The Pageturning Report: September, 2023
Writing new short stories. Reviewing "Ahsoka" on The Secrets of Star Wars podcast. And more!
This week Pageturning reached 190 subscribers! I would love to hit 200 by the end of September, so please share this newsletter with anyone you think my be interested in following my content.
I’d like to begin offering a wider variety of posts going forward, including occasional book reviews, author interviews, and some of my own short fiction, plus special behind-the-scenes extras. If you have any specific ideas for what you’d like to see from me in the future, please leave a comment below. I love to get feedback and suggestions from my readers.
Ongoing projects
Accountability group
I’m in the home stretch of my current writing accountability project and I’m within a couple thousand words of reaching my goal of 30k words of fiction for this quarter, mostly in the form of short stories.
Among these stories, two are collaborations with my good friend
. Another is part of an assignment for a short story class that I’m taking with Legend Fiction.Writing coach Katelin Cummins has helped me to clarify my creative goals. I’m excited to continue working with her next quarter when, hopefully I’ll be able to finish the first draft of a fantasy novel that I’ve been brainstorming and outlining for some time.
Middle grade nonfiction book
In August I completed the first round of revisions for the middle grade nonfiction book and wrote the glossary of terms. The next step will be reviewing the copy edits. Stay subscribed to Pageturning so that you don’t miss the latest details!
NEW PROJECT! Adult nonfiction book
The Catholic Writer’s Guild online conference is coming up next February. Karina Fabian has been encouraging me to have a new book ready to pitch to publishers at the conference. I spitballed a few ideas but at first nothing really seemed to grab me.
Then, at the end of August an idea came to me for a new nonfiction book about a topic that is very close to my heart. I don’t want to give too much away just yet, except to say that it will be a book about the spiritual life, incorporating the advice and example of Francis de Sales, among others great Catholic saints.
My plan is to have a book proposal and at least the first couple of chapters written in time for the conference.
Latest articles
Voyage Comics
A “Lux” Shines in the Darkness: Part 2 of A Canticle for Leibowitz
Like the best of science fiction, A Canticle for Leibowitz holds up a mirror to our own contemporary world and forces its readers to confront their own unchallenged biases and assumptions. Walter M. Miller’s magnum opus serves as an elegant parable for the dangers that follow when science and technological progress are divorced from a theocentric worldview.
Podcast life!
The Secrets of Star Wars
I was recently invited to join The Secrets of Star Wars podcast to help review the new Ahsoka live action series!
The much-anticipated Ahsoka series is here! I join Robert King, Angela Sealana, and Kathryn Laffrey to discuss the two-episode premiere, unpack the lore, explore the characters and their backstories, speculate about other galaxies, and wonder what it might mean to be . . . not a Jedi!
Will Ahsoka's spiritual crisis affect Sabine? What is Baylan Skoll's ultimate goal? I join Angela Sealana and Mike Creavey to discuss this plus Japanese and military connections and more.
Ahsoka and Sabine are always better together, so what happens when they're separated? What “greater good” drives our villains? And is that really who it appears to be at the end? I join Robert King, Jon Koral, and Kathryn Laffrey, to face these and other questions as we discuss part four of Ahsoka.
Anakin finishes Ahsoka's training, and she returns to life, born anew and clothed in a white garment. I join Robert King and Joshua Beeghley to journey into the belly of the space-whale and discuss what it all means.
The Secrets of Middle-Earth
One of the first film versions of Tolkien's work, Rankin Bass's animated The Hobbit continues to delight. I join Thomas Sanjurjo and Jeff Haecker to discuss the virtues of the adaptation and the differences from its more famous brethren.
My reading life!
With all my summer writing projects, I haven’t been able to do a whole lot of pleasure reading. But here are a few of the books I’m managing to enjoy in my spare time:
The Son of Man by François Mauriac
Waiting for Christ by Ronald Knox & Ronald Cox
Tolkien’s Faith by Holly Ordway
Farwell for now!
Thank you, as always for your support. It means so much to me.