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Showing posts from July, 2015

My Favorite Songs Inspired by Narnia

Currently Writing:   Merlin Book 2 Currently Reading:   Dune  by Frank Herbert                                  The Silmarillion  by J.R.R. Tolkien (reread)                                  The Woodcutter  by Kate Danley (Kindle)                                 The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket (audio) For the purposes of this post, I'm not considering any instrumental tracks, but I will mention some of my favorites. "Heart of Courage" by Two Steps from Hell was the trailer music for the Walden version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe , and it still gets me excited for Narnia. There are various tracks from the LWW and PC soundtracks that evoke the longing for Narnia, such as "Narnian Lullaby," and the themes "One Day" and "Reepicheep's Theme." The Narnian Lullaby from the BBC Narnia films is also a favorite of mine. Now, without further ado, here are some of my favorite Narnian songs: " In Like a L

Top Ten Books to Reread

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Currently Writing:  Merlin Book 2 Currently Reading: Dune by Frank Herbert                                 The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (reread)                                 The Woodcutter by Kate Danley (Kindle) I've been wanting to do another Top 10 post since the first one. I can't do a Top 10 Books general post because there are just too many I love, so I decided that Top 10 rereads was the best way to go. So here, in no particular order, are my Top 10 Books to Reread: The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis I'm counting this whole series as one book, not only because I have an omnibus edition, but because I love to read all of them again and again. All told, I've probably read the whole series five or six times, and individual books anywhere from that number to ten or so. I never come out of reading these books without something new occurring to me. I never get tired of reading Aslan's words to the various protagonists and living throug

Awesome Friends

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My friend Mirriam has started a series of giveaways on her blog for the regular commentators: she's giving away a sketch to a randomly selected commentator once a week. Yours truly was selected as the first recipient and, with her permission, I am sharing a picture of my prize with all of you. This is Mirriam's take on the Mad Hatter from her Wonderland retelling that I was blessed enough to be a beta reader for during June. Mirriam is just one of the awesome friends God has blessed me with over the years, and she's one of the most creative I've known. Reading her Wonderland retelling and another of her works in progress this summer gave me some renewed inspiration and motivation to forge ahead with my second Merlin book, which, as I've said a few times lately, is giving me grief. She's not afraid of dealing with deep issues and talking about the things that really matter, but she's just as happy making snarky comments and fangirling over Marvel (

What Is It About Second Books?

Currently Writing:   Merlin quartet book 2 Currently Reading:  Dune by Frank Herbert                                 The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (Reread)                                 The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket (audio)                                 Daughter of Light by Morgan Busse (Kindle)                                 NausicaƤ of the Valley of the Wind Vol. 5 by Hayao Miyazaki Tad Williams once wrote about the difficulties of writing second books (and sometimes third books, in his case) because they are essentially the middle of the story of a trilogy (or quartet). As such, these middle books must begin and end in the middle of the story, resolving some but not all of the conflict, if they resolve any at all. I'm beginning to appreciate the difficulty of writing second books for different reasons – well, one specific reason. Writing a second book with the same characters, who are somehow different from their first-book selves a