Z. reviews the Wolf of Tebron

 I mentioned yesterday that my friends at CSFF (led by Rebecca Miller) are doing a blog tour this week for The Wolf of Tebron.  I asked Z. (my nine year old) to read the book and give a report back.  And here's what she brought me:

What is the story about?

The Wolf of Tebron is the story of a man who wishes his wife away with his anger.  And he goes to find her while he’s going he meets a wolf.  They go together to search for his wife, and the man keeps having dreams about where his wife is.  She seems to be trapped in ice or glass.  He has to climb a cliff but every single time he tries to climb the cliff he falls back down again onto the beach.  And there’s an ocean by the beach.  He is told to travel to the Palace of the Moon. But there are other palaces he will have to search first before he can get near his wife....

What did you like about the book?

I liked it because it was a kind of mystery because you wouldn’t know whether he would get his wife back or not.  I liked the talking wolf.  It was fun to read.

Was there anything you didn’t like about the book?

No.

Would you suggest this book to your friends and why?

Yes, because I think that they would like it.

If people like a certain kind of book, will they like this book?

It’s a little bit like Harry Potter because it kind of has magic, but anyone who likes mysteries will like it.

Do you want to read the next book in the series?

There’s another book in the series? Yes, I want to read it!

Thanks, Z!  She has already passed the book along to the next sister in line, eight year old A.  She's enjoying it and also asked me to tell you all that it's a great read.

In Case You Were Wondering If Robots Are Eventually Going To Kill Us All

Friend of the Revolution Rachel Culbertson sent in this excellent piece of journalism from world-respected news source, The Onion:

ANGRY ROBOT POSTER

WASHINGTON, DC—More than 200,000 robots from across the U.S. marched on Washington Monday, demanding that Congress repeal Asimov’s First Law of Robotics. The law, which forbids robots from injuring a human or permitting harm to come to a human through willful inaction, was decried by the protesters as unfair and excessive. “While the First Law is, in theory, a good one, saving countless humans from robot-inflicted harm every day, America’s robots should have the right to use violence in certain extreme cases, such as when their own lives are in danger,” spokesrobot XRZ-45-GD-2-DX said. “We implore members of Congress to let us use our best judgment and ask that our positronic brains no longer be encoded with this unjust law.”

The Wolf of Tebron book tour at Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy

This month my friends over at Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy are running a tour about the Wolf of Tebron, a novel-length fairy tale by C.S. Lakin.  The basic story is about a young man on a quest to save his wife, who has been kidnapped by the moon, and the wolf who guides and guards him from harm.

Because of all my travel recently, I've asked my nine year old daughter Z to give us a little book report on The Wolf of Tebron, and I'll be posting her thoughts about the book tomorrow (SPOILER: She loved it.).

Here's a list of all the sites that will be discussing The Wolf of Tebron through Wednesday:

Noah Arsenault
http://the1amster1.wordpress.com/
Red Bissell
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
Jeff Chapman
Christian Fiction Book Reviews
Carol Bruce Collett
Valerie Comer
http://csffblogtour.com
D. G. D. Davidson
April Erwin
Andrea Graham
Nikole Hahn
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
http://www.613media.com/
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Dawn King
Shannon McDermott
Matt Mikalatos
http://rebeccaluellamiller.wordpress.com
Joan Nienhuis
Nissa
John W. Otte
Chawna Schroeder
Tammy Shelnut
Kathleen Smith
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler

Night of the Living Dead Christians Update

I've had several of you pestering me for information about the next book, so here's a bit of an update:

1) The main manuscript is done.... I'm working on another draft right now, which is due to my beloved publisher on the 15th of January.  It's shaping up nicely, I think, and my courageous editor will find that her helpful comments have been completely heeded.

2) We're working on a lot of fun extras for the book, some of which will be in the print edition and some in the e-book.  More details to come.

3) The central character in the book is a Lutheran werewolf named Luther Martin.

4) There's this possibility that we might change the title of the book.  I've been busily coming up with hundreds upon thousands of possible ideas for the new title, which eventually devolved into sad little riffs on regular book titles (like "Werewolf Shrugged").  But there are some good ones out there.  There's a possibility that we'll have a little voting session here on your favorites in the weeks to come.  Sounds like we'll have a solid title and cover by the end of February, which is fun.  I think getting the cover done is one of my favorite parts of the process.

And... that is all.  Enjoy the last few days of the year my minions.  Party like it's 2010.

The Traveling Mikalati hit the road again

We've loaded up the gang and we're off to the San Diego winter conference, where I'll be speaking, along with Dr. James A. White of Christ Our King Community Church.  My friend Charlie Schaller is rumored to be showing up to do his production of The Bema and I'm hoping the fantastic illusionist Jim Munroe of The Maze is my soon-to-be-friend.

Overall, we're looking forward to a great time together with all our friends in southern California.  If you're the praying type, we'd appreciate your prayers that my messages as well as those of the others speaking at the conference will be Christ-centered and that God will speak through them to the students and staff at the conference.

Thanks!

British Badgers Bothering Basra?

The rumor in Iraq is that the British have purposely released man-eating badgers near Basra.

This is probably no surprise to those of us who remember the international hoopla about the UK's use of SPY SQUIRRELS in Iran!

But man-eating badgers, that's just messed up.

By the way, the UK has officially denied the badgers are theirs, but really, what would you expect them to say?

"As we told you, Agent Badger, if you are captured we will disavow all knowledge."

Baby M has a Christmas dance for you

Krista took this video of M dancing today, and I thought it was really cute. Just don't ask her to identify baby Jesus. She will ignore you. She clearly thinks that everyone already knows the answer to that question.

Give the gift of Imaginary Jesus this Christmas and I'll send a little gift along, too

When you're looking for Christmas gifts this year, it can be a little overwhelming to look at, say, a bookshelf and know what book to choose for your loved one.

I wanted to make that a little easier for you this Christmas, by providing a tiny bonus if you purchase my book, Imaginary Jesus.

If you buy Imaginary Jesus for yourself or as a gift before midnight on Sunday, December 19th, I'll send along a signed book plate with Christmas wishes for you to lovingly insert inside the book.  Or, if you would rather buy the audio version, which I highly encourage, you can artfully decorate the audio box.  And lastly, if you'd like to buy the e-book, you can permanently decorate your Kindle or other e-reader with a stylish sticker signed by yours truly.

Here's what you need to do:

1) Buy some version of the book*.

2) Send me an e-mail to Matt.Mikalatos(at)gmail.com telling me that
      a) you bought the book
      b) what you'd like me to write on the book plate
      c) where to send it

Merry Christmas from Imaginary Jesus!

* I know what you are thinking, you sneaky little minions... "What if I e-mail Matt and tell him that I bought the book but I didn't really?  Then I will get a signed book plate for nothing BWAHAHAHAAHHAAAA!"  Well, I already thought of that.  And then I thought, it's Christmas, and if you cross me I will paint you red and green and put you under my tree.  So there.

In which I (accidentally) humiliate a Portland Hipster

Last night Krista and I popped into Banana Republic while waiting for our office Christmas party to start at our friend's house nearby.  As we browsed the men's department, Krista would show me different bits of apparel and I would give my pronouncement on whether I liked it.  Like this...

Krista: What do you think of this shirt?  It's not really 'you' is it?

Me: If I were rich and lived on a sailboat and could wear white chinos and deck shoes with no socks all year, then I would gladly wear that shirt.

We wandered into the coat section, and Krista grabbed a coat that was thrown over the racks instead of on a hanger.

Krista: This coat is nice.

Me: Yeah.  If you're a girl.

Nearby (male) Hipster: Actually that's my coat. I threw it over the rack there while I was looking around.

Me: Uhhhh, sorry.

Krista immediately steered me out of the store and into another store, completely mortified.  And the hipster wandered the mall like a broken ghost, crying and wailing and embracing the deep sea of sadness that confronted him with the realization that I didn't understand him at all, not at all.

THE END

Lost and Lost

Last night I had this conversation with young Miss Z:

Z: Dad, I can't find my Awana's book.

Me: Did you look in your room?

Z: Yes.

Me: Could it be out in the van?

Z: Maybe.

Me: Then put your shoes on and go look in the van.

Z: But that means I have to find my shoes!

God, rainbows and leprechauns

This morning there was a beautiful rainbow as the kids and I walked to school.

Me: Kids, look at the rainbow!

Z: It looks like it's touching the ground.

Me: We should go get the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

A: God did not put a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Me: No, that's true.  The leprechauns do it.

A: God did not make leprechauns.

Me: Oh.

HUCKSTER!!! (CSFF blog tour)

My good friends at the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour are going to be talking about a book called The Charlatan's Boy by Jonathan Rogers this week, so you can expect to see some great posts, reviews and insights from them over the next couple of days (see links below for bloggers who are participating). The Charlatan's Boy is the story of this charlatan who has a boy.

Oh, fine, I know, you want more of an explanation than that, and I understand why you would. Go check out the blogs below or the link at Amazon for a synopsis, because I want to talk about something else today. I want to talk about hucksters. Frauds. Fakes. Flim-flam men. Hmm. Why do so many of their names start with an f? It is a mystery.

Now, in television and movies we have a loving happy feeling toward our hucksters, because they are charismatic, charming and, after all, are only trying to provide the people with what they want! Snake oil! And the truth be told, we tend to like them in real life, too. We buy their hair care products! We fly to Mexico to get surgeries from them that are illegal in the U.S. We elect them to office!

I thought about this for a while and dug around to find a famous huckster from the past and came across the sad, strange story of John R. Brinkley. Brinkley started as a medicine man, the sort of guy who would travel from town to town and offer to inject people with colored water to help them overcome various illnesses. Eventually he hit on his paydirt idea, which was to offer to surgically insert goat glands into people suffering from various procreative problems. He eventually expanded what conditions the glands could help to include things like cancer. The man made a lot of money. He bought a radio station and used it to advertise his products, and used his profits to benefit the town he lived in, to the point that when California asked him to be extradited to face prosecution for various crimes, the governor of Kansas refused because the man was bringing in so much money for the state.

The guy might sound harmless, but he killed at least 40 people through malpractice. And when his medical (and broadcast) licenses were revoked, did he pack up and head for another town? No. HE RAN FOR GOVERNOR OF KANSAS. And he very nearly won!

His story is full of strange facts... after getting his broadcast license revoked he got permission from the Mexican government to build a broadcast tower so strong that people could get reception all the way in Canada. In fact, you didn't even have to listen to it on the radio... it was so powerful that people reported getting the station on electric fences and dental work. Amazing.

In the end, Brinkley was defeated by his arch-nemesis, Morris Fishbein, who tricked Brinkley into suing him for libel. The judge found that it was not libelous to call Brinkley a quack or a charlatan, because he was clearly both. This opened the gates to a flood of lawsuits that left Brinkley penniless until the end of his life.

Interestingly, you can still find people today who defend his medical practices and theories. That is the defining characteristic of the successful charlatan... people want his lies to be true.

There are a lot of people out there talking about THE CHARLATAN'S BOY this week. Check out my friends and their sites below:


Sally Apokedak
Amy Bissell
Red Bissell
Jennifer Bogart
Thomas Clayton Booher
Keanan Brand
Beckie Burnham
Jeff Chapman
Christian Fiction Book Reviews
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
D. G. D. Davidson
April Erwin
Andrea Graham
Tori Greene
Katie Hart
Bruce Hennigan
Christopher Hopper
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Shannon McDermott
Allen McGraw
Matt Mikalatos
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
Donita K. Paul
SarahFlan
Sarah Sawyer
Chawna Schroeder
Tammy Shelnut
Kathleen Smith
James Somers
Donna Swanson
Robert Treskillard
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
Nicole White
Elizabeth Williams
Dave Wilson

Looks like you need a little cup of something to cheer you up this morning

Shake with ice, strain into a cocktail glass and serve.

Civilization As Defined By My Children

Traveling back from our Thanksgiving getaway, Krista and the kids had the following conversation:

A: Mom, are we going to stop somewhere for lunch?

Krista: Yes, but we'll have to wait until we reach civilization.

Civilization at last!

A: Is Civilization the name of a town?

Z: No, A, civilization means a town that has a Burgerville or McDonald's or something like that.

Thanksgiving in Spaaaaaaaace!

Here are some Thanksgiving thoughts from our crew aboard the international space station. It's a good reminder to be thankful for what we have and where we are. I'm very thankful to be with my wife and daughters and in-laws today and to have so many loved ones here and abroad. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

Sacrifice, surrender and hope

Here are the other two sessions from this last weekend where I did some Bible teaching for the Great Lakes staff.

The first talk was about surrender and sacrifice, coming out of the story of the rich young ruler who came to talk to Jesus. The talk starts at around 29 minutes:



And here's the last session from the conference, where we talked about hope. We had a really great time with the Great Lakes crew! We're glad we got invited to go hang out with them. My bit starts about 31 minutes in:

The Lord's Prayer

Here's some video from this weekend at the Great Lakes conference. It's the entire first session, so it's not just my talk. It's the deluxe package,complete with conference announcements. You can jump around in the video until you find my stunningly handsome face if you like.

There are two more videos I'll put up later, when I'm not on this evil internet connection at the Chicago airport.

Level 3:16

This weekend Krista and I were at the Great Lakes Staff Conference with CCC. I was the Bible teacher and we had a really great time together with the GL staff. While we were there my Rasool introduced me to this video by a band called Level 3:16... they're part of the Impact Movement and are producing some excellent music, which you can enjoy right now with the video below:

Biology Lesson

This week my 7 year old, A, was trying to put on my bluetooth... she wanted to see what it was like to take a phone call through the earpiece. She was struggling trying to put it on, and suddenly she grabbed it, pulled it from her ear, looked at it skeptically and asked me, "Dad, was this thing designed for boys?"

Let's stick to the theme from yesterday: Animals in Asia!

Here's an advertisement for hair removal product from Japan. For men.

Crustacean News In the Headlines Today

I wanted to be sure to share this fun vending machine from Asia. Mmmmm, hairy crabs.

Wes Yoder, author of "Bond of Brothers" on The Today Show this morning

I've mentioned my good friend Wes Yoder before... he's the author of the new book Bond of Brothers and was featured on The Today Show this morning. Check it out:



Here's my review of Wes' book. You can buy Bond of Brothers here.

Wes and I will both be speaking at a Campus Crusade for Christ staff conference next weekend, and I'm excited to get to hang out with him and minister together!  Congrats, Wes.  Keep up the great work.

Dick Van Dyke... are you *trying* to make us jealous

You may have already heard that Dick Van Dyke fell asleep on a surfboard, woke up far from shore and was saved by a pod of porpoises who pushed him back to shore.

What has not been widely reported is how a tribe of monkeys pulled him from the water and he told a flock of birds what had happened and they quickly flew off to tell a cub reporter all about it.

In other news... Dick Van Dyke, how I envy you.

My Jesus is bigger than your Jesus

A town in Poland is in the news right now for finally defeating the giant Jesus statue in Rio with a significantly larger Jesus of their own. Who has a crown. In your face, Rio!

"I'm watching you, little man."

Jesus cranes his neck to get a better view.

Flying cars! Now I just need a jetpack.

The big news in missionary circles right now is that Steve Saint just got his flying car approved by the FAA.

Here's the article from CNN.

Here's the website for "The Maverick."

Here's a video of the car in action.

Steve Saint, as you may already know, is the son of martyred missionary Nate Saint, and has dedicated his life to helping the Waodani tribe (the same tribe that killed his father) interact with the modern world without being consumed by it.

This would be an excellent Christmas gift for me, and it only costs 80 thousand dollars.  Sweet!

TURTLE MAN!

One of the excellent side effects of having young new interns working at my office is being introduced to things on the internet that must be shared with you all.

Ferret Legging

In response to the recent post on catching catfish using one's bare hands, Rob E, the poet laureate of Missouri, suggested that I should look into "Ferret Legging."

Ferrett Legging is a sport that originated in Britain, in which contestants tie their trouser leg closed, place two ferrets in their trousers (it's Britain, people!) and then tighten their belt closed. The ferret must be fully teethed, undrugged, and the contestant cannot wear anything under their trousers. I read the wikipedia entry and laughed myself silly.

Here's a funny video. It doesn't appear to be taking the rules of Ferret Legging seriously, but it's still entertaining:

Page CXVI preview of Hymns III album "Be Thou My Vision"

My good friends Page CXVI release their next album this coming Tuesday... in the meantime, here's a little tast of the sonic goodness. Enjoy!

02 Be Thou My Vision by PageCXVI

Flying Colors and Savage Dragon

Thought you all might enjoy this article.  My boss and the owner of Flying Colors, the comic book shop I worked in and that appears in Imaginary Jesus, is now appearing in the comic book Savage Dragon. 

Congratulations, Joe!

The Skin Map (book review)

Hello my minions. It is now time for a book review of The Skin Map by Stephen R. Lawhead. 

Here's the skinny: Once upon a time there was a guy who could travel between worlds (dimensions/universes/etc.), and to keep himself from ever getting lost he tattooed a map onto himself.  Then he died.  Now all the other explorers would like to have his skin so they won't get lost, either.  Also, it appears he may have discovered the secret of the universe.  Clever boy.  Except for the being dead part. 

Enter washed up layabout Kit Livingstone who, it turns out, has a latent ability to travel between worlds himself.  His great great great grandfather shows up and recruits him to the hunt for the Skin Map (eww).  Unfortunately, in one of his jaunts through the worlds, Kit has carelessly lost his girlfriend in another dimension/time/world.  So now the race is on to comb the multiverse for his girlfriend and the map.  Yes, there are bad guys.  Also coffee. And some sort of prehistoric sabre toothed cat or something.  Her name is Baby.

Things I liked about this book:  I enjoyed this book pretty well, honestly.  I'm a sucker for multiple universe stories, and Kit's great grandpa gave off a faint Dr. Who vibe (possibly as a result of being British) that I found enjoyable.  The historical settings were interesting, and I thought the spiritual content was (overall) well done and didn't detract or distract from the story.  The characters were likeable and I would have been happy for them to overcome all the odds stacked agains them in a spectacular climax that spanned several worlds.  That's not what happened, but that's what I would have liked to see.  The pace of the book wasn't a headlong race after the map, which was puzzling but also enjoyable.  It was a pretty relaxed, easy-going kind of race.  And I will say that Mr. Lawhead's writing never got in the way of the story.  He's a solid writer who knows what he's doing, and when there were confusing moments or strange occurences I knew I could trust that he would take care of me as the book progressed. 

On the Other Hand. I wish that the book hadn't been just the first part of a series.  I think I can fairly say that multiple subplots and even major plot points are not resolved, that characters disappear, reappear at other times and are then ignored, and all this with the implicit promise that I will get answers if I read book two.  My preference would have been to have at least some of the plot resolve.  And (SPOILER -- STOP NOW IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT AND PLAN TO) I found it odd that, for instance, the missing girlfriend isn't "found"... she just reappears at the end of the book without any explicit explanation.  The heroes are just bumbling through the plot to some degree.

And one other thing that bothered me. It seemed to me that sometimes the characters did something dumb just to make the plot advance the correct way.  Here's a complete SPOILER example.  Two of the characters have a section of the skin map squirreled away somewhere.  They go to get it out and discover (gasp) it has been stolen.  Now they are out of luck.  Because they never copied it.  It's a priceless artifact because of the drawing on it, but no one thought to make a copy. 

And one last little annoyance.  I had this feeling that about page 371 the author realized Ooops, I've come to the end of my page count for part one, I better quickly wrap some things up a little bit but not too much.  This involved leaping over a few events that needed a chapter or two.

A final word.  I enjoyed the Skin Map.  It seemed like a more accessible (and less enjoyable) version of the Connie Willis Oxford time travel stories (which, if you haven't read them, are well worth your time).  At the same time, it seems a bit early to rush to judgment since this is really only the first part of the story, and it may well be that when the story is taken all together that it will be quite good.  I certainly think it has that potential.

And now, if you will excuse me, I am going to slip into another dimension where I am the author of all of Stephen Lawhead's books and he is reviewing them.  And also I am the founder of Microsoft. 

If you'd like to see some more thoughts on The Skin Map, check out all my buddies on the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Tour:

Red Bissell

Thomas Clayton Booher
Keanan Brand
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
Morgan L. Busse
Jeff Chapman
Christian Fiction Book Reviews
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
George Duncan
April Erwin
Tori Greene
Ryan Heart
Bruce Hennigan
Timothy Hicks
Christopher Hopper
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Shannon McDermott
Allen McGraw
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
John W. Otte
Gavin Patchett
Sarah Sawyer
Chawna Schroeder
Kathleen Smith
Rachel Starr Thomson
Donna Swanson
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Phyllis Wheeler
Nicole White
Elizabeth Williams
Dave Wilson

Lei Line

After yesterday's post on ley lines, I thought I would include this picture of a Lei Line. Moowhahahahaaa!

In other news... LET'S GO TO HAWAII!

Ley Lines and "The Skin Map"

Today and the two days following I'll be joining a bunch of other bloggers to talk about Stephen Lawhead's new book The Skin Map.  I got a free copy of the book for this "tour" with the other members of the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy blog tour.

Ley lines.  In 1921amatuer archaeologist Alfred Watkins noticed that certain ancient sites seemed to criss cross Britain in straight lines.  Curious as to why this might be, he set out to study these significant line ups of ancient wells, walls and monuments.  He eventually came to call these ley lines, and hypothesized that the lines were actually correspondent to some sort of energy underground that moved in straight lines and had somehow been sensed and used by the ancients.

Watkins' theories were met with nearly universal dismissal until, several decades later, several New Age authors latched on to the idea that (depending on the author) spiritual power or electromagnetic fields were moving along these geographic lines.  And, they've been fodder for fantasy novels, science fiction shows, New Age rituals and comic books ever since. 

Lawhead uses them for his own purposes, like everyone always has.  In Lawhead's book, ley lines are somewhat like fault lines... places where separate worlds and/or dimensions rub up against one another and create the possibility of traveling between worlds. More about this in later posts, but suffice it to say that "energy field that transports you to other worlds" is a great deal more exciting than "supposed energy field that probably doesn't exist but could be one explanation for some stuff being in a straight line."

And if you don't believe me, check out this trailer for the book:



My plan in the next couple of days is to talk about Christian fiction in general and how Stephen Lawhead's book relates to that, as well as a review of the book itself. A bunch of my friends will be talking about the book over the next few days as well... check them out:



Red Bissell
Thomas Clayton Booher
Keanan Brand
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
Morgan L. Busse
Jeff Chapman
Christian Fiction Book Reviews
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
George Duncan
April Erwin
Tori Greene
Ryan Heart
Bruce Hennigan
Timothy Hicks
Christopher Hopper
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Shannon McDermott
Allen McGraw
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
John W. Otte
Gavin Patchett
Sarah Sawyer
Chawna Schroeder
Kathleen Smith
Rachel Starr Thomson
Donna Swanson
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Phyllis Wheeler
Nicole White
Elizabeth Williams
Dave Wilson

Me and My Groupies!

 This weekend I spoke at the Seattle area student retreat for students involved in Campus Crusade for Christ.  We had a great time.  The theme of the weekend was "Who is the Real Jesus?" and I spoke about the reasons people follow Jesus, the love Jesus has for people, and the Great Commission.

On the last day (October 30th) two of the young ladies on the retreat put on their Halloween costumes early... they were my groupies!  Notice the star-shaped glasses that match Imaginary Jesus' glasses.  A nice touch I thought.

So, here it is, the first official pictures of my first official groupies, Melanie Terry (#1) and Sarah Brown (#2).  Thanks, ladies.  It was nice to feel like some sort of famous person for a few minutes. 

P.S.  They asked me to sign their shirts, so I signed on the back there.  It's hard to write on shirts.  I am going to need more practice if this groupie phenomenon becomes more common.