Author and Inspired Writer

Six sermons, six orders of service in a little over five weeks!  That’s gotta be some sort of record.  Yes, gentle readers, all my summer services are ready to go.  But hold on, you say, weren’t you only going to preach four sermons in July with a possible fifth last week of June?  Quite right, and that’s the way I explained it to my sister – my older, much wiser and by times annoyingly insightful sister, who, after learning there are five Sundays in July thought I should prepare six sermons in case my minister wanted me to preach all five Sundays and a possible sixth one last week of June.

“Naw,” I said with a certain smugness, “I’m sure it’s four plus one.”

“Um-hm,” she replied, “I’d check that out if I were you.”

So fine.  On Sunday I asked my minister how many Sundays in July she wanted me in the pulpit.

“How many Sundays are there in July?” she asked.

“Five,” I replied.

“Then five,” she said.

“Oh,” I said.

Which goes to show you God put older, much wiser and by times annoyingly insightful sisters on this planet for a reason, and it’s not just so you can borrow their clothes and try to embarrass them in front of their boyfriends – not that I ever did either of those things.

…time to write.  Well, gentle readers, while I haven’t had a lot of time lately, I’ve been making good use of the time I did find, (not housework – never housework) and now, lo and behold, I’ve completed four sermons for my summer services, four Orders of Service which includes all the non-sermon parts of the service such as music, prayers and readings, and twenty-five Magdalen poems.  Now, I’m the first to admit not all those poems are “winners,” and the pace of the writing is much slower than holy cards in part because the research demands are higher, but it’s coming along nicely.  And the Magdalen arising from my pages is engaging, funny, fierce and beautiful.  I just love her.  And I can’t wait to get back to her.

Give her book a five star review, that’s how!  A reader at www.goodreads.com rated holy cards: dead women talking worthy of five stars and added this lovely little review:  “Wow…irreverent, unique and beautifully presented.”  Aw, how sweet!  My first review and it’s a rave!

There’s going to be a big toothy grin plastered on my face for an unreasonably long time to come!

The mister and I rented the movie Cowboys and Aliens on Sunday, mostly because we wanted to see how the writers would reconcile two such disparate entities, and because, as I explained to the mister, any movie with Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford can’t be all bad.

And it wasn’t.  It wasn’t bad at all.  In fact, it was a most enjoyable romp through the quirkiest fantasy this side of the Pecos, or Rigel 7, as the case may be.  This movie stood out not just because of the solid performances of the leads – there’s one scene where their simple exchanged glance becomes funny and articulate dialogue –

Ford:  What the hell are you doing?

Craig:  Haven’t the foggiest.  Just play along, OK?

– but also because of the artistic camera work.  Near the beginning of the movie, Craig is at the bar and he raises his head in a gesture that says he knows the sheriff and his gang are coming to get him any minute now.  “Step away,” he whispers to the woman standing beside him.  She does and then he puts down his drink.  The camera moves in tight on the shot glass and holds our attention there, makes us focus all our attention on the tiny sound it makes as it touches the bar.  A clean, spare, deliberate gesture of such powerful intensity I caught my breath and had the mister replay it for me.  Those few frames right there – well worth the price of the rental.  Add to that the simple joy of watching the characters come together, learn something, and change throughout the movie and I was willing to overlook what was for me a rather high rating on my violence-o-meter.

Might want to check it out.