Saturday Good Reads: Some Places I Like to Visit

No, this post isn’t a travelogue (“Let me tell you about my trip to London!”). This is about some of the blog sites I like to visit (there are more, and I’ll feature some of those soon, too). These are ones that don’t fit into a nice category or niche but which I enjoy every time I go, and thanks to my RSS reader, I go every time something is posted.

They may contain wisdom, or a smile, or something beautiful, or something that brings tears to the eyes. But they’re all worth visiting.

The Faithful Skeptic: Jim Schmotzer lives up there in rain country (suburban Seattle). He writes poems, prayers an the occasional essay. He’s a coach and consultant for mentoring. Collegiate ministry, life decisions, working with staff teams – he pretty much runs the gamut of skills. When I first start reading his blog, he wrote really short short stories. And I always love reading his poems.

Katdish: If I need to read something that will either make me smile or laugh out loud, I head to Katdish’s place. I love her Katdishionary, her unwavering fear of clowns, the stories she tells, and her rants. (She always gives fair warning about the rants.) In fact, I like all of her posts. Did I leave out the ones about the Sky Mall catalog?

Soulfari: Jay Cookingham has a fathering ministry – and a lot of other things. His posts are thoughtful and thought-provoking. And he has a cartoon blog called My Bad Sheep, that is cock full of puns.

The Journey is Everything: Travis Thrasher’s blog is one of the places I go to read about writing. He writes suspense novels, has a young adult series under the general name of “The Solitary Chronicles,” and talks about writing, his struggles, his hopes and reams – all those things that make us writers. I’ve read most of his books, and they’re all good.

Signed BKM: B.K. McKenzie writes poetry, and that’s all she posts on her blog. I invariably tweet each poem she posts. Her poems are vivid, haunting, inspiring – and a lot of other things. I really enjoy what she writes.

Simply Darlene: Darlene from “out thar” somewhere – the western U.S. She likes you to think she’s a cowgirl, but she‘s really a writer. She writes it like she sees it, and she writes it well. Even when she has a concussion.

Photograph: Francisco Farias Jr. via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.