Archive for December 2008
New Publication Forthcoming!
“Pulp”, a flash fiction piece, and one of my favorite stories that I have written so far, will be forthcoming here: http://sfwp.org.
Thank you, Cate, at Santa Fe Writer’s Project.
You rock my socks off!
2 comments December 17, 2008
Hunger Strike!
I was thinking about going on a hunger strike until John Green writes another book, but then I thought about the editing process, and the publishing process, and by “write” I mean, the book is at my local independent bookstore (The Tattered Cover) and not a galley.
So, then I decided that would be a dumb decision.
Add comment December 16, 2008
GRE’s December 2005
“And now we wait. Yes, sadly, there will be much waiting, wailing, and gnashing of teeth (and possibly neurotic gnawing on furniture) until I find out if I am good enough for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. However, as my boss, John, so elegantly stated, I am now an official member of the “Performance Based Acceptance Club”. In fact, I am vice president. To which I promptly replied (with my infamous impish grin) “Why can’t I be President?”
Well thanks for all of you who were praying.
I am one step closer to becoming… a librarian! (Think, The Mummy)”
Three years later… I am not a librarian. I am an English composition/research writing instructor at Colorado Christian University. And once again I am waiting. Only this time, I am waiting to find out if I have been accepted into the University of Denver’s PhD program in creative writing.
Waiting sucks.
Add comment December 14, 2008
What is a Christian Writer?
One of my students recently asked me, “What is a Christian writer?”
And I stared blankly in response.
No, seriously. I. had. no. idea. what. to. say. I have been preparing my whole life for this question and when I got it, I didn’t have an answer. It was almost (but not quite) as humiliating as when my master’s thesis committee asked me what theologians I read. Duh, Sarah, you only went to Christian schools for half your life. I think, in both cases, they were “out of context questions”. In other words, during my thesis defense I knew the answer, but I was confused by the context in which it was given. If my pastor had asked the questions, I could have engaged in an hour long conversation. In the instance of my student asking “What is a Christian writer?” it was out of context because currently it is something I am working to define–within authors I intentionally choose to read and within my own writing.
And, here is the answer I have (to shamelessly plagiarize Augustine): Love God.
That’s it. The answer really has nothing to do with writing. It’s all in the loving. Lewis and MacDonald would say the same thing, I think. Love God (and, hopefully, Jesus). But that’s it. That’s what it takes to be a Christian–faith, love, Jesus. And beyond that, everything we do is spiritual.
EVERYTHING. I. DO. IS. SPIRITUAL.
End scene.
Add comment December 13, 2008
In the past week I have…
* Worked over 80 hours for my tutoring company.
* Graded 50+ papers (that is not an exaggeration).
* Listented to a variety of audio books including: Gifts by Ursula K. Leguin, Candide by Voltaire, Beowulf by ????, and parts of Milton’s Paradise Lost.
* Edited my sister’s English paper so that she got a 4.0 on her portfolio! Woot! Yay, Gracie!
* House sat for Mike and Jill.
* Driven through a winter storm.
* Done a lot of laundry.
Add comment December 10, 2008
Heat Dish
So, I am house/tree sitting for Mike and Jill while they are on vacation, and Mike is kindly letting me use his ethernet connection (thanks, Mike, if you find my blog!). Anyway, he has this heat dish thing which I just discovered, and I am fascinated by it. I am also terrified that I am going to burn the house down, but it’s freezing in the office, so I am using it with caution, and wondering at this invention called a Heat Dish. Obviously, I missed my true calling in life: Inventor of the Heat Dish.
Add comment December 5, 2008
Colorado Christmas
Looking out the window of this hollywood hotel,
Youd never know that it was christmas eve.
The billboards and the neon took the place of silver bells,
And the temperature is 84 degrees.
I can hear the traffic on the crowded strip below
As the palm trees poke their heads above the scene
Theres not a single reindeer and it hardly ever snows,
And santa drives a rolls royce limosine.
But all along the rockies you can feel it in the air
From telluride to boulder down below
The closest thing to heaven on this planet anywhere
Is a quiet christmas morning in the colorado snow
I remember Christmases when I was just a boy
In the morning I would run to see the tree.
And the carolers on the hillside sang their songs of Christmas joy
Well, I always thought they sang them just for me.
Now the sun is setting in the California sky
And I cant find the spirit anywhere
So I think its time for me to tell Los Angeles goodbye
Im going back home took for Christmas there
But all along the Rockies you can feel it in the air
From Telluride to boulder down below
The closest thing to heaven on this planet anywhere
Is a quiet Christmas morning in the Colorado snow
Add comment December 4, 2008
The World is Trouble… and Grace. That is all there is. Part II.
Because I have been worrying about my letters of recommendation that need to be written for DU (Why? I don’t know. It gives me something to do):
“Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone, but on tablets of human hearts. And such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter, but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life!” (exclamation added by me)
2 Corinthians 3: 1-6
Add comment December 2, 2008
The world is Trouble… and Grace. That is all there is.
Yup, I just finished reading Gary Schmidt’s Trouble. Overall, it’s not as close to what I would call my “favorites” as Lizzy Bright and the Buckminster Boy and Wednesday Wars, but I will consider myself consoled as after drinking a steaming cup of hot chocolate on a just snowed on Colorado day 
Mostly, I love the way Schmidt uses allusions in his books, especially knowing that they are written for a young adult audience. I wonder how many young adults are influenced to read the books that he mentions within his novels.
I think the reason I didn’t like it quite as much as Lizzy and WW might be because Schmidt spent more time on the setting on this one. A lot of his novel took place on a mountain in Main, Katahdin, and that’s fine, but I always appreciate his representation of characters. However, it is always fun when authors experiment in new areas; it helps them to grow as authors, expands their reader base, and allows their readers to hear a different side of their voice.
And speaking of voices, Jason Culp was the reader for Trouble and he was really good. I am pretty picky about readers, whether taped or otherwise, and I hereby deem Jason a reader who I will look for intentionally when I consider audio books. Other people who are amazing readers:
My mom!: She read the entire Little House series to me when I was sick and had the chicken pox.
Jeremy Grinnell: Not so much a reader, but I love his voice on the radio/when he prays. He used to be my theology professor and I loved listening to him pray. Is that cheesy?
Mary Karr: Love listening to her read her poems and pray! Fantastic!
Anne Wysocki: Great teaching voice
Chuck Swanson: Also, a great teaching voice.
Doc Carroll: Who doesn’t love listening to his teaching voice?
And many, many more!
Add comment December 2, 2008
