Last week, I dug out my ten-year-old, hand-drawn map of the world of The Unremarkable Squire. The book takes place on the Isle, which is split into 40 nations after the Splitting of Rael (see footnote). I have a decent map of those 40 nations, in pencil. The book’s plot takes…
Archive for Thoughts – Page 3
I’ve been fascinated with clock towers in stories for a long time. It started with Puss ‘n Boots Travels Around The World, a cartoon no one has seen but which is the first film to leave a deep impression on me. Based loosely on Around the World in 80 Days, the…
While on a roadtrip to North Carolina this week, I had both the time and inspiration to pound out “The Butterfly.” While writing it, I noticed that the style, particularly the way I approached descriptions, was influenced by the Bradbury I’ve been reading pretty consistently for the last months. Ray…
You may have heard about this new fantasy novel, The Unremarkable Squire, everyone (okay, me) keeps talking about. And you’re probably wondering, Who is this unremarkable squire and why do I care about him if he’s so unremarkable? Let me introduce you to Obed Kainos, a young man with no particular dreams…
Two weeks ago, I was at the Momentum Youth Conference with a dozen youth. This year’s theme was “I Am Second,” or to put it in the words of John the Baptist, “He must become greater; I must become less” (John 3:30). I have at least one selfish way I…
This is the first of what I hope to be a number of blogs about the experience of promoting The Unremarkable Squire. I’m not a natural promoter, by any means, but I figure I can at least write about it as I go along. Last week, I found a big,…
“I would not have known him, except the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’” -John 1:33 It always interests me that the way Jesus went…
I’ve spent the last week looking over galleys of my novel, The Unremarkable Squire. This stage of publication is a strange one for me. First, I start over-analyzing all my sentences. Is this really the best word here? (Never mind I’ve asked the same question a half-dozen times over as many previous…
Well, this has been a sad, sad website lately. Poor, neglected website…forgive me? The trick with keeping up this website is that I have lots of other commitments that are more pressing than entertaining some fictitious audience. (Wait, what? Real people read this? Really? Well, then.) But it’s summer now….
I don’t like abridged books. Yes, I understand the unabridged Les Miserables is nearly 1500 pages, and Victor Hugo spends 50+ pages setting up the Bishop who gives Jean Valjean the candlesticks–a scene the movie/play does in 5 minutes flat. Yes, I understand Leviticus is strange and long and full of skin…
As I was teaching the fine art of interviewing and newswriting to my middle school students, I had them mock interview me about my upcoming book The Unremarkable Squire. One of the students asked an interesting question: “Why isn’t the book about the knight instead of the squire?” That question, in…
I recently read Ray Bradbury’s The Illustrated Man, a collection of 19 short stories written as only Bradbury can write them. I thought I’d share some of the lessons I learned, in no particular order. Space is full of wonder, and Mars is Fairie-Land. Space isn’t full of balls of gas…
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