Maurice Broaddus's Blog, page 58

Hanging Out at the Earth House

Looks like I'll be spending a few days down at the Lockerbie Central UMC/Earth House this week. First, Doug Pagitt will be returning to Indianapolis this Monday as a part of his A Christianity Worth Believing book tour.

Description: Part revival/book reading/hootenanny/communal gathering, Doug Pagitt and Erik Johnson are spreading the Hope-filled, Open-armed, Alive and Well faith in homes, churches, bars, coffee shops and public meeting spaces around the country.

Live Occurrences are part one-ma

Will Edit for Food

Dreams of writing that huge hit novels and soaring to the heights of a Stephen King or JK Rowling aside, it's hard to make it as a full-time writer. The question I have been asked repeatedly lately is "when are you going to quit your day job?" The answer is: "when my writing can provide full health care benefits. And dental." So not anytime soon. (Plus, my day job allows me a flexible schedule which lets me get my work done, have time for my family, and time for writing and ministry work w

Jim Crow Days

More than 60 campers from Northeast Philadelphia were turned away from a private swim club and left to wonder if their race was the reason ... The explanation they got was either dishearteningly honest or poorly worded. "There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club," John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club said in a statement.

The other day, my boys were asked if they were part Mexican. So I reviewed the mathematics of our family for

Enjoying My Cigar

Ok, I don't smoke, but I need some sort of after the novel ritual. I'm only in a quasi-honeymoon period. To catch those playing along at home up, I signed a three book deal with Angry Robot (HarperCollins UK), for an urban fantasy series entitled The Knights of Breton Court (a re-telling of the legend of King Arthur set in the streets of modern America). Imagine The Wire meets Excalibur. I just turned in Book One: Kingmaker. By December, I need to have Book Two: King's Justice written as

Nice Website, Nicer Sister

Because I'm not above occasionally using this blog to pimp things, my sister Ro has launched her web site, Ro's Many Hats. From the site:

I'm a stay-at-home mother of three who loves to try new things and share what I learn with those around me. If I can help, I'll certainly try to.
From braiding hair to making candy, I consider myself a "Jane-of-All-Trades." There's so much that I already enjoy doing and I look forward to learning and trying many more. Among those are:
· Hair braiding, natu

Writerly Type Stuff

So my head's been down as I have a looming deadline that I have officially run out of ways to procrastinate from (except for me Tweeting). In the mean time, I probably ought to do some sort of writerly type update about things going on:

1) For those who missed my interview on the Funky Werepig podcast, it has been archived.

Is there a better way to spend your Sunday than with the Sinister Minister, MAURICE BROADDUS? A favorite of the critics, he mixes his strong beliefs with a love of horror!

Tales from the Slush Pile

I've always imagined what life would be like for an editor. I imagined that editors reading a slush pile probably do sound a lot like Simon Cowell from American Idol. Faced with mountains of slush, sifting for gold among the lumps of rocks; each writer, myself included, convinced of their own story's greatness, sometimes presuming to tell the editor so (uh, I don't do that).

I know I left the guidelines for my Dark Faith anthology purposefully vague to allow writers room to interpret as they ne

God's Failed Ambassadors

Or Don't Trip … He Ain't Through With You Yet

While I was thinking through what I was going to say about "The Story of (My) Christianity", I was left with a bunch of issues that I struggled with. It's the whole idea of God sending us to be His ambassadors and then seemingly not being able to equip us adequately for the job. I see it in my church. I see it in my life. I see it in my heart. Shouldn't there be a more demonstrable difference between "us" and "them"? Why are we still so broken?

A f

[BIB/ReadersRoom] Our Bi-Directional Assumption of Trust

When a publisher of any repute buys a book from you, it’s a bi-directional assumption of trust. The author trusts that the publisher will do their best to edit, publish, and market your title. The publisher trusts that the author will do their very best to see that their book is a success by taking it on themselves to do a respectable amount of self-promotion.

We tend to forget that when we get published, we writers join with our presumptive publishers in a peculiar relationship, this “bi-directi

My Sister’s Keeper – A Review

“A Rain of Tears Under a Piece of Blue Sky”

Directed by Nick Cassavetes (The Notebook), Jodi Picoult's dense and melodramatic 2004 novel about a family struggling to save a terminally ill child comes to tear duct exhausted life on the big screen. Brian and Sara Fitzgerald (Jason Patric and Cameron Diaz) customized their second daughter, Anna (Abigail Breslin), in utero to be a perfect biological match for her sister Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), who was diagnosed with leukemia at an early age.

With ea