun intended. (I've already started foreshadowing this ending in my current stories, though. Mwahahahaha!)

In ADDITION to this (almost done!), I'm also mulling over several other opportunities which may or may not work out. One of them is a nonfiction work. (Gasp!)

As you can see...I'm going to be really busy (as a writer) for the remainder of this year. :P We're looking at hundreds of thousands of words waiting to be written. Now that I look at it, it seems a lot more massive. But we'll see, eh?

However, having big plans leaves little room for procrastination. You guys need to keep me accountable, all right? As often as you can, you need to bother me to go and write.

So what are YOUR writing plans this summer? What are your summer plans in general? Anything particularly awesome coming up on the calendar? I love hearing from you all, so make sure and comment if you have something to say. :)

Regarding Synopses

Synopses is a word, right? ;)

I decided to write up all of my synopses for the Will Vullerman short stories, and revise the ones I already have.  I'd love it if you could give your opinions on the synopses.  Take a look!

--

In Stasis

An anomaly has been uncovered in war-torn North America.

Despite the international off-limits zone surrounding the continent, the government decides to send in Will Vullerman, an elite agent and the top operative of the ASP. But what he finds there, deep beneath the ground, is more than any of them bargained for.

The Reality Ring

Will Vullerman is suspended from the ASP, and he has no idea why.

Bored and restless, when an opportunity for excitement comes from a mysterious man, he takes it. What he doesn't know is that he's being pushed into the age-old conflict between America and the Middle East, with him in the middle. In order to survive, he has to escape from the Reality Ring and confront the man who claims to be his grandfather, or the world will again erupt in war.

The Thirteenth Call: Part One

They were a perfectly normal American family newly arrived in Europe.

But for the last six nights, at seven o'clock sharp, they've gotten the same phone call with the same threatening message. Will Vullerman is about to go on vacation, but when he's asked to help this family, he can't refuse. Will, however, isn't prepared for the sinister plot that's slowly tightening the noose around the Torreys. He has to find out who's calling, and why, before it's too late...before the thirteenth call.

The Thirteenth Call: Part Two

The mission grows darker, and the thirteenth call approaches. But everything is not as it seems.

Will Vullerman was supposed to be on vacation, but now he's on an unofficial mission to protect an American family. Will must confront the failures of his past in order to save this family, but time is running out, and the killer is drawing near. The fate of the thirteenth call will determine the fate of them all, unless Will can stop it.

The Immortal Man

What if man could achieve immortality? The cost may prove to be greater than anyone could imagine.

While on a mission to bust an illegal genetics facility, ASP agent Will Vullerman discovers that there's something behind the scenes that no one has noticed before. Someone has been giving the geneticists their illegal material, but no one knows who the mysterious donor is. Will discovers that the donor, a geneticist himself, has engineered the secret of immortality. Will has to stop the madman, but he must first enlist the help of what the geneticist has created: the immortal man.

--

The synopsis for The Immortal Man will likely undergo change, since I'm only a thousand words into it.   

So what do you think?  Are they intriguing?  If you were a random Kindle owner, would you pay 99 cents to read a story with one of the following synopses?  Do you have any advice about how I could improve the synopses?

Let me know.  And thanks!

Stories, Snickbuzzards, and Sanity: A Writerly Ramble

Greetings and hallucinations!

I haven't blogged in some time, so I figured I'd say SOMETHING on here. I'll subject you to a short update and then ramble for a bit. Do your best to finish the post: but if you can't, I don't blame you. ^_^

Firstly, my writing! Tornado C is coming along sloooowwwwlllyyyy. I'm still working on the outline. If I really stuck to it and got the outline done, I could be starting it this week, but other circumstances have temporarily supplanted it.

What circumstances? The further progression of my science fiction stories, which I just call "Will Vullerman" stories, after the protagonist. In addition to In Stasis and The Reality Ring, I've been working on a sci-fi/thriller/murder mystery sequel to the stories called The Thirteenth Call. Working synopsis is below:

--

They were a perfectly normal American family newly arrived in Europe. But for the last six nights, at seven o'clock sharp, they've gotten the same phone call with the same threatening message. Will Vullerman, asked by a friend to help this family, arrives on the scene. But he's not prepared for the sinister plot that's slowly tightening the noose around this family. He has to find out who's calling, and why, before it's too late...before the thirteenth call.

--

Plotwise, I'm really enjoying this story. Plenty of suspense and twists and turns, I can assure you. And my sisters have called it "scary" thus far, which is a new direction for me.

The Thirteenth Call has proved to be a fairly large task, however. The first two Will Vullerman stories were about 6.5k, and The Thirteenth Call is at 8.5k and is likely going to end up somewhere past ten thousand. For this reason, I'm splitting it into two parts. Part One is finished at 6.7k, and Part Two is progressing. I've been procrastinating a lot, though: I need to sit down and finish it!

And that's about it in the writing department. How's writing coming for you all? With school out, you ought to be writing more: and if you aren't, that's not good. If your writing habits have not increased with the onset of summer, I'll send Danton Brownbarr over to deal with you. ;)

What else? Well, Andrew Peterson is awesome, but he has been for some time now. Observe:

--

"What's a snickbuzzard?" Paddy asked.

"I don't know," Lennry said, "but they sound mean."

"Aye," Podo said. "They are. Terrible mean. Razor sharp beaks. Talons like daggers. And the worst part?"

"Yes, yes?" Lennry and Paddy said.

Podo sipped his bean brew and raised a bushy eyebrow. "Bellybutton."

—The Monster In The Hollows, Book Three of the Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson

--

*shudder*

On another note, I've been devouring Sherlock Holmes stories. I've read all three story collections and most of the novellas. They're awesome. I must admit, however, that I wished that Doyle really had ended the stories with Holmes's death. The way Memoirs ended was perfect, poetic, and utterly epic. Moriarty tops my top five villains list.

Chesterton quotes have been swirling around my head again. Sometimes history repeats itself: and in this case, when I reread Chesterton, I repeat quotes I've already said before. Here's some to chew on:

"I am the man who with utmost daring discovered what had been discovered before."

"The whole secret of mysticism is this: that man can understand everything by the help of what he does not understand."

"As we have taken the circle as the symbol of reason and madness, we may very well take the cross as the symbol at once of mystery and of health. Buddhism is centripetal, but Christianity is centrifugal: it breaks out. For the circle is perfect and infinite in its nature; but it is fixed for ever in its size; it can never be larger or smaller. But the cross, though it has at its heart a collision and a contradiction, can extend its for arms for ever without altering its shape. Because it has a paradox in its centre it can grow without changing. The circle returns upon itself and is bound."

"The man who is most likely to ruin the place he loves is exactly the man who loves it with a reason. The man who will improve the place is the man who loves it without a reason."

"We think the cat superior because we have (or most of us have) a particular philosophy to the effect that life is better than death. But if the mouse were a German pessimist mouse, he might not think that the cat had beaten him at all. He might think that he had beaten the cat by getting to the grave first. Or he might feel that he had actually inflicted a frightful punishment on the cat by keeping him alive."

"All that we call spirit and art and ecstasy only means that for one awful instant we remember that we forget."

—all from Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton

I love that last quote especially. :)

And also, we got a monkey. Yes, yes we did. You read that correctly:

We got a monkey.

His name is Bobby.

He's high maintenance.

BUT - all in all a fun pet.

He has orange eyes, brown-grey underfur with yellowy tips and a white nose. And his tail's longer than his body, which is a bit smaller than a full-grown cat. If he's on the ground, you can lean down and extend your arm, and he'll clamber up and make himself comfortable in the crook of your arm.

Bobby also enjoys relieving himself on your shirt, which is not so fun.

But you can't have everything. ^_^

How are you all doing? Any news worth telling me? Any good Christian speculative fiction books coming out soon? What do YOU think of monkeys?

Let me know. :)  

Concerning Short Stories (and Other Random Things)

Greetings, blog followers!  It's been a while, hasn't it?  Summer (at least in America) is just about here, and in west Africa the rainy season has started.  Which makes it hard to get things dry, but at least we get great weather!

Yes, rain is great weather, especially after you've been eating dust for three months.

Progress is coming along slowly with my current novel, Tornado C, but I expect to start writing it in the next week or two, provided that this outline doesn't eat me.  (Outlines are vicious carnivores, I'm telling you.  At least for SOP writers.)

Recently, however, my writing has moved in a new direction.  I wrote a 6.5k short story that I called "In Stasis".  Why is this new?  Well, it's the first work of sci-fi I've written in over two years.  Fantasy is normally my home genre, but I've found that writing sci-fi is a welcome break.  It's a great genre to be writing in!  Since short stories are a relatively short commitment, they are a rather addictive way to dabble in other genres.

The protagonist of In Stasis is an elite agent called Will Vullerman, who is contacted by the government to undertake a secret mission to the off-limits and war-ravaged continent of America.  Right now, I'm working on a sequel to that story, tentatively titled "The Eternity Code".  These may be the first of many Will Vullerman short stories.  I'm hoping to release each story on Kindle for 99 cents: as they say, the best marketing is having a backlist of other titles.  The stories will hopefully appeal to a broader audience and draw in random people who find my stories while browsing the Kindle Store.

And hey, they're not too expensive, either. ;)

And, on a note of randomness, our family received a package from America yesterday.  (It appears to have been soaked in colorful stickers.)  Many fantastic things were contained within this package, so many things that for a while I thought that it might be bigger on the inside.  But it wasn't, unfortunately.

Among this awesomeness was twenty-four packets of Cheez-Its, which I hadn't tasted in six months.  (I'm in cheese heaven.)

But also included was an unbelievable amount of music albums.  There were four Thousand Foot Krutch albums alone, including their brand-new album "The End Is Where We Begin".  I put some of the albums from that package on my Kindle, and my playlist is totaling to almost 200 songs now.  We're so blessed to have such awesome friends!

And now TFK has taken the number one slot on my favorite bands list.  Mwahahaha.

So how have you all been in my absence?  Writing, I hope?  What are you working on now?

Oh, and how many of you are TFK fans? ;)

I'll be back again tomorrow with a scheduled post.  Au revior!