Last week I released the eighteenth story on the Untold Podcast!

I am pleased with the direction this podcast is taking. Our listenership is increasing and the stories I'm able to tell are consistently great!

This last episode was also a crossover episode featuring Ben Avery from the Strangers and Aliens podcast. In it, he and I talked about the importance of Christian storytelling. The conversation continued onto his show, where we talked about some great Christ artists who are making artwork out there.

I learned so much from this conversation and I am greatful for Ben Avery's perspective, wisdom and grace.

Give a listen:

Untold Podcast 18 - The Spigot

What Makes Christian Fiction Good? (CROSSOVER feat. Nathan James Norman) — SA111

Crossover Nexus Podcasts Crossover Nexus Podcasts

Summary: King Silas of the modern-day kingdom of Balboa struggles to keep the peace as the voice of God turns against him and a heroic young captain, David Shepherd begins to capture the hearts of Silas’ subjects. Following the biblical narrative of Saul and David, this short-lived series explores the story in a present-day setting.

Review: More-so than any other prematurely cancelled series (I’m looking at you Firefly) I wish this series lasted beyond the thirteen produced episodes.

The portrayal of the Silas/Saul character by Ian McShane alone is worth the price of admission. McShane perfectly captured the emotionally volatile character of Silas/Saul. His constant flip-flopping between loving and hating David would have seemed ludicrous if portrayed by a lesser actor, but McShane brings the biblical character to life. We, at once, love and loath this king.

The rest of the extensive cast is equally stellar. So much so, the show feels more like an epic film rather than a weekly series.

The setting of the show is utterly unique. It is a modern-day, absolute monarchy, surrounded by other monarchies. The show-runners went all-out creating a believable setting, and wove modern-spins into the biblical narrative.

For instance, just like in the Bible, mid-season we see Silas meeting David for the first time (unknown to Silas), playing a piano that soothed Silas in a flashback that occurred after David destroyed a “goliath-tank.”

The spiritual center of the story is Reverend Samuels who used to be a friend to the king, but because of the king’s corruption has now become his enemy as he gives Silas oracle after oracle of God’s displeasure.

Christian authors need to take note of this series because, with only a few exceptions, the way conversations with God, prayers and theology is handled in this series is very effective and powerful. There were several moments throughout the series where goose bumps formed on my arms as I listened to words of Silas, David and Reverend Samuels.

There are, of course, imperfections in the show.

The Jonathan/Jack character is portrayed as a closet homosexual (a decision based on a very poor exegesis of the text). But the show seems to both identify Jack’s homosexuality as his core identity, while simultaneously communicating that Jack, at the same core, is a very dark person. It is a very complex situation… at the very least worth pondering even if you don’t agree with the show’s view (whatever that is). Additionally, Jack is neither David’s friend, nor heroic at the beginning of the series.

Another imperfection is the sexual ethic of the world. Mid-way through the series, the ethic seems to be “sex is good if you love the person” but later on, Reverend Samuels seems to say that two characters were married long ago because of their depth of their love (or perhaps recognizing they belonged together). So, the sexual ethic is odd to say the least.

Despite these issues, Kings is a marvelous achievement. Each and every character is imperfect and must work through their imperfections under God, or be destroyed by their own sins. Even Reverend Samuels finds himself disobedient to God mid-season and needs to repent.

Wonderful storytelling, great sets, great locations, near-flawless acting and top-notch writing combine to re-tell a timeless story.

Discerning individuals should watch this show. It is, by no means perfect theologically, nor line-by-line faithful to the text… but it is faithful at its core.

I suggest reading the biblical text (1 Samuel 1-21… or 8-21 if you’re in a hurry) in conjunction with watching the show.


Rating: 5/5 (I Loved It!)

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of independent speculative author David N. Alderman.

His Black Earth series (several reviews appearing on this blog) is among my favorites.

If you'd like to get a taste of this wonderful author's works, his novella Picture Perfect is now free through smashwords. Head over to David's blog for the details.

I spent some time last week joining and tweaking social media accounts for myself and my church*.

If you're interested at all you can follow me, or my church in the following public areas.

Nathan James Norman
Twitter
Pinterest
RSS Feed

The Orchard Church
Facebook
Twitter
Google +
RSS Feed


*I'm not particularly fond of saying "my church" as if I somehow have ownership over it. But it is shorter and less awkward than writing "the church where I serve as the pastor".

After finally seeing The Hobbit in the theater, my wife and I are watching The Lord of the Rings: Extended Edition on dvd. After going through this version, I have decided that when I finally buy this excellent trilogy on blu-ray, I will be purchasing the theatrical release rather than the extended editions.

In my humble, but correct, view the theatrical releases are superior for two reasons: pacing and music.

First, the pacing of the extended editions is thrown way off by the insertion of the additional scenes. Yes, as a geek I am intrigued by the gifts given to the Fellowship by Lady Galadriel. I am also interested to hear about how the Ent men have lost track of the Ent women. And the added scene where we learn about Aragon’s extended lifespan gives the viewer a little bit of insight into why the character is so wise. All of these things are very interesting, but they do little to enhance the story or the characters. Worse, they actually minimize the dramatic tension of the story, which causes the pacing of the film to slow down. The theatrical version of these films moves along at a fast pace. The extended version drags on.

Second, the music of the extended edition hurts the overall story. I know that Howard Shore re-scored the extended edition, but the music just isn’t as dramatic in this version of the film. And this is not a poor refection on Shore’s brilliance, but rather the impossibility of coming back to a scene that has had an additional four seconds of content inserted and trying to make up music to fit into that moment while flowing into the rest of the score. It just can’t happen well. If you have both versions of the trilogy, go back and watch Boromir’s heroic last stand in The Fellowship of the Ring. The new music deflates the scene in the extended edition when compared to the theatrical cut. And this was done so we could see a couple extra Uruk-hai get their heads chopped off. Even worse is Gandalf’s glorious appearance at the Battle of Helm’s Deep in The Two Towers. The pacing of the scene is brilliant in the theatrical release. In the extended cut, the pacing and the music both hurt the dramatic tension.

More is not always better. I, for instance, could probably preach for four hours every Sunday if I wanted to. I put that much work into my sermons. But I boil them down to thirty to forty minutes. I cut out everything but the best content, and keep only the content that is of the most importance and I leave all the tangents on the cutting room floor. The result is a more enjoyable sermon. More is not always better.

I am excited to announce that I will be producing a new monthly podcast featuring speculative fiction from a Christian worldview!

In all honesty, part of the reason I’m doing this is because I need a hobby that totally consumes my mind. I find on my day off (Mondays) that my mind is racing and ready to go back my work at the church. And even though I know that is not a healthy thing during my downtime, I can’t turn it off. What I needed was a hobby that so consumed my thoughts and mind that it would push out all my other concerns. Reading didn’t do it, writing (which I will still do) isn’t relaxing at all, and hiking/bike riding was fun but my mind just goes toward the mechanics of the church.

I’ve heard golf is a great sport to take up for folks in my situation . . . but I don’t have the resources to get involved in that sport just yet, and I live in the six-month-snow-covered region of Northern Michigan. So, doing a story-based podcast was a good option for me to occupy my mind with something that I love! Stories!

The pilot episode is available now on the new website!

I am also looking for the following submissions:

• Short Stories (1,000-3,000 words)
• Flash Fiction (100-300 words)
• Music (Songs we can feature at the end of an episode)
• Art

(See the submissions page for details.)

Right now I plan on releasing an episode every month (with bonus episodes featuring my first person sermons popping in there every so often). I hope to make this a twice a month podcast once I get into the swing of it (and the submissions start pouring in).

So go check it out, share it with your friends, blog about it, and post it up on Facebook!

This past summer I entered a comic writing contest and came in second place. The “Strangers and Aliens” podcast interviewed me as a part of the prize package.

Ben Avery from the show conducted the interviewed this past Monday and I had a great time! It also helps that I’m a big fan of Ben’s work . . . especially Tempest, Kingdoms, Hand of the Morning Star and Lullaby.

You can download the episode here.
(My interview segment begins just after the 38 minute mark).

In addition to my main focus of creative energies at The Orchard Church I have a number of "works in progress" (WIP). It is the blessing and curse of the author to have multiple projects, all of which have various amounts of attention and importance placed on them. Here is my current WIP, listed in order of greatest attention:

1. JPATCA - This is a novel that a friend and I worked on together while I was living in Southern California. It is a young adult, near-future, dystopian/utopian novel. The text is all written (my friend wrote the first draft) and I am in the process of going through the rewrites. My hope is to have a final copy before the end of the year and begin shopping it around to perspective publishers early next year.

2. The Shade - This is a multi-perspective piece of epic fantasy fiction. I'm about 40,000 words into the work and I estimate that it will ultimately end up being 180,000 words. The story will naturally break into six sections. This is among my finest works, and to date, the only bit of writing I have ever experienced writer's block on. I think I may need to take a page out of my sermon-prep process and skip the troublesome section and come back to it once I've figured it out.

3. SCF - This is my first significant work of non-fiction. It is a theological book on a topic that I think hasn't really been explored too well in our western-church culture, but has been grossly misrepresented. I am in the research process right now looking at the biblical data, ancient sources and modern sources (with almost every single modern source being completely inconsistent with the biblical data). I haven't decided on a format for the work yet, either academic, or popular . . . but since my credentials are only an M.Div and senior pastorate, I think it will have to be a popular piece.

4. Untold: Alliances - This is the seven-part audio drama series being produced by the volunteers at the Spirit Blade Underground Alliance. The first episode is available now (for free!). The series outline has been green-lit, as well as the second episode. As far as I understand, no further work has been done on the episode yet, but interested parties anticipate getting started soon. Subsequent episodes will be written as production begins again on the series.

On a similar note, assuming the Untold: Alliances series is actually completed, it will in most likelihood be my last foray into the world of Untold. I had originally planned for the series to be a five books (and book two is currently 42,000 words long), but my writing abilities have developed so far beyond Untold when I wrote it fourteen years ago that I think it's time to move on to bigger and better things!