shmancy.

so, what do we think of the new design?


 vote now, yea or nay.

i think it might be a little TOO pretty for werewolf.

latest and greatest.

still waiting to hear from the big, bad Agent.

thanks for all of the inquiries. in the meantime, instead of twiddling my abnormally long thumbs, i have been very busy. here's some of the many very important things i have done:

1. i set up a twitter. i'm still learning my way around the branches, tweetage and all that, but i'm on there. follow me, if you're into that thing. werewolfjesusbk
2. i removed the wallpaper in my bathroom. i was a little too enthusiastic in my removal. so then i spackled the holes and sealed everything up, forgot to ventilate and got a little high off fumes.
3. i roadtripped to pennsylvania and met my husbands entire family. there are alot of them and they all promised to visit my website so let's see who followed through. (guys, i know i said no pressure but let's be honest, i have been checking ever since...)
4. i got the thrilling news that my wisdom teeth removal surgery will take place on my birthday. superb.
5. i got my hair cut short. on the good days, i decide that i am very katie holmes-esque and that everyone envies my sleek, artsy style. on the bad days, i am convinced that i just look like johnny dep from the new, creepy willy wonka movie. i spend most days in an exhausting flip flop between the two ideas.
6. i wrote a proposal for A SECOND BOOK. i started getting inklings toward the end of Werewolf Jesus that there might be a second book rumbling up within me. it is so. more to come on that later but for now i will say i am calling it "Animangels" (i'm really into word fusion these days and if i need to spell it out for you, i will. animals and angels and the weird ways we humans are all at once both and neither.)

i'll keep you updated (hopefully via tweet...) on the book progress.

in the meantime, if you're new to the site, excerpts are in the archives, feel free to look around.

tinkle.

ladies and gentlemen, we have entered crunch time.

my nose is spending so much time pressed to the grindstone this week that i am starting to chafe (har har har) and maybe i will end up looking like michael jackson (too soon?) but Werewolf Jesus must be in the mail, padded envelope, on its way to Colorado by FRIDAY. after that, it's in the hands of the agent and i don't know much about the process from there.

'rocketman' was my absolute favorite movie growing up (followed closely by 'dunston checks in' and 'good burger') and there's this part where doofy fred z. randall - last minute choice for a trip to mars - is about to takeoff in the spaceship. they start the countdown and he starts freaking out and saying that he's not ready and finally screams

I HAVE TO GO TINKLE!

and it kind of feels a little bit like that to me right now.

needless to say, i should be getting back to work, but in the meantime check out my friend knuck's blog
i'm stealing a quote from her entry on a wrinkle in time, so you can say you read it way back when.

prayers, encouragement and shipments of smartfood and red grapes (preferred writing snacks) are welcomed and appreciated.

weirdness.

In the early 90's, my little brother was completely obsessed with Hanson. (MMMBop - don't act like you don't remember.) We, of course, weren't allowed to listen to secular music, so we would go to Becca's house and dance to her cassette on repeat, our sockfeet making swirls in the dust on the hardwood floor.
     They had this one song called 'Weird' that sang (in a gorgeously pre-pubescent soprano) isn't it weird, isn't it strange, that we all get a little bit weird sometimes. 


I'm nearing the end of my book. (!!!!!) and yes, freaking out a little bit. I passed the 50,000 marker last week, which means I could hand it in now and breathe easy. But I want to hit 60,000 and finish on time and with excellence. so thanks to those of you who have been encouraging me along the way.

above is a little blip from the chapter I'm scurrying to finish this week. It's about how the more I live, the more I realize how truly, wonderfully weird everyone is, in their own way. I'm starting to see and appreciate the bizarre, unique and often unrecognized gifts the people around me possess and the equally bizarre, unique and unrecognized ways God uses these gifts in His big story.

My friend MJ (holla!) has a quote that I've been marinating on -

"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." I'm starting to see that the plans God has for the people around me are as crazy as the things that make these people come alive. 

Don Miller's blog this week was about asking people about their stories (you might as well start reading his blog too, because I am hooked and will probably just keep on citing it...). I absolutely love this because I absolutely hate small talk. I don't care about your job or your kid's 2nd grade graduation - and what's more, I know you probably don't really care either. I'd rather hear about the things you really DO care about, even if we're not "at that point" in our relationship yet.

So my question, in this scattered blog entry is this:
what makes you come alive? specific and unique to only you.

i'm looking for examples to feed on.

comment anonymously or email me at majecla317!

nathaniel.

My friend Big Guy (who is a girl) names cars. You might think this is silly until she names your car and you feel the difference. She has a bizarre gift. She comes up with the name that exactly personifies your car and after that, everything you hated or loved or even briefly noticed about your car has a ring of affection to it.

I had a big, gray, fugly Mercury Grand Marquis for the longest time. The woman who owned it before me smoked like a chimney and it absolutely rotted the interior. The thing was disgusting and bits of it were always just falling off. It had no AC, only 2 working windows and chugged gas like crazy. But after Big Guy named it Nathaniel… I couldn’t help but smile at “him.” (It’s like that smelly, awkward cousin that everyone has – you wish he was different, but if we was, you almost wouldn’t like him as much.)

There’s just something about names.

Something that instantly spins a thread of relationship and meaning between two people (or a person and a car…) When a baby says your name, it makes you feel awesome. When someone mispronounces your name (story of my life) it hurts a little. When someone forgets your name, it makes you feel insignificant.

I think about the Bible and how Adam names the animals and God renames people like Abraham and Sarah and then God as Jesus renames his disciples. I think about places like the DMV or the deli or prison where people’s names are substituted with numbers. I think about the levels of degradement we feel in those places and how different we would feel if they simply used our names.

There’s something about names that tugs on our identity.

Don Miller’s “What If Challenge” is buzzing all over the Christian culture. I agree with him – “what if?...” is one of the most powerful questions we can ask, because it sends us foreward. When we make promises, resolutions, and challenges to ourselves, they only go so far. They say “tomorrow I will do this…” without considering the end result. There’s something powerful about imagining the outcome of your promise first. When you ask “what if?”, you invite yourself to dream. You allow yourself to see the possibilities and the repurcussions of your actions. Those glimpses into a possible future hold you accountable more than you realize. They motivate you.

I asked myself “what if I called people by their name more often?”

When I thank the tattooed cashier at Dollar Tree.

When I catch my elusive downstairs neighbor, getting into his car.

When the guy outside 7-11 asks me for change.

The future I see, growing out of this question like a lovely, iridescent bubble, is small but beautiful. It is beautiful for me and for the people whose names I will call. Because when I learn the name of the man outside 7-11, he becomes more of a human to me and less of a statistic. He looks more like my “own flesh and blood” that God tells me in Isaiah to stop turning away from. His name reminds me to abound in grace and compassion and I imagine (I hope!) that when I say it, he feels valued.

Because, as I’ve said before, the business of Jesus that I feel most powerfully in my life, is the business of looking people in the eyes and showing them they have value and they are loved. I’m not very good at it. I struggle every day. But if I learned people’s names, if I called them by that name, I think it’s a pretty solid (ever so small) step in the right direction. 

first of all

i have to say, i'm so flattergasted (flattered AND flabbergasted) that so many of you were concerned that i haven't posted in a while. i will use three of my fingers to point blame in this situation.

-index finger goes to florida - thanks for the vacation but you sure were distracting.
(skipping middle finger for obvious reasons)
-ring finger goes to SPRING. new sprengland is one of the most gorgeous things you'll ever witness and --the last thing i have wanted to go is be inside on my laptop
-pinky for my book. everything i end up posting ends up in the book somehow and i figure at this rate, no one will buy the end result! also, my deadline is coming soon and i have been panicked/busy.

which brings me to my next point.

several of you have asked for an update on the book situation. plain and simple, i have to have 60,000 words by june 11th. i want to finish by may 11th so i can tidy up and edit for a month. i'm at 45,759 currently so...getting there. i'm averaging 4,000 words a week, made possible by the system of rewards and punishments laid out by drew. i win things like dove chocolate ice cream bars, grey's anatomy episodes and trips to the science museum. the punishment has been a constant since the beginning: for every day i don't meet my quota, i have to give drew a 20 minute massage. there's nothing i hate more (besides moths) than giving massages.

so thanks for the inquiries/encouragement.
i'll try to come up with a little summin summin for you in the next week.
and, i am almost positive that what i come up with will have to do with the "what if challenge" from Don Miller's blog on April 13th.

the 'what if' challenge

read up and let that percolate for a while. send me your thoughts. send me your what ifs.

i'd love to hear.

talk to me.

i've received some wonderful stories in response to the "caleb" post a few weeks ago. for those that shared, thank you for telling me your stories! i have been blessed and inspired and encouraged by each one of them.

and i don't just say crap like that because it's nice to say.

i've started writing the chapter i had in mind when i asked for responses and with each story, a new idea bubbles up. so please, continue to be my nameless, faceless, electronic muses.

if anyone else would like to share puhleeease do.

you can comment anonymously or email me at majecla317@gmail.com