I seem to have a number of irons in the fire at any given time. There is always the “day job” at Faithlife, which even after 29+ years, I still enjoy, find mentally stimulating, and feel like I’m doing work that is valuable for the kingdom. I want to make clear that I plan on my primary gig being working for Faithlife as long as they’ll have me. But —

I also research and write (like Fragments of Christianity) and self-publish. I’ve written introductions and translations that have been published in collections of NT Apocrypha by Eerdmans (More NTA1, More NTA2, and the forthcoming More NTA3; thanks, Tony). I also have recently published an article in a volume on Titus by Mohr Siebeck.

I’ve translated and edited volumes for Lexham Press, including The Apostolic Fathers: A New Translation; Greek Apocryphal Gospels: A New Translation; The Lexham English Septuagint. I was intimately involved with the development of the Lexham English Bible New Testament and its source the SBL Greek New Testament. On top of all of that, I have a volume on Old Testament Pseudepigrapha to be published by Lexham Press that I’ve been working on with three other editors/translators.

I’ve published reader editions of some Christian Apocryphal writings in Greek for my Appian Way Greek Readers series. This involved keying, multiple proofreading passes of the Greek, code to add lemmas and glosses, edits and revisions to existing translations and glosses, indexing, and some crazy gymnastics with MS Word to make it all work. The series currently has two volumes: 1 Apocr. Apoc. Jn and Acts of Pilate and the Descent of Christ to Hades. I’d like to do more and have a specific writing in mind to target next.

I’ve also recently begun some contract data work for a company that focuses on innovations in Bible translation as support to Bible translators and translation agencies. Not to mention I’m (trying) to write the Baylor Handbook on the Apostolic Fathers volumes on the Shepherd of Hermas.

It’s busy. It’s crazy. It’s also time to bring it all under one umbrella and set myself up to be able to take on this part-time contract sort of work a little easier come tax time. So it is time to introduce:

Appian Way Services

I don’t even have a logo or a website yet, but that’s OK. I do have a website for the Appian Way Press that I haven’t touched in years, it may be time to totally rework/reimplement it because it needs help (and is totally done on the cheap).

OK, time to answer some questions:

Why “Appian Way Services”?

Well, I’ve used the name Appian Way Press for self-publishing, even though it wasn’t really a formal thing. Now it is. The state business license and city business license were recently approved, and I’m officially in business.

Where did “Appian Way” come from initially?

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the street I lived on was called “Appian Way.” When I needed a name for self-publishing, it seemed an easy thing to use. And my current street name was not an option.

What does Appian Way Services Do?

Appian Way Services provides services to individuals and publishers in the areas of: Ancient Language translation, editing of ancient language translations, proofreading of Greek text, developmental editing, copy editing, and proofreading. In addition Appian Way Services can provide data conversion and text manipulation services for publishers, people and organizations in academic contexts, and Bible translation agencies.

What doesn’t Appian Way Services Do?

Appian Way Services does not index books. It is painful enough to index my own stuff.

Will Appian Way Press ever publish stuff not written by Rick?

Not in the foreseeable future. But we could provide services to people who have written material and want to self-publish something.

Could Appian Way Services do some work for me (or my academic project/grant)?

Maybe. Possibly. Send me an email (textgeek at gmail dot com) with some description, and we can talk.