Frauleins and Germanmen, allow me to introduce you to a pal who is launching his new weblog today (and by today, I mean yesterday).

Jonathan Rogers is a fine novelist and overall sort of swell fellow. His blog will, I have no doubt, be of great interest to you.

Among his many gifts, Jonathan is an accomplished practitioner of the art of the amusing anecdote. He appears poised to regularly unleash this gift on the public at the aforementioned blog. See, for instance, his initial offering. Is it amusing? Yessir, it is. Is it an anecdote? It appears to be. So, he gets very high marks from the start and it’s my belief that this will only continue.

Why yes, I am intimidated by the quality of his posts, but that can’t be helped. You will continue to see relatively few quality (or “real”) posts here, with quotes, my lame witticisms, and other “fillers” as a regular feature. That’s the best I can do right now. Expectations are important, as Jonathan says, citing some weirdo over at his “welcome” post.

Jonathan is an accomplished author of many fine books (which you can purchase, signed, at very reasonable rates). I am not. I need to devote as much time as I have for writing to that enterprise. This blog, it must be admitted, suffers from some measure of neglect.

But anyway, since we’re supposed to be talking about Jonathan, the chance to listen to Jonathan talk about the art of writing has been of great benefit to me, both in specifics and generalities. Maybe, just maybe, those of you who are, like me, working towards being authors, will routinely receive some of the wisdom he has to offer on this subject as well at his new blog.

Perhaps if we overload him with comments requesting such, he will guilted into action.

Go on over and visit. Amusing anecdotes and more await. The first one is about getting pantsed. Need I say more?

“As long as one is a Naturalist, ‘Nature’ is only a word for ‘everything’—And Everything is not a subject about which anything very interesting can be said or (save by illusion) felt. . . .

But everything becomes different when we recognize that Nature is a creature, a created thing, with its own particular tang or flavour. . . .

The Englishness of English is audible only to those who know some other language well. In the same way and for the same reason, only Supernaturalists really see Nature. You must go a little away from her, and then turn round, and look back. Then at last the true landscape will become visible. You must have tasted, however briefly, the pure water from beyond the world before you can be distinctly conscious of the hot, salty tang of Nature’s current.”

C.S. Lewis, Miracles

HT: JT

Or, it’s more about connection than it is about self-expression. And, of course, it depends on what we’re after. If we want people (who are not our mothers) to read us, then we need connection way more than self-expression.

I’ve never read Yancey, but I like this video (below). Especially at about the 23:20 point where he expresses how difficult writing is. As Pete Peterson said on the Story panel at Hutchmoot: “Many people say, ‘I write because I can’t not write.’ I don’t get that. I can easily not write. That’s the easiest thing in the world to not do.”

Well, he said something like that and he took the words right out of my mouth, so I’m putting them back in just as I like.

It’s easy not to write. It’s painful. On the self-same panel, Jonathan Rogers explained that when it’s easy it’s not usually worthwhile.

“I’ve written books that didn’t hurt, and to tell you the truth, they’re not all that good.” Jonathan Rogers

Well, this might have been easy to write.

OK kids, back to Yancey.

At one point he advises writers, “Don’t do it alone,” and goes on to say that there are many creative people, but:

“…they’re all into self-expression…but you don’t make a living in self expression, you make a living by connecting with people who want to pay money…to say ‘this is worth my time.’”

Good point, Phillip Yancey. Good point.

Also, you have an amazing ‘fro.

I have shared this vidya content before, but thought it might be good to do again. I thought those thoughts with the thoughts in my mind.

What if I want to shape up and ship out? The Drill Sergeants of the world have no answer for this.

‎”Even if no command to pray had existed, our very weakness would have suggested it.”

Francois de Fenelon

HT: Scotty Smith

This is an attempt to collect all the posts “out there” referencing the inaugural Hutchmoot. It also attempts to present websites/blogs of Hutchmoot attendees. It further attempts links to those weirdos what made some kind of presentation at the 2010 Hutchmoot. I’ll continue to update it, so just comment if you wish to be included. I hope it is helpful. –sam

Hutchmoot-specific Posts (updated: newly added ones will be in italics)

Hutchmoot 2010, from Christina Szrama

Telling the Old, Old Story, from Bernie

Walt Wangerin Teaches: Hutchmoot Keynote, from Word Lily

Entering the Hutchmoot Fellowship, from Heather Ivester

Hutchmoot in the 2nd Chair, from Dan K

Hutchwhat?, from Kate Hinson

Waiting for the Artist, from Lanier Ivestor

Artist v. Dreamer, from Katherine

Still Here, from Leigh McLeroy

Hutchmoot Recap, from The Aesthetic Elevator

I Can, from Jodi

AP and Eowyn, from Christina Szrama (pictured above)

Dripping With Holiness, from Laura Boggs

Hutchmoot 2010, from The Grouchy Ladybug

Taste and See That the Lord is Good, Dan K

Counting Stars, from Dan K

Sigh, from Kelli

A Bit More, from Kelli

Hutchmoot cartoon pt 1, from John Haney

Hutchmoot cartoon pt 2, from John Haney

Hutchmoot, from Tricia Prinzi

What a Weekend, from Andrew Mackay

Hutchmoot Explained. Mostly, from Team Redd
Continue reading

Item: The secret to my success, I once thought, was in my ability to do a certain joke. There’s this situationally humorous operation. It goes like this. You happen into a situation where you find a man with piles of bananas in his hands, so many he is dropping them. You ask, with a straight face of course, “Hey, do you have any bananas?” You can change the thing to fit whatever circumstances. Basically you ask for whatever is in abundance. It was gold for me for years. But is it just me, or is this little maneuver getting really dumb? I am thinking I shall chuck the entire enterprise. Kind of a sad day, but one must move on. Stiff upper lip.

Item: Shred, White and Blue?

Item: I hate it with a passion, strongly dislike, get mildly annoyed when people who I think I’m better than do posts on Twitter, or FB, where they say “Dear  Whoever, please stop this or that. Thanks.” It could be, “Dear KFC, please hire some one who can take an order, Thanks,” or any number of smarmy things, but the “Dear..Please..Thanks” pattern is constant. My feeling? “Dear people who do that, please stop. Thanks.” I want to continue to be the biggest snob around.

Item: The happiest day of our lives…on drugs?

Fin.

“In this story, the sun moves. In this story, every night meets a dawn and burns away in the bright morning. In this story, Winter can never hold back the Spring… He is the best of all possible audiences, the only Audience to see every scene, the Author who became a Character and heaped every shadow on Himself. The Greeks were right. Live in fear of a grinding end and a dank hereafter. Unless you know a bigger God, or better yet, are related to Him by blood.”

N.D. Wilson, Notes From The Tilt-A-Whirl

It is 2:13 AM (EST) as of this writing. I am back home in West Virginia, with my excellent wife, Gina, and our wonderful kids (all asleep, of course). I am, as the expression goes, a happy man.

I am just now returned from Nashville, where I was privileged to participate in the inaugural Hutchmoot (a conference of The Rabbit Room).

It was a tremendous event. I do not exaggerate when I say that these last few days exceeded my expectations in a great variety of ways.

I am too tired to get to all that at present, but the arch under which my joy grows is a deep thankfulness to my Father, who answered so many of my prayers with an unmistakeable “Yes.”

I intend to say more later. Happy Monday morning to you.

I’m getting to hear this fellow tonight. Exclamation point.

I love this tune from Counting Stars, “You Came So Close.”

Get your copy of Andrew Peterson’s new CD here.