George MacDonald

George MacDonald, a nineteenth-century Scottish preacher, wrote the best fairy tales I have ever read, and I very much recommend them. These are some of the ones I know:

The Golden Key
The Day Boy and the Night Girl (Photogen and Nycterus)
Little Daylight
The Lost Princess (the Wise Woman)
At the Back of the North Wind
The Princess and the Goblin
The Princess and Curdie

C. S. Lewis famously said that he regarded George MacDonald as his master. I have also read that Tolkien was inspired by the underground scenes in the Princess and the Goblin.

The charm of the stories is that they speak of things faraway and beautiful and real, without being preachy; they are a child's glimpse of the Incorruptible.

Joe Konrath

Joe Konrath is an author who self-publishes with eBooks, and sells lots of them. I haven't read any of his stories myself, but I follow his blog because he posts all sorts of worthwhile information regarding self-publishing via eBooks. He also promotes other self-publishing authors, even new ones.

Many authors post comments on his blog, and I've found good stuff in them as well. Lots of insider info.

Bottom line, Konrath is very helpful to the eBook author.

Jerry Pournelle

Jerry Pournelle hosts my favorite website, Chaos Manor. Pournelle was the first person to write a book on a computer, and Chaos Manor is arguably the very first blog.

Chaos Manor is also the closest thing I've seen to being the Renaissance Man of websites. It has a plethora of excellent content, including essays and dicussions on matters relevant to civilization and current affairs. One may glean a great deal of understandable information about all sorts of subjects. And if Pournelle doesn't know something, one of his readers very likely will.

Simply from the perspective of being a writer, the website is invaluable. There are discussions on writing, on ebooks, on self-publishing, and on the state of the publishing industry. There are also many links to other sites with more information. And the other content is good research material, especially for people creating worlds.

Chaos Manor's value extends well beyond writing, however, and I very much recommend it.

Dylan West

Dylan West is not only working on a Christian young-adult fantasy series, called A Signet Forever, he's also building a high-quality RPG as part of the project! And he's making it a lingual teaching aid and an evangelistic tool as well.

I enjoyed the draft of the first novel and game-design document, and I'm looking forward to reading more of the series and seeing the RPG in action.

The A Signet Forever Workshop link is to his website.

Keith Shealy

Keith Shealy is a good friend and a Christian who practices what he preaches. He's the best kind of neighbor (as his own neighbors can attest).

Keith has written and self-published several non-fiction books, all of which could be called Christian-living (though they're simply what God put in Keith to get out):

Letters from the Front
The Crisis of Eroding Integrity
Overcoming Intimidation
The Secret to a Successful Life
Twelve Smooth Stones (in progress)

They are very good. The first is available on Amazon through Tate publishing, and we're hoping to get the rest up as ebooks.

The Toward the Mark link I've put up, by the way, goes to Keith Shealy's website.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Tower Perilous! This site is all about books, both by me and by other folks.

I've added material to the Projects, Story Theory, and About the Tower pages.

I hope you find something worthwhile.