The Obnoxious Author...

Don't let me get like this!

...is what I aspire NOT to be. You know, the ones that plug their upcoming or recently published book every chance they get. At least, I'll strive not to be that on this blog. (The nature of publishing these days demands that authors do a certain amount of self-marketing, so I'll undoubtedly be making a nuisance of myself on Facebook and Twitter.)  So aside from an occasional update while I'm writing, and a month of celebration and giveaways once the book is  out, I hope not to succumb to the temptation to turn this into a Look!Me!Author! blog. And if any of you sense that despite good intentions, I'm sliding into obnoxiousness, please feel free to slap me down in a comment box.

That being said, there's one book-related announcement I have to make before shutting up for a while.  My deadline for the completed manuscript is October 10th. It's normally harder for me to write in the summer since my adorable but highly special-needs kid is home from school. So this means blog posts will be increasingly spotty. I renew my invitation for guest posting  to anyone who has a bright idea about the Liturgy of the Hours and wants to write about it. Contact me by email and we'll talk.

One reader, James  McCauley, has already taken me up on that, and his posts will start appearing once or twice a week through the summer. If you think I'm a Divine Office geek, you ain't seen nothin' yet! James is a fan of the Breviarum Romanum , and an amateur scholar of breviary history. He has a collection of many, many versions of the breviary from the past century, plus a small library of scholarly works about the Divine Office.   His posts will give us a good picture of how the Divine Office has evolved over the last hundred years, and also help us see that many of the old forms are still in use  today (with Church approval) in monasteries and among clergy and laity who prefer them.

Although this blog is almost exclusively devoted to the modern (post-Vatican II) Liturgy of the Hours, it's important that we see it as the most recent branch on an ever-ancient and ever-new vine of liturgical prayer. These guest posts will give us some of that perspective.

James' posts will appear with the title Breviary History, so look for them. If something intrigues you (or doesn't make sense) he'll be happy to reply at length to your questions and comments.