I’m swamped! I finally make a list, 9 tasks long, of what I want to accomplish this summer and suddenly I have 4 new tasks that must be done NOW. And I still have to do those 9 tasks in 99 days. Well, to be honest, I could set some of them to the side if I must. Not all of them, though. One task, tutor a student, must be done this month. I don’t have the luxury of setting it aside. I’m in the midst of that task right now.

          This is why I haven’t posted in a week. Every waking moment has been spent on one or another can’t-be-set-aside task. I had hoped to write up a short description of all the 9 tasks, why I chose each one, how I would measure progress and completion and any other thoughts I wanted to share about it. Not going to happen. It will be September if I wait until it is completely finished to post it. LOL You won’t hang around that long! I wouldn’t expect you to.

          So short snippets as often as I can post them will now be the norm. For the summer at least, the pre-determined schedule will be jettisoned. (Who knows? Maybe we’ll discover this blog runs better that way.) When I get busy like this, I get even more efficient at grabbing those short bits of time. So I suspect I’ll still be able to post twice a week. I just can’t promise posting on a set day and I’m doubt I’ll be able to post many reviews. I’ll work on reviews as I can, but they take much more time to write. I will probably only post a few of those this summer. (If you have any requests, send them to me and I’ll put them on my ever-growing to-do list.)

          Keep treading water with me and we’ll have a great summer in the pool!

          A couple of months ago I came across a website, 101 in 1001 days. The idea intrigued me. Set a certain number of talks to be completed in a certain length of time. And do it out in front of the world. Or at least the World Wide Web. I’ve adapted the idea.

         From June 1 to September 7, which is 99 days, I will document my progress towards 9 tasks. Those tasks, in no particular order are:

Read the Bible in 91 days
Write Cookbook
Write Time Tracker manual
Write “How to pray” booklet
Reorganize E&M
Prepare RFW workshop
FTHRW duties – PPMs, Membership roster, regular duties
Tutor a student
Scan negatives

          I plan on creating a page that will outline what each task means to me, why I chose it and what I hope to accomplish. Throughout the 99 days, I’ll occasionally post my progress and thoughts or insights. (If I really have it together, I’ll create a chart for tracking progress. I doubt that is going to happen. LOL) .

          Knowing me, I’ll probably even try to post changes to the plan. I can’t seem to get through a day without changing something, even if it’s only what I planned to wear. That flexibility is probably my greatest strength, but it is also a huge weakness if not held in check. I start lots of projects and only finish a small percentage. This 9 by 99 project is designed to combat that trait. (“That means no changes!” I tell myself.) I’ve committed to finishing these 9 things and I only have to do it in 99 days. When (notice I didn’t say if) I dream up new projects I want to start (I already have a few I couldn’t put on the list ), I’ll just tell myself I can start on September 8. Or after all these 9 projects are finished. (Wouldn’t that be great? To finish all of them BEFORE the deadline.) Until then, I stick to the plan.

          Obviously, these are not the only things I’ll be doing during the next three months. Just this past week, I’ve had to take time to plan a one-day VBS, harvest and process several things from the garden, cook meals and do routine household chores, attend special meetings and even prepare and deliver a speech, all things NOT on the 9 by 99 list. These nine tasks are the most pressing long(ish) projects in my life. Most of them have been “in the thinking stage” for months. This is my attempt to propel them out of thinking stage and into the doing stage. Knowing my own penchant for starting projects and not quite finishing them, I’m giving myself a reasonable deadline. At the end of 99 days, it will be obvious which projects are finished, which almost finished and which, if any, never got touched. Hopefully, in the process, I will also have focused a little more and changed “course” a little less than usual.

          Wish me luck!

          Christian speculative fiction. I first came across this term years ago when I met Jeff Gerke in a chat put on by the yahoo group, ChristianSecularFictionWriters. Jeff, an author and editor well acquainted with the Christian publishing business, even then bemoaned the fact that traditional Christian publishers shied away from anything “weird”. I think that is about the time he created the website, Where the Map Ends, a place to bring together readers and authors of “Christian speculative fiction”.

          There is a lot of information on that site, much of which I’m still discovering. The one thing I keep returning to, though, is his booklist. I have found many books I never would have known existed if not for his list. Here you can find a vast number of titles and genres, all written from a distinctly Christian worldview. If you are looking for Christian speculative fiction, stories that explore the fantastic, time travel, science fiction, alternate universes and more, while remaining harmonious with the values and mores important to a person of faith, this booklist will become treasured resource.

          I don’t know if or how often he updates this particular list, but he continues to do his part (and more) to connect readers and authors. A little less than a year ago he opened his own publishing company, Marcher Lord Press, dedicated to producing the best possible Christian speculative fiction. Now there’s no excuse. Jeff Gerke, through Where the Map Ends and Marcher Lord Press, has made it possible to find quality stories that stir the imagination while encouraging and strengthening your faith.

          Read on!

          In case you haven’t noticed, I’ll tell you. I’ve been having a hard time thinking of things to blog about. It might be that I have made the focus of this blog a bit too narrow and the “target audience” a bit too broad. At least in my own mind. I’ve considered and discarded several topics in the past few weeks, some because they were not reading- or entertainment-related, others because I thought they might be too “faith-filled”.

          I’ve been evaluating that hesitancy and have come to a conclusion. If you read my About page, you will see that I consider myself a Christian, a wholehearted Christian who lives her life by the truths and principles taught in the Bible. I want to reach out and encourage others like that. I’m well aware that the percentage of people who think like me is small. Even smaller are those with an interest in fantasy entertainment. Many of them may never read my blog, but even so, that person is my audience, the target of my musings. All others are more than welcome, encouraged and solicited even, but my topics will be directed at those who love the Lord Jesus and desire to live lives that honor Him.

          Most likely nothing will really change except the frequency of my posts. My style of conversing, in written and verbal form, is inclusive, considerate and accepting of most everyone I meet. I don’t try to antagonize or condemn and I certainly don’t expect everyone to see life exactly the way I see and experience it. Occasionally, though, I will say or do things that do antagonize or at least discomfit those who do not share my faith. I do not apologize for that. (At least not when it is prompted by my faith. If I’ve just been plain rude, I will eventually apologize. )

          I’ll still be posting reviews most Fridays. The change there, though, will be that I will post reviews of fiction and non-fiction, not just fantasy. I’ve recently read several non-fiction books that I believe are worth sharing and I read across several genres and would like to share thoughts on those. If I find a backlog of reviews accumulating, I’ll add another day for posting them, but for now reviews or links to other review sites will be posted on Fridays.

          In addition to these minor changes for Tuesdays and Fridays, I will also be chronicling a new project, 9 by 99 in 2009. I blogged about it at Routines For Writers and will post more details here during the next few days. I’m not going to plan a blogging schedule for that project. I’ll just post as I have something to say, but at least once a week. Sometimes my Tuesday’s musings and my 9 by 99 musings will be combined, but my goal is to post something different at least three times per week.

          Thomas Hunter is a man caught between two worlds. Literally. In one world he is a 25 year old businessman being chased by people wanting to kill him. When he falls asleep (or is knocked unconscious), he enters another world, one where people living in harmony in low-tech villages shun the forest and the river that runs past it as Evil and Forbidden. There he meets talking birds and vicious bats. He almost dies several times. In both worlds. And, through the course of the story, comes to believe somehow, someway, both worlds are real. And both worlds are in danger.

          In the 21st century Denver world, he must stop a biological plague, a plague that seems to be the history of this other world. There’s no way to tell for sure, though, because all the written history is lost. That’s why it is called The Lost Books. Thomas is told hunting the Lost Books is a dangerous thing to do, but he needs that information to save his . . . one of his worlds. Will his actions save or doom a world? Or both?

          Ted Dekker is an amazing author. His stories are full of action and plot twists that keep you turning pages well into the night. The absolute thrill I experience in reading his stories is mirrored by a corresponding joy at recognizing a world view and truths so consistent with my own I feel a kinship. In Ted Dekker’s fictional worlds, God exists. He is actively and compassionately involved in our reality. When I see these truths illustrated and illuminated so expertly, I can’t help but be envious. I want to write like that!

          His stories are not the typical pabulum of Christian fiction. He is one of many authors who are breaking out of the mold that says a book either has to be secular, devoid of God and His Truth to be interesting or it has to conform to certain strictures that, in the end, strip it of interest. This is not a complaint against Christian fiction. It has its place. Rarely, though, do you find an action-packed adventure, full of the angst and evil expected in the thriller or suspense genre combined with a thoroughly Christian perspective. Ted Dekkar does that combination well.