I place before you here a short discussion by childrens author N.D. Wilson and his father, (author, pastor) Doug Wilson, on a subject close to my heart. Is it appropriate for Christians to appreciate the use of magic in stories? Yes, if you want to read the Bible. But not so fast, what about the idea of authority? Some useful, worthwhile thoughts.

Ask Doug – Magic in Literature from Daniel Foucachon on Vimeo.

Here’s the video for those on Facebook if it doesn’t show up.

“In short, I think there are powers and mysteries at work in the world that can only be expressed through fairy tales. Fairy tales allow us to cast nets into mystery and catch things that are otherwise inexpressible. Tolkien said that fairy tales can give us a glimpse of our eventual redemption in a way no other story can.

At its best, fantasy provides us with an escape from the narrow, restrictive perspectives of modernism. And with its emphasis on the primal, it returns us to engagement with the elements, with the stuff of rocks and trees and fire and rivers and mountains. Since those elements of creation “pour forth speech,” according to the Psalmist, we’re able to hear some things more clearly when we meditate there.

But fantasy can be destructive, too. I’ve seen people who are dissatisfied with their lives attracted to the violence, to sorcery, to the ideas of tremendous power that are celebrated in some fantasy stories. I’ve watched people become severely irresponsible, abandoning engagement with their own world in order to indulge in fantasy role-playing games or non-stop fantasy media. Fantasy is dangerous territory and it demands discernment.”

Jeffrey Overstreet

From this excellent interview, by Jenni Simmons, with this outstanding author.

Raven’s Ladder releases today! Go here to buy this book. I loved it, for what it’s worth.

Note: If you haven’t read the first two books, Auralia’s Colors, and Cyndere’s Midnight, get them first.

It is no secret to people close to me (like my wife, brothers, and football legend Pat White) that my favorite book of the Bible is Ecclesiastes.

In my experience it is also one of the most consistently misunderstood and ill-preached (an actual term?) of any book in the Bible. Not that I have it all figured out. Show me that man who gets it all, I would like to shake his hand and listen to him talk for days.

My dad has taught the book with great clarity and understanding. But, sadly, he hasn’t written a book about it.

Lacking that, Doug Wilson’s book , Joy at the End of the Tether, is the very best book I have read on Ecclesiastes. I recommend it with a muchness.

Here, in a short video, Wilson talks a little about it.

“Joy at the end of the tether” – Conversations with Doug Wilson from Daniel Foucachon on Vimeo.

Probably not, but here it is anyway. I guess this is the most memorable for how deeply connected to it I feel, and how true it is (in the story, and in reality). This from Theophilus Msimangu, a beautiful character from a lovely book.

“I am a weak and sinful man, but God put His hands on me.”

Alan Paton, Cry, The Beloved Country

Note: Previously posted at the Rabbit Room.

As a reader of books who also writes, I often feel a distinct, conflicting emotion when I read great books written by great writers. There is the delight, of course. Here is a person made by God doing something beautiful.

Then there is the (often very slight) tinge of despair as I recognize I could never do this. This is less pointed when the genre and style are out of my own vein of writing (such as Patrick O’Brian’s books, which are, for me, an unmixed joy I hardly experience in any other fiction).

I have written before on, and firmly believe in, the well-worn wisdom that it’s no use in copying others, or feeling bad about how you compare. It’s best to find your own voice and write what only you can.

But still that feeling comes. “Am I kidding myself? I can’t write like this. This is art. This is compelling.”

I guess part of it is simple envy, ordinary coveting. This of course, like all sin, must be rejected.

I want, rather, to be the kind of man who says in his heart, like Robin Hood to Little John in the Errol Flynn film, “I love a man who can better me.”

This runs quite counter to the self-important manure which passes for a philosophy of life for many in our envy-based culture.

May it not be so in us.

Literary Agent Steve Laube talks about the hyped-up notion that “print is dead.” In movies agents end up behind enemy lines, often wounded, spying, wisecracking, and listening for details of what is happening. So, reliability and all that. 

Laube argues that, while things are definitely changing, the notion that print books are over with is silly. He employs all caps, which I assume he doesn’t like to see in proposals.

“I see the royalty statements. I know exactly how many digital versions of my client’s books are being sold. And while there are a lot more sold than there were two years ago (of course there would be) the volume is still less than 1% of the print version sold. LESS THAN ONE PERCENT.”

He even notes that CD sales are still strong, even though digital music is (obviously) popular and growing more so. I know we’re all trying to figure out what kind of relationship there is between what has happened/is happening to the music business and book publishing. His article is informative on that front. Read it here.

Bottom line: printed books are alive and well, and will be for at least a while. To that I say, “Yay,” and “Pip, pip!” And, lastly, “Tally ho.”

OK, may have overdone that.

Here’s a picture of a Kindle being made. Oddly enough, they are manufactured using very old printing presses. That is also, in fact, where they get their name: Kindle. The fellow what operates the press is named “Kindle B. Rhinelander.” He has, it might surprise you to learn, a mustache.

Do you think printed books are on the way out? If so, do you care one way or the other? Do you like money?

“These days, you need to deliver not just the manuscript but the audience.”

Jim Levine

This informed quote was snagged from Rachel Gardner’s post about how authors need a platform. I haven’t really talked about the idea of platform much here. But this blog is, in fact, part of my efforts to “build a platform” (among other things, of course).

A “platform,” for those who haven’t heard the term, is all the ways that an author has connected with an audience and stays connected with that audience. Literally, I guess it’s kind of like being in front of people, or before them, or visible in some way. Or it might be about forming plats. Not sure.

The relevant point being that the smaller your platform is the more risk the publisher has to take on you. The larger your platform the less risky it is for the publisher to publish your book. They see that there’s an audience there.

This is a big reason why authors maintain blogs, Facebook pages (fan or otherwise), Twitter accounts, send random people money, and connect with their audience in various other ways.

I used to view this kind of thinking as manipulative and vain. But I have changed my mind a lot on that front. I now see the value of being knowable, accessible, of serving your readers by helping them connect to you. Of course this is an enormous benefit for the author on many fronts.

I don’t know how a publisher would quantify the value of my own platform as an author. I would say that it has certainly grown considerably over the last year, or year and a half (corresponding to when I began to make efforts that direction). I have put some effort in on that front and have gone from being virtually unknown, to having a fairly good-sized group that I feel connected with (on various levels).

I have enjoyed connecting with so many people, from the Rabbit Roomers to old South African friends on Facebook.

It used to be that you were VERY limited on options for connecting to an audience. That has changed dramatically. I am thankful for these opportunities, and I hope to use them for good and not evil. Much like my use of that magic pot of beans I found in a unicorn’s cave.

Is this West Virginian in my audience? One hopes.

I have been delighted to learn that one can procure soon-to-be-released books if one is paying attention here and there. I have had this chance on a few occasions, starting with Andrew Peterson’s first novel and then with some others including N.D. Wilson, Jose Conseco, and Jeffrey Overstreet. OK, I made that Conseco part up.

But on one occasion, namely on the occasion of Jeffrey Overstreet’s soon-to-be-released novel Raven’s Ladder, I had a chance to write a “blurb.” If you are confused as to what a blurb is, it is the thing that J.I Packer does. It’s an endorsement, like the stereotypical “Ebert raves, ten thumbs vertical!” That kind of thing.

I have no idea why anyone would want a blurb from me, but I volunteered for it in this case and got my advance copy (not even the real book yet) of Raven’s Ladder.

Side note: The book was, as were the other books in the series, excellent.

Like an idiot I actually forgot the deadline when the publisher wanted the blurb back. I was at a conference and was not in a literary mode at all. But as I gasped and remembered the deadline, I went to my computer and hammered out a hasty paragraph on why I think the book is special (and it is). It took a few minutes, but I had nowhere near the time I wished for, and then sent it off.

I won’t say I’m completely embarrassed by what I wrote. But I did, as is often the case (see this blog, etc.), later find many irritating bits of the blurb that I sincerely wish I could have had another crack at.

Have you ever done that kind of thing?

Anyway, I don’t know if the endorsement will appear in the actual book, or not. But it’s on this website and on this one.

Go read it and make fun of me. Perhaps you could overuse a few words when you make fun of me. I “fully” understand.

Also, pre-order the book.

OK, since everyone is legally required to do these things, I will comply.

In no particular order –and in no way does this constitute the kind of reflection one ought to engage in– in 2009:

1. I won’t share much of my family life, as is my general custom*, but my wife Gina and I welcomed our third child (somehow not named Ender) and second son into our home. He has been a lot of fun –chief among God’s gifts to us this year. He looks like his mother, but still maintains a masculine aspect.

2. I was privileged to be published in each issue of West Virginia South (The Fledge Chronicles serial) in 2009. This was a real blessing, and allowed me the chance to work with a great editor in Audrey Stanton-Smith. She has been a believer in this series from the start.

In those Fledge stories I was able to work with three neato artists/illustrators:

Rex Queems     Ted Williams (my childhood chum)     Zach Franzen (who’s illustration will appear in February’s issue –I’m stoked)

3. I signed a contract with a literary agency, Eames Literary. Surprisingly, they also signed it. I am hopeful that this will lead to good things. If nothing else, it affords me with many awkward and unavoidable opportunities to try to say “My agent…” in a sentence without sounding like a big, self-important jerk.

4. I was pleased to be a finalist for the West Virginia Fiction Award, in which competition I was defeated soundly in the final round.

5. I won my fantasy football championship for the second time ever. Most of this was done without watching more than five minutes here and there of any games. You can be impressed.

6. I had a poem, called “The In-Between,” published in a regional arts journal called Holler. The poem references the “scattered bodies, once-homes, for souls of nicotine” and also some Frenchie named Napoleon. There is nothing about fantasy football in the poem.

7. I was happy to have a hand in bringing Eric Peters, one of my favorite singer/songwriters, into our area of the country for a concert (w/ LeeAnn Sharp). He is swell. It was a great time. He, unlike most of his cronies, actually is a man and loves football.

8. I copied and pasted a lot of quotes and called it “blogging.” I did this because 1) I liked them and thought you might as well, 2) They saved me (and you) from my drivel.

9. Andrew Peterson wrote a blurb for me which I couldn’t use because in it he said he’d never met me, but in fact he has (twice) and didn’t remember (shocking? No) and it would be weird if people read that and then found it was a lie…a LIE! <—Nacho L. reference in honor of my brother, Will Smith. <—-Not a lie.

10. I went further bald. <—- Excellent writing.

This picture proves that a) I am actually two-faced, or b) I move around a lot when teaching the kids.

11. I was defeated by my brother, Josiah, at our Independence Day Cricket Extravaganza. I was bowled clean not a few times.

12. I read some good books, including these which come to mind at the moment (I should probably actually write down the books I read):

Auralia’s Colors

Cyndere’s Midnight

Raven’s Ladder

North, Or Be Eaten

Fitzpatrick’s War

Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl

A House for My Name

The Narnian

Jack: The Life of C.S. Lewis

J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography

A Primer on Worship and Reformation

Is Christianity Good for the World

ESV Study Bible

Patrick O’Brian (Desolation Island, and another one, or two)

PG Wodehouse (a few of his –I can’t remember the names)

A Bunch o’ Sherlock Holmes (reread)

Ender in Exile

Cry, the Beloved Country

No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

The Yiddish Policeman’s Union

The Wilderking Trilogy

Godric

Florence of Arabia

When Helping Hurts

The Meaning of the Pentateuch

Jaybor Crow

Lord Dunsaney’s Collection

An Intro to Biblical Theology

Most of them were good.  

13. My Bible reading was focused mainly in Genesis, Exodus, Matthew, James, Ephesians, and my favorite, Ecclesiastes.

OK, so those things happened, and some other things. Now you know.

* Note on item #1 (above). The reasons I don’t are many, but it includes the fact that that stuff is usually not as interesting to others as it seems to the person sharing. We have a private blog for that stuff and we just share it with our family/very close friends. But please know that family is central in my life, it really defines who I am in most ways. This kind of demonstrates how limited blogs usually are (and certainly are in my case) for getting to know the person behind them. Blogs, as we all know, are about copying and pasting smart-sounding quotes.

O MY GOD,

Thou fairest, greatest, first of all objects,
my heart admires, adores, loves thee,
for my little vessel is as full as it can be,
and I would pour out all that fullness before thee in ceaseless flow.

When I think upon and converse with thee ten thousand delightful thoughts spring up,
ten thousand sources of pleasure are unsealed,
ten thousand refreshing joys spread over my heart,
crowding every moment of happiness.

I bless thee for the soul thou hast created,
for adorning it,
sanctifying it,
though it is fixed in barren soil;
for the body thou hast given me,
for preserving its strength and vigor,
for providing senses to enjoy delights,
for the ease of freedom of my limbs,
for hands, eyes, ears that do thy bidding;
for thy royal bounty providing my daily support,
for a full table and overflowing cup,
for appetite, taste, sweetness,
for social joys of relatives and friends,
for ability to serve others,
for a heart that feels sorrows and necessities,
for a mind to care for my fellow-men,
for opportunities of spreading happiness around,
for loved ones in the joys of heaven,
for my own expectation of seeing thee clearly.

I love thee above the powers of language to express, for what thou art to thy creatures.

Increase my love, O my God, through time and eternity.

from Valley of Vision by Arthur G. Bennett