Curt Iles

I write to have influence and impact through well-told stories of my Louisiana Pineywoods life.

Two Spoonfuls of Christmas Jelly

  From now until New Year’s Day,  we’ll be featuring stories from our short story collection, Christmas Jelly.   My prayer is that you and your family will enjoy a wonderful Christmas, and you’ll feel the personal presence of Jesus, the King of all Kings. This blog post contains two stories,  “Christmas Jelly”  (Dec. 1) and “My Grandpas’ Boots” (Dec. …

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Gratitude

I love this quote: “Lord, you’ve given me so much. I ask You for one more thing: a heart of gratitude.”   This week’s word is Gratitude. This is my favorite story on gratitude: Vance Gill, my guitar-playing Dry Creek friend (who I always remind that he’s only one vowel away from being famous) shared this:   “I was working …

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Tough or Hard- The Choice is Yours

    Tough or Hard—The Choice is Yours   In front of me are three objects: a hammer, a brick, and a flat piece of leather. They make for a wonderful lesson we all can learn from. It’s amazing observing folks as they go through difficult times. Periods of trial, adversity, and sadness distill out what is really inside people. …

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Down in the Well

Down in the Well   “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding…”   Proverbs 3:4   My neighbor Dudley Mercer tells a story from his Dry Creek childhood.  His family farm had a 35-foot deep well on which they relied for all of their water needs. Dudley’s family also had a problem: one …

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A Remarkable Story

The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The next best time is today. It’s a story worth retelling. His name is  John Stephen Akhwari and he had the dubious honor to finish last in the Marathon at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. John Stephen, a Tanzanian runner, finished more than one hour after the winner had …

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Ed King’s Sermon in the Hayfield

The Sermon in the Hayfield   He was one of my heroes, and today would be his birthday. This is a story of what made him special.     Love is patient and kind. . .    I Corinthians 13:4 As far back as I can remember, I’ve been around Ed King.  He will always be one of my favorite people. …

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As You Were Chapter 1

The Hotel Bentley Alexandria, LA

  The following is Chapter 1 of As You Were, the sequel to our novel, A Spent Bullet. I’d appreciate your feedback on: What makes you want to pull for (and care about) Elizabeth and Harry? What emotions do you sense as Elizabeth stands in the Hotel Bentley lobby? Chapter 1              Difficulty is an excuse history doesn’t accept. …

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Earthshine

    Earthshine   If you study the moon and its phases, you’ll come to realize there is a God in heaven. -Unknown The quote above is true in my life as I’ve never grown tired of observing the moon. One of the best things about rural living is the connection to nature. This includes studying the seasons, the night sky, …

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Love and Discipline

Love and Discipline I once read a story about a father’s wise advice to his daughter, who was struggling with disciplining her young children. The father invited her to take a boat ride on a nearby lake.  The boat had two oars and the father told the daughter to take one oar and row. The boat went in a circle. …

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The Wall

The Wall from the Curt Iles short story collection,  Stories from the Creekbank.    …By my God have I leaped over a wall. -Psalms 18:29   As I stood in the shadow of the twelve-foot wall, sweat popped out on my forehead. In my ears rang the screaming chants of more than fifty teenagers:   “Curt!” “Curt!” “Curt!”  I knew …

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The View from the Teacher’s Desk

  For the next six weeks I’m teaching science at Menard High School in Alexandria. I’m filling in for a teacher on maternity leave, teaching chemistry, biology, and environment science. It’s been a good experience so far and has kept me busy brushing up on my science. (I haven’t been in the classroom since 1985). I’ve never lost my love …

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Baptized in Muddy Water

Immediately after Moses’ baptism, I jotted         the outline of this story in Journal #73 This week, I’m Camp Missionary at Pineywoods Baptist Camp in Texas. The following is a story I related to the boys at camp. I hope you enjoy it as they did.   BAPTIZED IN MUDDY WATER His name was Moses.   And I witnessed his …

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Sliding Into Home

The story below is one of my favorite ones. It’s a baseball story. But about much more than baseball. It’s about family and (attempting to) live the regret-free life.                   From the Curt Iles book, The Old House (2002) Sliding into Home . . . with no Regrets   Twenty years from …

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Billboard Free

I-49 in Rapides Parish

Billboard Free “One call, that’s all.” I live one mile off Interstate 49. It runs north-south through Alexandria and cuts across Louisiana from Shreveport to Lafayette. There are two things I like about I-49: There’s a 75 mile per hour speed limit on most of the lightly traveled Interstate. There is a 60-mile stretch that is billboard free. Leaving Alexandria …

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