S.D. Smith's Blog, page 34

Outlaws of Time: N. D. Wilson, Master of American Magic

N. D. Wilson is the Master of American Magic. There is no other middle-grade author who writes such powerful fantasy with an American accent. And I don’t mean Wilson’s own accent, though he does go in for hard Rs. I mean the stories themselves. They are the kinds of tales you can’t imagine being narrated by one of our cousins from across the pond. How many fantasy stories do you know like that? His stories are wide open and wild, full of fastballs and six-shooters. The settings are Kansas, Wisconsin, Arizona, and (best of all) West Virginia.

In his latest fantasy, Wilson has given us a Miracle, and more than that, Glory. Sam Miracle and Glory Spalding find themselves caught up in an old war between Father Time and Fate, trapped in a recycling series of calamities that always leave the evil Vulture cackling over the bones of his victims, including Sam’s sister. Sam and Glory are not in a race against time, but a war across time, and every line in their adventure is punctuated by pain.

Pain? But I though this was a kids books. Pain. Yes. Lots of it. This story isn’t safe. But it’s good. It’s very good.

N. D. Wilson writes scary stories on purpose. You can listen to him talk about why in this excellent podcast with Sarah Mackanzie, or read his essay in The Atlantic. Here’s a small part:

Overwhelmingly, in my own family and far beyond, the stories that land with the greatest impact are those where darkness, loss, and danger (emotional or physical) is a reality. But the goal isn’t to steer kids into stories of darkness and violence because those are the stories that grip readers. The goal is to put the darkness in its place. (read it all here)

   

This book puts darkness in its place, alright. It comes out, guns blazing. Fires fast as a rattler, with both hands. Yes, the main character is a boy with snake arms who shoots guns. Yes, this was somehow allowed to be published in this YOZO (Year of Our Zeitgeist Overlords) 2016. This era in publishing (not to mention education, politics, and media of every kind) is marked by a persistent hostility to boys. It’s refreshing to read a story so friendly to young male readers. I’m grateful! We all should be. There is nothing that would keep girls (who read better and more often than boys at every age level) from enjoying this excellent book. My own brilliant daughter loved it. But Outlaws of Time is rare modern fare that gives boys an example to follow, a hero willing to lay down his life, in a quest to fight evil and rescue one he loves. It’s an old story that’s never cliche. In many ways it’s the story. And here it is again, with snake arms and a time-walking Navaho priest. Wilson, a modern writer who has somehow found the escape-hatch in the tedious, boring prison of p.c. storytelling, is the real Outlaw of Time.

Nate Wilson is a friend, and (disclosure) he gave me an advanced copy of the book. I’ve heard him talk about why (good) scary stories are good (and scary) for kids before. But the recent heap of goodness on the subject came at a particularly important time for me, as I wrestle through the darkness in my next book, . His wisdom on this subject has sharpened my resolve to lead my readers, many very young, into the mirky waters of a troubling tale. The light shines bright against the darkness, but is unnoticeable when simply set against more light. N. D. Wilson’s light burns like an Arizona sunrise. Long may it light up the sky and scatter the darkness.

I loved Outlaws of Time: The Legend of Sam Miracle. My kids (both female and male he created them) loved it. My wife loved it. They read the paper version and I listened to (American) Macleod Andrews perform the audiobook with energy and mastery. I highly recommend it.

Here’s a video trailer to make the case far better than I can. Behold, a Miracle.

NOTE: If you order yours by April 23, you will receive N. D. Wilson’s Writing Course for Free!

Announcing The Green Ember Book II: The Sequel Has A Name And Cover

Note: I usually don’t post my newsletters in their entirety, but I’m making an exception this month because reasons. Reasons like the new title and cover announcement!

 

Hello and How Are You?

I’m fine. I’m fine as a frog hare, which is a rare breed of rabbit from the inky marshes of Toadopolis. Frog hares, as I’m sure you know, are famous for their positivity and remarkable sense of wellbeing. Which is where the cliche “fine as a frog hare” comes from.

Speaking of book covers and new book titles…

The Green Ember Sequel is Coming Soon!

Before I shared the new book’s cover or title anywhere else on-line, I wanted to share it with you. Here it is!

I LOVE what Zach has done with the new cover art. It’s excellent. I’m SO EXCITED (and a little nervous) to share this book with you. It’s not the last one, but it’s the next one. I can’t wait to get it into your hands.

Ember Falls is in final edits and the plans for the launch are, as the Brits say, hotting up. We are still aiming/hoping for a Spring hatching (probably late Spring or early Summer, honestly). Do you have any suggestions for how to share the launch with as many people as possible?

We are really excited.

 

Of All The Events In Life, This Was One Of Them

The above is one of my father’s many maxims. So true. So unhelpful. So subtly magnificent.

I had a fantastic time meeting so many wonderful folks at the Great Homeschool Conventions event in Greenville. There were multiple highlights for me, but probably the top one was finally meeting Read-Aloud Revival mavenSarah Mackenzie in person and getting a chance to thank her for all her incredible support. What a great lady!

I also met Warren Cole Smith and John Stonestreet, two wise men I admire and am grateful for. They were both kind enough to send people to our booth all weekend. There were the wonderful ladies at The Homegrown Preschooler, Lesli and Kathy, and the “Classical Crowd” of delightful people from Circe and Classical Academic Press, as well as many more new friends.

I made babies cry. I made some adults cry. After some great/exhausting days, I watched my nephew’s last college basketball game and had a wee cry myself.

It was really fun. I loved meeting so many of you and your beautiful kids!

I may be doing more of this in the future. They were kind enough to ask me to consider being a featured speaker at all four events next year. What an honor!

There’s another event in the midwest in a couple of weeks.

Cincinnati, I’m coming your way. March 31-April 2. I hope some of you can stop by to say hello. And tell your friends!

 

The New Deal 

We keep selling lots of books, which must mean you people keep telling your friends about The Green Emberand Black Star. Thank you!

I took this screencap yesterday. Bananas! I’m so delighted to see that this book, in its various forms, continues to connect to readers.

Plus, our new bundles are available now. You can get the paperback bundle for $15 and save some moola. Maybe share it with your friends?

And you can add a t-shirt and get all three for a mere $25.

We are discontinuing the old bundle of The Green Emberhard cover + Black Star pb for $20. That one was a little insane.

 

Things of the Month Things

Book of the Month: John Hendrix’s The Miracle Man. We really loved this. John is an incredible artist.

Music of the Month: Sandra McCracken’s Psalms. On repeat. Balm. For heavy hearts. Lovely.

Movie of the Month: The Secret Word of Arrietty. Really beautiful. Been thinking a lot about animation lately and this was special.

Quotation of the Month: On motherhood, from G. K. Chesterton. Huge.

“I can understand how [mothering] might exhaust the mind, but I cannot imagine how it could narrow it. How can it be a large career to tell other people’s children about arithmetic, and a small career to tell one’s own children about the universe? How can it be broad to be the same thing to everyone, and narrow to be everything to someone? No; a woman’s function is laborious because it is gigantic, not because it is minute. I will pity Mrs. Jones for the hugeness of her task; I will never pity her for its smallness.”

-G.K. Chesterton

Okay friends, that’s all for now. I’m so grateful for your support and for the many of you who pray for us. I have always wanted to be on your side and it’s a gift that so many of you have made it clear to me that you’re on my side as well. Thank you.

Bear the flame!

Sam

Two Books For 99 Cents!

Hello Friends!

Cool news. Will you help me out by sharing it?

The Green Ember is 99 cents on Kindle today. And Black Star is Free.

We will select someone we see sharing this out on the inter webs as a winner and send them something cool. #Winning #WhinnieThePooh #NotWinningThePoo

Here’s an image you can share with THIS LINK: http://bit.ly/TGE99C-NL

Feel free to share my post on Facebook, or….

Here are some suggested posts you could copy and paste!

Facebook:

One of our family favorites is only 99 cents today! A fantastic adventure, The Green Ember by S. D. Smith is a new story with an old soul. 

Get your copy here: http://bit.ly/TGE99C-NL

 

Twitter:

Get a new story with an old soul… #TheGreenEmber by @SDSmith_ for only 99 cents TODAY!

#RabbitsWithSwords  http://bit.ly/TGE99C-NL

 

or….

 

The short prequel to #TheGreenEmber by @SDSmith_ is FREE TODAY on #Kindle! #BlackStarOK

#RabbitsWithSwords  http://bit.ly/TBSOKFree-NL

 

Two books for 99 cents. Not bad.

Thanks for your help!

High Lady of Contagious Pizzazz

I am very, very happy to welcome Kristen Usher to our team! Kristen will be leading our valiant efforts to share these old soul/new stories with the world. Her official title is…

High Lady of Contagious Pizzazz, Supreme Executive of High Fives, and Secretary General of Ginger Outreach

If you follow sports, then you know that when your team signs an outstanding player in a crucial position, you rejoice. We feel like we have done just that.

Andrew is trying to do everything a publisher uses dozens of people to do, and together we are trying to cobble together a ragtag team of volunteers and friends to get this new book off the ground and not neglect the others. We somehow managed it last year, with help. But our margins have shrunk and our to-do lists have grown, so we are beyond excited that Kristen Usher is going to join us to help with telling the story of the story.

Our sequel for The Green Ember is scheduled (as of now) to appear in late Spring, and we plan to share it with the world via Kickstarter. There’s really no better way we know of to share the book and we’re excited about doing it! Having Kristen on board is a profound blessing and injects so much (much-needed) enthusiasm in our squad.

Kristen will be our queen of connection, our maven of many meetings, our oligarch of outreach. She will be leading the charge on social media and elsewhere, making sure we don’t miss opportunities to connect with potential readers.

Sometimes she’ll be posting at my Facebook Page or on my Twitter account. When she posts on Twitter, it will usually be with a “-KU” appended.

Welcome, Kristen!

Kristen is here pictured with her amazing twin sister and my friend, Laura Peterson!

This Is One Star, What’s Your Emergency: Some Recent Reviews of The Green Ember and Black Star

Below is a roundup of some recent reviews from around the web.

Reviews are so important for authors. I recently had a couple of one and two star reviews on Amazon. No big deal–not an emergency–but the positive reviews do help. If you enjoyed either book and haven’t left a review on Amazon, please consider doing it now for The Green Ember, and/or The Black Star of Kingston. It takes only a few minutes and, even if it’s very brief, it really does help a lot.

Thank you!

Most of these are from “Year End” lists. I feel honored that The Green Ember was included on many lists and that Black Star got a few mentions as well. Thank you to everyone who has shared my books. It means so much to me.

The first was very touching to read. Thank you Joshua Hutchins, for this. The review is short, but I’ll include just a small part.

There were moments when the beauty of the story brought me to tears. When my girls would ask me why I was crying, I said, “One day you are going to reread this book when you are older, and you will see how beautiful it is.”

This was a very kind review from Deana Wood. An outtake:

Don’t even get me started!  Quite possibly my favorite book of the year, overall.  This one is a real page turner.  My kids beg me for “just one more chapter” every day.

 

And this was surreal to read from Mandi Ehman.

I have to be honest: I was skeptical of this one because there was so much hype when it came out, in part because S.D. Smith is a homeschool dad and popular blogger. The noncomformist, maverick side of my personality didn’t want to become a follower and pick it up just because everyone else was, so I held off for a long time.

However, I did finally add it to our collection in the fall, and when I started reading it one afternoon after my 9-year-old left it sitting on the couch, I was immediately hooked. It’s a captivating story of two rabbits who set out on an unexpected adventure and discover what courage, honor and love really mean.

I laughed, and was taken aback,  seeing this. See, I’m afraid I have that same attitude. Often, when “everyone’s” talking about something, I just check out on it. Kind of pathetic, but true. Less true than in the past, but still true. (For instance, I still haven’t seen The Passion of the Christ, largely because about a thousand of my fellow Christians told me I HAD to see it.) Anyway it was super weird to be, even in a very small way, on the receiving end of that sentiment. MY book was hyped? What!? By who? That is surreal, man. I still think of The Green Ember as a plucky underdog, fighting against the odds to be noticed, so it’s weird to see someone say that it was, “so hyped.” But then I realized that she was talking about readers. Likely other families of readers like ours, who loved and shared the book. Crazy! But thanks for giving it a shot, Mandi. 

And speaking of underdogs, li’l brudder Black Star gets some attention in this brief review from Eric Wearne. But he praises Ember very generously.

[This is a] prequel to The Green Ember, which I think will end up being a classic. Still working through this one too, but I am happy. I hope this series keeps going and going.

Thanks, Eric! Me too.

And this from Tiffany Malloy, who appears to have been spared the boring parts.

Jake would read ahead every night because it was that good :). The kids were always eager to listen and begged for “one more chapter, Daddy!”

I still love hearing that. Thanks, Jake and the Malloys all.

Jamie at the Unlikely Homeschool shares a very generous paragraph about Ember.

S. D. Smith has somehow figured out how to write a new book with an old soul. In a fantastical Narnia-esque way, he has woven big bold truth into the kind of innocent and virtuous story that is usually only found in books from yesteryear. My daughter loved this book so much, that as soon as we turned the final page, she immediately read its prequel, The Black Star of Kingston .

Thank you, Jamie. I’m so delighted to hear you enjoyed it!

I always appreciate a shout for the audiobooks. My friend Todd pointed to this appearance of Ember in a list of “21 of the Best Audiobooks for Kids” from Fractus Learning.

The Green Ember is a relatively new but hugely popular one of our audio books for kids.

And Melissa Taylor had kind words for Ember here.

Powerful! I don’t normally like books with animal characters but this was epic and I didn’t really notice or care that the characters were rabbits. It felt mythological — I highly recommend it!

Thank you, Melissa!

And thanks to everyone who has shared kind reviews in the past, or plan to. It helps so much.

Again, please consider reviewing The Green Ember, and/or The Black Star of Kingston at Amazon.

And let me know if I missed your review.

Cheers!

Advocate or Accuser?

I wrote the below a few years ago, sharing it at Story Warren and The Rabbit Room. It seems like a good time to share it here. 

I had an email from a friend this morning who saw something in my life and felt called to point it out to me. It was about how Gina and I parent our kids. I am not always good at receiving this kind of feedback. It’s embarrassing. It makes me feel weird to think people are watching, noticing things. This is so often an avenue of judgement and accusation.

Many people don’t understand that the name, “Devil,” means “Accuser.” It comes (literally) from the idea of throwing stones. On the other hand, both God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are described as our Advocate. It is a Trinitarian task to advocate on behalf of those who are in Christ.

It really does need to be said that loving people includes a call to engaging in loving confrontation. If I hate my children, I fail to confront them with their rebellion and sin. This is the case even –no, particularly– when what they are doing comes naturally. That’s what sin is and Christians are called to die to sin in order to live. Failing to correct, refusing to say the same thing God says about our sin, is a way of hating our children, and each other.

That being said, are the fellow-Christians you are letting speak into your life more like Accusers or Advocates?

An Advocate will call you to come clean and do right, but keeps coming back to making an argument on your behalf.

An Accuser can’t see past your sin.

An Advocate can see who you’re becoming.

An Accuser can see the worst of what you’ve done.

An Advocate sees the long story of your life.

An Accuser says, “I know you’re guilty.”

An Advocate says, “I’m on your side.”

That email I mentioned above was from an Advocate. He couldn’t wait to share with me things he saw in our home life that were beautiful to him. He was eager to heap praise and to point out what God was doing.

I needed that. Because, as I wrote to him,

“It’s easy enough to believe only the mess of imperfection that we can see of our lives, and be blind to the good things God is doing. Thanks for seeing that and for taking the time and energy to point it out.”

I don’t want to condone and celebrate sin. I want to avoid hitching a ride on the bandwagon where rebellion and death are celebrated.

But I want to be an advocate for my brothers and sisters in Christ. I want to see more than sin and the sinner, I want eyes also for the emerging (and already-positioned) saint. I want to be an ally, one who isn’t surprised at seeing sin in others, but one who is quick to extend grace.

I get that my categories of Advocate and Accuser are not air-tight by any means. But here’s my question.

Would you more easily be described as an Accuser, or an Advocate?

I’m not entirely comfortable with how long it takes me to think about how to answer that. So, onward…toward grace.

And a beautiful place to start is with our children.

Marginal Faith: You Probably Should Be Doing Less

Have you ever read a book that was inviting and endearing, but the words ran all the way to the edge of the book? Probably not. Stories without margins are nearly impossible to enjoy reading. It’s the same with life stories. Margin is not the wasted space on the page where more words could have gone if only we would knuckle-down and work harder. Margin is the place where the words we carefully compose and place show their best. When we read, we rarely notice the margins, unless they aren’t there.

Our stories shine because of the margin that others often don’t even notice. But if we forget about the importance of the margin, if we endlessly erase it to cram more and more content into our stories, we lose readability. We lose credibility.

It’s the sign of a cheaply-made book, the work of an amateur, easily and advisedly ignored.

Margin makes your story clear, legible, and beautiful. At least, if your story really is beautiful, the margin will not contradict it. It will enhance and testify to its worth and beauty, to how compelling it is.

Margin-making is an act of faith. It is a surrender to a providential God. It is a humble act. It is ceding power from ignorance to omniscience. It is childlike, hopeful, brave, and beautiful.

You will today be told you need to do a hundred more things to qualify as productive, as righteous, as loyal. You will hear it said, infer it from passive aggressive counselors, and probably say it to yourself on repeat all day. You will be invited to do more, then cajoled, then shamed.

You need to think this. You need to do that. You need to do more. More. More. More. More!

I don’t know about all those details in your life. I don’t know which of the thousand things you must absolutely ignore and say “no” to today in order to accomplish what you actually should do. But I know this.

You need to figure out what you’re called to, the smaller and more precise the better, and then do that with all you’ve got. And you need margin to make it stand out.

If you have a reasonably clear vocation and a somewhat healthy margin, you will have to defend it like the walls of Troy. Beware of well-meaning Greeks bearing “gifts” of guilt-inducing demands.

If you have no margin, or have lost it to those cunning Greeks, you must go to war to reclaim it. 

And I’ll say this to those who have lost, or are holding on to, a little margin.

Fight. Fight as though your life depends on it.

It does.

The Green Ember Sequel

Will there be a sequel to The Green Ember?

I get asked about this quite often, so I thought I’d make a location where you can get answers. If you have any more question, feel free to ask them in the comments. Okay. Here goes. 

Will you be writing a sequel to The Green Ember?

Yes! It’s mostly written, in fact. I am in the editing stage right now. I’m super excited to share this story with you.

When will it be released?

We are aiming for Spring 2016. But we want to make certain it’s the best it can (reasonably) be. We are working very hard to hit our goal!

Will Heather and Picket be the main characters in the sequel?

Yes!

Will Zach Franzen be doing the cover art and illustrations once again?

Yes! He’s working on them right now. He is eager to share them with you!

Will there be more short prequels like The Black Star of Kingston and what are the Tales of Old Natalia?

I hope so. I’m planning on it. Black Star was the first in the Tales of Old Natalia series. The Tales of Old Natalia series title was meant to distinguish the older stories, starting with Whitson Mariner coming to Natalia in Black Star, from The Green Ember series.

Are you saying there will be a series of Green Ember books?

I think there will be three.

Do you have a title for book 2?

Not settled yet. Soon, I hope. Got any great ideas?

As always, any important news (sequel title and cover art, or another award lost, etc.), as well as any special offers, will be shared first with my newsletter subscribers.

My newsletter, Blast to Smithereens, has an unlimited budget for spectacular graphics. (As you can see.) Subscribe today, or face the wrath of the rabbit on my shoulder. Where’s the monkey that used to be on my back? I’ll give you three guesses and the first two do count, because this will be a fair assessment of your insight. UPDATE: The preceding banter (re: the bunny and the late monkey) was purely rhetorical.

Do you have any questions about the sequel? Feel free to ask away! 

An Award-Losing Author Wins

I wanted to write a hospitable story, one that would welcome children into a new world where they would find good things. I wanted to honor them, their intelligence and imagination, and give them just a spark of light, contributing (I hoped) to eventual fires I would likely never know about.

What I set out to give, I have received.

And I’m profoundly grateful.

I’m so grateful for Sarah Mackenzie and the amazing community at the Read Aloud Revival. The podcast is amazing, and I can say I was a fan before I was ever a guest. The Green Ember and Black Star were both among their favorite read-alouds. That’s such a huge honor. The RAR community has been an unbelievable source of encouragement for me.

Really, the RAR family is just the largest and most identifiable portion of the incredible audience who have honored me by reading my books. It is hard to describe–really, it’s difficult to even properly process–what this year has been like for me. An easy year? No. A year full of joyful firsts? Yes. A year that I’ll always remember with fondness and gratitude? Definitely.

I like to joke about being an “Award-Losing Author.” That’s not all about covertly bragging about being a finalist for some award I’m genuinely amazed to be considered for. Authors are just like other people, hungry for affirmation and fearful of being rejected. Since authors often do this “being a person” thing in public, it can be awkward pathetic sad challenging.

I want my value and identity to always be rooted in the risen Christ. I don’t want my life to be anchored in the approval or praise of others, but I’ll just say that sometimes it sure can do a feller good.

So I just want to say thank you to those of you who have been so generous and hospitable to me this past year. Thanks for giving my stories a chance. Thanks for reviewing on Amazon/Audible, sharing my books in blog posts or in person, subscribing to my newsletter, writing me encouraging emails or letters, and in so many other ways making this inaugural year of my authoring adventure one I will cherish all my life.

So, while I joke about losing awards, I have genuinely been given the best acclaim an author can covet. You. Readers. Allies. Advocates.

Friends.

I thank God in heaven for you all.

Happy Christmas!

–Sam

Win This Beautiful, Handmade Heather & Picket Set

These really are lovely, created by the very talented girl behind Wooly Willows. She makes and sells beautiful, handmade items to help support an orphanage in China, where two of her sisters come from.

All you need to do to be eligible to win this set is this:

1) Post some of your kids’ “Rabbits With Swords” art to your Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram page.

2) Include a link to my books–either our store, or  Amazon.

3) Tag me if you can (so I can see it), and add the hashtag: #RabbitsWithSwordsArt

For tagging: My Facebook Page     ::     My Twitter

That’s it! Get them up soon, and we’ll send the winner their prize on December 17th.

Here are some good ones from the past. It doesn’t have to be spectacular.