My SEO Prowess (or I'm Sorry Your Search Lead You Here)

My bloggy friend David Nilsen (who I get to meet in exactly one month - SQUEEE!) has done a few "searches that led to my blog" posts. Below I will shameless rip off this idea. Thanks David. If you had sent your guest post to me in a more timely manner, perhaps this could have been avoided. (Probably not.)

• "hymnal crafts" - Since the church I attend hasn't been around long enough to use hymnals, I don't think I have the materials for these crafts. Sorry.
• "filipino mathematicians" - I'm not Filipino. I'm even MORE not a mathematician. And this is something, because I'm not Filipino in the least. If you go visit Jessica Buttram's blog, you could probably convince her to do a little math with you.
• "i hate things that are tacky" - Preaching to the choir, my friend. 
• "mojo jojo gay" - I'd like to state for the record, I have never made that connection.
• "how do i start kissing husband goodbye" - I suggest a peck on the cheek. You go much further than that and he may decide that he'd just rather stay home. Not that there's anything wrong with that.
• "kids love pictures with coffee" - I think my blog might be a little more adult themed, but if the kids want pictures while they drink their coffee, I'll try to provide.
• "nothing but butts" - This is a fairly regular one, and I always feel bad for these folks, because a picture of a giant ass-shaped rock is probably NOT what they were hoping for.
• "funeral message for a young person who overdozed" - The post that this no doubt landed on is not funny in any way (though Caleb is a great writer and has no aversion to humor), but this search is one of my favorites. When I saw it, all I could think was, "No funeral needed - just spray them with a water gun!" Though maybe I can use it as a threat to my 13 year old when she over-sleeps...

Regardless of how you got here, I'm glad that you've stopped by! 

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If you blog, what's the best search that has landed someone at your site? If you don't blog, have any interesting phrases that we might see checking your search history?

Saturday Evening Blog Post: February 2012 Edition

Elizabeth Esther is hosting her monthly link-up of posts once again. I always find at least a few interesting posts there. I recommend taking some time to click through to some of the posts.

For this month, I've linked up the post We're All Stories. I've taken this week off to work on an e-book, and it deals with this idea as it relates to friendship. I look forward to sharing it with you!

In the meantime, head over to Elizabeth's place and link up your favorite post from last month. And feel free to leave a link here as well, just in case I miss it over there.

Writing Opportunities at Civitas Press

As you may know, last October I published a book of essays about depression with Civitas Press called Not Alone. I also had a piece in the first Civitas community project, The Practice of Love. I'm thankful, both as a reader and a writer, for the good work that is going on over at Civitas.

I wanted to let you know about a few other projects that they have in the pipe right now.

My friend Tamara Lunardo is still accepting submissions for her book, What a Woman is Worth. This book is a collection of stories about the value of women in the Church and in society. Tamara is specifically looking for submissions from women of color (edit: Tamara said that she's really looking for women outside of the white, straight, middle-class American Christian upbringing). Based on the blog carnival that she hosted, I have no doubt that this is going to be a powerful book and I can't wait to read these stories.

Jeremy Myers, who contributed a story to Not Alone, is compiling a book of stories about involvement in the church called Finding Church. He is looking for submissions in four categories: 1) Leaving Church, 2) Returning to Church, 3) Reforming Church, and 4) Changing Church. I absolutely love this idea and I'm excited to see how these stories work together to give different perspectives about the Church. The submission deadline for this is April 30.

And finally, I am still accepting submissions for my project with Civitas, Not Afraid. In this, I'm looking for stories about overcoming fear and finding a sense of significance in the process. I've extended the submission date to March 16th. Most of us have had to face fear at some point and when we do, we overcome through love - loving ourselves, loving the other person, loving God. If you have a story about beating fear, please consider sharing it.

Getting to see your name in a publication can be an exciting thing and I'm thankful for the community projects at Civitas that give folks a chance to get a foot into the publishing world. I know that a lot of you are writers as well, so I encourage you to check out these opportunities!

Saturday Evening Blog Post: January 2012 edition

Elizabeth Esther is once again hosting her link up of your favorite post from January.

While my Tim Tebow post was definitely my most popular of the month, my favorite bit of writing in January was my poem Empty. If you missed it before, I'd love for you to check it out.

Now head on over to Elizabeth's place and link up your writing from last month! And feel free to leave a link here as well, so I don't miss it at Elizabeth's. Have fun!

Post at Provoketive.com

Today I'm posting at Provoketive as part of their synchroblog on hope.

Hope is a difficult subject for me, as I've written about in the past. Here's a snippet of what I'm sharing today.

When I was young, hope was easy. I hoped for a trip to the near-by ice cream stand on a hot summer afternoon. I hoped for the perfect new toy for my birthday. I hoped that I would be able to fake my way through my piano lesson without my teacher recognizing just how little I had practiced. 

But as I aged, my relationship with hope grew rather uneasy. Despite my youthful abandon with hope, the adult me has frequently been afraid to hope. 

I’m not afraid to share my opinion, even if it’s controversial. I’m not afraid to ask difficult questions, even if it means that I may not find a satisfactory answer. I’m not even afraid of spiders, and those things have eight legs and like a million eyes! 

But hope? That one throws me.

I'd love it if you'd click over and read the rest of my post and check out some of the others.

Interview with Jason Boyett

The apocalypse is coming, you guys, and who better to prepare us than Jason Boyett, author of the new book, Pocket Guide to 2012: Your Once-in-a-Lifetime Guide to Not Completely Freaking Out.

I've had the opportunity to get to know Jason a little bit over the past couple of years through the social media. His book O Me of Little Faith was the first book about doubt that I ever read and it gave me hope and assurances that I wasn't the only one who felt this way.

Jason is a fantastic, funny, informative writer. I was very much looking forward to his take on the end times and I was not disappointed. Jason gives tons of information in a way that manages to be both hilarious and still somewhat respectful (which is difficult, given the subject manner). I had the chance to ask Jason a few questions about his new book, moving from traditional publishing to self-publishing, and his own apocalypse prediction.

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Alise Write: So what is it with you and the apocalypse?

Jason Boyett: A better question is: What is it with EVERYONE and the Apocalypse? I'm not alone in my apocalypse fascination, but I guess I'm part of a smaller group that's more interested in debunking apocalyptic nonsense rather than promoting it. If we want to get into the armchair psychologist mode, I guess I can tie it back to my early teenage years. I lived through a very real (to me at least), looming apocalyptic threat in the summer between 8th and 9th grades. That was 1988, when a guy named Edgar Whisenant gained a lot of national media exposure for predicting the Rapture for September 13-15 of that year. He wrote a book called 88 Reasons Why the Rapture Will Be in 1988, and sent it to pastors all over the country. One of them was my own childhood pastor, a guy I trusted completely. He preached that he believed the Rapture would occur that September, and I spent that summer before my entry into high school thinking it would be my last. I said goodnight to my parents the evening of September 15 -- the tail end of Whisenant's "Rapture window" -- wondering if I'd never see Mom and Dad again in this life.

I was relieved when I woke up the next morning to a bright, sunny, apocalypse-free world. I figure that's when my interest in unfounded End Times predictions probably began. I lived through a summer of apocalyptic fear. I'm a little bitter about it, and I don't want other kids (or adults) to have to experience the same. But rather than stoning false prophets, Old Testament-style, I find it easier to make fun of them. Anyway, Pocket Guide to the Apocalypse was one of my first books. It came out in 2005. Ever since the 2012 phenomenon started gaining steam, I've wanted to update PGTTA to include it. That didn't work out, so I went the self-published e-book route.

AW: There are an awful lot of end-time prophesies laid out in your book. What was your primary source for research on this topic (come on Wikipedia!)?

JB: Totally Wikipedia! Not exactly... Wikipedia is a wonderful place to start, of course, but any good researcher knows he or she needs to dig a few clicks further. There are a ton of good scholarly books about Apocalyptic fervor, many of which I listed in the bibliography section of Pocket Guide to 2012 (and had already used for my Apocalypse book). Other than those, Google Books and the Amazon "Click to Look Inside!" feature (not to mention Kindle downloads) are glorious inventions for researchers like me who already have a shelf-load of apocalypse books and aren't exactly thirsty for more.

AW: Did you have a favorite story associated with impending doom? (I was partial to the apocalyptic chicken.)

JB: Mary Bateman and her prophesying doom-chicken is a hilarious story, of course. But I'm partial to the crazy saga of William Miller and the Millerites from 1844, for a couple of reasons. The first is because it was such a huge, widespread phenomenon that, when Jesus failed to return as predicted, history actually gave the event a lasting nickname: The Great Disappointment. The second is because we're still seeing the fallout from that frenzy today -- the Seventh-Day Adventist Church is a direct descendent of William Miller's disappointed followers, and they remain pretty fascinated with the End Times.

AW: What date would you like to throw out there as a potential expiration date for the world?

JB: In approximately 7.5 billion years, our sun will follow the typical life cycle of a star and will expand into what's known as a red giant, engulfing Mercury, Venus, and maybe even the Earth in its diameter of fiery gases. Which means life on Earth -- if it still exists by then -- will become extinct. That's as far as I'm willing to reach with any kind of prediction. Also, I suspect it will happen on a Thursday.

AW: This was your first self-published book. What was your favorite part about doing this on your own?

JB: The immediacy of the timeline. When you write and get a book published with a traditional publisher, you end up finishing the manuscript months -- and maybe a year or more -- before it hits bookshelves. So you're doing publicity about content you researched and wrote about last year, and have already forgotten. I always end up needing to brush up on a topic when it comes time to do radio and print interviews about one of my books. But with self-publishing, the whole process takes place in light speed. I started writing this book in September. I finished in December. I had it edited, made some revisions, then formatted it and uploaded it and people were downloading it within two weeks of me having completed the manuscript. I love that.

AW: What was your least favorite part?

JB: E-book formatting. I'm a designer by trade. I love drop caps and elegant typography and well-considered chapter headings and justification and spacing and all the little details of book design. But you have to forget that when you're publishing for different sizes of Kindles, and different platforms and devices. You have to let go of the fancy stuff and allow the user to dictate type size and other formatting elements, which can be maddening for perfectionists like me. You get the best, Jason-approved version of the book by downloading the e-book PDF from my website and reading it on an iPad or computer desktop. The other versions, while way more popular and device-friendly, make me grit my teeth a little.

(Alise here. If you want a more detailed answer for why Jason chose self-publishing this time, check out this blog post he wrote.)

AW: What are your plans for December 21, 2012?

JB: December 21, 2012, is a Friday, which means I'll probably be doing what I do almost every Friday night: eating pizza with my family and my brother's family at my parents' house, which is a weekly Boyett tradition. Then we'll play games together and celebrate the fact that we didn't die in an asteroid-induced inferno, or a series of crust-shaking earthquakes, or alien invasion or whatnot. Which is to say: my plans for that day will be no different than any other Friday in 2012 (though they may include dropping the price of my book at Amazon and Barnes & Noble, because it will be on the cusp of irrelevance).

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Thanks, Jason, for stopping by today and letting us know where to find you for the end of the world!

Be sure to pick up a copy of The Pocket Guide to 2012 at Jason's site, or for your Kindle, or Nook. I'm not saying it will be the end of the world if you don't, but you never know.

Post at ChurchLeaders.com and Provoketive.com

Thanks all for your kind retweets and Facebook shares of my piece yesterday. You all are pretty awesome. But only in an "I like you" way, not in any kind of idolatrous way. Because that would be silly.

Anyway, my post was picked up by Jonathan Brink over at Provoketive and by the good people at ChurchLeaders.com. I'm delighted that my tiny, little nod to Zaphod Beeblebrox is getting some play out there (I assume that's the draw).

If you're stopping by here from either of those sites, welcome! You can check out some of my favorite posts on the sidebar on the right, and you can click on the button below to subscribe to my blog. I'd love for you to take the journey with us!

Interview with Shawn Smucker

Regular readers of this blog will remember Shawn Smucker, author of My Amish Roots, from his guest posts in February and in August, not to mention his numerous appearances in my Stuff I've Been Reading round-ups. Shawn is a remarkably talented and thoughtful writer and he is a smart and funny friend. And while I find his taste in cereal questionable, I can overlook that because he wrote one of my all-time most favorite essays on the internet.

When Shawn said that he was releasing a book about his Amish heritage, I was excited to read it, even though I have an uneasy relationship with both non-fiction and history. Of course, Shawn did not disappoint. He is a beautiful story-teller and this book was no exception. Shawn weaves his own story into that of his ancestors and in so doing, shows the ways in which we are the same and which we are different. I loved reading the excerpts from various diaries and experiencing the sadness and joy that his extended family went through for more than 200 years.

I asked Shawn a few questions about writing and his family and cereal and I'd love to share them with you here. Enjoy

Alise: What was your research method for this book? How much was found in journals and how much was found through oral tradition?


Shawn: I spent a lot of time with my grandmother’s brothers and sisters. That’s where most of the stories came from. But I also got some great information from my great-great-grandfather’s journal from 1893 – 1896 (this is included in the back of the book).

Alise: You’re a regular blogger. How does writing a book like this compare to blogging? What are the similarities and what are the differences?

Shawn: I don’t feel like there’s very much of a comparison. Both have their challenges. It’s tough coming up with something to blog about every day, but it’s also a challenge to maintain the momentum required to complete a 75,000 word manuscript. I think that what I liked about writing the family history was that I got to experiment with some different forms of writing, different voices, things like that.

Alise: What did you discover about yourself as you wrote this book?

Shawn: There is a deeper connection between me and the physical landscape of my hometown than I ever imagined. Maybe it’s because we’ve lived here for over 200 years. Maybe it’s because having such a large extended family gave me a huge sense of belonging as a kid. I’m not sure, but the rolling fields, the farmland, the streams and forests, have started to feel like just another relative.

Alise: How do you think your storytelling compares to that of your ancestors?

Shawn: Ha! For some reason, that question made me laugh. They were very stoic, very basic. My great-great-grandfather’s journal is a series of one-sentence days. I wish I could talk storytelling with them.

Alise: What do you hope to pass on from your children, not just about your roots, but about your own story?

Shawn: My great (x10) grandfather left his home to come to a new world. My great-great-grandparents both lost spouses before meeting each other. If anything, I’d love my children to inherit this resilience and sense of adventure.

Alise: Do you feel like your ancestors would agree that Lucky Charms are a superior cereal, or would they be more reasonable and recognize the inherent greatness of Golden Grahams?

Shawn: To be honest, I don’t think my Amish ancestors would be down with anything having to do with charms or gold. Guess we’re still deadlocked on that one.

Thanks so much for stopping by Shawn!

Please be sure to stop by Shawn's site to order your autographed copy of My Amish Roots in time for Christmas. You can also hook up with Shawn on Twitter and on Facebook. If you want to win a copy of Shawn's book, he's giving away two copies every Friday in December! Just head over to his blog and sign up to be on his email list.

Saving the Rant for Another Day

I like to get ranty. I could easily link every one of the words in that previous sentence to a rant that I've written here on the blog. And that wouldn't even begin to touch on the litany of verbal rants that I've issued over the years. Strong opinions are kind of my thing.

And right now, there are a lot of issues that are very deserving of strong opinions. The whole Penn State pedophile problem and how this could be Joe Paterno's unfortunate legacy. Bob Jones University appointing Chuck Phelps to its board of trustees, despite his defense of rapist Ernie Willis. The Mississippi Personhood Amendment and what that may have meant. All big stories, all worthy of discussion.

But as I started thinking about how I might write about them, I also started thinking about a post my friend Ed Cyzewski wrote about six weeks ago. In it, he wrote:

When I think of how we could use our blogs, I wonder what it would look like to use them as our story-telling platforms for the Kingdom-building work that God is using us to do. That requires first getting into the game by recognizing what God wants us to do where we are: bringing healing where there has been racism, injustice, homophobia, misogyny, or a natural disaster. 

Then we can tell our better stories and create a proactive, redemptive culture in the church.

It's very easy for me to write about what's wrong, but it's often harder to wrote about what's going right.

But today, here are a few proactive things that I see going on.

• Darkness to Light is a fantastic organization that is training people to help prevent child sexual abuse. They offer lots of practical information on their website and they have a Stewards of Children online program that you can take for only $10.
• I've mentioned before (and will mention again!) that my friend Tamara Lunardo is compiling and editing the book What a Woman is Worth through Civitas Press. You can submit your story to help encourage women know their value.
• The Good Woman Project is a fantastic website and ministry that is reaching out to women to help them see their true identity. They have a mentoring program that connects women in a more personal way.

What are some ways that you choose to be proactive rather than to just react to negative stories that you hear? Do you have any recommendations for groups that serve those who are hurt by the stories listed above?

Why Do I Blog?

This week marks my sixth year of blogging. As you may have gathered from my post last week, it's probably a surprise that I've managed to last this long. Trust me, no one is more shocked than I am.

So why do it? Why, day after (almost every) day continue to put it myself out there? A few reasons, I suppose.

• The fame. Nothing distinguishes you from the masses like having a blog. I mean, there are only 152,000,000 blogs on the internet. Famous things are popular. Therefore, because it's popular to have a blog, I am famous. (Like my Facebook page! Follow me on Twitter!)
• The money. Famous = rich, right?
• The easy content. Since posts go up more days than not, it makes sense that the actual creation of posts is simple. Knock out those words, then sit back and rake in the rewards.

Okay, so anyone who has blogged (or written anything) knows that this is not so. Blogging probably won't make you famous or rich and frequently it's not all that easy to come up with compelling, worth-while content. So for reals? Why keep doing?

• The relationships. No, I'm not famous (though I've had the opportunity to blog for some folks who are significantly more famous than me!), but I've made some really amazing relationships over the years. My virtual village lives in blogland and I am truly grateful for the friendships that I've developed.
• The book opportunities. Again, these aren't big money-makers, but due to the blog, I have been able to have a book published and am currently working on compiling a second. I would not have had these opportunities if not for blogging.
• The hard content. I'm thankful for this being a place where I can write about stuff that's hard, like coming to grips with an interfaith-marriage or tackling LGBT issues. You have made it safe to write about feeling rejected or even just anticipating rejection. Blogging has let me work out some of my crazy and I hope that it's given a reader or two the opportunity to work out some of their own crazy. 

So thanks for continuing to read. This place would be way more boring without you.

And if you figure out how to get famous and rich from blogging, let me know.

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Do you blog? Why do you do it? Leave a link to your blog and/or to your favorite blog in the comments!

Post at Provoketive.com

For the record, this is gonna' be one of "those" weeks. You know, where I post more elsewhere than here. Sorry.

My friend and publisher Jonathan Brink has started a new online magazine called Provoketive. Jonathan has a really fantastic way of gathering together top notch writers giving them a place to shine and he's doing that yet again with this endeavor. I'm honored to be among the writers there and to share my first piece. Where I write about Beavis & Butt-head.

Heh. Heh heh heh. Heh heh. 

The smartest show about the dumbest people is back. 

Last Thursday night I cozied up with a wine cooler, some nachos and turned on MTV for the first time in years to watch the return of Mike Judge's Beavis and Butt-head. 

One of my favorite moments in the show was just two minutes in, when the screen turned to flame and Beavis began chanting "fire!" Those familiar with Beavis and Butt-head will remember that shortly after the show premiered back in 1993, there was an accident involving fire that was blamed on the show, resulting in the banishment of that phrase from further episodes. The glorification of destructive behavior on a satirical show for adults was held responsible for the actions of a five-year old child. This was around the same time of the infamous McDonald's coffee lawsuit, and we began to hear a new buzz word emerge. 

Personal responsibility.

Head on over to Provoketive to read the rest of the article!

Writing Strategies for the Perpetual Procrastinator

Most weekdays I try to post something new to my blog. I have been able to do this consistently for about a year and a half now. Today I share my method with you.

1. Jolt awake at 3:27 AM with a brilliant idea. Realize that you forgot to buy that notebook you've been meaning to pick up for the past 8 months for moments like this. Determine that this idea is so good that there's no way you can forget what it is, so rather than getting out of bed to jot it down, go back to sleep, secure in the knowledge that it will be waiting for you in the morning.
2. Oversleep because you forgot to set alarm. After getting everyone out the door, remember that you had an idea in the middle of the night. Realize that you can't remember it, and promise to buy a notebook to put by your bed for moments like that so you don't forget it the next time that happens.
3. Sit at computer so you can get started writing.

4. Realize that you forgot to make coffee. Scroll through your Twitter feed while the coffee brews, because you don't want to interrupt your writing to get coffee when the press is done. Hope to find an idea you can steal from one of the people that you follow.
5. Get coffee. Read email and play mindless game on Facebook while you drink it because you need to be focused to write and coffee helps with that.
6. Start writing. Get about 200 words in, decide that it's crap and delete the whole thing. 
7. More coffee.
8. Check out blogs in the reader. Now on top of feeling uninspired, feel like a terrible writer compared to everyone else. Consider deleting blog.
9. Wonder if it's too soon to write another post about how neurotic you are.
10. Decide you don't care if it's too soon. Write an opening sentence.
11. Watch YouTube video of a kitten chasing a laser.
12. Look at the clock and realize that it's now noon and the day is half over. Blurt out 300 words (most of which are eerily similar to what you deleted earlier). Hit submit.
13. Try to decide if noon means that it's okay to switch from coffee to wine. (This step? Is why you still don't have that notebook by your bed for the 3:27 AM ideas.)

What writing strategies do you employ? Are you participating in NaNoWriMo? Or do you have any other writing goals for this month?


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This is a part of the One Word at a Time Blog Carnival hosted by Peter Pollock. You can read more submissions and add your own here.

Grateful

I've been feeling a bit whiny lately. Jason had to leave a few days early on a business trip, which has him gone for 10 days in a row. And it's been mostly grey and rainy out here. And a couple of gigs for our band haven't panned out. And the good-idea fairy has been visiting everyone else but me recently. And whine, whine, whine.

It's easy for me to be negative. It's easy for me to get up on a soap-box. It's easy for me to embrace cynicism.

On Tuesday, my friend Larry Hehn posted a piece about celebrating things we like instead of simply ranting about things that we don't. I thought about waiting until next month to do this because it might be redundant to have to thanksgiving posts, but you know? I think it'll be okay if I'm thankful for things more than once a year. So here we go.

I'm grateful for:

• that moment in the mornings when I'm alone in the house and the only sounds are a cat purring on my lap and the coffee brewing in the kitchen.
• the smell of clean laundry.
• that perfect spot in my husband's arms where I feel totally comfortable and protected and cherished.
• the feeling of accomplishment after absolutely nailing a song.
• Skype Bible study with my mom and sisters.
• the times I get to watch my oldest daughter march with a perfect roll step.
• silly Twitter memes that make me laugh for a solid minute.
• the sound of my sons' combined laughter.
• a perfectly cooked, deliciously seasoned medium-rare steak.
• a chord in a piece of music that makes me catch my breath.
• friends who think that the grocery store is a perfectly sane place to hang out and laugh.
• feeling the air in my lungs when I'm cooling down after a run.
• my youngest daughter's stories about the adventures that she and her stuffed animals are having.
• conversations that weren't planned and interfere with what a I have to do and are completely worth it.

What are you grateful for today?

Feeling Rank

In case you missed the one thing that I have talked or written about pretty much non-stop for the past couple of weeks, Not Alone is available for purchase. On Amazon. Where people buy books by John Irving and Stephen King.

One of the things that happens when you have a book on Amazon is that your book has a rank. If you're someone like Irving or King, then that's a good thing. Your numbers are probably like 1 or 2. You write something, millions of people buy it, you go live it up with your big piles of book money and you don't give your Amazon ranking a second thought. Or at least, I imagine that's how it works.

When your name is Alise Wright, it's a little different.

It's very easy for me to get obsessive about stuff like this. The first day that Not Alone was available on Amazon, I was intrigued, watching the sales rank float around. For me having a small blog, being with a small publishing company and having strictly word of mouth advertising, I felt like the rank was a perfectly respectable number.

And then it started falling. By numbers that seemed ridiculously large.

So I did what I normally do, which was to get all weird and then tweet about it. My very wise friend Kathy suggested that I not log into Amazon for a while. Or ever. Because the sales ranks fluctuate dramatically and someone is going to hate the book and give it a 1 star rating and none of it matters that much anyway. She is smart, so I shut down Amazon. For like seven whole hours.

Because what I'm really good at is ignoring advice that is absolutely solid and will result in me being slightly less neurotic than I actually am. What I'm really good at is tying my worth to a number that is completely subjective. What I'm really good at is taking something that is really simple and making it much more complicated.

I do this with my faith all the time. I brush off advice from those who have more wisdom than me because to do what they suggest requires far more self-control than I want to exercise. I put my value in how many ministries I'm serving in or how much time I spend reading the Bible or how many times I talk about God on my blog. I take something simple like "love your neighbor" and make it all complicated by attaching conditions and addenda to it that make it more palatable to me.

And in all of this, I start ranking faith. Not just my own, but everybody else's. And it fluctuates wildly when I do this. Catch me when I've had enough rest and I've played with my kids and listened to some good Christian music and written something spiritually insightful and bam! I'm hanging with the big boys. Or maybe I was up late dealing with an angry child and I ate a whole container of Ben & Jerry's and watched 5 episodes of South Park in a row. And I feel like I'm sitting down at the bottom of the pile.

Jesus told us how to be great. Be like a child.

When I get all hung up on my Amazon ranking, it takes two seconds of hanging out with my kids to be cured of that. They. Don't. Care. I mean, they care in the general sense that it's cool that I have a book, but Amazon ranks don't matter. What matters is just that I was engaged with them. And when I do, it's a benefit to all of us.

God doesn't have a ranking system that updates hourly and makes adjustments depending on my actions. He just wants me to engage. He wants me to love him and love people around me. And when I do, my God ranking doesn't improve, I improve.

I don't even need to be an Irving or King to do that.

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Where do you compare yourself to others? What can you do today to engage with God and/or with those around you?


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Today I'm linking up with Joy In This Journey as a part of the Life: Unmasked series. Stop by Joy's blog to read more or to share your own story.

Not Alone Blog Tour

October 1 was the official release from Civitas Press of the Not Alone book. In order to celebrate, I've asked the contributors and some other blogging friends to share portions of their stories and their impressions of the book. This link-up will be active all week long and I hope that you'll stop by throughout the week to check it out and see what people are saying about the book.

If you have read it, I'd love it if you would consider leaving a review at Amazon. I genuinely believe that this is an important book and I would love to see it reach as many people as possible.

Thanks again to all who are participating in the blog tour. I know this wasn't an easy book to read and I appreciate you taking the time to review it. And of course, thank you a million times to all of the contributors. Your stories are powerful and dynamic and I am incredibly grateful to you for your generosity in sharing them.

Now, start to the clicking!

(Quick note to those linking up: Where it says "your name" please type the name of your post or your blog. That's what will be displayed in the link-up. And in the link, please include a direct link to the review. Thanks!)

Interview with Knox McCoy

Back in April, I had the distinct pleasure of being asked to be a part of Awesometown over at Knox McCoy's blog. Now, I'm probably one of the oldest members of Awesometown and it's just a bit too noisy for me, so I summer over here in Prodigiousburgh (with the H because why stop at G?). Still a resident of Awesometown, but without riff-raff like Tamara Out Loud.

Anyway, Knox has taken a moment away from his brand new baby girl to stop by Prodigiousburgh today and talk about his delightfully funny and surprisingly insightful book, Jesus and The Bachelorette: Finding Christ Among Roses, Tanned Bodies and Hyperbole. Because the man has to pay the bills.

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Alise Wright: First, my maiden name is McCoy. What are the odds that you and I are related?

Knox McCoy: One thousand percent. I don’t know about you, but my surname has a collection of “colorful” personalities on the limbs of it’s tree, so absolutely nothing is off the table in terms of relations. If my family had less people in jail and we could actually pull off a reunion, you and I would TOTALLY see each other there.

AW: Most of us can understand the desire to write about The Bachelorette, but what made you think to tie it to Christianity?

KM: I’ll just say it: I’m kind of strange in terms of what I find similarities in. But I think on some level, for me, similarities are more impactful when they are strange. It makes me listen more. If I’m in church and the Pastor makes a limp comparison of David and Jonathan to some other bibilical pairing, I’m probably going to daydream 15 seconds in. But if he compares them to Mario and Liugi or Uncle Joey and Uncle Jesse, I’m ALL in and taking notes.

AW: Did you share this project with anyone in your church? What were their thoughts about it?

KM: Absolutely no one. I’m terrible at self-promotion. I’m savant-like in how truly awkward I can be with positive attention. And also because explaining the link between topics does take a bit of, um, finesse?

AW: While writing this book, were there any comparisons between The Bachelorette and Christianity that caught you by surprise?

KM: I think the chapter using the fantasy suite jumps out in my mind. For the uninitiated, the fantasy suite episode is basically when the contestants have the sex audition for the Bachelor/ette. I compared the awkwardness of that episode with the awkwardness of Christians who are supposed to be all about love and then judge everyone in their field of vision. I wasn’t sure that comparison was going to hold water and it’s probably pretty debatable that it did, but I liked that I got to talk about the sex audition because I mean when you can work an idea like a sex audition into a book about Christianity, I think you pretty much have to do it. Everytime.

AW: What is the line that you’re most proud of in the book?

KM: The bail out answer would be: “anything that bridged a gap between perception and reality for a reader in terms of their faith.” But you know what, Alise? I don’t DO bail out answers.

This line is probably my favorite because of the idea behind it, which is close to my heart:

“Though the big picture focus is good, we Christians tend to get caught up in thelittle picture things. The fine print of our faith, as it were, and this serves toinflame the larger cultural opinion about us. Whether it’s only paying lip service toloving our neighbors, allowing ignorant ideas to speak for us or rigidly holdingnon-believers to our biblical standards, the point is that these little details fog outour overarching hope and instead emphasize our worst qualities.”

AW: If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring author, what would it be?

KM: 

• Write. Don’t ever stop producing. Your early stuff will be awful, but it will get so much better.
• Make friends that if you never ask them to help you, you’d still be friends with them.
• Three drafts of everything. If beauty, wit and realization are going to arrive, they will always arrive in that last draft.
• Find your voice and fly your freak flag. People will resonate with authentic voices, never with imitations though.

AW: If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring Bachelor/ette contestant, what would it be?

KM: If you have a child, just don’t. Instead of pouring all that energy into hopefully seducing a stranger, maybe be a parent instead?

AW: If you could give one piece of advice to an aspiring Christian, what would it be?

KM:

• Challenge yourself. Know what you believe and WHY you believe it.
• Love people, first and foremost, and this will allow others to define you with you supplying the definition.
• Concern yourself with others, particularly the less fortunate, and your happiness will be easy to maintain.

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Thanks so much Knox! Now, go forth from this place and purchase Knox's book. Because you guys, it has a chapter about sex auditions. And for reals, I have watched half an episode of a Bachelorette-style show and never the ACTUAL Bachelor/ette, and the book is still fantastic. Also, please be sure to subscribe to his blog so you can read his new serial and follow him on Twitter.

Not Alone Available on Amazon!

In case you missed my media blast on Sunday, Not Alone is now available for purchase on Amazon! Which means if you buy it right now and pay for stupid expensive shipping rates, you can have it tomorrow! (You don't have to do that. But you know, you could.)

And just so you don't think that I'm the only person who likes this book, here are the endorsements that it has received (so far!):



"Stories are powerful. They humanize us, wreak havoc on our prejudices, and bind us together like societal glue. The personal essays in Not Alone do all these things. For those of us outside depression, they help us recognize bits of ourselves in an unfamiliar landscape. For those already intimate with depression, these stories can be a lifeline to community, an extended hand in the darkness. They show us no one is alone, and that point is worth celebrating.” — Jason Boyett, author of O Me of Little Faith and the Pocket Guide series


“When our journeys take us down dark and unfamiliar paths, we don’t need leaders with all the answers; we need friends with open arms. Not Alone brings together the voices of many such friends in essays that are alive with wisdom, honesty, humor, and grace. What makes this book so powerful is the diversity of the stories shared within it. No two journeys through depression are exactly the same, and yet no one needs to travel alone. What a joy it is to see such an impressive assemblage of smart, talented, and creative writers speaking words of hope into the world!” — Rachel Held Evans, popular blogger and author of Evolving in Monkey Town


"A book like this transcends a memoir. These essays make up a quasi-support group, where the reader can share in the experiences of multiple sufferers. Highly recommended for those who want to understand the 'human' element of depression.” — Rob Dobrenski, Ph.D., Licensed Psychologist and author of Crazy: Notes on and off the Couch


I am so excited to get this into the hands of as many people as possible. And as a little bit of a teaser, I will send a PDF including the foreword by the lovely and talented Elizabeth Esther and five stories to the first 10 people who comment here and leave a way for me to email you a PDF! (I promise, I won't spam you or sign you up for my RSS or anything gross like that - I'll just send you the sampler.)


So you have something to comment about, What book have you read recently that you would recommend? Or recommend against?

Seven Post Challenge

I'm short on time today due to yesterday's post taking it out of me and a visit from my parents to help clean (while I was laying emotional & spiritual garbage out for you, they've been helping me with some actual garbage in my home and I am supremely thankful for that), and since my friend Janet Oberholtzer tagged me in her post, I thought I'd go ahead and do this myself. Let's go!

• Most Beautiful Post: Tetelestai -- This was pretty early on the blog, but I still think it's pretty lovely.
• Most Popular Post: A Christ-Centered Marriage -- I'm going with most popular on the blog, rather than most popular thing I've written, which was almost certainly my guest post over at Rachel Held Evans's place, Surviving a Conversation with an Atheist. (See how I did that there?)
• Most Controversial Post: My Big Gay Post -- Actually, it's kind of a toss-up between this one and the previous one. I got a fair amount of push back from both of those pieces. But truly, some excellent discussion on both as well.
• Most Helpful Post: Let's Make 37 Young -- Wherein you guys helped me raise $370 for Nuru International. Because you're awesome.
• Post Whose Success Surprised Me: Free Will and Calvinist Atheists -- I still get a fair number of hits to this one and that catches me off guard. But I'm so thankful for my friend's honesty and her thoughts about her deconversion.
• Post I Feel Didn't Get the Attention It Deserved: The Roof is Coming Down -- I often find myself in the more peripheral characters in Bible stories and this is no exception. This was a fun one.
• Post that I am Most Proud Of: How Substantial Are Your Buns -- Mostly because I adore this title, the pic, and the fact that I was able to pull a post out of something that I was sure had no post appeal. Also, I love that you have, in fact, been some substantial buns.

Feel free to click on through and give a read to any of these you may have missed back in the day. 

And if you're reading this, consider yourself tagged. If you post it on your own site, shoot a link over in the comments. If you don't want to do the game, I'd still love it if you'd leave me a link to your favorite post that you've written (if you blog) or that you've read (if you don't - or even if you do, that's cool). 

Even if you don't read anything here I still want you to have a great day, so here is my most favorite video clip about seven. Because truly, everything (!) relates back to Seinfeld.

Book Review: Run With Me by Jennifer Luitwieler

From the first post I ever read by Jennifer Luitwieler, I have been a fan. It's always a joy to find someone who is able to blend of humor and honesty in their writing and in Run With Me: An Accidental Runner and the Power of Poo, Jen does this with a deft hand.

Despite the title, this is not a book about running. Jen begins running to train The Dog to poop outside rather than in her craft room and is, of course, forced to carry his feces after he has done the deed. But long after she dumps the dog and runs for herself, Jen discovers that she is still carrying poo with her. Crap that clung to her and weighed her down and told her that she was unable to do everything that she wanted to do. That stopped her from doing everything that she could do.

She dives into her struggles with depression, both as a young woman and as an adult. She talks about growing up, the daughter of a pastor, dealing with judgments from church. She writes about overcoming body issues and loving her Lycra running shorts. She shares stories that will make you laugh, will make you gag (I can take poop stories, but draw the line at booger stories!), will make you cry and will make you reflect.

I've become friends with Jen through social media over the past year and a bit, but after reading her memoir, I feel that I know her even better. And I love that in reading Run With Me, I know a bit more about myself as well.

Be sure to pick up a copy of Run With Me: An Accidental Runner and the Power of Poo. Also, connect with Jen at her blog, on Facebook and on Twitter.

Bryan Allain's Blogging Mojo Isn't for Powerpuff Girls

I'll be honest, when I think of Mojo, I mostly think of this guy:

Mojo Jojo

So yeah, I kept looking for tips to defeating a big-brained monkey to show up somewhere in Bryan Allain's new book, 31 Days to Finding Your Blogging Mojo. Alas, I was disappointed on that front.

However, that was where my disappointment ended! In 31 Days, Bryan lays out all kinds of fantastic, practical advice to help improve your blogging skills so that you can get your message out more effectively.

What I really appreciated about this book was that it required something from you. Not just the normal stuff like, go write more!, but instead he offers targeted suggestions to help you hone in on your audience, your perspective, and your content. And to get the most out of the book, you need to follow through on his suggestions. Probably even the suggestions to do jumping jacks. (We writers tend to be sedentary folks.)

Bryan has a great mix of humor and butt-kicking in this book, and there's no doubt that the former helps the latter go down easier. He walks you through what you need to in order to have a better blog, but like any kind of self-improvement, you have to do the work. Fortunately, 31 Days to Finding Your Blogging Mojo has the tools that you need to get that work done.

If you're a new or seasoned blogger, I recommend checking out Bryan's book. There's good advice in it for all of us and it can help you improve your blog.

Check out the 31 Days to Mojo website and for reals, head over to Amazon and pick up the book. It's five bucks and your blog is worth more than that.

But if you're a Powerpuff Girl, you'll want to look elsewhere for tips on defeating your arch enemy. Maybe Bryan's next book.