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What Is Love

I have this thing I like to say any time the topic comes up: “I like my men like I like my books—fictional.” Because, really, what avid reader out there hasn’t at one time or another fallen in love with a fictional character? If you’re one of the Lucky People whose minds are able to translate words printed on the page into vivid images and scenes in your mind’s eye, it’s almost a foregone conclusion. And if you’re a writer on top of that, well… infer from that what you will. LOL The joke is meant to be funny, but it speaks to something much deeper: the love I have for books and writing. And I know I’ve talked about… Read More »What Is Love

Here’s The Thing… On AI and MidJourney Art

In recent months, I’ve seen a lot of controversy over this new thing called AI generated art. Did you know there’s now a title associated with it? An AI Artist is someone who uses one of these tools to generate art. I have seen cover artists call out someone for using AI-generated artwork for a book cover, and talk about how this would put a lot of people out of business. I am fully aware that what follows might get me into some trouble with the graphic artist community. But, as I’ve never been able to keep my opinionated mouth shut, I will keep going, anyway, because this is worth discussing. So, as I was reading about all this controversy, … Read More »Here’s The Thing… On AI and MidJourney Art

Happy Anniversary, Loser

Today marks the 12th anniversary of my first ever book publication. It comes at a pretty crappy time in my life. You can tell by the lack of activity here that I haven’t done much in recent… couple of years. At least not on the public side of things. I write this while riding the tail end of COVID and taking stock of what the hell I’ve been doing with my time. It’s not an easy answer. It’s also not something I find easy to share. In many ways, it feels like admitting defeat, when I’m still here, fighting the good fight. Just in a different way.  So WTF happened? Short answer: I burned out. Slightly longer answer: I burned… Read More »Happy Anniversary, Loser

person holding string lights photo

“Who are you?” The Concept of Self

In which I pose perhaps the most popular question that’s been puzzling philosophers, therapists, and all of us normal people pretty much since the moment we first saw ourselves in a semi-reflective surface. The question of identity. Read on if you dare…

2020: Year in Review

I think we can all agree that this year didn’t turn out the way any of us planned. It’s definitely one for the history books, though. As I look back on the last 12 months, I recognize the darkness that seems to have encompassed the entire world. But I want to focus on the light and, for me, there was a lot of that, too. I have much to be grateful for… 1. I officially took on a new job. After a decade stuck in a dead end position, I finally managed to escape. It wasn’t easy. I’m not exaggerating when I say there were people actively doing everything they could to keep me in my place, but I broke… Read More »2020: Year in Review

The Fallacy of “Possible = Acceptable”

I haven’t written a philosophical rant in a while, so I thought I’d indulge. And when I say rant, I really mean it. LOL Sometimes it helps to vent my frustration in written form. I don’t expect it to change the world, but I’m also not willing to change myself to fit the world, or meet it half way. At least on this one point. Read on to see what I mean by that.

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Writing Tip: The Right Story is Worth the Struggle

Two things I can tell you about writing fiction: It’s hard work It only gets harder When I say it’s hard work, I mean it takes far more than just jotting down what your imagination dictates. The greater part of writing is rewriting. There are stories that practically write themselves, and once you get to the end and read it again, the plot is pretty much good as is. But then there are stories you agonize over every step of the way. You rewrite them a million times and when you finally get to the end you realize you need to rewrite it a hundred times more. That’s just the nature of the beast. The thing about it is you… Read More »Writing Tip: The Right Story is Worth the Struggle

2018: Year in Review

Back in the day, I used to write out “Year in Review” blog posts every New Year’s Eve to document everything I’d accomplished that year. It wasn’t to brag, but rather to show myself I hadn’t wasted a year’s worth of time. I stopped doing it a while back, because I started using book releases as benchmarks of accomplishment. A full novel publication a year (plus the occasional novella) was a good year.

Sadly, it turns out there is a massive flaw with the book release benchmark approach: it ends up devaluing literally everything else I do throughout the year that isn’t a book release.

This year was particularly tough for me, and unfortunately I didn’t even finish that full-length novel, much less publish it. I know I haven’t been twiddling my thumbs all year long, but I still feel like I haven’t accomplished anything, or at least not as much as I should have, and it’s a crappy feeling to have. So I think it’s time to revive my annual blog tradition to keep myself accountable and knock it off with this self-pity bullshit.

This is very much a personal post, and its only purpose is to close out 2018 on a good note, despite all its problems.

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