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This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing The Spirit of Sweetgrass from Integrity/Thomas Nelson (March 6, 2007)by Nicole Seitz See my review below theirs. ABOUT THE AUTHOR: NICOLE SEITZ is a South Carolina Lowcountry native and freelance writer/illustrator published in South Carolina Magazine, Charleston Magazine, House Calls, The Island Packet and The Bluffton Packet. A graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s School of Journalism, she also has a bachelor’s degree in illustration from Savannah College of Art & Design. Nicole is an exhibiting artist in the Charleston, South Carolina area where she owns a web design firm and livesRead More →

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This month, the CSFF Blog is touring the online version of the magazine, The Sword Review. I haven’t been able to plumb this as deeply as I’d like, so I can’t vouch for the contents, but at the price of free, it’s probably worth taking a look at if you’re a fan. For poets especially, it’s worth taking a look, as this appears to be a paying market, and there aren’t many of those for any kind of poetry, let alone speculative. As to the contents, as I said, I haven’t verified this, but the standards laid out in their writer’s guidelines are very promising.Read More →

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ORCHARD OF HOPE (Revell March 1, 2007) by Ann Gabhart ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Ann H. Gabhart has published a number of adult and young adult novels with several different publishers. The author of The Scent of Lilacs, Ann and her husband live a mile from where she was born in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky. She is active in her country church, and her husband sings bass in a southern gospel quartet. ABOUT THE BOOK: In the summer of 1964, drought has gripped the quiet Kentucky town of Hollyhill, and Jocie Brooke is nervous about starting high school. Her sister Tabitha is experiencing the wearinessRead More →

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In: Occult/Urban Legends

Dear Andrea, Every one at school is talking about Bloody Mary and they believe in her. I don’t cause I’m Christian. Who is she, is she real?Clara Dear Clara, Yes and no. As Wikipedia points out, “Bloody Mary” is a epithet for Queen Mary 1 of England, and earned it for her persecution of protestants. The ghost, however, is just an urban legend. I would not, however, advise taking part in the popular sleepover game (I remember my sister and a friend trying it when we were kids). Because demons are real, and these kind of games attract them. With any kind of ritual, ofRead More →

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In: Bible and Theology, Gospel, Grace, Post-Modernism

 Gentle readers, Lately, I’ve been hearing, in one way or another, and from diverging sources, a single cry, ringing out. Namely, that the Church is supposed to be a family, but too often in America, it has more in common with daycare, a country club, thrift store, pick the business metaphor of your choice. Too many churches today are literally run as non-profit commercial enterprises and mean “when you’re here, you’re family” in the same spirit as the Olive Garden. We have people in the Church today, raised in it their whole lives sometimes, who have no, or little, understanding of the gospel. The surroundingRead More →