Star of Justice Pronunciation Guide

I had one. Created it years ago. I left it out of the book because…well, because I had enough of the “high fantasy” genre flags with a map, a quest, a story that took days instead of hours and a world different from Earth. I just didn’t want that last nail in the coffin of sub-genre labeling.

TT: Not sure why I object to the label “high fantasy.” It should appeal to the elitist in me. Maybe it does and that annoys me.

I also had a high enough page count I couldn’t justify adding another two just so people could pronounce made-up words. I made a mistake. Not my first.

Inspiring stories optional.

I sat here trying to think of something funny, witty, and at the same time uplifting to blog about. I sat and thought for a long time. I don’t want to write anything boring. And I didn’t want to post another rant…though with the past couple of days I’ve been having that would have been quite easy.

As I thought about these things I came to a sad realization. The only anecdotes or funny stories I know of to tell are ALL rantings or complainings about some dumb or idiotic observation I’ve had about the nature of human beings. Or in some cases, the observation of a specific dumb or idiotic human being.

Warning: Christian

I’m a member of several online writers’ groups, and recently, one of them posed the question, “should Christian books carry a warning label?” To be honest, I cannot for the life of me remember which group or really any of the particulars. I mostly scanned from the sidelines.

The trigger incident involved an author getting a nasty review because he failed to clearly identify his fiction novel as “Christian,” even though three of the tags applied to the novel contained the word “Christian” (I’ll save a rant on the -ehem- silliness of readers for later). The author countered by creating a tongue-in-cheek warning to all that his book might contain material known to incite riots in avowed atheists or something to that nature. Good on him.

The thread bounced around a bit, with some authors being pro-warning and some pro-”undercover Christianity” – as in avoiding any and all trigger words that might cause a Christ-hater to “go off” and stop reading, thus getting some Christianity into the reader by accident, as it were.

Wow. I sound a bit harsh there, don’t I? Guess I have some issues of my own.

I faced this question for the first time when a person I later learned to be an atheist asked me what “Christian fiction” was. He caught me off guard, but I answered, and, I think pretty well for me, a book that expresses a Christian worldview.

I’ll warn you upfront. I’m a Christian. It doesn’t matter what genre I choose to write. My writings will stem from a Christian worldview. Do I mind? No. Will you mind? Maybe. Is that my problem? Absolutely not.

Jesus Himself said the world would hate Him and most people will reject Him. Why should I gritch and moan because they reject me because of Him? I’d rather proclaim Him before men and be cursed by them than be denied by Him before God.

I do have to point out the irony of an atheist complaining about Christian fantasy, though. Isn’t that where all Christian writing should be? In the same genre with false, mythological beings like Ra and Gaia and Zeus? I would think atheists would be thrilled to have Christians writing fantasy. We’re doing half their work for them.

I guess there’s no pleasing some people.

Short Story: The Artist

Yes, I admit it. I’m completely copping out and posting a short story instead of a blog. A short story that has already been published thrice. (Ooh, I’ve never officially used that word!) First, in the online magazine Mindflights. (You can click here to see it, but of course it will be exactly what you’ll find below). And then in a print magazine called Beyond Centauri. (Still available for purchase here, scroll down to Issue 29.) Finally, “The Artist” can be found in an anthology called Aquasynthesis, along with two other of my stories and a bunch of stories by the other authors at Splashdown Books.

But I wanted to share it here. It is very special to me. It hit me out of the blue, fully formed. And it is a companion story to my novel Finding Angel. Actually, it’s even more related to the sequel, Seeking Unseen, which I’m in the process of editing. Maybe that’s the reason I feel compelled to share…

Well, whatever. Either way, here it is: