Category: articles
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Civilization has run ahead
Civilization has run on ahead of the soul of man, and is producing faster than he can think and give thanks. — GK Chesterton in The London Daily News
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Obscure History Memes : Dragon Man
Trogdor! Trogdor! Trogdor was a man! I mean, he was a dragon-man Or maybe he was just a dragon… But he was still Trogdor! Trogdor! Burninating the countryside Burninating the peasants Burninating all the peoples And their thatched-roof cottages! Thatched-roof cottages! Whoa! Listen to those wicked dueling guitar solos! It’s like Squeedly vs. Meedly over…
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Billy the Kid
Today for Myths, Legends, Folklore and Tall Tales, we’re reading a short about Billy the Kid. Myths, Legends, Folklore and Tall Tales is another one of my podcasts featuring bedtime story readings — in this case the myths, legends, folklore and tall tales of the world. Now and again, I read one of my own…
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Koschei the Deathless
Today for Myths, Legends, Folklore and Tall Tales, we’re reading Koschei the Deathless. Myths, Legends, Folklore and Tall Tales is another one of my podcasts featuring bedtime story readings — in this case the myths, legends, folklore and tall tales of the world. Now and again, I read one of my own stories or even…
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Tehlu’s Angels and the Chandrian
Today we’re going to touch briefly on the connection between Tehlu’s Angels and The Chandrian. Before we start, spoilers below, though as I said at Writer UnBoxed, I personally am okay with spoilers because only a culture starved for wonder would care about spoilers. In eras filled with wonder like the Middle Ages, they loved…
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Brand Story : My Love-Hate with “Story”
It took talking with two self-proclaimed “story marketers,” a bombardment of “brand story” during the superbowl, and a self-proclaimed (though unordained) “pastor” who said, “It’s all about stories, man, just stories,” for me to realize how fully I had fallen out of love with the word “story.” It also helped that three different large organizations…
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Of Making Many Books There is No End ?
I grew up in a fairly conservative religious community that abhorred study and praised ignorance, in a way. They believed along with what Asimov said of many Americans: that my ignorance is as good as anyone else’s knowledge. I understand that the rational capacity of any given person is up to the task of puzzling…
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Ash Wednesday poem
My Ash Wednesday poem is from my poetry podcast. I’m reading first from my book Inconveniences, Rightly Considered — a collection of poems I wrote between 2005 and 2017. Featured Download: For a quick tutorial on how to write your own poetry, click here.
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Writing Tools VS. Story Craft
In June I will again join the Ozark Creative Arts Academy for high schoolers to teach some writing tools and story craft seminars. This year I plan to shape my talk out of the overflow of a conversation I had last year with Dr. Giltner and Dr. Cirilla at the Niagra Falls retreat. It goes something…
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Define Courageous
Recently I’ve found myself considering how to define courageous in the modern climate and wondering whether or not I have any courage. Two ways to define courageous in this exploration have really stuck with me. One comes from Lewis and one comes from a guy I hardly ever read named Tillich. We’ll start with Tillich, who…
