The Play's The Thing

So I'm still in Ohio :-D for those wondering, though that's not Ohio, that's Megan. I took that yesterday during rehearsal which went powerfully well. That's Prince Hamlet reading the cliff notes version of Hamlet to the Cadburry Easter Bunny. The play is "The Complete Works of Shakespeare, Abridged." And this is the latter half of that play seeing as the front part of it was done last year and had to be delayed due to one of their number, one Eric by name, falling off the stage and breaking his leg.

Remember, it's bad luck to wish anyone in the theater ''good luck'' on the night of the performance and so you tell them to "Break a leg'' instead. Eric took that rather literally and while it was a stunning exit to make, it meant the rest of the play had to be postponed. Here's a visual of Eric

As you can see he's a man of many talents, including but not limited to, ghost busting. Healed up and ready to tackle the second half of the production, Eric stole the spotlight several times from Megan and Amie in turn stole it from him. Basically it was forty five minutes of delight as four hams (Megan, Eric, Aime and Tiffany) took us through a celebration of Shakespeare's best known play and moved from parody to original play, weaving in and out of character. William Shakespeare is beloved for many reasons, but at the heart of his work is the feel that the stories were written for the common man, and because of this people love him to this day. I'll close with some highlights. And I'm still not coming home.


Because Rhu (who is Hamlet and all in black with the Red Light Saber) loves Star Wars so much, it had to make it into part of the parody. That's Aime (Laertes) there impaled on her bright red saber.


There's Tiffany, Amie and Megan taking on the part of Hamlet where all . . .no no pretty much any moment in Hamlet all hades is breaking lose. So that is the final confrontation between Hamlet and his uncle/father/mother(King Claudius and Queen Gertrude) played by Tiffany and Aime's character (Laertes). Ah, but where you ask is the lovely Ophelia? Right here, Eric played her too!

Did I mention that I'm on Vacation?! :-D

So I've been in Ohio now for three days and I'm pretty sure I'm not coming back home. I mean why would I want to leave a place where they have awesome coffee, incredible ice cream, 65 cent hamburgers, fabulous old houses, friendly people and most importantly a place where I can dispose of the bodies of my enemies!



While they discourage the dumping of bodies and the picking of flora and fauna, they do let you walk through and become saturated with the scents and smells and the feeling of being in a fen (while the sign says bog, it really is a fen). Take a gander at some of the beauty I found within:

DO NOT MISS "EXPELLED"

I saw Ben Stein's Expelled No Intelligence Allowed today and it exceeded all of my expectations! While it isn't perfect, it's awful close. It asks the question, "What is at the heart of the quashing of any theory that dares to challenge Darwin's Theory of Evolution?" Then, it starts looking for answers, and in the process takes you around the world to learn some interesting things such as:

Scientists in Poland have more freedom to look at Intelligent Design and Darwin's Theories than they do here in America.

Hitler had a link to Evolution and it affected the Holocaust

A black brutal secret of the United States and how 50,000 people were sterilized against their will

The fact that Evolutionists can't tell how life began on earth, they can only offer theories to explain how it has changed.

This movie is only ninety minutes long, but it packs a wallop and in that hour and a half it manages to be funny and poignant as well as eyeopening.

Well done, Ben Stein and Company.

Well done.

Ouch.

Ever had one of those moments that throw you backwards in your Christian Walk?

Not a few paces, not a half-hearted stumble, and not two steps foreword and one step back. I'm talking nailed you in a place you didn't even know was still raw, sent you head over boots down the hill end over end till you hit the bottom with a thud and couldn't breathe because of the impact for several minutes, kinda moments.

That happened to me yesterday and, like most things that make me stumble, it came out of no where.

I was having a good morning, customers were asking easy questions, I was ticking off the things on my to-do list at a good clip, and the phone wasn't ringing off the hook and making me threaten to pull it off the wall with my bare hands and throttle it to death. It was a good morning. Then, this sweet lady comes in and asks a question and then stops and stares at me and goes "Oh, you are 'insert mother's name here''s daughter." The smile froze on my face and I felt my heart give a tight angry squeeze before it resumed its' normal rhythm. She was one of the women who knew my mother from when Mom was the head of the Interdenominational Intercessors Network, IIN for short. I've been wrestling with resentment and anger since the woman said that. Poor lady, it wasn't her fault and it has nothing to do with her, or really even with Mom. It has everything to do with me, and half a lifetime of some not very pleasant memories.

Ten years, Mom steered that organization through meetings and events and even a short term missions trip. Ten years, I was 'so and so's daughter' at every church I went to, at every event I attended, and even at the book store where I work now, I was known as 'so and so's daughter'. I was watched like a hawk, I was judged, I was put down, I was told how I was to behave, and I was shunned because of who my Mother was.

But my problem with that label goes back further than ten years. Before Mom ran the Interdenominational Intercessors Network, she was head of one of the largest homeschooling networks in the state. She ran that for seven years, and at every event I was 'so and so's daughter' and everyone in the home schooling community knew me as 'so and so's daughter'.

They might not have known my first name, but they knew my Mom.

She did a fantastic job, taking the organization from fifty family to over five hundred families. But it was like living in a fishbowl. Everyone had an opinion about everything that I did, and no one had any problem sharing it with her, or with me. Don't get me wrong, there was a tremendous amount of good that came out of her position too. One thing was the fact that my brother and I learned to set up, break down, pack and unpack because of her leadership position. These are skills that have served me well on a variety of projects, including book signings.

Ten years plus seven years equal seventeen years. Seventeen years of being greeted by "Oh, you're so and so's daughter." Seventeen years of judgment, seventeen years of being measured against the standard my Mother set in their eyes, seventeen years of falling very short.

*sigh*

Weird how one little phrase, even kindly meant, can put you in a whole world of hurt.

Here's what I have been meditating on as kind of a poultice or balm for that ache reopened.

“Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.
I have called you by name; you are mine.
2 When you go through deep waters,
I will be with you.
When you go through rivers of difficulty,
you will not drown.
When you walk through the fire of oppression,
you will not be burned up;
the flames will not consume you.
3 For I am the Lord, your God,
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.

Isaiah 43:1b-3 NLT.

The italics and blue color are my emphasis in the passage. Christ knows my name. Kinda mind blowing if I stop and think about it, and more mind blowing, He wears a label too, and wears it for me. You see, Christ is my savior. He is the King of Glory, the Great I AM, and He is Scribe's Savior. In His sight, I am judged pure and lovely and righteous all together. Oh, if I could get that into my heart and really really believe it, instead of letting the words run around in my head.

I did not want this ouch, but apparently I needed it because He let it happen, He allowed it to trigger all this muck now kicking around in me.

:-P

On a better note, the outlining is working well, and tightening up very nicely indeed. I've shared some of the stuff now with three of my co workers and all of them are excited and NO ONE IS confused. Go-outlining!

Night all,

A very uncomfortable Scribe

Once Upon a Time. . .PART ONE

There was a best selling fantasy author who was part tale teller, part swashbuckler, and part teacher. A week ago he came to the store where I work, and brought a long sharp metal pointy thing along just for fun.

This was a good thing, because I had invited him to come and have a book signing at the store and he made time in his busy family/work/adventures/writing schedule to do just that! It was a bit of a rainy night, but the turn out was incredible! I set out roughly 15 chairs and after thirty minutes they were filled and fans were waiting for a sneak peak into the Isle of Swords!

Here are a father and son that are some of my favorite The Door Within fans! For starters, they read the books together and for another they face some unique challenges when it comes to reading anything. It's one that I share with them to some degree.



You know should Thomas Nelson ever do audio versions of his books, I really hope they offer him the opportunity to read them himself! All Door Within fans *MUST* hear him do a dramatic reading at least once in their life time! I've heard him do readings I don't know how many times, and every time I get dragged into his worlds through his words. It's definitely worth coming a great distance to experience the Seanachai employ his craft.




Did I mention that he makes the events all about you guys?! Here's Wayne doing what he does best at a book event, encouraging his fans and sharing some of the behind the scenes stuff you'll never hear unless you hunt him down in person! (He's going to be on the move again soon! Keep watching his blog for updates!)

Oh, and if you ask very very nicely, he might let you hold his sword.

"And here we see best selling fantasy author Wayne Thomas Batson being taken hostage by a lovely young fan."

"And here, a young blood is learning the proper way to hold a cutlass, with tips from a salty dog of unknown origin.''

Pictures!

Real quick for anyone interested here are links to the pictures of the Maryland Swashbuckling signing that Wayne Thomas Batson had in April.

Store One

Store Two

Store Three

That should do it, check out the Capt'n in all his glory!