A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

As I've shared in the past, I am not persuaded that Islam is the religion of peace it purports to be.  In just recent weeks, we have seen radicalized individuals decapitating a soldier on the streets of London, the Boston Marathon bombing, and worldwide persecution of Christians (and other non-Muslims) in barbaric countries such as Iran.  The Islamization of Europe is well on its way, and I suggest the West would be wise to wake up and stop cowering in fear behind political correctness.  It's time to call it what it is.

What I Learned from Samwise, My Interview with Sean Astin FREE on Kindle (May 24th-May 27th)

I am excited to announce that my latest e-book, What I Learned from Samwise, My Interview with Sean Astin is scheduled to be available for free between May 24th and May 27th.  I hope you can check it out!

You may recognize Sean Astin first as that brave hobbit, Samwise Gamgee, from Peter Jackson's motion picture The Lord of the Rings, but there is a lot more to Sean than this brilliantly played role. This is a man for whom theater runs in his blood--hard to avoid when Patty Duke is your mother!

This e-book features my wide-ranging interview of Sean Astin from 2011. The interview touches on everything from his role as Sam and spiritual reflections to his thoughts on the much loved children's book he and his wife hope to bring to the big screen soon. (Lois Lowry's Number the Stars)

It also contains a review of Sean Astin's impressive book, "There and Back Again," as well as a short essay on Sean's newest project known as #Run3rd. What does he hope to accomplish with his newest endeavor?

The e-book concludes with a variety of links which may be helpful to the reader in learning more about this great actor/director.

Karl Erickson is an Author? (Updated with "What I Learned from Samwise, My Interview with Sean Astin")

It's probably going to come as a shock to many of you, but, yes, I do actually write stuff!  You might know me as a number cruncher, but numbers are actually just the day job.  I know it's startling...but I'd like to introduce you to several of my favorite pieces.  The short story collection needs reviews on Amazon--if you are up to the task!  (By the way, my lovely wife, Kimberly, is wonderful illustrator.)

Tristan's Travels (Rafka Press)

(Opening excerpt)


It never occurred to anyone to take a closer look at the houseboat’s window planter.  The pine flower box was unremarkable enough at first glance.  Sheltered by overhanging flowers and a sick trillium plant, the cubbyhole beneath the flower box was hard to spot unless you looked closely.  This hidden nook had become Tristan’s home.  It was a perfect morning to be a seagull, but Tristan was still sound asleep.  He twitched a couple times as the night’s last dream overtook him.  He saw a man standing at the edge of a grassy meadow.  At his side, stood a large gray wolf.  Birds flew around and about him.  Rabbits, squirrels, and mice ventured out of the shadows of the trees to join the smiling man who was dressed in a simple robe with a cord around his waist and sandals on his feet...

Toupee Mice  (Rafka Press)

(Opening excerpt)


The name is Ian Svenson, and I am a red-haired Irish mouse with a dash of Swedish charm and humor.  If there are two things you need to know about me, they are that I am a talking mouse, and that I love to sing.  In fact, many of the animals around my town of Mousehaven can talk, but they usually don’t like going to the trouble.  As for why I am a talking mouse, I credit my dear mother, because she read stories or sang mouse songs to me nearly every night.  Perhaps the singing is on account of my mother being a mouse who just loved to sing and dance at every opportunity; she was indeed a happy mouse.  Papa, on the other hand, was a seafaring field mouse from Sweden who could only sing sea shanties and wasn’t even very good at that.  But I digress from my short tale.  I was a happy church mouse here in Mousehaven until just a few months ago...

Blinded by the Darkness, Three Short Fantasy Stories (Amazon)

(Opening excerpt)


Shadows deepened as the fluorescent lights began to flicker on around the university campus, and the warmer lights shown down from the dormitory windows above.  A soft November rain began to fall as students and visitors headed indoors.  A lone campus security guard walked briskly down the sidewalk, jingling keys and a heavy flashlight hanging from his belt and a radio gripped in his hand.  Suddenly, a young man raced by, nearly knocking the guard off his feet.  The runner barely paused, then bolted towards the eastern edge of the university campus.  Before the guard could make pursuit, he tripped over a hidden sprinkler head.  The young man was already fading into the dusk.  The radio lay shattered and quiet along the path...

What I Learned from Samwise, My Interview with Sean Astin (Amazon)

(Opening Excerpt)


1.  After reading There and Back Again, An Actor’s Tale, it seems to that you have a healthy caution or ambivalence towards success.  What does true success mean to you?

I love success absolutely, in all of its myriad definitions, applications and relative doses. I think the ambivalence you infer, comes from my antipathy for the anxiety laden stress that comes from depending on other people’s decisions. In large measure, it is that anxiety that pushes success further away. I also think that it is unhelpful for actors to organize their thoughts along ‘success’ paradigms... While being inspired by others and studying their careers is critical to success, there is a languid quality that runs throughout ‘the actor’ tradition, a pointless but familiar wallowing, that actors, heck everybody has to some greater or lesser extent... It’s natural but should be kept in it’s rightful place...

This will be available for free on Amazon between May 24 and the 27th!

A personal favorite of mine is this article which appeared some years ago in America Magazine.  I hope you enjoy reading "Mysterious Tools."




(Opening excerpt)


One night a few months ago, my 8-year-old son was very sick in bed. He lay there moaning and crying because of terrible pain in his ears. While my wife was on the phone attempting to get hold of a doctor, I did what I could to comfort him. We tried the usual things, but nothing worked. The choices seemed to be either to wait in an emergency room for hours late at night or try to wait it out at home. Neither option seemed like a good choice. We could not let him go on like that, so something told me to pray over him. I took the holy water we were given at a recent church event. It felt a little strange to me, as a new Catholic, but I proceeded to make the Sign of the Cross over my son with the holy water. Then I prayed for healing. I framed my prayer along the lines that we know that children hold a special place in God’s heart, and that it cannot be God’s will that my son would be in pain. Something seemed different about the prayer, but I could not immediately identify what it was. Since nothing dramatic took place after I finished the prayer, I returned to our room...



You can find me on Facebook (Author page), Facebook (Book Page), and even Twitter!

What's next on the literary horizon, you ask?  Well, my next book is The Blood Cries Out.  This mystery novel is aimed at an older audience, and I'm currently looking for a good literary agent for my entry into this new genre.  Stay tuned!

Got Newfy?

Latest CWG Events from the News Coordinator

It's hard to believe that three weeks from this Sunday, we'll be celebrating Easter!  On a more personal note, this is also the eighth year anniversary of our family joining the Catholic Church--and three years, or so, for my in-laws.  (The Tiber crossing is getting busy!)


Still trying to find my rhythm when it comes to getting the news out for my fellow guild members. To simplify the process for me a bit, I am posting originally on my blog, then copying my post over to the CWG blog.  We'll see how it works.  (WordPress and I don't always see eye to eye.)

For today, I am just sharing some of the most recent news items in short paragraph format.  In the future, I will try to do this more often along the lines of member profiles.  If I have overlooked an important news item, please send to me directly at karl@karlerickson.com .  (Please put something along the lines of CWG News in the subject line.)



John Konecsni's new novel is now available from CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.  Hope you can check it out!  (I was happy to find it available in both traditional and electronic format, and am excited to check out the Kindle version today.)




There’s a new publication, a slick magazine with a mission of worldwide evangelization, called Shalom Tidings and two of our CWG writers are contributors.

 In the March issue (the second issue) of Tidings, Nancy Ward debuts as a columnist, with “Bring a Friend,” written for the Year of Faith.  Barbara Schoneberger has a stirring essay, “Divine Simplicity and Truth,” featured in this issue.

 Although the magazine is published in Texas, it is the newest endeavor of a word-wide media apostolate (www.shalomworld.org) with roots in India in the Syro Malankara Exarcate rite. What a diverse and intricately connected Church our God has given us.  (Thanks to Nancy Ward for the preceding news item!)

Help a Writer!

Over the next couple weeks, I'll start work on article focusing on the Catholic concept of time.  (Yes, I always pick easy, simple topics, don't I?)  While attending services in Dallas, Texas in December, I heard a prayer that I'd like to include in my upcoming article.  

The prayer quote below was taken from a Mass I attended at the Catholic Cathedral in Dallas, Texas.  Since that time, no one has been able to track down the source of this particular Eucharistic Prayer.  It's possible that it was adapted to English from another language.  

If the passage below rings any bells for you, could you please contact me?  (I am also in the process of getting it translated to Spanish.)

You parted the veil of eternity and entered time in the person of Jesus born to Mary and Joseph; new life, given to change all lives.  Be born in our hearts and minds to touch and change this world.



Update:

Here's the Spanish translation--thanks to my friend and colleague, Blanca.  Unfortunately, it doesn't shed light on the origins of the prayer; nothing matching found using Google.

Has separado el velo de la eternidad
y entrado en tiempo en la persona de Jesús
nacido a María y José;
Nueva vida, dada para cambiar las vidas.
Nace en nuestro Corazón y pensamientos 
para tocar y cambiar este mundo.

Newfoundland Puppy Gallery

We have a dear relative who is unable to navigate Facebook and whose e-mails seem to go into a black hole.  As she'd very much like to see photos of our puppy...we decided to post a few right here.  Hope you enjoy them, too!

First Book on Kindle

Thanks to Kimberly Erickson for the image!

Getting over the flu, I decided it was a good time to experiment with the Kindle format.  It turns out that it's not only simpler than Lulu, the finished product is also much better--not to mention the wider distribution.  So...I'll probably be keeping Kindle for future short writing ventures and turning to Lulu only for things like calendars.

My first e-book for Kindle users is called Three Short Stories.  This book includes "Stars Within the Glass," "Into the Night," and "Light in the Darkness."

While two of the stories have been sold separately before, "Into the Night" has never been published before.  It was originally intended to be part of a larger work, but I discarded the novel subplot idea it represented. While this is probably more of a chapter than a traditional, unified short story, I think you will still enjoy reading the tale.  I welcome reader comments, as they may actually help me decide whether, or not, to finish the tale of Benjamin Jenkins in the late 1800s.

Reclaiming True Diversity

Sometimes it's easy to say no to a movement or cause just because of some of the characteristics of its supporters.  Diversity is a prime example, I think.  I used to take a negative view of diversity because it struck me as propaganda, a movement hijacked by the politically correct crowd, aimed at freezing free speech which may be opposed to their favored causes of the day--e.g. gay marriage.  

While in many respects, diversity can quickly become a cliche, there is real and substantive truth there, as well.  Lately, I have been endeavoring to use the language of the enemy against the enemy and for the cause of truth.  This is probably easiest to explain through three examples.  First, if the atheist opposes symbols of faith, I would point out that the atheist's position is simply a different type of faith.  Second, another example would concern those who preach "diversity," but who have no shred of tolerance for opinions diverse from their own.  It's a two-way street, folks.  (Strangely, I have found some of the most liberal people I know are also some of the most bigoted.)  Third, I have successfully argued at a state agency, for example, that New Age training within a state seminar is a form of promoting of religion.

What does this have to do with the clarion call for diversity?  Well, what do we mean by true diversity?  It's a recognition of many different cultures and belief systems, right?  At its core, there is the quality of respect and treating others as we would want to be treated.  These are biblical concepts, beliefs grounded in faith.  I submit to the reader that these Christian principles need to be taken back and applied to everything from immigration reform to safeguarding free speech.  If they want to communicate this way, let's give it back to them in full measure!

While my point of view holds that the diversity movement can be important because it reflects the differences within God's diverse and varied creation, I don't hold that it justly applies to chosen behaviors.  Even still, though, the Christian has no argument with regards to the imperative need to show and demonstrate respect and courtesy for the homosexual just as much as to the poor immigrant.  They are both human beings made in the image of God, requiring redemption as all of us do.

So, if you work within a politically correct environment, you may find it helpful to defend your position with the liberal's own toolbox of words and phrases; it really gets under their skin.  After all, it's not an excuse for inaction that some people may do what's right for entirely the wrong reasons.