Papa Pat Tiny Devotionals

    If you just want the condensed Amazon review, you can get it here. Originally, my plan was to re-post the review of the Christmas book, along with another review of a more recent Osborn book, but that didn't work out. So, this is the format we have. In other places, I have discussed my aversion to Christmas, and the possible agents for change in the way I think about the holiday. I was going to expand on that a bit now, but I changed my mind. I will mention that this morning, I read Old NFO's blog post, "One to think about, " which is a very sweet Christmas story, with all the appropriate classic elements. I hope you will click on the link and read it, particularly if you want, or need, a bit of Christmas cheer. In recent years, I have requested that anyone who wishes to provide me with a Christmas present should make a donation to those with real needs.Here are my suggestions for this year; I posted them fairly recently, but here they are again. 1. Walter Strickl...

    You can find my Amazon review of the book here . If you go there and find it helpful, I would appreciate your clicking the helpful button. Moira is an angel. See the Halo? By now, most of us know that even beautiful women can have problems with self-esteem. For many, that's because the ONLY thing they were valued for was their beauty. Intelligence, creativity, athletic ability: none of that mattered because they were beautiful. So, they grew up thinking that was all they were good for, and began to live in dread that one day, their looks wouldn't be good enough. It's a common story, and it's a sad and troubling story. It's not Moira's story, though. She wasn't valued for her beauty. She was hated for it, and even more, she was hated for being a girl. It was never a secret; her parents told her how worthless she was, and how worthless she would become.  Her mother was the celebrated science fiction and fantasy author Marion Zimmer Bradley. Her father was...

    This is mostly the same material you'll find on my Amazon post, which you can find here . It will also be reviewed on Goodreads sometime in the next several minutes. If you read the review on Amazon, please click the 'helpful' button. I'm trying to recover from a rather harsh series of days starting in August and extending into November. Close examination of my Amazon review reveals that I presented 10 'notable stories,' singled two out for exceptional praise, and said nothing about six. What's my justification for that? It's all a matter of taste. None of those stories were awful; if they had been, I would have said so. It's certainly NOT a defect in the authors; I've read & reviewed work by most (if not all) of them in the past. Reading these six, today and yesterday, just didn't ring any bells for me. If any of the authors want to contact me to get any specifics, feel free, but I MIGHT not have anything to offer; it might be just a...

Our Blessed Sister of Groovy Writing, Amanda Green, wrote the inspiratory post today over at Mad Genius Club. She comments there on THREE THINGS Amazon has changed in their reviewing program, and it is to that I respond. (She also comments on another item, which seems hinky to me, but I haven't read the source document yet.) DISCLAIMER FOR AUTHORS: I am EXCLUSIVELY a writer of reviews (and opinions), and thus, I don't represent the author's perspective re: Amazon review policies. I'm gonna TRY to limit myself to plain, descriptive words, but since this happens to be an area I know a lot about, sorry. I'll try to be interesting, though. Thing 1: Amazon destroyed a bunch of bogus reviews. Thing 2: Amazon now requires that reviewers have purchased $50 worth of goods from Amazon per year, or they can't post a review. Thing 3: Amazon has prioritised reviews, with 'Verified Purchase' reviews receiving greater weight than others. However, books which were paid...

I'm gonna say something that is likely to get people upset with me, and I regret that. I often wish people wouldn't get upset, and they probably often wish I wouldn't say things. First, I cannot lay claim to being a fan or follower of Al Franken's career over the course of years and years. I had a brief exposure to his work in 1979 (I think, but it might have been 1980), because one of the more vocal kids in the church youth group I was leading kept quoting the punch line from his skit about the decade belonging to him. Then I think I saw only one more skit where Jane Curtain gave him sulfuric acid to drink, because he was such an obnoxious dork. And that was the character he played: obnoxious dork. A few years later, I discovered another of his characters: Stuart Smalley. Stuart was a sweet and gentle dork, who was a participant in a 12 step program for many different addictions, all of which Stuart either had, or participated in in case he might have them later on. I ...

My family knows I'm the Grinch & the Scrooge & Bah Humbug. Well, that's changing, maybe a little bit, and maybe you can help change it more. My choice, though, and it IS a choice, is to stay Grinch. A brief history on why I Grinch , and A possible path out of Grinch-ness: History, Part The First: Although it is all the rage today, in 1954 in semi-rural Georgia, it was the rare family with children that had been split by divorce. My older sister and I were the only two kids I knew of, that had that as a part of our lives, and thus we were the only kids I knew that spent Christmas in two places. The way I remember it, we would spend the days running up to Christmas at one parent's house; then on Christmas afternoon, the other parent would get us, and we'd spend some days there. Sometimes it was different, and instead of spending days, we'd spend an afternoon. Summary: it was freepen weird and cumbersome and yucky for a little boy as he became a pre-teen. Disc...