Failure is your best option. — "Oh my God, YOU smoke?" "Yeah." "You don't look like you smoke." One of the weirdest things that kept happening to me when I was younger was strangers refusing to believe I was a smoker. Maybe I looked like a Boy Scout, or put off some Mama's Boy vibe, or…

Fiction Affliction #5: Son of Rosemary, by Ira Levin — A novelist’s career is a strange thing. You can have “it” for a number of years/books, and then suddenly lose “it.” Maybe sometime later you get “it” back. Or maybe you never get “it” again. What is “it” exactly? The good stuff. The spark. Creative synergy. Your finger on the…

Today, April 16th, is my birthday. And I don’t care what anyone says. Your birthday always feels special, no matter what your age. Even if you didn’t plan anything special. Or if you’re at work on your birthday, which I am today. Last year I wrote a reflection article on…

Maybe I’m missing something, but I think not. — So a few years ago, for a summer school project, I had to travel to some middle-of-nowhere town in North Dakota for a ten-day project to help model and reorganize the town’s tiny museum from a junk drawer to a pristine attraction. It was for a Public History class, as…

Niche Knowledge #5: Braso — To say that this latest niche I stumbled across blew my mind would be a massive understatement. If you work a dreadful 9–5, prepare to be downright demoralized after finding out how this guy makes giant gobs of money with this clever, simple niche. Or perhaps you’ll be inspired instead…

There will never be a part-Hispanic/part-White, devastatingly handsome, six foot tall, thin, modestly fit, straight, quite masculine, Colorado-born, PA to ND transplant, very late Gen-Xer like myself properly portrayed in film. Should I despair? — One of my favorite films as a kid, which still is to this day, is Aliens. James Cameron’s brilliant high-octane 1986 sequel to Ridley Scott’s 1979 classic horror Alien.

My new novel has just been released, and is available for purchase now on Amazon. — I’ve just released my third self-published, and fourth overall novel, THE DEVIL’S THRONE. Available here on Amazon for purchase, and through Kindle Unlimited. Here’s the synopsis: Christian “Flick” Stevenson and his fiancé Margo Bennett are both American graduate students studying demonology. They and two colleagues and their professor are in…

Fiction Affliction #4: E.T. was actually a botantist all along. Meanwhile, Elliott and Michael are casually assumed to be molesting their younger sister Gertie by their mother, who desperately wants to get laid. — E.T. and Me, a Brief History E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and I have some history. It was actually the very first movie I ever saw in the theaters. It was summer of 1982. …

An underrated gory gem now enjoying a resurrection on Netflix. — How in hell did I miss this one? Dragged Across Concrete was largely forgotten, or lumped in with the rest of Mel Gibson’s many “geezer teasers” when it premiered in 2018. The infamous, multiple Oscar-winning, somewhat professionally redeemed, devout Roman Catholic, and notorious anti-Semite Mel Gibson strikes pay dirt with…