Celtic poem from 10th century Ireland: I would like to have the men of Heaven In my own house: With vats of good cheer laid out for them. I would like to have the three Marys, Their fame is so great. I would like people From every corner of Heaven. I would like them to [...]

I posted the following on Facebook Sunday morning, left for church, and when I returned, was a little surprised by some of the reactions. I’ve been wrapping up my current non-fiction project and this was a summary of the section I was polishing: Being able to go to ANY church prevents us from growing in [...]

The list of cool monsters found in literature is quite extensive: Frankenstein, Dracula, Medusa, Grendel, the Balrog, Cyclops, and the list goes on. One of my favorite recent reads was Rick Yancey’s The Monstrumologist. The horrific centerpiece of the tale is a mythical monster come to life in Victorian Times — an Anthropophagi. We’re introduced [...]

I was interested in reading a certain novel… until the fake reviews started rolling in. Sure, maybe I’m overreacting. I mean, everybody’s doing it, right? Authors know how important “good reviews” are. And when you can pay for people to shill for your novel, what’s the big deal? Especially if it spikes consumer interest. It’s [...]

You’d think that in the age of new media, where “news sources” — amateur and professional — have quintupled, that we’d have less need for critical discernment. After all, more cameras aimed at the playing field gives us more chance to make the correct call. Likewise, more news outlets should make things clearer, not more [...]

Two big-budget films have become the cornerstone of a developing theorem of mine: Philosophical meaninglessness can be deceptively beautiful. Those two films are Cloud Atlas and the Life of Pi, both of which left me with the same take-away — visually-impressive nonsense. Of course, there were many who saw the films as profound, deep, and [...]

Kerry Nietz is the author of the DarkTrench series, beginning with A Star Curiously Singing, followed by two sequels, The Superlative Stream and Freeheads. Kerry’s most recent novel, the provocatively entitled Amish Vampires in Space dares to boldly go where no Christian fiction author has gone before. For this reason, I invited Karry to answer some [...]

One of the arguments used by supporters of legalized abortion is that if the procedure is outlawed, women will be forced into back alley abortions. That argument was in play this summer as the North Carolina Senate debated a bill that would place stricter guidelines on abortion providers. The Christian Post reported: Listening to some of [...]

I recently received the following letter from a reader of this blog. With their permission, I’ve scrubbed some of the specifics and am posting it to solicit some broader advice. * * * I mentor a young man who wants to pursue a writing career. He shows promise in his writing but is reluctant to [...]