Tomorrow, we're on the road to Colorado for Rob's Commander's course, my Commander's Wife course (yes, they have a course), and the booksigning/fundraiser for St. Paul the Apostle Church in Pueblo West.
If you are near Pueblo, CO, on June 24, drop by Pius X church in Pueblo between 8 am and 2 pm. We'll be signing books. $3 of each book goes to the church building fund.
In the meantime: what if Star Trek was written in 1903?
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6Y39gHihP74
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
The Value of Life
Busy week--getting ready to go to Colorado for a Commander's Course, a booksigning, and vacation with my parents. Have to get the house ready for a open house, not to mention writing Magic, Mensa and Mayhem, the media room class, and the virtual book tour...
Ann Lewis posted this on her website. Get tissue before you see it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th6Njr-qkq0
What incredible parents to strive so hard and see such beauty in tragedy.
Ann Lewis posted this on her website. Get tissue before you see it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th6Njr-qkq0
What incredible parents to strive so hard and see such beauty in tragedy.
Saturday, June 09, 2007
What if the Crocodile Hunter Met a Dragon?
I'm 50,000 words into my newest novel, Magic, Mensa and Mayhem, and had a fun idea.
I'd just written the scene where Vern, my sarcastic, sentient Faerie dragon, decides to catch a nap in the Everglades. Little did he know that "Gator Louie" a Deep South twist on Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, was filming a special on the endangered species of the area that day. He comes upon Vern, who's deeply hidden in the rushes, so he only sees the snout. After some discussion, which Vern overhears, they decide to film him. Vern, of course, decides to take this chance to play a practical joke on a human.
I read it to my husband, who liked it, but thought the scene could go differently--and proceeded to have me rolling with his re-write. Let's face it: "Gator Louie Meets a Dragon" has real potential. Don't you hear him already? "Get out your asbestos underwear. danger, danger!"
I want to hear your story!
Go to www.freewebs.com/dragoneyepi and click on Gator Louie & Vern. There you'll find the scene as I wrote it and Rob's suggestion. I'll include my e-mail address on the bottom. Write your own scene (300 words or less, please) and send it to me. Keep it clean and in character. I'll try to talk the publisher into printing the best ones as an appendix, "Gator Louie Outtakes," and I'll post them all in Vern's blog.
Want to try? Come on! Write your own version.
I'd just written the scene where Vern, my sarcastic, sentient Faerie dragon, decides to catch a nap in the Everglades. Little did he know that "Gator Louie" a Deep South twist on Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin, was filming a special on the endangered species of the area that day. He comes upon Vern, who's deeply hidden in the rushes, so he only sees the snout. After some discussion, which Vern overhears, they decide to film him. Vern, of course, decides to take this chance to play a practical joke on a human.
I read it to my husband, who liked it, but thought the scene could go differently--and proceeded to have me rolling with his re-write. Let's face it: "Gator Louie Meets a Dragon" has real potential. Don't you hear him already? "Get out your asbestos underwear. danger, danger!"
I want to hear your story!
Go to www.freewebs.com/dragoneyepi and click on Gator Louie & Vern. There you'll find the scene as I wrote it and Rob's suggestion. I'll include my e-mail address on the bottom. Write your own scene (300 words or less, please) and send it to me. Keep it clean and in character. I'll try to talk the publisher into printing the best ones as an appendix, "Gator Louie Outtakes," and I'll post them all in Vern's blog.
Want to try? Come on! Write your own version.
Monday, June 04, 2007
August Virtual Book Tour
I'm planning another Virtual Book Tour in August to promote Infinite Space, Infinite God, which comes out in Print August 15. 31 stops in 31 days is my goal.
I'm looking for hosts. I am glad to do this in one or more of several ways:
If you have a chat room, podcast or newsletter, I'd be glad to be a guest on any of those.
I'll have a give-aways for readers and one for participants as well. I'm thinking a hard copy of the book, and an e-book version, with a coupon to Twilight Times Books for those who already have ISIG but win.
I'll be posting the calendar of sites on my website and the ISIG site and will be sending out media releases, so this is a chance for you to get some publicity for your site, too.
Now the catch: We're moving in late July. I want to have as much of this done as quickly as possible. I'll take participants until Aug 31 if I can, but the sooner you can give me a hosting date and interview questions, etc. the easier it is for me—and the more publicity advantage you get.
Please e-mail me directly at karina(at)fabianspace.com if you're interested in participating.
I'm looking for hosts. I am glad to do this in one or more of several ways:
You post a blurb and cover art.
You interview me and post it.
You have me as a guest blogger.
I write the interview and you post it.
You review the book.
You post someone else's review.
Any other idea you have. I'm flexible.
If you have a chat room, podcast or newsletter, I'd be glad to be a guest on any of those.
I'll have a give-aways for readers and one for participants as well. I'm thinking a hard copy of the book, and an e-book version, with a coupon to Twilight Times Books for those who already have ISIG but win.
I'll be posting the calendar of sites on my website and the ISIG site and will be sending out media releases, so this is a chance for you to get some publicity for your site, too.
Now the catch: We're moving in late July. I want to have as much of this done as quickly as possible. I'll take participants until Aug 31 if I can, but the sooner you can give me a hosting date and interview questions, etc. the easier it is for me—and the more publicity advantage you get.
Please e-mail me directly at karina(at)fabianspace.com if you're interested in participating.
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Guest Blogger: the Coach talks about Magic and Godly Imagination
Busy day for me today--in addition to getting the house clean for showing and massive shopping, I've got to get more written on Magic Mensa and Mayhem. (Vern, the dragon comes up against environmentalists who are angry because he traumatized some threatened subspecies of fish.)
My friend Coach Culbertson posted this on the Lost Genre Guild and I asked to cross-post it here. Coach Culbertson is the Technical Editor of Relief: A Quarterly Christian Expression and Editor-In-Chief for Coach's Midnight Diner, a genre anthology with a Christian slant coming in Summer 2007. The Diner will include Jesus Vs. Cthulhu, hardboiled detective, horror, and more. You can keep track of all of his crazy publishing adventures at http://www.reliefjournal.com.
In which Coach rambles on about magic and God and speculation about
the Universe
I used to hold to some fairly radical notions on the conservative side
of the world. I used to think I had it all figured out. Somewhere
along the line, it seems that after a few strange and odd experiences,
the world became bigger than what I thought, and I realized that I had
a lot of things wrong.
One of my mentors once told me that we don't see the world as it is,
we see the world as we are. I found this to be a scary truth,
especially when I stated reading Genesis over again. Around chapter
six, there are some very interesting passages. What did mankind do to
the earth to fill it with violence? Was it technological, or perhaps
"magical?"
Speculation: As a race we may have known more back then than we do
now. Think about the library of Alexandria and the knowledge that must
have been lost in that great fire. Perhaps, we had greater, even
intrinsic, knowledge of the physics and metaphysics that God built in
this particular system we call Earth. And due to our fallen nature, we
misused the gift of knowledge of how to manipulate these systemic
forces like gravity, harmonics, electro-magnetism, and other naturally
occurring elements that God had given us dominion over, thus injecting
a violence and destruction on the Earth rather than using these forces
as He intended to build and create. Thus, the necessity of flooding
the earth became more and more evident (not to mention the whole
Nephilim thing)to prevent further systemic degradation and perhaps
restore and reverse some of the effects of man's efforts.
As the human genome continues to degrade over time, and the
destruction that was set loose in the garden of Eden continues to work
itself out in the system that God created, it seems to me that
practices that manipulate forces that God created without a full
knowledge of consequences and effects is a really bad idea. But
nevertheless, I find very few who dispute the validity or existence of
"magic" (whatever that may mean), else it would hardly be something to
rail against.
Of course, additional problems come about when fallen angels enter
into the mix, who are more interested in riding us around like shiny
new Buicks and then dropping us off in the scrap yard when they're
done, but if in fact the rest of the angels are here to aid us, then
perhaps at one point in time, requests of angels were perhaps a valid
way of manipulating and learning about the universe as it is. Enoch is
reported to have walked so closely with God that He taught him the
names of the angels. But then, degrading into angel worship rather
than partnership, plus probably listening to the wrong angels, humans
once again screwed up the intended order of things, and brought about
the necessity of discouraging such practices.
Like we learned in the Net boom of the 90's, just because we can do
something doesn't mean we should. But when it comes to speculative
fiction, it is just that- fiction. In the fundamentalist mindset, if
something is in print, it becomes more real, more persuasive than if
someone merely speaks words. And, as always, we fear what we do not
understand, and rail against what does not fit our view of the world.
It is up to us as consumers and readers to be able to filter out truth
from lies, to become critical thinkers, but to also be able to
exercise our imaginations in a way that may actually point backwards
or forwards to a time when things did in fact operate like they
should. God did create a marvelous universe that holds mysteries for
us to uncover and to talk about, and perhaps, eventually, to expand
upon. Who is to say that in the New Jerusalem what will be possible
again? The afterlife will not be clouds and singing all the time
(thank God). Perhaps, when the universe is renewed and there is a new
heaven and a new earth, we may zip along in Enterprise ships exploring
what He has created anew, and used harmonics and telekinesis to create
and produce life-giving structures and truly become partners with God
in creation.
But who's to say we'll need spaceships? Maybe we'll just think it and
zoom off Superman style. But I digress.
We should push forward in our cause despite the nay-sayers, to revive
the Christian imagination and to further extend the reach of Christ by
creating high quality writing that will force people to think in new
ways about life and facets of this universe He has built for us to
discover.
My friend Coach Culbertson posted this on the Lost Genre Guild and I asked to cross-post it here. Coach Culbertson is the Technical Editor of Relief: A Quarterly Christian Expression and Editor-In-Chief for Coach's Midnight Diner, a genre anthology with a Christian slant coming in Summer 2007. The Diner will include Jesus Vs. Cthulhu, hardboiled detective, horror, and more. You can keep track of all of his crazy publishing adventures at http://www.reliefjournal.com.
In which Coach rambles on about magic and God and speculation about
the Universe
I used to hold to some fairly radical notions on the conservative side
of the world. I used to think I had it all figured out. Somewhere
along the line, it seems that after a few strange and odd experiences,
the world became bigger than what I thought, and I realized that I had
a lot of things wrong.
One of my mentors once told me that we don't see the world as it is,
we see the world as we are. I found this to be a scary truth,
especially when I stated reading Genesis over again. Around chapter
six, there are some very interesting passages. What did mankind do to
the earth to fill it with violence? Was it technological, or perhaps
"magical?"
Speculation: As a race we may have known more back then than we do
now. Think about the library of Alexandria and the knowledge that must
have been lost in that great fire. Perhaps, we had greater, even
intrinsic, knowledge of the physics and metaphysics that God built in
this particular system we call Earth. And due to our fallen nature, we
misused the gift of knowledge of how to manipulate these systemic
forces like gravity, harmonics, electro-magnetism, and other naturally
occurring elements that God had given us dominion over, thus injecting
a violence and destruction on the Earth rather than using these forces
as He intended to build and create. Thus, the necessity of flooding
the earth became more and more evident (not to mention the whole
Nephilim thing)to prevent further systemic degradation and perhaps
restore and reverse some of the effects of man's efforts.
As the human genome continues to degrade over time, and the
destruction that was set loose in the garden of Eden continues to work
itself out in the system that God created, it seems to me that
practices that manipulate forces that God created without a full
knowledge of consequences and effects is a really bad idea. But
nevertheless, I find very few who dispute the validity or existence of
"magic" (whatever that may mean), else it would hardly be something to
rail against.
Of course, additional problems come about when fallen angels enter
into the mix, who are more interested in riding us around like shiny
new Buicks and then dropping us off in the scrap yard when they're
done, but if in fact the rest of the angels are here to aid us, then
perhaps at one point in time, requests of angels were perhaps a valid
way of manipulating and learning about the universe as it is. Enoch is
reported to have walked so closely with God that He taught him the
names of the angels. But then, degrading into angel worship rather
than partnership, plus probably listening to the wrong angels, humans
once again screwed up the intended order of things, and brought about
the necessity of discouraging such practices.
Like we learned in the Net boom of the 90's, just because we can do
something doesn't mean we should. But when it comes to speculative
fiction, it is just that- fiction. In the fundamentalist mindset, if
something is in print, it becomes more real, more persuasive than if
someone merely speaks words. And, as always, we fear what we do not
understand, and rail against what does not fit our view of the world.
It is up to us as consumers and readers to be able to filter out truth
from lies, to become critical thinkers, but to also be able to
exercise our imaginations in a way that may actually point backwards
or forwards to a time when things did in fact operate like they
should. God did create a marvelous universe that holds mysteries for
us to uncover and to talk about, and perhaps, eventually, to expand
upon. Who is to say that in the New Jerusalem what will be possible
again? The afterlife will not be clouds and singing all the time
(thank God). Perhaps, when the universe is renewed and there is a new
heaven and a new earth, we may zip along in Enterprise ships exploring
what He has created anew, and used harmonics and telekinesis to create
and produce life-giving structures and truly become partners with God
in creation.
But who's to say we'll need spaceships? Maybe we'll just think it and
zoom off Superman style. But I digress.
We should push forward in our cause despite the nay-sayers, to revive
the Christian imagination and to further extend the reach of Christ by
creating high quality writing that will force people to think in new
ways about life and facets of this universe He has built for us to
discover.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)