Writers who are honest feel fear about self-promotion. The initial excitement and hope fades into something else, and those fears can blossom into putrid black blooms. (Did you know there's a guy leading seminars on how to make videos go viral who intentionally falls off a stage and posts the videos on YouTube as examples? The quest for fame does
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Happy New Year, folks. Over the three-and-a-half years I’ve been writing on this blog, I’ve realized a few things about Christian books and publishing. It’s been a good education. One of the things I’ve learned is that it’s far too easy to criticize the deficiencies and errors of our current system. I’ve made some honest, incisive critiques but I’ve also
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The picture that makes up the banner at the top here with all the books contains a pencil drawing I did in 1989, one of the first I attempted. I was a freshman and our teacher, Mr. Kellner, wanted us to choose something significant, something that meant something to us, so I chose this picture from a magazine to copy
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Lauren Winner on alcohol in Christian books: "…the increasing willingness of Christian publishers to show casual imbibing may be another step in the direction of depicting, rather than sanitizing, ordinary American life." I love the way Lauren says this, distilling the distinction (so to speak). "Depicting rather than sanitizing." If art reflects life, isn’t including real depictions of ordinary American
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For the greater purposes of our community here, I offer this short bit adapted from “A Defence of Poesy” by Sir Philip Sidney, 1595. I’m hoping to offer more as time allows, and if you find it helpful (you can find the original text here, and an excellent introduction to Sir Sidney’s defense in Don Williams’ essay, "Christian Poetics, Past
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