We have moved to: WWW.SDSMITH.NET

Click on the logo to travel to our new site.

Yes, We’re Moving!

I have a brand new website ready for public consumption. I mean consumption in a good way. Not the disease.

http://www.sdsmith.net/ is finally up and running. Please update your bookmarks and head on over to the new location.

Concerns:
Is it still a blog? Yes, www.sdsmith.net/blog will replace the Maple Mountain Story Club. Nothing really changes but addresses. (I’ve actually been double-posting here and there for a while, so it even has a shared history -sans comments over there, sadly).

Is it more than a blog? I hope so. There is more there, certainly not less. I am making an effort to be more presentable, accessible, and basically make it easier for me to connect with my readers and for them to connect with me. I hope people do.

Isn’t it all rather uppity? I don’t know. We were aiming for good presentation and to be informative, accessible, funny, useful, creative. So if that’s uppity then yes.

What’s your favorite color? Clear.

In Public:
I want to thank Brian Patton, one my very best friends in the world for many years, for all his hard work on the new website. Others have certainly helped as well, but Brian has put tons of time and creativity into this and I really appreciate it.

If something looks good here, it’s because of Brian. If something is spelled wrong, that’s me.

Thanks, Brian. Now we’re even over that dead body thing.

Go to http://www.sdsmith.net/.

Writer scribbles "The End"

Tomorrow will be my last blog post at The Maple Mountain Story Club.


I’ll explain why in tomorrow’s post at 6:00 am.


I feel fine.

Mountain Top (to Bottom) Removal

Oldplay

Justin Taylor linked to this and I'm ganking it.

If you are familiar with the song "Fix You" by Coldplay, then proceed to click here and watch this cover performance from an elderly man and see if it moves you like it did me (sorry, no embedding).

If you are not familiar with the song, then here's the original band's video.

Sign of the Times

The Real World- China

"Daddy, is there a China in the real world? How many chopsticks are there at China?"

My son, 3 years old, geography and culinary expert in the making.

The Vanishing Sculptor Winner Announced

And the winner of the Donita K. Paul's The Vanishing Sculptor give away is:

Heather Irene!

Congrats Heather, send me your address (my e-mail contact is on the right over there in red) and we'll send you the book.

Drawing today for the Donita K. Paul novel

Get your comment on this post before long to be entered to win Paul's new book, The Vanishing Sculptor.

Enter now. Time is slipping away like grains of sand in a jar of sand with a small, but substantive, hole in it.

Readin', Writin', and Arithmetic

Writing Excuses Podcast

Time well spent if you are a writer and you are out of shape.

Dave, talented South African born artist

The Vanishing Sculptor by Donita K. Paul

Blog Tour. Here's the new book by Donita K. Paul! And we're giving one away from a random drawing of every one who comments on this post. For info on the book and author, see below. Buy one here.
Donita K. Paul’s 250,000-plus-selling DragonKeeper Chronicles series has attracted a wide spectrum of dedicated fans–and they’re sure to fall in love with the new characters and adventures in her latest superbly-crafted novel for all ages. It’s a mind-boggling fantasy that inhabits the same world as the DragonKeeper Chronicles, but in a different country and an earlier time, where the people know little of Wulder and nothing of Paladin.In The Vanishing Sculptor, readers will meet Tipper, a young emerlindian who’s responsible for the upkeep of her family’s estate during her sculptor father’s absence. Tipper soon discovers that her actions have unbalanced the whole foundation of her world, and she must act quickly to undo the calamitous threat. But how can she save her father and her world on her own? The task is too huge for one person, so she gathers the help of some unlikely companions–including the nearly five-foot tall parrot Beccaroon–and eventually witnesses the loving care and miraculous resources of Wulder. Through Tipper’s breathtaking story, readers will discover the beauty of knowing and serving God.

Donita K. Paul is a retired teacher and author of numerous novellas, short stories, and eight novels, including the best-selling DragonKeeper Chronicles, a series which has sold more than a quarter million books to date. The winner of multiple awards, she lives in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where she spends time mentoring and encouraging young writers. Visit her online at donitakpaul.com.

Luther on Literature

I stoled this quotation from Justin Taylor who stoled it from some other dude. It's Martin Luthur on the value of literature to prepare the way for good theology --though not necessarily the way you think. I call it very true.

It sort of has some of the same themes from this post I did at the Rabbit Room about the spiritual value of imaginative literature.

"I am persuaded that without knowledge of literature pure theology cannot at all endure, just as heretofore, when letters [literature] have declined and lain prostrate, theology too, has wretchedly fallen and lain prostrate; nay, I see that there has never been a great revelation of the Word of God unless he has first prepared the way by the rise and prosperity of languages and letters, as though they were John the Baptists. . . . Certainly it is my desire that there shall be as many poets and rhetoricians as possible, because I see that by these studies, as by no other means, people are wonderfully fitted for the grasping of sacred truth and for handling it skillfully and happily."

Luther

Where I visit myself at age 8, with an aside involving the word "French"

Eight-year old Sam would probably kick thirty-two year-old Sam's rear (excuse my French) if he heard him say how much he liked the vegetables in last night's meal.

Also, "Excuse my French" is a great phrase.

If I was a woman and I was married to some dude named French, I would entice him to say outlandish things in public just so I could take his arm and say "Please, excuse my French. He's a bit of an idiot."

Who says I can't empathize with female characters? Stop saying that.

Back to eight-year old Sam. Man, you have thick hair. Don't worry. Yes, your beard will come in. Yes, you did end up being a writer. Yes, you have kissed a girl. But, please have a seat. About professional basketball...

Good News on the West Virginia Fiction Award

I got a bit of good news last week. I learned that I am a finalist for the West Virginia Fiction Award. This is another in a long series of positive developments in my writing career for which I am very grateful.

I am taking it as a bit of confirmation that all the work I am putting into this effort is paying off. It would be wonderful to win, but it really is nice just to be nominated. Did I just say that? Oh well, ‘tis true enough.

The story is a humorous one, and I think the Award is more geared toward more serious work, so we’ll see if it makes them laugh enough to look past the real serious stuff. See, I’m already building a psychological defense mechanism against losing –maybe it will work. Self-delusion? Maybe I should have gone into politics after all.

There are other good things happening on the authorial front that I will fill you all in on whenever they become official, or mostly official.

Patience is a virtue that certainly seems required for this kind of work. I am discovering that a key to success lies in continuing to be active even while you wait. If the thing you wait for doesn’t pan out, then have something else in the ‘ole pipeline.

Remember there’s a lot in your hands, and a lot that isn’t. Keep writing, keep imagining, keep on yielding in your heart to the Sovereign God of all.

While my novel has been done for a while and I wait on that front I’ve been very active with The Fledge Chronicles serial and good things keep happening there and my imagination conjures up some really fun possibilities in the future for the citizens of Fledge.

Thanks for supporting me, friends.