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The Magician’s Nephew Taught Me Christ’s Compassion in the Midst of Grief
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Silver Bounty, Victoria McCombs
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Once Upon A Ren Faire, A. C. Castillo
Exile, Loren G. Warnemuende
Aberration, Cathy McCrumb
The Truth Beyond the Lies, Kathleen Bird
Frost, Winter's Lonely Guardian, E. E. Rawls
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146. How Did Animators Adapt The Wingfeather Saga For Streaming TV? | with Keith Lango
Fantastical Truth, Jan 24, 2023

145. How Did Edmund Spenser’s ‘The Faerie Queene’ Shape Christian Fantasy? | with Rebecca K. Reynolds
Fantastical Truth, Jan 17, 2023

144. Which Top Six Fantasy Franchises Gave Fans Grief in 2022?
Fantastical Truth, Jan 10, 2023

143. Which Top Ten Lorehaven Stories Proved Most Popular in 2022?
Fantastical Truth, Jan 6, 2023

142. What Christmas Gift ‘Tools, Not Toys’ Helped You Grow As a Person?
Fantastical Truth, Dec 20, 2022

141. Ten Years After ‘An Unexpected Journey,’ Must We Really Hate The Hobbit Films? | with Rilian of NarniaWeb
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Lorehaven helps Christian fans explore fantastical stories for Christ’s glory: fantasy, science fiction, and beyond. Articles, the library, reviews, podcasts, gifts, and the Lorehaven Guild community help fans discern and enjoy the best Christian-made fantastical stories, applying their meanings to the real world Jesus Christ calls us to serve. Subscribe free to get any updates you choose and to access the Lorehaven Guild.
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130. Will Audiobooks Form the Future of Christian Fantasy? | Oasis Family Media with Steve Smith

Listen to classic and new fantastical audio adventures while watching for a Sky Turtle with Oasis Family Media president Steve Smith, our next guest in the Steve Saga.
Fantastical Truth on Sep 20, 2022 · Series: The Steve Saga · 2 comments

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:18:24 — 73.1MB) | Embed

You’ve met a librarian and novelist who flies spaceships and hunts monsters on the side, Steve Rzasa. Next you encountered a secret agent man who hunts new talent and publishes fantastical Christian-made stories, Steve Laube. For this series finale, you will meet one more Steve, who shares amazing adventures of yesteryear in riveting recorded form. There will be more spaceships and dragons. You’ll even soar high above the jungles of Christian publishing on the back of a … sky turtle? Yes indeed, our third and final Steve, Steve Smith, president of Oasis Family Media, will arrive to share more about Oasis Audio and beyond, and what’s next in this world. Join us for our thrilling conclusion to the Steve Saga.

The Steve Saga

  • Sept. 7: Steve Rzasa
    public library director, prolific novelist
  • Sept. 13: Steve Laube
    literary agent, publisher of Enclave Publishing
  • Sept. 20: Steve Smith
    president of Oasis Family Media

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  1. Oasis Audio: George MacDonald’s Lilith and Phantastes as well as George MacDonald: Scotland’s Beloved Storyteller by Michael R. Phillips
  2. An Unexpected Adventure by Kandi J. Wyatt
  3. Lost Bits by Kerry Nietz

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Steve Smith (2022)Intro to Steve Smith

Stephen D. (Steve) Smith is the president of Oasis Family Media, publishers of Oasis Audio books, Enclave Publishing and Sky Turtle Press. He was the producer/director of the 2018 multi-award nominated audiobook biography of Mr. Rogers, The Good Neighbor, narrated by Levar Burton, and the 2020 Christian Book Award-winning producer of the best Audiobook, Chasing Vines by Beth Moore. He is a 2022 recipient of the coveted Eisner Award for his translation of The Obscure Cities graphic novel, Shadow of a Man. He has worked in and around the Christian publishing industry since 1984. A lifelong reader of fantasy and science fiction, he cites Jules Verne, Edgar Rice Burroughs, J. R. R. Tolkien, L. Frank Baum, and C. S. Lewis as key influencers in his life.

1. What’s the origin story of Oasis Audio, now called Oasis Family Media?

  • How did the company get started and what audio did they publish?
  • What led to the company’s interest in the Baum and Burroughs worlds?
  • How did you meet your “variant,” Steve Laube, and later buy Enclave?

2. How and why does Oasis turn books into audio?

  • Why do more people embrace audiobooks, often over print books?
  • For fantasy/sci-fi, how do you handle name and place pronunciations?
  • Stephen recognizes some of your narrators—where do you find them?

3. What’s the future of audiobooks and what’s next for Oasis Family Media?

  • Now that Enclave is getting more titles, what are your hopes for this?
  • Do you want to talk about Sky Turtle and this unique fantastical imprint?
  • What other specific plans, or general hopes, can you reveal for Oasis?

Com station

Realm Makers co-founder Scott Minor on ep. 129:

This interview with Steve Laube is a “Must Read” for any Christian author writing fantasy or science fiction. It is essential that you understand how the industry has evolved over the last 20 years since Bethany House published Kathy Tyers’ novel Firebird, the first science fiction story published in the Christian publishing industry.

Thank you, Steve and Stephen for sharing the story here!

@smithpetesmith (Twitter) on ep. 129:

This is super encouraging to hear from a publisher of Christian fiction!

@rob_kickok (Twitter) on ep. 129:

Gonna listen. This is always a good conversation.

Meanwhile at Lorehaven

  • Follow us on all the socials. We have way more images on Instagram.
  • We’re halfway through our Lorehaven Guild adventure in The Hobbit!
  • Next month, we’re traveling to Transylvania for a darker journey.
  • This week at Lorehaven.com, read Josiah DeGraaf’s next article in his How to Discern Christian Fiction series: How to Discern ‘Honest’ Christian Fiction Without Reveling in Darkness.
  • We’ve taken an incidental hiatus from new reviews, but they’ll be back.

Next on Fantastical Truth

What if humans who survived an apocalypse were forced to flee into the sky to escape a deadly mist? And what if one diver, working aboard an airship, was hired to find the impossible: a way to eradicate the Mist for good? Of course, it helps little that the Mist is rising and threatening to turn human survivors into steampunk zombies. That’s the world of Morgan Busse’s Skyworld series that starts with Secrets in the Mist and finishes with Blood Secrets. And in our next episode, Morgan makes her Fantastical Truth debut to share these secrets.

Fantastical Truth
Fantastical Truth
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Explore the best Christian-made fantasy, sci-fi, and beyond, and apply these stories' meanings in the real world Jesus calls us to serve.

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    Fantastical Truth
    In the Fantastical Truth podcast from Lorehaven, hosts E. Stephen Burnett and Zackary Russell explore fantastical stories for God's glory and apply their wonders to the real world Jesus calls us to serve.
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    1. Autumn Grayson says:
      September 20, 2022 at 11:56 am

      On the main Lorehaven page, the thumbnail image for this episode mainly shows Steve Laube’s face, instead of Steve Smith’s. It looks a bit strange.

      Reply
      • Autumn Grayson says:
        September 20, 2022 at 8:09 pm

        More specifically, your ‘Steve Saga’ is the thumbnail, but on the main page it is zoomed in so that it mainly just shows Steve Laube’s photo, which looks a bit strange since this episode is about Steve Smith.

        Reply

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