Ep 83: New Christmas Music and Serving Others Through Lula

 

This episode features info about Chris's new EP of Christmas music "Let Nothing You Dismay" as well as about Lula (https://www.lulapeoria.com/) a nonprofit in Peoria, Illinois that feeds, clothes, and offers care to those without housing and living on the streets. All proceeds from the EP, available on Bandcamp at: https://chrismarchand.bandcamp.com/album/let-nothing-you-dismay, will go to support Lula. The talk on serving others at Christmas is an excerpt from Tent Theology (https://tent-talks.simplecast.com/), another podcast Chris has been helping produce this year.

You can listen to the episodes here: New Christmas Music and Serving Others Through Lula

Subscribe to the podcast on itunes 
or
Check out the podcast page to subscribe on Stitcher, 
Google Play, Tunein, and PocketCasts.

Last year I put out a book on the 12 Days of Christmas. If you are interested in the history and traditions surrounding the holiday (and how to incorporate them into your life) the book can be purchased through all these stores:

Amazon
Christian Book Distributors
Wipf and Stock
Barnes and Noble
Google Play
Faithlife
Cokesbury
Lagron Miller (Roman Catholic book, gift, and vestment store in Peoria, Illinois)
Thrift Books


Other related podcast episodes on Christmas:

Ep 82: Christmas in July!
Ep 79: Blair E. Clark and the Artwork for the 12 Days of Christmas
Ep 79: Dr. Michael Ward on C.S. Lewis, Paganism, and Christmas
Ep 71: Happy Pagan Christmas!
Ep 72: The 12 Days of Christmas, New Years, and Epiphany

New Christmas Music and Serving Others Through Lula

This episode features info about Chris's new EP of Christmas music "Let Nothing You Dismay" as well as about Lula, a nonprofit in Peoria, Illinois that feeds, clothes, and offers care to those without housing and living on the streets. All proceeds from the EP will go to support Lula. The talk on serving others at Christmas is an excerpt from Tent Theology, another podcast Chris has been helping produce this year.

Here's our latest episode!

Ep 82: Christmas in July & a New Podcast

Episode 82 of the podcast features a talk I gave at Living Waters Church in Peoria, Illinois in 2019 about my book Celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas. I spoke about how Pentecostals have their own version of Advent, about the quirky saints days after Christmas day, and about some of the challenges in attempting to celebrate Christmas as an extended holiday rather than one day.

This episode also features an excerpt from Tent Theology, a new podcast that I am helping to produce and am a cohost on. Please give it a listen. The aim of what we are doing is to help renew the social and political imagination of Christians by following in the way of Jesus. Political theologian Dr. Stephen Backhouse is the main host, and he was a guest on the podcast a few years ago, where we discussed his biography of Soren Kierkegaard. Backhouse also has a ministry named Tent Theology which aims to help the Church engage with and learn theology from within their own congregation.
Here are all the places where you can purchase my book: 
Amazon
Christian Book Distributors
Wipf and Stock
Barnes and Noble
Google Play
Faithlife
Cokesbury
Lagron Miller (Roman Catholic book, gift, and vestment store in Peoria, Illinois)
Thrift Books

Other related podcast episodes on Christmas:
Ep 79: Blair E. Clark and the Artwork for the 12 Days of Christmas
Ep 79: Dr. Michael Ward on C.S. Lewis, Paganism, and Christmas
Ep 71: Happy Pagan Christmas!
Ep 72: The 12 Days of Christmas, New Years, and Epiphany

Ep 82: Christmas in July & a New Podcast

Episode 82 features a talk given at Living Waters Church in Peoria, Illinois in 2019 about the book Celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas. This episode also features an excerpt from Tent Theology, a new podcast Chris is helping to produce that aims to help renew the social and political imagination of Christians by following in the way of Jesus.

Here's our latest episode!

Ep 81: Rain For Roots' Flo Paris Oakes and Katy Hutson

Episode 81 features my interview with Flo Paris Oakes and Katy Hutson of the children's worship music group Rain For Roots, who are described as "a collective group of musicians and songwriters who write singable Scripture songs for kids and grown ups alike." They released their fourth album All Creatures this spring, which focuses primarily on settings of the Psalms. Each of their albums carry an underlying concept, from the call and response poetry of Sally Lloyd-Jones (of Jesus Storybook Bible fame), to settings of Jesus' parables, to songs of waiting for the season of Advent. I have listened to their music since the very beginning and have incorporated a few of their songs into the regular worship repertoire at my own church. I guess you could say I'm a huge fan, and this latest album might just be my all around favorite. Simply put: it is great songwriting and musicianship. Sandra McCracken is also in the group and was unable to join us for the interview. Alice Smith, who is a co-songwriter in the group, helped to set up the interview.

Fun fact: Katy's husband Kenny, who produced their records and plays multiple instruments on them, has visited my church a few times while on tour with David Crowder.

Please check below the episode for more links, including an article that delves into their new album with more depth.

Subscribe to the podcast on itunes 
or
Check out the podcast page to subscribe on Stitcher, 
Google Play, Tunein, and PocketCasts.

More Links:
https://rainforroots.com/
https://ffm.to/allcreatures
https://rainforroots.bandcamp.com/music
http://www.floparisoakes.com/
https://www.katyhutson.com/
http://www.sandramccracken.com/
A review of All Creatures on Anglican Compass

Related Podcast Episodes:

Ep 77: Jimmy Abegg
Bonus: Stu G on the Beautitudes Project 

Ep 74: Charlie Peacock
Ep 73: Phil Joel of Newsboys and Zealand

Ep 52: Fernando Ortega's The Crucifixion of Jesus

Ep 55: Singer-songwriter Nathan Peterson

Ep 59: Jeremy Casella's New Album and Kickstarter Campaign

Ep 56: Andrew Osenga

Ep 53: The Mosleys—Husband and Wife Duo
Ep 67: Singer-songwriter John Van Deusen
Ep 70: Glenn Kaiser

Ep 81: Rain For Roots' Flo Paris Oakes and Katy Hutson

Episode 81 features my interview with Flo Paris Oakes and Katy Hutson of the children's worship music group Rain For Roots, who are described as "a collective group of musicians and songwriters who write singable Scripture songs for kids and grown ups alike." They released their fourth album All Creatures this spring, which focuses primarily on settings of the Psalms.

Here's our latest episode!

Ep 81: Rain For Roots' Flo Paris Oakes and Katy Hutson

Episode 81 features my interview with Flo Paris Oakes and Katy Hutsoon of the children's worship music group Rain For Roots, who are described as "a collective group of musicians and songwriters who write singable Scripture songs for kids and grown ups alike." They released their fourth album All Creatures this spring, which focuses primarily on settings of the Psalms.

Here's our latest episode!

How to Write a Book Proposal (as best I know how)

Note: this article was created as a presentation for the 2020 Business of Art conference put on by Arts Partners of Central Illinois and held at Bradley University. This is the experience I have gained in getting my own book, Celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas, accepted and published. This is the third article in a series on completing a book from proposal to publication. The other articles are:
12 Days of Christmas Book Marketing Blitz!
How to Market a Book (as best I know how)

The buildup to the proposal
In my short career as an author (depending on what you mean by short), I have written one successful and one unsuccessful book proposal. Each of them took me months and months of preparation and work and both were essentially formatted the same. With the unsuccessful book I truly played the lottery, as it was written for a specific book series (33 1/3 with Bloomsbury) and was specifically about the band Arcade Fire's album Reflektor. With around 500 submissions, my proposal made the first cut to around 80 proposals, but it did not make the final cut of being accepted for publication. Knowing there was not much of a place in the publishing world for a book like this (at least that I could see), I regrouped and attempted to figure out what kind of book I could get published.

Here's How to Market a Book (as best I know how)

Note: this article was created as a presentation for the 2020 Business of Art conference put on by Arts Partners of Central Illinois and held at Bradley University. 
This is the second article in a series based on my experience of getting my own book, Celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas, written and released, from proposal to publication. 
The other articles are:
Here's How to Write a Book Proposal (as best I know how)
12 Days of Christmas Book Marketing Blitz!

The first two articles in this series detailed my approach to writing and getting a book proposal accepted by a publisher and then everything I did to market that book once it was published. This final article explains my approach to how I marketed the book. 

Disclaimer: The suggestions in this article are in no way comprehensive!

The 12 Days of Christmas Book Media Blitz!

Artwork by Blair E. Clark

Note: this article was created as a presentation for the 2020 Business of Art conference put on by Arts Partners of Central Illinois and held at Bradley University. 
This is the first article in a series based on my experience of getting my own book, Celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas, written and released, from proposal to publication. The other articles are:
How to Write a Book Proposal (as best I know how)
How to Market a Book (as best I know how)
___________________________________

What a whirlwind....

It's been quite the few months for me as I launched my first book, Celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas out into the world.