-Marshall Jones Jr.

Sorry about that. I suspect it was confusing because I tried to make two comments in one. The top line was for this blog. The rest were for some comments you made several days earlier about your hopes to start a magazine (an e-zine, if I recall correctly), and your concerns about doing that well enough so it’d succeed. Does that make more sense?

When I was thinking about your hoped-for magazine, I realized one of our e-mail friends was the editor of an actual magazine that’s been around for some 20 or 30 years, I think. So I thought “Hey, Phil is one person who could give Marshall some solid advice on producting a magazine.”

The problem is that Phil’s so busy he puts strong restrictions on anything new he accepts. (He gets 1000 speaking requests a year, and accepts about 100 – 2 a week – plus his writing and editing.) And I didn’t want you to get ignored or told he doesn’t have time to answer questions – so I tried to tell you what’s worked for us in communicating with him. I was thinking that he’d reply if you wrote him something like this: “Phil, what’s the most important thing you’ve done to make Servant magazine both appealing and spiritually nourishing?” Very short, to the point, on your key questions, one at a time, spread out.

We only e-mail him about once every month or two, but he always answers, and we’ve become pretty good friends.

One little example of his humor – he and his wife Ramona celebrated their 26th wedding anniversary recently – a”Callaway-Bjorndal” wedding. Then he gave 6 examples of real couples who should think twice before hyphenating theirs. (Complete with a little copy of the newswpaper announcement.) Can’t even guess how he found them – but they included:

Hardy-Harr
Gowen, Geter
Looney – Warde
Wendt – Adaway
MacDonald – Berger
Poore – Sapp

Hope this cleared up my comments. My biggest problem writing has long been to be short and clear. Used to always be long, wordy, complex, intellectual. Was a champ at explaining things in very complicated ways. It was just how I thought. So I often “lost” people. Have been working on that but know I’m not “there” yet.

I’ll email you about this because I’m not quite sure what you had in mind.

-Marshall Jones Jr.

You were talking about starting a magazine. I’ve learned that usually the biggest mistake we make is not trying. Whether we succeed or fail, we learn. And that lays the foundation for final success. Often not immediate, but it finally comes.

One of my family’s e-mail and book-reading friends is Phil Callaway, a Canadian Christian author/editor/speaker/humorist. His website is philcallaway.com or laughagain.com (same site), and his e-mail is phil.Callaway@prairie.edu. I mention him because he edits Servant magazine, published at Prairie Bible Institute in Three Hills, Alberta.

Since he’s been a magazine editor for quite a few years, I’m wondering if he could be a good source of advice for you. It may be a bit hard to get a response, because he’s one busy guy. Besides editing Servant, he’s written a bunch of books (which we love), and gets about 1000 requests to speak every year, out of which he accepts 100. But we’ve had pretty good success communicating with him. He does NOT do things like review unpublished book manuscripts. I’d keep questions short and specific. And I’d use several e-mails over a period of time, one question to each, instead of sending one long one.

And I’d definitely read one or two of his books. They’re worth it. (And right now he’s giving all proceeds to Haiti relief.) We started with “Who Put the Skunk in the Trunk?” (he did, as a kid), which I think is now called “Family squeeze” Others are “It’s always darkest before the fridge door opens,” and “How to be rich without any money.” My daughter Yvette’s his #1 fan here – she alternately laughs and cries through every one she’s read, and gives copies away to friends who are having tough times.

And I’m going on too long. Just hoped to compliment and encourage you.