Yeah, I know. By this time, you’re sick and tired of all the political talk. Well, frankly so am I. I live in a red state (Texas) with a distinctly blue family (at least the ones under my roof). And sadly, even though the election is over (yay!), I suspect that Facebook and Twitter will … More A Red/Blue State of Mind
I’m a strong believer in miracles. I’ve seen them in my life, and in the life of others. And as a Christian, I believe that miracles are part and parcel of the Christian experience. I believe God takes an active role in our lives, and part of that is what some might term miracles, since … More Miracles on the Road to Damascus
Every good idea I ever had, I stole from someone else. It’s a truism I made up and recited time and time again over the years to student writers. The idea is that every idea is not original, but is a synthesis of what you see and hear and experience every day of your life. … More The Price of Being Honest
I’ve been asked what the hardest part of writing a novel is, and my answer tends to be directly related to how well my novel-building is going at the time. My dad used to have a saying: “Some days you eat the bear, and some days the bear eats you.” Some books come together quickly … More Brick By Brick
“Why did God make us all so different if he wanted us all to be the same?” — Mary, Saved One of the things the students in my Editorial Techniques class learn is that when you’re an editor–and a serious writer, for that matter–you never stop looking for story ideas. And so it was that … More Diversity vs. Control: The Great Conflict
Two weeks ago, our University Communication Department took its students on their annual Communication Field Trip in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. This year, just for a change, we included two historical sites: the Sixth Floor Museum that commemorates the assassination of John F. Kennedy and his tenure as president, and the Holocaust Museum, which talks … More Who Do We Need More: Leaders or Heroes?
I was listening to National Public Radio on the way to work this morning, and they were talking about the prevalence of performance enhancing drugs among Russian athletes in the Olympics and how reports showed that this was monitored and sanctioned by their anti-doping organization there. No surprises there, as there’s a common myth about … More What About Honor?
I had to drive into Burleson and take care of a bill at the local hospital. On my way, I stopped at a gas station to fill up my pickup. I’m standing there putting gas into my truck when a large bird–a grackle (if you live here in the South you know what those are)–landed … More The Universe Doesn’t Care
I am getting more and more disillusioned with Facebook. It seems like every time I go on there, someone has an axe to grind, someone has to argue a point, someone wants to prove that they are right and everyone else is wrong. It just gets depressing. Somewhere we got the idea that argumentation was … More More Wag, Less Bark
I was revisited by one of my sins this morning. When I was about ten, I found my older sister’s diary, tore page after page out of it on which she talked about her boyfriend and wondered about their future. I then proceeded to use the diary to write my own science fiction stories. I … More Your Sins Will Find You Out
The Great Adventure 