Author: John Adcox

John Adcox (he/him) has been a cross-media communications and content strategist, producer, user experience designer, and writer for more than twenty years. Presently, he is the CEO of The Story Plant/Gramarye Media. Over the course of his career in advertising, marketing, and new media John has held a number of titles including Executive Producer, Vice President of Digital Media, Creative Director, Vice President of Marketing and Creative Services, and even CEO. In addition, he has hosted a radio show, acted professionally (although not since age 15), designed and written scripts for computer games, written a play for a professional theatre company, taught university astronomy, and written reviews and articles on topics including mythology, psychology, technology, religion, marketing strategy, and fantasy. John was the Lay Leader at Inman Park United Methodist Church, and is now a member of Neighborhood Church Atlanta, a progressive, challenging, intellectually-engaging, warm, tightly-knit, and activist congregation that encourages connection, questions, and exploration. His many, many interests include books and literature (he is insufferably proud of his library), religion and philosophy, mythology, the Arthurian legends, travel, baseball, science fiction and fantasy, marketing communications, Celtic music and lore, new media, theatre, and politics, not to mention astronomy and cosmological physics, as well as the lesser sciences. He was knighted by the late King Richard Booth of the nation/village of Hay-on-Wye (the famous book town on the border between England and Wales) and was ordained a minister on the Internet (he recently performed his first wedding). So he is properly the Right Reverend Sir John. He is very happily married to the fabulous Carol Bales (Lady Bales of Hay). The couple makes their home in Atlanta. John has published three novels, Raven Wakes the World: A Winter Tale, Christmas Past: A Ghostly Winter Tale, and The Star in the East: A Winter Tale of Ancient Mystery. Two more, Make Up Test: A Rom-Com Winter Tale and Blackthorne Faire are coming soon, and many more are forthcoming.

“The Magician’s Book: A Skeptic’s Adventures in Narnia” by Laura Miller

I am nobody's skeptic. As a matter of fact, I consider myself very, if hardly conventionally, religious. That said, I read Salon co-founder Laura Miller's The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia with a constant grin on my face, as passage after passage made me cry out with delight, "friend!" Here is someone who seems to not only understand the love I felt for C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia, a love that still endures very deeply in my heart, but also my love of stories and reading. Indeed, she helped me understand that love better, and by consequence, the person I am and the writer I want to be.

“European Romanticism: A Brief History with Documents” by Warren Breckman

Warren Breckman's European Romanticism: A Brief History with Documents takes an interesting approach: it allows readers to discover a topic as historians would, but reading through the actual documents of the period, including literature, essays, letters, and more. A fairly brief introduction—some forty pages—gives a very thorough overview and introduction. After that, the period is the reader's to explore.

“The Magicians” by Lev Grossman

When I first browsed through Lev Grossman's The Magicians at Blue Elephant Bookshop, I knew it was a book that was coming home with me. The jacket blurb promised a book for adults who, as young readers, had adored the Narnia, Oz, and Harry Potter stories, and books like T. H. White's The Once and Future King. And indeed, The Magicians draws liberally and lovingly from those sources. There is a magic school filled with eccentric professors and strange wonders, teaching by turning students into animals (as Merlyn does with the Wart in The Once and Future King), and even a hidden fantasy world accessed through a sleepy "between" world filled with pools, a motif familiar to anyone who has read C. S. Lewis' The Magician's Nephew, one of the best of the Narnia books. Even the characters in The Magicians grew up reading and loving a series of fantasy books. That fond, nostalgic love is one of the reasons we are so drawn to them. But don't get the idea that The Magicians is a mere pastiche. The Magicians is told from a decided, utterly (even ironically) original, and heartbreaking, adult point of view.

Grocery Items: Bacon and Tomato Sauce

When I titled the blog, I was still intending to review mostly books. But since I left the the door open, and since the weekend is the time for grocery shopping (otherwise, you miss the really long lines, and the fact that they're out of a lot of stuff), I'm going to pass along a few tips. Specifically, I highly recommend Dei Fratelli brand tomato sauce and Wright Brand Bacon for my bacon-eating friends.

The Book of Ratings and Fail Nation: like the Internet, only on paper!

The book versions of Failblog and The Book of Ratings are every bit as funny as the sites themselves. That’s not a great surprise, I suppose, since the content is the more or less the same. All the same, the print versions are worth their respective prices for a couple of reasons. First, it doesn’t cost that much, and it’s nice to see the content creators rewarded, at least a little, for their efforts. Second, you never know when the Apocalypse might come along, causing the Internet tubes to fall as civilization descends slowly and inevitably into barbarism. If that happens, you’ll be glad to have a few chuckles, I dare say.

“Silverlock” by John Myers Myers

In his introduction to the 1979 paperback edition of Silverlock (I still have my first 1979 Ace paperback, as well as a hardcover first edition and a lovely new hardback that includes the Companion), author Larry Niven enthuses: “You’ll get drunk on Silverlock. When you finish reading, you will feel like you got monumentally drunk with your oldest friends; you sang songs and told truth and lies all night or all week; you’ll sit there grinning at nothing and wondering why there isn’t any hangover.” I couldn’t agree more.

Two books (that aren’t quite) within other books

It's a joy to discover, after the last page of a good book is turned, that there is still more content to discover. Especially when the storytellers have the talent of Alice Hoffman and Catherynne Valente. This kind of expanded "book within a book" content is a trend I applaud enthusiastically. I hope we'll see more.

“Dreaming With Open Eyes: The Shamanic Spirit in Twentieth Century Art and Culture” by Michael Tucker

In Dreaming With Open Eyes: The Shamanic Spirit in Twentieth Century Art and Culture, Michael Tucker has compiled a veritable encyclopedia of the literature of shamanism: literal (historic and anthropologic) and metaphorical, and draws compelling connections between the ancient and the bleeding edge. Modern artists working on the fringe of creative boundaries, Tucker argues, strip away some of the filters of contemporary experience and perceive the world in a metaphoric, archetypal way, as Aboriginal dream painters do. The result is art that reaches past the the filters of the consciousness mind to challenge the unconscious mind directly in its native grammar, the language of symbol.

“The Third Angel” by Alice Hoffman

In The Third Angel, Alice Hoffman's prose is as lovely as ever. She is a master of a sudden and lyrical turn of phrase that seems as effortlessly graceful as a dancer's casual step. Every line has magic and poetry in it, the kind that makes you smile and, more than occasionally, look back to reread a phrase or passage. An example: "It was that silver-colored time between night and morning, when the sky is still dark, but lights are flicking on all over the city. It was quiet, the way it is in winter when snow first begins to fall." How perfectly and specifically evocative, concrete detail spun from froth and lace, and without a wasted syllable! Her prose has always been elegant, the way Earthbound angels would write, and she only gets better.

Beer Review: Aventinus

The best beer I have ever tasted. Period. Don't let its darker amber color fool you. It's sweet without being syrupy, full-flavored without being bitter, and complex without being overpowering. I'm honestly not sure I know how to describe the taste, except to say that it's like drinking a loaf of Christmas spice bread. If there was such a thing as a comfort beer, this would be it.

Tuesday Night Irish Music Jam Session at The Grange Public House

Every Tuesday night, there is a Celtic music jam session at the Grange Public House. While most of us sit around in a circle, nursing our ales and listening in a sort of golden haze of happy ecstasy, some of Atlanta’s very best traditional music play—well, whatever you feel like.

Vienna Roast by Atlanta Coffee Roasters

Fresh coffee — coffee sold with a week of roasting, and roasted within a few days of harvesting — makes an astonishing difference. Seriously. Astonishing. I made this discovery at Atlanta Coffee Roasters at the Toco Hills shopping center. It's a micro-roaster. The coffee they sell is flown in daily. If you ever step into the back room, you'll see great burlap sacks of coffee stamped with exotic ports from all over the world, waiting their turn for the artisan's attention. Then, small batches are blended and roasted to exacting standards. By comparison, even when you buy your beans from a gourmet specialty house, the coffee you're getting is usually at least a month or two old. If you're lucky. It's picked, shipped to the US, roasted, packed, warehoused, distributed, and ... well, you get the idea. At Atlanta Coffee Roasters, the beans are roasted literally every day. Much to my surprise, the difference in taste is amazing.

“Palimpsest” by Catherynne Valente

The joy of Palimpsest is in it's lush, dense, baroque, poetic and, yes, even haunting language. Every line is lovingly wrought, a treasure. Every paragraph aches with loveliness. It is utterly sensual and at times even erotic. It's also refreshingly witty. But it's like rich food; it's delicious, even decadent, but it's hard to take too much at once. It's a book to savor, in small bursts of bliss, and return to. It's not a book for careless beach reading; it is for autumn, with blanket, firelight, and blood-red wine.

“I Called I” by Desmond Drive

Listen to I Called I First, disclaimer alert. The band Desmond Drive is fronted by a friend of mine, Bill Shaouy. So I'm a mite on the biased side. I think I'd be saying the same thing anyway, though. Because I really enjoy this album. It's catchy, it's fun, and it's even a little bit … Continue reading “I Called I” by Desmond Drive →

“The Promised Land” by Dar Williams

If you know Dar’s music, you’ve likely already heard The Promised Land. If not, well, think of the realm of Sarah McLachlan and Sheryl Crow, with lyrics that can be mentioned in the same sentence as Waits, Cohen, Williams, Newman, Mercer, Dylan, and Simon. The Promised Land is a good place to start. But then, so is The Honesty Room, My Better Self, The Beauty of the Rain, The Green World, or … heck, any of them.. Do yourself a favor and listen. Closely. Then listen again.

“Anointed: The Passion of Timmy Christ, CEO” by Zachary Steele

"When the Anti-Christ and Satan entered the bar, nobody took notice." That's a great first line. Believe it or not, it's not the start of a joke. It's the first line of Zachary Steele's novel "Annointed," which is a scream. If you're a fan of people like Christopher Moore or Douglas Adams, take a look. Sadly, (in my humble opinion) it hasn't received the attention it deserves.

In Good Company: “The Company They Keep” by Diana Pavlac Glyer

Until the publication of Diana Pavlac Glyer’s new book The Company The Keep: C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community, I hadn’t realized how strong was my urge to be a “completist.” A new book out on the Inklings? By all means, I had to have it, period. This is fortunate, because if I paused to remind myself that I’d already read Humphrey Carpenter’s superb biography The Inklings, and then to ask if I really, really needed another book on the subject, the rational part of my brain might have said “no,” and (it’s not completely impossible) might have carried the day. And that would have been too darn bad. Glyer’s book makes a wonderful companion to Carpenter’s more well known volume, and stands very well on its own. Carpenter’s book is a biography; Glyer’s is an examination of the very significant ways in which, as a community, the Inkings challenged, inspired, influenced, and supported one another. The Company The Keep is a terrific and insightful read.

“The Gnostic Bible” Edited by Willis Barnstone and Marvin Meyer

For those interested in the Gnostics and their actual beliefs and mysteries, as well as the early history of Christianity, The Gnostic Bible is a welcome resource. As a matter of fact, The Gnostic Bible is quite possibly the most comprehensive collection of Gnostic materials ever gathered in one volume. The Gnostic Bible collects a wealth of primary sources, Gnostic texts from a wide variety of sources, including three continents and spanning more than 1300 years. The expected texts are present, of course, including the famous Gospel of Thomas, along with some unexpected resources. Making the volume especially useful to students of Gnosticwisdom traditions, the texts are well-organized into distinct movements of Gnostic tradition: Sethian, Valentinian, Syrian, Hermetic, Mandaean, Manichaean, and even, surprisingly, later Islamic and even Cathar texts.

“Coyote Moon” By John A. Miller

As fond as I am of trickster tales, it's hard to imagine anything with a title like Coyote Moon can be anything other than mythic. Coyote Moon doesn't have a lot to do with coyotes, or even with tricksters (although I have a feeling that author John Miller himself may qualify), but the novel is certainly mythic. First, baseball plays a major role in the story. As the brilliant book Ground Rules: Baseball and Myth shows, baseball is a goldmine for mythic material. Add in liberal doses of cutting edge physics (if you're not up on your science, don't worry), possible reincarnation, and the search for meaning and miracles, and the result is a myth lover's delight.

“The Genealogy of Greek Myth: An Illustrated Family Tree Greek Myth” by Vanessa James

The Genealogy of Greek Myth is a handy resource. Packed with well-researched information, this book provides "at a glance" charts and surprisingly detailed information about the complex and often confusing relationships of the immortal Olympians and the mortal heroes they interact with. The author, Vanessa James, spent eighteen years putting the Genealogy of Greek Myth together, and it shows. The data is more than complete, it is exhaustive. More, it provides a truly elegant and genuinely useful way to trace the dynasties and major events of Greek and Roman myth.

“Spirits in the Wires” By Charles de Lint

Spirits in the Wires is fun and entertaining. As a thriller, it's a page-turner. But the myth and the poetry of the writing make it lovely, and the characters make it come alive. Our compassion for de Lint's beautifully-drawn characters moves us, and makes the novel linger long after the last page is turned.