Burned, yet Blessed, by the Fire… “The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The next best time is today.” We’re just finishing burning season in Southwestern Louisiana. Five days of rain and the greening of the grass ended one of the driest winters we’ve had in years. The following story is from my 2004 book, Wind …

The Lone Hostage “He to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood” –Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing Robert Robinson It’s only appropriate to write about Captain Richard Phillips on Good Friday. Phillips is the captain of the Maersk Alabama, an American cargo ship hijacked two days ago by armed pirates from Somalia. As the pirates attacked the ship, …

A brick of peat in County Mayo, Ireland. See below or click here on the sweet smell of burning peat. The “Smell of Home”   Recently I published a blog on the wonderful smell of honeysuckle. (Click here to read it if you missed it. Also read below for a treatise from my friend horticulturist Charles Chaumont on the two …

  A Pat on the Head A short story containing an old dog, a famous horse, an eulogy at a country funeral, and ending with a tragic plane crash, will be one of two things: It will either be a forgettable tangle of tales that leave a reader frustrated. Or it may be a wonderfully woven story imparting lessons that …

A Friend named Ivory From the book, The Mockingbird’s Song by Curt Iles “The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing … not healing, not curing … that is a friend who cares.” –Henri Nouwen “A …

Ivory “guarding” the office.   “Sugar and Ivory” From the Curt Iles book,Hearts across the Water It’s odd but I will always think of two dogs when I think of the long night that Hurricane Rita struck Dry Creek Camp.   We had 350 people on our grounds. They had been moved and bedded down in our most solid dorms …

Spring dogwood in bloom Crooked Bayou Swamp Dogwoods under the Pines The following story is from my novel, The Wayfaring Stranger. This passage takes place in March of 1850 western Louisiana. This dogwood story details the growing love affair between the Irishman Joe Moore and the Redbone girl, Eliza Clark. It was over a week before Joe’s next visit. Mid-March …

“Branding Dogs” A case study on a misunderstanding Eddie Anyone who knows me is aware of how much I love dogs. One of my older friends always said, “Don’t trust anyone who doesn’t like dogs.” One of my writing priorities is to include a good dog in every book I write. I don’t just like dogs. I love dogs, especially …

Curt cooking supper at The Old House What I Value Most You can also view this story at www.whativaluemost.com. Simply type in “Curt Iles” to read my story. I make my living as a storyteller. Some stories are written, others I tell. Most of the stories I tell are true. Others, although fictional, are taken from real life. As a …

Mexican Dirt I love stories, because I’m a storyteller. I love all stories, but especially funny stories. Best of all, I like funny stories with a happy message. One of the biggest challenges of storytelling is sharing cross-culturally. Something that a group of Americans would double over in laughter at may leave an African audience or Hondurans scratching their heads …

No retreat, not even for writer’s doubt. Recently a writing friend expressed her doubts about the quality of her writing. Understanding fully what she was going through, I shared the following: As a writer, I’ve been plagued with WRITER’S BLOCK. However, I routinely suffer from WRITERS DOUBT. From reading others, it seems to plague every writer to varying degrees. The …

Rusty Thompson on the highway In the coming weeks, we’ll be blogging our funniest stories. Some will be new and others will be old favorites. The following one, entitled “Rusty” is from my third book, Wind in the Pines. It’s a favorite story of my friend Peggy Benoit. Let us know your favorite funny stories from my books, and we’ll …

Church Thermostats . . . Open Windows Pews. . . Boards, Carpet. . . Dirt Floors I’m still full of stories from Honduras. I fully believe folks in other places can teach us as much, or more, than we have to teach them. An example of this is the church at Zucros de Cana, Honduras. Its congregation is small. Its …

The Beauty of Honduras. One of the best parts of our Honduran trip was becoming friends with many young people. Stephanie, shown reading from my book, Wind in the Pines, was one of our translators. We are working on a translation of my stories/devotions into Spanish. This is the student body at the local school, Instituto Santa Anna. We were …