They are making a really cool movie that is due to come in out 2026.
No, it’s not based on my books in any way, but it has all the themes of my series, turned up to 11. I mean to say, if you click on the link above, you will see that their web site features American Indians fighting a dinosaur. Things do not get cooler than that, and as it turns out, they also do not get better historically supported.
Here is a quote from their FAQs section:
The Walam Olum or “Red Record,” which is central to our movie, is very much not alone from multiple Native American historical narratives that provide a clear and consistent telling of giants—especially giants associated with the mound builders and earth works, of which there are tens of thousands in America. The Lenni Lenape’s account of the Nephilim is central to their history (see the “snake people” and the makowini, translated “big men” that existed before and after their Flood account, were part of the reason for the Flood, matching our Bible history). See the Glyphs in Book 2 and Glyphs 1-2 in Book 3. Several other historical documents also mention giants affiliated with tribes around the Lenni-Lenape people.
In other words, these people are kindred spirits, which is why they wanted to buy my url in the first place.
My little url is all grown up, and I couldn’t be prouder.
Still buy my books, I mean. They have their own peculiar charm. But by all means, go and see this movie too.
Here was our sales booth at this year’s American Falls Days. We did OK. I sold two Long Guests and my son sold some paintings.
Here are a few other vendors, visible from our corner of the park. The Navajo Tacos are to die for: basically taco fixins on fry bread. I get some every year.
Vendors were ringed all around the city park, with food trucks parked on the street.
Also, there was this adorable dog, the tiniest sheep dog I have ever seen.
But the kickoff event for American Falls Days was the town parade. If you have never seen a summer parade in small-town America, may I just say you are missing out. I had to stay in our booth while the parade went by. (My son, meanwhile, went off to collect candy. All the floats threw candy.) Anyway, I was close enough to the street that I could zoom in and photograph the parade from a distance, as if in miniature. So here’s your guided tour.
First of all, we have veterans bearing an American flag and a state flag.
This float belongs to Lamb Weston, a potato-processing plant and a major local employer. Near the front of the float you can see a giant box of French Fries. At the back is a giant potato with a face and, apparently, black hair, similar to Mr. Potato Head.
Lots of little golf-cart sized vehicles that you can barely see.
a trolley (?)
Politicians in open cars with flags. What parade would be complete without them?
The local Tae Kwon Do dojong’s float, with all the students in their doboks riding it.
Other students parade behind, doing poomsae moves.
I’m not sure who these purple-clad, Muppet-like people are, but they’re interesting.
Here’s a little yellow school bus. I know someone who would love this!
Now here come the utility vehicles. Fire truck, siren blaring …
Crop transport vehicle, a.k.a. “farm truck”
Teen volunteers riding on a ladder truck (siren also blaring) …
Senior citizens (your parade has to have them!) in a giant Radio Flyer
High schoolers (also mandatory)
A boat? What are people in Idaho doing with boats??? For your information, we have a reservoir, and many people boat recreationally on it.
Beauty queens. Every parade needs at least one beauty queen.
Classic car. The owner probably just wanted to show it off.
I’m not 100% sure, but I think this yellow thing may represent a bee hive. That’s a popular Mormon symbol for a large, happy (polygamous) home.
This is the coolest thing ever. Those large wheels are irrigation lines of the kind that you can spot in any field around American Falls. If you look closely, you can see that they are spraying actual water.
ACTUAL WATER!!!
Trailer, for some reason
This float was by the local Spanish-speaking evangelical church. They had a Tejano-style praise band, with speakers, loud enough to be heard past the sirens.
After the parade, they brought their float back, parked it in a nearby parking lot, and did some more songs and testimonies.
Being pulled behind the band is a small model of their church building.
This is the Green Machine. It had an entourage of people dressed in green marching behind it.
Now, for my absolute favorite float of all the floats. This is the Idaho Power cherrypicker truck. It’s the one they send out to our rural road to fix our power lines and restore electricity whenever a storm has blown the lines down, which has happened more than once. The brave Idaho Power employees will go out in winds and storm to restore power.
And look! It’s displaying a huge American flag, which strikes me as entirely appropriate. A local power company is indeed doing a lot to keep the country strong. If the power went off for any length of time, the region or country would quickly disintegrate into apocalyptic conditions. A nation needs its energy so its people can focus on anything except survival.
I’m not sure what the towerlike object on this float is, but I think it might be a model of the old town’s grain tower.
The town of American Falls used to be built closer to the banks of the Snake River. When the dam was built, the entire town was moved uphill, out of the way of the waters of the coming reservoir. (A lot of Shoshone-Bannock lands were also flooded.) To this day, when the water is low, you can still see the remains of the old town’s foundations. The most striking of these is a cement grain tower, which still sticks out of the water year-round. You can gauge the water level by how high up the tower it comes, or whether the tower is, in fact, on the shore.
A piece of construction equipment holding a beam. We small-town folks love our construction equipment.
And of course, a John Deere tractor. One of many.
And last but not least, beautiful cowgirls riding horses and carrying an American flag. These girls may be Indians. One year, the parade featured the Sho-Ban rodeo queen riding a horse, with a leather “crown” that fitted over her cowboy hat.
I’ve taken a lighthearted tone with this post, but honestly, I loved this parade and I love this town. Every community has parades to celebrate the things they love or that they are being made to love, whether it’s Dear Leader or a god or goddess. In this parade, we had: old people, young people, first responders, and people and vehicles who build, maintain, power, and farm the land. Horses. A float dedicated to praising the God of Heaven and proclaiming His goodness. This is just about the best, most wholesome parade you could ever hope to see.
PSA: I’m not doing off-the-grid August this year. You guys need a place to come where you can look at wildflowers and read about aliens. (So restful, right?) And I have enough pictures of the West to show you guys aaallll month.
So if I stop posting, it’s either because WordPress has bugged out on me, or the entire Internet has. Which are both things that could happen.
The Mystic Realms Fantasy Fair runs this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (June 28, 29, and 30) at the Bannock County Fairgrounds in Pocatello, Idaho. My son and I will be there, I selling books, he paintings. I will be dressed as my online avatar, Neanderthal Woman. Our booth is called the Cosmic Tree (his idea). And there are many other amazing vendors and entertainers as well.
I’ll try to upload pictures as the weekend progresses, so this post should get more and more colorful.
UPDATE: Well well well! Before this post goes live, we already have an update. We are known for strong winds here in Idaho. So strong, in fact, that the wind just BROKE OUR 10×10 TENT when my son and I set it up in the backyard for a dry run. It looks as if, tonight, we will be buying something sturdier.
Bought the new tent. Here’s our booth. The event is much bigger than last year’s.
a smith
The position of village idiot is open… think I should apply?
a viking
This man is working a lathe. The top end of that string attaches to the branch of a tree, so he doesn’t need another person on the other side to help him work it. Neanderthal woman is impressed at this technological leap.
Big Southern Butte in the background of the fairy bower.
Meeting Other Authors
C. David Belt, who is taking his costume in a Scottish direction and was rocking a Scottish accent, is an LDS (Mormon) horror writer. Last year, I bought and reviewed his book The Sweet Sister. This year, I bought his Lilith trilogy. Here he is signing them for me.
Here’s his booth. This man sat in front of his booth and sang ballads, off and on, for six hours.
J.M. Cullen is a new-to-me writer with a particularly photogenic costume. I bought his duology that involves time travel to the waning days of the Mayan empire. So far, I have bought far more books than I’ve sold. Hopefully, that will come back around to me. But even if it doesn’t, I now have a lot of great summer reading material.
When one is trying to get into a house, one seeks openness. One pushes to open its door. So when the gods were seeking to get into the American house and that of Western civilization, the focus was on openness and tolerance. It was never really about either.
The Return of the Gods, by Jonathan Cahn, p. 219
The above book qualifies as my most mind-blowing read of the year so far (as well as I can remember). I’ll work on a review to have up by Friday.
In the meantime, the primary domain of this here Out of Babel blog is now outofbabelbooks.com (note that I have also updated the name on the banner). If you are here, congratulations, you found it!
The old url, outofbabel.com, is still in the process of being transferred to another user. Apparently, this can take a while. When the transfer is complete (perhaps by next week?), the address outofbabel dot com will no longer be associated with me in any way. At that point, some of you may see your shortcuts to my blog stop working. I don’t know. If that happens, keep calm and create a shortcut to outofbabelbooks dot com. Thank you.
Hi all! I am in the process of selling the domain outofbabel dot com. Who knew the name would be so lucrative? Or lucrative at all. Outofbabel will now be the address of a movie, made by someone other than me, that is shaping up to be really really good. I’ll post a link for you guys once it’s up and I get my act together.
In the meantime, the address for MY out of babel site will become outofbabelbooks dot com. I am hoping that if I do the internetting right, you who are my followers won’t notice anything and you will still be directed to my site. But please be patient; I have never done this before. And if I suddenly drop off your notifications screen, and you miss me, try to going to outofbabelbooks dot com and signing up again.
I am traveling this weekend. I’ll be going to a conference, where I hope to personally connect with the proprietors of Haunted Cosmos Podcast. These guys are (I believe) kindred spirits in that they are Reformed Christians with an interest in paranormal ancient mysteries weird stuff. If I can convince them to re-issue my books under their imprint, maybe I will be free no longer need to promote my own books and all our troubles will be over. Anyway, a lot of things are up in the air just now (at least, in my mind they are), so pray for God’s will to be done there. And in the meantime, definitely check out the Haunted Cosmos podcast.
Secondly, I have finally broken down and become a creator on Patreon. Not much happening over there yet (or maybe ever), but please do visit Out of Babel Art and Novels if you are seized with an inexplicable urge to give me money.
Finally, here is the book I’m currently reading.
Obviously, the chilling topic of the old gods and their ongoing activity in this world is one that’s near and dear to my heart. I bought this book because I wanted to see what the Dispensationalists were saying about it. So far, it’s solid and pretty hard to argue with. Here’s a quote:
Since the house is clean, swept, and in order, the spirit brings in seven other spirits to join in the repossession. The implication is that if the house had not been cleansed and set in order, the spirit would not have brought back the other spirits to occupy it.
And therein lies the warning. The house that is cleansed and put in order but remains empty will be repossessed. And if it should be repossessed, it will end up in a worse state than if it had never been cleansed. What happens when we apply this to an entire civilization? … Should a culture, a society, a nation, or a civilization be cleansed, exorcised of the gods and spirits – but then remain or become empty – it will be repossessed by the gods and spirits that once possessed it, and more. And it will end up in a far worse state than if it had never been cleansed or exorcised at all. …
A post-Christian civilization will end up in a far darker state than a pre-Christian civilization. It is no accident that the modern world and not the ancient has been responsible for unleashing the greatest evils upon the world. A pre-Christian civilization may produce a Caligula or a Nero. But a post-Christian civilization will produce a Stalin or a Hitler. A pre-Christian society may give birth to barbarity. But a post-Christian society will give birth to even darker offspring, Fascism, Communism, and Nazism. A pre-Christian nation may erect an altar of human sacrifice. But a post-Christian nation will build Auschwitz.
Hi, everyone. I still have a low fever plus the muzzy head and joint aches that go with it, so this post should be … interesting.
Within the last week I finished the book above. If the Shoe Fits is a sort of very loose Cinderella re-telling. The heroine’s name is Cindy. She has a stepmother and stepsisters. They are not hostile to her as in the original story — they are actually quite affectionate — but they are gorgeous, thin Hollywood babes, very much in the T.V. world, and Cindy is plus-sized, so there are some hints that things were a bit rough in high school. The handsome prince is the heir to a fashion empire. Cindy has just graduated from fashion school, with a special interest in shoe design. As you can see on the cover, the author does manage to get her into an outfit that parallel’s Disney’s Cinderella. And yes, there are crystal-covered shoes at one point. (No, she does not lose them, though I was waiting for that.)
O.K., those are the similarities. Now, the differences. This book takes place in the fashion world and in the world of reality T.V. Cindy and Henry must get to know each other while they are both contestants on a show that is obviously The Bachelor (a show whose producer is actually Cindy’s stepmother). So, all of this is pretty different from a fairytale.
A Sensible Story of Chub
If the Shoe Fits was written by Julie Murphy, who is also the author of Dumplin’. I have not read Dumplin’ but I did see the movie. This book, I would say, has the same strengths and weaknesses as the ones I noticed in Dumplin’.
First, the strengths. Both books feature a romantic heroine who is fat. In both cases, the amount of self-pity that gal displays is very low. This is so refreshing. Plus-sized girls need role models who are not whiny and self-obsessed. Dumplin’ is in high school, so she has a few more issues with her weight than Cindy does, and it’s shown how this leads her to be unfair to her naturally thin best friend. Cindy notes that she has gotten catty comments and the like, and it’s hard to find a variety of clothes in her size, especially in the fashion world, but for the most part she’s confident and she displays no envy or hostility to the more Barbie-like women who are also contestants on the T.V. show. Finally, in both books there is an attractive male romantic interest who seems to really like Cindy or Dumplin’, and this is accepted as a matter of course. There’s no insulting discussion along the lines of, “I like you even though you’re fat because …” blah blah blah. Is this unrealistic? Maybe. But remember, this is a romance genre, so it’s a fantasy for women. Also, some guys are attracted to women who would consider themselves fat (correctly or incorrectly). Finally, whenever one person says to another, “I like you even though …,” I would say that’s a red flag. Unless it is Mr. Darcy speaking, it probably means the “even though”-er feels superior to their prospective romantic partner, and expects that they will be able to treat them badly.
The Less Sensible Part
So, those are the strengths of each book. The downside? Both books have a subtext that being fat is just like being gaaay.
In Dumplin’, the heroine has warm memories of “Dolly Parton parties” that she and her beloved aunt used to have. Later, she finds out that her aunt was longtime friends with a whole bunch of drag queens who are also huge fans of Dolly. The drag queens, and their theatre, are a safe space for Dumplin’ and they help her prepare for the beauty pageant. So, a major theme of Dumplin’ seems to be that drag queens are kind, safe people who make great mentors. We have found this not to be true.
In If the Shoe Fits, we have Jay.
“Jay?” Henry calls.
A beautiful person with short, perfectly edged lavender hair, a manicured beard to match, razor-sharp eyeliner, and nude lipstick rounds the corner. Jay wears a flirty skirt with a cropped sweater topped with a trench coat and platform sneakers.
“This is Jay,” says Henry.
“Follow me,” says Jay as Henry helps them down from the stage.
So, Jay is a basically a very lost and confused young man whom the author insists on calling they throughout the entire book.
I realize that what I’m about to point out is well-trodden ground, but I’m going to tread it again.
How do I know Jay is a young man? He has a beard, and he’s “beautiful.” If Jay were a young woman who had been taking testosterone, he would be overweight, balding, with acne, and the beard would be scraggly. So, my instinct is that Jay is a young man. I pictured him that way as soon as the character was introduced, and I continued to think of him as “he” throughout the book.
As a mom, I really feel for Jay. I’d like to just give him a hug and a cup of tea, and introduce him to some genuinely good father figures so he can see there’s nothing wrong with being a man. Jay needs Jesus. And yes, I realize all the real-life Jays out there would howl with indignation if they were to come to this blog and see me say that. They can only interpret “You need Jesus” as a condescending slam, not a genuine expression of love and concern. People have been reacting that way to the name and message of Jesus for 2000 years. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but just because that is your reaction right now, doesn’t mean it has to be that way forever.
Second well-trodden point: go back to the quote above and look at Jay’s outfit. A flirty skirt with a cropped sweater – already sad on a man – but the trench coat and the sneakers take the outfit to a whole new level. That level is chaos. Jay has selected for himself an outfit that screams, “I have no idea what’s going on or what or who I want to be, and I want you to admire this chaos and join me in it.” Yes, this book does take place in the fashion world, which is notoriously in love with the weird … but Cindy describes a number of her own outfits throughout the course of the book, and they all make sense. No matter how creative Cindy gets with her outfits, they are integrated, coordinated, works of art, because Cindy knows what she is: a woman.
Finally (the most well-trodden ground of all) despite the author’s best efforts, it doesn’t really work to use the pronoun they for a character we already know. (They in the singular is fine in English, when it’s referring to an unspecified or unknown individual. When we have already met a character, that person is no longer unspecified.) For example, at one point Jay leads a group of dignitaries into the boutique, and then a little later they hop down from the counter they were sitting on. (Were all the dignitaries sitting on the counter? Or just Jay?)
Just Gotta’ Do It Myself
As someone who wears plus sizes, has a belly, and has in the past been fat, I like the idea of these chubby-heroine books. This is especially true since the majority of women in the U.S. are what the fashion industry considers plus-sized. But sadly, I think I’m done with the genre. The last chubby-heroine book I read tied confidence in a plus sized woman to female empowerment, and female empowerment to abortion, with a side advertisement for “spouse-sharing.” The one before that, a murder mystery, was tame by comparison, but it did include a bunch of little digs at white girls. I’m done.
I guess I will just have to write a chubby heroine into my own books … oh, wait, I already have!
Magya is a short, curvy mother of four who stepped out of the shadows to grab her own romantic subplot in my book The Strange Land. She was pregnant when her husband was tragically killed. Another member of the tribe stepped in to care for Magya and her children, and he found himself falling in love with her as she went through pregnancy and grieving and the hardships of a Siberian winter. He spends the year sitting on his hands so as not to bother her, and by the next year, they are married.
Sari is also a mother of four and a larger lady, but her story, in the same book, is much more tragic.
Don’t go to my novels just for the chubby girls, of course. Go for the survival and the demons and the dinosaurs. But don’t be surprised if you encounter all kinds of women – and men – along the way. That’s what happens when we just write about life.
I turned out of the introductions and took my first proper look at McTavish. The main thing that struck me was that he didn’t look how I’d expected. Of course, writers can look like anybody … but writers do have a look. … It’s all in the eyes … A writer’s eyes are wide and curious, taking the world and flipping it over, interrogating and interpreting it, regardless of whether it’s for vanity or creativity. But McTavish had none of that: his eyes were giving off the petulant clock-watching of a student waiting out a detention. It was jarring to see my favorite writer in this light.
-Benjamin Stevenson, Everyone on this Train is a Suspect, p. 68
Not sure I agree with this, but it’s a flattering thought.
It becomes funnier when you realize, as the book progresses, that the narrator is not really an experienced writer.
Out of Babel Books 