Words of Redemption

The secret of joy in work is contained in one word – excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.
Pearl Buck, The Joy of Children, 1964

If I could summarize 2008 as I saw it in one word, I think it would be this one: Negativity.
From politics to economics to religion. From publishing to the arts to culture. From one topic to the next, it seems to me that more time was spent in 2008 talking about what is not rather [...]

Today is Blog Action Day, a day when thousands of bloggers come together to discuss a single issue.
Today that issue is poverty.
For my post on this blog, I’ve chosen to re-post a story I wrote for the Compassion Blog about the first time I met Ana Maria, a little girl from the Dominican Republic who [...]

“I have the impression that many of the debates within the Church around such issues as the papacy, the ordination of women, the marriage of priests, homosexuality, birth control, abortion and euthanasia take place on a primarily moral level. On that level, different parties battle about right or wrong. But that battle is often removed [...]

Wow, I didn’t realize that it’s been a month since the last Write What You See challenge.
But here we are, nearly into August, and it’s time for another round of image-triggered storytelling.
Last month, I was pleased to get a few takers. The submitted stories were all unique, creative and funny.
This month, I hope you’ll consider [...]

I’ve been re-reading Orthodoxy, bit by bit, over the last few weeks and I came across a passage that continues to be just about the greatest thing I’ve ever read on paper1. If I feel so strongly about it, why wouldn’t I share it here.
“But the new rebel is a Sceptic, and will not entirely [...]

Last week, I introduced what I hope will be a regular spot of fun here at Words of Redemption: Write What You See – The Monthly Micro-Fiction Challenge.
Click on the link above to catch the details and the general idea if you missed it.
Or, I can give you a brief summary here:
Each month, for WWYS, [...]

Every man’s memory is his private literature. – Aldous Huxley

This is part two of a series on memory and storytelling. For part 1, click here.
I was born in Medford, Oregon in 1978. When I was two months old, my parents moved to Bellevue, Washington, a small town minutes east of Seattle. [...]

“Despite a lack of natural ability, I did have the one element necessary to all early creativity: naïveté, that fabulous quality that keeps you from knowing just how unsuited you are for what you are about to do.” – Steve Martin, Born Standing Up.

What’s keeping you from your art today?

A little under two weeks ago, I wrote about rejection. Mostly around a rejection notice for a short story I’d received the day before. The real theme of the post, I suppose, was to accept rejection, learn from it, and move on. To not be defined by it.
Looking back on that now as a wiser, [...]