Author Archive

Blazing on

Only a few more posts left before the holidays here, so I thought we should get busy on some real controversial stuff like why the faceless mass of CBA readers don’t really care about good writing or something like that. Oh, but that’s not very festive. And I’m done being cheeky this year having used up all my credits to
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And I Am Grateful

Re-reading over last year’s Christmas letter for ideas, trying to remember what a crazy year it was. In the words of the semi-verbal little people, last year was “Happy Ya-Ya Sha-bup Year.” No, that’s not Rebecca Wells’ newest sequel. That was baby Ellie slang for “Bring it!” Of course, it was also used for “Hooray!” and “Welcome to my mouth,”
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Acquisitions: the final word

In this acquisitions discussion we’ve been looking for some firm foundations. Before we’re done here, I think we should pin down the basic question. My nominee tonight is simply, How do we decide what’s attention-worthy? Maybe the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is a good case in point. Are you watching this thing? Dear Lord, help us. As Philip Jenkins notes
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Toward a truer distinction

If you’re a writer, a gen Xer, or just familiar with the book of Ecclesiastes, you’ve had this thought: It’s all been done. You know that one? There’s absolutely nothing new I could ever hope to contribute to the world. The snarky realization comes in all kinds of existential flavors and strengths. I’ve had near-panic attacks dwelling on it, like
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On Reading, Writing, and Acquistions: How do you choose?

So this morning I went off googling every which way soaking up all my necessary facts, trends, and data. And then I remembered our topic: Put God first. Oh yeah! So instead, I started thinking some more about the standard sources with which we typically measure successful publishing. The presses, the lists, booksellers, agents, media, and basically whatever else you
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