Photo Courtesy Mont Saint Michel Saints Michael, Gabriel and Raphael The stunning image is of Mont Saint Michel Abbey in Normandy, France, takes me back to a journey there before my conversion. That trip comes to mind because after my friend and I climbed the 350 steps to enter into the Abbey, we’d no idea […]
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King David, You, Me and Idleness It isn’t as if King David opened his eyes that morning to ask, “What are the 3 most effective ways I can take this blessed God-Given-Life and invoke the worst conceivable miseries upon me and my beloved nation?” Or “How can I best take the sacred anointing I was
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Politics of the common good That phrase, “politics of the common good,” reads as naivete. In a recent post, I wrote that politics is the pathetic name we give to the art of governing. Our immersion in our “shock and awe news” entices us to judge, criticize, and offend Jesus by neglecting his command to
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The Real Spiritual Battle We’re approaching Holy Week, the days of silence, reflection and accounting we’re given by the Christian liturgy each year to reply to some questions and thoughts: The real spiritual battle is forgiveness, not of others, but of ourselves. Because always, an honest examination of ourselves reveals flaws, failures and weakness–sin. Annually
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John Chillingworth/Picture Post/Hulton Archive, via Getty Images The Great Divorce: A Reread …the bus was full oflight. It was cruel light. I shrank from the faces and forms by which I was surrounded. They wereall fixed faces, full not of possibilities but of impossibilities, some gaunt, some bloated, someglaring with idiotic ferocity, some drowned beyond
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Revisiting the Three Rules for Writing A Novel As I close in the completion of my latest book, I, Claudia, I am revisiting the three rules for writing a novel. “There are three rules for writing a novel. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.” Somerset Maugham Recently I was interviewed by a writing blogger
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Work related myths like working through lunch and the weekend: Was there a time when you fell for them? These are just a few of the myths I bought into during my first three careers. It was only when I started working for myself, and later writing fiction, when I discovered just how vast was
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Only 3 essential qualities for writers? Just 3? Actually no, there are probably about 100 but this morning, there are just 3 essential qualities for writers that pop into my head this morning: The two paradoxical thoughts about just how well we write. I doubt that I’m the only writer who believes that on the
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Despite the fact that it sometimes feels as if everyone has written, or plans to write, a book, I have just one writer friend. She also writes fiction. Had my friend Rachel not put Rebecca and me together, I doubt we’d ever have met. Even in our small valley each of us tends to stick
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Here is the final teaser for Malthus Revisited, now available for purchase at Amazon and edited by Laura, my new editor and writing partner: Eighteen-year-old Morgan Gardner did not seem like someone who could save the world—unless you took the time to notice her eyes. And most people didn’t. Morgan’s exceptional gifts were known only