Guest Blogging
Feel free to check out my guest blog at Chip MacGregor’s site: http://chipmacgregor.typepad.com/.
After Googling Chip’s name for an appropriate descriptor, I came up with “the Simon Cowell of the Christian publishing world.” Thank you, Jennifer Schuchmann. 
In all kindness, he’s wicked smart, he knows the Christian publishing business, and for some reason, he allowed me to post my ramblings on his blog. Maybe he’s just too excited about the Colts playing in the Super Bowl this Sunday to care about the real world!
Add comment February 6, 2010 iheartya
Denis Johnson’s “Emergency”
Okay, first, I am in love with Tobias Wolff’s reading voice: http://www.newyorker.com/online/2009/05/11/090511on_audio_wolff
As for “Emergency”…
I appreciate the language in it, i.e. “the road we were lost on cut straight through the middle of the world,” “the tang of evergreens stabbing us,” “the only light visible was a streak of sunset flickering below the hem of the clouds.” And they continue. I love the beautiful word choices. I love the big ideas combined with the minute details. I wish I could write like that.
I also appreciate the story–I am reminded of Kerouac’s The Road and Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. A never-ending journey and an overt concern for bunnies. I love lines like this: “The bunnies weren’t a problem yet, or they had already been a problem and were already forgotten.” Apparently, I have a fascination with writer’s messing with my sense of time. Or I did have a problem with that, but I don’t now. Or, I am going to have a problem with it, but I don’t yet. =)
But… really… must we have the use of drugs? I find a bit of magic removed from stories when writers rely on the use of a good trip. Maybe it’s that I listened to the stories my dad told about his clients (he’s a substance abuse counselor), or maybe it’s my Baptist upbringing. Either way, I think magic is so much more fun when there is no explanation, or when the explanation is new, different–not drugs. On the other hand, Wolff thinks that because the story is so tightly written that it is different from a normal “tripping” story. I can see that, but I would question the necessity of the drugs.
In other news, my sister is going to save lives. She is in nursing school.
Add comment January 6, 2010 iheartya
If you don’t do anything else this Christmas…
Buy this book:
Add comment December 13, 2009 iheartya
Enjoying God by S. J. Hill
I enjoy S.J. Hill more as a speaker than as a writer. I imagine that he’s kind of like Paul in that way. Part of it, from what I can assess from his writing, is that he seems to be more a dichotomist vs. a trichotomist. And those of you who know me, know where I stand! Body, soul, spirit! =)
Overall, a decent devotional book. Great book for my FYI students given our topic at hand: The Heart of the Father. Excellent in conjunction with Lifetime Guarantee which clearly delineates trichotomy.
Add comment November 28, 2009 iheartya
If I Could Dedicate a Song Today
Psalm 45: 1 My heart overflows with a good theme;
I address my verses to the King;
My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
After watching a beautiful memorial service for a beloved friend and daughter, Kalila Marie Borden, I was blessed to hear this song by Steven Curtis Chapman (written in memory of the loss of his little girl, Maria Sue). As a writer it sucks to not have the words to express sympathy and sorrow. However, every now and then, I am blessed with a song, prayer, poem, or story that someone else has written that perfectly captures what I wish I could share with family and friends who have experienced loss, especially of children.
The song I wish I could have written: Heaven is the Face
The part in pink in the lyrics below is what I pray for all of you… you know who you are.
Heaven is the face of a little girl
With dark brown eyes
That disappear when she smiles.
Heaven is the place
Where she calls my name
Says, “Daddy please come play with me for awhile.”
Chorus:
God, I know, it’s all of this and so much more,
But God, You know, that this is what I’m aching for.
God, you know, I just can’t see beyond the door.
So right now…
Heaven is the sound of her breathing deep,
Lying on my chest, falling fast asleep while I sing.
And Heaven is the weight of her in my arms,
Being there to keep her safe from harm while she dreams
And God, I know, it’s all of this and so much more,
But God, You know, that this is what I’m longing for
God, you know, I just can’t see beyond the door.
Bridge:
But in my mind’s eye I can see a place
Where Your glory fills every empty space.
All the cancer is gone,
Every mouth is fed,
And there’s no one left in the orphans’ bed.
Every lonely heart finds their one true love,
And there’s no more goodbye,
And no more not enough,
And there’s no more enemy (no more).
Heaven is a sweet, maple syrup kiss
And a thousand other little things I miss with her gone.
Heaven is the place where she takes my hand
And leads me to You,
And we both run into Your arms.
Oh God, I know, it’s so much more than I can dream.
It’s far beyond anything I can conceive.
So God, You know, I’m trusting You until I see
Heaven in the face of my little girl,
Heaven in the face of my little girl.
Add comment October 24, 2009 iheartya
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