Daniel Schwabauer

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Daniel Schwabauer, M.A., is the Ben Franklin Award-winning writer of Runt the Brave, Runt the Hunted, and creator of the creative writing curriculum, the ONE YEAR ADVENTURE NOVEL.

The older I get, the harder it is to imagine all of my years spent teaching and prattling on about the “language of stor...
05/12/2026

The older I get, the harder it is to imagine all of my years spent teaching and prattling on about the “language of story” and “the God of story” and “story that makes all other stories meaningful”—the harder it is to imagine any of this being worthwhile. I’m not saying I should have been a doctor; I’d have done far more harm in a lab coat. And I’d have made a terrible salesman, policeman, or firefighter. Maybe the only thing I am suited for is the narrative imagination. Maybe I didn’t choose this foolish life; maybe it chose me.

Every year I encounter former students—usually at conferences—who share my fascination with stories. And these encounters remind me that every generation needs its storytellers to learn the trade from the previous one.

The minstrel archetype exists for a reason. Bards and scops and fools had a place in medieval courts because someone had to point out that the world is more than politics and money and war and the generation of laws. Someone had to remind even the king—especially the king—that good and evil, right and wrong, encompass higher laws that royalty ignore at the world’s peril.

Maybe that’s the sort of fool I’ve been. A fool training fools.

And what glorious company I keep!

Are you a student? We’ve received funding from the Lilly Foundation to pursue compelling stories of authentic and vibran...
04/29/2026

Are you a student?

We’ve received funding from the Lilly Foundation to pursue compelling stories of authentic and vibrant Christian faith and life. This may be a specific life experience representing your faith journey, transformation, application of your faith, or broader story of your life and the development of your faith.

This is part of MNU’s application for Lilly’s National Storytelling Initiative. Find the link in my bio to learn more and submit your story. Tag students you know in the comments and share this to your story!

Submissions must be entered by May 10, 2026 11:59pm.

Any questions can be sent to the Center for Narrative Studies co-directors: Dr. Daniel Schwabauer ([email protected]), and Prof. Aaron Bohn ([email protected]).

𝑳𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝑮𝒐𝒅 𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒓.Many of us have been taught to read Scripture as a collection of information ...
04/22/2026

𝑳𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝑮𝒐𝒅 𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒚𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒓.

Many of us have been taught to read Scripture as a collection of information that needs to be categorized, systematized, and analyzed verse by verse, concept by concept. But the Bible isn’t a jigsaw puzzle, and it wasn’t written in just Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. It was also written in the language of story. And as with every good story, we get to meet colorful characters, unravel mysteries, and see the world from a different point of view. It all makes more sense when understood from the perspective of storytelling.

In The God of Story, Daniel Schwabauer explores the narrative principles of theme, context, characterization, voice, and plot as a lens for understanding the cosmic story arc of God’s relationship to humanity. By including creative retellings of biblical stories, he demonstrates how to engage Scripture with imagination.

For a fresh approach to reading the Bible and discovering how its stories connect to your own, start by learning to see God as the master storyteller.

by .schwabauer, published by

MAXINE JUSTICE: GALACTIC ATTORNEY𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐒𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐄𝐱𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧?Maxine Justice is an ambulance-chasing lawye...
04/22/2026

MAXINE JUSTICE: GALACTIC ATTORNEY
𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐉𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐒𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐄𝐱𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧?

Maxine Justice is an ambulance-chasing lawyer desperate for relevance and cash when aliens hire her to represent them before the United Nations. An off-planet consortium wants to heal humanity of every natural disease in exchange for 30% of Earth’s gold reserves.

The deal launches Max to legal stardom and makes her an international target for assassins. MediCorp, Star Cross, PharFuture—the big medical companies all have good reasons to want Max out of the way. Worse, she discovers her alien clients may be planning something more sinister than anyone has imagined.

Can a lawyer who failed the bar exam three times find some way to save the world from global and interstellar conspiracies? Or will humankind’s future end in a galactic courtroom?

MAXINE JUSTICE: PUBLIC OFFENDER
𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭. 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐬𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐧.
Fresh off her single-handed defense against alien adversaries in a galactic courtroom, Maxine Justice discovers that saving the Earth is not enough to earn a hero’s welcome back home. Once again broke and now looking for revenge, her return to night court as a public defender takes an immediate detour when she’s tasked with defending a Therapod murder suspect.

The case drags her into the quirky theories of her new client, Father Gilbert Barthes, and the corrupt underbelly of corporate robotics. As her defense takes on global significance, Maxine lands squarely in the crosshairs of new enemies determined to conceal their plans for acquiring the planet. Worse, her probably guilty client may be the only one who can expose what’s really happening.

Stripped of all credibility and most of her friends, can Maxine find some way to save humanity when the world is bent on self-destruction? Or will Earth finally succumb to the most unlikely deception?

by .schwabauer, published by

𝙄𝙩’𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙧 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙝𝙚’𝙨 𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙙 𝙤𝙛. 𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙮 𝙘𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙝𝙞𝙢 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙙.Military journalist Raymin Dahl thinks he’s fin...
04/22/2026

𝙄𝙩’𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙧 𝙨𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙝𝙚’𝙨 𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙙 𝙤𝙛. 𝘽𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙮 𝙘𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙝𝙞𝙢 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙙.

Military journalist Raymin Dahl thinks he’s finally getting the story of a lifetime. Secret peace talks on a remote tropical moon are about to surrender five colonized worlds—and six hundred million civilians—to a ruthless enemy.

But when his commanding officer, Captain Ansell Sterling, is fatally wounded before the negotiations can begin, Dahl can no longer just report on the mission. He’s ordered to complete it. With help from the AI embedded in Sterling’s comms bracelet, Dahl must impersonate his commander—a Marine Corps hero and psychological operations expert.

However, Sterling’s AI may be luring him to surrender more than he realizes. And the mission Corporal Dahl thinks he’s running isn’t the only operation underway.

Operation Grendel by .schwabauer
published by

The Vision Writers Conference at Mt. Hermon was a blast. Before attending, I’d never set foot in California, never seen ...
04/20/2026

The Vision Writers Conference at Mt. Hermon was a blast. Before attending, I’d never set foot in California, never seen the Redwoods, never even glimpsed the Pacific from an airplane window. Not only was I asked to teach a morning class on Science Fiction, Fantasy, and YA writing ( a conference first for me), I had an opportunity to hike a section of the Sequoia Trail and listen to the sound of a waterfall while breathing deeply of the mountain air.

But my favorite thing about the event was something familiar, even if it isn’t an everyday experience. It happens sometimes in a classroom at MNU or during the OYAN Summer Workshop or even while talking to folks in small groups about the Bible. My favorite thing is the spark of recognition that lights up a face when confusion is transformed into understanding.

Some times those sparks are small, and sometimes they light up the room. But every spark holds the power of a narrative bonfire. Because those brilliant flashes of realization are what we were made for: an unfolding revelation of all that is good and beautiful and true as it points to the tov of the Creator.

Easter Sunday Reflections I didn’t expect to discover Tommee Profitt’s Easter album on Easter Sunday morning, wide awake...
04/14/2026

Easter Sunday Reflections

I didn’t expect to discover Tommee Profitt’s Easter album on Easter Sunday morning, wide awake at 4am because Cocoa decided that would be a great time to lick my face. Well before my alarm was set to go off I made a pot of coffee and settled into my old man rocker in my basement office and thumbed through Apple’s Music lists for something to listen to while I read.

That’s when I discovered his version of “When I Survey,” which begins as a low-and-slow meditation inspired by the old hymn and ends with a gloriously simple chorus: Thank you for the cross.

“Thank you for the cross” might be the most profound expression of praise ever penned. I probably sang something like this a a child without recognize—at least in any depth—what exactly the cross meant and continues to mean. I like to think I understand it better now.

But I’m not sure understanding is really the point. Neither is the terrible suffering of the cross, nor the surrender to death, which is highlighted as the chiastic center of Psalm 22 (“You lay me in the dust of death.”)

To me the point of the cross is the reversal of expectations that forms the crucifix hinge-point of history, the explosive center of creation, the beautiful logo—and logos—of eternity. It is the most profound expression of the idea that God is good and does not want to be our enemy, that he has never considered himself our enemy, that he is willing to suffer any personal cost to gather us up into his immortal family.

All of which sounds religious at best and silly at worst. The gospel is so easily twisted into something trite, something printed on a card or tossed into a collection plate or mocked on social media. And yet—

That chorus haunts me still. Like the cross it is as plain and as beautiful, as blood-stained and as splintered, as the lives we lead awaiting our turn to be lowered in the dust of death.

May those words be my last.

Thank you for the cross.

He is risen!
04/05/2026

He is risen!

~ R E V I E W ~ The Aeneid, by Virgil, translated by Scott McGill & Susannah WrightReading this yet again before writing...
03/16/2026

~ R E V I E W ~
The Aeneid, by Virgil, translated by Scott McGill & Susannah Wright
Reading this yet again before writing the final chapter of my work-in-progress has reminded me how much I appreciate Virgil’s depiction of the fall of Troy. What makes this epic a masterpiece is that it’s incredibly human even as it depicts events that are far beyond the experience of everyday life.

For instance, as Aeneas is heading out from his home to fight the conquering Argives—he wants to die in battle killing the enemy, not at home—his wife throws herself at his feet and holds up their little toddler son, Iulus. “If you are going out to die, take us/ to stand with you and face whatever comes./ But if what you have witnessed makes you place/ some hope in weapons, first protect this house. What waits for little Iulus and your father/ when you are gone—and me, once called your wife?”

Oof. So you wanna die for you country, but you’ll leave your family to death and debasement because you aren’t here to protect them?

This is a timeless theme, and one that informs the rest of the story. As it turns out, the gods don’t care all that much about your family, or anyone’s family. They’re far more interested in establishing an empire that will never fall, the glorious empire of Rome.

Wrapped up a busy weekend at the conference!
03/08/2026

Wrapped up a busy weekend at the conference!

I wasn’t expecting much from this show. It looked like just another BBC Mystery, and let’s be honest, if you seen a thou...
03/03/2026

I wasn’t expecting much from this show. It looked like just another BBC Mystery, and let’s be honest, if you seen a thousand, you’ve seen ‘em all. Maigret surprised my wife and I not because the writing and acting is exceptional (it is), but because unlike so many other programs, the producers didn’t feel the need to make the characters boundary-pushers, political agendas in pants, or normies who are secret monsters.

Maigret and his wife are interesting, flawed people who face real challenges. But they’re depicted as two people who love each other through the challenges of life and the stress of very difficult jobs. As a result, the story feels more true, more driven by the events of the series and the decisions of the characters than by the godlike powers of writers intent on smothering wrong-think.

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Olathe, KS
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