Please pray for my friend Niki (photo). She was just kicked in the head by a horse, and has undergone a stroke and two brain operations. Hundreds of prayers have gone out for her, and she is – truly miraculously – getting better. Here’s an excerpt from my book “Touch of the Man” the publishing date of which has now been pushed back to early next year for marketing purposes. This is from the chapter called “Hawk Trapping” and reminisces on some of Niki’s and my adventures together… I got ready with the cage. “Tell me when!” My hand was on the door handle. “Not yet…” Niki drove slowly past the hawk. “If we put it down now she’ll see us and know we’re up to something.” We drove just a little ways further and Niki slowed more. “Ok get ready.” Just as the car stopped I opened the door and swiftly set the cage down on the shoulder. Back inside I closed the car door very softly and we nonchalantly drove on down the road. Then we turned around and came back just far enough so we could watch and see what happened. Through our binoculars we could see  [ Read More ]

Thanks a MILLION to Shari Gilford who spent multiplied hours editing and re-editing the original manuscript of “Touch of the Man.” Her comments and suggestions led me to a “eureka” that I am SO glad I arrived at BEFORE publishing! The revelation is this: How to write for the common person’s ENJOYMENT. Turns out all my writing experience up to this poing has been 1. Writing articles for ministry newsletters – not much else than retelling facts 2. Writing grant proposals – very dry serious facts and hard-core persuasion 3. Writing Doctoral theses – as dry and serious as it gets. But to write for the enjoyment of the common person out there? I had no idea. LESSON 1: See the purpose of the book. In the past few days I have ripped out 29 pages of stories that didn’t need to be there. Funny how you cry and cry over deleting someting and then one day it hits you and you go, “Why have I got that in there? Get rid of it!” How do you come to this point? See the STORYLINE and what you want to ACCOMPLISH with the writing. As long as that is foggy, the  [ Read More ]