Finding Time to Write

I’ve entertained a lot of questions while hosting my writing workshop and participating in author’s panels. A lot of folks ask this one, “How do you find time to write?”

Bookbub recently posted an interview with an author whose advice echoes my own, and it’s certainly worth revisiting if you’ve ever had times when it finding moments to write seems impossible.

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Review: Armor of Alethia

Ralene Burke’s Armor of Alethia is a great example of faith-based high fantasy. Burke’s primary protagonist, Karina, is relatable in many ways and the storytelling and pacing are on point. As Karina begins to discover more and more about who she is, her fixation on the nearby mountain and her high calling/destiny become more focused.

State of Writing

I do have several book reviews in my hopper and I hope to get to them in December, when I return, but I fully intend to take pause from my blog in November to concentrate on a nanowrimo project… it might be particularly challenging since I have every intention of first finishing my current scifi project (Spawn of Ganymede) and then launching directly into it!

If you’ve followed me at all (or especially if you know me personally), you know how prone I am to multitasking and spinning a few too many plates at any given time. I’m going to take a month-long hiatus from the blog all November long… so check back in December—hopefully I have awesome things to talk about with a new manuscript! (and there are still two more scheduled blog posts to come, in the meanwhile.)

Christians, Fantasy/SF, and a Culture of Fear

Halloween is coming and so I thought it would be appropriate to post my Stranger Things themed article. I know that I usually post articles on Wednesday that deal with writing advice… but if you write or read Christian SF/F/H then this article will be relevant.

In 1982, High Fantasy=Satanism… in 2016, Christians embraced themes from Stranger Things: did we escaped the Upside Down or dive in fully?

Review: Nerdvotional

 

Nerdvotional was one of those interesting-concept Christian devo books that instantly grabbed me. I met author Kyle Hopson at an event where he was selling them and had to take it home.

Using pieces from pop culture (and especially nerd culture, by whatever metric you wish to use,) Hopson intertwines everything from Ghostbusters references to Power Rangers to The Legend of Zelda to explain scriptural truths I easily digestible nuggets.

State of Writing

I’m about 14,000 words deep into my next SF installment. I intend to write at least 7,000 more to complete it. If I can do that this week, I’d be pretty stoked. I did remember that I need to continue recording the audio for Wolf of the Tesseract 2. Maybe next week… this weekend I’ll be at Crypticon MPLS slinging books.

I’d very much like to outline what might be the most mainstream book idea I’ve been excited about. It involves Jack Churchill, Nazi mad scientists, and modern suburbia. We’ll see. It might be one of those ideas I don’t get to for years, but I wrote notes (Nanowrimo maybe?)

Look For Criticism to Make Your Book Sellable

I say it a lot, but every writer needs to give someone permission to be critical of his or her work. Writers cannot see the weak spots in their own material. Author friend Jeff Vorwald of Canvas Skies says he tries to get feedback on his manuscripts from people that don’t necessarily care for him (or want to spare his feelings.)

The Marketing Christian Books blog is one of those blogs I recommend everybody follows. It’s written by folks who aggressively chase their authorpreneurial dreams. I’ve linked an article that every author ought to read, and it’s along the lines of my regular advice.

New Issue of Lorehaven

I want to draw attention to another free read this week. This one is a magazine that I’ve been a supporter of since the beginning. Lorehaven is a quarterly publication for faith-based speculative fiction. Lorehaven is the magazine side that has tons of “flash reviews” on Christian speculative fiction (SF/F/H genre stories) and SpecFaith is their growing, online collection of articles that discuss the intersection of faith and fantasy. (Here is an article that I wrote.)

 

Lorehaven serves Christian fans by finding biblical truth in fantastic stories. Book clubs, free webzines, and a web-based community offer flash reviews, articles, and news about Christian fantasy, science fiction, and other fantastical genres.

You should totally check out their most recent issue here: http://lorehaven.com/lorehaven-magazine/ I highly recommend this and encourage readers to check out their reading groups, as well.

State of Writing

I had a big week… and not just because of all of the huge things happening in my work life, but rather in spite of it! Crazy busy, and yet, I found pockets of time to write (during which I was very focused: I’d sit down, write a scene, close my laptop, and then head to work, etc.)

I think I wrote probably 5,000-8,000 words or more last week. Some computer issues arose, even, and my Scrivener crashed… luckily I remembered reading some posts about the auto backup feature and I I recovered 1500 lost words in just a few minutes.

Mainly, I worked on the new Dekker’s Dozen story, which is coming along wonderfully. It’s a little more mystery/intrigue than the previous ones and I’m enjoying the layers of a story like that and even surprised myself with little things that developed as I wrote some scenes. (and those moments are what makes writing so much fun!)

More to come… I’d like to have Dekker’s Dozen: Spawn of Ganymede at 75% complete by the weekend. I think that goal is achievable.

Is Dreame Publishers (also known as Ficfun and Stary LTD.) a Scam?

My name is Chris… and I’m not famous. A publisher recently contacted because they found my book online and want to offer me a contract… should I take it?

…my advice? Run away. Probably.