The Pageturning Report: February 2024

A brief update on my creative writing. The Catholic Writers Guild online conference. Podcasts galore!

Photo by Olga Tutunaru on Unsplash

Hello everyone! Just a brief update this month. Nothing new to report on my middle-grade nonfiction book. You may have noticed that I stopped posting my paid-subscriber exclusive posts entitled “A Novel Endeavor.” Two reasons for this:

1. After taking this project to prayer, I realized that the novel I was trying to write was not really the novel I wanted to write. I was trying to hard to craft a story that I thought would please a prospective editor instead of the story that was really in my heart.

2. The “Novel Endeavor” posts did not seem to be popular. The engagement I expected simply wasn’t there. This experience taught me that paywalling behind-the-scenes content is really only a good strategy for established authors with a big audience.

I might go into more detail about all this in a longer bonus post next month. For the time being, all future content on Pageturning will be free to all sunscribers.

One last update: This past weekend I attended the Catholic Writers Guild online conference. I had a great time. All the webinars and presentations I attended were incredibly helpful and informative.

When I signed up for this conference I also scheduled a virtual pitch session with a Catholic publisher for today (Wednesday)! I will be pitching my new children’s book about DRAGONS! I’d appreciate your prayers for a successful pitch.

Smaug by David Demaret, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=47322589

Podcast life

I’ve recorded a number of new podcast episodes for the StarQuest network. More to come soon! Stay tuned.

The Secrets of Middle-Earth

I join Jeff Haecker, Mike Schramm, and Patrick Mason to discuss the Tolkien questions of our supporters on Patreon! We got some great queries, including: What are the origin and fate of the wizards? Where did the Entwives go? And what part of the Tolkien's stories would we change?

Continuing our discussion of The Silmarillion, Jeff Haecker, Patrick Mason, and I discuss the beginning of the “Quenta Silmarillion” and the themes of fate, free will, creation, and destruction within Tolkien's universe.

So much happens in Peter Jackson's film verison of The Two Towers! I join Jeff Haecker and Alix Murray to discuss the film's portrayals of Faramir and Theoden; the themes of hope, unity, and despair at Helm's Deep; and the changes made from the book.

The Secrets of Star Wars

Continuing our series on the Force and spirituality, Robert King, Patrick Mason, and I focus on Jedi disciplines, including similarities to Western monasticism and samurai codes, as well as their concepts of sacrifice and war and peace.

The Secrets of Movies & TV Shows

Some bad movies are just bad, but there are some bad movies we love and keep coming back to. I join Victor Lams and Jimmy Akin to discuss some of the bad movies we love, why we love them, and how the enjoyment of a move can transcend traditional notions of quality.

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