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

Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman on Faith and Their Daughter’s Tragic Death

If you missed the Robin Roberts of Good Morning America sensitive interview with Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman on Good Morning America (Aug 6, 2008), you can still see their converstation about the death of their daughter and how it effected their faith here.

There is also a very moving article by Janice Johnston and Emily Yacus on the ABC website. The article also contains the complete video interview.

Please continue to pray for the Chapman family.

Steven Curtis Chapman to Appear On Good Morning America Aug. 6

Grammy- and Dove-Award winning artist Steven Curtis Chapman, along with his wife MaryBeth and eldest children Emily, Caleb, and Will, are scheduled to appear Wednesday, August 6 on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” Their interview with Robin Roberts, done at the family home in TN, will air during the 8 am (ET) hour.

The family will then appear in a live interview from L.A. on…

Read the rest of this post HERE.

Album Release: Perry LaHaie to Release Endless Fields on September 16, 2008

Endless Fields

Endless Fields

Nashville, TN – Singer/songwriter Perry LaHaie, in partnership with Infinity U, has announced the September 16, 2008 release of Endless Fields, his national debut album, produced by GRAMMY and Dove Award-nominated producer Brian Hardin (FFH, Paul Alan, Manic Drive, Vicki Yohe). Endless Fields fuses modern acoustic rock and a passionate layering of electric guitars with lyrics that reveal LaHaie’s heart for the nations.

In 2007, armed with a purpose to share God’s grace with those who’ve never had a chance to experience it, LaHaie embarked on a journey that has forever changed his life. He left his job as the afternoon drive personality/assistant general manager for the award-winning 99.7 Family Life Radio in Midland, Mich., to move his family across the country to Phoenix, Ariz., to join Frontiers, an international community of people inviting Muslims all over the world to follow Jesus. Of LaHaie’s music ministry, which has taken him all over the United States, Mexico, Thailand, Turkey, Russia and Belgium, he says, “I made this move because of the astounding grace of Jesus Christ in my life. There are people who’ve never had the opportunity to experience the freedom of God’s forgiveness. I have a passion for reaching those people.”

“Perry LaHaie’s music conveys not only God’s heart for the unreached, but a deep longing to be used by God for His purposes on the earth,” says David Harriman, Director of Advancement for Frontiers. “Perry’s sense of yearning, joy and privilege is contagious.”

LaHaie is contributing half of the proceeds from the sales of Endless Fields to Frontiers. The organization has workers in over 40 Muslim countries sharing their lives and faith with their Muslim neighbors while pursuing various vocations. Their work involves everything from helping local economies through starting businesses or working for local businesses, to purifying water, to helping AIDS victims, to health care, to the arts. They show love and build trust over many years with their Muslim neighbors to win the right to share Jesus with them. Frontiers workers may stay in the field from two weeks to two years or longer. The goal of Frontiers is to establish communities of Muslim-born believers in Jesus around the world. So far, Frontiers workers have seen 200 of these fellowships birthed in the Muslim world.

With the release of Endless Fields, LaHaie hopes to extend his impact for the kingdom of God by compelling others to reach out to Muslim communities throughout the world. “It is my hope and prayer that this project will inspire followers of Jesus in America to get involved in what God is doing in the Muslim world,” explains LaHaie. “I discovered that 95% of workers from the West are focused on sharing the Gospel with already reached people groups, i.e. groups of people where many believers in Jesus already exist. Only 5% of workers are focused on people groups who have not heard the Gospel even once.”

“There are about 6,500 ethnic/language groups of people without the Gospel, and of those groups, there are 247 Muslim groups of 100,000 or more people with absolutely no Christian witness,” LaHaie continues. “There are currently only two workers for every one million Muslims throughout the world. I know that the Lord longs for these precious people to know His love and forgiveness and for His glory to shine among them.”

LaHaie has created the one-minute radio feature/podcast “Cast Yourself In” to tell stories of what Jesus is doing in the Muslim world and how believers can join in the work. Launched in April 2008, this radio feature/podcast airs on 31 radio outlets, as well as LaHaie’s website.

Perry LaHaie’s Endless Fields will be distributed by Infinity Music Distribution. For more information on Perry LaHaie and his new album, Endless Fields, visit http://www.perrylahaie.com. For more information on Frontiers, visit http://www.frontiers.org.

For further information or to schedule an interview, contact:

McCain & Co. Public Relations
email: mccainprnews@mccainpr.com
phone: 615-262-1727

Maria Sue Chapman Remembered by Family and Friends

I know it’s been a while since this happened, but I wanted to post this clip of the news piece from our local ABC channel of the memorial service for Maria Chapman. It’s a very touching picture of a celebration of life from a Christian perspective…

Please continue to pray for the Chapman family.

Steven Curtis Chapman to Perform In Euless, Texas After Family Tragedy

Steven Curtis Chapman, to perform in Euless, Texas just weeks after the tragic accident that took the life of his 5 year old daughter, Maria, on May 21st. According to the Star-Telegram of Fort Worth, the concert will be an intimate musical presentation hosted by the Mid Cities Crisis Pregnancy Center on Friday, July 18th at 7 pm. If you live in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, you can get more info HERE.

Oh, No, Yoko! Your Lawsuit Has Been “Expelled”…

EXPELLED: No Intelligence Allowed film NEWS

News Watch
“Imagine” She’s Ticked: Yoko Ono Loses NY Lawsuit

New York Lawyer
June, 2008

NEW YORK (AP) – Yoko Ono has lost her Manhattan legal battle to block the use of John Lennon’s song “Imagine” in a film challenging the theory of evolution.

Lennon’s widow had sued the makers of “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed,” saying they used parts of the song without her permission.

In a decision Monday, federal Judge Sidney Stein says the filmmakers are protected under the “fair use” doctrine. That permits small parts of a copyrighted work to be used without an author’s permission under certain circumstances.

The movie opened on U.S. screens in April; it’s set for release in Canada on Friday and on DVD in October.

It presents a sympathetic view of intelligent design, the theory that the universe is too complex to be explained by evolution alone.

Ono’s attorney did not immediately return a call for comment.

Steven Curtis Chapman’s Daughter Killed In Tragic Accident

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The 5-year-old daughter of Grammy-winning Christian music star Steven Curtis Chapman was struck and killed Wednesday by a sport utility vehicle driven by her brother, authorities said.

Please pray for the Chapman family.

For more on this story, go HERE.
Link updated July 14, 2008

I lieu of flowers, the family is asking that donations be made to Shaohannah’s Hope, The Maria Fund in memory of Maria Chapman. For donations by mail, send to Shaohannah’s Hope, c/o The Maria Fund, PO Box 647, Franklin TN, 37065.