I am, in the abstract, in favor of fandoms. Star Wars, Star Trek, Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Marvel, Disney, Pixar, and a thousand others – why not? They’re diverting and human and, on occasion, profound. In the concrete, I have adopted a few of my own and gotten uncounted hours of enjoyment out of…
Shannon’s Blog
The Arc and the Epilogue
In the beginning, Pixar made Toy Story, and it was good. Then Pixar made Toy Story 2, and it was very good. And Pixar made Toy Story 3, and it was good enough until the last twenty minutes, when it became very good. And Pixar said, “Let us make sequels, for therein lies boatloads of…
A Broadened Horizon
Recently I started getting into Marvel movies. (Yes, I know. Next decade I’m going to discover video streaming services. You’ll want to be around then.) I had been aware of them for years, like everyone else on the planet, and I had even been induced to watch a few. They were very close to me,…
One Conception From Another
The Bible makes repeated mention of magic and witches, usually in unsparing terms. We know well the scriptural opprobrium against witches; we are in danger of forgetting the scriptural idea of witches. We all have an idea of what a witch is, but the idea is almost unavoidably an amalgam. We piece it together of…
A Vulnerable Technique
When you had to write in school, you were probably placed under certain all-encompassing bans. “Never use the first-person” is a perennial favorite among teachers. I once had a respected professor who instructed students not to use semicolons. Now, the semicolon is a perfectly legitimate punctuation mark and has been put to many venerable uses….
Once Upon a Future Time
Full of far off worlds and wonders close at home. They’ll span the breadth of space and time. The Kickstarter for Once Upon a Future Time, Vol. 2 has opened! This anthology contains eleven authors and over 400 pages of classic fairy tales retold as science fiction. Among the rest is my own “Jack and…
Art Under Negotiation
One of the purposes of this site is to explore the meeting of Christianity with culture broadly, and with art particularly, whether that meeting is synthesis, negotiation, or conflict. That exploration grows more and more relevant as our society transforms into a post-Christian culture. Still, the meeting of Christianity and art is as old as…
The Last Impossibility
Death is the great universal fact of life, as universal as birth. It rings down the curtain on every human play, sends everyone home in the end. We all know this; we are all overshadowed by what G.K. Chesterton called the last impossibility. It’s curious that we don’t take death more seriously than we do….
‘Hidden Histories’ Is Out!
Hidden Histories is out! This anthology of speculative fiction tells stories of history altered, forgotten, and misreported. Among the rest is my own short story “The Fulcrum.” In “The Fulcrum,” the military – having expended its pound of cure – turns to the ounce of prevention, and launches a time-travel operation to ensure that the…
Grand Finale Blitz: Through the White Wood
On Tour with Prism Book Tours Book Tour Grand Finale for Through the White Wood By Jessica Leake We hope you enjoyed the tour! If you missed any of the stops you’ll find snippets, as well as the link to each full post, below: Launch – Note from the Author Hi everyone! I am so…