remember Uncle Arthur?

Yesterday a package came in the mail. I was puzzled at first. I didn't recall having ordered another book. Then I opened it and remembered. A few weeks ago I got an email, asking me to confirm my address before sending out a book from the Seventh Day Adventist Southern Asia-Pacific Education Division for a reader which has a story I wrote in it.

At the time I faintly remembered giving permission for this story to be included. Yesterday that book came.

It's a colorful paperback. I crack it open and scan the contents page. Yes, here is my story -- "Never Silenced," a two-part about John Bunyan, first published in Guide. Then I look at the other stories and authors and find an author name that sounds familiar: Arthur S. Maxwell.



Indeed it should be familiar because I grew up on Arthur Maxwell stories. We had a set of five books called Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories. Our set became completely tattered with all the use it got. And when my own kids were little and a traveling salesman came around selling an updated edition -- I bought. (After reading them to my own kids, they're sitting upstairs in the bookshelf, just waiting for story-hungry grandkids to come along.)

So, how cool is that -- to have a story in the same book as Uncle Arthur!?