Andy Unedited
Exploring Books, Life, and Writing
A Lenten Reflection When the thought flashes through my mind that I am better than others, better than those in other churches or other cultures or the other political party (or more likely that I am better than those in both political parties!), I try to remember Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s well-known comment from The Gulag Archipelago, …
A Lenten Reflection In AD 165, a terrible plague hit the Roman Empire that lasted for fifteen years. Some historians think it was smallpox, but whatever the cause it was devastating. Perhaps a quarter or more of the population died. A hundred years later another plague hit Rome, with similar results. Bodies were piled up …
A Lenten Reflection Who killed Jesus? This question (and some unfortunate answers) have led to malicious, deadly attitudes and actions. The Jewish leaders, who had been anxious to do away with Jesus for a long time, finally had the opportunity to put him on trial—even if it was in the dead of night in a …
A Lenten Reflection Christ died for me. That is a wonderful, miraculous truth. The creator of the universe thought I and my relationship with God were of such importance, that it was worth his death to restore a broken relationship and turn an enemy into a friend. As amazing as this is, there is more. …
A Lenten Reflection When we are struck by illness, disappointment, depression, or when we are sinned against by violence or injustice, we can struggle to believe God, trust God, or feel God’s love. Philosophers and theologians have done little better in the face of such pain and sometimes horrific evil. Yes, we can “explain” it …
A Lenten Reflection In typography, when we straighten lines on both sides of a column of text we say it is justified. This gives a clean appearance so readers are not distracted by jagged edges. Readers can then focus on the words, not on how they look. Jagged edges appear elsewhere too. A family member …
When we write, starting with an outline is almost impossible. That’s the case I make in Write Better (chapter 3, if you are interested). First comes observing, thinking, questioning, reading, researching, discussing, jotting notes, and maybe drafting paragraphs. Somewhere in the middle we start organizing our ideas. New York Times columnist David Brooks describes how …
When I was in elementary school, I struggled to read. I remember one particularly embarrassing episode when I was required to make a oral book report in third grade. I chose Winnie-The-Pooh, thinking it would be relatively easy to get through. Whether due to lack of discipline, lack of focus, or lack of confidence, I …
Recently I was interviewed by Melissa Wuske in Foreword Reviews, which has focused on independent book publishing since its inception. To whet your appetite, here’s an excerpt below. You can find the whole interview here. Accessibility has been a huge boon to writers and editors. With so much information digitized, in a few keystrokes we …
One of the main problems writers have is that we keep getting in the way of our own work. We fret if our ideas are any good, if our writing is stale, if anyone will enjoy it or be moved by it. Thinking about ourselves in this way can bring our work to full stop. …