Welcome To My Blog

I was contacted by Kirsten Powers Makarv this morning. Kirsten is writing an article for The Daily Beast about the recent decision by author Anne Rice to disassociate from Christianity. Mrs. Rice maintains her faith in Christ, and does so in an authentic and sincere manner, at least through tweets and blog entries. That said, like many, she grew more and more frustrated with “christianity” and has publicly said she wants no part of the religion. It wasn’t a shocking decision to me, as many of us find it hard to identify ourselves as religious people, though we have a relationship with Christ. Christianity is not a sacred term and not a Biblical term so it doesn’t mean a whole lot to me. I’ve only read one response to Mrs. Rice, which I found to be a bit condescending. Regardless, here is the very short e-mail I sent to Kirsten Powers Makary. When her article releases, I’ll tweet a link. Kirsten, After spending some time thinking about it, I don’t have much to say. I understand Anne’s decision, and can see her reasoning. I’ve certainly had the desire to disassociate from Christianity, mostly for the hyper-critical, hyper-judgmental persona the religion [...]

I’m at the Echo Conference in Dallas, a conference for tech-minded communicators. It’s a unique conference and certainly something I’d attend if I wasn’t speaking. In fact, I’ve sat in on sessions. But that’s hardly the point. The point is, they put the speakers up in a hotel near by, a big high-rise thing and they gave each of us a suite. The suite comes with a kitchen, living room, and a conference table for taking over the world. And enough closet space to move Kanye in. The first thing I thought was that I needed a company, a group of business people who carry yellow pads to come storming into the room so we could figure out how to take something over. It was just a passing thought, but that’s what came into my mind when I walked into the room. Then I get over to the conference, and Scott McClellan, the big man who runs the conference and I started talking and I told him thanks for all the square footage because I like to run wind sprints. He said when Dan Merchant walked into the room, the first thing he thought was that he should go gather [...]

A couple months ago I excerpted a chapter from Father Fiction about what women are looking for in men. Honestly, when I wrote that chapter, I wanted to write an entire book on the subject. I’m 38 now and it’s not that I’ve figured out much, but if I could go back in time to my early twenties and explain a few things I’d have saved myself a lot of trouble. So today I was moving books to a new bookshelf and I came across my friend Steven Simpson’s book What Women Wish You Knew About Dating. Steve is a psychology professor at Fuller in Southern California and he and I skype sometimes daydreaming about projects. But I hadn’t read his book. Taking a break from moving books, I sat down and read a chapter, and then another, and quickly discovered Steve had already written the book I wish I’d read when I was twenty. If you don’t like formula books, or books that are overly spiritual (good, practical advice with language and scripture passages that seem like they are placed to pacify church people rather than actually enlighten us about a text) then you’ll like Steve’s book. I won’t [...]

So if you’ve followed this blog at all you know I work as a writer but also as a private detective, basically tracking down cheating spouses and that sort of thing. That has severely limited my ability to keep up the blog. So on a few days a week my dog Lucy covers for me. Here are her thoughts on exercise: I hate exercise. It’s completely stupid. I’d no sooner stand around in a gym lifting weights than you’d eat your own poop. Eating your own poop makes complete sense because it’s filled with vital nutrients but standing around in a gym lifting weights makes no sense at all. I never, ever exercise. Call me lazy if you want, but I don’t exercise and don’t see the point of it. I don’t set fitness goals, I don’t plan out my week, I don’t work with a trainer (not the kind of trainer you’re thinking of. I work with a trainer sometimes and fitness trainers could learn something from my trainer, actually. If fitness trainers threw a mini-snickers at their clients every time they did a push up people would want to do more push ups but that’s off the subject.) [...]

For years I’ve been listening to a kid from Nashville named Andrew Peterson. You’re likely to have been listening to him too. He’s the one with the voice as smooth as a cello, and the story-telling intuition of Garrison Keillor (Andrew is also an accomplished novelist). These days, musicians are releasing what should be a record of b-sides with one or two decent songs. I don’t blame them. There’s not much of a commercial reason to stick a bunch of hits on one album. But Counting Stars is not such a release. From the first track, I stopped working and turned it up and leaned back in my chair. It felt like a record I’d heard before, something immediately familiar. It’s the record you are searching for for a long night-drive in the country. It will make you want to cut the roof off your car so you can see the stars. And if you’re driving with friends, forget talking. You’ll just feel together. Tracks to pay attention to: Many Roads, World Traveler, You Came So Close and Dancing in the Minefields Many Roads is a sly smile against cynicism. It’s Andrews way of saying some things are miraculous, mysterious, [...]