I’ve seen a Jack Prelutsky poem circulating on Bluesky, and… I want to like it. I want to like his work. I used to like it—love it, even—but as the saying goes, “Don’t meet your heroes.” I grew up… not poor, exactly, but we didn’t have excess for anything unnecessary. When Prelutsky’s book The New Kid on the Block came
*Using Disney’s animated feature for reference here. About a month ago, I posted this YouTube video about why diversity in media is not only a good thing, it’s not really a threat to the status quo. Due to my run for school board, I was thinking mostly about the attempts to ban books, but it applies to all the dude
Two days ago, I posted a book review of Matthew McConaughey’s Greenlights on my YouTube channel. Reading the book (and reviewing it) necessarily made me think about my time on film sets, which of course made me think of interning for Lynda Obst. The very next day—yesterday—I saw the headline that Lynda had passed away. She was young; the same
This weekend, I joined the many who have exited X (formerly known as Twitter). It was a tough decision; I’d been on the platform since February 2009 and curated a really great community made mostly of writers but also artists and others. I stuck out wave after wave of bad decisions, keeping to the fringes and my core group rather
Got a phone call from the teachers’ union president. Again encouraging me to withdraw from this school board election—how? I’m on the ballot—and run again in 2026. Because “there’s a very good chance” I’d get their endorsement then. But in the meantime, they are so worried about splitting the vote, so worried about the one conservative candidate getting a seat,
Yet another Twitter (or X, if you prefer) post asking about paying for a manuscript edit before querying and whether it (a) makes the story better and/or (b) increases your chances of landing an agent. Way back when (and I remember those days because I’m old), you could send a manuscript off to an agent and, if they saw potential
I have a bad habit of trusting people. Of stepping up when asked to do so. A neurotic need to help. And it bites me every time. In this particular instance, it got me dragged into local politics. So here is my story from start to, well, current. On February 25, 2024, a current school board trustee named Kristie reached
I’ll say it again: the onus of the cost of creation is shifting towards the creators. Which means that marginalized voices are becoming even further excluded because they cannot afford to create. Used to be, a writer came up with a book, or a play, or a film script, and sold it to people willing to invest in it. The
I’m about to say things that will probably make people angry. Keep in mind I am writing from my personal experience and observations. Yours may be very different! And I would love to hear about them, so long as you remain respectful. Let’s start with why I left screenwriting and chose to focus on books instead. To get a film
Because this subject has blown up recently, and I have feelings about it. I’ve never read a book with a playlist printed in it. I doubt I read the kinds of books and/or authors that would feel compelled to include a playlist. So… yeah. There’s something somewhat juvenile about that, something that (to me) screams “newbie author.” High school mix