34: How Has Lorehaven Been Questing Through the Great 2020 Pandemic?

We're fighting to continue book enjoyments during the pandemic, and we share how Lorehaven has fared In These Uncertain Times™.

“Viral pandemic takes over year 2020. Everyone is hardest hit, but especially the recreation economy!”

Now that you’ve likely spent months struggling with work, school, and all the rest of it, how goes your enjoyment of books? And how can an outreach like Lorehaven, devoted to finding the best Christian fantasy, fare In These Uncertain Times™?

Stranger Than Fantastical Fiction

It’s official: we’ve entered the Space Laser Wars. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper announced that Russia and China “have weaponized space, through killer satellites, directed energy weapons, and more.”
Full video: Defense Secretary Speaks at Air, Space and Cyber Conference.

1. Lorehaven is growing its online presence.

Lorehaven.com shares reviews, articles, the SpecFaith blog, a complete library, and beyond.
Up through spring 2020, we also offered an actual print magazine every quarter.
You could order new copies online (and still can for older issues), or get copies at events.
This year we adjusted. We’re sharing more articles online and posting all our existing reviews daily!
Lorehaven also hosts the SpecFaith blog. Stephen usually posts on Tuesdays. In fact, that’s how Zack found us.
Zack first read these two articles:

https://speculativefaith.lorehaven.com/will-christians-colonize-cosmos/

https://speculativefaith.lorehaven.com/twelve-reasons-left-behind-series-actually-awesome-part-1/

And of course, Lorehaven hosts this very podcast, now closing on forty episodes.
Meanwhile, Stephen will soon resume livestream events with Realm Makers.
The next one is set for this Thursday, Sept. 24, 8 p.m. Eastern.
Title: How Can Fantastical Stories Boost Your Bible Reading?
Of course, there’s still the Lorehaven Book Clubs group on Facebook!
Shout-out to Steve Rzasa for running that, with so many great authors there.
Remember, Lorehaven is ad-supported. That’s how we can make it free.
We also have an online store with, among other fare, truly fantastical shirts.
Christmas is coming quicker than you think. Only three shopping months left …

2. Print copies are on hold for the foreseeable future.

For the time being, Lorehaven must operate as a webzine.
Lack of events means lack of ability to fund and distribute print copies.
To clarify: readers want to find our content easily! The best way to do this is digitally.
That rules out, say, an older “send print copies by mail to paid subscribers” concept.
Lorehaven is funded entirely by advertisers. That means we make it available for free.
We’re also more easily able to interact with readers that way.
Also that way, we can work better to time reviews with upcoming releases.
Our fall 2020 issue is already in the works, with a dozen-plus reviews, new articles, beyond.
Of course, you must subscribe free at Lorehaven.com to get that new issue.

3. Lorehaven plan for online outreach and at least some events in 2021.

Stephen taught/mentored at two virtual events this year.
We really, really miss live events—especially with The Pop Culture Parent now being released!
Next year: will live events resume? Such as homeschool and writers’ conferences?
If so, then Lord willing, we’ll have Lorehaven booths with many more resources to share.
Our mission remains to find the best Christian fantasy that can help us worship Jesus better.

Fantastic feedback

We share this letter and offer advice about the balance of sheltering kids and training kids to engage their world for Christ.

Elizabeth writes about our recent two-part Pop Culture Parent series:

My parents were very strict growing up. I couldn’t watch cartoons with magic. My Saturday mornings started with chores first. I had to work as fast as possible so I could watch those morning cartoons. That usually meant I missed the magic themed ones like He-Man or Smurfs. So I grew up watching GI Joe, Transformers and Gumby. Honestly, I’m happy with that because I hate Fantasy, but love SciFi.

Now that I’m a parent, I’m strict on what my kids watch, but it’s more about language, visuals and sexual content. I don’t want inappropriate images to be burned into their brains. I don’t want them to be flooded with bad language that they will end up attempting to use in everyday life. Wouldn’t it be interesting to have this discussion with my mother in the past? The idea that the magic from Smurfs really isn’t as bad as some of the junk they put into cartoons now.

On the idea of popular culture…

My son has had moments of almost anxiety/panic attacks. It relates to the idea of popular culture. He believes in Jesus, in salvation. Every day we have a Bible study and read the Word. Sundays we’ve been hosting a Bible study in our home, since our church is closed.

His worry is eternity. What will it be like? What about the video games he plays/the electronics he uses? What about the Marvel movies he enjoys? And then he starts thinking that he’ll lose all of that, the idea of singing and worshiping forever (and doing nothing else in heaven) and he panics.

How can I help him?

Interesting discussion. Thank you!

Send us your fantastic feedback by email, comment here, or social media.

We hope to explore that nasty Netflix debacle, asking if boycotts help anything.
Also, we may talk about whether there’s really life in the Venusian atmosphere.
Which topic sparks your interest most? As always, let us know and help steer the show.

Next on Fantastical Truth

Some Christians think good authors must use anything, including fairy tales and sci-fi, as mere Teaching Tools for kids and other readers. Other Christians, maybe in response to that “tool” approach, embrace what they believe is unhindered creative freedom, apart from specific efforts to share truth. To support this, they say that C. S. Lewis just “saw images” and embraced them for their own sake, then the Christian element just got in there naturally. So shouldn’t Christian storytellers just do the same, and not try to promote a message? But what if they’re both wrong? What would this mean for Christian readers, and for authors?