In The Trenches

Last fall, I was interviewed by my friend Tom Morkes, the CEO of Insurgent Publishing and the brains behind TomMorkes.com, where he writes about getting the most out of your creativity and building success through discipline and focused hard work.

In the interview we talk about the journey to becoming a published author, how I got pointed in that direction and why, and the benefits of writing and creativity.

Our discussion just went live, and you can listen to it here. It’s episode #54 of Tom’s In The Trenches podcast, which is a forum that allows Tom to “sit down and have authentic conversations with game-changers, status-quo challengers, and creative insurgents; individuals who write, draw, produce, publish, create, break, build, invent and lead.” (more…)

Doing Work Actually… WORKS!

I’m very excited to report that my second book is now published!

Meat Sandwiches: What REAL Men Eat is Book Two in the How to Steer Your Kid series, and it went live on Amazon yesterday. I had a lot of fun writing this one, and I have to say that seeing two books on my Amazon author page is pretty cool!

Writing books has always been a dream and a goal of mine – but until recently I had simply assumed it was one of those goals that was unattainable – other people wrote books, not me – more qualified, better educated, luckier people than me. I had a long list of such reasons why I couldn’t accomplish the goal myself.

But now, (more…)

Screamin’ Sale!

My first book, Jet Screamer: The Pout Before the Storm, is available for sale on Amazon. From now until Saturday, November 8th, it’s on sale for just $0.99!

On Sunday, November 9th, the price will go up to $1.99, and then on December 1st it will go back to its normal price of $2.99. Get a copy while it’s cheap!

In other news, I just wrote a guest post for my friend and fellow author Ernie Dempsey. In it I talk about changing your priorities in order to change your attitude, productivity and happiness. You can check out my post here. Ernie writes cool thrillers and science fiction as well as non-fiction personal development and self-help books. He’s one of the most selfless and thoughtful people I’ve met in a long time – he’s been a huge help to me in getting my writing off the ground, so if you’re looking for a good read, check out Ernie’s work!

Lastly, I’ve started work on the sequel to Jet Screamer!

Volume Two in the How To Steer Your Kid series, Meat Sandwiches, will be released February 28, 2015. Volume Three, How To Steer Your Kid, is set to be released on June 30, 2015. Keep an eye out here for updates!

The Perspective of Elapsed Time

Sometimes it’s difficult to see our lives objectively.

We’re so close, so caught up in the living of our daily grind that we can’t always see what got us here; what we missed by taking this path, or what we gained by not taking another.

Things may look better or worse to us in our present situation, simply because of our perspective.

For example:

Twenty-two years ago, (more…)

The Published Writer

Today, I got published.

No, not six-figure book deal, private jet, book tour published.

Not self-published on this site either, where I control the editorial staff with an iron fist.

But published – somewhere else.

Somewhere that someone else controls – which requires knowing somebody on the inside. (more…)

Clean Your Plate

My parents grew up during the Great Depression.

That experience taught them the importance of not wasting anything – and they passed that on to me.

At meals, they impressed upon me the fact that somewhere in the world, starving kids would be happy to have leftover boiled potatoes (again?!?), so I’d better eat mine.

I took that lesson to heart, and now I have an innate aversion to throwing food away.

I hate wasting food, so I always clean my plate.

The problem is that I used to load my plate with more food than I really needed, which sadly caused my waistband to expand at an alarming rate, and led to an urgent need to change my behavior. (more…)