December  2003

Dear Friends, Family, and Fellow LOTR-junkies,

As the much-anticipated third installment of LOTR draws ever closer (Dec. 17 to be precise – got your ticket yet?), here are some updates from my end.

Walking with Frodo: A Devotional Journey through The Lord of the Rings continues to climb the charts of current bestsellers in Christian publishing and has gone to a third printing. Based on last week’s sales, it is now ranked 21^st in the top 100 bestselling Christian books right now, and is projected to be the #8 bestselling book in the Young Adult category for the month of December. My original ideas about what God might do with this project came nowhere close to the real thing!

Other highlights:

• Look for an article on LOTR in the "Our Spirit" section of the Detroit Free Press. I’m interviewed along with Ralph Wood, author of The Gospel According to Tolkien.  Visit ►www.freep.com.

• The Traverse City Record Eagle is doing a feature on me this weekend in time for my Traverse City book-signings.  Visit ►www.record-eagle.com. 

• Upcoming book-signings are this Saturday, Dec. 6 at Rainbow Bookstore in Traverse City from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.; and Saturday, Dec. 13 at Lemstone Books in the Grand Traverse Mall from 12-2 p.m.

• I’ll be writing the January 11 issue of LinC, the weekly online Sunday school curriculum for which I’m the contract editor. The program will be on "The Return of the King," so if you know any middle or high school Sunday school teachers who might be interested, have them go to ►LinC.

• I heard from a businessman who has passed along an e-newsletter to his friends and associates, encouraging them to buy my book.  He is designing a special newsletter for us which we will pass on to you.  If you feel so "NSpired," feel free to forward it to your friends and family, too! 

As always, I ask for your prayers.