I love words--and the Word by Whom all came to be.

I am a freelance writer and editor with a particular interest in theology, literature, law, history, and languages. Home educated, with a bachelor's degree in law, I now live at home with my parents and employ my time in volunteer and freelance work in my family, church, and community.

I have always been fascinated by the art of writing, which embodies the author's most deeply held beliefs and hopes in a concrete, narrative form. When reading, I love to spot the deeper meaning behind an author's imagery and plot.

I am a writer of both fiction and non-fiction. My article "Home Schooling: Education Outside the Box" was published in the June 2012 edition of Quadrant, Australia's leading general intellectual journal, as a result of which I was interviewed on national radio. In May 2013 I self-published a short ebook, The Epic of Reformation: A Guide to the Faerie Queene, which collects a series of blog posts written in January 2013 on Edmund Spenser's classic epic poem. I also occasionally copywrite for the Home Education Foundation of New Zealand.

And, I am currently working on the fourth draft of a young adult fantasy novel.

Well, this is exciting! A whole community of creative Christian writers and artists? I'm pleased to meet you all!

About me--well, fortunately I have a whole page devoted to that interesting subject on my blog...



I think that says most of it, except that I am Australian, and blog at http://www.vintagenovels.com, where I seek to subject all my reading to the acid test of God's Word.

It also lets you know why I'm here, which is that I'm currently working on what I devoutly HOPE will be the final draft of a novel I've been working on for over eight years (my motto is Don't Rush It). I don't like to give too much away at this point, except that my current beta reader loves it to distraction, which is a good sign.

Between finishing the novel, blogging, cooking, teaching my little sister Latin, reading, trying to get my next article to the next magazine, formatting my next ebook release, and researching self-publishing, I'm looking forward to getting the chance to pop by and chat.

Soli Deo Gloria!
Suzannah Rowntree

John Buchan - Christian gentleman extraordinaire, who more or less invented the modern spy novel back during World War I

In Victorian England Blanche le Chevalier makes an unwelcome discovery: she was born in the legendary kingdom of Logres to King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, who now expect her to return and take up the responsibility of her heritage. As darkness gathers about Logres, the King's enemies threaten her life. Most puzzling of all are the whispers that not the King, but his most trusted knight was her father.

A wild boy from the forest travels to Camelot to become a knight. In a lost castle cut off from mortal lands, he sees a marvellous vision--the promise of an everlasting kingdom, and a warrior who will lead the knights of Logres to establish lasting peace. After years of endless battle, could victory finally be in sight? Or is Logres already too corrupt to save?

Jonathan, I can't recommend John Buchan enough!!! I have many reviews of his novels on my blog under the John Buchan tag . If you're only going to read one John Buchan book to find out what he's passionate about, I would recommend Huntingtower. One of the awesome things about that book is that it's a very similar flavour to The Hobbit. However, if you are interested in reading several Buchan books, my all-time favourites are the Richard Hannay novels:

The Thirty-Nine Steps
Greenmantle
Mr Standfast
The Three Hostages
Island of Sheep

They are spy novels set during and after WWI. Absolutely fantastic adventure stories (the second and third are the best). Reading them is like giving your soul a bath; they are so clean, invigorating, and understatedly Christian with a major theme of Providence.

The synopsis of my novel...actually, I am really only just at the point where I am letting people outside my immediate family and beta readers know that I *am* writing one, let alone what it's about! OK, well...



Wow. That was really hard to write...

In theology, I love to meditate on the kingship of Christ over all of life, the City of God, the cultural/dominion mandate, the meaning and application of the law of God, and the doctrines of grace. Naturally I am also very keen on what Scripture has to say about beauty, art, culture, and storytelling.

Are there any particular languages you know or are interested in learning someday?

What's your favorite period in history?

Have you ever read any Saki? He writes more satirical humour, but I really enjoy his style as well.

When did you decide to be a writer?

Have you read any good Christian books about art and storytelling?

In theology, I love to meditate on the kingship of Christ over all of life, the City of God, the cultural/dominion mandate, the meaning and application of the law of God, and the doctrines of grace.

you could argue that Narnia is an updated FQ for children)

Jonathan, you saw the 39 Steps movie? Which one? If it's the latest BBC production, I haven't seen it, but fans of the book weren't impressed. If it was the Alfred Hitchcock classic, that's a fun movie but doesn't resemble the book all that much either! The movie was released a few years before Buchan died, and he and his wife went to see it. She got all indignant about the changes they made, but Buchan was cool with it, which was very typical of him. Still, it wound up not being quite the manly Christian tale of daring that I love. But it's a good movie, and it's a crying shame Hitchcock never got his chance to make Greenmantle--he wanted to.

After I finished the first draft of my first book as a young teen and realised that I was addicted to storytelling. And there are days I wish I wasn't...I find non-fiction much easier to turn out. But fiction is my first love.

YES. I can highly recommend ND Wilson's Notes From the Tilt-A-Whirl. JRR Tolkien's essay "On Fairy Stories" and his poem "Mythopoeia" are both essential.

On art generally, my favourite book is a rather obscure little gem by Francis Nigel Lee, The Central Significance of Culture, which you can get off The Book Depository (free shipping anywhere in the world).

Sir Philip Sidney's essay "The Defence of Poesy" (which I summarised and critiqued here) is another excellent, classic text on Christian storytelling.

I'm not thinking of any others off the top of my head. Generally I just like to read great Christian fiction (Spenser, Bunyan, Austen, Lewis...) and learn what I can from their example. I've also read the occasional writer's book (James Scott Bell is good) and right now I'm reading through Clayton Hamilton's 1914 Manual of the Art of Fiction, but I usually disagree with a bunch of the stuff said in such books. I'm opinionated...

Welcome to HW, Suzannah! Huzzah, you be another Aussie! Glad to meet a fellow countryman - or make that, countrywoman.

Do you have a favorite genre to write in?

I have Charles Williams's Logres poetry, thanks to a generous friend--but so far I've only read his Figure of Arthur and a few of the poems. They are brilliant, I go back and read one every now and then, but I want to sit down and read them properly one of these days, along with Lewis's commentary.

In the meantime, reading his fiction is giving me a better and better idea of what his poems mean. Meanwhile, I was delighted to see him confirm my suspicion of how central the Grail legend is to the Matter of Britain--something reinforced by CS Lewis's essay on Le Morte D'Arthur.

And I must insist that there are a number of very interesting similarities between the Faerie Queene and Narnia. Of course they aren't both allegories--Peter doesn't represent anything in the same way that Arthegall or Redcrosse do, for example. And I don't want to push this too far...there are lots of ways in which they are nothing alike.

But at the same time,
- they are set in the Forest--you know the one;

- and if you believe Michael Ward in Planet Narnia, both devote a book each to a different virtue/planetary influence.

Oh, boy, I don't know. I've written fantasy, science fiction (a really bad idea, although it was really much more slanted toward planetary romance. Which possibly I could pull off). And historical fiction, and action/suspense. And these days I feel more inclined to write contemporary domestic fiction as well. I guess I'm still figuring out what my particular strangths are.

Idril, nice to meet you! I've been studying Latin at a leisurely pace for nearly half my life, and it's surprising how much you don't learn in that time. I'd love to learn Anglo-Saxon, because the Anglo-Saxons and their language are both awesome ("When Alfred could no longer hold off the enemy battle line, [...] he finally commanded the Christian troops to advance against the enemy army, acting manfully, like a wild boar").

Goodness, I have a lot of favourite periods in history. I'm a huge fan of everything from about 1 AD to 1660 A, with particular attention to the Reformation and the early medieval period--commonly (and erroneously) known as the "Dark Ages".