by Jason Joyner | Apr 16, 2009 | Blog, blogging, giveaway, reading, reviews
OK gang, the next week should see a flurry of posts. This weekend is the blog tour for BoneMan’s Daughters, the latest book from Ted Dekker. On Friday, 4/17 I’ll start my giveaway, and I’ve got 3 of this book available for the lucky winners.
April 20 starts the next CSFF tour, so we’ll have some special features then, if this blog doesn’t get pirated…
The end of next week will require more “boning” up, as I’ll bring you a blog tour for new author Don Hoesel’s first book, Elisha’s Bones.
Sheesh, what’s up with all the bones?
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by Jason Joyner | Apr 14, 2009 | arts, Biblical worldview, Blog, creativity, Kindlings Muse
This quote is from Nigel Goodwin, an actor and commentator on The Kindlings Muse podcast I blogged about last week. The last podcast I listened to was a discussion of Bob Dylan and “the new spirituals,” artists such as Sufjan Stevens and Fleet Foxes.
The context is talking about artists who speak on spiritual issues but don’t operate under the umbrella of “official Christian” music. I think this can apply to any artist, whether acting, writing, music, filmmaking, etc.
“There’s often too much of the world in the body, and not enough of the body in the world. We’re not out there engaging the marketplace, and so…we want these people to be our voices and we squeeze them into boxes and we beat them up and bully them. And even when they come into the sanctuary, we behave…more vulgar than the world out there in some cases…
[Dylan] knew this went on out there…but didn’t really expect it to go on in here. We are bums being redeemed. Now if we stay bums, that’s dumb, but if we’re in process, that’s good news.”
Thoughts?
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The Ted Dekker giveaway is coming soon. Keep your eyes out!
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by Jason Joyner | Apr 14, 2009 | arts, Biblical worldview, Blog, creativity, Kindlings Muse
This quote is from Nigel Goodwin, an actor and commentator on The Kindlings Muse podcast I blogged about last week. The last podcast I listened to was a discussion of Bob Dylan and “the new spirituals,” artists such as Sufjan Stevens and Fleet Foxes.
The context is talking about artists who speak on spiritual issues but don’t operate under the umbrella of “official Christian” music. I think this can apply to any artist, whether acting, writing, music, filmmaking, etc.
“There’s often too much of the world in the body, and not enough of the body in the world. We’re not out there engaging the marketplace, and so…we want these people to be our voices and we squeeze them into boxes and we beat them up and bully them. And even when they come into the sanctuary, we behave…more vulgar than the world out there in some cases…
[Dylan] knew this went on out there…but didn’t really expect it to go on in here. We are bums being redeemed. Now if we stay bums, that’s dumb, but if we’re in process, that’s good news.”
Thoughts?
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The Ted Dekker giveaway is coming soon. Keep your eyes out!
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by Jason Joyner | Apr 13, 2009 | Blog, prayer, social justice, Thailand, world events
Nothing like a thrown-out back to blow away the best laid blogging plans, but I’m back in the saddle today (more or less).
I’ve got some things for this week, but I want to start off by asking everyone to take time to pray for Thailand. This southeast Asian country is undergoing another round of political turmoil. There are two main factions battling over an ousted Prime Minister, and the protests turned deadly today with 2 people being killed. I don’t have an opinion on which side is “right”, but I don’t want to see people hurt anymore.
Thailand is known as the “Land of Smiles,” and Thais are some of the friendliest people you can ever know. I spent 2 months there in 91-92, and it was some of the formative experiences in my life. However, I know that behind the smiles is the bondage that over 95% of the people suffer as they hold to old forms of Buddhism and ancestor worship. Christianity has had a hard time getting a strong foothold there, but more and more there are Thais turning to Jesus.
There is a couple that were on the outreach team with me that stayed there, and continue to live there 18 years later. Please pray for all to be protected, especially God’s people, and that truth and righteousness will reign in the country.
by Jason Joyner | Apr 13, 2009 | Blog, prayer, social justice, Thailand, world events
Nothing like a thrown-out back to blow away the best laid blogging plans, but I’m back in the saddle today (more or less).
I’ve got some things for this week, but I want to start off by asking everyone to take time to pray for Thailand. This southeast Asian country is undergoing another round of political turmoil. There are two main factions battling over an ousted Prime Minister, and the protests turned deadly today with 2 people being killed. I don’t have an opinion on which side is “right”, but I don’t want to see people hurt anymore.
Thailand is known as the “Land of Smiles,” and Thais are some of the friendliest people you can ever know. I spent 2 months there in 91-92, and it was some of the formative experiences in my life. However, I know that behind the smiles is the bondage that over 95% of the people suffer as they hold to old forms of Buddhism and ancestor worship. Christianity has had a hard time getting a strong foothold there, but more and more there are Thais turning to Jesus.
There is a couple that were on the outreach team with me that stayed there, and continue to live there 18 years later. Please pray for all to be protected, especially God’s people, and that truth and righteousness will reign in the country.
by Jason Joyner | Apr 7, 2009 | arts, Blog, culture, Dick Staub, faith, Kindlings Muse
I’d like to highlight a resource I’ve been turning to for the past few months. The Kindlings Muse is a ministry of Dick Staub, the author of The Culturally Savvy Christian (required reading for followers of this blog).
Dick has been involved with faith and culture for many years now. He’s a radio host, pastor, author, and champion for the arts. The Kindlings Muse is a weekly podcast from Dick, along with various special guests. I finished listening to a series by Os Guinness this morning (an excellent talk on “You Only Live Once-Calling, the ultimate game plan for life”).
Topics generally focus on faith and creativity in some way. When the Oscars rolled around, there is an annual “theology of the Best Picture nominees” show that was very interesting. Other topics I’ve listened to include theology of the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer and an excellent interview with Anne Rice.
You can subscribe to it for free at iTunes, or just see the site regularly for the updated podcasts. As the tagline for the show states, it is “an intelligent, imaginative, hospitable exploration of ideas that matter in contemporary life.”
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by Jason Joyner | Apr 7, 2009 | arts, Blog, culture, Dick Staub, faith, Kindlings Muse
I’d like to highlight a resource I’ve been turning to for the past few months. The Kindlings Muse is a ministry of Dick Staub, the author of The Culturally Savvy Christian (required reading for followers of this blog).
Dick has been involved with faith and culture for many years now. He’s a radio host, pastor, author, and champion for the arts. The Kindlings Muse is a weekly podcast from Dick, along with various special guests. I finished listening to a series by Os Guinness this morning (an excellent talk on “You Only Live Once-Calling, the ultimate game plan for life”).
Topics generally focus on faith and creativity in some way. When the Oscars rolled around, there is an annual “theology of the Best Picture nominees” show that was very interesting. Other topics I’ve listened to include theology of the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer and an excellent interview with Anne Rice.
You can subscribe to it for free at iTunes, or just see the site regularly for the updated podcasts. As the tagline for the show states, it is “an intelligent, imaginative, hospitable exploration of ideas that matter in contemporary life.”
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by Jason Joyner | Apr 1, 2009 | Blog, books, contests, goofiness, Ted Dekker
…but that still left us open to abduction.
OK, not much of an April Fools here, but I do have a little announcement. Later this month the CFBA blog tour will be featuring the latest book from Ted Dekker: BoneMan’s Daughters. This is a special book for Dekker, according to his blog, and to celebrate, I will be able to give away not one, not two, but THREE copies of BoneMan’s Daughters. How about that? And that is NOT an April Fools prank.
So I encourage you to keep coming back, as I’ll have more about this later in the month.
Assuming the aliens are done with me by then…
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by Jason Joyner | Apr 1, 2009 | Blog, books, contests, goofiness, Ted Dekker
…but that still left us open to abduction.
OK, not much of an April Fools here, but I do have a little announcement. Later this month the CFBA blog tour will be featuring the latest book from Ted Dekker: BoneMan’s Daughters. This is a special book for Dekker, according to his blog, and to celebrate, I will be able to give away not one, not two, but THREE copies of BoneMan’s Daughters. How about that? And that is NOT an April Fools prank.
So I encourage you to keep coming back, as I’ll have more about this later in the month.
Assuming the aliens are done with me by then…
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by Jason Joyner | Mar 25, 2009 | Blog, Don Hoesel, Elisha's Bones, reading, writing craft
Yesterday I started talking about the book I’m currently reading, Elisha’s Bones. There were two comments from yesterday.
Robert- There is plenty of suspense and the reader is left hanging at the end of chapters a lot, but that wasn’t what I was looking for.
Mark- Ding, ding, we have a winner!
We get so used to patterns and techniques that we may not always notice a difference. It took me a few pages to realize why I was a little unsettled by Elisha – it was written in the present tense.
Think about it. Most fiction writing is done in the past tense. Other tenses come into play with conversations or other situations, but it is rare to see a book in a first person point of view (POV to all the writers out there) moving along in present tense. First person POV gives more intimacy to that character’s thoughts, but I’m finding in Elisha that using the present tense gives even more immediate reaction. The past tense gives the impression that the character is relating something that’s already happened back to the reader. Present tense puts the action right now, and offers up opportunity for surprises (like when the main character gets whapped in the nose).
I mentioned yesterday that we are creatures of habit. It took a few chapters to fully get comfortable reading this book. Sometimes I think it creates some awkward sentence structure, or isn’t fully true to how life works. When the POV character gets hit in the nose, he has a couple of thoughts before the impact. I don’t think we’d really be cognizant of all that was happening before such an impact.
Overall, I’m really enjoying this book. The different tense is comfortable now, and the writer is doing a good job of using it to his advantage. It was hard yesterday to write my one paragraph in present tense, so I can’t imagine writing a whole book that way!
For another example of risk-taking in Christian fiction, I can also recommend Travis Thrasher’s novel Blinded. It doesn’t involve tense, but POV. He writes it totally in second person POV (“You saw the beautiful blonde approach the table. You manage to not lose the contents of your drink as your hand shakes.”) This is generally considered a huge no-no, but according to novelist Brandilyn Collins, he pulls it off. I haven’t read it yet, but it is on my list of “when I get caught up enough I’m going to get it” books.
It’s great to see different tactics that pay off. I hope people don’t stumble over different techniques, because so far Elisha is a winner. I’ll have more on it in the blog tour for it in April.
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