Liam J Atchison, Ph.D.

The Haunted Milk House (part three)

culfinatan — Tue, 15 Aug 2023 04:11:53 +0000

One cool, wet summer day, a large cardboard box arrived on the front porch of my family’s two-story farmhouse. It was a repurposed refrigerator carton addressed to my father. It was neither wrapped nor taped, and the top of the box was unsealed and closed with the flaps alternating in the typical way one must …

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The Haunted Milk House (part two)

culfinatan — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 19:30:31 +0000

The old Milk House had only a tar paper roof, so leaks were a constant problem. My father bought many cans of tar and some kind of silver sealant to fix the roof. The building was never considered valuable enough to shingle or replace the roof. I do not think Dad ever considered that human …

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The Haunted Milk House (part one)

culfinatan — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 17:33:42 +0000

It only occurred to me that I grew up on a small farmstead when I was in my sixties. My father was a dentist and entrepreneur who acquired about forty acres near the town’s southern limit. When the city extended the limit a mile farther south, housing developments sprouted around the farm. Still, Dad kept …

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Tempus Fugit: Is it time to make books?

culfinatan — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 18:46:56 +0000

Over the last four years, in a book, articles, blogs, texts, and emails, I wrote 2,198,152 words. That is roughly the number of words in 27 novels. I think this serves as a wake-up call. This morning I “enrolled” in a 30-day productivity program offered by a Canadian newsletter author I follow (https://productivityist.com/). I am …

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What’s this? Ale for Easter?

culfinatan — Sat, 06 Apr 2019 21:03:43 +0000

Church Ales. Could it be that the time has come to bring back this old idea? This is only a pondering. You didn’t hear me suggest it.

Mad George and the Avuncular Roman Candle

culfinatan — Wed, 04 Jul 2018 05:51:44 +0000

Kids' Fourth of July in Kansas of the 1960s was a dangerous--and dang fun. Shall we ever see its like again?

How to Recoup Losses from Bad Bets

culfinatan — Wed, 08 Feb 2017 04:15:53 +0000

E. B. “Andy” White (1899-1985), acclaimed writer for The New Yorker magazine and author of such classics as Charlotte’s Web, Stuart Little, and The Elements of Style (with his former professor, William Strunk) had graduated at the top of his class at Cornell but could not land a job in New York in his field …

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What a Writer Does

culfinatan — Fri, 03 Feb 2017 23:49:47 +0000

In Honor of Kansas Day

culfinatan — Sun, 29 Jan 2017 00:24:57 +0000

A reposting of an article from August 2013.

The Resolve to Write Letters

culfinatan — Sat, 28 Jan 2017 07:34:03 +0000

Letters have always drawn me. Not only do I enjoy receiving personal letters, but I like reading the mail of others. From the Apostle Paul to Wodehouse, I have read the letters of such outstanding writers as Dorothy Osbourne, John Calvin, Lord Chesterfield, John Keats, Barrett and Browning, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, …

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