I’ve never much cared for blogs that are like daily journals, where lots of mundane information and details are disseminated. You know, “Today I got a hangnail. But my clippers were broke so I had to rush to the local mini-mart and stand behind a lady with a crying baby with a snot bubble and [...]

Hey, I can finally lift the lid. Dave Long, acquisitions editor for Bethany House Publishing, informed me the end of October that my short story, When Bill Left the Porch, was selected as a finalist for his contest. I was asked to sit on the info for the last couple of months, so I’m pretty [...]

Shortly after the release of The Return of the King, the final installment in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, radio talk show host Dennis Prager parodied an interview with former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Carter has become known as a human rights activist, a vocal critic of the war in Iraq and a [...]

Mom, get the gravy boat! Some people are out of their gourd and I’m lathering in the madness. Just received notice that two of my short stories have been selected by Infuze Magazine for a Best of 2005 book (yes, a real, print book). Mom, get the gravy boat! Sorry, but I haven’t been in [...]

On a recent Friday night “date night” with my wife, we squirmed through the trailer of “Brokeback Mountain.” Directed by Ang Lee, the movie is further evidence that we, as a culture, are plummeting down a slippery slope, having sacrificed morality on the altar of civil rights. In most circles, it’s being called the “Gay [...]

There is a math professor at the local university whom the students call Stinky Stein. He’s earned the name because of his unruly beard, disheveled appearance and, most notably, the scent that signals his proximity. My son informs me that, upon entering the professor’s class, the kiddies race for the back rows. Thus, the punishment [...]

Leslie Hand, founder of Movie Glimpse, tells the story about a Catholic woman working on the set of E.T., and the brief exchange she had with director Steven Spielberg. During filming, Melissa Mathison and the cinematographer suddenly realized the similarities between the plot and the story of Jesus Christ. “His being left on earth, being [...]

There’s been lots of discussion about conversion stories over at Faith in Fiction these days. Dave Long, acquisitions editor for Bethany House, will be discussing the finalists of his “conversion story contest” in upcoming weeks, and what elements contributed to their selection. Conversion scenes are typically some of the most difficult to write for the [...]