Yesterday was FULL. Full of wonderful interactions, new friends, and faces of readers excited about Christian fantasy fiction.

We started with a lovely breakfast at Jodie’s home (she’s Christopher’s editor and let us all sleep at her place) then did a drive-by at a general market store. Then we did a full event at a different store. They had prepared a beautiful large area for us to sign books, draw for door prizes, and chat with customers at the front of the store. Jackie, from Wayne’s publisher, then graciously treated us to a quick lunch before we buzzed to another store for a fast drive-by to greet staff and sign in-store copies of our books. Then it was time to hit the road for the next city.

I seriously can’t keep track of which city I’m in or what day it is…but you can keep track by checking our itinerary on FantasyFictionTour.com.

We’re traveling in two vehicles, a white van and a black car (don’t ask me the models, I never know that stuff). On this next leg I rode with Jennifer (Christopher’s amazing wife) so we could have “girl talk” and get to know each other. She is a gem.

We finished the day somewhere in North Carolina at a big Barnes and Noble (I think…or was it a Borders?) with a REALLY warm, fun staff. A woman who teaches stage combat stopped by and offered to teach some moves to the guys. Pretty soon she had a crowd in front of the store while a couple of the guys played with their swords.

Other than Christopher trying to lop off my leg at our mid-day event (he was demonstrating his ballet pique-turns while wearing his cloak and sword) there were no mishaps. People everywhere have been curious, gracious, excited, and warm.

Last night, I rode up to Charlotte with my friend Margaret. She came down to the Ashville event to get me, so I could spend a night at her beautiful new home. Margaret was the founder and head of the small writer’s group “Word Servants” that I joined when I began writing The Restorer. She remembers the night I brought in the first chapter to read. It was a treat to reminice with her. We are celebrating how God can open impossible doors and do beautiful things through our humble availability to Him.

Still battling the cold, cough, sore-throat, sinus stuff. Keep praying please. 🙂
It might help if I stopped chatting non-stop, but people are just so COOL I can’t help it. I’m thanking God for honey-lemon Halls cough drops. They are keeping me going.

Don’t know when I’ll have access to a computer or internet next, but as always, watch the video diarires on our Fantasy Tour official website.

Hugs to all,
Sharon

It’s Wednesday…

SO much happened on the book tour yesterday that after each event I asked Wayne what day it was… yet it was always still Wednesday.

We left Atlanta about 9:30 and hit the road, chattering like only a group of writers can about plot and craft and goals and process and reader mail and loads more.

The theme for me in the past few days has been one of God reconnecting me with past spiritual heritage links…

At ICRS I met Brother Andrew (His book, “God’s Smuggler” was very influential in my life in my teen years). I felt so much awe meeting someone who has served the Lord with risk and sacrifice for so long.

I discovered that Christopher Hopper (one of the tour mates) grew up as part of the community of Love Inn in upstate New York. When I was a teen, Scott Ross and his radio show, and the arts focus of their community inspired my fledgling faith. Not only that, but his next door neighbors were Ted and Dawn Sandquist. At a large Christian conference (I think it was Kansas City) also back in the 70s, I saw Dawn dance a worship piece to “Courts of the King” and God quickened my heart as He showed me that I could use my love for dance to communicate about Him… it started me on a path that led to one day being artistic director of a Christian dance/drama ministry. It was like discovering a long-lost cousin to chat with Christopher about all that.

Then, one of the pioneers in our generation for Christian music, Phil Keaggy, came to our signing last night. Meeting him was another honor – and reminded me again of the interweaving threads of spiritual influence and heritage.

Another AMAZING thing about last night’s event…

A marketing gal from Wayne’s publisher came, a group of ACFW writers that I knew from online came, many of Bryan’s young fans came (in costume!) and of course, Christopher’s friend Phil, as well as plenty of strangers…. and they all mingled at various times and made interconnections. One of the guys commented on how well God multi-tasks.

We arrived at our host home (Christopher’s editor) about 1 am, and are preparing to leave for some drive-bys and then a noon event before another lengthy drive. Tennessee is beautiful. Nashville was amazing. Onward and upward.

P.S. Thanks to all for praying. Weather has been lovely, cars working, not getting lost, everyone getting along AND building true bonds of fellowship. Keep praying about my bad cold. My voice goes in and out, throat still hurts quite a bit, and very congested. But yesterday I was running on adrenaline and barely noticed most of the time. 🙂

Don’t forget to watch the “Fantasy Fiction Tour Video Diary”!

Yesterday was another super day. Wonderful conversations, lots to learn.
I started feeling head-achey (pretty normal with the travel and lack of sleep)…but last night got a BAD sore throat.
Please pray for healing. I have almost two weeks of non-stop converstaions, speaking evenets, and interviews ahead.
It would be lovely to manage more than a painful croak. 🙂

Today booths begin going up at the conference center, and I’ll be heading over there to pick up my badge and get the lay of the land for all of Monday’s and Tuesday’s events.

I’ll be moving to a different hotel, and won’t have my roommate’s computer to borrow anymore, so it might be awhile until I can post again.

THANK YOU so much to all who are praying.

Using my friend’s computer to send a quick update.
Flight to Atlanta was fast and fun…chatted with writer friends I bumped into along the way.
Spoke to the Logos members’ retreat yesterday morning and felt like I was “among my tribe.” Wonderful, inspirational men and women serving both the Christian community and the world by their hard work and sacrifice to provide books by Christian authors. I shared how much certain books have meant to me in my Christian growth over the years, and how they are my heroes for the work they do.
Spent all day yesterday in a writer’s workshop led by Donald Maas (Writing the Breakout Novel). Delicious, challenging, inspirational. Provided AWESOME and specific tools to help me improve and grow as a writer. What a blessing!
And of course scattered in has been wonderful conversations with other writers.
What a comfort to hear stories of their adventures and know that I’m not alone.
Off to another day of writer retreat events….
Ate a Georgia peach with my supper last night. Traveling is fun!
Thanks to all who are praying!
Sharon

One quick update before I hit the road – a Virginia newspaper did an article about the upcoming book tour. You can read the story here.

And you can find our full itinerary, contests, and fun background on each author at the
Fantasy Fiction Tour website.

When I wrote the proposal for The Restorer I struggled to summarize it, explain it, or define it. It’s such an atypical sort of story. I floundered through “pitches” to editors and used unfortunate words like “weird.”

I wish I’d had this reviewer from Australia to describe it for me. 🙂

The Associated Press picked up the story of our Fantasy Fiction Tour.
We are the second story on their video webcast called “Everything Sacred”
which you can view at the link above.

I love the focus of the brief feature. She commented on the challenge of writing Christian fantasy. Some Christians are uneasy with the fantasy genre, while some non-Christians may fear they’ll feel uncomfortable reading novels by Christian authors.

So how do we respond to that challenge?

1. We pray
2. We get out there and chat with people face to face, about the many different art forms God can use to bring people to Himself. Hence the Fantasy Fiction Tour. 🙂

Blessings! Sharon

Today I’m interviewing someone extra special. Not an author or editor, like some of the friends who have visited my blog. Not even someone in the publishing business. Yet he is playing a big role in the Fantasy Fiction Four Tour that I’m participating in as part of the launch of

The Restorer, The Sword of Lyric Series #1

. John Cooper is a Christian international distributor of fine swords, armor and period clothing for Roman, Renaissance and Medieval periods for collectors, theatrical groups, reenactors as well as major studios and production companies.

He is generously providing SERIOUS swords (high-carbon steel which will break a cinderblock) and shields for us to bring on our tour, to our book signings and presentations. Since our fantasy novels feature plenty of sword work, this is an exciting chance to touch something tangible, as if it’s sprung from the pages of our stories.

Q: Welcome, John! Thanks for visiting my blog! You have a passion to bring people to Christ.
How did God lead you into this career of selling swords and armor?

A: Actually, I never thought in a million years I would be doing this. My background is in sales and marketing for wholesale distribution of computers and supplies. I was given a sword by my father-in-law as a thank you gift. Of course, my wife did not want it in the house… so we agreed to have it framed and put a scripture verse plate under the sword (Hebrews 4:12). It looks great and has been an interesting conversation piece in our house over the years. With new friends and people we are not sure of their faith, we conclude our sword explanation by turning the conversation to Jesus and a gentle witnessing conversation.

A few years later, we were given a medieval knight figurine which had all the pieces of the armor of God. I told my wife how much I had always wanted something like it and how awesome I thought it was. Next thing I know I was telling her, “I bet there are a lot of other Christian men who would like these too”.

We started the business on $500 and two products we manufactured, a sword frame with any scripture and a medieval knight figure with a paraphrase of Eph 6:13-19. Of course, I needed to find a few swords to offer people. Since the knight figure was all about the armor of God and we were selling “real” swords, we decided to call the company Real Armor of God.com

The sword market is heavily saturated and very competitive. I laugh when I look back at our humble beginnings. We had about 15 different swords we offered at first and averaged about 450 hits a month on the website. God has blessed us and we now have about 700 items we sell in 155 categories with about 5 million hits a month (400,000 pages read a month for those interested in the details).

We also have a great deal of education and historical information on the site for people to learn from. Christians really like our Knighting Ceremony information and use it for Raising A Modern Day Night graduations. (Of course they also get a nice sword and or a custom painted shield for their son too.)

Our staff personally evaluates every product to ensure only the better quality items are added… and customers love it.

Q: When my son was younger, his career goal was to be a knight in shining armor. As he got older, he discovered that not many corporations were hiring knights. Since there are few working knights these days, who purchases your weapons and supplies?

A: This is a great question… and we are regularly trying to find the answer. God has blessed us and we get all kinds of customers. Of course we get the theatrical groups and reenactors as you might expect, but we were surprised as how many women are buying swords and shields as gifts for their fathers, husbands, sons, and boyfriends. We have lots of requests for specific swords, swords in frames with scripture verses, and custom painted shields for people who want their own heraldry (family crest, coat-of-arms) on the shield. We have also helped stunt organizations, film studios (Fox, Universal, etc) and international production companies. It never ceases to amaze me how God can bring customers to your door from anywhere.

Q: Pirates of the Caribbean, Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia all featured fantastic sword play, and were hugely popular films. Why do you think people continue to be fascinated by sword fighting, even in the modern age?

This is true, and you have hit the point exactly, but I don’t have a good answer as to why. Is it our fascination with historic periods, valiant men fighting for freedom and honor against tyranny, or is it a desire or dream of living in the past? It could even be all of the above or none of them.

In my opinion, there are several driving reasons for sword enthusiasm. On one hand, it could be related to a huge variety of things, including any of the following: the sword shape and design, its function related to the time period, and/or the sword fighting techniques required to master a specific sword. As an example, the Japanese Samurai katana, a Roman maintz and a Medieval long sword all had their own unique strengths and weaknesses in battle. Each required an extremely different technique to master. These could be a factor in ones appreciation for a particular sword.

On the other hand, swords are a part of history that you can touch today. Like a castle, pyramid, ancient treasure tomb, or palace, swords are something from our past. Each unique design throughout history incorporated improvements that would give the soldier an advantage over an opponent’s body protection (woven materials, leather, steel, etc). Very few people get the chance to hold a real sword from the Roman or medieval times. They are in private collections or museums. Today, new swords that are designed after historical swords are called ‘replica swords’, and these are what people buy today from our website.

Another factor for sword fascination could be as simple as “the thrill of the moment”. If you have never had the thrill of riding on a roller coaster, go-cart, or snow skiing, no one can really help you understand the excitement of the moment. The same is true for swords. Until you have held a quality, high-carbon steel sword, no one can fully explain the excitement of the moment.

To hold a Roman sword is to step back in time for a moment and feel the weight and balance of a weapon used thousands of years ago. You get to experience exactly what a Roman soldier felt when he held his first sword. The same is true for a Medieval knight’s long sword, or a Japanese Samurai’s katana. You don’t have to imagine what it felt like for one of the 3 Musketeers to sword fight with a rapier, you can hold a replica rapier, swing it in the air and know the feelings first hand.

It really boils down to the individual and their personal reason for liking a specific sword design, era or time period. Stories keep these periods alive today. Since Lord of the Rings was written, there has been a very loyal following, as with the Chronicles of Narnia. Stories of William Wallace (Braveheart), Maximus (Gladiator) and Captain Jack Sparrow (Pirates of the Caribbean) and only a drop in the bucket of things that keep people interested in the days of olde.

Q: Do you have stories about some of the unique events you’ve provided swords for?

God has blessed us with being able to supply Roman armor and clothing to many major Church Christmas and Easter shows all over the country. There was a huge show a few years ago in Washington, D.C. that comes to mind as really special. The producer called me a week later and told me the following.

We had supplied Roman swords, armor and clothing for about 8 soldiers who marched into the middle of the show from the back. He told me… “the actors completely changed their countenance and started acting like real Roman soldiers (better than they ever did with the plastic armor we had before). As they marched in the entire audience went completely silent – ‘an awesome hush fell over the audience as they marched in and all you could hear was the thumping of the soldier’s marching and the clanking of armor … it was fabulous!’. All the spotlights were aimed at the Roman soldiers and the lights reflected light all over the auditorium. If the light caught someone’s eye it blinded them for a second. Everyone watching knew these were real Roman soldiers coming to arrest Jesus in our show.”

He went on to tell me that a local radio DJ happened to be in the audience on opening night and spent 30 minutes on the Monday morning show telling everyone in Washington that it was the best show he had ever seen and the costumes were unbelievable. (And yes, this church has been a good repeat customer ever since.)

Q: Have you seen some specific times where God has used your work to introduce or encourage people in their faith? (besides supporting our band of Christian authors who use sword-fighting imagery to depict the invisible spiritual struggle we face).

We have many stories of how parents have used swords with their sons in Christian manhood or knighting ceremonies (Raising A Modern Day Knight graduations). On our Raising A Modern Day Knight page, we have a detailed outline that a pastor used with his own son. The father coordinated an entire weekend with his son, their grandfather, an uncle and a mentor. Each man spent a ½ day with the son talking about a specific topic and relating it to scripture and the Christian walk. For example, the uncle took him swimming in a major river. They went one mile upstream and one mile downstream. When they were done, the uncle started talking about marriage and family life. How sometimes it’s easy (downstream) and other times it will be hard (upstream)… and then went through scripture and shared Christian advise. Later on the grandfather took the young man to a graveyard and talked about the importance of family heritage, Christian tradition and the Christian way of life. It’s really an incredible story and your readers can use the information on our site to have their own Christian knighting ceremonies for their sons.

Rather than going on through a short list of names and what happened, I would like to also share a little about the way we approach Christian ministry.

There are literally thousands of websites selling swords – and we are the only Christian site. Most other sites sell demon swords and focus on a darker side of life (dungeons and dragons, witchcraft, Satanic symbols, etc.). We are a family friendly site focusing on education and historically designed products. Our education and materials are positioned on the website in such a way as to get people curious about, “What is the Armor of God”?

The top of our main pages have a horizontal menu that lists ‘Roman Era’, ‘Medieval Times’, The Renaissance’… and ‘Armor of God’. Well most people know these time periods, but if they are not Christian, they likely have never heard of the Armor of God. Naturally, they click on it to see what it is. We use our Armor of God page to explain spiritual warfare plus we have many links to many other Christian topics. Our hope is to plant Christian seeds in the minds of people that might not ever have seen or heard anything about Christianity at any other time in their life.

We also have a more direct path into ministry with our Witnessing Coins. The Witnessing Coin is a fun, creative and effective tool to share Jesus with non-Christians and struggling Christians alike. Based on the Bible verses from Ephesians 6:13-17 and John 3:16, one side of the coin shows two cliffs and the cross of Jesus and is designed for pure Christian witnessing and evangelism. The other side of the coin shows the Full Armor of God pieces which is the spiritual armor described in Ephesians 6:13-17. This spiritual armor is what God provides each believer for daily victory over temptation, trials, test, suffering, and sickness. This side of the coin is used to encourage people in the Lord during temptations and trials, or to encourage another Christian who is troubled. The Witnessing Coin has been used internationally by many evangelical organizations and within the USA, it is used for things like VBS, Sunday school lessons, Christian gifts, etc…

You can visit http://www.realarmorofgod.com/witnessing-coin.html to see samples and learn more about how the Witnessing Coins can be used in your area.

Q: Anything else you’d like to share with my readers?

A: I would like to offer the opportunity to your readers to visit our website and let us know what you think. We welcome any suggestions to improve. After you have reviewed the site, go to the Contact Us page and type your feedback in the open text area. (Thank you in advance!)

John, thank you so much for the huge support you’ve put behind the Fantasy Fiction Tour this July, and thanks for visiting my site today! Blessings!

Sharon