In the World

More than 50 years an expatriat Russian writer came to the United States and wrote a groundbreaking book that redefined economic policy for a generation.

Oh how quickly we forget.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123146363567166677.html

Maybe I should be taking up a collection to send a copy of Atlas Shrugged (or more realistically, the Cliff’s Notes) to every member of Congress. Maybe ONE of them will actually care to educate themselves a bit about the aftermath their shortsighted “rescue actions” are going to have.

But who am I kidding?

Who is John Galt?

.

.

A few years ago there was a song called “What if God Was One of Us?” sung by Joan Osborn.

It is one of my favorite songs. Not just because it asks the question; not just because it has a catchy tune; not even because it’s hilarious in hinting that God takes the bus or only talks to the Pope (and even that only sometimes).

It’s one of my favorite songs because I already know the answer to the question!

God was one of us. He came to our miserable little ball of dirt in the form of Jesus of Nazareth, to experience life as a human.

Ann Rice (yes, that Ann Rice) is currently chronicling the life of Jesus the Christ in her Christ the Lord series, which is easily among the most compelling of all the books written on His life and death. Maybe some day I’ll post something here about Memnoch the Devil, which is a wholly amazing book in and of itself.

Even after 2,000 years, Christians must be doing something wrong if there are people out there still asking the question “What if God was one of us?”

(Although, honestly, I think they could be forgiven if they think the only person He occasionally talks to is the Pope.

.

.

I broke the page. Notice the distinct lag of a scroll bar on the right. –>

Yeah, I have no idea what I did.

I’m holding off on further posts until I manage to fix my page.

Yeah, I’m “between churches”.

You know how some people just can’t seem to hold down a job? They flit from emploer to employer looking for that nebulously-defined “perfect job”?

I’m that way with churches.

I stopped going to church a little more than 4 years ago, before my daughter was born. But now I’m ready to start looking again. Mostly for my daughter, because she’s at an age where learning that there is a community of believers is very foundational. I don’t need a church quite so much, because I’m involved in ministry every day. Some really good regular worship would be nice, but my favorite worship leader is in Toronto, and I’m not driving 8 hours one way just to go to church.

I don’t need the “preaching, teaching, and edification of the Body” part so much. I could preach circles around most of the pastors I know (despite never being to seminary), and honestly, most preachers aren’t really that good. My brain works really fast. I usually get the lesson of a three-point sermon before the preacher gets out of his introduction, and then I spend the rest of the sermon poking holes, predicting which Bible verses he’s going to quote, or making a list of better Bible verses he could have used. Or I just leave after the music.

Oh, and I really don’t care for church events. Pot-luck supper? I’ll skip it. Want me to run the sound board? Maybe for one Sunday. Ask me how I’m doing? You’ll get the truth, not the boiler-plate standard “Fine”. And I dress better for work than for church. And I use bad words sometimes.

All in all, I’m generally a pretty horrible parishioner. Not on purpose, mind you, but “church” just seems to put me in a bad mood. Kinda like the annoying neighbor kid that you just can’t seem to get rid of. That’s affect I seem to have on pastors.

Yep, that’s me.

So!

I had lunch with my friend Holly this week, and she invited me to her church, even knowing me. She’s brave.

There are a couple other local churches I want to check out to, which I’ll probably do in the next few weeks. The one I am most excited about is the Greek Orthodox church, simply because I’ve never been to one before.

I’ll update here as my adventures in church-searching continues. Should be fun times!

.

.

There is a great manga out there almost nobody has heard of. It’s not carried on Amazon.com and it’s not in stores.

I only found out about it because a very promising young artist (who happened to do the art for Here Comes Heaven for me) clued me into it.

I highly recommend Lisa Hutchinson’s Shelter of Wings. It’s a wonderful story with entertaining characters, excellent artwork, and is unfortunately greatly unappreciated. I have a poster and a copy of Shelter, both signed by Lisa.

If you read manga, or are looking for something appropriate for a young person (9-14 or so), you should order Shelter of Wings and help support a great little independent book.

.

.

So I don’t play EverQuest 2…at least not any more. I was an original EverQuest person (started playing when Kunark came out). I didn’t really play much beyond my first or second month, I don’t think. My life moved beyond MMO’s a few years ago, about the time that SOE managed to further destroy the Star Wars franchise with the abysmal dreck that was Star Wars Galaxies.

But this is awesome!

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/16/0621242

I took a couple classes on data mining in University, and it was great fun. It was the kind of thing I’d go hang out in a lab late at night and toy around with.

Note to researchers: If you get your hands on any of Blizzard‘s WoW data, look up Bratak on Durotan. I’m sure he’ll be a riot.

.

.

P.S. I still have my commemorative Firiona Vie statuette in the figure collection in my office.

.

So I was in Ann Arbor, Michigan, last week.

I picked up a copy of the Ann Arbor Observer (February, 2009), and I thought I’d share the front cover:

Now, those of you who are familiar with video games might find this a bit familiar. Personally, I think it may be a quite entertaining inside joke by one of the Observer’s staff artists.

It’s not quite to scale, and the cake is still a lie, but doesn’t every kid deserve their very own companion cube?

Sorry, I couldn’t help it.

.

.

It’s not really part of my “job description”, but I review unpublished manuscripts on occasion.

We (and by “we” I mean “Destiny Image”) get far more books every year than we are possibly going to publish. But we have to review all of them, because that is how you find the diamonds in the rough.

But when I review something, I always try to give constructive feedback. Even if the feedback is something along the lines of “light a match, toss in your book, and start over”. But that’s not the most constructive thing I could say, so I try to be more realistic when dashing the hopes and dreams of the aspiring writer.

I guess you could say I’m a bit cynical.

I’ve come by my cynicism honestly, though. I have spent a lot of time trying to help authors become better writers. Unfortunately, not all authors want to become better writers.

Invariably, my advice usually ends up being one or more of the following:

1. Read books that are similar to what you want to write.

You’re writing a romance? Then read some romance novels! Writing an action/adventure story? Read some action/adventure stories! Have a business book inside screaming to get out? You better have read at least a couple of the best-sellers out there. I don’t want you to copy what other writers are doing, but it will help your writing if you read and develop a good understanding of how to organize and develop the kind of book you want to write.

2. Know who you are writing for.

Or, know your market. In other words, who is realistically going to want to read your book? And why? What is it about the content that sets it apart from the 100,000 other books being released this year? Be able to intelligently discuss exactly who your book is for, and what makes it special.

3. Don’t bet the farm on being a New York Times best-selling author.

If you think writing books is hard, you should try selling them. Don’t plan on living off the royalties of your books. It’s not likely going to happen. The JK Rowling’s, William Young’s, and Stephenie Meyers’ are aberrations, oddities, one-in-a-million occurrences. It could happen to you, but don’t expect it on your first time out. And don’t trust any publisher who tells you otherwise.

4. Be honest about what you’ve written.

Of course your book seems perfect to you. You have been living it, breathing it, being it, for months (and possibly years). Something that makes obvious sense to you might be nigh impregnable to somebody else. You either need to be able to read what you’ve written objectively, or have someone you can trust to tell you the truth about what you wrote.

Don’t get me wrong, here. I like to give people advice about how to improve their writing. I just wish that more people took the advice seriously. I’ve been doing this for a long time.

.

.