Want to know what the chinese writing in these posters is saying?

Click here for my extremely accurate translation.

Many of you know that I am writing a book. In fact, all of you reading this know, because I just told you.

What you may not know is that I am taking a break from writing the book for a few months. This is a calculated move that my agent and I agreed on because we are wily and crafty. Also because I need to get a bigger readership.

Phase I of the plan was to increase readership at Prayers For Blowouts, which has been happening since I’ve added 6 new writers to the site. So far, so good.

Phase II was for me to give my personal homepage a face-lift. Most of you have probably never actually been there, but it was time for a change.

I’m happy to say that this afternoon I finished the redesign and it’s now live. The sections on my writing, speaking, and well, basically everything have been updated. The picture on the front page is from a few months ago.

(I’m actually about 10 pounds heavier in that picture than I am now, but oh well. What’s 10 pounds when you have the Brooklyn Bridge as your backdrop?)

Check it out if you have a second while I move on to Phase III. (and by “move on to Phase III” I mean “figure out what Phase III is”)

ps…if you see any typos or bad links, let me know.

so i finally gave the blog a new look. I’m not madly in love with it, but i definitely like it.

Color that sticks out - check (ugly yellow)

self-deprecating header graphic - check

a person from checkoslovakia is a - check (possibly my favorite line from Mike Myers’ Cat in the Hat)

time for bed…more tomorrow…

About a month ago I had the idea to start a blog up with a funny fellow named Chad Gibbs. I met Chad in Alabama last October through the Don Miller connection. Chad has written a handful of pieces for the Burnside Writer’s Collective, and when i was down in Birmingham to hear Don speak Chad and i got to meet for a bit before the show. Since then Chad and i have kept in touch somewhat regularly, mostly chatting about writing, golf, and how i don’t care a whole lot about college football.

So anyway, Chad’s an extremely talented writer of humorous things, and I thought a joint blog venture would be a good idea. He agreed (well, he didn’t say no at least) and so I told him I would get it going. Fast forward a month to this week (i still hadn’t started up our blog) when i see that the Burnside Writers have started up a blog and that Chad is writing for that one as well. I was crushed and heartbroken, but he assured me that like Bill Paxson in “Big Love”, he could split his time fairly between more than one entity.

I quickly built the blog and emailed Jordan over at Burnside to tell him about it (which i had titled “Chad and Bryan Save the World”) and to ask him to link to us, and he said “just join up with us”. and so i did. I’m easy that way.

All that to say that you should add the Burnside Writers’ Blog to your feed reader or bookmarks because not only will I be posting there from time to time, but also you’ll get some insightful and amusing commentary from the likes of Chad Gibbs, Jordan Green, Susan Isaacs, Aaron Donley, Penny Carothers, Ariele Gentiles, and some guy named Robert who (i think) writes music reviews for Relevant and HM.

Should be a good time. Here’s my first post.