Thoughts on the Phantom Menace

   New Star Wars is out. And, as any fan does, I watched a few of the earlier Star Wars films in preparation. As a child of the 90's, I have a particular fondness for the Prequels. So I started with The Phantom Menace. Sadly, it's not as good as I want it to be, or even as I remember it being. I've been mulling over it since, and I decided I need to get my thoughts out rather than allow them to stew in my head. So here I go.

   

Black Friday Book Sale

Like most other bookworms, great books make their way onto my "things I'm thankful for" list every year. It's hard to choose favorites, but I went ahead and picked five books I read in 2015 and am thankful for.

1. The Writer's Art by James J. Kilpatrick. This is a great book for those who wish to learn how to write better, or even just those who want to appreciate writing more.
2. A Little Exercise for Young Theologians by Helmut Thielicke. This is a great introduction to theology, covering the reasons for studying theology as well as the pitfalls that theologians may fall into. Great book.
3. Ancient Word, Changing Worlds by Stephen Nichols and Eric Brandt. This is a great book covering the history of views on Biblical Inspiration, Inerrancy, and Interpretation. 
4. The Lost World of Genesis 1 by John Walton. This is a great book for showing that Genesis 1 can be interpreted literally and still not lead to a Young Earth Creationist view. Great book.
5. The Authoritative Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson. This is technically a compilation of Calvin and Hobbes comics, but this is still a great book. Philosophical, funny, insightful, this has it all. Great book.

I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to another great year of reading! Speaking of more reading, here's one more thing to be grateful for. Books on sale! In honor of Thanksgiving and Black Friday, a group of independent Christian authors banded together to offer over seventy discounted books on Nov 27-30. There's literally something for everyone. Every single book listed on Indie Christian Books is on sale in one or more ways. Find discounted paperbacks, dozens of books offered with free shipping, $0.99 ebooks, package deals and more. Even if you have a budget of $0, new reading material awaits you. Don't know what to pick? The fearless Indie Christian Books team created a quiz that will generate a book list perfect for you! Check it out!
  What awesome reads of 2015 are you grateful for? What books are you looking forward to reading in 2016?

A note on the Ebooks Only page. All books are listed as "Sold Out." This only refers to paperback copies of these titles. Please click onto the product pages to find descriptions and links to discounted or free ebooks.

Acknowledgements: Thanks to Leah E. Good for her work organizing this sale, Gloria Repp for completing the time consuming job of uploading book info to the sale website, and Hannah Mills for her fantastic design work on the website graphics. Hannah can be contacted at hmills(at)omorecollege(dot)edu for more information about her design services.

Dear Christian Writers

 The other day, I watched Dear White People. I loved it. It had a good story, explored a theme, and had characters that I could invest in. After I watched it, I realized this film was quite similar to God's Not Dead. Except good. So, as I thought over the similarities and differences between the two, I picked out a few lessons that Christian writers can take from Dear White People to tell better stories.

College Life

   College has started. I said last week it hadn't started yet. Now it has. It's a bit worse and not quite as bad as I thought it would be. However, there is a lot of work required. Lots of writing and reading and pulling out my hair. So, this blog post is late. And I really don't have a lot of time to write stuff, so I'm just going to give a link and hope that I have something more substantive to give for next week. (But that doesn't mean you should leave.)
   

Learning to Learn

It has started.

The Writer's Kiss

   I've been reading recently. I guess that shouldn't be a surprise: a writer must always be reading in order to keep sharp. But most of the time I'm reading fiction, investigating how others tell stories that I might better tell my own. Though, I must admit, sometimes I read merely as a means of entertaining myself. The difference the current reading holds is that I am reading a book about writing: The Writer's Art by James J. Kilpatrick. It's a wonderful book; humorous and educational. I've learned a lot. One of the first points Kilpatrick makes is that writers need to be clear when they write. They should cut unneeded words and simplify any wordiness. This reminded me of the KISS acronym: Keep It Simple, Stupid.
   

Interview with J. Grace Pennington

   Today I have an author interview! I haven't done one of these in a long time and I hope to do more of them in the future. Grace is having a blog tour for her upcoming book Implant and she graciously agreed to an interview to help promote the book.
   First, a bit of background: J. Grace Pennington has been reading stories as long as she can remember, and writing them almost as long. She is also a prolific medical transcriptionist, amateur musician, chocolate eater, daughter, sister, friend, and laundry folder. She lives in Texas, and if she was part of the Implant society, her role in the rebellion would probably be monitoring current events and correspondence in the computer center.
   Now, on to the interview!