Earle, Neil 1947- (Karl McNeil Earle)

PERSONAL:

Born February 25, 1947, in Carbonear, Newfoundland, Canada; son of George William (a fisher and clerical worker) and Frances Katherine (a teacher and homemaker) Earle; married Linda Susan Welch (a secretary), July 23, 1972. Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: Memorial University of Newfoundland, B.A., 1967; Ambassador University, B.A., 1972; University of Toronto, M.A., 1992; Fuller Theological Seminary, M.A., 1998; also attended Simon Fraser University, Regent College, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and University of California, Los Angeles. Religion: Worldwide Church of God. Hobbies and other interests: Aerobics, walking, swimming, listening to and performing music.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Duarte, CA. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

Teacher of history and English in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, 1965-68; pastor of Canadian churches in Brandon, Manitoba, Calgary, Alberta, Moosomin, Saskatchewan, and Toronto, Ontario, and of churches in California, all beginning 1972. Citrus College, adjunct professor of history, 2002—; coordinator of conventions. Director of Calgary Outreach Players, 1982-84, and Toronto Outreach Players, 1986-91.

MEMBER:

Association for Canadian Studies in the United States, American Association of Christian Counselors.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Trade Press Services Award for Business Journalism, 1999.

WRITINGS:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz in American Popular Culture: Uneasy in Eden, Edwin Mellen Press (Lewiston, NY), 1993.

(Editor) A History of the Multinational, [London, England], 2000.

(Editor and contributor) Mending Broken Relationships: Faith-Based Counseling for the 21st Century, Connecting and Boding (Pasadena, CA), 2004.

Contributor to periodicals, including Northern Light, Journal of Canadian Studies, ACSUS Journal, Church and State, and Social Science Journal. Plain Truth, Canadian regional editor, 1992-93, international editor, 1993-95, senior editor, 1995-96; editor, Reconcile newsletter, 1998—.

SIDELIGHTS:

Neil Earle once told CA: "I am living proof of the importance of getting an early start in education. I thank my mother and aunt (both teachers) for that excellent start. Early praise is essential for nurturing budding writers. You need that to shield you from the rejections that will surely come. My writing reflects several influences: Winston Churchill for the big picture; Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., for the magisterial touch; William Manchester for narrative flair; Barbara Tuchman for independent inquiry, the Bible, and poets such as Walt Whitman, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, E.J. Pratt, for the oracular mood and for saying serious things in an accessible way; Alan Fotheringham and Tom Wolfe for life and verve."

More recently he added: "My motivation for writing is to discern when some particular point is not being stated or is about to be forgotten. My writing is more tight, focused, and yet more colloquial than it was several years ago.

"Reading first got me interested in writing. I was reading at age three and after a while there is a spillover. But I am one positively affected by early 1950s TV—the great wartime documentaries such as Victory at Sea, The Valiant Years, and Canada at War were chock full of superb, hard-hitting phrases.

"In 1966 our brilliant nun/instructor praised my senior B.A. thesis effusively and said that at age nineteen I already had a style. I told her that John F. Kennedy and Winston Churchill were my heroes—masters of the well-turned phrase. So there's the start. Later Tom Wolfe, Arthur Schlesinger, Theodore H. White, and John Gunther played a part.

"The process is simple—gather reading and research material, produce ‘garbage draft,’ then edit, edit, edit. Rewriting is the best part of it where the real creativity comes in.

"The most surprising thing is how you can always do it better and how rewarding it is to capture a life, an event, an epoch in living prose.

"Of my three books, my favorite is Mending Broken Relationships: Faith-Based Counseling for the 21st Century, because it's the most helpful for people and contains much of my experience gained as a pastor/counselor over more than thirty years.

"The effect you hope your books will have is to make a contribution to a very important subject by looking at things in a different way. I'm an idealist. I believe most of us can positively influence the world for good, so … get people thinking and positive changes can happen. I choose to write on subjects that are misunderstood and need fresh perspectives."