…and um, writers too.
Seriously, I’m gonna start this diet up next week.
Category: Writing
You Like Me, You Really Like Me!
Yeah, I know, that was stupid. Anyhoodily-doodle…
I’m very proud to announce that The Good Thief has been awarded the 
Catholic Writers’ Guild Seal of Approval!
The SoA is awarded to works which accurately and faithfully convey the Catholic faith while maintaining a level of excellence in writing, editing, and publication.
My thanks to the Review Board and the reviewers for this honor!
The County Towed My Van!
So I come home after a long day of black market kitten peddling, I mean, writing, and my van’s gone! I hitch a ride with this dude who shares the same dumpster as me, and we go down to the impound lot. The man at the county impound says I was parked illegally.
When I say, “No way! There’s no sign by the river says I can’t park there!” He says, “Park district regulations prohibit loitering, camping, or other misuse of public land.” I told him I wasn’t camping, I was living there, and he told me to get out of his office…and while I was at it, to get a life.
Maybe it’s a blessing in disguise, cuz when the spring rains come, it’ll give new meaning to “I can’t move because my house’s underwater.” Anyway, I need $150 to get my van back. So do me a solid and buy something at the Chewing Glass General Store, huh? Thanks! Maybe I can return the favor some time.
Continue reading “The County Towed My Van!”
Ghost
Silent ghost, perched upon my garden wall,
What brought you here? What is it that you see,
That makes you peer so intently at me,
Through winter’s misty pall?
Is it idle curiosity, or perhaps a tiny mouse,
That so captivates your persistent gaze?
I do perceive, despite the icy haze,
Your ghostly presence outside my house,
Is but a token of how life goes;
One moment we are here, the next are gone.
Comes the morning, we may not see the dawn,
Or wake to carry on despite life’s throes.
You seem to say, all you have is now,
Follow your endeavors through.
The God of Life will make them true,
And bear them fruit somehow.
I look again and you have fled,
As ghostly silent as you came.
Still, I am here but not the same;
Your lesson sealed inside my head.
When Advertising Works!
Banned Words, Part Un
So I was traveling again yesterday. As I rounded the bottom of Lake Michigan, which for those of you who’ve never done it is excruciatingly un-scenic, I looked for some sort of distraction.
Instead of doing something productive, like learning to speak Balinese or dictating another chapter of my book, I turned on sports radio. For two and a half hours, I heard nothing but the endless repetition of the Manti Te’o story interspersed with reaction to the Bears’ new head coach.
It was somewhere around Chesterton, Indiana that I snapped. Can we all agree to stop using the word “narrative” for a couple hundred years? Huh? Can we?
Continue reading “Banned Words, Part Un”
The Pedagogy of Animals
God created the animal kingdom for our joy, but also for our instruction…
From birds we learn freedom from care,
From ants we learn industriousness and teamwork,
From dogs we learn loyalty and selflessness,
From cats we learn stillness and contemplation,
From rabbits we learn alertness,
From squirrels we learn inventiveness and persistence,
From horses we learn sensitivity and cooperation,
From elephants we learn wisdom from experience,
From fish we learn diversity,
From each other we are meant to learn love.
