Tag Archives: news

100. An Important Post

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Typewriter Monkey Task Force has featured one hundred regular posts! Today, my friends, is a great and solemn day. At least it would have been if my typewriter monkeys hadn’t gotten their paws on some fireworks.

This milestone post gives me the opportunity to revisit a few important posts and to make some announcements.

Beginning today, my monkeys and I are taking a week off from TMTF. Regular posts will resume next Monday, July ninth. I’m taking a break in order to focus on a bigger project, which brings us to the next announcement.

The Trials of Lance Eliot—my debut novel—comes out today!

Six years ago, I began working on the novel that would grow into The Trials of Lance Eliot, the first volume of a trilogy titled The Eliot Papers. The project has been my greatest passion as a writer, so I’m excited finally to be able to share it!

The novel is available for purchase!

A few months ago, I published The Infinity Manuscript, a fantasy in twelve parts, as a serial on this blog. The Infinity Manuscript isn’t nearly as polished as The Trials of Lance Eliot, but it’s available to read for free!

I also wrote a short but significant series of posts titled Help, I’m a Christian! in which I shared some of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned about relationships, faith and Christian living.

In addition to TMTF and the blog for my novel, I maintain a blog called Solidarity that shares reports of persecution against Christians. Please feel free to check out Solidarity or my explanation of why it matters.

I’d love to feature more guest posts on TMTF! If you’d like to write a post for this blog, check out these guidelines.

I’ve also been privileged to write a few guest posts for other blogs, including Stuff Christians Like, Social Biblia and Thomas Mark Zuniga’s blog. My typewriter monkeys and I are always delighted to write guest posts, so feel free to contact me if you’re ever in search of a guest blogger!

Finally, I need to thank some people for their assistance, encouragement and support.

Thanks to my typewriter monkeys—Sophia, Socrates, Plato, Hera, Penelope, Aristotle, Apollo, Euripides, Icarus, Athena, Phoebe and Aquila—for their work on the blog. I could never have kept up TMTF without you. Thanks, guys. Don’t ever buy fireworks again, okay?

Thanks to my parents for proofreading many of my posts, and special thanks to my old man for providing TMTF’s artwork. You guys are fabulous.

Thanks to the bloggers who have written guest posts for TMTF, and to my younger bro for allowing me to feature his drawings. I’ve been honored to share your work.

Thanks to God, whose love, grace and kindness are rocking awesome.

Finally, thanks to the readers and followers of this blog! Your likes and comments are so much appreciated. There is no greater honor for a writer than having his work read.

We’ll be back!

84. Another Bend in the Road

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“My future seemed to stretch out before me like a straight road. I thought I could see along it for many a milestone. Now there is a bend in it. I don’t know what lies around the bend, but I’m going to believe that the best does.”

These bold words (spoken by Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables) were a comfort to me some months ago. I was about to graduate from college, you see, and I didn’t know where to go next.

I’ve spent much of my life moving from place to place. When it came time to figure out where to invest the next few years of my life, I didn’t know even where to begin looking. The United States? Ecuador? Uruguay? Japan?

In the end, I was given an opportunity to visit my family in Montevideo for a few months.

My time in Uruguay has been ridiculously blessed. I’ve made progress with my writing, recovered the sleep I lost during my college years and shared many pleasant weeks with some of my favorite people in the world.

In a month, however, I must move onward.

My plan is to return to Indiana at the end of May and settle down for at least a year or two. I hope eventually to find a teaching position overseas or to make a living as a writer, but I’m going to take things one at a time.

Once again, my future stretches out before me like a road. There’s a bend in it. I have only a vague idea of what lies beyond the bend, but I’m going to believe that the best does. As I’ve said before, ’tis grace that brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home.

I believe it will, wherever home may be, and I continue to hope there will be coffee shops along the way.

74. Guest Posts Welcome!

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Update: This blog is finished, and no longer accepts guest posts. Thanks all the same!

John Donne once observed, “No blog is an island.”

I may possibly be misquoting him, but the basic principle is the same. Few people can survive apart from other people. Few blogs can exist independently from other blogs. Like most people, most blogs are part of a community.

I’d never have begun TMTF without inspiration from bloggers like Jon Acuff and Wes Molebash. Community can be extremely important for writers; bloggers are no exception. As I’ve said before, just because writing can be a lonely form of art doesn’t mean it should be.

I’d love to feature guest posts more regularly on TMTF. Quoth Uncle Iroh, “It is important to draw wisdom from many different places. If you take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale.”

TMTF has already featured great guest posts on creativity, literary dialogue and the things we find when we clean out our Bibles. I would be delighted to present guest posts on other humorous, useful or unusual topics.

What criteria are needed for a guest post to be featured on TMTF?

It should be about faith, writing, video games, literature, TV, movies, or meaningful personal experiences.

Possible topics for guest posts include creative writing tips, spiritual insights, literary musings or humorous observations about gaming culture. Posts about celebrity hairstyles, trigonometry or rubber bands will be instantly rejected.

It should be well-written.

Guest posts should be coherent, succinct and easy to read. Between four hundred to eight hundred words is the ideal length. Grammatical errors and spelling mistakes shall be met with the full fury of my righteous indignation.

It should be funny, insightful or both.

I try to make every post on TMTF entertaining or edifying. I don’t always succeed. That makes it even more important for guest posts to succeed where I fail!

It should be pleasant.

TMTF is not an edgy or controversial blog, and there are already enough disputes, arguments and insults on the Internet without adding more. The purpose of this blog is “to impart hope or understanding or inspiration—or at the very least a healthy laugh—to someone who needs it.” Guest posts should honor that purpose.

If a guest post meets the above criteria, TMTF will be honored to feature it.

How can guest posts be submitted?

Behold! TMTF now has a Contact page! If you’re interested in submitting a guest post, simply use the contact form.

I may not accept every single submission. Some guest posts, however well-written, may not be well-suited for TMTF. In some cases I’ll suggest changes to guest posts to make them more suitable. In all cases I’ll do my best to be respectful of the work submitted.

I’m going to be guilty of shameless self-promotion and admit my typewriter monkeys and I are always delighted to write guest posts for other blogs. If you’re looking for a guest post about faith, writing, video games, literature, life, the universe or everything, let us know using the Contact page!

53. Wait, More TMTF Announcements?

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I know we just had a bunch of announcements on TMTF a couple of weeks ago, but I recently made an important decision about the blog.

TMTF has been updated every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. From this point onward, it will be updated on Tuesdays and Fridays—twice a week.

There are at least three reasons for this decision.

I want to maintain the quality of the posts on TMTF

There are two kinds of writers in the world: Wodehouse writers and Tolkien writers. P.G. Wodehouse wrote books faster than some people read them. J.R.R. Tolkien wrote slowly and niggled over every detail. I’m a Tolkien writer. I’d prefer to take my time writing two good posts each week than to rush writing three passable ones.

I want to pursue other writing projects

This is the year I get my novel published—I hope. The manuscript for its sequel has been untouched for many months, and I’m eager to get back to work on it. There are two or three other novels and some short stories I’d like to write too. Writing fewer posts for TMTF each week will give me a little more time to work on my other writing projects.

My typewriter monkeys are threatening to strike

I hadn’t even heard of the Society for the Protection and Advancement of Typewriter Monkeys, but my monkeys applied for membership. Now they’re threatening to go on strike if I don’t cut their working hours. Apart from terminating their employment, there isn’t much I can do except mutter under my breath and agree to their demands.

According to the new schedule, the next post will be featured on TMTF on Tuesday.

Wait a moment, that’s tomorrow.

Dash it. All right, typewriter monkeys, back to work.

50. TMTF Announcements

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Today is a day of renown and celebration, for TMTF has reached its fiftieth post. My typewriter monkeys wanted to celebrate with fireworks, but I sternly forbade them from doing any such thing. My monkeys are enough of a nuisance without pyrotechnics.

Today seems like a good day for a few announcements, disclaimers and miscellaneous statements.

TMTF is taking a short break

I recently read a post urging all bloggers of Earth to consider pausing their blogs for Christmas. It sounds like a great idea, especially since I should probably give my typewriter monkeys a break for the holiday. Regular updates will resume here at TMTF on Wednesday, December 28.

No animals were harmed in the production of this blog

Although I’ve often been tempted to give my typewriter monkeys a good smack, no animals have been harmed (so far) in the development of TMTF.

The Advent Conspiracy is still going strong

Some awesome people are saving lives this Christmas by supplying clean water to locales around the world. Check out my post about the Advent Conspiracy and consider donating or getting involved. Nothing brightens the holidays like saving lives, right?

Consider checking out the TMTF Archive

I’m going to be guilty of shameless self-promotion and suggest checking out past posts in the TMTF Archive. From writing tips to spiritual reflections to ramblings about squirrels, you’ll find all sorts of insightful, humorous or simply odd views about faith, writing, video games, literature, life, the universe and everything.

We really, really appreciate your support!

I can’t express enough gratitude and appreciation for the people who’ve supported TMTF by subscribing to the blog, giving it a shout out on Facebook or their own blogs, liking posts, leaving comments or writing guest posts. As Neil Gaiman observed, “writing is, like death, a lonely business,” and he forgot to mention how fatiguing it can be. (Writing, I mean, though death is probably pretty fatiguing too.) The support and encouragement of readers and other writers means a lot, and I thank you all from the bottom of my coffee-loving heart. My typewriter monkeys also appreciate the banana donations.

God loves you

I don’t mean to be preachy or Jesus-y, but I want you to know that God loves you. That’s what Christmas is about.

TMTF will return in a week and a half—assuming my typewriter monkeys aren’t arrested for misuse of pyrotechnics this Christmas. We’ll see.

Happy Christmas!

28. The Bend in the Road

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I really like Anne of Green Gables. Although I don’t usually enjoy sentimental stories about little girls growing up, there’s something about the book that strikes a chord with me. It could be that Anne Shirley (whose first name must never be spelled without the e) and her friend Matthew Cuthbert are delightful characters. It could be that Anne of Green Gables paints a beautiful picture of a simpler time, a time without Facebook or cell phones, when people took time to talk to each other and read books for the fun of it.

Whatever the reason, Anne of Green Gables is a favorite of mine.

One of my favorite moments in the book comes in one of the final chapters. Anne’s future plans, which had seemed so certain, are suddenly thrown into serious question. Rather than give up in despair, Anne decides to regard her misfortune as an adventure: “My future seemed to stretch out before me like a straight road. I thought I could see along it for many a milestone. Now there is a bend in it. I don’t know what lies around the bend, but I’m going to believe that the best does.”

My own plans for Life After College were pretty straightforward until a few months ago. I was going to apply for a job at my old high school in Ecuador, teach English and write novels until retiring and settling in California or Florida. Everything was neatly planned, and I didn’t doubt for a moment that things would work out precisely as I wanted them to.

Then my application to the high school was turned down. My future plans were no longer crystal clear, unless that crystal happened to be an especially foggy variety of quartz. I was discouraged for a little while, but it finally occurred to me that not knowing exactly what the future holds is kind of exciting. Terrifying, yes, but also kind of exciting.

I’ve been student teaching for the last eleven weeks, struggling to survive grading, lesson planning, sleep deprivation, faculty meetings, miscellaneous paperwork and the actual business of standing in front of students and teaching them things. It was like walking through thick fog: it was hard to see far behind or ahead, to think about the past or speculate about the future. Day by day all I could see was the road right in front of me.

Yesterday was my last day of student teaching. I’ve a few weeks of seminars and paperwork and whatnot, but I’m almost done with college. It was a little strange to emerge from the fog of student teaching and realize there’s still a long road ahead of me. Like Anne Shirley’s road, it isn’t straight. There’s a bend in it, and I haven’t the slightest idea of what’s waiting for me beyond it.

But I’m not worried. The Lord has led me this far, and I know he will continue to lead me to wherever he wants me to be. As the old hymn says, ’tis grace that brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home.

I just hope there are coffee shops along the way.

—

A note for those who know me personally and are wondering what my immediate plans are: I will be leaving Bethel College toward the end of November and staying with my parents and younger brother in Uruguay. I intend to search for a teaching position in South America, work seriously on a couple of novels, improve my Spanish, drink lots of coffee and spend time with my beloved family.