New feature: "Okie in Exile"

[I, Brian]

"Okie in Exile" is the name of a new writing column I've opened up on the comparative-religion interfaith dialogue forum (CR for short ).

The author - Bobby Winters - is somone I'm familiar with from my years from the MSN debate boards. A lay preacher and mathematics professor, for some years he's been developing his quite adept writing skills, carving a good name for himself in the local media, and publishing a book of stories and recollections drawn from within his family.

I've been reading his articles for - crikey - a couple of years now. And I never get tired of them. Bobby Winters - aka, "OkieinExile" - is able to combine lay piety, academic liberalism, and small-town warmth, into some of the most intriguing stories I've read. Make no mistake, what makes OkieinExile's stories is their human dimensions.

Coming from Britain and never having traveled much as yet, I find his description of America on the Great Plains very captivating. His description of the severe toils of his elder relatives, to the more difficult decisions of a modern generation, are both alien and yet familiar.

What strikes me most, in this strange landscape of decayed oil industries and social cliques, is the human element. Perhaps to some he is evangelising; perhaps to others he is liberalising. To me, he is simply telling human stories.

All of them approach different issues in different ways, and I sincerely hope he'll post some of his older articles that I've read. I also hope that one day many of us will be able to read a novel he started some time ago, the first few chapters of which have entirely caught my imagination when I first read of them last year.

I know that there are a number of aspiring writers here, and more than one published novelist. I would like to formally introduce another among us, who goes by the name of OkieinExile.

(Heh, and after that entrance his writing had better be darn good!)

Best regards,

Brian

[Vajradhara]

Namaste brian,

thank you for the posting and the opportunity for your friend.

are the postings ones that we can provide feedback on or disuccsion about in the thread itself?

[I, Brian]

Certainly.