Most poets are thrilled when one of their books of poems is published, but Katie Manning, an outstanding poet who also teaches in the English Department at Azusa Pacific University, gets to experience that joy three times this year, as three of her chapbooks are being published by three different publishers. This success did not come easily. She has been …
Fiction or Non-Fiction: Which Is More Rewarding to Write?
I have written four novels and four non-fiction books. People have often asked me which type of book I prefer to write. I recently read an article in the New York Times in which novelist and non-fiction writer Sally Koslow answered that question about her own writing. She wrote, “While I’m writing, whatever genre I’m committed to becomes my favorite.” …
What Sherlock Holmes Taught Me About Jesus
Who is Jesus? That is the question we discussed recently in a class I teach at my church. If he were conducting his earthly ministry among us today, what identity would he adopt? Would he be a liberal Democrat? A conservative Republican? Would he like the music I like? Who would his favorite authors be? What movies would he watch? …
Why I Took My Students to a Murder Site
The most recent field trip in my Honors California Literature course was to a nearby murder site made famous in an essay called “Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream,” by Joan Didion. On October 7, 1964, Lucille and Gordon Miller were driving home from the Mayfair market after midnight on a sparsely traveled road called Banyan Street in Alta Loma. …
When God Answers Your Prayers: Interview with Karen O’Connor
This week I am happy to host an interview with my friend and fellow writer, Karen O’Connor. Her newest book is When God Answers Your Prayers: Inspiring Stories of How God Comes Through in the Nick of Time. I had the privilege of contributing two of my own answers to prayer for this book. Karen wrote about my stories in …
Creating a Perfect Opening for a Novel—Raymond Chandler’s “The Big Sleep”
In the California literature Honors course that I am teaching at Azusa Pacific University this semester, we are studying Raymond Chandler’s novel, The Big Sleep, a classic of hardboiled detective fiction that features private investigator Philip Marlowe solving mysteries in a noir-ish and unforgettable Los Angeles setting. After the students read the book, one of the first ways we studied …
Teaching and the Joy of Repeating Oneself
One of the most frequent questions I get asked about teaching is, don’t you get tired of teaching the same things year after year? The answer is a resounding No. I never get tired of it. In fact, the repetition is part of what I enjoy about my job. I am in my 22nd year as a professor of English …
Pretend Someone is Watching–and Other Tips to Help Your Writing
A couple weeks ago I wrote a post that compared the discipline of running to the discipline of writing. That struck a nerve with some readers who have never even put on a pair of running shoes. I am following up this week with three more crucial disciplines from running that help me as a writer. Unless I follow these …
What Running Reveals About Writing
I run several mornings a week, but there is a point in the running process when I just don’t want to do it. Those moments of resistance taught me something important about another activity that is important to me—the discipline of writing. By the time I have been out on my morning run for about 15 minutes, I start to …
Forty-Seven Different Endings? Some Lessons from Hemingway about Revision
For the past several weeks my students and I have been immersed in the novels of Ernest Hemingway. I have had the pleasure of teaching a course on him and William Faulkner this semester. In most literature courses, we study only the final, published drafts of novels and other works of literature. That gives us the chance to enjoy the …