Tag: books

  • Wayward Girls

    Wayward Girls

      The thing I love most about writing is the thing I love most about being a reader: Being transported to another time and place, meeting new people and becoming engaged in their world. A movie might do that for an hour or two, but[..]
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    10 08 , 2021 No Comments
  • The Ambassador of Goodwill

    The Ambassador of Goodwill

    [caption id="attachment_5706" align="aligncenter" width="345"] Ned & me in Portland following a surgery he had undergone a few years back.[/caption] We met on plane somewhere over the Pacific. Or maybe it was the South China Sea. I don't know for sure, given it was pitch dark[..]
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    05 03 , 2021 4 Comments
  • How to identify Systemic Racism

    How to identify Systemic Racism

    Editor's Note: We continue to feature the voices of Blacks during this decisive time in our nation's history. We are fortunate yet again to feature the voice of Ralph Mitchell. Ralph is a veteran, a Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army Reserves. He is CEO[..]
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    20 06 , 2020 1 Comment
  • Burning Libraries

    Burning Libraries

    When author Susan Orlean sat out to write her latest book - The Library Book - she typed in libraries burned into the search bar. She was surprised to find that Wikipedia had a whole list on libraries that had been destroyed with intent. The most[..]
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    20 02 , 2020 No Comments
  • Prayers of a Decade

    Prayers of a Decade

    “I have been in Sorrow’s kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and sword in my hands.” ~ Zora Neale Hurston There was a time when I took decades for granted. They[..]
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    31 12 , 2019 No Comments
  • My Friend Bob

    My Friend Bob

    Bob Hollis was my friend. We first met at Navarre United Methodist Church in Florida. He had read a book I'd written titled Will Jesus Buy Me a Doublewide? (Zondervan) and may have encouraged his pastor to read it as well. I received an invitation[..]
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    25 11 , 2019 5 Comments
  • When You Are Not a Famous Author

    When You Are Not a Famous Author

    I was in Seattle this weekend. Sunny Seattle. There wasn't one speck of snow on the ground. Flowers were blooming. It was blissful. Only I wasn't really in Seattle. I was in a suburb of Seattle. Once you get past Olympia, it is all Microsoft[..]
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    05 03 , 2019 No Comments
  • The Writer’s Life: An Interview with Shepherd U

    The Writer’s Life: An Interview with Shepherd U

    Editor's Note: The following is an interview conducted by Shepherd University staff as part of the Appalachian Writers in Residence award. You can learn more about this program at shepherd.educ I am honored to have been selected Shepherd U's AHWIR for 2018. I will visiting[..]
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    15 08 , 2018 1 Comment
  • We Were Never Better Than This

    We Were Never Better Than This

      There I was at my desk working my way through some pretty awful crime scene photos. A girl I once knew splayed out on the floor in a pool of blood. They aren't  the first crime scene photos I've seen. I've witnessed a bloated[..]
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    19 06 , 2018 1 Comment