Call for Manuscripts: SBNR & Thai Language

LivingHour.org is currently issuing a call for manuscripts. We will consider SBNR (Spiritual But Not Religious) books that involve Progressive Christianity, Buddhism, Taoism, or Islam. For a manuscript to be seriously considered it must be in keeping with the perspective of the material that you see posted on LivingHour.org—so do spend some time reading the website to make sure your submission is appropriate. We appreciate works that are both literary and accessible, books where the author exhibits a sense of humor about themselves and the world around them.

We are also accepting submissions of learn Thai language books that are original and can offer students of the Thai language something which they cannot get from other books.

Do to the amount of submissions we expect to receive, please do not expect a detailed critique of your manuscript. But we will let you know our decision usually within 2-3 weeks after receiving your submission.

Please note that our publishing program for authors is for e-books and POD books. Accepting publication with LivingHour.org means that we will edit your manuscript, prepare it for e-book and print publication, and distribute it online via Smashwords, CreateSpace, Amazon.com, and Barnes & Noble. We also will promote the book via our website, which receives thousands of visitors every month, and other online venues. In return, we keep 40% of the revenue that we receive from our distributors. The author receives 60% of this revenue as their royalty payment. There are no upfront costs for the author required.

For Thai language books wished to be purchased by expats in Thailand, we will print these locally and ship them from our Isaan office.

Submission Guidelines

Please send us a sample chapter, along with a well written cover letter that details who you are, who you see as the audience of your book, what aspects of your book make it original and compelling, and what you will do personally to help promote the book. Submissions should be made to: living [at] livinghour (dot) org.

Lastly, please do not get discouraged if we reject your manuscript. We are a small publisher and can only accept a few manuscripts each year that most closely match the mission of LivingHour.org.

For the Sake of God

The Gulistan (Rose Garden) is the masterwork of 13th century Persian writer Sa’di (Saadi), a celebrated poet who recently was quoted by President Barack Obama in his 2009 address to the people of Iran. In the Gulistan, Saadi tells a story that goes like this:

A person with a harsh voice was reciting loudly the Koran. A good and holy man went up to him and asked, “How much are you getting paid for that?” The person answered, “Nothing.”

“If that is so,” asked the other, “why give yourself so much trouble?” He answered, “I am reading for the sake of God!” The good and holy man replied, “For God’s sake do not read, for if you chant the Koran in this manner, you are casting a shade over the glory of Islam.

Saadi’s story is an instructive one for Muslims and Progressive Christians alike. All too often we attribute to God human characteristics like jealousy and neediness, which in turn makes us think that God demands that we glorify Him and do things for His sake. By doing so, we paint God in a rather poor light, as if he were akin to an insecure earthly father who demands allegiance and obedience from his adult children.

God (the good heavenly Father) wants us to read scripture and poetry not for His sake, but for our own sake, for the benefit of the Christ seed in us, so that we might grow in our love for one another and the living world around us. It is by realizing our potential as Sons and Daughters of God, and loving our neighbors as ourselves, that we honor Islam and Mohammed, Christianity and Jesus, and God the Father, not by appealing to Jehovah’s or Allah’s non-existent vanity.

—

Please subscribe to The Living Hour’s free Daily SBNR Motivationals by entering your email address into the “Opening the Small Gate” box in the right corner of this web page. This Progressive Christianity series is written for Unitarians, Agnostics, and all who seek a richer life.

To read about Joseph Campbell, Carlos Castaneda, and the Power of Myth, please go to: Bliss Path & Heart Road.

The Test of Freedom

The writer and wandering traveler Isabelle Eberhardt was an extraordinary woman. The remains of her book Dans l’Ombre Chaude de l’Islam – In the Hot Shade of Islam (salvaged from a flash flood that killed the young author) was once called “one of the strangest human documents that a woman has given to the world.” In her early twenties, Eberhardt wrote the following:

Vagrancy is deliverance and life on the open road is the essence of freedom. To have the courage to smash the chains with which modern life has weighted us (under the pretext that it was offering us more liberty), then to take up the symbolic stick and get out! To one who understands the value and the delectable flavor of solitary freedom (for no one is free who is not alone) leaving is the bravest and finest act of all.

Most of us can feel sympathy with Eberhardt’s words and admire her courage, especially considering the fact that she wrote them sometime around 1900. Who has not felt (at some point) the desire to “smash the chains” and set out on the open road? Perhaps when we are young, this can be the bravest and finest act of all. But as we grow older, the act of fleeing is often neither brave nor fine.

Looking toward the life of Jesus, we discover that true bravery is to defend our liberty even when being denounced by others, to honor our conscience regardless of the consequences, and to embrace our independence while others toe the line. In other words, to remain free even when we are not alone. The true essence of freedom is defined not by the depth of our solitude but by how well it stands up to the crowd.

—–

Please subscribe to The Living Hour’s free Daily SBNR Motivationals by entering your email address into the “Opening the Small Gate” box in the right corner of this web page. This Progressive Christianity series is written for Unitarians, Agnostics, and all who seek a richer life.

To read about Jesus’ second coming and the Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky, please go to: Jesus & The Grand Inquisitor.