Relief/Diner Online Submissions System

My actual blog, Undefeated Since 1929, is found at http://bbeams.wordpress.com. Please visit and comment!

My wife is great at editing and checking my writing for spelling and grammatical errors. It is always good to have another pair of eyes on your material, especially because it isn't the spell checkers duty to find words that are mistyped.

I present exhibit A...
This email went out, followed by a a well played response, at work the other day. The kicker is the ironic catch phrase in the subject line. You can't make stuff like this up, people.

-----Original Message-----
From: One Guy
Sent: Friday, January 04, 2008 10:12 AM
To: SideLined
Subject: Do you have "The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a
Big Difference"?

I would like to see if I can read this boob before the deadline, but the
copies are all checked out. If you have one of the copies, could you

This year I decided to make a resolution that won't get thrown out with the garbage around Valentines Day [famous last words]. I enjoy reading and there are so many good books to read. But my tendency is to stay in the same vein of writing. So this year my resolution is to read from three books from two genres I normally don't, which would be biographies and fiction.

I picked the biographies pretty quickly, but, to break out of my mindset a little more, had two friends and my boss pick the fiction books for me. Currently, I'm enrolled in distant education classes through Briercrest up in Canadia - my hope is to get these books read, two at a time, between my breaks this year.

Surprised by Joy - C.S. Lewis
No Compromise - Keith Green

So how did all these cool folks get on My Network?

Just curious.

Hey, everyone.

I've always been a lazy writer -- not because I don't make time to write, but because I don't take time to read. So I vowed, along with my BFF and Sister-in-Law, to read 50 books in '07. About one a week, yep.

I did it. I'm doing it again. So are they. And some other folks have joined up, too, over at 50/08. If you wanna commit to read (and it's a great way to "refill the well" if you're fighting off writer's block), do join us! I plan to blog about each book this year, too.

Hope to see you there...
-E

Dear fellow writers,
I have just discovered "Relief" and am delighted to find a Christian journal that has quality and depth.
As a way to introduce myself, you might like to read a couple of my books:
The Madonna Murders - (A Christian supernatural murder mystery) and a book of poetry called: Coming To Treeline: Adirondack Poems.
See: Amazon.com or Barnes and Noble.com for more info and reviews.

Happy Advent 2!
Pamela Cranston +

Visuals stimulate a part of the mind that awakens a need to know more. The actualities of the situations have already passed my sphere and cannot be known, but where fact has abandoned me imagination and wonder overtake. Covers of stories I will never read walk past my window, sit next to me on the bus, wake me on what was a Saturday morning slumber. We are all saying something. Some are screaming hoping that the reader won’t make it to the second chapter; others mumble like a shy sky wanting its high and wispy nuanced clouds to be gazed upon for more than just a fleeting moment.

Falling snow is having its way,
giving its rendition to this day,
repossesing landscapes bare,
brushing tiny stars into the air.

From antiquity this bright white light
has draped many a long winter's night,
and once the angels even rose
above a babe in sweet repose.

So as a freshness covers the ground
listen intently for a muted sound
within the crystals dropped from on high,
wings flutter soft as a baby's sigh.

© 2006 Pamela A. MacBean

Please come and visit my website - www.freewebs.com/pamthepoetess)
and let me know if u stopped by, k? :)

Has anyone discovered other good Christian literary magazines? I found 'Relief' and 'Rock and Sling', which seem devoted to quality writing with Christian perspectives, but several others I've found have ceased publication.

I have been working on a series of short stories that deal with rekindling/exploring the aesthetic of Christian faith. Putting aside, for the moment, the blatant marketing of the gospel and the poor doctrine that permeates the greater part of our Western Churches, my project has been to try and bring a different aesthetic to the surface of my own faith. It is a difficult project because it relies on "vibe" and "feel" and metabolizing the bible with those experiences of life that seem to speak to that deeper part of my soul: that part where literature and art live: that creative place.