This will be my first book, and the amount of editing has surprised me.  It will be ready—fingers crossed—by December 1.  The title:  Teaching the Preacher to Curse:  Humorous and Healthy Observations about Life, Religion, and Politics.  

The book is made up of 39 Sunday Posts I have sent over the years, plus one fresh essay.  Regular readers of this Sunday Post will recognize some of the chapters:  

Driving in Florida, How to Flirt, Theology of the Wienermobile, The Apostle Paul on an Internet Date, Gin and Prune Juice, My Bishop vs. My President vs. My Proctologist, It was the Chickens’ Fault, My Doctor Just Called Me an SOB, Whose Turn to Pray, Earl the Cat, and An Angel Named George.  

There will also be posts about both of my parents, my experiences as a pastor, various animals, humility, curiosity, etc.  

Editing this kind of book is different from any other writing I have done.  I can dash out a Sunday Post in about 2 hours, then devote another hour to give it a once over edit--before sending everything on to you.  

But getting those same articles ready for a book has taken me more than 600 hours of editing and rewriting--so far.  

Please indulge me in a bit of whining. After a first major rewrite, I took each article to my Friday writers’ group.  They were ruthless. Tail-tucked-between-my legs, I then took each article home, week by week, to do a second major rewrite.  

After that, I emailed them one at a time to my line editor, Lea Northrup, for another blow to my ego.  

I am now incorporating her edits into my final copy. Next step is to upload everything to software provided by the printer (Amazon Direct Publishing.) Once the galley is ready, a final proofreader, Nancy Myers, will go over it. I'll insert her corrections into the document--and then the book will be ready for printing and distribution. I'll keep you posted.  The cover is being designed by Rene Dix.



As for family news, it’s been three months since I tattled on everyone.  My mom turned 89 in August, then had a heart attack in early September, which was corrected by a single stent. She is recovering nicely.  That recovery will go faster once they figure out the size of dosage she should be getting on her various prescriptions.  The older we get, the less our pharmaceutical milligrams ought to be—but most doctors do not make those adjustments.  Health care itself is sometimes the number one obstacle to health—especially for those of us past 60.

If you really want to know what our grandchildren are doing—don’t answer that question—you can go to any park on a nice day, watch the kids there, and get an idea of what’s been going on with Sean, Isobel, Maple, and Maeve all summer.  Watch the parents at the same park, and imagine those adults also working at their jobs every day--and you’ll get an idea of what goes on in the rest of our family.  

Jie and I are going to Portugal and Spain, leaving October 1, for 13 days.  So, I will disappear for another couple weeks from this weekly post before getting back into my Sunday routine of writing to you. 

We are putting this trip together ourselves, so… a number of things could go wrong.  The fact that neither of us knows Portuguese or Spanish will likely be the beginning of our troubles--and we will have no tour companies or travel agents to fall back on.

The trip will involve trains, planes, and automobiles—with a bus and a few taxis thrown into the mix.  We think the airline reservations are okay, that our train tickets are all accurate, that our Airbnb’s are all lined up properly. We'll find out.

We also assume that the reservations we already paid for to the key attractions in Lisbon, Seville, Cordoba, Granada, Madrid, and Barcelona—were not made through fraudulent websites.

We will be traveling with a friend, Brenda Husler--who also can't speak Portuguese or Spanish. She will be Jie's shopping companion on the trip. She will also double as a marriage counselor when my mistakes become evident as we sally along.

The more things go wrong on this trip—the worse for us. But the better for you—my readers—as you will be regaled with more excellent stories.  Although I may not be able to publish all of my observations and opinions.

I’ve read and reviewed 16 books since July 1.  You can read my reviews by clicking the link up by my picture.  The best: The Standafer novel and the King biography.

In alphabetical order, by author:

• Eckhart, Ann, 2022 Edition Beginner's Guide to Amazon kdp: How to Create & Sell Books Using Kindle Direct Publishing (manual for getting ebooks and paperback copies in publication) 

• Eig, Jonathan, King: A Life (biography of Martin Luther King Jr., history of Civil Right in the United States, anti-war)

• Gage, Beverly, G-Man:  J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century (biography, American history)

• Kavanaugh, James, There Are Men Too Gentle to Live Among Wolves, (poetry)

• Kawaguchi, Toshikazu, Before the Coffee Gets Cold (#1 in a series) (novel)

• Lencioni, Patrick, Silos, Politics and Turf Wars: A Leadership Fable about Destroying the Barriers that Turn Colleagues into Competitors (Leadership, strategy, organizations)

• Lencioni, Patrick, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable (teams, leadership, strategy, organizational studies

• Moberly, Todd, D., Notes on Cracker Barrel Napkins (novel, early 20th century Appalachian culture)

• Osman, Richard, The Man Who Died Twice:  Thursday Murder Club #2  (novel, mystery, crime)

• Osman, Richard, The Bullet That Missed:  Thursday Murder Club #3  (novel, mystery, crime)

• Palmer, Parker J., On the Brink of Everything:  Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old (aging, spirituality, inspiration)

• Ryles, Logan, Election Day (Prosecution Force #3)  (novel—military and political suspense)

• Ryles, Logan, First Strike (Prosecution Force #2)  (novel—military and political suspense)

• Ryles, Logan, The Brink of War (Prosecution Force #1)  (novel—military and political suspense)

• Standafer, Margaret, I Know An Old Lady (novel, coming of age, young adult)

• Wuthnow, Robert, The Left Behind:  Decline and Rage in Small-Town America  (rural sociology and politics, religion, moral community)

I did have an interesting job this summer, working for my daughter Mindy.  She is the coordinator of YES (Youth Employment Services) at the Champaign school district.  I supervised about 20 high school kids at their worksites during June and July.  Glad I did it.  Glad when it was over.

Finally, picture me in my garden, mowing my grass, at the gym, reading books, growling at the Cubs, irritating Jie, being nice to Jie, cooking, doing dishes, talking on the phone, writing, tending flowers, working on church projects—and you will soon get bored and wish you were picturing someone more interesting.