Cafe

Welcome to the Inspirations Cafe'. Grab yourself a cappuccino or something of that nature and pull up a chair. If you're a bookaholic like me, you've got a dozen books lying around in various stages of being read at any given time. At this corner of Emporia USA, I'll give you a running review of some of them. In the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour section, I'll keep you up to date on some of the new entrants and luminaries in that particular literary niche. I'll also discuss some of my other favorite literary forms, so check in from time to time and see what's going on. For reviews of some of my old favorites, visit the "Friends and Favorites" area of the bookstore.

Updated February 2012

Latest and Greatest

Meet Bruce Hennigan

Several years ago I was at a writer's conference in Alexandria, Louisiana, when I met a medical doctor with some really interesting real life stories. One grim experience he described was an encounter with a young black girl who--well, if she wasn't really demon-possessed, she did a good imitation. The way Bruce described the scene, she'd torn off her hospital gown and shattered all the flourescent lights in the room so that there was a mist hanging heavy in the air. Red emergency lamps gave the room a hellish cast as the orderlies tried to subdue the child as she hissed at them like a cat and fought with them. Now Bruce has written a series of books based loosely on that experience, and I thought I'd tell you about them. The first one, The 13th Demon, is shown below. The second is called The 12th Demon, Vampyre Majick. As popular as vampire stories are now, I'm tempted to dust off a novel about vampires I wrote back in college, but by the time I get it into print, the trend will probably have passed. Anyway, if you like spooky stories, this is a good time of year for them, so check out Bruce's books.

Moonbot Studios of Shreveport, Louisiana, has just been nominated for an Oscar for their 15-minute animated short film, The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore. Morris is a combination of computer generated animation, stop motion photography, and traditional cel animation. The studio also launched a Morris Lessmore app, an interactive storybook for the iPad. The studio has just released its latest app project, The Numberlys, an interactive children's story about a grim but orderly world ruled by numbers that is disrupted by the arrival of letters. Described by the studio as "Fritz Lang for kids," The Numberlys gets its look from Fritz Lang's 1925 silent science fiction film, Metropolis. Even though the Numberlys was mainly designed for younger children rather than for hardcore videogame enthusiasts, I like it because I'm a fan of the Metropolis film. (The Sergio Moroder version I fell in love with has a 1980s soundtrack with Pat Benatar, Bonnie Tyler, and Freddie Mercury, so it's not vintage, but I really like it.)

All three projects are available on Apple's iTunes website. The Morris Lessmore film is also available for free viewing on YouTube. If you do a search for Moonbot, you'll also see podcasts of The Making of Morris Lessmore on iTunes and videos about the studio on YouTube. Watching these guys at work fires me up about my own projects. It's hard work at times, but those who love it wouldn't do anything else.

A previous CSFF Blog Tour introduced Jeff Gerke's micropublishing venture, Marcher Lord Press. This month I'd like to wish Jeff Gerke much success with the launch of his new micropublishing venture, Marcher Lord Press. The publisher has launched a number of interesting and varied titles, and is now enjoying wider distribution on Christianbook.com, I understand.

To read all about these exciting new titles, visit the Marcher Lord Press homepage at www.marcherlordpress.com and Jeff Gerke's website, Where the Map Ends at http://wherethemapends.com. (NOTE: Where the Map Ends is an amazing site for writers and art fans as well as book fans. Check it out if you have any interest whatsoever in this sort of thing.)

The Christian Sci Fi and Fantasy Blog Tour is an attempt to bring attention to the lastest works of new and experienced authors who write sci-fi, fantasy, and other forms of "speculative" fiction. I've read and enjoyed many of the books, and I'll try to keep you up to date on them though I don't necessarily read all of them. The tour has introduced me to a number of new authors I'd never read before and I'll do what I can to support it.

Sam Travis lives in a Civil War era farmhouse in Gettysburg, PA, where he awakens one morning to find an old journal with an entry by a Union soldier, Capt. Whiting, written in Sam's own handwriting. When this happens several more times, both at night and during waking, Sam begins to question his own sanity while becoming obsessed with Capt. Whiting and his bone-chilling journal entries

. As the entries begin to mimic Sam's own life, he is drawn into an evil plot that could cost many lives, including his own. Can the unconditional love of Sam's daughter, Eva, break through his hardened heart before a killer on the loose catches up with them and Sam's past spurs him to do the unthinkable?

About the Author
Mike Dellosso is the author of The Hunted, Darlington Woods, and Scream and an adjunct professor of writing at Lancaster Bible College. Mike earned his BA degree from Messiah College and his MBS from Master's Graduate School of Divinity. He lives in Hanover, PA, with his wife and daughters.

February 2012 CSSF Book of the Month: The Realms Thereunder by Ross Lawhead (Ancient Earth Series)

Stephen Lawhead has been a legend in Christian speculative fiction (i.e. science fiction and fantasy) since the early 1980s and his son Ross is following in his father's literary footsteps. Ross collaborated with his father on an earlier series, illustrated a graphic novel, and has written a volume of what he describes as "awful" poetry (piques your interest, doesn't it?) and this is his first novel. Check it out on Amazon or at your favorite bookstore.

Publisher's Description from Amazon: Ancient legend tells of an army of knights that will remain sleeping until the last days.
The knights are waking up.
A homeless man is stalked by a pale, wraithlike creature with a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth. Maimed animals and a host of suicides cluster around a mountain in Scotland. And deep beneath the cobbled streets of Oxford, a malicious hoard besieges a hidden city.
Freya Reynolds is a university student with a touch of OCD and an obsession with myth and folklore. Daniel Tully is living rough on the streets of Oxford, waging a secret war against an enemy only he can identify. Years ago, they found themselves in a world few know is real. They have since gone their separate ways and tried to put that adventure behind them.
But the mythical world is now bleeding into our reality-a dark spiritual evil that is manifesting itself in forgotten corners of the British Isles. Alex Simpson is a Scottish police officer who specializes in hunting mythical creatures. Together, they must confront the past, the present, and points beyond to defeat the ultimate threat to humanity.
Nothing they've seen so far prepares them for what awaits . . . in The Realms Thereunder.

Ross's Blog: rosslawhead.com/blog/

If you're a fan of Christian science fiction and fantasy and want to keep up with the latest and greatest in Christian Speculative Fiction, visit these blog sites:

CSFF Blog Tour Main

Jim Black: Jim's Fiction Review

Justin Boyer: Fantasy Freak

Keanan Brand at Adventures in Fiction (NEW)

Kathy Brasby at Hobbiton Hill (NEW)

Grace Bridges' Blog

Amy Browning's Pages of Discovery

Jackie Castle: Journey into Grace

Christian Science Fiction: Brandon Barr

Valerie Comer: In Val's Little World

Karri Compton: KC Reviews (NEW)

Courtney at A Mom Speaks (NEW)