an apology, sort of , & a Jubilee authors link

I've gotten a few personal emails from friends who claimed they were inspired by my late night Jubilee conference rant last night. I apologize for going on and on---this must be what some bloggers do when they post a personal journal and insist it is just for themselves. (I don't really get that: if it is private, then why publish? If I can't look at my teenagers Xanga posts, then why are they posting in public cyberspace? But I digress.)

Last night just may have been for myself. I suspect I needed to remind myself (I intentionally did not say convince myself, although that may come later in the week as the late nights wear on) just why we do this conference work, this packing and lugging, these taxing email exchanges with speakers and leaders, these on the road bookselling gigs. Writing it out for you actually blessed me, at least. So thanks for allowing me the lengthy tirade.

And, if you gave up because your eyes glazed over or you couldn't take another sentence of my lingo-laden rhetoric, I'd say to try again. I think that JUBILEE piece says a lot about our work and our circle of readers and what is woodenly called our "customer base." But, as I say, I do apologize for the zeal and weight of the long thing.

For tonight, let me suggest that you click here to zip over to our monthly website, and read my January listing of books by JUBILEE '06 authors.

See books by keynoter speakers Lauren Winner, Tony Campolo and Carl Ellis to workshop leaders Sam Van Eman (the ad-buster), Esther Meek (a Polanyi scholar), Vincent Bacote (Kuyper man), Adrienne Chaplin (Art & Soul may be the best book on the arts outside of her mentor, Calvin Seerveld's work), Steve Stockman, (the Irish author of u2 book Walk On), Art Lindsley (you've seen his C.S. Lewis book reviewed here), Dave Gruesel (yes, the urban designer of Camden Yards and the Pittsburgh stadium fame who, I'm happy to report, likes James Kunstler's new urbanist books), Dolphus Weary (from Voice of Calvary), Tim Elmore (dynamic leadership guru, a youthful Maxwell protege.) There are other speakers and topics, of course, but these are just the ones who have written books! What a good handful of authors-- diverse and interesting. Next best thing to being among them might be to browse my listing of their good titles. And say a prayer that somehow, their books bear fruit, that we can make a living selling these kinds of titles to a hungry generation.