After four long years, Charades is finally completed.
Let the storytelling begin!
Coming soon to an Amazon bookstore near you (i.e., everywhere).
Four years later, I’m happy I can finally say the following.
Stay tuned for title, cover and back-of-the-book posts!
Confession 1: I love check lists.
I use them every day at work and constantly update them according to how the day has progressed. As the end of my shift approaches, I rewrite the list for the next day and arrange my priorities so as to accomplish the most important task first. When I get home (on days when my wife works an evening shift and I’m home alone with my toddler), I’ll create a detailed list of things to get done before my wife gets home. Then, when I’ve completed them all, I’ll retreat to the couch and fire up Netflix. Read the rest of this entry »
“I think the first impulse comes from some deep emotion. It may be anger, it may be some sort of excitement. I recognize in the real world around me something that triggers such an emotion, and then the emotion seems to cast up pictures in my mind that lead me towards a story.”
~John Hershey
Brutal, ugly, horrific. Eloquent, beautiful, inspiring. Those are the conflicting emotions conjured up while reading this novel. Sapphire’s thoughtful and innovative prose brings Precious Jones – an illiterate 16-year-old with two children from her father – to life, draws you into her tragic world and carries you through her journey of making her life her own for the first time.
Here’s the premise: “Relentless, remorseless, and inspirational, this “horrific, hope-filled story” (Newsday) is certain to haunt a generation of readers. Precious Jones, 16 years old and pregnant by her father with her second child, meets a determined and highly radical teacher who takes her on a journey of transformation and redemption.”
Similar to Hubert Selby Jr.’s Requiem for a Dream, Push ignores conventional grammar and spelling rules so as to give the reader a first-hand account of Harlem life through the eyes of Precious. This approach is extremely effective, and I highly recommend this novel. The story is grim and real, but incredibly hopeful. Certainly not for the faint-hearted, but a powerful testimony to the life-changing power of language.
Last November, I received an email from two friends: Dave Lukas and Andrew Zahn.
“What if . . .
– What if three guys that never met in person collaborated?– What if they all found something they were mutually passionate about and felt compelled to share with others?– What if they wrote together online and created something hilarious . . . or poignant . . . or terrible . . . or amazing . . . or devastating? Or none of those things. Or all of them.– What if we talked more about what it might or might not be?”
Man Speak is a sometimes-serious/sometimes-funny discussion of what it means to be a man today – written by three guys in three different time zones, all at three very different stages of life. It truly was an honor collaborating with these guys and am very proud of our work. We put in many, may hours of Google hangouts, writing assignments, revisions and subsequent meetings, and I hope you enjoy the resulting conversations.
I’m normally not a fan of non-fiction, self-help books. Yes, they can contain helpful information, but I prefer getting lost in the world of fiction. However, when I do happen to stumble across a book that resonates with me, I know it’s special for one of two reasons: 1) I’m encountering something I wish I had read about 10 years ago, or 2) I feel like I could be great friends with the author.
101 Secrets for Your Twenties, the debut book from author/speaker Paul Angone, fits both bills. Read the rest of this entry »
To sum it all up, if you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling.
You must write every single day of your life.
You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. Read the rest of this entry »
scribbled revisions 