“Spreading your wings in a perplexing world”
October, 2018                                                                                                 James Hurd    

Contents

• New story: Reggie Ratcliffe and the Fundamentalists
• Writer’s Corner
• Puzzlers
• How to purchase Wingspread: Of Faith and Flying
• E-zine subscription information

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New story: Reggie Ratcliffe and the Fundamentalists

 That October of 1959, Reggie Ratcliffe sat in the lounge of the Delta Kappa Epsilon frat house at UCLA when a friend called him over to the telephone. It was Sally

“Hello, Reggie. There is something I have to tell you—I’m pregnant….”

Two years before this phone call, Reggie’s mother had embraced Christian faith listening to evangelist Charles Fuller’s Old-Fashioned Revival Hour, and she drew her whole family to Stanton Community Church, and Reggie came along. For a weekday church event, Reggie would often wear a white tee shirt and jeans with the little red “Levi” tag on the back pocket—Stanton kids were pretty informal—but on Sundays he always wore a collar shirt . . . .

To read more, click here:   https://jimhurd.com/2018/10/22/reggie-radcliffe-and-the-fundamentalists/

 (*Request: After reading the article, please leave a comment on the website. Thanks.)

 Writers’ Corner

Word of the Month:  Verisimilitude. Beautiful word! The art of creating scenes, characters, events so real that your reader gets pulled into the narrative. Helps guarantee your reader will not wake up from the dreamscape of your story.

 

Book of the month: Lord Peter Wimsey: The Complete Short Stories. Hodder Paperbacks. 2018. The delightful stories of Lord Peter Death Bredon Wimsey, the desultory, sleuthy creation of Dorothy Sayers. He accidently shows up to solve conundrums that have baffled even Scotland Yard.

Author of the Month: Jerry B. Jenkins

Jenkins’ eschatology may be criticized (the “Left Behind” series), but I highlight him because, in his own words—-“Writing has been my life for 45 years, resulting in 195 published books, 21 New York Times bestsellers, and more than 70 million copies sold.” He provides (for free and for purchase) great writing resources online. He edits The Christian Writer’s Market Guide: Everything You Need to Get Published. So, it’s possible he has a few things one can learn about writing.

 New puzzler

Two fathers and two sons go hunting. They shoot three ducks and each one gets one. How is that possible? (answer next month)

Answers to last month’s puzzlers:

6. Billy was born on December 28th, yet his birthday is always in the summer.  How is this possible? Billy lives in the southern hemisphere
7. In California, you cannot take a picture of a man with a wooden leg.  Why not?   In California (and elsewhere) you need a camera
8. What was the President’s Name in 1975?  In that year, he was called Donald Trump
9. If you were running a race, and you passed the person in 2nd place, what place would you be in now?  Second place
10. Which is correct to say, “The yolks of the egg are white” or “The yolk of the egg is white”?  Neither; the yolk is yellow
11. If a farmer has 5 haystacks in one field and 4 haystacks in the other field, how many haystacks would he have if he combined them all in another field? One

 

My upcoming novel: A young Californian travels east to enroll in Chicago Bible Institute and train for mission aviation. Along the way he becomes an atheist. Spoiler alert: It doesn’t work out very well.
Third revision is done. Target publication date: Summer, 2019.

 

Buy James Hurd’s Wingspread: A Memoir of Faith and Flying.  How childhood (Fundamentalist) faith led to mission bush-piloting in South America—and Barbara. Buy it here:  https://jimhurd.com/home/  (or order it at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, etc.)

See pics here related to Wingspread: Of Faith and Flying: http://www.pinterest.com/hurd1149/wingspread-of-faith-and-flying/

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