Embracing an unusual badge of honor
While analyzing my submission and publication activity of this year, I discovered than I am now a member of the 100-rejection club. I’ve actually surpassed that milestone by receiving 101 rejections of my submitted writing in 2025.
Should I be despondent about this high number of rejections? Not at all. In a twisted, perverse sort of way (and aren’t most writers twisted and perverse?), I see it as a badge of honor.
Continue reading “Joining the 100-rejection club”Reposting an old essay on the 23rd anniversary of The Clash front man’s death
NOTE: Soon after Joe Strummer’s death of an apparent heart attack on this date in 2002, I wrote about The Clash co-founder’s influence as a prophetic voice in the world of punk rock and beyond. My attempts to connect Strummer’s musicianship with Christian theology might be a stretch, but it was a fun thought experiment and I enjoyed exploring those tenuous connections on the page (or the screen). I offer it here as my tribute to Strummer, who, in my opinion, embodied the spirit of ’77 punk rock and infused it with global sounds and a politically progressive worldview that is as needed today as ever.
Earlier versions of the essay below were published in 2003 in the online Christian/emerging church publications RELEVANT and The Phantom Tollbooth.
*
Continue reading “Essay: Joe Strummer, punk prophet”My annual list of favorites.
I’ve consumed (read and/or listened to) a lot of books (for me) this year, and I’m still reading some newer releases, but I think I’ve read enough to come up with my at-the-moment year-end list. So, here goes.
Disclaimer: this is not a “best-of” list. I’m not smart enough to declare what is best for anyone but myself. So here you’ll see favorites and least favorites.
Continue reading “Friday Five: the year in books”There are so many great short stories being published these days that it’s hard to keep track of them all. So many deserve to be read and savored. Maybe you’ve read some of the five below that I’ve selected as my favorites of 2025. If not, I hope you’ll give each of them a read. And if you’ve read any of them, maybe give them another read.
All of these stories were published during the 2025 calendar year in online literary magazines and are publicly accessible at the time of this writing. I present them here unranked and in no particular order.
Continue reading “Friday Five: favorite short fiction of 2025”Eleven books for twelve dollars. Money well spent.
Last month, I went to the Rolla (Missouri) Public Library’s fall book sale and came home with a nice haul of reading materials. It was $12 well spent, and the money went to support our local library.
Here’s what I got, and what I hope to read over the holidays and beyond:
Continue reading “Library book sale haul”
