Tuesday, January 29, 2008

My CT column is in print!

My first column for Christianity Today is in print! As I mentioned a few months ago, CT invited me to be a columnist this year. We've dubbed the column name as "Kingdom Sightings." The first column, "The Vision Thing," just appeared in the February issue. It's not online yet, but I'll link to it when it's available. (Update: It's now online and available here.)

What's fascinating to me with magazine writing is the time warp. When we get magazines in the mail, we have a sense that it's the latest news. But with monthly magazines, the content was likely written three or four months beforehand. I wrote my February column back in November, and a few weeks ago I sent in my April column. Of course, since I work in book publishing, I'm used to things being time delayed - I'm working with manuscript drafts now that won't be in print until fall 2008 or winter 2009. The content for "new" books is usually at least a year old by the time it hits the shelves.

At any rate, if you're a subscriber and have read the article, let me know what you think! Thanks for reading.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations Al!

Anonymous said...

Congrats!

Anonymous said...

Just to clarify:

A lot of it actually is the latest news. Like the news section. But we don't do the whole magazine right before we're due to ship it out. Columns, departments, thought pieces, and most evergreen pieces tend to be in the works for quite some time.

Note: Al's readers won't be surprised to hear that his column is excellent. I'll let you know when we post it online. (We publish our print articles a bit at a time. If you want the whole thing at once, buy a copy or subscribe.)

L.L. Barkat said...

Still, blogging feels like it's "more latest". Doesn't it?

Helen said...

So I'll be putting you in my database each month? ;)

Congrats!

A said...

Well done!

Looks like I need to pay for a subscription now!

Al Hsu said...

Thanks for the clarification, Ted. That's good to know. I didn't mean to sound like I was dissing magazine journalism! Thanks for all your good work over there at CT.

Anonymous said...

I liked your column well enough to come read your blog! :)

Looking forward to reading more.

Friar Tuck said...

Very interesting post. I logged in here after reading your column with CT.

I loved your book on Singles at the Crossroads. I read it as a single person, and it helped me think through and understand a lot of things.

Thanks.

Al Hsu said...

Sarah and Friar, glad you liked the column, and thanks for visiting! And Friar, I'm glad to hear that the singles book was helpful to you.

Al Hsu said...

Update: The article is now available online at CT's website here.