The present is an anomaly. We only think it normal because we live in it and don’t know any better. But our failure to see the anomaly that is the present impairs our ability to read or understand history, or historical novels. Or, for that matter, to deal with politics and ideology generally. As a …
Anomalous Now: Why it is the Present, not the Past, that is Weird Read More ยป
Sunday, May 6, 2018, Amarillo Today is a rest day. I go to Mass at St. Thomas the Apostle church and find the building not to my liking. It is a typical modern auditorium-style church with padded pews. The floor slopes down to the altar like the floor of a movie theatre. It is all …
Grand Tour 8: A Church Should Look Like a Church Read More ยป
May 5, 2018 Oklahoma City to Amarillo Themes for the day: into the West, barbed wire, weak beer, parking meters, and killer slip roads. The landscape changes quickly west of Oklahoma City. Now you feel like you are in the West. Now you can imagine a dustbowl happening. (Later we see a map of the …
Grand Tour 7: The Best Museum on Route 66 is About Barbed Wire Read More ยป
Ever since my publisher told me I should start a newsletter, I have been trying to figure out how it would be different from a blog. I know how to blog. I maintained a content strategy / technical communication blog for years. It did a lot for my content strategy career, it helped launch my …
One of the trickier things about historical fiction is trying to make the language, particularly the dialogue, sound like it belongs to its period while still being easy enough to read for a modern reader. For fairly recent times, this is not much of a problem. The biggest difficulty in writing a story set in …
On Words that “Sound Modern” in Historical Fiction Read More ยป
May 4, 2018, Tulsa to Oklahoma City Today we continue westward through Oklahoma. The themes are not so different from yesterday in Missouri: pride in service, helpful locals, and frustrating navigation units. Also, a small transgression and some disappointing trees.
The Lord of the Rings is controversial in both literary and Catholic circles. At the literary level, critics dismiss it while the public loves it, regularly voting it high on various best books lists. Catholic opinion is similarly divided, some seeing it as the great Catholic novel of the 20th century while others dismiss it …
The Charm, Silliness, and Virtue of The Lord of the Rings Read More ยป
Which point of view produces the greatest intimacy between the reader and the character? Watching this debate between two writing friends led me to ask what they meant by intimacy. I propose (invoking the liberty of blogging) that there are at least three modes of intimacy between reader and character: avatar, friend, and shrink. There …
Avatar, Friend, and Shrink โ Three Modes of Reader Intimacy Read More ยป
Really pleased to say that my first novel has been accepted for publication by Chrism Press and will see the light of day toward the end of 2021. The publication contract with Chrism Press has been cancelled. There is many a slip twixt cup and lip. The Rules of Trade will find its way into …
Writers sometimes worry about overthinking their writing. They should be more worried about under-imagining it.
