Andrew Peterson’s Counting Stars releases today.

After listening to this record (which I got to do for the first time on Sunday), I wanted to sell my house and buy a copy for every person I’ve ever met.

I haven’t done the math on that (not one of my strengths), but you get the idea. You know something is special when you have an immediate, overwhelming desire to share it with others for their good. And this record is so very good in so many ways.

Counting Stars continues Andrew’s uncanny record of hitting me simultaneously like a new piece of art that astounds, while feeling as familiar as the natural soundtrack to my family’s life.

With each successive song-story you find yourself going deeper into the mystery and magic of the world God made, but it is not always “new” ground. It is only that Andrew can call your attention to what you failed to see before, but might if you try (or stop trying). He is not content to let ordinary be bland, he will say something about magic. Here are songs about loving your wife (or husband), looking in on sleeping kids, planting trees, and hope in the night. All told by a wordsmith who is more like a wizard than an ordinary singer-songwriter.

He offers here a humble tonic against ingratitude. A poem for the glory of ordinary chores. A thin place where the wall between the divine and the plain is tenuous at best.

On this record, as you may guess from the title, Andrew again alludes to Abraham. This is one of my favorite recurring flavors of his musical catalog. He makes us feel like we serve and love the same God that Abraham did, not by diminishing the patriarch, but by putting us in our place –surrounded by the love of that same God.

The Magic Hour is one of the songs on Counting Stars, but it also describes my experience of listening to the entire record.

Get yourself a copy here, so I don’t have to sell my house.

Note: Tonight a 8pm (EST) Andrew will be playing a Counting Stars concert live on the internet. He will be standing on the internet, playing. See about it here.

J.R.R. Tolkien, in a letter to C.A. Furth, Allen

1. The Huchmoot gets some press. They even mention me in this, which is sure to attract zillions.

2. My pal, Loren Eaton, posts about author John Brown’s advice to short story writers who want to be pros. Then Brown himself shows up to comment. Loren is tops.

3. Author Lars Walker, of Brandywine Books, also gets attention from a famous author I’ve never read, Andrew Klavan. The post Klavan picks up featured Lars talking about how his pastor was “outed” by a scummy journo for attending a support group for men with same-sex struggles.

(Buy Lars Walker’s latest novel here.)

4. Mark McGuiness says to do your important, creative work first, then let the madness of everyone else’s expectations hit you. (Instead of waiting till your to-do list is done to start your own, most important, work.)

5. Ever read Garrison Keillor’s thoughts on getting an MFA in Creative Writing? Neat.

6. Does anyone know why Leonardo Day-cap-rio is frequently seen wearing a West Virginia hat? Here he is at the World Cup, sporting the ole’ flying WV. I was watching that game and was amused to see this. Weird. (We continue to be your source for celebrity gossip, wardrobe discussion, all the latest. Right here.)

Fin.

1. Andrew won a Christy Award for writing the very best Young Adult novel in what is known as the Christian market for North, Or Be Eaten! Bravo! Well done. It’s an amazing book, as is its predecessor, On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness. His literary career is on the ascent and well-deserved it is. I love his music, but I think he might end up being a better author at the end of the day.

2. Speaking of his music, his new record is available for pre-order now. Go here to see the various ways you can support AP’s work and support your own ears (and heart) by putting your order in today. I just finished watching the video for “Dancing in the Mine-Field.” Another grown-up love song from AP in the tradition of “Don’t Give Up On Me” and others. Having just gone over the ten year mark with my wife, I was moved once again by AP’s gift for song-craft with deep truth. It’s excellent, and only one of the nifty bonus opportunities available when you pre-order. There’s t-shirts, immediate download of the record now, that video, coffee with himself, and I think a lock of his hair. Check it.

Congrats on the Christy, AP, and the new record.

I’m just waiting for your feature film to hit theaters. Your art exhibit? I hate you because you’re good at everything respect you so much.

Disclaimer: AP’s been very good to me -generous. But I was a fan before that and shall remain so until he crosses me to the end.

Here’s a video his label put together to promote Counting Stars. It’s good. Watch it.

One of my favorite living authors takes on the job of adapting one of my favorite dead (in a manner of speaking, see book) authors’ works. N.D. Wilson is set to adapt C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce for the screen. I am, of course, not sure how it might work, and the Narnia movies (especially the atrocious second film) have been a major disappointment. But if N.D. is on the job, I’m much more interested. His outstanding Notes From the Tilt-a-Whirl is reminiscent in may ways of The Great Divorce. I love that book.

This from Variety (which, as you know, I am constantly quoting)…

“Mpower Pictures (“The Stoning of Soraya M.”) and Beloved Pictures are teaming to co-produce C.S. Lewis’ fantasy novel ‘The Great Divorce.’

Veteran producer and Mpower CEO Steve McEveety will lead the production team. Childrens’ book author N.D. Wilson (‘Leepike Ridge,’ ‘100 Cupboards’) is attached to write.”

Note: CSL’s name for his short book came as a reply to William Blake’s poem, “The Marriage of Heaven and Hell.”

Note the Second: If you buy either of these books here I get a pittance. (Click on the cover image.)

The Once and Future King by T.H. White   1. Wordy 2. Whimsy 3. Humanism

The Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin Jr.   1. Moving 2. Unique 3. Lyrical

UPDATE: There are almost ZERO slots left. Register now, or lose your place forever.

Back-story: The Rabbit Room is a online public house, a website where some Christians (creative types, mostly) meet up and talk about the Story, Story, stories, movies, music, and a bunch of other stuff. It’s supposed to be an Inklings kind of thing (the meet-up for C.S. Lewis, Professor Tolkien and others –but they had a real pub).

The Proprietor of our on-line Rabbit Room is Andrew Peterson (author, singer-songwriter, pro-proprietor). At some point AP asked me to be a part of this thing by contributing a few posts a month. I assume this was to achieve readership among the highly sought after demographic of hillbillies.

Now: AP has long held a desire for the cyberpub to incarnate in brick and mortar. So, while there is no physical RR, there shall be, if God wills, an in-flesh get together of Rabbit Roomers this year.

The get together shall be a retreat/conference type of thing, but since a perfect name could not be agreed upon, Pete Peterson’s working title of “The Hutchmoot” was settled on.

Hutch = A home for rabbits.
Moot = A meet up (like the Entmoot in Tolkien’s LoTR).

So, all that to say this: Why don’t you come and join us? August 6-8. Nashville.

I am actually a bit late in posting this announcement (because I am stoopid) and the thing is getting rather full. So, head over to the Hutchmoot web HQ and see what all the fuss is about.

If you are a hillbilly and care what yours truly is doing there (besides trying to act casual around all the amazing artists) then I’ll be participating in two panel-things. One is on storytelling (because of my millions of books sold –oh, wait) with the a fore-mentioned AP, along with authors Jonathan Rogers, Travis Prinzi, Russ Ramsey, and Pete Peterson. I’ll probably just be fetching sodas and adjusting the air conditioner. The other is called “Strength in Weakness” and is with authors Pete Peterson and Travis Prinzi. I’ll be doing a reading in that one based on the work of Tolkien and the connection of his work with all the bathroom jokes in my writings.

Check out the website.
See the schedule.
Register.
Make travel plans with fellow Hutchmooters here.

I am really looking forward to it, and plan to post more later. Cheers!

Alan Jacobs, the fine author of The Narnian, on the theme of the 7 Narnia books.

“Lewis once suggested that literary critics are, and have always been, neglectful of ‘Story considered in itself’. They have been so focused on themes and images and ideological commitments that they have failed to notice the thing that decisively differentiates stories from articles or treatises. If we then try to consider the seven Narnia stories as a single story, what is that story about? I contend that the best answer is disputed sovereignty. More than any other single thing, the story of Narnia concerns an unacknowledged but true King and the efforts of his loyalists to reclaim or protect his throne from would-be usurpers.”

HT: Justin Taylor

As I write, I just received word that my editor at West Virginia South, Audrey Stanton, has resigned. She has been on maternity leave and plans to spend more time with her newborn son and her other, young boy. She will continue to contribute to the magazine as a writer, but won’t be the editor any longer. I am very happy for her and am always happy to see children get that special love and attention. I would never say anything against that. But for my own, selfish purposes it’s kind of bittersweet.

Audrey was a great editor, and her acceptance and promotion of my work was a major point of encouragement in my life as a writer. She was enthusiastic about The Fledge Chronicles from my first pitch and has been at the helm for 14 months as each issue has featured one of my stories.

I will never forget that she is the person who is responsible for my first experience of publication. Unless I get amnesia, real bad.

I have mentioned her in posts here (where I tell how The Fledge Chronicles came about), here, and elsewhere.

I can’t thank Audrey enough. She has been used by God for my family’s good over the last year+, and I will certainly miss working with her (in that capacity).

She not only published my stories, but consistently expressed her enjoyment with them. She has been a big encouragement and a generally amazing person to work for/with.

So a hearty thanks to Audrey, and all the best as she treks through this next opportunity.

The interim editor is on the ball, and I do expect the magazine to continue (and, I hope, me with it).

But today I have taken a picture of my travelling companions and shall shew it forth to thee.

I love audiobooks (if I were a teenager I would add  a LOT of exclamation points here).

I buy some, borrow some from various libraries and some I steal (one of those is not true). Here’s what’s riding shotgun with me right now. (I write this ) As if you care!

Do you like audiobooks? Whatcha listenin’ to now?