I gave a lecture tonight, and came home late. But I have a couple links.
Hal Colebatch, author of the Man-Kzin Wars books I’ve reviewed here and here, has an article on religion (or the lack of it) in Science Fiction over at The American Spectator.
And today’s virtual book tour stop is at Lori’s Reading Corner.
Designed for God's Glory
Bryan Chapell writes about taking grace for granted: “As a racehorse is made for running and a saxophone is made for jazz, we find our greatest glory when we do what we are designed to do and live as God in his grace has designed us. In godliness we find our truest and best humanity. Any other path leads only to ruin.”
We cannot prove our understanding or love of God’s gracious handling of us by indulging our sin. We must pursue holiness–imperfectly we understand, but still zealously. We were made for this.
Linkage
If there must be evil in the world, let there at least be more stories like this. All hail to Victor Perez for taking action to save a child. He should get a medal, and probably will.
As did Staff Sergeant Robert J. Miller today, though sadly posthumously. The story from Threedonia blog is here.
On a far more trivial note, here’s the history of that traditional nuisance, the chain letter. Tip: Mirabilis. I note that, while a Methodist missionary school provides “one of the earliest known” instances, they apparently didn’t actually invent it.
Lastly, today’s Virtual Book Tour stop is Pump Up Your Book.
And with that, I leave you.
Australian Makes a Big Book
The last time a book this big was published, also an atlas, it was a gift for Charles II in 1660. Only 31 copies will be printed. How big is it?
Daughter of Feminist Author Suffered Growing Up
I don’t have any respect for The Color Purple, and now I have less respect for Alice Walker, but it’s good for some people to give themselves up as examples of bad ideology. Walker’s daughter, Rebecca, writes about how hard it was to live with a neglectful mother.
My mother would always do what she wanted – for example taking off to Greece for two months in the summer, leaving me with relatives when I was a teenager. Is that independent, or just plain selfish?
I was 16 when I found a now-famous poem she wrote comparing me to various calamities that struck and impeded the lives of other women writers. Virginia Woolf was mentally ill and the Brontes died prematurely. My mother had me – a ‘delightful distraction’, but a calamity nevertheless. I found that a huge shock and very upsetting.
According to the strident feminist ideology of the Seventies, women were sisters first, and my mother chose to see me as a sister rather than a daughter. From the age of 13, I spent days at a time alone while my mother retreated to her writing studio – some 100 miles away. I was left with money to buy my own meals and lived on a diet of fast food.
Several links, mostly about me
OK, I’m back. On my way home from Minot, it became increasingly clear that I’d picked up something infectious and essence-sapping. I’m pretty sure it’s a bad cold. Still it was better than last year, when I drove home wounded. And it gives me an excuse for how tired I was by the end of the combat schedule.
If you’d like to see my interview, as broadcast on Minot Channel 13, the video is here. This was the 6:00 show. At 10:00 they did a shorter segment that just talked about my books. I had no objection to that.
The last day of Høstfest was crazy-making. The new family of club members who’d been helping us out had to go home early, at what turned out to be just the moment the hordes descended. People stood in long lines to have their pictures taken in Viking garb, and my own book sales weren’t bad either. It nearly killed us, but we went home laden with silver.
I’ve failed in my responsibility to keep you updated on my Virtual Book Tour appearances. Yesterday was the first stop, at Inkyblots blog.
Today I appeared at The Book Connection.
On a non-personal note, I have to mention the untimely death on Thursday of television producer and author Stephen J. Cannell, several of whose books I have read with great pleasure and reviewed here. R.I.P.
Boogieman as Censor
Loren Eaton talks about censorship in light of last week’s banned books celebration. Did you attend any book burnings or Protest The Read rallies? I was out of town, so I missed the usual fun.
From the Wall Street Journal article to which Loren links, complaints are as good as actual bans for the American Library Association (ALA): “For the ALA, what makes them censors is that they spoke up at all: ‘True’ patriots, presumably, would have kept quiet. Who, then, is afraid of discourse?” Indeed.
Childhood and Creativity
Radio’s “To the Best of Our Knowledge” had a good show yesterday on children’s fiction and the weight of the past on a few writers. This is a good show, if you haven’t heard it before.
Dispatch from Minot II
OK, today the WiFi in our encampment works (and what’s a Viking encampment without wireless access?), and I think I can post a few pictures certain to fill you with jealousy over being there while I’m here, at Hostfest, in Minot, North Dakota.
The weather has been ideal–cool and sunny, and consequently the festival is seeing record attendance. Oddly, this seems to be resulting in decreased visitation at our Viking encampment. That’s because we can only be approached through a food court, which looks like this.
If one person stops and stands at some point, all movement becomes impossible for everyone else, so that nobody can get through to us without shoving, which–as you are probably aware–Scandinavians do not do. Continue reading Dispatch from Minot II
Dispatch from Minot
I write to you from Minot, North Dakota. Hostfest begins in a few minutes, so I can’t linger long. The weather is beautiful, and large crowds are expected. I am told there is reasonable chance of survival.
Just got the schedule for my upcoming “Virtual Book Tour.” The information is can be found here.
Catch you later.