My Dear Snubnose

Just for fun, check out my latest post on HarperCollins' official C. S. Lewis blog. It's a "Screwtape letter" that I wrote for my small group at Sycamore Creek Church, which has just started reading Lewis's famous satire. Enjoy!

Latest Arthur publication & other updates

Greetings, friends & fellow readers!

I'm pleased to announce the latest Arthur publication, which is not, as you might expect, from yours truly. Rather, my husband Tom is a contributing writer for a new book entitled Mere Christians: Inspiring Stories of Encounters with C. S. Lewis (Baker Books, 2009; edited by Mary Anne Phemister and Andrew Lazo). Other contributors include Philip Yancey, Francis Collins, Thomas Howard, Walter Hooper, Chuck Colson, and a host of folks who share how Lewis's writings have changed their lives. Interested in a signed edition for the book lover or Lewis fan on your holiday list? Copies can be purchased through my website here. Tom is happy to personalize books for you: simply send me an email with details at sarah@saraharthur.com.

Meanwhile, I am currently offering a 50% discount on Walking through the Wardrobe, my youth devotional on The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Books can be purchased for $4.99 plus shipping by visiting my website here. Again, I'm happy to personalize any orders, so just let me know.

Blessings as you journey through this Advent season!

In Christ,
Sarah

The end of summer

Wow. I'm not sure what happened to summer. One minute I'm graduating on Mother's Day in Durham, North Carolina, and the next I'm canning late August tomatoes in the kitchen of our new home in southern Michigan. It's been a busy, delightful, challenging three months as we adjust to our new life here...and I can't say I've done much writing. But I've read a lot, including Kathleen Norris, Wendell Berry, Barbara Kingsolver, and (drum roll, please) a myriad of cookbooks. Yes, cookbooks! By some odd miracle I have overcome 35 years of kitchenphobia--including the fear of knives, boiling water, hot ovens, and fractions (shudder)--and discovered that I actually kind of enjoy cooking. Quite a lot. It helps that our new kitchen is spectacular, that we've signed up for a weekly share of produce with an Amish farmer, and that someone, somewhere, invented the food processor.

On the writing front, there's the slow chipping away at a novel, the opportunity to contribute chapters for two different book projects, writing various curricula, the continued development of rites-of-passage material for families of teen girls, and shaping a book proposal or two. And meanwhile my speaking schedule will kick into high gear starting in mid-October (details can be found here). After a two-year sojourn camping out in the reference library at Duke Divinity School, I'm grateful to find that I'm still employable as a freelancer.

Normally I sign off with a quote, but (just in case you didn't think I was serious about the whole cooking thing), this time I leave you with--yes, you guessed it--a RECIPE. For chilled watermelon soup. It's sort of my own concoction based on other recipes out there, so you'll want to keep taste-testing to balance the various ingredients. It makes a great lunch soup or first course. Enjoy!

8 cups fresh local watermelon, seeded and cubed
1-2 cups plain yogurt
2-3 Tb white wine vinegar (some recipes call for 1/3 C)
1-2 Tb lemon juice
2-3 Tb sugar
1 bunch fresh mint, reserving some for garnish

Combine SIX cups of watermelon and the smallest suggested amount of each ingredient in a blender and blend until smooth. Taste the soup, then add more of each ingredient as needed (if you add more yogurt, you will need to add more sugar). The consistency should be thick enough to be creamy but not as thick as a smoothie. Refrigerate for at least an hour. Ladle into small bowls (I use glass pyrex ones that I've chilled in the fridge). Garnish with remaining watermelon cubes (I pile them in the middle of each bowl) and a sprig of mint. Makes 4-6 servings (or more?). NOTE: If you do this in a food processor, you are maxing out the liquid level--trust me, I learned the hard way--so you will want to do this in several batches. Onward!

Spring Update

Spring 2009
Dear friends,

I'm happy to announce that I graduated from Duke University Divinity School on May 10 with a Master's in Theological Studies. It felt very, very good. I'm so thankful for the many people who encouraged me on that journey, including my patient readers. Now I can turn my energies back to freelancing--hurrah!

A few quick updates in that regard:

• Check out my articles (and other great stuff by Lewis scholars & authors) on the HarperCollins C. S. Lewis blog.

• The Northern Michigan C. S. Lewis festival is now hosting a week-long C. S. Lewis Summer Academy. In addition to morning seminars with Chris Mitchell of the Wade Center at Wheaton College, I'll be leading writing workshops in the afternoons. You can't ask for a more gorgeous getaway than Petoskey, MI in July! It truly is "Narnia and the North." (Hey teachers: CEUs are available, so check out the website.)

• If anyone feels inclined to write a really favorable review of "The God-Hungry Imagination" on Amazon, I'd be most grateful!

• My husband has requested that I finish a novel during this next year. It is a life goal of mine, so I might as well tackle it sooner rather than later, right? Pray for persistence and playful creativity (and maybe a publisher down the road).

But first, my husband and I are moving back to Michigan next weekend. Yes: finally and for good. He has been appointed to a church outside of Lansing, so we are packing up our earthly belongings and leaving Durham, North Carolina after four wonderful years. We will miss our church, Asbury Temple UMC, and the Duke Divinity community. But most of all we will miss our housemates at Isaiah House of Hospitality (to whom "The One Year Daily Grind" is dedicated).

There is a kind of tearing that happens when you've gone through daily spiritual formation with a group of people who are trying to follow God's call in the abandoned places of the world. I imagine this is what the Apostle Paul felt like as he said goodbye to the Ephesians, knowing they would never have that kind of close connection again. The church is like family; it is more than family. We are engrafted to these people through baptism and the breaking of bread. How does one say goodbye?

Winter update

Well, since my last post was in September, it only seems fair to reward those who keep checking this blog with something like a new post. So here it is, short and sweet. I am presently completing my final semester in the master of theological studies program at Duke Divinity School, attempting to take a full course load (plus audit a fifth class), complete my master's thesis, AND head up the first annual juried arts exhibit at DDS. Oh, and maintain some semblance of a freelance writing & speaking career (for updates on where I'll be speaking in 2009, click here). Perhaps the craziest thing in all this is that last weekend, VERY short notice, my husband and I were flown to Lansing, MI to meet the church where Tom will be appointed as pastor come July 1. Yes, it's official! More details to come...

Attack of the Snark

Just feeling a little jaded lately, a wee bit snarky on all fronts. Haven't we had the presidential election YET? Are we really all that suprised about the collapses on Wall Street? And meanwhile I've only been in graduate school for just over one year (of two) and already I've got senioritis. I'm so outta here. I suppose it's a symptom of how many times I've moved in the past three years, plus the fact that I'll be moving again by June--moving to some as-yet-unknown location where I'll start all over with building friendships and putting down roots. When nothing seems permanent, why bother? I could offer a cheesy devotional answer, but I'd rather side with the author of Ecclesiastes on this one. Vanity, vanity. Snarkiness has its own comforts (and, apparently, its own place in the Canon).

C. S. Lewis Blog

I finally made good on my promise to Zach Kincaid of The Matthew's House Project that I would turn in an article to HarperCollins' C. S. Lewis blog. Hurrah! "Good News For Toy Soldiers" is currently featured on HC's official Lewis site; and can be read in full here. They have very kindly included me on the list of C. S. Lewis "scholars" who are contributing to the blog, including a link to my bio--and from there, a link to my website. Not a bad gig, actually. Nothing like being called a scholar before you've completed your graduate degree...

SOULfeast

I'm not sure why the "soul" in SOULfeast is capitalized, nor why feast is italicized, nor why it's all one word, but I DO know that I'm headed there in a week. SOULfeast is the General Board of Discipleship's annual spiritual formation retreat at Lake Junaluska, NC, in the western mountains. It's an Upper Room bash, actually, and I'm really looking forward to it. If you happen to be going, be sure to look me up. I'll be leading an ongoing morning workshop on "The God-Hungry Imagination," and a one-time afternoon workshop on C. S. Lewis & J.R.R. Tolkien. I've even gotten all tech-savvy for the occasion, complete with power-point slideshow and video clip (nuh-uh, you say; and I say, chyeah). But never fear: I'll still bring a single candle and my copy of "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" in the spirit of media minimalism.

National Youth Workers Convention 2008

Thinking about attending the Nashville youth workers' convention hosted by Youth Specialties this November (http://www.nywc.com/)? I'll see you there! I'm leading two workshops: one on "The Role of Imagination in Spiritual Formation" and the other on "Re-imagining Confirmation." The topics will expand on some of the ideas in my book "The God-Hungry Imagination: The Art of Storytelling for Postmodern Youth Ministry" (see link at right), though you won't have to read the book to get what I'm talking about (though, of course, reading the book would only enrich your experience, but then again, I'm slightly biased). let me know if you plan to attend, and maybe we can connect. One of my main stations will be the Upper Room booth in the exhibition hall (more info to come). Looking forward to seeing you there!

Devo'Zine

I forgot to mention that one of the devotions I wrote for the youth magazine DEVO'ZINE (published by Upper Room) won the award for Devotional/Inspirational/Short Format at the Associated Church Press conference in April. The devo was entitled "When Words Fail" and appeared in the Jan/Feb 2007 issue. It was an exciting surprise to get the note from my editor. I work with simply amazing people in the publishing world!

Facebook

I caved.

I'm on it.

And addicted.

After all my griping and complaining about "virtual friends"! After all my doom and gloom prophecies that we will all be on more antidepressants than ever because we can be rejected or ignored by the click of a button!

Yep.

So if you are, in fact, friends or family with me (I mean, if you know me personally, not just through my books--sorry, dear readers), stop by. Invite me to be your cyber friend. Say hi. Write on my wall. I promise, I will not reject or ignore you, even if I'm silent for a long time while writing my next project or paper. Jesus loves us all.

Summer Update

For those of you who have begun to wonder if I dropped off the planet, no fear: I'm still here, enjoying my summer off from graduate school--hurrah!--in my hometown of Petoskey, Michigan. Yep, we moved. Again. For the fifth time in three years. And we'll move again in late August, back to North Carolina for my final year of graduate school at Duke Divinity School. (And then--yes, you guessed it--we'll move AGAIN once I'm graduated next spring, though we don't yet know where. And I wonder why I'm tired all the time?!)

So, we're living in our old house, which has been a bit neglected since we left in '05, and once things are cleaned up and settled I plan to do some writing. And don't you wonder what it will be? Stay tuned! In the meantime, there are some great new movies to watch about some of my favorite people, including a young fellow named Caspian and a young authoress named Jane Austen (if you haven't seen Becoming Jane, you MUST!). Rumor has it, The Hobbit isn't far behind. "The road goes ever on and on," as a famous literary character has said. I'll keep you posted on where my road is headed--as soon as I know more myself.

Have a blessed summer, and keep walking with Jesus! ►sarah@saraharthur.com

"It is the mark of a good fairy-story, of the higher or more complete kind, that however wild its events, however fantastic or terrible the adventures, it can give to child or man that hears it, when the 'turn' comes, a catch of the breath, a beat and lifting of the heart, near to (or indeed accompanied by) tears, as keen as that given by any form of literary art, and having a peculiar quality."
- J. R. R. Tolkien"On Fairy-Stories"

Message in a Bottle: Part 2

Once again, I'm sending a message before the typhoon of grad school sucks me in for another semester. I've had a long holiday break catching up on all the things I didn't get done during the semester (bills, correspondence, reading fiction, etc.). And I've received a few emails from readers, one of whom wanted to know how I created a niche for myself as a creative & imaginative writer/artist who specializes in the Inklings (C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, etc.). Here's part of my response:


"I’d say three things have shaped my career so far: First, my undergraduate education at Wheaton College, IL, which houses the Wade Center (http://www.wheaton.edu/wadecenter/)--I studied under some amazing literature professors & experts on CSL & JRRT, many of whom I’m still in contact with. Second, the Write-to-Publish conference, which is held in Chicago every June, gives attendees the opportunity to meet with editors from various publishing houses (http://www.writetopublish.com/). This is how I met the editor at Tyndale House Publishers who eventually offered me the contract for “Walking with Frodo.” And finally, the Northern Michigan C. S. Lewis Festival held annually in the Petoskey area, my hometown (http://www.cslewisfestival.org/). I’m one of the founding board members, and through the festival I’ve had the chance to interact with some incredible scholars and celebrities in the worlds of Lewis and Tolkien—including Doug Gresham, Lewis’s stepson & the co-producer of the Narnia films. So those experiences have been vital to my knowledge of the Inklings and my networking with folks in those worlds. I think my current education at Duke will serve a similar purpose in the long-term, though it’s less about the Inklings and more about theology and ministry..."


Meanwhile, I finally loaded Photoshop onto my computer so I could scan illustrations and digitally enhance them, which has been a lot of fun. I also did some research online of various children's book illustrators and resources, and came up with some interesting stuff: e.g., http://illustrationfriday.com/, http://www.cbcbooks.org/index.html (children’s book council). Also, these three artists really stood out: http://www.danburr.com/; http://www.brandondorman.com/; and http://manelleoliphant.blogspot.com/. At first I thought they were evangelicals, but then I figured out they’re probably Mormon. Who knew the Mormons had such vivid imaginations? Intriguing...

Birth Announcement

The books are here! Yep, fraternal twins that I've named The God-Hungry Imagination and The One Year Daily Grind (alas, my parents and in-laws will NOT think this is funny...). Both are now available through my website at http://www.saraharthur.com/order/index.htm, including group discounts. Know a pastor or youth leader who's looking for ways to engage youth in Christian life and worship? Send them The God-Hungry Imagination for Pastor Appreciation Month (October). Know a young adult in their twenties or thirties who's looking for more than the usual bland Bible study? Send them The One Year Daily Grind as a Christmas present. Or at the very least, send them the links to my blogs (at right) and encourage them to enter the discussion. I love to hear from readers, peers, and colleagues.

Onward!

Message in a Bottle

Before I get sucked into the vortex of graduate school (orientation for the theological studies program at Duke begins Tuesday, August 21), I'm posting some last-minute thoughts. Think of this as a message in a bottle from someone who knows their ship is about to go down. [Okay, so that's a bit drastic; but I know second-hand how intense Church History class will be, having watched my husband go through it.] Right. Here's the last-ditch note:

My latest newsletter is available at http://www.saraharthur.com/newsletter/current.htm. There you'll find updates on both of my forthcoming books, including blog links and ordering information. Incidentally, the blogs are also listed in the links at right. I try to post regular updates The One Year Daily Grind devotional book, so be sure to check out that blog. Also, I've received some fantastic endorsements for The God-Hungry Imagination, which are posted on that blog. I'd love to hear from readers, so don't hesitate to post your comments.

Both books are now available for preorder at http://www.saraharthur.com/order/index.htm. So far I'm told they'll be available by early-to-mid October. I'll keep you posted.

Good things!
Sarah

Out of the Wardrobe

Welcome to my new old blog. Shortly after I created it over a year ago, I launched two huge writing projects. It quickly occurred to me that if I was going to finish either book, I couldn't also maintain a blog. So my apologies to everyone who asked about this and chastised me for dashing their hopes. I stepped into the magic wardrobe, it turned out to be simply enormous, and I'm only now emerging. You'll be happy to know that both books I've been working on for the past 18 months will be available soon for pre-order; so keep your eyes peeled for:

The God-Hungry Imagination: The Art of Storytelling for Postmodern Youth Ministry (Upper Rooms Books, Oct. 2007), with a foreword by Ron Foster and Kenda Creasy Dean. It's essentially my thesis on the role of imagination and story in the spiritual formation of youth. The target audience is youth workers and pastors, though older youth and young adults might enjoy it as well.

The One Year Daily Grind (Tyndale House Publishers, Oct 2007) is a conversational blog-style collection of daily devotions for older youth and twenty-somethings. (Now you know why I haven't been keeping an actual blog!) It will also be available through my website, but--to my surprise--it's already available for pre-order through Barnes & Noble, among other sellers. I was amused to discover that "customers who bought this book" also purchased titles by C. S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Pope Benedict, and Lee Strobel. Apparently I'm considered intelligent enough to be ranked among this odd assortment of Christian thinkers.

Check out my blogs for each of these books, which include further thoughts and reflections, quotes, links to good reads and other resources, a chance to comment, etc: http://godhungryimagination.blogspot.com/ and http://oneyeardailygrind.blogspot.com/.

Thanks for your patience!



"We need not fear to find no home again
because we have fallen away from it;
while we are absent our home falls not to ruins,
for our home is Your eternity."

--From The Confessions of St. Augustine