Painfully Hopeful

Unpacking The Legend of the Penny Gnomes

Yesterday I returned to my first attempt at a novel. It’s a satirical fantasy, with nods to both Terry Pratchett and Jasper Fforde. The opening chapter will, I hope, one day be reworked for an illustrated children’s book. This is why the point of view character is so young — probably about the age my…

Fiction Tuesday – The Legend of the Penny Gnomes

Today’s blog continues my long-neglected satirical fantasy, In The Land of the Penny Gnomes. “Grampa,” said Billy. “I can’t find my action figure. Can you help me look for it?” Grampa looked down at Billy and smiled gently, “Sure thing, now which action figure are we looking for?” Billy shuffled his feet and sighed, “The…

A Walk to Reset

September is always an incredibly stressful time for me. Labor Day comes and goes, and suddenly everything seems to wind up to full speed. For me there is one “wind up” which tend to cause me the greatest personal stress. The immanent arrival of ABCNJ’s Annual Session. I run the technology for this every year…

Horizon

I didn’t take many photos during my time at ABCNJ’s Annual Session this year. It bummed me out somewhat, but the press of the day wasn’t conducive to getting into a photography mind set. The one exception came during the break as the room was reset for lunch. I ascended to a balcony overlooking the…

Moment of Peace

This weekend I’m in Long Branch at ABCNJ’s Annual Session, where I’ll be running the media. It’s busy weekend, with a lot of people 1, and it comes at the end of a very busy week. Friday afternoon was filled with an excellent inter-faith discussion on the nature of faith, evangelism, and charitable interactions. It…

It’s Finished

Throughout my life I’ve written stories in my mind. My imagination turned ball point pens into space ships, and my toys into actors on a stage. I daydreamed my tales as I suffered through grade school, and endured the taunts of people who found my “gaze into nowhere” odd. In my mind life was always…