After a wonderful and very productive day of writing,
Tuesday night found me at the Idaho Shakespeare Festival‘s performance of Arsenic and Old Lace. In case that confuses you, yes, we know that Shakespeare didn’t write that particular play. But the Festival’s acting company always performs one or two non-Shakespearean plays every season.
Anyway, this was one dandy production. The guy playing Mortimer (the role made famous on film by Cary Grant) was superb. His timing was impeccable, and his physical comedy was hysterical. And the aunties. Oh my, oh my. I haven’t laughed this hard in a long time. Bravo to those two actresses. Absolutely divine.
During the first intermission, a woman came up and asked, “Are you Robin Lee Hatcher?” Turns out, she was a fan of my books who had just exchanged emails with me. That was a treat. This was her first time to the Festival (she’s lived in the Boise area only three years), so I encouraged her to come back to see The Tempest if she could manage to get tickets for it.
This may turn out to be my favorite season ever, and I’ve been a season ticket holder since 1990, so that’s saying something.
Saw a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly of a book I am interested in reading:
unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity … and Why It Matters
by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons (Baker Publishing Group)Kinnaman, president of the Barna Institute, was inspired to write this book when Lyons (of the Fermi Project) commissioned him to do extensive research on what young Americans think about Christianity. Lyons had a “gut-level sense that something was desperately wrong,” and three years of research paints exactly that picture. Mosaics and Busters (the generations that include late teens to early 30-somethings) believe Christians are judgmental, anti-homosexual, hypocritical, too political, and sheltered. Rather than simply try to do a PR face-lift, Kinnaman looks at ways in which the church’s activities actually may have been unchristian, and encourages a return to a more biblical Christianity, a faith that not only focuses on holiness but also loves, accepts and works to understand the world around it. It would be possible to get lost in the numbers here, but the authors use numerous illustrations from their research and life experiences, and include insights at the end of every chapter from Christian leaders like Charles Colson, John Stott, Brian McLaren and Jim Wallis. This is a wonderful, thoughtful book that conveys difficult truths in a spirit of humility. Every Christian should read this, and it will likely influence the church for years to come. (Oct.)
I’m headed off on another trip in the morning, this time to my annual brainstorming retreat in beautiful northern Idaho. I’m so glad I’m not driving. Two of the counties I would have driven through are now disaster areas due to the forest fires. Every day this week, I’ve awakened and thought that it was cloudy and stormy outside, but it wasn’t clouds. It’s smoky, hazy air from all the fires. A couple of the writers who are part of this group are driving from Montana, and both of them have fires to contend with before reaching the Idaho border. And maybe there are fires this side of the border too. I cannot say for sure.
Pray for rain. The West is ablaze.
It’s doubtful that I’ll be posting anything to the blog in the days I’m away. In addition to brainstorming my next book and some books for the others in the group, I’ve got to keep writing on the current WIP. There won’t be much extra time, other than what I spend with these wonderful “sisters” of mine, laughing, playing, and praying together.
I’m telling you. This is a foretaste of heaven.
In the grip of His grace,
Robin
