The past two weeks have been a blaze of writing.  I finished a chapter book for my son's birthday, which is in November, and am in the process of proofing it.

I finished a children's short story, but have not decided what to do with it.

Several years ago I had written a book of Latin and English haiku.  I have resurrected that project for publication later this year and am in the process of formatting and proofing it.

I also finished a translation piece for the Aquinas Translation Project, which I hope gets accepted.  If it does, I eagerly anticipating doing more Aquinas translation.  He is amazing in his breadth of knowledge and depth of insight.

For the next couple of weeks, however, I am going to try to force myself not to write.  I need to spend some time reading and getting re-filled so I can get back after the writing later in the summer.

The Other Side of Heaven, my collection of Latin prayers and contemporary English translations, along with Desert Days:  Forty Devotions for Men, is now out.   Amidst a busy weekend that saw a surprise 70th birthday party for my mother, I managed to update the website to include these books and several discount packages as well.

I think my thoughts now will turn to work on the chapter book for my son's birthday, which is not until November, but I am working on it now.  I also want to finish my translation of Cicero's De Senectute and begin work on something for the Aquinas Translation Project.

I finally finished the revisions on The Other Side of Heaven and should have the proofs sometime next week.  If everything looks good, we should be on target for publication of both Desert Days:  40 Devotions for Men and The Other Side of Heaven by the end of April.

As we have been doing some cleaning recently, I have found a lot of 3.25" disks with lots of former projects.  I have felt like a kid suddenly discovering an old trunk in the attic.  A number of these projects just need a little dusting off and should be fit for publication.  A few others have made their way back onto my list of things I want to work on.  Among them are a play and a screenplay, the latter of which has made me think of doing a historical novel on the movie's subject first, then base the screenplay on that.

I have been engaged off and on since Christmas, mostly during lunch, on a translation of Cicero's De Senectute, or On Old Age.  I continue to be reminded of Paul Simon's line in "St. Judy's Comet" in which he says something to the effect that what good is he as a famous singing daddy if he cannot sing his little boy to sleep.  Yes, there are other translations of Cicero available, but why should I not translate for my students, friends, and family?

This has given me the thought that I may begin a series of translations, not altogether unlike the Penguin series, in which I translate works that I regularly teach and others that are of personal interest to me.

Which leads me to the granddaddy of translation ideas...

I have long had the dream to translate the Vulgate New Testament for Austin and Olivia.  I am laboring over a working theory of translation for that one.

Ah, company is at the door.  More later.

Today I finished the last of the formatting for The Other Side of Heaven.  I still have a bit of work to do on the cover and, of course, want my wife's opinion, but it is likely this book will be available sometime around the first of April.

There is a group called the Aquinas Translation Project that is trying to put together English translations of all of Aquinas' works online.  I emailed the head of the project, Dr. Stephen Loughlin at DeSales University in Pennsylvania, and I think I am going to try my hand at something for this effort.  They are in need of translations of Aquinas' commentaries on the Psalms.

My first step has been to print out one of the commentaries already done, just to get a sense of style and also to see how Aquinas uses certain words.  He uses circa, for example, to mean "about," and, typically for his time period, uses relative clauses to express what Classical Latin would express with an indirect statement.  Once I have a feel for both Aquinas and the style of translatiing this team seems to employ, I will follow God's leading on which commentary to begin translating.

Click on The Aquinas Translation Project to see more of what they are about.