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Andy Unedited

Exploring Books, Life, and Writing

Category: Writing

Write About Yourself

August 14, 2012 by Andy Le Peau

The grinding dogma of fifth-grade English teachers everywhere has done incalculable damage to the sensitive psyches of countless school children. One of the most onerous dicta of Miss Vera Strict was this: “Never use I when you write.” The calcified trauma of this lives on in otherwise normal adults.

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First-Book Syndrome

July 5, 2012 by Andy Le Peau

The other day one of our editors, Dave Zimmerman, came to me with a proposal from a prospective author for a book. It was on prayer, mission, evangelism, the history of global Christianity, the future of Christianity, the Holy Spirit, the Kingdom of God and justice. I looked at Dave and said, “First-Book Syndrome.” He …

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Not a Straight Story Line

March 21, 2012 by Andy Le Peau

Postmodernism tells us there is no purely objective observer. We all have a bias when we come to a subject, no matter how well trained we might be in science or law or history. This would seem to be a rather difficult problem to overcome. How do we say something is true when it will …

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Pastor Beware (and Writer Too)

February 28, 2012 by Andy Le Peau

I call them preacher stories–those tales that pass from church to church, book to book, blog to blog. Sometimes corny, sometimes profound, they can inspire, accuse, challenge, amuse, surprise or inform. I recently came across the same story three times, and it made me wonder.

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Self Publish? You Bet.

January 20, 2012 by Andy Le Peau

Do I, as the editorial director for a traditional print publisher, encourage and support self-publishing–even self-ebook publishing? Yes. I do. Here’s why.

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There’s No Such Thing As Good Writing

August 24, 2011 by Andy Le Peau

As fellow editor Gary Deddo likes to tell the story, his ninth-grade English teacher was the perfect stereotype. Glasses, tight face, hair in a bun, outdated dress that came up in a tight collar around her neck, leaning over her desk and in a crackly voice exhorting her students, “There’s no such thing as good …

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The Man’s Man of Letters

October 6, 2010 by Andy Le Peau

My latest excursion in literary tourism took me just fourteen miles from our offices in Westmont when I recently visited the birthplace of Ernest Hemingway with some friends. The house in Oak Park, Illinois, has largely been restored to its original condition. Here young Ernest joined in prayers with his grandfather Abba, a Civil War …

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The Shallows 2: A Brief History of Reading

August 20, 2010 by Andy Le Peau

In Phaedrus, Socrates muses on the merits of writing. Surprisingly to our minds, he is skeptical. Why? It is a recipe for forgetfulness. We won’t have to exercise our memories anymore. Knowledge of a subject, after all, is much more valuable than a written account of the same thing. The only virtue of writing was …

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The Shallows 1: A Change of Mind

August 18, 2010 by Andy Le Peau

Nicholas Carr made a splash with his Atlantic cover story “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” which I discussed here. Now in The Shallows he brings a full-length book to bear on the question, and it’s a dandy. The subtitle, “What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains,” is very descriptive. In this serial review, I’ll …

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Dedicated to the One I Love

July 15, 2010 by Andy Le Peau

Those who know my wife, Phyllis, know that she is a larger-than-life personality. Those who know me, know that I am not. We are the poster children for Opposites Attract. I’ve often said that Phyllis can strike up a conversation with a fencepost, and get the post to do most of the talking!

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