author spotlight: stephen r. lawhead + the skin map

British ley lines, the first German kaffeehause, and an Egyptian sarcophagus are just some of the points of interest which make up the plot and pacing of Stephen R. Lawhead’s latest fiction novel, The Skin Map, “Quest the First” of his new Bright Empires Series.

If you’ve ever read Lawhead before you should come expecting good storytelling, for that is what Lawhead truly is: a story-teller.  His latest endeavour in mythic historical fiction, The Raven King Trilogy, retold the legends of Robin Hood in a bold and daring new way.  Likewise his Pendragon Cycle brought fresh light and language to the Arthurian legends.  As a fan of historical fiction and fantasy genres, I have grown to appreciate Lawhead’s work as an author and writer since being first introduced to him in The Iron Lance, a historical work which depicts the journeys of Murdo, the son of a Scottish nobleman destined to sail to Jerusalem during the violence of the 1st crusade.

In this new novel, Lawhead tackles not history or legend as he so often has, but instead lends his hand to a story of inter-dimensional space and time travel.  The story begins with young, boring, modern day, Kit Livingstone, who is getting lost in his attempt to take a subway train to meet his girlfriend Wilhelmina.  He gets lost, it begins to rain, and as he makes his way down a long straight alley, trying to catch his bearings, he runs into an old man.  But this is no ordinary man: this is Kit’s great-grandfather, Cosimo, and he’s supposed to be dead.

author spotlight: john eldredge + way of the wild heart

Way of the Wild Heart is being
is bring re-released this spring as
Fathered by God.

To all the men out there,

Got a book recommendation for you.  I'm just finishing Way of the Wild Heart by John Eldredge. He's tackling a vital question: "How do we become men?"  It's not a book on pop psychology or child development.  It's a map.  A map of the masculine journey, its initiations, its struggles, the core questions we have as men, and the assurance that God wants to and is fathering us.

Here's a brief excerpt:

A boy has a lot to learn in his journey to become a man, and he becomes a man only through the active intervention of his father and the fellowship of men.  It cannot happen any other way.  To become a man--and to know that he has become a man--a boy must have a guide, a father . . . You see, what we have now is a world of uninitiated men.  Partial men. . . .  The passing on of masculinity was never completed, if it was begun at all. . . .That's why most of us are Unfinished Men. . . .

Masculine initiation is a journey, a process, a quest really, a story that unfolds over time.