Up and Running 6/2024

Up and running with two projects:

BibleBard podcast

The Bible Bard provides a literary analysis of key ideas from the Bible that describe God and humanity. This is analysis of simple, declarative texts that reveal something about God or humanity. Using an inductive method where the text is considered data, the Bible Bard builds up a picture of what the Bible itself actually teaches about God and humankind.

and

Time of the Heathen, Vol 1.

Two 2023 university graduate students, Ewan and Alyssa, trained to squint at the universe, find themselves transported among the heathen of the early middle ages. Trying to get back home, they encounter poets, priests, priestesses, warriors, gods, as well as university professors, philosophers, mystics, and religious teachers. To survive, they make choices and experience moments of inspiration their sense of the supernatural grows as their modern world-view fails. Time of the Heathen is a literary novel set in a sci-fi/fantasy (SFF) adventure genre. This book is Volume 1 of a two-book sereies. Part 2 continues the story, but back in the 21st century, where the protagonists choose which side they support when an alien invasion occurs at the height of a nuclear war.

Bible Bard podcast now available.

 

A bard is a storyteller who recites traditional texts associated with a particular oral tradition.  The Bible Bard recites and to amplifies what the literature of the Bible says about who is God and who are human beings. 

Follow the Bible Bard at BibleBard.org, on SoundCloud, Spotify, and YouTube.

The Bible Bard podcast transcripts are available in English, Bangla, Spanish, and Swahili on the website. Audio translations of the English podcast are available in Swahili and Spanish. More translations are pending.

The Bible Bard podcast presents what the literature of the Bible clearly states about God and human beings. The Bible texts read during the podcast are so clear that whether you hear or read them in the original Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic; or, if you read translations from the original languages into Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Russian, or English, they all say the same thing!

Finally, the Bible Bard doesn't push the ideas of any religious sect. The Bible Bard  is a public service presenting Bible literature to an audience that has, through no individual fault of their own, never heard what this book – the bestselling book ever in the history of publishing – actually says. 

This is the way the Bible Bard works. Brief recitations, closely focused, no distractions, no rabbit trails.

Other Sci Fi/Fantasy

I've been reviewing some older, successful, fantasy books including His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, Bartimaeus Trilogy by Jonathan Stroud, and now The Crystal Cave by Mary Stewart.

His Dark Materials is three good stories but serves as a channel to propagate the author's aetheistic view of human spiritually. My book Time of the Heathen is a mirror opposite of it. Without being overtly Christian, my story refutes the moral/ethical assumptions Pullman gives to his characters. There is an inspiration that is dark and also one that is light. In my story Ewan and Alysa grow spiritually in opposite directions.

The Bartimaeus Trilogy is also three well-written stories, but has a complete absence of any moral or ethical sensibilities until the middle of book 3. Just about everyone in the trilogy is selfish, wicked, or immoral - until the end where a demon and a wizard develop a kind of moral sensibility toward each other.

Mary Stewart's story is just a re-telling of the Arthurian legend, filling in much detail and characterization in a way modern readers find attractive.

I'm reviewing these books as I prepare to write Vol 2 of the Time of the Heathen which is planned to cover 1,000 years of human history lived under alien domination.