www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall What are you writing now?

I understand that several published authors post on this forum. To them, and to unpublished writers, I have a question.

What are you writing now?

With the short description, it would be interesting to hear what prompted the writing.

I am working on a poem. It is a dramatic monologue of a widower speaking in front of his late wife's headstone. I started writing it when I had the image of a young couple looking in the sky between the glow of two cities. I imagined them pointing to a star and making a vow of their love upon it, as romantic young couples may do.

The young man, in the poem, is a little older. He has found a new love, and this is the occasion of his monologue. He wants to explain to his first love, who he still has deep feelings for, that he has found joy again.

Driving in the car, I thought that an interesting topic, so I set down to put it to verse.

This poem has little in common with my personal experiences and I don't wish to express myself, as my generation is apt to do. It would be my ambition for the poem to inform, delight, and entertain the reader.

Well,

I'm supposed to be working on my dissertation for my Ph.D. Once we have moved and I begin my new position on August 13, I think that I will have more time. I hope to have defended it by May 2008. My dissertation is on Johann Gotlieb Fichte. Specifically, I'm dealing with his arguments against determinism and materialism and the influence of Heinrich Jacobi on his thinking (as well as narrating the dispute being Jacobi and Fichte). Specifically, I will look at Fichte's claim that we have a kind of intellectual intuition that we are free, spiritual beings and also his claim (here is the influence of Jacobi) that the foundation for life is faith. Also, it will be important to treat how Fichte thinks philosophy has gone wrong by defining Being as "substance." Rather, Being is pure Act, activity, and life.

Joe

As soon as I have completed my dissertation, I intend on writing a long article, or perhaps a series of articles on contraception the Church fathers, and Orthodox theology. This has been discussed here at length, so just do a search or go through my profile and find posts on contraception, NFP, the fathers, etc. I might include a review of John Paul II's "Theology of the Body" as well, but I have to go back and spend a considerable amount of time with it first. And, first things first, I have to get this dissertation done. I will likely publish, or present, one or two chapters of my dissertation as articles next year. There is a conference in Memphis I like to present at. I plan on presenting there next Spring.

Joe

Dear Joe,

I am excited to see some of your work once you go into print. I entered philospohy through Marx, oddly enough, and African religion. So I read much of Hegel and Heidegger and other Europeans some years ago and was deeply disatisfied till many moons later, after I returned to the Church, I picked up Edith Stein's thesis.

I was so excited to see the book of essays from Ignatius press by Habermas and Ratzinger. I hope to read that this fall if I ever get enough rubles to buy the book.

I am truly interested by your interest in the Theology of the Body!

M.

Hmmm . . .

Is anyone writing decent Christian fiction ? Preferably from the perspective of the Eastern Church ?

-- John

I heard of someone who is currently writing a novel of that sort. This is from my book club friends who belong to various Catholic book clubs up north.

Eddie

Earlier this year I wrote an article about a triple gangland killing in Chicago in 1925, for a quarterly historic crime magazine.

I'd like to write decent Christian fiction one day.

I have two writing projects I dream of doing.

1) One is to write a story about my great grandmother coming over from Slovakia, and how she feel in love with my widowed great grandfather as a young nanny caring for his kids. I want to describe how she smuggled her religious objects sewn in her pillow through Ellis Island so that she did not have to pay duty.

2)I would like to write an epic novel about Prince Vladimir's love affair with princess Anna, and the conversion of Rus'. Not a silly love story, a gritty one, with battles and carnage, but which would witness to faith, and good character development for St. Volodymyr(I would like Keira Knightly to play princess Anna in the screen version!!).

I would want both of these stories to witness to our beautiful Byzantine Faith, but to appeal to a wide audience.

I am serious about writing both of these, I plan to start one of them after I finish my thesis.

Interesting . . . especially the immigrant's tale.

-- John

From someone unpublished, and who will probably remain that way...

I've been working (on and off) on an study of Vespers according to Kyivan (Ruthenian) usage, with the ultimate goal of improving on the work done for the Recensio Rutena and publishing a more authentic service.

Will anything come of it? I don't know, but so far it has been fun playing with old books and doing lots of comparative liturgics.

_____
Noli nothis permittere te terere.

Do you travel for your research?

That's in the vein of where I wish to aim my efforts. I hope you're successful in your narriatives.

It sounds like you've done real research. I hope you write up your findings and get it published, even if it isn't perfect. As the saying goes, don't let the perfect get in the way of the good.

-- John