The Igiby cottage

We now have art for the Igiby cottage!Igiby cottage animated seriesWhat do you think of this little homely house? I just noticed the flowers in the window box. Skree is under Fang occupation, and Nia plants flowers. I have Thoughts about that, and would love to hear yours.Andrew's Edge of Dawn tour just wrapped up last night. Spring is here. Easter is coming.[embed]https://www.facebook.com/KennyStole/videos/10211452577177601/[/embed]The stories are true.

This week, Madame Sidler will be reading part three of "The Places Beyond the Maps." Come back on Friday for an excerpt, and to share one of your own!

Tumbled backwards

This second section of Douglas Kaine McKelvey's Wingfeather Tale begins with a quote from one of my favorite books. (I appreciate the epigraphs in this story so much. I can't decide whether this one, or the one from part four, is my favorite.) I have been reading out loud to myself, which is sometimes difficult because DKM writes very long sentences and I occasionally run out of breath, and sometimes difficult because I have to stop and cry. This section, like The Wailing Orchards, made me cry. In particular this scene stood out because it seems to me that there is some providence here, but it is so hard to receive.

He somehow achieved that dire crossing without incident.But stepping up to the high opposite bank then he had lifted his hands joyfully to the sunlight that it might receive him, and in doing so had lost his balance so that he tumbled backwards into the river and was tossed and swept helplessly along for a great distance, repeatedly dunked by currents and abused by river stones as if he were a pile of laundered rags. He felt himself endlessly rolled, his lungs half slogged with water so that he sputtered and spewed all the way. As a further indignity, the driftwood staff caught up to him and, violently spun by the waters, struck the back of his head stiffly before careening away beyond his grasping reach.And so the man found himself viciously unmoored from his recent ecstasies, all illusion of ethereal self vanishing as the river sped him eastward mile upon mile, back the way from which he had come.
What was your favorite sentence or paragraph this week? Post it in the comments! And then come talk in the forum. There is so much here to discuss.

Andrew at Princeton

This June, Andrew has the indibnible honor of speaking at Princeton Theological Seminary's Frederick Buechner's Writer's Workshop. In a session titled "Discovering Grace: 'Listening to Your Life,'"

Andrew will share about the influence Frederick Buechner’s writing has had on his own work, and will discuss the discipline of “listening to your life,” one of the main themes of Buechner’s work. The creative process is one of the chief ways we discover who we are, what we think, and, most importantly, the intimate and gracious work of God in our lives. Andrew will share examples from his songwriting and his novels when he was ambushed by the realization that when we take the time to pay attention to the narrative of our lives we discover the presence of grace.

This is a four-day event, during which Andrew will present his talk twice. Other session topics include the necessity of failure for creativity, the mysteries of getting published, writing and publishing for spiritual formation, and structure & story. Check out the details here.

This week, Madame Sidler will be reading part two of Douglas McKelvey's Wingfeather Tale, "The Places Beyond the Maps." Join us in the forum to discuss the story, and come back on Friday for an excerpt!Save the Date:  Join Doug and Andrew for a live chat on April 11. Details to come!

Small moments

"The Places Beyond the Maps." This paragraph stood out because it reminded me of the Igiby cottage, and yet the stories of these two families are so profoundly different. (More on that in the forum? I would love to hear your thoughts.)

One did not ask for much in those days, just to be together, just to locate and cultivate and nurture those small moments that would spring in the memory like perfectly delicate blooms of joy in a private, walled garden.
What paragraph stood out to you this week? Share it below.What would you need to survive occupation? Where is the Maker in all this? What do you need to talk about? Come to the forum.

Douglas McKelvey: An introduction and an announcement

DKMHigh-quality weirdo Douglas Kaine McKelvey is one of the best writers any of us have ever heard of. His craft spans works of beauty, absurdity, tragedy, brilliancy, surreality, and heartwarbling poignancy.He is also the president of the International Conspiracy & Trade Company and a world-renowned expert on cassowaries, and he has directed some very fine videos.Doug's most recent book is The Wishes of the Fish King (illustrated by Jamin Still). Currently he is working with illustrator Zach Franzen and our own Bookbindery Guildmaster to republish The Angel Knew Papa and the Dog, a middle-grade "lyrical frontier fantasy." It is available for preorder at the Rabbit Room for release early next month.In addition to all this, Doug wrote the Wingfeather Tale which Andrew called one of his top five books of last year. And that brings us to:

LIVE CHAT!

To wrap up our Wingfeather Tales book club, Doug will be joining Andrew for a LIVE CHAT AT THE CHAPTER HOUSE on Tuesday, April 11. Details to come!

This week, Madame Sidler will read the Part One of "The Places Beyond the Maps." Come back on Friday for an excerpt, and to share one of your own! Meanwhile, join us in the forum as we talk about what this story said to us.

Third cousins? Whatever.

Jonathan Rogers' translation of the legendary "Ballad of Lanric and Rube" is much funnier than Eezak Fencher's, probably because Jonathan Rogers is much funnier than Eezak Fencher (despite Eezak's much funnier name). There was some rumor early on that Dr. Rogers was thinking of writing a story about someone trying to sell toothy cow milk under the pretense that it has healing qualities. That would have been an killer story, as would something swamp-related (he is great at swamps) or one about daggerfish wrestling. Either way, he ended up writing this one, and I could not be more pleased.This ballad is best read out loud. You can also read along while Dr. Rogers reads to you (the first several stanzas, at least). :-)

At the edge of the forest, where fazzle doves chorusAnd the Keekle flows bubbly and clear,Two farm families neighbored. Together they laboredSide by side, year after year.The Rumley-A’Catos grew heirloom totatoes,The Adoob family, shellery and charrots.They shared what they grew to make prize-winning stewsAnd soups of incomparable merit.The farmwives were cousins. Between them a dozenStout farmchildren filled out their brood.So those dozen cousins I guess were fourth cousins.No— first cousins two times removed?Third cousins? Whatever. The point is, foreverThese families had loved one another.And the bond was the strongest between the two youngest—Third cousins who seemed more like brothers.
What was your favorite stanza in this ballad? Post it below! Then join us in the forum for some lively debate on whether you'd rather wrestle a daggerfish or an alligator, or how you would go about peddling toothy cow milk, or anything else about this story.

Glipwood by the Sea

New animated series artwork, just released yesterday: Glipwood!Glipwood chasmYou've seen a peek of this view behind the characters on the series poster, but this is a new concept of the little town by the cliffs where the Igiby three grew up. (If you miss the old Glipwood, don't worry; it's still there, just to the right (south) of the view in this image.) How do you like the crevasse? The colors? The dilapidated buildings and bridges, and the Fang flags fluttering from fine old architecture? The glittering sea and the angle of the sunlight?

Redeemed Reader Review

Today I bring to you a starred review of Wingfeather Tales from Betsy at Redeemed Reader, a book review website which seeks to inculcate habits of "thinking Christianly" through children's literature.

Imagine if a group of professional authors and illustrators were so enamored with Lewis’s Narnia that they each created a unique new story—not an addition [to] the Narnia canon, but an expansion of the elements already present. Someone might write a humorous story of Mr. and Mrs. Beaver falling in love. Someone else might write a fiercesome story about Caspian IX’s betrayal by his brother, Miraz. Or what about a story about those funny Dufflepods and their original transformation to Dufflepods? Now imagine that Tolkien wrote one of those stories and inserted a hobbit into his Narnia story. And that all these authors and illustrators are the Inklings and actually know one another.That is exactly what the Wingfeather Tales is.

Thanks, Betsy! To read the rest of the review, click here, and then poke around the site to find their other Wingfeather reviews. :-)Extra: Redeemed Reader is hosting a Beauty and the Beast themed readalong this month, with featured picture books on Mondays, devotionals on Fridays (the first is up already), and discussions on an assortment of relevant titles (middle grade, YA, and adult books, as well as movies) throughout the month. Wingfeather is included in the lineup. If you'd like to be challenged to think through the topics of beauty, sin, and redemption, click on over.

This week, Madame Sidler will be reading Jonathan Rogers' Wingfeather Tale, "The Ballad of Lanric and Rube." (Catch a video preview here.) Come back on Friday for an excerpt, and to share one of your own! We've got great conversations happening in the forum, too, and you're invited.

The stories are true.