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 April 2010
I want to express a heartfelt thanks to fellow Louisianian D. Shane Burton for his glowing reviews of my books on Amazon. Shane has produced some rather original books of his own. Check out his Orianus Creation Series on Amazon.
I'm revising Haunted Summer, a novel of my own, and trying to knock out the first volume of the Intrepid Force graphic novel, and getting an academic behind-kicking in Intermediate Hebrew class so I've gotten somewhat behind on my posts. We're rapidly catching up, however.
April 2010: This month actually features two books by two different authors. The first is Athol Dickson's The Lost Mission. This is a tale of magical realism set in the desert of southern California where the unearthing of an old mission sets in motion a series of events that challenge the four main characters in unique ways. Dickson, an artist and sculptor, is known for his thought-provoking stories set in richly-described and realistic settings. The second April feature is Jeffrey Overstreet's Raven's Ladder. This is the third book in the imaginitive fantasy series that began with Aurelia's Colors. Check them both out on Amazon or on the CSFF site.
Meet Calvin Miller: One of the most original, versatile, and well-known Christian authors of the 1970s and 80s was Dr. Calvin Miller. He's still original and versatile, but most of my younger friends don't seem to have heard of him, so I'd like to introduce you. Miller was best known for his trilogy of allegorical poems, The Singer, The Song, and the Finale. He also wrote Requiem for Love, a poetic retelling of the story of Adam and Eve, a book of children's poetry called When the Aardvark Parked on the Ark, a collection of writings about Christ called The Book of Jesus, a Lord of the Rings type fantasy series called the Singreale Chronicles, and a satire of church life called The Philippian Fragment. He recently visited my church in Benton, Louisiana, when music minister Philip Wade produced a very fine musical production based on the Philippian Fragment. During his visit, Miller preached an interesting and inspiring morning sermon and sold five boxes of books afterward. His career as a writer, preacher, artist, and professor has been an inspiration to me.
March 2010: This month's blog tour features Fairy Rebels: Spell Hunter by R.J. Anderson. The book is recommended for grades 5-7, but the story sounds poigniant in a way that many "adult" novels are unable to copy because growing up leaves us too sophisticated for the wonder and innocence of childhood. It's about a group of isolated fairies robbed of most of their powers and living in fear and about the special relationship one of them forms with Paul, a parapelegic human.
In April and May 2009, respectively, the Blog Tour featured the novels Blaggard's Moon by George Bryan Polivka and Tuck, by Stephen Lawhead. Both authors have been featured previously. Tuck is the third in Lawhead's reimagining of the Robin Hood legend. Hood and Scarlett, the two previous books, were featured here before.

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)

Stephen Dale at Word Up Studies (NEW)

D. Davidson: Sci-Fi Catholic

Chris Deanne: Write and Whine

Janey DeMeo

Merrie DeStephano's Blog

Jeff Draper: Scriptorius Rex

April Erwin

Karina Fabian: Virtual Book Tour de Net (NEW)

Kameron M. Franklin at Kameronmf (NEW)

Linda Gilmore's Blog

Andrea Graham's Ask Andrea (NEW)

Todd Michael Greene at A New Novelists Journey (NEW)

Karen Hancock (Author of Arena and other great books)

Katie Hart: Writing Christian Novels

Sherrie Hibbs

Timothy Hicks's Fantasythyme (NEW)

Christopher Hopper

Joleen Howell's Faith Fiction Blog (NEW)

Becca Johnson: The Writer's Sword

Jason Joyner's Spoiled for the Ordinary (NEW)

Kait's Struggle and Emerge (NEW)

Karen's MySpace

Dawn King

Tina Kulesa's Blog (NEW)

Lost Genre Guild

Mike Lynch Books

Terri Main's Wayfarer's Journal (NEW)

Margaret's Cherry Blossom MJ (NEW)

Rachel Marks: Shadow of the Wood

Shannon McNear (My buddy with a passel of kids): Senandoah Dawn

Karen McSpadden: Disturbing Reviews

Melissa Meeks: Forest Rose

Rebecca Miller

Mirtika's Mirathon Blog (NEW)

Mir's Here: Mirtika's Live Journal (NEW)

Eve Nielsen: Questwriter

Nissa's Linalamont (NEW)

John Otte: Leastread

Lyn Perry: Bloggin Out Loud

Deena Peterson: Deena's Books

Rachelle: Zyphe Blogspot

Steve Rice's Ansric Blog (NEW)

Cheryl Russel: Unseen Worlds

Ashley Rutherford: God's Light Upon Me

Hannah Sandvig: HannasLifeisCool

Chawna Schroeder on Blogspot

Greg Slade's Xianz Blog (NEW)

James Somers

Speculative Faith

Steve Trower: Christian SF (Old Testament Space Opera)

Donna Swanson: Windfallow

Daniel I. Weaver

Laura Williams on Blogspot
Mainstream Novels:

The Song of Kali by Dan Simmons: This author has a gift for writing science fiction and horror novels set in a variety of settings and giving them a rich and vivid feel. Song tells the story of a literary critic who takes his wife and child to Calcutta in search of a famous Indian poet, believed to be dead, who has supposedly resurfaced. The story is bizarre, chilling, and downright revolting in spots, (and funny in some places. There's this guy named Krishna...) yet I could not stop reading. The story and characters were engaging and sympathetic. The ending was heart-rending, but I felt relieved it hadn't been even worse. It removed any desire I might have had to visit Calcutta. Other than the dead bodies, feces in the streets, and lepers, it's probably a nice place.

The Sky People by T.M. Stirling caught my attention in the bookstore with its really cool premise.What if the space probes America and Russia had sent to Mars and Venus in the 1960s had revealed living, inhabited planets instead of dead worlds. What if Venus had had jungles and dinosaurs and Mars had been populated by a race similar to those found in Edgar Rice Burroughs "John Carter" novels. So far I've just started on the novel, but I like the way the author has brought back the flavor of the classic Mars and Venus stories that predated the discovery that those planets didn't actually have intelligent life on them.
Last September's 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 first three books launched by the publisher were:

The Personifid Invasion by R.E. Barlett is the sequel to the Personifid Project which launched in 2005. Some of you may remember the adventures of Aphra and Antha Vessey and a robot named Chickenwing (Actually his name was Rupert, but Antha has a strange sense of humor.) in a world where people could cheat death by transferring their souls into android bodies. In this sequel, Aphra and Antha locate a third sibling, a sister who has been separated from them since childhood in a city ruled by Interterrestrials (aka demons). Sounds interesting.

The other two books in to be launched are Hero, Second Class by Mitchell Bonds and Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy by Theodore Beale. Hero, Second Class, is a parody of fantasy fiction that features the adventures of Cyrus, who aspires to be a hero. His progress is complicated, according to the site, by "a wise-cracking dragon, a self-narrating knight, a droll zombie, an an attractive young woman who happens to--kind of--be a cat." Sounds like fun, huh? Beale, the author of The Eternal Warriors series, published by Pocket Books, places the church in a fantasy world inhabited by semi-human beings like orcs, trolls, and elves. The Christians of that world struggle with the issue of whether these non-human sentients have souls. A young priest falls in love with an Elven princess, and finds himself in the middle of a racial war.

The second round of books, launched this spring with The Dark Man, Starfire, and By Darkness Hid.

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.)