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Cowboy Musings
Volume Four
Computers Will Fool Us The Dead Whisper On I could be old-fashioned Talking about rejection again I Don't Get It Had a Nice Birthday God Talking to Me Church Conflict Barnes and Noble Test Philly Report Not only with words . . . but also with power! Laugh-in As a Writing Lesson? Satan's in your Inbox No Guarantee of Tomorrow A New Client List A Mobile Office Ashamed of Legislators To Dance in the Desert The Hair Shirt Harry Potter – friend or foe? One Step Over the Border Information Overload I've Been to the 'People Store' Back in the Saddle Again International Christian Retailers Show Message from God Holidays can be Distractions Always or Never? It's a Guy Thing Voters are Bigots It's All About People Manuscript Guidelines It's you job to sell them Meet you in Philadelphia Website Record Day of Happy – Day of Sad I Don't Want to Know Back in the Dorm Packing New Industry Numbers How Much is Enough? 4 Day Weekend Working Proposals Conference Aftermath Colorado Christian Writers Headed to the mountains They don't wanna read my stuff Changing Character Names Top Ten List for Short Fiction Turn the other cheek End Times? Classic Submission profanity Encouragement POD Bias?
Entertain Angels Unaware? Leave the VT Kids Alone Hardest Rejections Re-affirmation First Fiction Guest Blogging again New Western site Speaking Modules Facing the Giants
Lions WIN Road Trip Still more on books
for boys More
on books for boys Workaholics No Fridays Politics Publisher Migration
I Like Faces
Hanging out
Meeting Will Rogers
New
Interview The
Publishing industry Thoughts on queries
I don't do subtle well.
When there is a
problem with a computer or with a computer program, the largest key to being
able to fix it is deciphering the clues the computer gives us. Ruling out
things it can't be by simple tests. For example my email quit working. The
first step there is always resetting the wireless router. Still no. Ah, the
internet is still working. That means it has to be the email server itself.
Plug in the wireless card and try through it. Works. That means it has to be
the email interface. Now I'm ready to call them.
I watch the
computer geeks work through problems like this. Of course if we use online
support the hardware people will automatically say it is the program. The
program people will say it's hardware, and of course the internet server people
will blame both. I once got all three online on a conference call before I
could actually get the problem solved. They could no longer blame each other
that way.
Sometimes the
obvious isn't so obvious. Yesterday I decided to reset my mail delivery options
so even though I have to use several mail addresses to send depending on which
server I am on, they would all show one email return address. Less confusing
for people. It seemed to work fine. I went to yahoo groups to set all the groups
that I'm in to recognize it. Email immediately quit coming. I worked on it and
worked on it and spent far more time than I had planned on investing in the
project. Time I really didn't have to spend. Later I found out it wasn't what I
had done at all when yahoo sent a note out that they had experienced some mail
delivery problems which would be fixed shortly. It was just a coincidence that
it happened just as I changed my settings. Spent hours on something that I
didn't do and couldn't fix because I read the 'clues' wrong.
Who knew?
Book Review:
Candace "Canada Mac" MacHugh lives
a ghost of her former life.
Once a proud
Her beloved father is dead and she doesn't speak to her mom. More than anything, Candace Mac misses
her father. He promised to contact her from the "other side" if he
could...but it's been eleven long years. And now even her beloved city of
Candace Mac is alone. Longing for the past. Dreaming of making a difference.
Until one night when her father's voice speaks to her from the shadows. Bud
MacHugh's trademark growl. The dead, it seems, have messages they hunger to
share with the world...warnings of impending disasters and grave danger. Of
cities doomed to burn.
About the Author:
Tony is the author of the acclaimed Waking Lazarus. He has been an advertising agency
owner/principal, a trade amgazine editor, and now a novelist.
He has been a professional writer for more than 15 years with articles
appearing in publications as varied as Log Homes, Conservative Theological
Journal, and Travel & Leisure. He is also Creative Director at
His long list of past odd jobs includes trimming Christmas trees, sorting seed
potatoes, working the graveyard shift at a convenience store, and cleaning
cadaver storage rooms.
The book link is: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0764202057
Could
be? Is the Pope Catholic? Of course I'm old-fashioned. I'll admit it. We were
talking about church attire in Sunday
School this past Sunday. Our church is pretty casual. There are like 6-8 men
who wear a suit and tie.
I'm
one of them.
The
point was made that God doesn't care whether we wear a tie or shorts and
sandals if we are genuinely there to worship. I can't argue with that. I do believe God looks at the heart, not the
clothes. But I've worn a suit and tie to
church since before I was a teenager. I don't wear them to impress anybody. It
doesn't concern me what others wear, if they are dressed comfortably and are in
the right spirit to worship then their attire doesn't matter to me. I'm not
trying to win anybody over.
You
see, I wear a suit and tie for ME! In my family we went to church in our very
best, at least for the main service. In the evening we dress a little more
casually. I still dress for church, and always will. To me it is a
It
comes up every so often as if people think I'm implying they aren't being
worshipful by not dressing up. Nothing could be further from the truth. It
isn't about anyone else, it's about me.
It's ONLY about what I want to do to come into the house of God.
Thought
I'd share that and see if anybody else runs into this sort of thing.
For
me rejection is when somebody tells me I have body odor and my mother dresses
me funny. It's personal. The dictionary says it is to repudiate, throw out or discard.
Very
personal.
We
take them hard when one of two things happen, we got our hopes up too much, or
when we take the response too personally.
When
an editor or agent responds it can't be personal, they don't know us that well.
It HAS to simply be about the fit of the project we are proposing to the
Get
our hopes up too much? Sometimes that's hard to prevent. We research the
How
do we keep our hopes from being too high? Write the next project and get it
out. Like a fisherman, the more lines we have in the water the better the
chances of landing the big fish, and the less time we spend watching any one
bobber bouncing on the waves because we're busy watching them all.
Easier
said than done? Sure. But if it was easy everybody would be doing it.
I just got through
going through my submissions log and moving those that I am waiting on a
response that are more than six months old to the inactive file. There were
over 50 of them.
I don't get it.
Someone spends the money to come to a conference, takes the time to make and keep
an appointment, arouses my interest, maybe even gets past the query or proposal
stage, then fails to follow up. I'd like to think perhaps they all found
another agent or publisher but I sincerely doubt that is true. People are
pretty good about dropping me a note if they publish or decide to go with
somebody else. Believe it or not I'm happy to hear of such successes.
So what's the deal?
Why go to that much work and not take the final step? Procrastination is probably the big one, they
just don't get around to it. That's a shame. Some may do it yet and I'll have
to dig it out of the inactive file, only then as I read it I'll have questions
in the back of my mind about whether they can work with a deadline or not.
Some get scared of
success. They are generating interest and it might just work out . . . then
they'd have to get out and do public events and promote, and that scares them
so they sabotage their own efforts. It happens, I've talked to a number of them
in my "Too shy to pitch or promote" program.
Cold feet? Could be
one reason, when they get down to it they decide it just isn't good enough and
are afraid to risk rejection. They shouldn't be, I get notes back on how great
my responses are even if I'm not interested. I may disappoint but I doubt that
I'll hurt their feelings. Or maybe they've already gotten a number of those
rejections and have given up, don't even want to try again. That happens too.
Life could have
just interfered, family, illness, there could be lots of things, but when that
sort of thing happens I tell them to take their time. I want them to wait until
it is just right to send it, and believe me there is no rush on my end. I just
want to know it is still in play.
Maybe I do get it.
I got phone calls, emails and cards all day long.
Granted some of them were a little rough on me. You'd think turning 65 meant
you had one foot in the grave. Saundra and mother took me out to eat at a nice
restaurant. That's what we do. If there is an occasion, we eat. I mean, it's no
accident that I can't see my belt buckle.
Some of the most faithful were the grandkids – phone
calls from nearly all of them. That was terrific. It was the cousins that gave
me the most trouble. I'm the senior cousin, the head man, and I should command
more respect. Besides that, since I hit it first it is a serious tactical error
to do anything to me they do not wish to see repeated in spades when they come
ambling up the path behind me. Serious error.
You would think they would have learned when I turned
40. There was a big ambush then which gave me plenty of time to plan my
retaliation. I did. But I suppose 25 years was ample time to forget that
lesson. It appears it will have to be taught again. Be afraid, cuz, be very
afraid.
Thanks to all of those who took the time to send me a
note, I really appreciated it. Birthdays are not something we celebrate much
but I suppose this one merited notice. We don't have a guarantee on longevity
in this life, not even of tomorrow. Still, mother is 93, Grandad Ward lived to
be a couple of months short of 106, aunts and uncles pushing 90, I guess the
odds are I've still got a few good years left.
So put the black balloons away, I plan to be here for
a while.
For the time will come when they will
not endure sound
doctrine; but after their own lusts
shall they heap to
themselves teachers, having itching
ears.
2
Timothy 4:1-3 KJV
This verse came up in Sunday School. I took it at face
value for how it amplified the lesson. Shortly after that it was mentioned in
the sermon in the morning service in a bit of a different context, but it
caught my attention that it was showing up again. Later that afternoon it was
used to make a different point in discipleship training.
I asked the pastor why he had focused on that verse so
much and he was surprised, not really aware he had used it three times. Okay,
anything in the Bible repeated three times does it for major emphasis. I was
now pretty sure it wasn't something the preacher was intentionally doing.
Each day the International Bible Society puts a verse
on on my web page. I have no control over it and have no idea what the verse
will be, but it surprises me how often it seems directed right at me. Want to
hazard a guess what the verse is today? I was stunned.
If you've read the writing terstimony on my website
you know that God used this sort of affirmation to tell me how He wanted me to
use my writing for Him. He does it periodically when He wants a point to come
through to me loud and clear. That point ends up being affirmed several ways.
Saundra and I went through the "Experiencing God" course to learn how
to better understand and see these affirmations.
What am I supposed to be getting from it? At a
conference in
I often wonder if others are as obtuse as I am, if God
has to be as blatant with them to finally get them to understand the message.
I know, I know, anybody who
has gone to church any length of time has been involved or witness to
churchconflict.
It happens.
Doesn't make it any easier.
I went off to the Philly
conference leaving behind a church that was a real family, happy and close. I
miss the services Sunday because the airlines were busy giving me a guided tour
of the entire
But I digress. I come back
and the Music Minister, the Youth Minister and their entire extended families
are conspicuously absent. In a small church like ours that's a couple of pews
vacant. Pretty hard to not notice, besides the fact that a Deacon was up there
leading the music Wednesday. I start
jumping them about what was going on and get the old "I can't talk about
that" line.
That doesn't work for me.
The Church belongs to the Lord, but beyond that it doesn't belong to the Pastor
and the Deacons, but to the congregation. I resent being told that things like
that are none of my business, and that has happened on several occassions. The
government does it too, keeping so much from us as if we aren't intelligent
enough to be given information, that we're better off with them just taking
care of us.
The rumor mill has a lot of
information, of course, probably much of it wrong. The music minister is one of
my best friends so I talked to him at great length, but I recognize that is
only one side of it. I was a chamber of
commerce manager for 26 years, a professional organization executive. I know
how to manage group interaction and failing to manage the information flow to
the group is not the way to handle a situation like this. We've lost some good
people from the church and could lose more. It didn't have to happen that way.
From what I have pieced together I don't know that I feel strongly about the
situation itself, it does appear to be a church leadership problem. I do have a
problem with the way communication is being handled to the congregation, like
having an elephant in the room that everyone pretends is not there.
We were talking on the
However, in the discussion we can't lose
sight of the fact that one of the most significant reasons for a submission to
fall flat is what I like to call the Barnes and Noble test. In a bookstore
people pull that title down, look at the back cover, sample the first page, and
then either put it on their short list for purchase or put it back and sample
another one. Sure, they may sample some other places, but these are the only
two places we can count on them looking. The job of that first page is to get
them to committ to going further into the book, plain and simple.
I like to see a piece of action that does
not conclude on the first page, a question raised that is not answered on the
first page, curiousity arroused that it not satisfied on the first page, or
anything that will not leave it to chance, but will compell them to go further
into the book. It doesn't matter to me whether it is fiction or non-fiction,
the job is still to get them off that first page as quickly as possible and down
into the book.
Did the format we used work without hurting
the feelings of those allowing their babies to be analyzed? I don't know, I
suppose that is best answered by those who had their pages looked at. Was it an
important session for those who are taking the final steps to send their work
as submissions? You betcha.
I do read further to see if I connect with
the work or not even if I don't think the first page gets it done. If I do I
ask them to put a more compelling opening on it and send it back. If not, well,
somebody else may connect with it better. It's a personal opinion.
The Write His Answer conference in
Philladelphia was excellent. Marlene Bagnull and her people always do a great job.
It was inspirationally fulfilling, content rich, and had an excellent faculty.
I had the opportunity to do 45 interviews plus the unofficial meetings that
always happen over meals and at off times, did two workshops and two panels, so
all together I had the opportunity to interface with a lot of people. I heard
some excellent pitches and had a couple of people say I gave them exactly what
they came to the conference to learn. That's pretty much a divine appointment
and to get the chance to do that a couple of times pretty much made my
participation worthwhile.
The trip home was entertaining. My
connection to the airport didn't quite work out so I missed my first
connection. A young man by the name of Justin went way above and beyond the
call of duty and managed to cut and paste a retun trip together that worked
even though it took six extra hours and required a $300 upgrade. It also just
lacked a couple of states taking me cost to coast then going back to
To accomplish it I had to carry on my
luggage which meant I had to cut back to 2 bags since I couldn't check the two
I had brought. To do that I had to nestle my carryon inside the bag I had
bought books in. I sold a majority of them at the conference, but still had too
many to do it so I had an impromptu booksigning right at the Philly gate
signing them and giving them away. We had something of a book discussion to
determine who got the free books, with Justin of course getting two. Was a
little expensive, but fun. I'm not sure why, but connection problems tend to
happen on the return trip, never on the way to something. Saundra thinks it's
because the devil always conspires to keep me from getting back to her and she
tends to take it very personally. It has
happened the last five trips, one of which I just rented a car in
. . . but also
with power!
That's the theme of the writing conference
here in Philly. I sit here in my motel room contemplating the people who had
appointments with me, the workshops, the panels, it was a busy day. Then there
were the times set aside for worship. I've done a dozen conferences so far this
year with as many left to go. They have been both secular and Christian writing
conferences. Having done a secular conference recently and now at a conference
with a strong faith base, I realize I miss the chance to nourish my spirit even
as I learn things to improve my craft when I'm not at a Chrisian conference.
The attitude is different. Often at other
conferences I find so many who are upset because they can't get started or
because their writing career is not going the way they want. They are so much
in need of help and encouragement because they are on the verge of giving up.
The attitude at conferences like this is so much more uplifted and
encouragement abounds because of the hope that is inheirent in a faith based
program.
At these conferences there is a constant
thread of people supporting each other's work. I've so many people come up
promoting someone else's work when they themselves have a project to pitch.
Seldom have I had that happen at a secular conference, where things are all
writing and all business.
It's a pleasant change, and if you have
never had the opportunity to go to a Christian Writing conference I encourage you to treat yourself and do so.
Three times yesterday I used the
"laugh-in" example to encourage someone who had just gotten a tough
rejection. "Laugh-in", are you kidding me? I got such good feedback I
thought I'd talk about it on the blog this morning.
I know, I know, a lot of you never even heard
of it. It was a really popular show back in the 60's or 70's as I recall, but
you can catch it now and then on a TV channel that runs nostalgia. The idea was
that in one portion of the show all the people in the cast would be behind a
bunch of windows on a wall. One would throw open the shutters and deliver a one
liner, after which another somewhere else would open up and give the punch
line. It was really funny at the time, but just yesterday it popped into my
mind and I realized it was a terrific representation of the publishing
industry.
Publishers have taken over the famous wall
of windows and they throw open the shutters to a publishing opportunity. Then
they get what they want and close it, and another window comes open. Getting
published is all about having the right product at exactly the right place at
the right time, ie when the window is open. Timing is everything. At any given
point in time there may be only one window in the industry where the fit is
perfect.
It also means there will be close calls and
near misses, times when a project makes it up the ladder, so very close, but
only to be beaten out in the end by a project that was just a little better
fit. Lots of people get discouraged by this process and give up before they try
enough windows to find the one where they fit. The ones who are successful are
the ones who stay with it.
I've played the windows game, had shutters
slammed in my face, tried to hit the open slot like trying to hit the gophers that
pop up out of holes in the arcade game (another great analogy). Well, on my way to Philly for the Write His
Answer conference – hope to see you there.
Now and then a notion just strikes me. That
happened this morning. I was over looking at the site stats, and I noted
yesterday that I had people from Ireland, England, Canada, Australia, and a
couple of places that I think are down in South America browsing around on the
site. I have writing friends I talk to who are all over the world. We don't
list where we're from very often so it's easy to forget what a wide range of
folks we're talking to. I get proposals in from an amazing array of countries
even though at present we don't have anybody working with international
clients. I've always been told it is a small world, now I guess it's more true
than ever.
It hasn't been long ago that doing this
would ential having foreign "pen pals" writing letters and figuring
out international postage rates if we'd have known who they were to write to
them, which is unlikely. That or it would involve some very expensive phone
calls or even more expensive travel. Now I know folks all over the world, talk
to them often, and don't think a thing about it. I take it for granted.
While I'm not evangelizing most of the time
as I talk to these people my faith is generally pretty clear, and hard to miss
if you spend any time on my website. I know many others are much better at this
type of witness than I am and every bit as far-reaching contacts as I have. The
power of the internet to reach out and carry the message is awesome. Sure, it
carries other stuff as well, evil stuff, that threatens my mailbox all the
time. I have some friends that get some
of this and their response is to get offline so they don't have to see it. Me,
I figure it's the price I have to pay for such wide-ranging contact.
Sure, I try to do all I can to keep it away,
spam filters, technology, but the final line of defense is the delete key.
These things are a reminder to me that Satan knows exactly how powerful this
medium is and how important it is that we not back out and leave it to him.
My heart goes out to the
people of
The first thing that popped
into my head however, is what a small assurance we have of tomorrow. There are
some at the bottom of the
We went to my 45th
high school reunion a couple of years back. Had a great time, but at one point
when it was time to recognize those classmates who were no longer with us we
released a ballon for each as their name was called. The sky was filled with
balloons, and it really made an impact on us.
One of our number, who
became a preacher, gave a short memorial and he said it really hurt him to
wonder how many of those classmates were never saved, and hurt him worse
because he hadn't shared his faith with them while we were in school together
because it wasn't "cool." "What if I was the one God had in mind
to lead them to Him and I failed to do it?" he said. "That eats at
me."
It isn't surprising a
preacher would think that way. What is surprising is the fact that most of us there
confessed we had thought the same thing many times over the years, that we were
conflicted about that, and about a number of people since. "What if we
were the one, and failed to get it done?"
Nobody on that bridge
planned for that day to be their last . . . but there is just no guarantee of
tomorrow for any of us. We pray for all
involved and for their families, and sincerely pray all who lost their life had
their salvation secure.
I added a new feature on my
website, a list of the clients that I'm working with. The direct link is http://www.terryburns.net/CLIENT_LIST.htm I have to say it has been been slow getting
to this point. Even with a well established agency behind me, I figured it
would take several months to find some projects I wanted to represent, several
more months to get contacts working at various publishing houses (they are
different from those as a writer) and
several more months getting submissions out and fielding responses. That
projection proved to be pretty accurate.
I've gone through 640
proposals, I'm waiting on 72 of them to send me further information, have 28
here I'm working my way through, and have signed 31 clients. I've gone to 11 conferences and have that
many scheduled coming up looking for projects I like and trying to establish
those editorial connections. Finally the pieces are in place and I've sent 119
proposals to over 50 editors, 69 of these proposals are still working and
eleven have requested full manuscripts or have gone further through the
decision process.
I know a number of writer
friends think all you have to do to be an agent is hang out a shingle and start
raking in commissions. That's why I
thought it'd be good to share a little of these stats. It's slow going and
expensive to get started. Fortunately I'm not doing it for the money, but
because I felt led to use my gift of encouragement to encourage other writers
and to help them get their work to
I probably shouldn't be
sharing all this, but I figure people know I've been doing this less than a
year and might be interested in the process. And I think the people that got in
on the ground floor with me are going to be happy they did.
A
I have an office at home,
but my real office is wherever
I happen to be. I take
submissions electronically
so I can work them where I
happen to be.. Some folks
send hard copies anyway and
if I find myself in that
office I deal with them if they
haven't gotten lost or
thrown away before then.
Saundra often drives while
we are on trips so I can
work. I just added a
wireless card to my arsenal to
allow me to do it a little
better. Here we were on the way to
I'm getting and making
phone calls, getting submissions and
answering them by email and
sending off electronic proposals.
I felt like a
wheeler-dealer.
At the same time Saundra is
getting calls related to her massage therapy business, and since her phone is
also a PDA she's looking up her calendar and booking slots. She's on the phone
with her sisters setting up a sister weekend, making airline reservations,
booking rooms, doing business. We got a lot done. Technology today just blows
me away.
After a while we looked at
each other and said, "We really need to learn how to take a little time
off."
Still that block of time in
a car is too good to not use, and it really makes the trip go fast. I know my
commute time in the morning and afternoon, when I have to drive, is one of my
favorite prayer times. But yes, I do keep my eyes open.
I hate to say that, but
it's true and has been getting worse year by year. I'm a rare bird, a real Independent even
carry a voter registration card with that on it. I'm really interested in getting good people
in office, particularly people who might take their faith with them when they
go, regardless what political party they might be in.
Since that's the case I can
throw rocks at either pary in an objective manner, and in this case it isn't
hard to do. When this country was founded, they never thought there would be
such a thing as a 'professional politician' with the possible exception of
Thomas Jefferson. Politics was all he wanted to do. The rest that served were
intended to go do their bit, then go home and live under the laws that they
passed while somebody else did their service.
I cringe as I watch the
infighting. I get the distinct opinion that the issue is never what is good for
the country or what action might best represent the will of the people, but
which party gets credit for doing what and what will most embarrass the other.
I can't imagine what might happen if everybody was genuinely doing what our
forefathers envisioned they should do. Oh, the problems they could solve.
There are times I just want
to turn them all out and start over. Then I hear that government has gotten so
complicated that new people make little contribution until they have had time
to learn how things work. Is that true? Or are they simply not effective until
they learn how to play the game? What if they were all new and had to actually
represent the people because there were no entrenched power structure to have
to cater to in order to get "inside" where they could get something
done. What if we really did send them up there to represent instead of them
spending all their time figuring out how to get re-elected before they are even
unpacked? What if their re-election really did depend on what they did and how
they represented us instead of expensive campaigns and catering to various
minority groups trying to pick up votes and all sort of other political
maneuvering?
Wow! A guy can dream, can't
he?
I'm a member of the Christian Fiction Blog
Alliance
now and once a week will
post a review I have done
as I did with Stephen Bly's
new one last week, or a
review by one of the other
alliance members. This
week is one from River Oak,
the publisher of my
Kathleen Popa.
Kathleen Popa
“Not a safe world.” How many
times had she heard it over and over again? Well, it is not a safe world and
Dara Murphy Brogan knew it better than most, which is exactly why she had
tucked herself away on a desert mountaintop. Now it was just her, the voice
inside her head and the boxes of hastily packed odds and ends—all that was left
of her pathetic excuse of a life. Hadn’t she chosen the desert because it was
barren and brown and dead looking and far, far away from anyone who may have
seen the news?
So what was
this, this trespasser, this interloper, this wacked out earth mother doing
dancing outside her window? Celebrating life and the Spirit in a way Dara never
could have dreamed. Until she opened her door and met Jane Cameron.
A book that makes me laugh is a joy, a book that makes me cry
is a rarity. But a book that moves me to dance is sublime. To Dance in the
Desert is a spectacular experience. Beautifully written, deeply moving, and
warmly engaging—that this is Kathleen Popa’s first novel astounds me. That she
will quickly be counted among the top caliber of Christian novelists delights
me. I simply loved this book. ~Kathryn
Mackel, Author of The Hidden
Kathleen Popa creates a
compelling vision of a small community’s power to coax waning spirits back
toward life. This gem of a novel worked on me like a dream. Popa’s evocative
prose captured the nuance and complexity of transformation with equal parts
mystery and truth. She conjures the deserts of Dara Brogan’s life with intimate
clarity, reminding us along the way of the profound strength of what we take
far too much for granted—the deep friendship of kindred spirits. This is a
journey worth taking.
~Jeff
Berryman, Author of Leaving Ruin
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1589190947
A message came through loud
and clear at church. One of Satan's devices is to get us to compartmentalize
our lives. To put church in a box and only bring it out on Sunday. We tend to
separate our church life from our private life.
None of us that are
believers want to or intend to do this, but I suspect we all do to a degree.
Yet if we are one thing at church and something else in our daily lives,
doesn't that have to mean we are being false at one place or the other? Doesn't
it mean we are pretending to be something we're not when we are in the house of
God? Or if that isn't true are we dealing falsely with the world, hiding our
light, failing to have the witness we are supposed to have?
But this can't mean me, I
spend hours each week at church. I thought that, then in my head I heard,
"This isn't talking about how many hours we spend at church or how we
spend them, but how we utilize the hours outside of church." It's called
being a 'Sunday Christian,' something I would never do intentionally. But without thinking about it . . .
"Okay, Lord, I get
it." It's a fair question and one nobody can answer for us. A true answer probably
involves more and deeper self-examination than we are comfortable with. God has
a way of putting a hair shirt on me occassionally until I learn what He wants
me to learn. Can you imagine how uncomfortable it would be to have to wear a
shirt made of hair?
Bottom line? It isn't what
we do at church but the faith we demonstrate to the world that most closely
shows our walk with the Lord.
I know there is a debate
among Christians as to whether Harry Potter promotes sorcery or other things we
shouldn't be presenting to our kids. I get that. And I'm not getting into that
debate here. I want to talk about something else. The book is blowing the doors
off the bookstores, no doubt about it. Is that a good thing or bad?
I hear the argument about a
blockbuster that "if they weren't paying so much for that book they'd have
more money to start fledging authors or promote midlist authors." Is that
true? I don't think it is. I think it's these big hits that generate the
revenue that allows publishers to take a chance on some other projects, books
they hope they can develop.
Is it fair for somebody
with a big name to make big money off such a book particularly when often the
book is not very well done or more likely than not written by somebody else?
Not suggesting Harry falls in this class but I can think of some politicians
who do. For the answer see above paragraph.
I think there is something
else that enters into the Harry Potter debate. Kids, particularly our
'reluctant reader boys' spend so much time with video games, iPods, TV and
other sources of entertainment that as Thomas Nelson CEO Michael Hyatt said in
his blog, "It's hard to catch them with a book in their hands." He
pointed out how much more difficult the competition for their time has become.
And I came away from ICRS with another thought stuck in my mind, one put there
by Nancy Lohr of Journey
That's opening the door and
we need to redouble our efforts to ensure they go on to pick up other books. If
we are one who doesn't think Harry is the appropriate fare, we need to follow
it up with books that are every bit as appealing without the elements we might
object to. Isn't that our job?
I don't recommend books
here often.
I should do more of it.
Stephen sent me his
new one and I read it in
one sitting.
I thoroughly enjoyed the
tongue-in-cheek
humor an