So I pitched my current project to five editors at the ACFW conference. Four of them asked one particular question about the story, a question that I wasn’t fully prepared for. Before I tell you what their question was, take a look at the One Sheet I used at the conference (<– a screen capture) [...]
As much as I criticize the ACFW and Christian fiction in general, please know that it’s because I have a heart for Christian writers. There are so many great people in our industry! If anything, the four days I spent in Dallas at the annual ACFW conference reminded me how many genuine, wonderful Christian writers [...]
I recently stopped following two authors on Twitter because almost every post was about their own books. They may have been good writers. But I’ll never know. They were too busy publicly flogging their own product for me to care. It got me thinking about other ways that writers turn off potential readers. * * [...]
Andy Crouch, in his terrific book, Culture Making, opens by noting how difficult the idea of culture is to define. For instance, culture is the second most complicated word in the English language to define after nature. Writes Crouch: …our ways of talking about culture — how it works, how it changes, how it influences [...]
While I’m conflicted about the term “culture war” (as it’s used by Christians and social conservatives) and the polarity it often creates, I’m in total agreement with the concept behind it. In one of his greatest works, The City of God, Augustine divided the world into the kingdom of man and the kingdom of God. [...]
Christianity, it seems to me, stands apart from all other religions in the scope of evidence there is to support it. This doesn’t mean Christianity is infallible and absolutely compelling. In fact, it is Christianity’s emphasis upon subjective and objective evidences that make it both open to criticism and, ultimately, satisfying. I came to this [...]
Next week I’m flying to Dallas for the annual ACFW Writer’s Conference. Six years ago to the month I attended this conference. It was my first conference ever. And man, was I nervous. Exhibit A: My editor appointment. At conferences, much of the interaction with editors occurs apart from appointments. The protocol is, have a [...]
Many recent discussions about demographic shifts in religion seem to have an ulterior motive: To bash evangelicals. The reason Millenials are leaving the evangelical Church, they assert, is because the Church is really screwed up. She’s anti-intellectual, moralistic, overly-political, authoritarian, patriarchal, anti-science, etc., etc. As someone who’s fallen away from the Church and returned, been [...]
WARNING: This post contains sarcasm, satire, blunt irony, a few digs, some rather feigned foot-stomping, and carefully nuanced witticism; it may be unsuitable for those of fragile emotional constitution. * * * So I was unFriended by someone on Facebook a while back. Before pulling the plug on our short, but stormy, cyber friendship, they [...]
“Reagan Moon & The Ghost Box” is straight-up Urban Fantasy, PG-13, noir-ish, romance elements, pulpy, in the vein of Dresden Files and Sandman Slim. This is a standalone novel, with serial possibilities (Reagan Moon and the Eye Ember, Reagan Moon and the Crescent Bungalow, etc., etc.). Reagan Moon & the Ghost Box By Mike [...]
