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?

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

UPDATE: Now there are zero slots left. Dang it. My timing stinks.

UPDATE: There are almost ZERO slots left. Register now, or lose your place forever.

Back-story: The Rabbit Room is a online public house, a website where some Christians (creative types, mostly) meet up and talk about the Story, Story, stories, movies, music, and a bunch of other stuff. It’s supposed to be an Inklings kind of thing (the meet-up for C.S. Lewis, Professor Tolkien and others –but they had a real pub).

The Proprietor of our on-line Rabbit Room is Andrew Peterson (author, singer-songwriter, pro-proprietor). At some point AP asked me to be a part of this thing by contributing a few posts a month. I assume this was to achieve readership among the highly sought after demographic of hillbillies.

Now: AP has long held a desire for the cyberpub to incarnate in brick and mortar. So, while there is no physical RR, there shall be, if God wills, an in-flesh get together of Rabbit Roomers this year.

The get together shall be a retreat/conference type of thing, but since a perfect name could not be agreed upon, Pete Peterson’s working title of “The Hutchmoot” was settled on.

Hutch = A home for rabbits.
Moot = A meet up (like the Entmoot in Tolkien’s LoTR).

So, all that to say this: Why don’t you come and join us? August 6-8. Nashville.

I am actually a bit late in posting this announcement (because I am stoopid) and the thing is getting rather full. So, head over to the Hutchmoot web HQ and see what all the fuss is about.

If you are a hillbilly and care what yours truly is doing there (besides trying to act casual around all the amazing artists) then I’ll be participating in two panel-things. One is on storytelling (because of my millions of books sold –oh, wait) with the a fore-mentioned AP, along with authors Jonathan Rogers, Travis Prinzi, Russ Ramsey, and Pete Peterson. I’ll probably just be fetching sodas and adjusting the air conditioner. The other is called “Strength in Weakness” and is with authors Pete Peterson and Travis Prinzi. I’ll be doing a reading in that one based on the work of Tolkien and the connection of his work with all the bathroom jokes in my writings.

Check out the website.
See the schedule.
Register.
Make travel plans with fellow Hutchmooters here.

I am really looking forward to it, and plan to post more later. Cheers!

The following is a prayer by Scotty Smith (no natural relation). If you, like me, live among a people who are embracing Moralism and personally have a will that wants to embrace Moralism instead of Good News, then maybe this prayer is one you can pray as well. -sam

A Prayer About WHY God Loves Me and Us

Some helpful tips on writing from Doug Wilson. To read the (very brief) details go here.

1. Know something about the world, and by this I mean the world outside of books.

2. Read. Read constantly. Read the kind of stuff you wish you could write.

3. Read mechanical helps. By this I mean dictionaries, etymological histories, books of anecdotes, dictionaries of foreign phrases, books of quotations, books on how to write dialog, and so on.

4. Stretch before your routines. If you want to write short stories, try to write Italian sonnets. If you want to write a novel, write a few essays.

5. Be at peace with being lousy for a while. Chesterton once said that anything worth doing was worth doing badly. He was right. Only an insufferable egoist expects to be brilliant first time out. (Emphasis mine -sds.)

6. Learn other languages, preferably languages that are upstream from ours. This would include Greek, Latin, and Anglo-Saxon.

7. Keep a commonplace book. Write down any notable phrases that occur to you, or that you have come across.

I just grabbed the beginning of each. The whole thing (which, as I said, is brief)  is useful.

My advice to add: Turn off the internet.

If you are a writer and/or a lover of clever humor and you are on the world-wide Twitter then…

You should be following The Novel Doctor. Here —> https://twitter.com/noveldoctor

He has excellent advice for writers and potentially death-inducingly funny tweets. He also has a blog that is [positive adjective]. His last post was a collection of some of his tweets. Worth a read if you like to chuckle forth.

He also offers editorial services and I have thought very seriously about going in for that.

There are trazillions of “Writer Advice” websites, and most really stink or are boring (like I know what is good, I’m so successful). The Novel Doctor has a good bedside manner. His laughter is like unto good medicine. Check him out.

Any “Writer Advice” websites you guys like?

“The Church’s approach to an intelligent carpenter is usually confined to exhorting him not to be drunk and disorderly in his leisure hours, and to come to church on Sundays. What the Church should be telling him is this: that the very first demand that his religion makes upon him is that he should make good tables.

. . . Let the Church remember this: that every maker and worker is called to serve God in his profession or trade—not outside of it. The Apostles complained rightly when they said it was not meant they should leave the word of God and serve tables; their vocation was to preach the word. But the person whose vocation it is to prepare the meals beautifully might with equal justice protest: It is not meant for us to leave the service of our tables to preach the word.

The official Church wastes time and energy, and moreover, commits sacrilege, in demanding that secular workers should neglect their proper vocation in order to do Christian work—by which she means ecclesiastical work. The only Christian work is good work well done. Let the Church see to it that the workers are Christian people and do their work well, as to God: then all the work will be Christian work, whether it is Church embroidery or sewage-farming.”

Dorothy Sayers

-as quoted by Justin Taylor here, from her essay “Why Work?”

Al Mohler reviews William M. Struthers’ book, Wired For Intimacy: How Pornography Hijacks the Male Brain, and explains why it can be such a difficult temptation for men (mostly) to resist.

I would recommend checking this out if you struggle with this temptation (are male) or if you want to understand better what a struggle it can be for the men in your life.

N.D. Wilson answers this and more in this interview…Listen now.

I found Wilson’s remarks to be very inspiring and very helpful for:

1. Parents looking for discernment about what kids read.

2. Creative people who love the Bible (authors, musicians, etc.).

3. People who want to understand if we should only receive “Christian” media (books, music, films, etc.) and need wisdom on that front.

4. Other weirdos.

It’s also very helpful on the subject of authority and magic.

Check it out. It is really worth a listen.

I mean, look at this guy.

Find N.D. Wilson here. Buy his books. High-five his raised right hand.

This is largely a thankless culture. We live in luxury and wealth beyond the imaginations of almost everyone who has ever lived. We complain a lot. We whine.

It is unseemly.

Reading this (very brief) story of what this family endures everyday inclines my heart toward God in thankful humility.

I need that. Do you?