Four Things...

My friend Steph tagged me on her Xanga blog with this interesting little survey. Here goes:

Four Jobs That You Have Had In Your Life
1. Copy Editor at the Indianapolis Weekly (now defunct--hopefully not because of my editing!)
2. Lifestyles Writer for the Anderson Herald Bulletin
3. Product Editor at Warner Press
4. Assistant Reference Librarian at the Anderson Public Library

Four Movies That You Could Watch Over And Over
1. The Chronicles of Narnia (recent Disney/Walden Media version)
2. Somewhere in Time
3. It's a Wonderful Life
4. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Four Shows That You Love to Watch
1. Local news (because I'm a news junkie)
2. Rachael Ray's talk show
3. Joan Steffen's Decorating Cents
4. Word World (a new show on PBS that my son loves and that I think is absolutely ingenious!)

Four Places You've Been On Vacation
1. Edinburgh, Scotland (my favorite place!)
2. Nassau, Bahamas
3. London, England
4. Sanibel Island, Florida

Four Websites That You Visit Daily
1. AOL -- to read my e-mail
2. Anderson Public Library (to check my overdues!)
3. My Bank (to check on my dwindling funds!)
4. Blasted Gourds (my pastor's blog)

Four Favorite Foods
1. Chocolate
2. Pizza
3. Cheesecake Factory's Chicken Madeira
4. Cheesecake Factory's Vanilla Bean Cheesecake

Four Things you should be doing instead of this:
1. Cleaning the house
2. Doing the mountain of laundry in my laundry chute (out of sight, out of mind!)
3. Reading to my kids
4. Grading papers

Writing and Faith...

Every now and then, you read something that really stretches your mind and makes you think about a topic in totally fresh and unique way. Cheryl Klein, an editor at Arthur A. Levine Books (a Scholastic imprint), has done this with a thought provoking article on her website titled On Writing and Faith. I had never really even thought about the connection between the two until I read her article (which she gave as a talk at her church in Brooklyn). The comparisons she draws are very interesting. Even though I don't agree completely with everything she says, as a "writer of faith" myself, I can definitely appreciate where she's coming from. Here's an excerpt I found particularly poignant; I hope you'll go to Cheryl's website to read the rest:

This actually isn't such a random comparison to draw because language and faith are intimately connected in the Christian church: We don’t dance to feel the spirit, and we rarely meditate to make it come. Instead we live in words: studying the Bible, singing the lyrics, and praying—in silence or out loud, but in language. Of course we hope with all these things to get beyond words; but language remains our primary method of approaching God, and often the only way we communicate our experience.

Writer Mama Back-to-School Giveaway

Hey, all you Writer Mamas out there... I just learned that the uber-cool Christina Katz, aka Writer Mama, is hosting a contest all month on her blog. She's giving away some pretty cool prizes, like ten signed copies of her book Writer Mama: How to Raise a Writing Career Alongside Your Kids, the 2008 Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market, and a one-hour writing career phone consultation. Check out Christina's blog for the official rules -- sounds like fun!