S.D. Smith's Blog, page 19

S. D. Smith Talks To Military Family in New Podcast Interview

Sam enjoyed talking with military family adventurers and homeschoolers Nathan and Anita for their podcast recently. I hope you’ll give it a listen.

Note: Here’s a link to a bunch of S. D. Smith interviews.

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The Greybreaker

The whole sky was grey,
Almost,
The whole sky was almost grey,
Almost, the whole sky was grey,
But not all the way,
Not today.
Because this little space,
This window to another place,
Showed up,
And we saw it,
Were in awe of it,
Because it was plain beyond the break of grey,
Bright and high and blue,
The sky!
Still alive,
Though rumors of its grave demise,
Multiplied.

So we were glad,
Happy at this foggy port,
Clearing for the appearing,
Of a glimpse of baby blue heaven,
On an Appalachian highway,
This pandemic winter,
When so much has been obscured,
And so much light and love,
Is hidden behind clouds,
Of cold and dark and selfish,
Snarling.

This bared blue sky finds me,
And tenderly reminds me,
To look for breaks in these grey days,
To search for sky despite the frightening,
Density of cloud,
The purple, pulsing crowds,
Whose hunger to devour,
Every bit of my attention,
And turn it to their purpose,
Abounds.
But I found this sky,
Blue and bright,
A happy sight.
For these tired eyes.
Surprising,
Out of and into the blue.

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Sisters Sing a Beautiful Green Ember Song!

These lovely sisters from the Phillipines are big Green Ember fans, and the youngest composed an original tune to accompany a song from Ember’s End: The Green Ember Book IV. Well done!

This sweet tune joins a growing catalog of poems, songs, original art, and fan fiction being created all across the world. Kids find The Green Ember world is a fantastic and hospitable “world” to play in and create in. Do your kids create and/or play Green Ember?

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2020, Am I Right? A Brief, Grateful Remembrance

Last year was tough for most of us, and so many continue to struggle through sickness, loss, economic instability, and other divisions and uncertainties. It’s been a painful opportunity for growth, and I’m hopeful about how God will use this chapter in our lives.

The story isn’t over.

As for us, we had our coast to coast book tour cancelled, which was a bummer because we wanted to see lots of you all in person. Instead, we released the conclusion to The Green Ember Series with Ember’s End from our worldwide headquarters in southern West Virginia—that center for literature and culture. We got the book out a little early in an effort to serve folks who were looking for hopeful, faithful stories during a scary period.

I’ve had the profound blessing of hearing from lots of folks who said that the book (and series broadly) was an inspiring and encouraging spot in a difficult (sometimes tragic) year. I thank God for that gift.

We planted a garden as a family, and the boys and I built a fence for it. That was a fun learning experience, and had some correspondence with the events of Ember’s End—if you know what I mean, jellybean. We played a lot of soccer and took lots of walks. We identified birds and raced stick-boats with elaborate names in a creek. We met neighbors on long walks and had fires and hot dog roasts and watched movies and read books. We hugged a million times. We laughed so often. We cried some too. I wrote some poems. We exercised. We went to church. We ate lots of cookies.

Gina and I celebrated TWENTY years of marriage in June. I’m so grateful for her. 

I did hate to miss the tour, but I also loved being home. And our home was a good place to be. Our family grew closer together and we experienced a lot of grace and goodness from God, even through trials. Our little church got a new pastor (arrived here in March 2020), who is an incredible gift I continually give thanks for, and our church grew.

We worked pretty hard. So much effort had gone into planning the tour, that we had to make some significant pivots as a small, family business, to survive. My brother and partner, Josiah (not to be confused with my son, Josiah) was a super star. He helped guide us through this challenging year in so many ways. He’s been a crucial character in our story and I love him so much. What a fella!

We started working with a distributor for shipping and that has been a huge answer to prayer. We worked with a literary agent for the first time and that has been a good experience that really forced us to evaluate more seriously just what our priorities are and what value we place on our work. There have been other cool developments that we’ll be able to share more about later. But overall, we have so much to be thankful for.

I wrote more on my book for writers called Make. Believe. Then I realized I needed to go back to more basic ideas and I wrote a lot of introductory material for writers that I aim to make into a course.

I wrote a short novelette roughly based on some of my experiences as a kid visiting several predominantly black churches in Appalachia as we prepared to move to Africa. I hope that will get out to you someday in the not too-distant future.

I also wrote The Archer’s Cup, the third book in the Green Ember Archer Trilogy (and the ninth Green Ember book overall). I wrote it and we published it soon after, and it was in readers’ hands before Christmas. I loved this book. It was a pretty significant departure from the other Green Ember books. It’s a mystery and it deals centrally with love. It was a fun challenge and I’m grateful that the feedback has been so good.

I can’t tell you what an honor it is to be writing a book about a rabbit archer and to feel a kind of absurd confidence that, even though you’re writing something that’s pretty significantly different from what is being published by every publisher out there, you know there’s a home for it with other weird and wonderful people who will get it—people who love new stories with an old soul. I continue to be surprised and delighted by the way you all have welcomed me and my stories into your lives. It’s like meeting thousands of friends you never knew you had. Thank you!

So many of you have reviewed my books! Thank you so much. That means an awful lot to me. It helps so much. It also helps if you go to The Green Ember on Amazon and scroll down and mark the good reviews as “Helpful” and IGNORE the critical/political ones.

You know what else would help? If I would wrap this epistle up. I think we’ve all heard enough from Mr. Smith. I’m sure I missed important things, but there are worse things and besides, there’s a cookie in the other room I need to examine.

I’m so grateful for you. Thanks for reading this and for being such an encouragement to me and my family.

God bless you and keep you. May this year be a memorable one, full of adventure and woven through with grace.

Stay cool forever,

Sam

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Necklaces Are Back Again (While Supplies Last) and Christmas Sale Extended Till 1/10/21

We’re going to keep our Christmas sales up till this weekend. Then we will raise prices so high your head will spin. Not really. Your head will be spinless. The prices will go back to normal. But here’s what’s going away.

Ornaments are going away! Last chance to snag one of these beauties.

Necklaces are back, while supplies last. (They haven’t been lasting long.)

Sales are ending: 5 Green Embers for $25, All-Book Softcover Bundle for $80, 4 Book Bundle with The Last Archer Free, hats, shirts, and lots of other stuff on sale. All ending. All going to that chasm of hopelessness where sales all go to retire and decline and die.

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Flashback to a Surprising Success and Gratitude for a Great Dude

Five years ago. We were just getting started. Nine books (and audiobooks) now and it still feels early. I’m so grateful for all the love and support we’ve had, and especially for the small team of pals who have partnered with me to share these stories with you.

I especially want to single out for particular gratitude and honor my publisher and partner and pal from way back: Andrew Mackay, one of the finest fellas in the world. Andrew is a credit to His country and queen.

I Write New Stories with an Old Soul from The Forge

I’m Sam.

I’m married to beautiful and brave Gina and we have four sweet Smithereens. We live in West Virginia and, despite some serious challenges our community faces, we love it. We wouldn’t trade places with the most famous urban elites.

I write New Stories with an Old Soul from The Forge—my writing shed about ten steps behind the photographer in the image above. I love writing adventurous books for families and especially kids. I hear from lots of families and some tell me about reading my stories during dark, difficult days and finding inside them a kind of light. That’s all the encouragement I need.

I believe the vocation of storyteller is more about love and service than fame and self-expression. I feel called to hospitality and hope. I aim to delight.

I’m not offended if my books aren’t for someone. No problem. I am absolutely astonished at the audience of eager readers who they clearly are for. And I’m working for them. For you.

And I’m grateful. Thank you for reading. For encouraging me. For giving my stories a chance. What a gift.

I made these books for you.

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Heather’s Necklace! Picket’s Sword! Available For Christmas Gifts!

UPDATE! From the FAQ: Did Heather’s Necklace immediately sell out after going live?

Yes! We are hoping to have more in stock by mid-December. (We hope in time for the December 13 Christmas shipping deadline—IF “FASTER SHIPPING” IS SELECTED—but we can’t be sure.) Be sure to be signed up for S. D. Smith’s newsletter. Subscribers there get all news first. 

—- —- —- —–

If your kids like to play in the Green Ember world, I’m delighted to share that we have two favorites items from the series in the store.

I really do believe that a stick can make a great sword. That’s mostly what I played with as a kid. But these swords are nice. Zach Franzen designed them to match the images of Picket’s sword in The Green Ember Series. 

Picket’s Sword and Heather’s Necklace are available to order now! 

CHRISTMAS SHIPPING DEADLINES

Standard Shipping: December 3.
Faster Shipping: December 13. 

Note: with the shipping delays we all know about now, it’s better to order early and expect slower delivery. 

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A Giveaway Worth Over $1,000! Happening Now…

Christmas approaches, Thanksgiving is next week, and I love this time of year. It will be different and challenging this year for many of us, though the world has been far worse. Still, we’re in a painful, frustrating, and (for many), very challenging time—maybe even a time of grieving and lament. Advent, a season of reflection and fasting and giving is just around the corner, and I love that it precedes the festive season of Christmastide. I love that Christmas is about being met by the divine in the midst of darkness. I love that, even though we feel like our culture is about as messy as it can get, God himself came into our mess to bless and redeem us. We get to celebrate that. And I love that for most of us, this involves giving! I’d be happy if you chose to shop our Christmas sale for some of your gifts, but regardless, I hope this season is (maybe unexpectedly) awesome for your family. I hope it’s a time of togetherness and memory-making, of weathering the storms side-by-side, and growing in the adventure. 

Honestly, I can get tired of self-promotion pretty quick. But I do LOVE sharing these stories with kids. Today I listened to a former Scottish international rugby star tell me how he cried reading these books to his kids. I got another note today from a family with a son struggling with dyslexia whose first reading adventure is The Green Ember. He is PUMPED! (I’ve had countless notes like that!) These kinds of responses are what excite me. I’m on a mission to love and serve kids. Families. Your family. Your kids. I’m eager to keep it going as long as I can. 

Because these stories are HOPEFUL. And they are HOSPITABLE. 

Hopeful, Hospitable Stories

They started on my porch with my kids, and have spread all over the world to countless couches and snuggly beds and walking paths and everywhere stories are shared! I LOVE it. 

We made a video trying to quickly express our experience and hope for these adventures. It’s filmed on the actual porch where The Green Ember adventures began. (The porch where it happened…the porch where it happened.) It goes on to two other families sharing the first and then the latest book. It’s a story about what is really happening.

I want LOTS of people to see it! 

So I’m going to give away over $1,000 worth of prizes. Yes, $1,000. If you’ve been around here a bit, you know we aren’t afraid of giving things away to help get these stories in the hands of as many people (who want them and would be served by receiving them) as possible. I want people to see this video and have a chance to be invited into these HOPEFUL, HOSPITABLE stories. 

Are you in? 

Want to help me out? Want to maybe win a fantastic prize worth $291? (I’m giving away FOUR—two winners on Facebook and two on Instagram.)

Please go and check out the video either at Facebook or Instagram and enter the giveaway! It’s easy and it helps us a bunch. 

(ENDS DECEMBER 1.)

I’m giving away 4 HOPEFUL-HOSPITABLE STORIES ULTRA MEGA BUNDLES!

Each winner will receive these prizes worth a total of $291!

1) A complete SIGNED SET of ALL FOUR Green Ember Hardcover Books! (Worth $102)

2) A complete SIGNED SET of ALL THREE Green Ember Archer Books! (Worth $33)

3) A complete SIGNED SET of BOTH Tales of Old Natalia Books! (Worth $20)

4) FIVE EXTRA GIFT-GIVING COPIES of The Green Ember! (Worth $75)

5) A Green Ember Christmas ornament! (Worth $15)

6) A Green Ember Shirt of your choice! (Worth $20)

7) A Green Ember Hat of your choice! (Worth $26)

Go HERE for Instagram!

Go HERE for Facebook!
 

Thanks for helping us out. Thanks for sharing these stories. Thanks for shopping our Christmas deals. Thanks for loving the kids in your life! I’m grateful for you!

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Green Ember Series Reading Order UPDATED

I’m really tempted to make this like one of those recipe blogs where they say, “I’m eager to share my homemade butternut nutbutter recipe with you, but it reminds me of my old college roommate Nutty B. Buttersworth. What a nut! Nutty and I went walking in the peanut fields outside of town on a crisp, clear, crispy-clear, very cold and crispy and clear day when he had a—you guessed it—a nutty idea….”

But I won’t. Here’s the recommended reading order.

The Green Ember The Black Star of Kingston (Tales of Old Natalia 1) Ember Falls: The Green Ember Book II The Last Archer: Green Ember Archer 1 Ember Rising: The Green Ember Book III The Wreck and Rise of Whitson Mariner (Tales of Old Natalia 2) The First Fowler: Green Ember Archer 2 Ember’s End: The Green Ember Book IV The Archer’s Cup: Green Ember Archer 3



Flipping 8 and 9 So I Finish With Ember’s End?

One part you can easily flip, though, is 8 and 9. Sure. That might be more fun. But publication order, as seen above, is good.

Simply start with The Green Ember and you should be fine. You definitely do miss some things by skipping the Tales of Old Natalia and Green Ember Archer books and only reading the main four Green Ember Series books. I don’t recommend it.

If you have skipped them, I recommend going back and enjoying those as well! It will enhance the overall experience immensely and better prepare you for future Green Ember world adventures.

Yes. There’s more coming…

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