‘Tis the season to update you about our spinoff publication, Lorehaven Magazine.

We’re now three issues into this free, quarterly resource. Lorehaven finds truth in fantastic stories, thanks to creative and useful book reviews, great articles for Christian geeks and parents, and in-depth explorations of story truths and themes.

Anyone can subscribe for free. Each season you get a new magazine to download free (as a PDF). Or, as of the fall 2018 issue, you can read each article on the site.

Now, it’s beginning to look a lot like our winter 2018 issue.

Edits are wrapping this week,¹ and Lorehaven Magazine’s fourth issue will hit cyber-stands weeks before Christmas.

EDIT: the issue released Dec. 12! Download your PDF copy, or read it online, with a free subscription.

That’s plenty of time to discover what Christian fantasy books our review team² loved, and see which of these tales your family and friends might enjoy finding in the mail or under the tree this holiday season.

We’ll keep those book titles secret for now. But why not sneak over to the tree, pick up the wrapped box, and shake it a bit, just to guess at what’s inside?

Novelist Thomas Locke (courtesy Thomas Locke)

Cover story: ‘I Came to Faith, and Two Weeks Later I Started Writing’

For this story, I interviewed Thomas Locke from his home in Oxford, England. Locke has spent decades crafting fantasy and science fiction for Christian and general markets. What a fantastic conversation! We explored his testimony of faith and creative excellence. Locke also shared much about where he sees Christian creative fantasy is going (spoiler: into frontiers beyond the church stores of yesteryear).

Featured review: Enclave

Of course, we got our hands on Thomas Locke’s new novel, Enclave (Nov. 2018). We’ll have the full review exclusively in the magazine. Here on SpecFaith, watch for more behind-the-scenes trivia from Locke about the secret themes of Enclave.

Captain’s Log

This month, I discovered I haven’t been associating Christmas first with biblical images such as Nativity scenes, shepherds, and stars. …

So what images reach my imagination first? Read more of my biblical rationalizations on page 3 of the magazine.

Fanservants: Are We ‘Introverted’ Toward God?

Paeter Frandsen, Fanservants columnist, Lorehaven Magazine

To this day, I’m still unsure if I’m an “introvert.” Probably 55 percent of the time I feel like one, so Paeter Frandsen’s challenge for Christian geeks gently convicted me. In a very good way. I love how Paeter speaks as “one of us,” with a fanman’s enthusiasm yet a pastoral soul. Here’s how he starts his article:

I wonder if we as Christian geeks are sometimes more comfortable with God as an idea than as a person.

Granted, God is so unfathomable in so many ways that it’s easy for us to slip into thinking of him more conceptually than personally. But it can also easily become our preference to keep him at a distance. …

Fanservants: The Biblical Source of Super-Strength

Marian Jacobs, Fanservants columnist, Lorehaven Magazine

Shortly before Lorehaven’s spring 2018 issue released, we recruited Marian Jacobs. She had written this fantastic article about fantasy for parents here on SpecFaith. Since then, she has articulated her hands-on ideas in Lorehaven. Also, my wife and I have since met her, and her husband Timothy, and their three super children.

Are superheroes real?

Our children would love to think so. …

Idolatry is never a good thing, but is there a way to teach our children to enjoy superheroes in a healthy, biblical way? …

Support from storytellers

Amidst this great content, the winter 2018 issue is overflowing with advertisements. These come from publishers and authors with stories you’ll love to explore.

They don’t pop up, buzz with viruses, or blare seventeen tips for XYZ and what happened next left them speechless. They don’t sneak dubious tracking cookies into your browser—the kind that fetch pseudo-relevant ads for that toothpaste whose name you casually mentioned yesterday within earshot of your phone.

Nope. We’ve only carefully chosen ads of specific interest to the Christian fantasy fan.³

Meanwhile, back at SpecFaith …

After each Lorehaven issue releases, we approach authors whose books we’ve reviewed. We invite them to spend a week or so at the Lorehaven Book Clubs group on Facebook.⁴ We also invite these authors to pitch a guest article here at SpecFaith. Lately we’ve spotted these star creatives:

• Disability, Superpower, or Just Life?, Nov. 27, 2018, Bridgett Powers, author of Keeper of Shadows
• The Hidden Message of Salvation, Nov. 16, 2018, Aviya Carmen, author of The White Forest
• Superheroes and Superpowers: A Glimpse into the Supernatural?, Oct. 27, 2018, Dianne J. Wilson, author of Affinity

2019 and beyond

Finally, we ask you to put several requests on your prayer-wish list for next year. Please pray for:

• Even better and more beautiful books to review in new issues.
• Amazing authors whose tales we can share with new fans.
• Ways to take Lorehaven into churches, classes, cons, and beyond.
• Divine protection from temptation, false teaching, and other ills.
• Our hard-working staff, their families, and all their creative works!
• Us to meet this unspoken need for great stories among Christians.

Finally, pray Lorehaven will even help to resurrect all Christian-made stories—not just in churches or niche stores, but in the hearts of Jesus’s people.