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...

If you've ever read Gary Chapman's book, The Five Love Languages , you've probably figured out in what way you express and receive love. This was a book my husband, Scott, and I read through and took to heart in the months before we were married, and since then, it's been interesting to evaluate how this theory of emotional expression plays out in my everyday life. As an artist and author, I spend way too much time in self-analysis, but hopefully my observations will be useful to some of you as well. My primary love language is time. It doesn't matter if we do anything productive or exciting. I just want to know that you value spending time in my presence. Ironically, because of my socially anxious nature, it takes a long time before I feel safe enough with any person to connect with them face-to-face. So that "quantity time" that deepens my relationships is hard to come by. Clearly, it's complicated. As an artist, I have discovered that if I don...

I used to be a fan of horse racing--mostly because, well, horses. I've become less enamored of it because of the extremes the sport subjects young animals to and the gambling aspect of things, but let it suffice to say "the home stretch" generates a more robust metaphor for me than maybe your average user of idioms. The home stretch, if the race is close, means the jockeys are pulling out all the stops to get every last bit of speed from mounts that are just about spent. The whips are flying, horses are foaming, there's likely mud everywhere. So when I say I'm in the home stretch of finishing the first Harry Moon graphic novel, I don't mean I'm happily drifting toward a blissful light at the end of the tunnel. I mean I'm flogging myself, proverbial foam lathering my productivity, and there's almost as much chance of me blowing a tendon as there is of me finishing the race with flying colors. Because my monitor is a beast, you may not fully app...