Robert Benson

A compelling combination of advice and inspiration, Dancing on the Head of a Pen will challenge and encourage writers, artists, musicians, painters—anyone drawn to a life of artistic expression. Digging deeply into his own writing habits, failures, and successes, Robert Benson helps you choose the ideal audience for your work, commit to it, and overcome the hurdles that inevitably confront both aspiring artists and accomplished professionals. Extending beyond the craft of writing, this gentle book moves into a rich discussion on the relationship between spirituality and art. Including wisdom from revered writers past and present, Dancing on the Head of a Pen is a beautiful mosaic of inspiration, practical help, and a glimpse into the disciplines that shape one writer’s life. “Dancing on the Head of a Pen is a pure delight to read. Encouraging, honest, practical, and important. I needed this book.” —Melody Carlson, author of more 200 books including Finding Alice “With deceptive simplicity and an almost seductive easiness in his voice, Benson lays open before us the filigreed mystique of the writing life in all its beauty, its unmitigated angst, and its inescapable vocation.” —Phyllis Tickle, author of numerous books including The Divine Hours “Robert Benson’s Dancing on the Head of a Pen is a gem. It is wise, witty, and inspiring—a trifecta seldom achieved by a book on the writing life.” —James Scott Bell, bestselling author of Plot & Structure

The Practice of a Writing Life

Dancing on the Head of a Pen

Publisher description -- Like the bouquet arising from a fine wine, the winemaker's personality permeates each conversation in this sparkling collection. Robert Benson has captured the essence of 28 California winemakers as they discuss the myths and methodology of making great wines. Join Benson over a bottle of wine and plate of cheese as he listens to the secrets of producing wines which are today rivalling--even excelling--those of France and Germany.

Conversations with Robert Benson

Great Winemakers of California

In a spiritual self-portrait, the author discusses his struggles with the mysteries of faith, the guidance he has found on life's path, and his journey back to God

The Road Home to God

Between the Dreaming and the Coming True

“I can remember the words people said that meant so much to me and my own sense of who I was and who I might become…. You know you have heard such a sentence when you hear inside a corresponding Yes. The Yes is an echo of sorts, or at least it is the same voice as is the Echo that you have come to count on. Such a sentence takes your breath away…. It tells you something about yourself that you suspected or hoped, something you glimpsed but were too shy or uncertain to name aloud.” To Hear and Live Your Calling When one day a friend wondered if he was being called to a certain field of work, he asked Robert Benson, “Do you think I am?” The Echo Within is Robert’s illuminating answer, a thoughtful, honest, profoundly-affecting account of his own search and failings and eventual discovery of the Yes he describes–what it is one truly is called to do and be. Written out of a lifelong search and response to the callings on his life, The Echo Within explores: •how to love the work you do, and the process of doing it. •ways to sense God’s pleasure in your pursuits, both in the pursuits and in you. •whether you fall into your vocation as a destiny or you chart that course. •how to begin living with added dimensions of meaning and purpose. Through the ups and downs of the changes inherent in family life, professional choice, and spiritual experience, Robert shares with wisdom, humor, and heart what he’s learned–and how you can discover your calling too.

Finding Your True Calling

The Echo Within

Lord of the World is a classic dystopian sci-fi novel.

Lord of the World

With an Outline of Its History, and Specimens of the Language and Poetry of the People

Sketches of Corsica Or, a Journal Written During a Visit to that Island, in 1823

One man's story of his journey through spiritual uncertainty to a newfound understanding of his relationship to God. For those who have questioned their Christian faith, Robert Benson offers an account of his sojourn in a season of trouble and his journey back to God. In this spiritual self-portrait, Benson's experiences--battling depression and re-examining the deep Christian faith in which he has been immersed since childhood--become poignant testament of one believer's struggle with the mysteries of faith's road.

“I am not ever going to get to go home, am I?," she said one day. This is the story of moving Miss Peggy to a new place to live, to a new way of life, to a new kind of reality. All of which became necessary because Miss Peggy had begun to live a life colored by dementia. All of us who love her have begun to live that new life with her. Some of that story is here as well. In Moving Miss Peggy we also meet the story of siblings, grown apart over years, with nothing in common except for a mother who in wrestling through her own challenges gave each grown child the gift of a deeply felt reunion, long years after any of them suspected there was a possibility of reconciling grace. Written with grace, candor and bittersweet humor, Moving Miss Peggy tells a story that many others are now facing, bringing strength and wisdom and inspiration to readers. We learn (and learn again) along with Miss Peggy and her family some of the very basics for living life well.

A Story of Dementia, Courage and Consolation

Moving Miss Peggy

Evaluates the meaning of community, according to the traditions founded by Saint Benedict, offering practical help to modern folks engaged in defining, nurturing, and sustaining community in the world in which they live.

Benedict's Guide to Community

A Good Neighbor

Msgr Robert Hugh Benson

THE NECROMANCERS is set in contemporary Britain, and the main character is the young barrister Laurie Baxter. Baxter falls in love with a local girl, Amy, who dies of natural causes before they wed. One could say he was obsessed with Amy Nugent. In his distress after her death, he can't bear her absence. He needs to contact her, to touch her again, if at all possible. Baxter had recently converted intellectually to the Catholic Faith, but not with his heart. Amy's death provides a test that he appears to fail. He connects with a spiritualist circle hoping that the medium will help him bring back his love. He will do anything to get back to Amy, except wait for eternity. As goes the ironic inscription on Amy's tombstone - "I shall see her but not now."

A Novel of Victorian Fiction

The Necromancers

A warmhearted, humorous guide to enriching our lives with the wisdom of Benedict.

Robert Benson

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