Someone today gave The Stones of Yemen a one-star rating on Amazon. Previously all reviews have been 5-stars. They gave it such a low rating, without finishing the book, because some of the characters use profanities. I’ve been very clear. I adore reality. Non-religious people in the real world use profanities when they are stressed.…

I am a very novice carpenter, trying to build a small house all by myself. Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned in the past few weeks: Mike

I’ve written on suffering before, but at this juncture I feel I can take more liberties, because I’m not suffering. Not much. So I don’t have the inherent fear that I’ll be perceived as wallowing in self-pity. But I’ve made observations of how other people handle suffering and remember how it felt when it was…

Sorry to do two posts in one day, but here goes:

My labs just returned. While I live a life on thin ice, I am happy to celebrate my 11th month of cancer remission. It makes Friday and all day today in the hospital doing infusions worth it. I hope to get back to cottage building by this evening and I will post an update later…

While the three Abrahamic faiths are sewing violence In Israel and her surroundings, there is a sign that peace could finally come to Yemen, whose civil war has been forgotten. It is a war that I became too familiar with during the writing of the Stones of Yemen. But we pray that this peace will…

One of my favorite Stephen King novels, and movie adaptation, is Misery. It has been decades since reading the book or watching the movie, so I decided to watch it today as it was airing on one of our channels. Misery is a story about a famous author, Paul Sheldon, whose car slides off the…

The impetus for the Stones of Yemen was never about money. I knew that I was spending far more in research and editorial assistance than I could ever recoup via sales and royalties. But like a proud parent, you want people to engage with your creation and the more, the merrier. I think all artists…

The first time I heard the statement, “Shit Happens” was in 1988. I was sitting in Cyprus at the villa of the director of our Middle Eastern Christian mission. He made the statement that the last time he flew home to the states, his college-age daughter picked him up and on her back window was…