Some Monday Readings - April 6, 2026

How ‘Tiny Shortcuts’ Are Poisoning Science – Thomas Plumper and Eric Neumayer at The MIT Press Reader. 

The Bills That Destroyed Urban America – Joseph Lawler at The New Atlantis.

 

A Truck Driver Spent 20 Years Building a Miniature Model of New York City. Then, It Went Viral – Sarah Cascone at Artnet.

 

Selma Hall, Jefferson County, Missouri – Chris Naffziger at St. Louis Patina.

 

Spies and Lies: The Rosenbergs and America’s Atomic Secrets – Jason Clark at This Is the Day.

 

Ancient Splendor: Roman Art in the Time of Trajan – St. Louis Art Museum (video).

 

Editor, Do Your Work! – Tery Whalin at The Writing Life.

Photograph: Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.

 

How a Troublesome Manuscript Was Saved

Hold on to those unfinished or problematic manuscripts. You never know when they’re due for a rebirth. 

You pour everything into creating a manuscript. You type “The End.” You smile and give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back. It’s done. You finished it.

 

You set it aside for a few days, and then you reread it.

 

You see a problem, but you know it can be easily fixed. You read on. Another problem, and another theoretical fix. You plow on, right to the end, and you realize what the problem is.

 

The problem is the entire manuscript. It doesn’t work. It doesn’t tell the story you want told. It doesn’t tell the story the characters want told. And you think to yourself, “All that work. All that work.” 

To continue reading, please see my post today at the ACFW blog. 

Photograph by Scott Graham via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Some Wednesday Readings

 

Book Review: Charley: The True Story of the Youngest Soldier to Die in the American Civil War by Brendan Lyons – Kevin Pawlak at Emerging Civil War. 

 

You Are the Last Line of Defense – Bari Weiss at The Free Press.

 

Israel at the Precipice Once Again – Mark Helprin at Real Clear Politics.

Writing is a Lot Easier than Editing

In late December, a story idea took possession of my head, and I began to write. The narrative flowed like it never had before with five previous novels. This one was different; its predecessors had been part of a series, while this one was a completely different story. 

On Feb. 18, I write this note in my writing log: “Reach 90,543 words. First draft is completed.” While I can’t say it was effortless, the writing of this story was surprisingly easy. I knew from the beginning how the story would end, and, working without an outline, I kept moving toward that end.

 

Then came the formal editing.

 

To continue reading, please see my post today at the ACFW Blog.

Photograph by Andrew Neel via Unsplash. Used with permission.

Editing as Writing, and Writing as Editing

A friend and fellow writer asked me if I edited my writing as I wrote or after I finished a draft. My answer was yes. I do both. I edit as I write, over and over again, and I edit once the draft is “finished,” if that’s possible. 

The question provoked a deeper thought. Is it possible for me to separate editing and writing?

The answer is no, and I suspect computers have something to do with it.

I was trained in journalism. At the time, classroom technology consisted of Royal manual typewriters. Electric machines were available, but my journalism school couldn’t afford them. I taught myself typing on a portable electric typewriter, but in-class assignments and tests were done on the manual Royals. I can still remember the sound of 20 journalism students pounding on typewriter keys. 

To continue reading, please see my post today at the ACFW blog.

Photograph by Stanley Dai via Unsplash. Used with permission.

A reader asks: Where have all the editors gone?

I have a theory, although I think I may have to give my wife the credit for it. Writers don’t make great editors, and vice versa.

In my family, I’m the writer, and my wife’s the editor. She’s a stickler for detail: I’m not. She’s a better proofreader. She catches non sequiturs and jumbled contexts, too.

In this era of eBooks and widespread self-publishing, I receive requests for reviews. If you post book reviews on Amazon, you will get requests for reviews. For that matter, if you post book reviews on Amazon, you will requests for reviews of everything imaginable – pantyhose, bicycle lights, infant formula, software, curling irons – the list is endless.

For the record, I don’t review pantyhose. I review books, and an occasional movie on Amazon Prime. But the requests keep coming, up to 20 a day, and it’s because of how Amazon positions and promotes what it sells. The more reviews, the more likely your product will be promoted.

Here’s one thing I’ve learned about reviewing books. Most self-published books are not edited.

I understand why. Hiring an editor can be expensive. Many self-published authors apparently think they can edit their own manuscripts.

They can’t. Every book needs an editor. You forgo the expense of an editor at your book’s peril. I can’t count the number of times I’ve started reading a book to find myself bogged down in an editing nightmare by the third page.

I stop reading a book like that. I just stop. If an author doesn’t care enough about a reader to have a properly edited manuscript, or at least to have someone checking grammar and punctuation, then a reader should feel obligated to read the work in question.

I associated this with self-published authors. But times change.

Recently I started reading a novel published by a major Christian publisher. I bought this one, as I buy almost all of the books I review. I knew the writer by reputation. The story line intrigued me, and it promised to be Christian fiction that wasn’t devoted exclusively to a female audience. Most Christina fiction is aimed at women readers, because that’s who buys most Christian fiction. And if you don’t read suspense thrillers, you’re largely left out of the Christian fiction market.

I understand – you don’t find much serious or literary fiction published by Christian publishers.

So I was hopeful with this novel.

By the second page, I had found three examples of clunky, overwritten sentences that could have – should have – been fixed by the editor assigned by the publisher. I’m not an editor, and I could see easy, obvious improvements that could have been made. I plowed on for a few more pages to see if the narrative improved. It didn’t get worse, but it didn’t get better, either.

 I set the book aside.

I’d like to say this is the first time this has happened.

Unfortunately, it is not.

And I wonder, do Christian publishers employ real editors anymore? Is it only the big names – Karen Kingsbury, Jan Karon, Ted Dekker – who get editors? Do some editors not know the difference between a well-written sentence and a badly written sentence? Do they care, or are they so busy with other books, duties, activities, and everything else that they simply don’t give a book (and an author) what is deserved?

To raise a question like this is to invite the ire of publishers, editors and authors alike.

But before I buy a book now, I check to see who the publisher is, because it tells me something about the likely quality of the book.

Until something changes, general fiction will be seen as superior to Christian fiction.

And it should.

Top photograph by George Hodan, and middle photograph by Circe Denyer, both via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission.