Tag Archives: Christian Fiction

A Wretched Man novel survey results

On January 31, we sent a survey to gauge reader response to A Wretched Man novel.  Of course, the survey was limited to those on the email list.  Unfortunately, we do not have email addresses for the anonymous folks who have purchased the book through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, bookstores, etc.  By necessity, the survey was limited to a select audience whose email addresses were known.   Please join the list by clicking the button at the bottom.

The response was overwhelming.  Thanks to all of you who participated.

Here are the results: 

  • The overall reader rating of the novel was 4.3 on a scale of 1 to 5.
  • Favorite part was split very evenly, but the humanization of the characters was at the top of the list and geography and setting was at the bottom.
  • Did readers like the scene depicting the Damascus road experience?  81% yes, 19% no.
  • Did readers like the ending?  96% yes, 4% no.
  • Did readers think the book would work well for a group discussion? 97% yes, 3% no.

Some survey participants added comments, but due to sheer volume, they cannot be reprinted here.  We have set up a page on the website that includes all of them, uncensored and unedited.  Click here to read them.

 
  Email Newsletter icon, E-mail Newsletter icon, Email List icon, E-mail List iconJoin Email List  
 


For Email Newsletters you can trust

I’ve started a new blog

Spirit of a Liberal will continue; however, I have started a new blog that pertains solely to my novel, writing and publishing issues, and other literary matters.  Last week, I moved a lot of my prior posts about the novel and reviews of other books from Spirit of a Liberal to the new blog.  Apologies to those who received a “tweet” every time I moved a post.

The new blog is entitled The Author’s Blog … from the author of A Wretched Man novel, and may be seen here.  Please continue to follow Spirit of a Liberal and add The Author’s Blog to the blogs you follow.

They’re here! A Wretched Man novel now available.

current copy compressed The shipments of my novel have arrived at the distributor’s warehouse (for transshipment to retailers including Amazon), at the website fulfillment center, and my personal copies at my house.  Those of you who have preordered through various media should expect to receive your books very soon.  Those who have been waiting until the books are actually available, that moment has arrived.

It’s exciting and scary.  They’re actually for sale.  Click here to go to the ecommerce website.  Locally in Northfield, they’ll be at Monkey See, Monkey Read bookstore, and I will be signing, selling, and reading this Saturday at Bethel Lutheran starting at noon.

Thanks for the support and encouragement.

With a Psalm (and a Song) in His Heart: Biblical Tales



The appeal of Scripture springs eternal, something Broadway and Hollywood have exploited for decades. Now there’s David M. Sanborn — an actor from a family of past and present Christian relief workers — who has brought his one-man musical, “King David,” to the Promise Theater, infusing the Books of Samuel with the aesthetics of both.

The idea of this family-friendly show — the book and songs are a collaboration between the good-looking, hard-working Mr. Sanborn and his mother, Ellen, who also directed it — involves Mr. Sanborn’s impersonating Hollywood actors (like Jimmy Stewart, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sean Connery) as he inhabits the figures in the life of David (including Saul, Goliath, the prophet Nathan and others).

Many of the renditions are spot-on, while others are less so. Some of the caricaturesque voices are the actor’s own creations. Helping to suggest antiquity are Elizabeth Richards’s simple but effective set and costumes.

But this is a musical, so there are songs, here set to prerecorded music and overflowing with lush arrangements, to say nothing of Mr. Sanborn’s impassioned vocals onstage. The actor, who has been touring with this production for 12 years, draws from a seemingly limitless well of feeling and makes the story wet, really wet, with emotion, especially in the musical numbers. You’ve never heard David suffer like this over the loss of his child by Bathsheba nor his anguished pleas for divine forgiveness. Except maybe in Las Vegas.

Inspirational pop can tend toward overwrought uplift, and so do the songs in “King David.” But families with a taste for this sort of thing will love it. Those seeking additional transcendence after the performance can look forward to “Judah Ben-Hur,” also starring Mr. Sanborn, which he has said he hopes to bring to Broadway in 2010.

“King David” continues through June 27 at the Promise Theater, 316 East 91st Street, Manhattan; (212) 352-3101, theatermania.com.

By Andy Webster in the New York Times

Book Review: The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis

Here, we will mention an author and his entire body of work since his importance ranges across all his novels and other writings. My introduction to Lewis was in my freshman English class at Dartmouth, under the esteemed conservative, Professor Jeffrey Hart, where Perelandra (part of the Space Trilogy) was assigned reading. The extra terrestials (eldila) in this fantasy novel bore a remarkable affinity to angels.

C.S. Lewis – Clive Staples Lewis (1898 – 1963) – was a leading figure of the English faculty at Oxford University and a close friend of J. R. R. Tolkien, the author of The Lord of the Rings. Although an academic himself, Lewis was critical of the historical approach to evaluating Scripture prevalent in the universities of the mid twentieth century, and he became a Christian apologist in essays and novels.

His most famous apologia, Mere Christianity, was a compilation of BBC radio essays broadcast during the early 1940’s.

Out of the Silent Planet (1938) was the first of The Space Trilogy soon followed by Perelandra (1943) and then That Hideous Strength (1945). Although space travel provides the setting, the books have little to do with the science of planetary exploration, which is merely a mythological framework for his treatment of Christian themes with a heavy dose of Lewis’ views on Christian theology. The storyline is apocalyptic, with battles of good vs evil, fallen angels, and a final decisive struggle. It has similarities with Tolkien’s fantasy world and themes of cataclysmic battle.

The Screwtape Letters (1942) is a fictional account of a series of letters from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, Wormwood. The premise of the letters is the temptation of humankind. Set in a contrived bureaucracy of Hell, Screwtape, Wormwood, and others attempt to lead humankind astray and thus render them candidates for damnation. Along the way, Lewis offers his hard hitting, conservative views on a variety of theological and moral issues.

Written between 1949 and 1954, The Chronicles of Narnia are Lewis’ most famous works with nearly 120 million copies sold. The seven books of this children’s fantasy series have achieved classic status with multiple reprints, foreign translations, and television and movie adaptations. If William Young receives rebuke for his imagining of God as a sassy, black woman in The Shack, Lewis paved the way by treating the talking Lion Aslan as a Christ figure. These stories are reaching the current generation of children through the popular movie series underway. The recurring storyline has human children magically transported to the fantasy world of Narnia where they join Aslan in the battle of good vs evil.