Call of the Creator: Fantasy Writing from a Christian Worldview

Those of you who know me a little better are probably familiar with the fact that my first storytelling medium was animation--long enough ago that the animation for feature films was still drawn by hand on (gasp) paper. Although making animation ceased to be feasible for me because I was a stay-at-home mom with no time or equipment, that doesn't mean the storyteller part of my soul packed up and took a hike--it just got restless. So restless it spat out five novels and three novellas. Well, the artist part of me wouldn't be put to bed so easily either, which is why I am now working on a graphic novel version of my first Windrider Saga book, Divine Summons . (This is simultaneous with me also preparing the novel for re-release and freelancing steadily for Rabbit Publishers and couple of other clients.) All these projects have my head spinning a little, as you can imagine, and the practical side of me has put her foot down and said, "Look, if you're going to invest ti...

Today marks a fun day that authors never tire of: release day! The project that I'm humbled to be a part of is an anthology called Freshly Brewed Fiction , and it's a group of stories penned for the purpose of supporting a local library. Better yet, we'll celebrate the release of this book at our local independent book store, The Towne Book Center in Collegeville. It's good to know the piece I've written will be helping the honorable institution of the local public library as well as our indie bookstore, which does a great job with author events. In case you're interested to see what I've contributed to this book, I'm offering the first segment of the story for you here. "A Dragon Problem" introduces a new character to my story world, an ebony hatchling dragon named Silya, and it reunites readers with the tempestuous Raen, dragons warder, as well as the unquenchably direct Vinyanel Ecleriast. Mix in an undead necromancer, and you'v...

Welcome, old friends and new explorers! Below, you'll find the first chapter of Valor's Worth , the next book in The Windrider Saga, for your preview. Please bear in mind, this is a draft of the chapter, subject to change once my editor gets his mitts on it. For now, I hope you enjoy it. And if you do, consider picking up copies of the stories preceding this one: Divine Summons and A Greater Strength. Both these ebooks can be yours for less than $7--which is less expensive than a single book from a big press. So, without further ado... Chapter 1 The Phoenix We sailed high over the dense pine forests of northeastern Kelmirith, our only companions winging birds, clouds, and wind. The westering sun warmed my cheeks, although its dip below the horizon would soon usher in the frosty chill of a mid-autumn night. Far below, the winding river Nuruhain flashed, a strip of amber glass set alight by the sun’s inevitable demise. The rhythmic whoosh of Majestrin’s si...

The day has finally arrived! The print edition of The Windrider Saga is now available in a print edition. As of this writing, the only retailer that has the book is Amazon , but it should be available at Barnes and Noble in the very near future as well. For those of you less-well acquainted with this set of stories, a little explanation may be in order. The stories in the ebooks ( Divine Summons and A Greater Strength ) had their first incarnation as serial fiction--stories I wrote for monthly issues of Digital Dragon Magazine, and then for my blog. So the novel-size book you can get today on Amazon won't read exactly like a novel. It is episodic, by the nature of the original format. Hopefully, though, it will be the fun read it's meant to be. Anyone who took a gander at the podcast interview I posted before will realize that the original release date for this book (January 31st) came and went. Alas, that's how it goes when all the folks involved are doing this as a ...