Find yourself in a better story
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Trusting God for Finances
Remember the “Work, For I Am With You” article I wrote a while back? It shared a lesson I learned last spring about trusting God for my income, and the subsequent slashing of my student roster: I went home simultaneously buoyed and subdued. I knew God might allow things to get worse before they got…
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Revisions and the Joy of Allegory
Today I plan to start revisions on The Advent. Step 1 is reading through the manuscript as it stands. This is always an interesting venture. I haven’t looked at it since I finished the first draft back in early December, and I have a short memory when it comes to my own writing. I also…
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Sick in the New Year
I planned to spend the new year in a sort of glowing rhapsody, resting, enjoying family over the holidays, eating Christmas cookies and reading novels. I planned to be refreshed, excited about the wonderful things to come. I planned to file the last of 2009’s receipts, lay out my goals and plans for the new…
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Happy New Year
(I am terrible at titles. I realize this post should have a more original one, but who can think up good titles at quarter to 2 in the morning?) So here we are, the end of one year, the start of another — more significantly, perhaps, the end of one decade, the start of another.…
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Reasons and Reasons for Hope and for Happiness
Amy Carmichael, on a picture of the Alps — a pine-filled slope leading to a misty valley, with mountains beyond and clouds edged with light. I see in this valley and mountain a general view of our years. We stand, when we are young, on the sunny slope among the pines, and look across an…
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Christmas Children
Luke 1 is one of my favourite scriptures. Far less famous than Luke 2 (“And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus” — you know the one), the entire chapter is potent with the intervention of God. Praise, prophecy, and the workings of the impossible —…
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Haunt of Jackals: The Conversation Continues
Last week when I blogged on Haunt of Jackals for the CSFF Blog Tour, I was hoping to stir up conversation. Well, thanks to everyone who jumped in with many different viewpoints, conversation has been stirred! In fact, Eric Wilson, the author of Haunt, was gracious enough to offer a response of his own. If…
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God in Fiction (Haunt of Jackals, Day 3)
As my review made clear yesterday, I was bothered by the representation of Christ in Haunt of Jackals. In some ways I found it more pagan than Christian. But that brings me back to a question I’ve asked myself a thousand times since I began writing: how can we faithfully represent God in fiction? As…
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A Review: Haunt of Jackals (Day 2)
April 2000–Zalmoxis Cave, Romania She was free, for now. The first step . . . With dagger in hand, Gina Lazarescu faced the cave opening where the sounds of scuffing feet seemed to mark the presence of another. A Collector? One of Jerusalem’s Undead? Bleeding, she stood still and waited. Haunt of Jackals opens where…
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Haunt of Jackals: CSFF Blog Tour
Kudos to Eric Wilson: he is a brave man. Since I put Worlds Unseen into the world, I’ve learned that reviews are a mixed bag. You’ll get good ones. You’ll get bad ones. Often you’ll get mixed reviews, because very few people will share the exact vision you had for your story or will feel…