Sheila Deeth's Blog, page 30

What's Grace Got To Do With Fiction?

I've just started reading Madeleine L'Engle's Walking on Water and I'm hooked. As a Christian author, I love her comment that "if it's bad art, it's bad religion." And I'm really enjoying her insistance that Christian art makes no more sense than Christian oranges. If art is creation, and if Christians believe in a creator, then that creator should have a hand in all art ... even in books where the protagonist despises religion ... even in mysteries where a graceless protagonist objectifies e...

Is Fantasy Sci-Fi?

When I met the man I would later marry we were both in college. He loaned me his copy of Dune over the Christmas vacation; I suspect he wanted to make sure I'd see him again, if only to return the book. Dune is a great science fiction novel. We both loved the sense of working out how the planet's ecology could evolve, and imagining the mysteries of space travel. But my soon-to-be-husband was much more tied to the science while I loved the characters, the mind-reading, future-sensing aspects o...

Can picture books help raise thinkers?

I loved Karina Fabian's post last week, where she asked if SciFi could help raise thinkers (Yes, Yes, Yes!). Then I read a collection of books specifically aimed at raising small thinkers--NNAT and OLSAT training for pre-schoolers and kindergarteners. With more children's books on my reading list, it's no wonder I ended up pondering if picture books can help raise thinkers too. Small thinkers. Big thoughts sometimes. But most importantly, kids who can interpret and follow instructions (rather...

Can Sci-Fi Help Raise Thinkers?

I'm delighted to welcome author Karina Fabian to my blog today. She writes science fiction for thinking readers, but she also writes to encourage readers to think. She's touring the internet this month with her new novel, Discovery


About Discovery - The truth is out there. The Truth is in you - Sisters Ann, Tommie and Rita are part of a classified mission to explore an alien ship that has crash landed on an asteroid three billion miles from earth. Humanity's first contact with beings from beyo...

Who's Your Fantasy Bartender?

Today I'm delighted to welcome author E. Chris Garrison to my blog as she tours the internet with her wonderful Tispy Fairy Tales. I gather she's just returned from the Indianapolis Monument Circle of her books, where she met... well, I'll let her tell you... Welcome Chrissy.
Having a Brew With a Fantasy BartenderBy E. Chris Garrison

Sometimes characters become fairly real to an author. We argue with them, trying to forward a plot while the character, in our mind's eye, pouts and stomps their f...

Is the Play the Thing?

The play's the thing, perhaps. Or maybe music's the thing. Or the beat, the rhythm, the lyrical style... the story, the story line?

The speaker (Brian Doyle) at our local writers' group called us storycatchers. He said the story's the thing. The story's what brings reader and writer to a place without words. And the story chooses its own form--poem, list, memoir, essay, novel... Catch the story when you can. Write it without form or reason (or thought). Then edit or throw away. You can always...

Would You Ask To Be Psychic?

Today I'm delighted to welcome Crymsyn Hart back to my blog after a two-year gap. In August 2014 we met her Reaper (click to find the post), but today we'll meet the author herself, as the Reaper rides again. And this time Crymsyn is answering a question from this curious reader...


How does a real psychic feed into writing about a fictional one? 
Welcome Crymsyn 
How does a real psychic feed into writing about a fictional one? What an excellent question.

I never woke up and asked the go...

Would You Want To Grow Up?

I like 14.

When I was small, I wanted to be fourteen. Not ten or eleven - those weren't quite the teens. Not thirteen for all that it was my favorite number; it was still too young. But fourteen seemed just right. I wrote stories with fourteen-year-old protagonists saving the world. My fourteen-year-old alter-ego met with heroes real and fictional and discovered her unknown super-powers, like never getting tired, or breathing underwater, or imagining the world's greatest inventions. My fourtee...

With or without pictures?

I didn't like picture books as a kid. Actually, as a very small child I didn't even like books, but then I learned to read. After that I loved anything with words - even bus tickets. But I couldn't fathom why people would fill that precious paper space in a story with pictures instead. Which is crazy since I loved to draw and paint.

One day I graduated from picture books to chapter books. Some of the chapter books had pages of pictures as well, which annoyed me. But mostly they just had letter...

Purring Furrily or Burrily?

Today I'm delighted to welcome author Anne Zoet to my blog, and to offer my review of her picture picture book, Purrball meets Burrball in Brazil. If the title itself isn't enough to intrigue you, well ... read on and find out more.

Review of Purrball Meets BurrballWhen Darryl’s family move to Brazil, it’s obvious that Darryl’s cat, Purrball, will come too, and so will readers, enjoying this book. Wise parents have Mom’s phone and charger on hand for the journey, so Darryl can play games. They...