Ep 99: Christmas Traditions with April McClure Stewart

 

Reverend April McClure Stewart join PostConsumer Reports for the 99th episode, which also happens to be our annual Christmas episode! It's the last show of the year and the last show before we put together something special for the 100th episode. April is a Disciples of Christ pastor and has served in various leadership positions over the years. But what really makes her qualified for this particular topic is all of the Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany traditions she celebrates with her family each year. This interview features a number of ideas people should consider implementing into their own annual traditions. You can find out more about her church here.

You can find my book Celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas here or most anywhere you purchase books. Thanks again to Magic Word for the lovely Amazon review. 

Ep 97: Christmas With Emily Hunter McGowin

 

It's time for another Christmas episode! Dr. Emily Hunter McGowin is here to discuss her new book Christmas: The Season of Life and Light. The conversation ranges from the joys and challenges surrounding the holiday, to reclaiming old traditions even while developing new ones, to a lightning round of Emily's Christmas favorites. Emily is associate professor of theology at Wheaton College and canon theologian for the Anglican Diocese Church For the Sake of Others (C4SO).

Christmas: The Season of Life and Light can be purchased here. An alternate version of this interview, with additional material, was released on the Tent Talks podcast.  She was one of the guests in Chris's previous series for the Tent Talks Podcast "Women in Church Leadership," which can be listened to here. You can find out more about her, including her other publications at her website.

If you are interested in reading Chris's book on the 12 days of Christmas you can find it here or here. Chris's Christmas music can be found here. Last year's Christmas episode on sad Christmas songs (from Tent Talks) can be found here.

BONUS Episode: The REAL War on Christmas

It's the REAL war on Christmas! It's THE real war on Christmas! It's the real WAR on Christmas! It's the real war on CHRISTMAS! You get what I'm saying? This is a talk I gave for the the Tent Talks podcast Patreon subscribers, but I'm offering it you here for free as a way of enticing you to go and listen to Tent Talks. There's a lot of great conversations on that podcast. For instance, coming up in 2022 our first episode is with a former U.S. presidential candidate. I wonder who it will be? To be sure, their name certainly doesn't rhyme with Schmillary Macklinton!  If you're interested in part one of this talk about resting and debauchery at Christmastime, please see the Tent Talks podcast.

Also, I've released a new Christmas song for the end of 2021. It's my electronic version of "What Child Is This?" Go have yourself an Xmas dance party! You can find my older Christmas album here. Also, here is last year's Christmas episode! (You're welcome!)

Oh hey, did you know I wrote a book about Christmas! It's all about the Christmas Culture Wars! And by the end of it, I've certainly won them. All of them. I am the victor. Here are all the places displaying the spoils of my victory:

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

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

You can stream the new song directly here:

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

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. 

Ep 80: Dr. Susan K. Roll on December 25 and the origins of Christmas

Episode 80 of the podcast features my interview with Dr. Susan K. Roll with her expert and scholarly insights into the origins of December 25 as the date for Christmas. The author of the book Toward the Origins of Christmas, my conversation with Dr. Roll touches on the earliest documents adhering to that date and how to address the pagan origins and influences on the holiday (as well as how the early church distinguished itself from them). As a Catholic lay woman, we also discuss her passions, insights, and ongoing work of being an advocate for women's ordination in the Catholic church.


You can purchase Dr. Roll's book Toward the Origins of Christmas from her publisher
(because Amazon is far too expensive!) and find one of her published articles here:
Christmas in Fear—or looking over one's shoulder at the creche
Also, the Christianity Today article mentioned in my opening can be found here: C.S. Lewis Was a Grinch

This interview was done in research for my own book 
Celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas, which can be purchased on:
Amazon
Christian Book Distributors
Wipf and Stock
Barnes and Noble
Google Play
Faithlife
Cokesbury

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


Other related podcast episodes on Christmas and theology:
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 69: Ex Mormon Ministry Found Lynn Wilder
Ep 68: E. Byron Anderson on his book Common Worship
Ep 62: Stephen Backhouse on the Life of Kierkegaard
Ep 45: Religion and Philosophy Professor Brooks McDaniel

Ep 52: Fernando Ortega's The Crucifixion of Jesus

Ep 50: Stu G on the Beatitudes Project

Ep 49: Doug Chu on White Churches, Multicultural Worship, and the Asian-American Experience
Ep 47: Dr. Lester Ruth on the history of Contemporary Worship
Ep 26: Zac Hicks author of The Worship Pastor
Ep 07: Pastor Luke Edwards on "why churches should stop giving stuff away"

Ep 08: Dr. Jeremiah Gibbs on Postmodern Apologetics

Ep 11: Thom Blair on the Hebrew English Interlinear O.T. and Logos Bible Software

Ep 79: Blair E. Clark and Artwork for the 12 Days of Christmas

Episode 79 features an interview with Blair E. Clark about the artwork she did for my book Celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas. A native of Michigan, Blair is a Central Illinois artist whose work you can find at: https://blairjeffers.wordpress.com/. At the moment she is in the process of starting her own business Rabil Illustration (stay tuned for more info), but she also co-founded and helps lead the Emerging Artists Collective, a group of artists in Peoria, Illinois looking to equip developing artists to become more established. Blair and I have known each other a number of years now. She and her husband are family friends whom I go to church with and respect deeply. 

Image taken from Peoria Magazine article
"Rediscovering the 12 Days of Christmas"

When I began writing my book I knew I wanted to collaborate with Blair on the artwork. I also wanted to give her the opportunity to have her work featured on and within a book that people can buy all around the world. It was tremendously enriching to sit down with her every few months and check in about how her piece was coming along, discussing what influences, symbols, and general direction we wanted it to take. In our conversation, Blair talks about her process, some of the imagery embedded in the her work on the book that might not be immediately obvious, and also her approach to making Mary and Joseph people who were not white Europeans and yet still universal figures we can all relate to.

Here are two recent articles featuring her art and community work (one of which I wrote):
"Rediscovering the 12 Days of Christmas" in Peoria Magazine
"Collecting Growth" about the Emerging Artists Collective in Peoria Magazine

Subscribe to the podcast on itunes 

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

My book Celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas is available most anywhere you can purchase books online:
Amazon
Christian Book Distributors
Wipf and Stock
Barnes and Noble
Google Play
Faithlife Ebooks

You can also listen to the previous more longform interview I did with Blair on episode 22.

Other related podcast episodes and articles:
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
Episode 63: Artist Jaci Musec

Episode 46: Artist Quinton Thomas
Episode 13: Artist Jessica Ball—Owner of the Art Garage
Episode 21: Carol McPherson—Director of the Fost Gallery
Episode 38: Musician Jared Grabb

Episode 40: Coffee Artist Kagan Masters
Episode 42: Artist Alec DeJesus (2017)
Episode 44: Natalia and Earl of Yaku

Ep 78: Dr. Michael Ward on C.S. Lewis, Paganism, and Christmas

Dr. Michael Ward is a professor at both Oxford University and Houston Baptist University where he teaches on imaginative apologetics. Dr. Ward is perhaps best know as a C.S. Lewis scholar and for his groundbreaking work Planet Narnia. You can read more about his life, his research focus, and find links to many of his articles at his websites:
http://www.michaelward.net/
http://www.planetnarnia.com/

Purchase my book on Amazon.

I interviewed Dr. Ward in research for my book Celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas. I specifically wanted to ask him what C.S. Lewis' approach to "paganism," and mythology was in the hopes of gaining a broader understanding of how that can help us view some of the pagan influences embedded into our Christmas customs and traditions. I also wanted to ask him about Lewis' views on Christmas and what some of his own Christmas traditions were. This episode was released on November 29 to commemorate Lewis' birthday. In my book there is a section on paganism and Christmas that was directly influenced by my interview with Dr. Ward as well as his writing, which can primarily be found in these 3 articles: "God the Father of Lights: C.S. Lewis on Christianity and Paganism
C.S. Lewis, Jupiter, and Christmas
C.S. Lewis and the Star of Bethlehem

Subscribe to the podcast on itunes 

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


Related Podcast Episodes and Articles:
Ep. 29: Melody Green—Tolkien Scholar
Episode 15: Mike Foster Tolkien Scholar and Author.
Ep 71: Happy Pagan Christmas!
Ep 72: The 12 Days of Christmas, New Years, and Epiphany
Ep28: Dialouges With Brandon: What Makes a Good Novel?

Episode 08: Dr. Jeremiah Gibbs on Postmodern Apologetics

Introducing Classical Education
Why Study LIterature: a concise answer
The Confessions of a Failed Literature Graduate

Ep 75: Jeff Frankenstein of Newsboys

Episode 75 features an interview with longtime Newsboys keyboardist, programmer, arranger, and even bass player (on synth!) Jeff Frankenstein. He details what it has been like to navigate changes in the music industry over the past decades as well as changes within Newsboys as a band. He also describes how they've found a balance in being a touring band with families back home. Jeff's kindness and enthusiasm shines through in whatever he does and it's worth listening back to the many Newsboys albums in order to pick out his particular contributions to the band's music and performances. You can find tour dates and much more at Newsboys's website.

It is also worth noting that my book Celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas has now been officially been released, which you can purchase on the Wipf and Stock Publishers website or on Amazon. Those who supported my Kickstarter campaign will be receiving their books soon. I'm also in the process of booking interviews and speaking engagements about the book, so if you are interested please contact me! 




Subscribe to the podcast on itunes 

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

Music Related Podcast Episodes:
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