This is a continuation–Part Two, as it were–of my recent post, “How To Make a Living Writing.” Part Three of this mini-series is Writing: Don’t Get Me Started. (A quick note to the reader who asked what I meant by incoming freelance work being “clean and useable.” Those aren’t industry terms, or anything: I only meant to describe work submitted to an editor that’s … well, clean: no typos, no weird formatting or attachments, has a good title and subtitle (that’s the dream!), is... Read more
Decide if you really want to make a living writing. If your primary interest in writing is to give expression to your innermost thoughts and feelings, and you don’t really care if anyone reads your stuff or not, that’s a beautiful thing. But if your goal is to have great numbers of people pay money in order to read what you write, that’s a whole other universe. Most people would say they only want to write for themselves, when what they really want is... Read more
Do you remember where you were when you first thought that America going to war in Iraq might not be such a bad idea after all? When it struck you, for the very first time, that maybe it was something we should do? That weirdly exhilerating moment came for me on February 5, 2003, when Colin Powell made his case before the U.N. Security Council about how certain it was that Saddam Hussein had huge numbers of weapons of mass destruction that he was just itching... Read more
My New Year’s resolution this year is to take over the world. Whoo-hoo! I can hardly wait! By this time next year, I should be fully installed as Supreme Ruler of the World. (I’m also leaning toward the title of “The People’s King,” but we’ll see.) I’ve been meaning to take over the world for quite some time now, but with shopping and chores and all I’ve struggled to find the time. This year I’ll find the time. This year it... Read more
Dear Finnish atheist who hacked Crosswalk.com: Hi, there. I’m one of the writers for Crosswalk.com., the largest Christian website in the world. Is it cold where you live? It looks like it is, since the picture you put of yourself all over Crosswalk shows you wearing a thick skull-cap and a sweatshirt. Of course (as you put on the page), you’re from Finland, so you’re definitely used to cold. So in that picture you must have been really cold. Unless you... Read more
Update: To read my An Open Letter to the Atheist Hacker of Christian Mega-site Crosswalk.com, click … well, there. Instead of the largest Christian website in the world (2.5 million views a month; 200,000-plus subscribers), people who visited www.crosswalk.com this morning found a single, crudely designed static page featuring cheesy-looking burning crosses and a message from the hacker directed to “Christian sheep,” talking about how Christianity sucks and is nothing but lies believed by idiots and so on. The message was maybe 50 words long. (It was... Read more
In the last three days, these are what someone somewhere typed into a search engine (which then brought them here to my blog): Bad word bug wiggles [From some kind of deranged entomologist?] A list of testes to put a boy through to [Yikes! And two–I am so not kidding–people searched this!! Do people not know what “testes” are?? God, I hope not.] If you love someone you do not want them [From the world’s worst love advice columnist?] Did... Read more
Sure, it’s shallow. It’s embarrassingly shallow to ask people what they got for Christmas. It’s just the lamest. And of course it couldn’t be further from the meaning and spirit of Christmas. Of course, it is is true that Jesus received some excellent gifts on the occasion of his physically committing to going from being the supreme, all-powerful ruler of the universe to being someone in swaddling clothes who has to be burped. It’s not like Myrrh grows on trees, you know. Wait. Does it? Be... Read more
If you’re reading this, you’re surprising me. I won’t post this on Crosswalk or Christianity.com. I won’t send out a notice to 400 readers telling them it’s here. As far as I know, no one will ever know this is here. So if you’re here, it’s just you and me, baby. Which, let’s face it, means it’s pretty much just me. People are so busy. And this is, after all, a blog. Like people have time to read blogs. It’s 9:30... Read more
The thing I posted a picture of (under Anyone Know What This Thing Is?) is, it turns out, a STAMP-RACK. I learned this in two ways. First, a reader who keeps a really outstanding blog called Lord I Believe; Help My Unbelief wrote to say that, after a considerable bit of web research, he found this Most Outstanding page, where you can see the Actual Patent Submission for which one David S. Haines, of Sandy Hill, NY, was, on Feb. 2, 1897, granted a... Read more
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In