Category: CSFF Blog Tour
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The Enclave: CSFF Blog Tour
Books–stories themselves–come in so many shades and textures and ways. Some books are lush, gorgeous, enriching. Some are dense but necessary. Some, like The Enclave by Karen Hancock, are just plain riveting. It took me all of about two chapters to be sucked thoroughly into The Enclave, guessing at its mysteries, marveling at its setting,…
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A Review – Vanish (Day 2)
Conner Hayden: divorced lawyer struggling to relate to his teenaged daughter. Mitch Kent: tattooed mechanic on the eve of proposing to his girlfriend. Helen Krause: aging career woman and lonely ex-model. Three people with nothing in common — except that each is hiding a secret. Thunder rumbled louder now, low and sustained. Flashes of lightning…
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Vanish: CSFF Blog Tour
Over dinner recently my cousins and I got into a discussion about why anyone would read a book twice. One declared that she has never done so: “You read books to find out what happens, and once you know what happens, there’s no point in reading it again.” Others disagreed, including me, and the whole…
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The Unpredictable Power of Prayer – Tuck (Day 3)
On Monday I promised to wrap up the CSFF tour for Stephen R. Lawhead’s Tuck by writing about "Deux ex machina , highly improbable happy endings, and the marvelous, unpredictable power of prayer." It is very late now, and I’m typing in the dark at the end of a long day that ran away with…
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A Review – Tuck (Day 2)
What we know now as legend, old and familiar as the dusty books we read as children, began in the dark distance of the past as something else—as some truth we’ve changed until we remember things that never were and forget those that really happened. For every legend we love, another story lies buried somewhere,…
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Tuck – CSFF Blog Tour
As a writer, I’m commonly asked who my influences are. And ever since I was pulled heart over heels into The Paradise War , oh, many years ago now, I’ve named as chief among them Stephen R. Lawhead. In setting, in mood, in battle scenes, and in a sort of mythic vision of Christianity, he…
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Heroes: A Wrap-Up — and Coming Next Week
Thanks to another great CSFF Blog Tour, it’s been a fascinating week around this blog. As I reviewed Blaggard’s Moon , I found myself faced with many things I could have said. I thought about writing on heroes — what they are in real life, what they are (and perhaps should be) in fiction. Blaggard’s…
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The Relevance of Pirates – Blaggard’s Moon (Day 3)
Delaney spoke directly to the boy. “Dallis, son, this here’s Conch Imbry, and he’s a great pirate captain. Says he’ll save ye from the Cabeebs if ye’ll turn pirate right now. Otherwise — see that man with the gun there? Well, he’s gonna shoot ye dead. So now, son, ye got to decide whether to…
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A Review – Blaggard’s Moon (Day 2)
There are moments in our lives that change everything. Forks in the road. Accidents. Love at first sight. Death. Yup, that one changes everything. Forever. A lot of the time we don’t see those moments coming. Especially the last one. But Smith Delaney, the marooned pirate whose post-sitting ruminations open Blaggard’s Moon, can see Death…
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Blaggard’s Moon: CSFF Blog Tour
As I settle back in a leather-cushioned library chair, looking out the window at the traffic passing through the rain, I find myself thinking on many things. On books, which surround me here. On life, which of late has been challenging and exciting and even tragic. On pirates. I have to think on pirates, because…