My secret formula for stopping a cold in its tracks
I've had the cold a lot in my life. More than most, I'd say. I hate being sick, which is why I've spent a fair bit of effort to figure out what works and what doesn't. I also hate most…
What an 82-year-old man taught me about ‘lifelong learning’ in 2018
I used to work at this little liberal-arts college in Wisconsin called Ripon College. Great little school with awesome people. One of their most-used phrases when talking about the value of a liberal education was that it supposedly engendered "lifelong…
On the mildly traumatic experience of reading my unofficial first novel
Many years ago, I wrote screenplays. This was while there was an actual spec script market in Hollywood, and at the time I had a mentor of sorts who reinforced that prospect. So I wrote. A lot. And as you…
Reality Check #2: The Launch
Today marks the official launch of The Perfect Generation. But it's not just the launch of a book—it's what I hope to be the launch of a long and successful career as an author. The process of writing this book was…
That time I learned I shouldn’t do better at things I like
Many moons ago, I worked for a Fortune 50 company. One of the two most odious managers I've ever worked with decided on day one that he didn't like me, and the feeling was quite mutual. Let's call him Barney.…
‘Darkest Hour’ is a movie about words, and that makes me sad
"He just mobilized the English language and sent it to war." So says a rueful Viscount Halifax moments before the credits roll in Darkest Hour, an account of Winston Churchill's installation as prime minister and the fraught initial weeks of his…
Reality check #1: Kindle Scout
On December 9, 2017, I uploaded The Perfect Generation to Kindle Scout, basically a popularity contest to try and get a legit publishing contract through Amazon's Kindle Press publishing arm. I read enough blog posts from authors who had gone through…
The Perfect Generation is done!
To this point, how writing has worked for me is that I get an idea stuck in my head. Like songs, they're sticky. Many times, they start very insistently and eventually ebb away, apparently to find someone else's brain to…
It’s not what I’m learning—it’s that I’m learning at all
Stop me if you've heard this one: A guy walks into his job and spends half the day reading or replying to the all-comers to-do list that is email, a quarter of the day in meetings, and the other quarter…
The catalog so far
I've written a lot of stuff. I've been a pantser (seat of my pants, vs. a plotter) to this point, though, so most of it is junk. This is where I'm at: 8 screenplays, multiple complete revisions each (unproduced, natch)…