Letter Exchanges
These last few months have been awful! No one wants to do a letter exchange! I’ve talked about it, chatted about it, but no one has stepped forward and said, “Hey, Von, I want you to totally destroy me with your logic!” So sad!
But hope springs eternal, and these were some of my favorite posts, so here they are, hoping to encourage others:
Sushi, Pizza, and the Existence of God
So Fallible Father and I have agreed to a letter exchange. It started when he posted a post entitled ‘Religion’ and specifically comes from this line: “Arguing over religion strikes me as the same as arguing over whether sushi or pizza is better.” Regardless of how you feel about Sushi or Pizza (I happen to like both, although I’m not sure I would like …
Woodshed Parenting
Intro So, yet another letter exchange! It seems like it is becoming my mainstay. Which I love!
Fiction
Contact Marriage
Publishing every Friday, Contract marriage is an adult dystopia examining the issues of marriage. Like 1984 and Brave New World, Contract Marriage treats the relations between the sexes as a fundamental aspect of how a society is formed and, thus, how a society can go wrong.
Unlike those dystopias, Contract Marriage isn’t all horrible all of the time. The characters for the most part have a good time and get along in their society. But the issues of sexuality, of marriage or not, monogamy or not, faithfulness or not, and gender roles… keep coming up and causing tension and conflict and joy and pain.
My desire is that my readers would be thinking along with my characters about these issues and perhaps even arrive at the same place (minus the flying cars).
Marks
Everyone’s wrist went off and Jellia, who had been in the middle of downloading a skewer onto her pile of grain and sauce, hadn’t manage to wipe her hands and open the snip before Iloh said, “Well, congratualations, Daughter.”
Island Peoples
Publishing every Wednesday, I have reached the end of ‘Book II’ of Island People’s, the book ‘Come the Day’. I’ll soon be putting up the third book, “Dwarves and Dragons”.
Island People is a young adult fantasy book centring on a young prince. The book starts with his kidnapping and follows his adventures as he not only escapes from his kidnapper but gains critical allies and friends.
Is it time?
Hadassah felt at her stomach, for perhaps the fifth time this hour. She was in no way as sanguine as she had pretended to Seth. But the new arrangements had really helped. The Horsegirls were so helpful. Indeed one of them, the oldest, who she called ‘Ruth’ in her head (she never had gotten used to Kelii names. They were so impersonal, ‘first Daughter o…
Article 17
Publishing every Monday, I am in the process of writing Article 17, and hope I can keep up with my schedule :) I have lots more chapters already written, though, so so far so good.
Article 17 is a military science fiction story with aliens and romance. It is set in a future reminiscent of Napoleon era Britain. The war was going very poorly until the military installed a dictator. This story follows one of the dictator’s great men: Cladin Tomirosh, Leader, and thrice decorated hero.
Afterward
“Are you… did that affect you emotionally?” Tom asked, suddenly, when the two were a few feet down the corridor.
Non-Fiction
I’ve been railing against divorce and separation recently, along with a lot of other subjects:
Helping Them: Them
Is it a problem that people aren’t getting married anymore? And if so, what can we do about it? Oh, wait, ooops, I meant to say ‘What can they do about it?”
The Toddler Test
Toddlers fall down. I mean, a lot. When first starting (before, I suppose, they earn the name of ‘toddler’) it seems like they spend more time falling than doing anything else. Hopefully a controlled fall onto the pad of their diaper, but however the fall, whatever the direction, they fall. A lot.
Ruth: A Book of Bridges
At first glance the book of Ruth seems like a strange little romance in the middle of the Old Testament. But a deeper glance reveals it to be a book of bridges: connecting many principles and stories that go before it, with many principles that come after it.
Honour Thy Father: Adam to Abraham
Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,
Standing in Judgement
Imagine, if you will, a fifty year old woman, with short dyed hair, on her third marriage, sitting in a church pew during a Bible study. Her daughter has announced that she likes girls and so is living with one; her son likes girls and has lived with several without bothering to marry any of them.
Days
Sci-Friday
Sci-Friday Review October 11, 2024
Science fiction is a fascinating genre. For one thing, because it includes so many sub-genres, and so much mixing of the sub-genres. Time travel, Lit-RPG, aliens, cultures, advanced tech, a time after advanced tech, utopias, dystopias, utopias which are really dystopias, hard sci-fi, soft sci-fi, space opera… it is a big list.
Merry Monday
Merry Monday September 23, 2024
Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart; for God now accepteth thy works.
Table of Contents
One of the best decisions I’ve ever made, substack wise, was the make a ‘Table of Contents’. Now if I only I could keep it up to date :)
Table of Contents
I have such an eclectic and confusing mass of posts that I find it hard to get around, so I can’t imagine how it is for my readers. Thus, this attempt at a Table of Contents. Please comment if there are ways I can make it better.
Until Next Time
So, I hope this post was helpful. I hope to get into more letter exchanges, and I love comments, especially arguments! So get reading and commenting! Or writing and tag me.