A romance author and her publisher are divorcing after “irreconcilable editorial differences” developed over the last few months. At first the publisher defended the writer, saying copied passages from resource material was acceptably or fairly used, but they have since changed their minds.
Author Nora Roberts commented, “By my definition, copying another’s work and passing it as your own equals plagiarism.”
Frank Wilson points out an interesting mystery quiz.
I hear there was an earthquake in Illinois last night. We did not feel it here. Or if we did, I slept through it. Just in case you were wondering.
I went to give blood tonight, and was rejected. My hemoglobin level, apparently, is a little low. This has never happened before, and I’m nonplussed (I ask you, how many blogs use words like “nonplussed” these days? We give full value at Brandywine Books). My chief suspicion is that it’s a result of dieting fairly severely this week. I’d slacked off for today, just to prepare my corpuscles, but apparently it didn’t do the job.
Or maybe it’s the first sign of a lingering, fatal disease. Whatever.
I’m going up north this weekend for the confirmation of my nephew and godson, The Youngest Nephew (note to burglars who may be reading—my renter will still be here and he’s a survivalist and former Navy Seal, clinging in Midwest bitterness to his collection of classic Uzis). I suppose I ought to sit TYN down at some point and give him a lot of good advice. I’m sure he’d appreciate that a lot.
But somehow I suspect I’ll keep my mouth shut all weekend.
Finished another Koontz today—Hideaway. I’m not going to review it, because I’ve done so many Koontzes, but I’ll mention that I liked it a lot, yet found it hard to read. I liked the good characters so much that I didn’t want to see anything bad happen to them, so I actually resisted picking it up a few times, not wanting to know what happened next.
Joan Hunter Dunn died last week. She was the subject of the English poet John Betjeman’s most famous poem, “A Subaltern’s Love Song.” Betjeman asked her permission to use her name, and apparently they were only friends, not lovers.
The poem (I’ll confess I’ve never read it) is a wartime elegy to normal life and love in pre-war times.
Betjeman was a pupil of C. S. Lewis’ at Oxford. He never took his degree, and always blamed Lewis for not supporting him when he got into academic trouble. They were reconciled in later years, but never became friends.
In 2001 at a CBMC conference (Christian Businessmen’s Connection), Dr. Howard Hendricks delivered these words in a three-part message on prayer.
Build teams committed to prayer. Now, I want to share with you because I find that very few Christians know this. Study this for yourself. Don’t go by my word. If you study prayer in both the Old and New Testament, what the Bible says about prayer mostly is addressed not to individuals, but to groups. That’s a revolutionary truth. Does that mean you don’t pray individually? Of course not. It means that you understand that God honors the collective ministry of a group of believers. The four guys who carried the man into the present of Jesus Christ, and the text says, “When He [Jesus] saw their faith, He said to the sick, ‘Rise, take up your bed, and walk.'” See, He takes very seriously the fact that you get a group of people who covenant before God to unite their hearts in prayer.
By the way, the greatest untapped reservoir in the United States and I’m sure many other countries as well is senior citizens. It’s the fastest growing segment of people in America and the fastest growing segment of that group is over 80. The tragedy is that many of these people are sliding from home, reaching for the bench, throwing in the towel, or can only look forward to retirement. May I remind you of the fact that the average American dies two years after retirement. The reason is they lose their purpose, and we are finding that the greatest group of prayer warriors we are seeing raised up all across our country is senior citizens, many of whom not only have time, but interest, money, and everything else so that they can invest in praying for others.
Another untapped reservoir is youth. There’s a church in our area that has a fantastic group of young people. I love them like crazy. They went to the elders of their church and asked, “Can we open the church on Wednesday mornings to pray?”
“Well, we’ll have to take that under consideration.”
So, after four or five meetings (typical elders), they finally decided, “No, we can’t do that. Continue reading Gathering to Pray
I’m not sure whether it makes it better or worse, to get an earworm without even hearing the song first. I got this week’s earworm from Mark Steyn’s Song of the Week: “Nature Boy.”
“Nature Boy” is a particularly aggravating earworm for me, because I find it kind of pretty. It’s the lyrics I despise. There’s a fair number of such songs on my proscribed list—“Imagine,” “One Tin Soldier,” “Green, Green Grass of Home.” I’m particularly handicapped by being a former lyricist. Because of that, I actually listen to lyrics (I think there are about six people in the country who share such a curse). This has caused me considerable suffering over my lifetime.
“Nature Boy,” according to Steyn (and I have to believe him, although it strains credulity) was written by a very odd duck named eden ahbez (no capital letters). He was, we are informed, a sort of 1940s proto-hippy, wandering around Los Angeles in a robe and sandals, with long hair and beard, living on fruits, vegetables and nuts. Somehow he managed to pass a grubby manuscript of the song to Nat King Cole’s manager, and by chance Nat actually looked at it and liked it. And so “Nature Boy” became a national hit in 1948.
There was a boy
A very strange enchanted boy
They say he wandered very far
Very far
Over land and sea…
A little shy and sad of eye
But very wise was he.
It’s very clear from eden ahbez’ bio that the “strange enchanted boy” he’s describing is himself. The guy wrote a song about himself, and how wise he was.
Steyn doesn’t go into great detail about ahbez’ belief system, but it seems to have been much the same kind of Buddhist/Hindu/New Age stew that we’ve grown so sadly familiar with in our own times. So it shouldn’t be surprising that such a man would write a song in praise of himself. Humility really isn’t an important virtue to people who believe that the ultimate truth is that they are God. Or god. Or goddess. Or part of god.
It’s just rare to see it stated so baldly.
And what is the wisdom that Nature Boy has condescended to share with us?
The greatest thing
You’ll ever learn
Is just to love and be loved in return.
Bold stuff, huh? Love is the answer. Love is all you need. What the world needs now is love, sweet love.
Not a fresh insight. I can think of Someone two thousand years before who said that the chief commandment was to love God, and the second was to love our neighbor as ourselves.
It puts me in mind of the 1960s comedian Jackie Vernon. Vernon was famous for doing his routines completely deadpan, and making most of his jokes about himself (he was an inspiration to me. No, let’s be honest—he was my role model). He had a routine (if I’m crediting the right comedian) about looking for the meaning of life. He told of hearing a rumor of a wise man who lived on top of a high mountain, who could tell him the Answer. So he saved his money, traveled far (over land and sea, I have no doubt), climbed the high mountain, and finally flopped down, exhausted, at the wise man’s feet.
“Tell me the meaning of life,” he gasped.
“Life,” said the wise man, “is deep well.”
“What?” Jackie replied. “I spend all my money, come all this way, climb this mountain, wear myself out, and all you tell me is that life is a deep well?”
“You mean life isn’t a deep well?” asked the wise man.
That’s how I see Nature Boy philosophy.
Christ talked about love too. But He didn’t just tell us to love each other and everything would be all right.
He understood that none of us can love anyone enough to fix his/her heart, and that no love we can receive from each other can fix what’s so desperately wrong with our own hearts.
Instead of just gassing about love, He went into battle against evil, laid down His life, and conquered Death itself.
He even did Nature Boy one better, by having two natures.
Mart De Haan asks, “If God is good, but good isn’t God, how do we avoid making our worst mistakes with some of the best things in life?”
My porch thermometer tells me the temperature is 80° out there. That’s ridiculous. Today was nice, no question, except for the high winds, but 80° it ain’t. 70°, maybe, which would match the forecast.
Today, links to take your mind off your taxes.
I’ve found the most awesome blog in the universe, courtesy of Evangelical Outpost. It’s called The Art of Manliness, and it’s for guys. (I know what you’re thinking, but it’s honestly not a Babe Log.) Despite the ironic graphics, this is a serious site devoted to authentic masculinity. You can find tips on good manners, wearing a hat (!), grilling a steak, packing a Dopp bag, breaking in a door, and genuine sincerity, among other things.
(I know it’s too late for me, but I provide the link for the sake of those who come after.)
The June Writer’s Digest features its annual list of the best websites for writers. Here’s a selection that caught my eye:
duotrope.com Provides a database of more than 2,000 markets. A free submissions tracker is available.
forwriters.com Includes a list of writers’ organizations around the world.
christianstoryteller.com Support and networking for Christian writers.
rejecter.blogspot.com The blog of a New York literary agency assistant, who explains to you why agents are rejecting your queries, and what you can do better.
agentresearch.com/agent_ver.html Reports on the business practices of agents—a very useful thing to know in today’s convoluted publishing world.
copyright.gov “Everything you need to know about copyright law.”
Don’t say I never tell you anything useful.
Hey, kids! It’s National Environmental Education Week. What NEEW this year? (heh, heh) We’re focusing on our carbon footprint. You know the earth is warming up, baking polar bears, and flooding the innocent people of Manhattan Beach because of your wasteful lifestyle. Shame on you. The government isn’t doing its part, so you have to do yours. And here’s a simple thing you can do to help the planet.
Don’t fart.
Did you know that the average person farts 16 times a day? That’s excess CO2, Nitrogen, and other gazes in our atmosphere. Not good. Let’s team up to fight global warming by not farting.
Think it’s impossible? Try avoiding food. Eating is a major cause in human farting, so maybe you should just eat a little less, if at all. For pete’s sake, people! We’re all going to die if we don’t do something, so help out a little.
Tags: global warming, climate change, neew, prevention
Shout out to Significant Pursuit by Renaissance Guy, who writes a good blog. Recently he has a post on what’s wrong with that Fifth Grader game show and a good idea in public schooling.