partsofspeaking

Today is a good day in my writing career.  My book is actually showing up on the Nook website with a sales rank (326,000, but hey, it didn't show up before), and the Kindle is at 43,000 (it was at 430,000 forever) and the book version was at 72,000 (for a very short time, though.  It has been at 2.7 million for months.)  I don't know what's going on, but I'm glad.  I'd love to know who is buying these books. Even better, my publisher is getting ready to bring out my next two books and to republish my first one to make it a complete set.  That means for the next two  weeks all my attention will have to be focused on proofing all three books, writing copy for bio and press releases, making decisions.  It will move fast.   I hope to have it all done before the academic year starts.  I am off for the next 16 days.  I am excited. Now, I learned one thing, and it's a very important thing, about the first book.  You MUST be absolu...

http://blog.christianitytoday.com/women/2011/07/the_worst_ever_christian_clich.html Love this article.  I rue the way we have to keep coming up with new words for old concepts, as if just putting a new word on it means anything more.  I even think "get saved" is a cliche because it doesn't communicate anything to a lot of people--well, it communicates a weird experience.

Pharisees make the world go 'round.  They kept the nation of Israel straight.  They protected the law and the traditions.  They preserved the culture.  The older brother is the one who got the work done.  He preserved the farm.  He loved his father and stuck around.  And we don't know the rest of the story.  Did the younger brother, the prodigal, remain with the father and take his place, working hard, staying faithful?  Or did he get a wild hair again?  (or is that wild hare?)  Did the father's kind retort persuade the older brother to stand down and accept the prodigal, or did he remain bitter? We never have a record in the New Testament of the Sadducees, the group that denied the spiritual world, coming to Christ in faith.  They came to dispute, but not to believe.  I think there are two kinds of Pharisees:  the kind who are searching for truth and godliness and get stuck in the only kind they have available,...

I am reading the translation done by John T. McNeill and Ford Lewis Battles and published by the Westminster Press in 1960.  This is the translation of his last edition, and is fully annotated and has Calvin's address to the reader, "Subject Matter of the Present Work," and Prefatory Address to King Francis I of France.  That's as far as I've gotten on this second reading. He ends the address to the reader with Augustine's statement:  "I count myself one of the number of those who write as they learn and learn as they write."  How appropriate!  I hope to count myself in that number, too.   Since Calvin wrote several editions of the Institutes, ever expanding and strengthening it as an engineer would a bridge, I can see why he would say this.  It is rare for someone to totally change his mind over earlier held opinions; Festinger's rule of "cognitive dissonance" (a great theory to explain human behavior) takes over.  But surely Calvin ...

As I am a big fan of just about anything Robert Duvall is in, and as I had read about the film, I was glad to see the GET LOW was a choice in the REDBOX Friday night when I went by looking for something to watch.  I also picked out MORNING GLORY, which was cute but forgettable.  GET LOW, on the other hand, is a small masterpiece. Can we pay for our own sin?  Can we live without forgiveness?  Can we resist forgiveness and grace when others are so willing to give it?  These I think are the questions that the filmmakers managed to pose with a story that could have been taken to other realms.  Duvall, looking very old and worn out but still vital, plays a man who has chosen to live as a hermit for over 40 years.  He has a great deal of land and a serviceable cabin, and does quite well without people, thank you.  Well, not really.  If nosy boys come snooping around his property, he's likely to scare them off with a gun, as he will do to adults a...

A student mentioned this website in class and I am afraid it's become a life problem with me.  I laughed so hard in my office that I was afraid they would put me away. http://www.peopleofwalmart.com Apparently people send candids of other people they snap at Walmarts across the country.  Some are just of costumed people, some are of cross-dressers, some are of women who don't know how to dress or just don't dress, some are of obese people, some are of children being neglected.  They are sad but it's very hard to stop looking at them. What does this say about me? I just got back from Walmart.  I have never seen people like this at our Walmart in Ft. Oglethorpe, but I do see a lot of people who do not care for their person.

 Chattanooga Writers' Guild Offers Highly Potent Stimulant:   I.C.E.     Inspired Creative Energy The Chattanooga Writers' Guild in conjunction with Dalton State College will provide a free Saturday workshop August 27, 2011. Dalton State College First floor of the Brown Center Dalton, GA.  One writer admits that her characters ride around in the back seat of her car changing their dialogue as she runs her errands. Conclusion: Imagination and creativity are more potent than drugs.    The Chattanooga Writers' Guild in conjunction with Dalton State College will provide a free Saturday workshop, August 27, 2011, for all interested writers of fiction, nonfiction, flash fic...