When I got up this morning, my wife Shelly was watching a new episode of “Inside the Actor’s Studio” in which Hugh Jackman of Wolverine and Les Miserables fame was being interviewed. At the end, as always, the audience got to ask questions. One woman asked what lessons he learned in his early acting years. … More Freedom to Fail
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. –Ecclesiastes 1:9. Yesterday marked the first day of classes here at Southwestern Adventist University for a new school year, and once again I feel a bit of apprehension as I go into the classroom. … More A Word to the Wise…and Otherwise
I’ve been around the block a few times. Maybe more than a few. My wife and I will be celebrating our 38th wedding anniversary in August. Of course, we were just babies when we got married. One of the little games we play on occasion–and I am sure we aren’t alone in this–is asking each … More Drink Deep
Spring Break is just around the corner. But in order to get there, I have to get past a mountain of obligations. I am determined to not spend spring break working on school stuff. I have committed it to finishing up Infinity’s Reach. And so I find myself spending long hours during the week, and … More A Fresh Perspective
I’m in good spirits this morning. I’ve been struggling with completing articles for the Spring issue of Spirit magazine, the alumni magazine that I edit. This morning, since my wife had to get up early and go to work, I got up with her. I always think more clearly in the morning, especially when I … More Wrestling with the Titans
We had a discussion in Rough Writers a couple of weeks ago about whether some stories shouldn’t be written. Most of my short stories come to me as dreams. I have several stories in the back of my mind that border on horror, but since I don’t actually read horror, I haven’t written them down. … More “A Mirror Darkly”
A month or two ago, I had a fellow Tweeter ask me what Christian suspense was. I politely told them that Christian suspense was just suspense writing with a Christian theme. That got me to thinking about a question that came up in my blog about a year ago: Is there such a genre as … More Is There Such a Thing as Christian Horror?
I just got finished watching “A Thousand Words,” a movie featuring Eddie Murphy. The story is about a book agent who develops a psychic connection to a mysterious tree. He discovers that for every word that he says–or even writes–a leaf falls from the tree. He determines–with the help of a holy man–that when the … More A Thousand Words
“This above all: to thine own self be true.” –William Shakespeare I suffered through the typical teenage years. I was pretty insecure about who I was, and was eager to be accepted into “the inner circle.” And so I was constantly trying to reinvent myself. One week I would go for the cool surfer look … More The Trap of Reinvention
I have a pet that is very ill. My dog, Cooper, is having seizures. They started about a year ago. My wife and I were home one afternoon when his eyes suddenly grew wide, his legs splayed and his claws were flexed tense. We tried to keep him calm until the seizure ended about 30 … More The Elephant in the Room
The Great Adventure 