The City, a publication of Houston Baptist University, has its Spring edition out using zmags.com as a delivery platform. Read it here, and note the poem, “Fairy Tale Logic” by A.E. Stallings.
Multicultural me
I made it through the Festival of Nations, and now I remember why I usually skip it. This is the most exhausting way to spend three days just sitting around that I can think of (other than suffering through a Human Resources seminar).
Somehow it seems even more tiring than Minot’s Høstfest, though that’s longer. On the other hand, it has the advantage of being only a half hour’s drive away. But human interaction exhausts me, as I’ve whined before in this space. And the Festival of Nations is a twelve-hour day, 10:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m., in a concrete bunker without sunlight. Like Hitler’s Last Days, with “It’s a Small World” piping in the background.
We Vikings were ensconced in our usual space, a sort of wide place in the corridor just off the vendors’ hall. Out of the way from one perspective, but a lot of traffic went by. I worked on tooling my leather trinkets—bookmarks and wrist bands—and sold a few of them, plus a moderate number of books. Nothing to write my publisher about, but enough for me to feel I hadn’t entirely wasted my time. Continue reading Multicultural me
Overstreet Interviews and Reviews
Rachel Starr Thomson has a good interview with Jeffrey Overstreet in connection with a blog tour on his book, Raven’s Ladder. Here’s a portion:
Rachel: You’ve pointed out before that there are some amazing writers working in fantasy, some real depth and artistic merit. Why does the genre still get such a bad rap?
Jeffrey: Well, trashy book covers don’t help. And in a consumer-driven society, people will exploit their audiences by fashioning their work to appeal to our baser appetites. Thus, most fantasy takes from Tolkien the violence, the epic battles, the grotesque monsters, but they don’t carry on the grand and glorious ideals that stand in such stark contrast to the darkness.
Our imaginations are more easily dazzled by perversion, by what is lurid and twisted and shocking, than by what is true and beautiful. Beauty requires us to do some work to comprehend it. In our busy culture, where so much is competing for our attention, whatever is loud and shocking will win out. So a lot of fantasy writers and illustrators, as in any genre, exaggerate whatever will grab people’s attention.
But I also think that as people get older, they feel threatened by the mystery of fairy tales. They grow to prefer portrayals of a world that they can understand and control. So they write off fairy tales as childish, because their ego has a desire to feel very grown up, sophisticated, and in control. Not me. I like Madeleine L’Engle’s perspective: I’m 39, but I’m also 5, and 7, and 14, and 21.
Read the interview in part one, part two, and part three.
Links to the many reviews are here. And the same blog tour has coordinated other reviews of books I’m interested in. Andrew Peterson’s book North or Be Eaten! was reviewed by the blogger squad here. Athol Dickson’s book Lost Mission was reviewed here.
Praising the Nimbly Lofty
“Poetry should be rather like a coranto, short and nimbly-lofty, than a dull lesson of a day long.” Patrick Kurp talks about poetry a bit.
"What melodious sounds I hear"
From the cross uplifted high
Where the Savior deigns to die
What melodious sounds I hear
Bursting on my ravished ear
Love¹s redeeming work is done
Come and welcome, sinner, come.
Sprinkled now with blood the throne
Why beneath thy burdens groan
On my pierced body laid
Justice owns the ransom paid
Bow the knee and kiss the Son
Come and welcome, sinner, come.
Read more from this hymn by Thomas Haweis (1732-1820)
Work Break: Poetry Reading
Bill Murray read poems to the construction workers building Poetry House in Manhattan.
Gina Holmes' Debut Novel
The popular blogger Gina Holmes has her first book out this month, Crossing Oceans.
Excerpt of Bertrand's "Back on Murder"
You can pre-order this novel using our carousel of recommended books on the right of the screen.
Free Book on BadLanguage.net
Matthew Stibbe is giving away his ebook on his website, BadLanguage.net. No, it isn’t about that. It’s called 30 Days to Better Business Writing.
Friday Fight: Longspear
With Lars going to the Festival of Nations, leaving the blog to me, and with May coming tomorrow and it being National Honesty Day today, I think I need to post a live steel combat video. Here’s one from the Skjaldborg group.