Monthly Archives: November 2009

Latest Posts: "Gratitude" and "Every Tribe has a 'Bogeyman.'"

Click here to read author’s notes on the hurricane that starts Chapter 1 in A Good Place. Gratitude: Two stories about a wonderful word. Gratitude: It’s a word that rolls off the tongue.  To read more No matter where you go, every culture has bogeymen stories to scare their children. In the following scene from A Good Place,  Eliza Moore …

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Excerpt from A Good Place

Landmark Longleaf Pine on Longville Gravel Pit Road. See below for more A good word:  “Compel” A short story from Hearts across the Water by Curt Iles Then there is the story of my friend Tom Dunville.  I’ve known Tom for seven years. He is a wonderful artist and the nicest guy I know… when he is sober.  Tom has …

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A special tree and a special couple

Thanksgiving for my parents, Clayton and Mary Iles This old beech tree still stands on our family land on the bank of Crooked Bayou.  It bears the initials of my mom and dad,  CI (Clayton Iles) and MP (Mary Plott.)  Today (November 25) is their 56th anniversary, so the tree pre-dates 1953. Even though my dad has been dead six …

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My favorite scene in "A Good Place"

A Good Place by Curt Iles Chapter 21 Author’s notes: Our narrator, twelve year old Mayo Moore, is on a log raft trip down the Calcasieu River.  He relates an incident on the River as they near the sawmills on Lake Charles. This scene is my current favorite.  Special thanks to my friend Joe Chaney for sharing a similar family …

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Talking to Yourself

Some stories are too funny not to tell. They say you should be careful talking to yourself out loud: especially when you start answering back. Last week I was gassing up my truck on pump 4 at DeRidder’s WalMart.  Just minding my own business,  I glanced up at the Appalachian Trail* sticker on my truck’s back glass.  Thinking back to …

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Excerpt from "A Good Place" the new novel by Curt

Arriving at Lake Charles on a raft of logs. In this excerpt from A Good Place, 12 year-old Mayo Moore, who has never been more than ten miles from home,  travels down the Calcasieu River on a raft of logs with his father and other local men.  On reaching the small town of Charleston (the 1862 name of present day …

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Read an interview and review on our new book,  A Good Place, at the Beauregard Daily News. We’re really excited about this new novel.  It has sold over 500 copies in the first week and is getting positive feedback from readers and reviewers.

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2 Successful Operations: A healed body… and a new heart.

One of my heroes, Bobby Bonds, told me this story a few years before his death: As a teenager his Sunday School teacher was a WWII veteran named “Red” Harvey. Mr. Harvey told the boys in his class this amazing story: “During the war, my plane was shot down over Germany and I was badly injured before parachuting into enemy …

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"Be still and know that I am God… a verse with a promise.

Be Still and Know Originally written May 1993 On a beautiful Spring Saturday, my three sons and I went to work on the nature trail at the camp.  As we hiked through the woods with our saw, pruning shears, and other gear, we were filled with the camaraderie of boys and dads in the woods. My youngest son, Terry, age …

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Wise words from my father

God does not ask us to figure everything out, but He does ask us to trust Him in every situation and praise His Name because He knows best and will give us what is best.

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Where A Good Place takes place

My new novel, A Good Place, takes place in 1862-1865 in the part of western Louisiana known as “No Man’s Land.” It is centered in the area known as Ten Mile.  This historic region, located west of the Calcasieu River between Glenmora and Pitkin, is bisected by two beautiful creeks,  Ten Mile and Cherry Winche.

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Where does your ripple effect reach?

“From Big D.C. to little d.c.” A life-changing event in my life. …Sometimes the best place to be is right where God has planted us.” In 1997, I attended the huge Promise Keepers meeting at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.  The name of the event was, “Standing in the Gap.”  This theme was based on the verse in Ezekiel …

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