I have been busy lately, so I am behind on updating my site. Between writing more for IMAGE Journal‘s blog, finalizing Nightmarriage, vacationing in Phoenix, Arizona with my family, and chasing an 18-month-old around the house, I am lucky to attend to my site at all. Thank you for your patience, all five of you...
Overview I wrote “Transformer: Exploring Todd Solondz’ Palindromes Through the Eyes of the Russian Formalists,” in 2006—one semester before I dropped out of my PhD program. I have learned much about writing since producing this work, but I am publishing it here despite its flaws because it will never see the light of day if...
Writer, writing teacher, and editor Andi Cumbo recently interviewed me about writing on her website. Read up, and follow Andi on Twitter at @andilit. Excerpt “People tend to handle critiquing me with kid gloves because I have OCD, and I’m very sensitive. But in the past year, having finally written publicly on a regular basis, I...
Read my essay, “Jesus Died for Somebody’s Sins (But Not Mine),” at IMAGE Journal’s blog at Patheos.com here. Excerpt: “Patti Smith’s 1975 debut album, Horses, famously opens with the line, “Jesus died for somebody’s sins, but not mine.” Smith goes on to sing, ‘My sins my own, they belong to me, me.’ I think about...
Read my essay, “A Requiem for Rejects,” at IMAGE Journal’s blog at Patheos.com here. “‘He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.’—Isaiah 53:3 Six or seven years ago, a coworker...
“Heaven Knows I’m Adorable Now” Evie says new words all the time. It blows our minds every time she opens her mouth and utters something new. I got Simon Goddard’s Mozipedia: The Encyclopaedia of Morrissey and The Smiths for Christmas this year, and thought Moz might make a most excellent tutor for our tiny...
My friend Jennifer Harris Dault’s book, The Modern Magnificat: Women Responding to the Call of God, is out and on sale at Amazon.com today. Buy it if: a) You like women. b) You like books. c) You like books about women responding to the call of God. d) You like woman who do not send...
My two-part feature on Derek Webb is live at IMAGE Journal’s blog. I interviewed him in person on October 20th in Leawood, Kansas, and it was one of the highlights of my year. I worked hard on these pieces, and I hope it shows. Over 1,300 people have already shared the first part of the...
My talented friend Amanda Romine Lynch is the proud mother of a debut novel today. It was born at midnight, weighs $4.99 USD, and measures the length of whatever e-reader or tablet you happen to own. Congratulate Amanda, buy her book Anabel Unraveled (which I titled), and follow her on Twitter at @thebookprincess. Thanks to...
I am not dead. Neither is my blog. Although I really do not think of it as a blog anymore. It is a website that gathers all of my polished, pretty writings into one Interweb basket like a cache of inedible Easter eggs. Since we are technically closer to Christmas than Easter, I would recommend...
ORIGIN OF THE BOOTLEG When I was a freshman in college at Southwest Missouri State University—now Missouri State University—I received the cassette below in the mail from Prayer Chain bassist Eric Campuzano. As I mentioned in my other post about the Prayer Chain (read it here), I was in the habit of writing the band...
NEW IMAGE JOURNAL BLOG ESSAY, “THE ARMCHAIR ASTRONAUT” + SPOTIFY PLAYLIST Read my latest IMAGE Journal essay, an adaptation from The Stained-Glass Kaleidoscope titled “The Armchair Astronaut,” here. In the meantime, I am providing you with a Spotify playlist I assembled as a companion to this essay. It is inspired by my dad, who loves...
Follow Me and Give Me Reason to Issue a Restraining Order