Famous in Santa Barbara


They say everyone is famous for fifteen minutes – but do they tell you it will be in Santa Barbara?

When I began researching the Lambeth Conference last year I had no idea what it would lead to. I guess I was doing it because a) I have an interest in it as an Episcopalian, and b) I’ve agreed to write a regular column about the Anglican Communion for our diocesan newspaper. When my research (completely on line) produced an essay of 5000 words, the editor refused to let me take over her paper, so I sent it off to an Episcopal web site called episcopalmajority. You can still find it there in four installments gussied up with pictures. That was reproduced in Episcopal Life, the national newspaper of the Episcopal Church and on a couple of other web sites and led to a number of speaking engagements as far afield as Roanoke, Virginia.

Then came a request to chop it up into four 700 word pieces for use as a bulletin insert for Episcopal parishes. And that led to a request for republication in Noozhawk, the online newspaper of Santa Barbara, California. The editor goes to church and reads his bulletin and thought Santa Barbarans would be as interested in Lambeth as they are in the latest vote of the city council on a 35-home development in Las Positas or the arrest of a murder suspect in Goleta. You can find it by typing noozhawk (or noozehawk, it seems to be spelled bith ways!)into your search engine.

I might also note that when editors ask how to identify me I always tell them to include “author of Beyond Beowulf, the first ever sequel to Beowulf.” As of today, my Amazon sales rank has gone up by 100,000 since I last looked. I hope bookstores in Santa Barbara are prepared for a surge!

1 Comment

Bill MacfadyenJune 18th, 2008 at 8:31 am

Hey, thanks for the nice plug for Noozhawk! Sorry our lead picture was so riveting today.

We appreciate the feature.

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