East Meets West Picture this. A musty basement, carpeted, coloured light sconces, leather barstools around a padded bar, bottles sitting on glass shelves. Furnace room off the bottom of the stairs, and a television against the far wall. Two small windows, barely big enough for you to crawl out of. Enter Bollywood, […]
You Cannot Have Kids and Be a Writer
For my friend Matticus, who is raising a young family and striving to write at the same time. I have quite a few kids. Let’s say it’s a number that’s more than three, and they’re all young. I also have an executive-level job that keeps me ridiculously busy, but most importantly, pays the bills. I’ve […]
Novel Review: The Dime, by Mark Paxson
Mark Paxson is an independent self-published author, and, I might add, a champion of independent authors. Trent Lewin, on the other hand, is completely unpublished in terms of novels. Too held up with the concept of traditional publishing to let it go, even though traditional avenues are not terribly receptive to Trent’s brand of weird […]
Cloud Cuckoo Land (A. Doerr): A Hopelessly Incoherent, Aspirational Review
What’s different about modern novels? We’re segmented into genres, commercial tracks that allow for reasonable market placement and expectation of returns. This is the way the business seems to work, the system that’s evolved over time. There’s just no point talking about great books from the past and how they would have fared in the […]
Thief, Liar, Parent
I don’t know how to choose between a heavy duty water gun and a mini replica arcade game. Just get him an app, I think. A gift card so that he can download what he wants. “Are you going to move?” says a little voice. It’s a girl, maybe seven. Brown curls and […]
The Worst Day of My Life
The worst day of your life only happens once. “Are you okay?” she asks, handing me a coffee. I smile, because you can do that even on the worst day of your life. You can drink coffee, too. Drive home without crashing, or hitting anyone. All these things are possible. I […]
Dune 1984 vs. Dune 2021
The context to Dune is fairly simple. It’s a sprawling space epic, a science fiction version of Lord of the Rings. But it’s much bigger in scope and scale, and when you give something like this into the capable hands of Denis Villeneuve, a wonderful director, only magic can ensue. Villeneuve proved himself to me […]
WIP’s and Filament Tips
Writing a lot lately, and some different stuff. Different voices, subject matters, etc. Here’s a smattering of things being worked on: Untitled One: dog falls in love with delivery robot Untitled Two: racist teacher hates men in turbans Untitled Three: gay couple adopt in other country Untitled Four: very unexpected quadruplets Untitled Five: the shortest […]
My High School Speech
<<Years later, don’t want to say how many, I was invited to my high school to deliver a talk as part of a panel, on what to do with your life, and how to be. Four people on the panel, including me. I had notes on cue cards, six points that I wanted to get […]
Confessions
Writing is hard. For me, it takes a lot out, because I’m pouring so much energy in. It’s okay to wonder why you’re doing that, when so few people really pay attention. They’re your words, after all. Crafted by you, and yet it seems so irrelevant. I think it’s okay to say that being anonymous […]