#83 is a non-negotiable — I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, there are days when I like to ponder about simple living / minimalism and there are days when I just want to get shit done. Friends, I’m in one of those get shit done kinda moods today. We’re going back to…

The story of Dr. Kalanithi sobered me up to my own mortality. — Dr. Paul Kalanithi never deserved an early death. He led a good and healthy life. He was free of vices and worked hard. He was loyal to his patients and wife. His story is one of the most tragic and beautiful you’ll encounter. Paul was born in New York, the…

Use these lessons to advance your writing goals faster — Eight f-r-e-a-k-i-n-g years. I would never have guessed I’d survive the writer world this long. The experience is one I wouldn’t trade for anything. Many of you reading this are either writers or dream to write online. Let’s cut the crap and get to what I’ve learned so you can…

a shadow photo journal — Sunlight in Spanish moss, lacey draperies in trees, misnamed Spanish, misnamed moss — the native Itla-okla, tree hair, I prefer.

COVID, inflation, job loss, economic instability, anxiety, depression, and suicide are the marks of the American populace. How do we heal? — I don’t like to admit that part of the reason I quit my job was because I was tired. I would stare like a drone analyzing posts or news about someone who wanted to die. Someone else couldn’t hack it. Others had such a level of fear around COVID that…

Zooming in with my new Nikon 100–400mm (ƒ4–5.6) VR S lens — The screeching and dive-bombing go on all day long. “Big Red,” the dominant male Allen’s Hummingbird spends most of his time darting back and forth from his perch in the nearby orange tree to the feeder and back again to the tree, where he can keep an eye on the…

Want practical help? Read on… 2021. What is there to say? We’re so beyond exhausted, dealing with the pandemic, selfish assholes, and politics. Sad, ugly news bombards us daily, affecting our mental and emotional health, and many times, causing panic, anxiety, or depression. How to cope with the reality of…

Twitter marketing, author outrage, and how not to sell books — There is a Twitter war raging right under our noses — and it offers a surprisingly good series of lessons on marketing. The war is waged with tweets and endless subtweets about the controversy of people shelling out money for one frivolous thing but balking at spending the same (or…

A critically important story about how to save lives in an emergency Allen (not his real name) was working on coding problems for a job interview when someone pounded on his door. Hard. He lives on the eighth floor of an apartment building near the capitol in downtown Cleveland. …

Aging in a Time of Technology — My wife and I spent New Year’s weekend of 2022 at the Oregon Coast. New Year’s coincided with king tides, those dangerous high tides that are dramatic and entertaining, assuming one is ensconced in a warm hotel room and never has to get anywhere near them. …

I planned to share it on my deathbed, but you can’t wait — We all read badly-written novels. We know they’re bad after the first couple paragraphs, but we keep reading. We read to the bitter end. Why? Because not even the worst writing in the world is strong enough to stop the power of story. This is great news for the worst…

And why Democrats will lose if the crime wave continues — My orders from Amazon arrived on time, but when I saw photos and videos of debris and cardboard littering the rail tracks in Los Angeles County, California, I realized there are a lot of people who won’t get their packages. The pictures reminded me of storm debris footage following a…

And why writers struggle with it — Writing blogs are full of advice, and sometimes the worst thing about them is that the advice they give isn’t always the best. …

We don’t have to feel helpless, because we aren’t — Every day the media bombards us with news of a world gone crazy. Omicron is raging, nurses are quitting, teachers are striking, store shelves are emptying, and prices are skyrocketing. It’s enough to make a person miserable, but only if you let it. And I’m not going to let it…

More fabulous authors on Medium — It looks like I’ve been spending more time reading rather than writing on Medium lately. I began making a list of stories a few months ago that I’ve enjoyed reading, so here is my fourth collection of authors that left an impression on me with their stories. How Much I Made Self-Publishing 10 Books Through Amazon KDP by Susie Kearley …

Every article needs more than a headline — it needs a story — Toward the end of his life, Hans Christian Andersen was asked when he would finally release his autobiography. The great literary genius responded that he felt no need to rush. After all, he had already documented his life’s story when writing The Ugly Duckling. Growing up in the slums of…

Stop accepting this treatment from others. — There’s a silent question that our subconscious asks every single day without us even realizing it: “What type of treatment am I willing to accept today?” We ask this question in our relationship, in our workplaces, in our family lives, in our friendships — we just don’t often phrase it…

Kayaking on Hosmer Lake — We slipped in amongst the shadows, where the tule reeds bowed their heads in silent prayer. The water laps with soft slaps against the matted detritus of summer’s abundance, now moldering at the shoreline. My paddle slices the dark waters and rises again, sprinkling diamonds into the murk. And then…

Struggling with how to tell your story? Read on! — One of the biggest struggles writers face when they choose to write their stories, whether short-form or long-form, is where to start. And by where, I don’t mean geographically, though that can certainly be a consideration. I mean, where and when. Okay, and how. I dealt with this myself while…