Ancient Stories Retold Drawing Advanced Praise From Literary, Liturgical, Music and Film Worlds

Press Release:

Nashville, TN – April 6, 2010 – YHWH: The Flood, The Fish and The Giant, the first volume of the highly anticipated Ancient Stories Retold series by American playwright, Paula K. Parker and New York Times Best-Selling British author, G.P. Taylor, is receiving rave reviews and critical acclaim from leading figures in the literary, film and religious communities on both sides of the Atlantic. Masterfully combining elements of love, deceit, betrayal, and ultimately redemption YHWH: The Flood, The Fish and The Giant, which releases this May in the United Kingdom followed by its U.S. release later in 2010, contains 20 adventurous stories set in ancient times that are resonating with critics and fans alike.

Christopher Coppernoll, popular novelist of Screen Play, A Beautiful Fall and Providence declares, “Facinating and powerfully written, YHWH: The Flood, The Fish, & The Giant captures the imagination and tells the human saga in the midst of God’s story. A triumph.”

The Right Reverend David Wilbourne, Assistant Bishop of Llandaff Cathedral, The Church in Wales says, “Employing all his great skills as a story-teller, G. P. Taylor and Paula K. Parker imaginatively recast the major stories of Scripture for a modern-day audience. YHWH: The Flood, The Fish and The Giant will be enjoyed alike by youngsters and adults. It closely follows the original Biblical material, whilst bringing alive its ancient Near Eastern setting and customs, drawing out a clear and immensely faithful message. The pace is bracing, the read dramatic and exciting, which will both delight and engage readers young and old, enticing them to re-read and be enlarged by the stories in their original Scriptural setting. 2011 is the 400th anniversary of the Authorised King James version of Holy Scripture – reading YHWH: The Flood, The Fish and The Giant would be an excellent way of marking the English Bible’s 400th birthday!”

Melanie Wells, Dallas-based psychologist and author of My Soul to Keep, When the Day of Evil Comes and The Soul Hunter says, “A walk through the garden was never so pungent, so earthy as the stroll you will take with GP Taylor and Paula K. Parker in the pages of their masterwork, YHWH: The Flood, The Fish and The Giant. Smell the loamy earth, see the light glint from the scales of the serpent, taste the sweet-tart fruit of doom as the juice drips down your chin. Then wipe your mouth and turn the page and listen as the raindrops fall and the hammer pounds the nail into the cypress wood and the smell of pitch rises from the page to greet you. GP Taylor and Paula K. Parker have taken our Sunday School stories off the felt-board and created a world so vivid, so tactile and real, that you and your children will gasp, wide-eyed at the stench of meat on the lion’s breath and feel the sway of the ark itself. This book is a masterpiece. Step into its pages and you will forget you are learning and simply experience the wonder and the miracle of God’s word, reminded again and again that you, too, are part of the story.”

YHWH: The Flood, The Fish and The Giant is also generating buzz in the film and music communities. “What an absolute delight,” says Mitchell Galin, producer of such films as Stephen King’s The Langoliers, Pet Sematary and Journey to Everest. “Rarely have I seen stories so vividly portrayed; portrayed in a way that makes them come alive the way a good campfire story comes alive. And the source, the greatest stories ever told, but in a way that makes them accessible as they have not been before. You can walk through the gardens, feel Noah’s confusion, experience Abraham’s anguish, but in all we see unquestioned faith. We’ve heard or read the stories before, but what G.P.Taylor and Paula K. Parker have done is make you “feel” the stories in a new profound way.”

Author, actress and recording artist, Bonnie Keen adds, “Mega kudos to Paula K. Parker and G. P. Taylor for bringing this fresh collection of timeless adventures to a new generation. As one often hears, ‘You can’t make this stuff up! YHWH: The Flood, The Fish and The Giant fits the bill for any reader longing to embrace a heart-pounding story where the underdog wins the day and good triumphs against all odds over evil. In this marvelous new work we remember afresh why Biblical stories have infiltrated centuries of literature, culture and most importantly continue to capture the human heart.”

Paula K. Parker is a well respected U.S. based journalist, author and entertainment writer with more than 1000 published article to her credit. She is best known for her original stage play, Bloodlines, and her hugely successful stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride & Prejudice.

New York Times best-selling writer, G.P.Taylor first topped the charts in the United Kingdom with his stunning supernatural thriller, Shadowmancer. The novel remained atop the UK charts for a record 15 weeks and has been translated into 43 languages. Universal Pictures acquired the film rights to Shadowmancer for a reported seven figure sum. Taylor’s popular works include Wormwood, Tersias, The Curse of Salamander Street, Mariah Mundi and The Dopple Ganger Chronicles.

For a preview of YHWH: The Flood, The Fish and The Giant visit YHWHBook.com

For more information about Paula K. Parker visit WordCrafts.net
For more information about G.P. Taylor visit GpTaylor.info
For more information about Authentic Media visit AuthenticMedia.co.uk

©2010 WordCrafts

Family Friendly Online Bookstore Holds First Kids’ Choice Book Awards

ABUNGA.COM CALLS KIDS TO THE VOTING POLLS:
Online Bookstore Holds First Kids’ Choice Book Awards

Press Release

KNOXVILLE, Tenn., July 8, 2008 – Abunga.com, the family-friendly online bookstore, is hosting their first Abunga.com Kids’ Choice Book Awards. Now through Sept. 1, children pre-kindergarten through 12th grade can log onto Abunga.com/kidschoice and nominate their favorite summer reading book.
“Abunga.com wants to encourage children of all ages to dive into a few good books this summer,” said Abunga.com Chairman Lee Martin. “With families cutting down on summer travel due to the rising cost of gas and food, reading offers children the opportunity to journey to another time and place and experience the many adventures of a book.”

Nominations for the 2008 Abunga.com Kids’ Choice Book Awards will be accepted in the categories of grades pre-kindergarten through first, second through third, fourth through fifth, sixth through eighth and ninth through 12th. All children who log onto Abunga.com with their parent’s permission and provide a nomination and parent’s contact e-mail address will be eligible for a $20 Abunga.com gift card. One gift card will be awarded in each category. Printable summer reading bookmarks that include a place for children to write down their favorite books will also be available at the site.
The winning books and authors will be announced Sept. 15. Winning authors will receive a feature spot on the Abunga.com home page from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15 and will be listed on the Abunga.com Kids’ Choice Awards Web page for one full year until the 2009 awards. Children awarded Abunga.com gift cards will also be recognized by first name on the Abunga.com Kids’ Choice Awards Web page.

“We are eager to see the variety of books that so many young readers will take the initiative to nominate,” Martin said. “Summer reading helps kids stay at the top of their academic game when school is out, and we hope this award adds a little extra incentive to discover a good book.”

Abunga.com is an online bookstore founded to provide families a protected shopping environment. Headquartered in Knoxville, Tenn., Abunga.com offers more than 1.6 million family-friendly books, savings through distributor-direct prices and support to nonprofit organizations by donating 5 percent of each transaction to a customer-selected charity. For more information, visit http://www.Abunga.com or read the blog about this here:


Book Awards Poll PLUS a $20 gift certificate for the kids.

Spurgeon’s Devotional – Teach Your Children Well (A case for the spiritual instruction of the gospel to their children by the parents)

Joel 1:3
Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

In this simple way, by God’s grace, a living testimony for truth is always to be kept alive in the land-the beloved of the Lord are to hand down their witness for the gospel, and the covenant to their heirs, and these again to their next descendants. This is our first duty, we are to begin at the family hearth: he is a bad preacher who does not commence his ministry at home. The heathen are to be sought by all means, and the highways and hedges are to be searched, but home has a prior claim, and woe unto those who reverse the order of the Lord’s arrangements. To teach our children is a personal duty; we cannot delegate it to Sunday School Teachers, or other friendly aids, these can assist us, but cannot deliver us from the sacred obligation; proxies and sponsors are wicked devices in this case: mothers and fathers must, like Abraham, command their households in the fear of God, and talk with their offspring concerning the wondrous works of the Most High. Parental teaching is a natural duty-who so fit to look to the child’s well-being as those who are the authors of his actual being? To neglect the instruction of our offspring is worse than brutish. Family religion is necessary for the nation, for the family itself, and for the church of God. By a thousand plots Popery is covertly advancing in our land, and one of the most effectual means for resisting its inroads is left almost neglected, namely, the instruction of children in the faith. Would that parents would awaken to a sense of the importance of this matter. It is a pleasant duty to talk of Jesus to our sons and daughters, and the more so because it has often proved to be an accepted work, for God has saved the children through the parents’ prayers and admonitions. May every house into which this volume shall come honour the Lord and receive His smile.

From Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening Devotional. You can get your own copy at

ALERT: Barnes and Nobel Allows Porn to be Accessible To Minors in Violation of State Law

Recently a local (TN) minister took his 11 year old son to Barnes and Nobel to pick up some DVDs that he had ordered, and while he was there they both encountered a full color, opened coffee table book that contained something that NO 11 year old boy (or anyone else for that matter) should be allowed to display in a store that is frequented by minors.

We MUST speak out against this idiocy and protect our children from the slow indoctrination in sexual perversion. Let us join with others who care about maintaining a family friendly environment for ourselves and our children in holding Barnes and Nobel (and other businesses) accountable for their actions.

I will no longer shop at Barnes and Nobel until their policies change (and perhaps until they quit allowing their buyers to purchase these types of products for their company.)

Please go here to find out more and please be advised that this information is NOT SUITABLE for children:

Article:
Eleven Year Old Exposed To Gay Porn At Barnes and Noble and They Knew This Sort of Thing Was Happening

Here’s the radio show archive:
Worldview Matters with Brannon Howse: June 9, 2008

Here is the TN state law:

39-17-911. Sale, loan or exhibition of material to minors. —

(a) It is unlawful for any person to knowingly sell or loan for monetary consideration or otherwise exhibit or make available to a minor:

(1) Any picture, photograph, drawing, sculpture, motion picture film, video game, computer software game, or similar visual representation or image of a person or portion of the human body, that depicts nudity, sexual conduct, excess violence, or sado-masochistic abuse, and that is harmful to minors; or

(2) Any book, pamphlet, magazine, printed matter, however reproduced, or sound recording, which contains any matter enumerated in subdivision (a)(1), or that contains explicit and detailed verbal descriptions or narrative accounts of sexual excitement, sexual conduct, excess violence, or sado-masochistic abuse, and that is harmful to minors.

(b) It is unlawful for any person to knowingly exhibit to a minor for monetary consideration, or to knowingly sell to a minor an admission ticket or pass or otherwise admit a minor to premises whereon there is exhibited a motion picture, show or other presentation which, in whole or in part, depicts nudity, sexual conduct, excess violence, or sado-masochistic abuse, and which is harmful to minors.

(c) A violation of this section is a Class A misdemeanor.

(d) It is an affirmative defense to prosecution under this section that the minor to whom the material or show was made available or exhibited was, at the time, accompanied by the person’s parent or legal guardian, or by an adult with the written permission of the parent or legal guardian.

[Acts 1989, ch. 591, § 1; 2000, ch. 763, § 1.]

So – If, after seeing the issue at hand regarding this incident, you wish to stand in the gap over this very critical issue, please go here to sign the petition and stop shopping there until they change their tune.

PETITION BARNES AND NOBEL LINK.
Thank you for your consideration in this vital matter. Please share this with your friends and church family.

O That I had Wings Like A Dove… A Spurgeon Devotional

How many times have we faced various kinds of trouble in this life and thought to ourselves how much we wished to just go right to heaven? But God has us here for a purpose – to do the work he has set out for us and to glorify His name in the earth. Then we can enjoy his presence forever…

John 17:15
I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world.

It is a sweet and blessed event which will occur to all believers in God’s own time-the going home to be with Jesus. In a few more years the Lord’s soldiers, who are now fighting “the good fight of faith” will have done with conflict, and have entered into the joy of their Lord. But although Christ prays that His people may eventually be with Him where He is, He does not ask that they may be taken at once away from this world to heaven. He wishes them to stay here. Yet how frequently does the wearied pilgrim put up the prayer, “O that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away and be at rest;” but Christ does not pray like that, He leaves us in His Father’s hands, until, like shocks of corn fully ripe, we shall each be gathered into our Master’s garner. Jesus does not plead for our instant removal by death, for to abide in the flesh is needful for others if not profitable for ourselves. He asks that we may be kept from evil, but He never asks for us to be admitted to the inheritance in glory till we are of full age. Christians often want to die when they have any trouble. Ask them why, and they tell you, “Because we would be with the Lord.” We fear it is not so much because they are longing to be with the Lord, as because they desire to get rid of their troubles; else they would feel the same wish to die at other times when not under the pressure of trial. They want to go home, not so much for the Saviour’s company, as to be at rest. Now it is quite right to desire to depart if we can do it in the same spirit that Paul did, because to be with Christ is far better, but the wish to escape from trouble is a selfish one. Rather let your care and wish be to glorify God by your life here as long as He pleases, even though it be in the midst of toil, and conflict, and suffering, and leave Him to say when “it is enough.”

From Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening Devotional

Would you like a copy of the devotional book by Spurgeon? Find it here: Christianbook.com Spurgeon’s Morning and Evening

PRINCE CASPIAN – NARNIA IS BACK IN SUMMER 2008!

lucy-and-aslanasp.jpeg

For anyone who is interested, the new Narnia trailer is out now and it looks super good:

CHECK IT OUT HERE!