I just wanted to wish my wife a very happy 4th Anniversary. We were married four years ago today.

With not a flake of snow on the ground, and none forecasted for the day, she asked the Lord for it to snow–her one marriage-day wish. Sure enough, as we arrived to the church it began snowing–hard–and never let up.

And I got my wish: The woman of my dreams. It has been the most wonderful four years of my life. I love you!

CH

Thanks for your continued support!

CH

As part of the Fantasy Fiction Tour pre kick-off, I’ll be running a four part interview this week with John Copper, CEO of Real Armor of God (.com). John’s generosity is immense, as well as his heart for the Lord. He has graciously donated four beautiful swords to the four author’s, as well as hand crafted, hand painted shields with the tour logo on them. [Wayne, Bryan, Sharon and I beam gratuitously]. You’ll get a chance to see the pieces as we’ll be arriving at each stop with them. Please check out his website, and leave your comments on this post for all to read.

CH

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CH: What propelled you to want to sell swords as an occupation? Seems like every boy’s dream!

JC: [Laugh] Yes, you would think so – and I know more about swords than I ever really intended. Actually, I never thought in a million years I would be doing this. My background is in sales and marketing for wholesale distribution of computers and supplies. I was given a sword by my father-in-law as a thank you gift. Of course, my wife did not want it in the house… so we agreed to have it framed and put a scripture verse plate under the sword (Hebrews 4:12). It looks great and has been an interesting conversation piece in our house over the years. With new friends and people we are not sure of their faith, we conclude our sword explanation by turning the conversation to Jesus and a gentle witnessing conversation.

A few years later, we were given a medieval knight figurine which had all the pieces of the armor of God. I told my wife how much I had always wanted something like is and how awesome I thought it was. Next thing I know I was telling her, “I bet there are a lot of other Christian men who would like these too.”

We started the business on $500 and two products we manufactured, a sword frame with any scripture and a medieval knight figure with a paraphrase of Eph 6:13-19. Of course, I needed to find a few swords to offer people. Since the knight figure was all about the armor of God and we were selling “real” swords, we decided to call the company Real Armor of God.com (http://www.realarmorofgod.com).

The sword market is heavily saturated and very competitive. I laugh when I look back at our humble beginnings. We had about 15 different swords we offered at first and averaged about 450 hits a month on the website. God has blessed us and we now have about 700 items we sell in 155 categories with about 5 million hits a month (400,000 pages read a month for those interested in the details).

We also have a great deal of education and historical information on the site for people to learn from. Christians really like our Knighting Ceremony information and use it for Raising A Modern Day Night graduations. (Of course they also get a nice sword and or a custom painted shield for their son too.)

Our staff personally evaluates every product to ensure only the better quality items are added…and customers love it. ∆

The Fantasy Fiction Tour continues to get some cool press. First Publisher’s Weekly ran a story on it, and now the Associated Press ran a segment of my little trailer on their weekly religious video piece. Click HERE to read and watch.

Enjoy!

CH

Each day of the tour I’ll be posting a Road Journal right here on my blog. Jennifer and I will be adding pics and letting you know how things are going. We’ll also be contributing for the daily video re-cap which will be posted with the general update on the Tour website, so please make sure to bookmark it. The other authors will also be posting their own news on their blogs:

Wayne Thomas Batson–The Door Within Trilogy and Isle of Swords

http://enterthedoorwithin.blogspot.com

 Bryan Davis–The Dragons in Our Midst and Oracles of Fire

http://dragonsinourmidst.blogspot.com

 Sharon Hinck–The Becky Miller Books and The Sword of Lyric Series

http://sharonswriting.blogspot.com

 Christopher Hopper–The Rise of the Dibor and The White Lion Chronicles

http://christopherhopper.wordpress.com

 We’ll also be running a special costume contest during the tour, so if you’re planning on coming out to see us, check out the details on the FFT site at: www.fantasyfictiontour.com

A big “Thank You” to all those that attended the 2007 Free Methodist Church Bible Quiz Finals at Roberts Wesleyan College this past week. We had an absolute blast with you Friday night! We’ll be posting pics of the concert shortly.

Blessings!

CH

Saturday night, June 16th, we had a wonderful night at The Lyric for the nationwide release of The Lion Vrie. The turnout was incredible and I’m extremely appreciative to all those that ventured out. Christian Fahey provided wonderful live music, and Kathy Danielson, owner of The Lyric, had a marvelous selection of finger foods and coffee. I read a sneak-peak of one of the chapters and then signed books. Again, thanks for all the support!

Thanks for spending some time with me today!

CH

As many of you may have gotten wind of, and seen on yesterday’s international TV broadcast, I’m overjoyed to announce our new two-year disciplship training school, aptly named DIBOR. This is a dream come true for all the staff members, and something I never thought would become a reality; just a story in a book.

Since I’m about to leave for our first presentation of the school at The Tab in Buffalo, I’ll refer you to the website for more information:

www.dibor.org

Blessings!

CH