Let’s talk about grammar. Wait! Come back! This will be interesting, I promise. It will involve politics and controversy and barely any pop quizzes. Politics and grammar meet – let’s say clash, because I did promise controversy – in the question of pronouns. There’s an old convention in English that, when the sex of a person…
Shannon’s Blog
Keeping Christmas
Of all the Christmas stories ever told since St. Luke penned the first and true one – of all the books and shows and movies themed to the season, all the Christmas specials – the greatest is Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, a tour de force for the ages. The story’s greatness is made up…
Movie Review: Small One
You’ve all heard of a boy and his dog. This is the story of a boy and his donkey. It’s an old, mangy donkey, tattered ears and scruffy fur, but in his eyes it’s good enough for a king’s stable. He loves it, you see. But his father tells him they must sell it, because…
Even the Best
You have all heard the story of the first Thanksgiving, so there is, thankfully, no reason to go into it here. It was a great story once – maybe it still is – but we have heard it and its reiterations again and again. There is the Religious Version, blessing following tribulation and thanksgiving to…
Beside the Point
Not long ago, I was reading a review of a new album, released by a Christian artist who was known for his edginess and is now, perhaps, over the edge. The reviewer said (here I roughly, but accurately, paraphrase) that he had always liked this artist because he used raw words just to rile up…
Prism Tours: This is not a Werewolf Story
On Tour with Prism Book Tours. Book Blitz for This is Not a Werewolf Story By Sandra Evans This Middle Grade Fantasy is perfect for Halloween! Full of fun and mystery, and set at a boarding school where everything isn’t quite as it seems. Read the excerpt and enter the giveaway below… This is Not…
Through Uncanny Valley
“But in general, take my advice, when you meet anything that is going to be Human and isn’t yet, or used to be Human once and isn’t now, or ought to be Human and isn’t, you keep your eyes on it and feel for your hatchet.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the…
Once Upon A(nother) Time
Once upon a time, in a land far, far away … fairy tales happen. It’s the best place for it, too; anything can happen there. The classic fairy tale opening, like the classic fairy tale ending (happily ever after), is more than form. It is substance, part of what a fairy tale is meant to…
Review: Beauty and the Beast (the Other One)
(Yes, I know: I’m six months late to this party. But that is how long it took them to put the movie on Netflix.) In 1991, Disney released a magnificent version of the classic fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast”. Then they released another version. Disney’s decision to remake Beauty and the Beast as a…
An Unheralded Significance
Show me a person who thinks that the Old Testament is only tales for children, and I will show you a person who hasn’t read the Old Testament. I am not referring principally to the fact that a lot of material in the Old Testament isn’t exactly family-friendly, though that is true. The larger point…