Buying Worlds to Share

Today we purchased almost 100 worlds.

You might call them books, but come on. Every single one opens up a new world to us.

But we’re not keeping them. We’re giving them away. (Well, most of them, anyway.)

Friday morning we entered a house of worlds. If you look for it online, you’ll find it as the Dollar Book Swap. If you’re ever in the Dayton, Ohio area, you should check it out. It’s exactly what it says: One dollar, one book. Nothing more expensive in this warehouse of wonders.Continue reading “Buying Worlds to Share”

Itty Bitty Writing Space

My short story, “No Star to Guide Us” appears in Itty Bitty Writing Space, an anthology of 100 pieces of flash fiction! It’s got 100 authors, a bunch of genres, from a bunch of nations around the world. If you like bite-size fiction, check this out!

It’s being funded as a Kickstarter that has just gone live. If you want to support both my writing and a bunch of other authors, check it out — but if you’re interested, you want to purchase sooner rather than later. If you purchase in the first forty-eight hours, you not only get a copy of the book yourself, but one will be donated to the public library of your choice. Not too shabby!

It’ll be the only place you’ll be able to see my story “No Star to Guide Us.” What happens when someone figures out how to wish upon a star… and it works? And what happens when that person isn’t exactly on the up-and-up? How do you fight someone who can make any wish come true?

So take a look, support if you want, and we’ll see you soon!

Quitter

I can’t do this forever.

It’s something I’ve recently realized: Because of the trajectory of my depression, I won’t likely be able to make it to retirement as a pastor. I could be very wrong about that, of course, and it’s not something that I need to act on now at all. It’s more just me coming to terms with the idea of doing something different.

What’s that something different I could do?

Oh, hey! Could I transition into being a full-time writer?

OK, stop laughing. I’m serious here. Continue reading “Quitter”

World Creation and Other Therapies

The slide probably started Sunday, but I didn’t notice it then. Monday I canceled an appointment. Just didn’t feel like going out. Tuesday it hit hard.

I have depression, by the way.

I suspect a lot of writers do. Many of us struggle with melancholy in various ways. We cope through creation. We take our pain, our loneliness, our fears, our struggles, and splatter them on the page in ink and syllables and screams.

I forgot. Continue reading “World Creation and Other Therapies”

Introducing Kids to New Worlds

This week I took a bunch of kids to another world.

As I entered the classroom, the teacher introduced me. She said I was going to read to the class.

Little did she know.

Step one: Get the kids on your side. Easy to do if you’re willing to be silly with them. And so I was. “Before I read anything, I need to warm up. And I need your help. Just because I feel a little silly when I warm up all by myself. So, can you repeat after me, please? Say, ‘Red leather.’”

The class of fourth-graders repeats the simple phrase back at me, perplexed. Continue reading “Introducing Kids to New Worlds”