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 […]
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 […]
Mad World: Two Versions
The book or the movie version, the original or the remake. Questions I ask myself, as I wonder which side of those coins I sit on. Am I the book or the movie version? Am I an original or a remake of something? Orzabal Roland, through some strange compulsion, wrote a bouncy, upbeat song in […]
How Writing Dreams Begin, and End
I don’t have much to say today. I sat down yesterday and plotted a few short stories to write over the next few weeks, as well as work on a next novel. My work life has been all-consuming lately. Three straight seventy-hour weeks, but that will abate now. My writing dream began when I was […]
The Mail Carrier’s Guide to Slaying Monsters (Pt 3 of 3)
Franklin got home at 8:30. There was snow on the driveway, and footsteps leading to the front door. Someone had crammed a complimentary newspaper and a bunch of flyers in his mailbox. He left them there. Inside, he went to his office and sat in front […]
Adam’s Dreams of Due-Dates PII
Part II: Adam’s Apple Trick Jeremiah Ritten got the call at the body shop and immediately jumped on his bike. He kept his mouth open the whole way, but nary a bug sailed into him; four times out of seven, he could make it home free from bugs, and it seemed to him that […]
Burst – Adam’s Dreams of Due-Dates
Adam’s Dreams of Due-Dates Part I: Fort Apocalypse, The Exam Adam Ritten sat at a desk and scrawled words in response to this question: X=(1-A)exp(kt)/(Ln(b)) when it occurred to him that the people around him were writing much faster than he was, as though the question had not tripped them up the way it […]
I See You
I See You You say you have a plan One that will take us away The means and the will are the easy part, you tell me The money is harder (But excuse me, what did you do When you stopped your job Other than sit at home and hope That I would […]