We’ve all been missing La Shawn Barber the past few days, as she’s had guest writers at her blog. Carol at She Lives wrote in her post, See If You Can Guess,

La Shawn’s lurking out there somewhere and has a bunch of guest bloggers filling in. I’m not sure I’m following some of their posts, though. I miss La Shawn.

Well, now the cat’s out of the bag, and we see what she’s been up to. WOW! She’s started a brand new site called Fantasy Fiction for Christians. So now all of us Narnia fans will have another place to gather together and express our views. I see that she’ll be including book reviews, so I wonder if she’d be interested in new fantasy fiction by Christian authors — such as the books I’ve recently reviewed here: book one and book two of Jonathan Rogers’ Wilderking trilogy, as well as book one of R.K. Mortenson’s Landon Snow series.

So far, her posts are discussing Christian Elements in Narnia, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” movie, and Harry Potter — including the possibility that J.K. Rowling is actually a pseudonym for several authors writing under that name!

Here’s what La Shawn says about her site:

This is a place for Christians who read fantasy fiction to discuss Christian themes and symbolism found in the pages of fantasy literature, popular and classic…For the rest of the year, news and commentary on the movies “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” and “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” will likely be the focus of this blog.

In addition to Harry Potter hoopla for die-hard Potterheads, however, FFC will strive to be clearinghouse for Christian fantasy fiction written by various authors, famous and not-yet famous…I firmly believe Christians can use a pop culture phenomenon like Harry Potter to share spiritual truths with unbelievers. While I am silent on the question of whether children should read the Harry Potter books (which are not written for children, according to author J.K. Rowling), especially Books 3-6, I think Christian parents can use these and other books containing magical elements, in conjunction with the Bible, to teach them to discern what are appropriate or inappropriate supernatural depictions.

So, I encourage you, if you’re interested in fantasy fiction, go check out her new site! (And if you haven’t already, vote for her main website as Best Conservative Blog in the Weblog Awards. (and don’t forget, I’m in the running for Best Blog Design!)

On another note, someone sent me a lovely email review of the latest Harry Potter movie from a Christian viewpoint. If I can get her permission, I’d love to post it here. She’s written a very thought-provoking piece.

Also, for any of you who try to leave me a comment and it doesn’t work, just send me an email and say what name you want me to post it under — as well as your URL, if you have one. I don’t know why my comments section doesn’t always work. Especially, if you’re an author of one of these books I’m reviewing, here’s a great way to send readers (and potential fans!) back to your site.

I’m still trying to get caught up on all the technological stuff required to be a blogger — does anyone have a teenager who has some time to teach a poor old mom a few tricks about trackbacks and WordPress? My brother-in-law tried to download some kind of plug-in for me last weekend that would help me write text around pictures, but we didn’t have time to finish. At this point, whenever I try to center a picture using the HTML for center, all the text underneath centers as well. I’d love some help — please email or send me a comment if you’d like to help. I’m too busy with my household of kids to “play around” and figure things out on my own. Thanks!