Telling It

This all took place back in my high school years where my writing would go into my dresser draw. Later in my college years to be inspired by others who read some of my work. Also being inspired by the great Langston Hughes reading his poetry gave me the inspiration to write more with thoughts about life and endless images. Throughout my vision of writing ideas exploded into words and then formed into a poem or story. Writing was always my way of expressing my feelings and thoughts. Furthermore I experienced similar episodes of my own which gave me fruit for thought in my own travels.

Arthur Ray's extensive knowledge in the history of the fur trade and Native economic history brought him into the courts as an expert witness in the mid-1980s. For over twenty-five years he has been a part of landmark litigation concerning treaty rights, Aboriginal title, and Métis rights. In Telling It to the Judge, Ray recalls lengthy courtroom battles over lines of evidence, historical interpretation, and philosophies of history, reflecting on the problems inherent in teaching history in the adversarial courtroom setting. Told with charm and based on extensive experience, Telling It to the Judge is a unique narrative of courtroom strategy in the effort to obtain constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and treaty rights.

Sometimes witty and sometimes serious, Telling It the Way It Was provides a narrative of what life was like for the hardy and pragmatic immigrant settlers of the US breadbasket. In this memoir, author David Jussero presents a nostalgic tour of life in a predominately Finnish farm community in North Dakota from the turn of the century through the 1940s and 50s. Telling It the Way It Was relays stories about the hardships and successes of Jusseros Finnish and French ancestors who faced the demands of settling a new country by living in sod houses and braving bitter winters on the North American prairies. He tells about the mixed marriage of his French mother who immigrated to the United States to marry his dad, her Finnish sweetheart. Jussero also describes his own experiences growing up on a small wheat farm in North Dakota, attending school at one-room schoolhouses, dropping out of school at age sixteen, and doing dead-end farm jobs, which spurred him into trading the life of a hired farmhand for city life. When he was still in his teens, he made his way to the West Coast to seek his fortune. Through photographs and stories from the past, Jussero passes along his heritage and paints a vivid picture of the sturdy and rugged people who preceded him.

I remember going to seminary thinking that I would find God there. But I didnt. I read peoples thoughts about God in books and wrote papers on their thoughts, but I never actually met God in seminary. Where I met God was in my encounters with other people. Not really surprising when you stop to think of it. Of course, we are more apt to encounter God through other people because God incarnated as one of us in Jesus. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. Consequently, it is through other people that we are most likely to catch a glimpse of God just as others encountered God in Jesus. Throughout the years of my ministry and life, that has been my continuing experience. I have also met God through my own failures and losses, met God when I went through my divorce, even met God when I was in depression. God came to me through others who came to me and offered hope. But I never met God because of what someone else told me I should believe about God or in any doctrine about God.

Robert C. (Bob) Aldridge is a native Kentuckian, but has spent most of his adulthood in Mississippi. Bob is a Vietnam Veteran, and served in public service (Dept of Defense) for 22 years, and in state service for 8 years, serving the majority of this time in various management roles. He and his wife, Ann, have three daughters and four grandchildren. Bob has a Bachelors Degree from William Carey College and a Masters Degree (Political Science w/emp in Public Administration) from the University of Southern Mississippi. Bob is a Christian, and is a member of a Baptist Church affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.

America's favorite writing coach and bestselling author returns with an "indispensable" guide (Diana K. Sugg, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter) to writing clearly and honestly in a world full of lies, propaganda, and misinformation. The darker and more dystopian the future appears, the more influential public writers become. But with so much content vying for our attention, and so much misinformation and propaganda polluting public discourse, how can writers break through the noise to inform an increasingly busy, stressed, and overwhelmed audience? In Tell It Like It Is, bestselling author, writing coach, and teacher Roy Peter Clark offers a succinct and practical guide to writing with clarity, honesty, and conviction. By analyzing stellar writing samples from a diverse collection of public writers, Clark highlights and explains the tools journalists, scientists, economists, fact-checkers, even storytellers use to engage, inform, and hook readers, and how best to deploy them in a variety of contexts. In doing so, he provides answers to some of the most pressing questions facing writers today: How do I make hard facts—about pandemics, wars, natural disasters, social justice—easy reading? How do I get readers to pay attention to what they need to know? How do I help contribute to a culture of writing that combats misinformation and propaganda? How do I instill hope into the hearts and minds of readers? With Clark's trademark wit, insight, and compassion, Tell It Like It Is offers a uniquely practical and engaging guide to public writing in unprecedented times—and an urgently needed remedy for a dangerously confused world.