The Elephant In the Room: My Next Novel and It’s Hopeful Impact

Wow.  It’s been a long time since I’ve posted to this blog. Honestly it’s been an insane two months. On December 5th, my 76 year old mother entered the hospital because of complications following a routine colonoscopy, and I only brought her home a week ago Thursday.  She developed a bleed that wouldn’t stop, so

Christmas: Blessings Counted

Today is Christmas, and it is probably one of my favorite holidays, however I am increasingly fed up with the fact that it is the only holiday save Easter that is being eradicated by the corporate machine, remolded into some meaningless day where you get gifts for people who are probably going to take them

Thanksgiving Day Celebration

Today is the day when people in the U.S. celebrate Thanksgiving. When we get together today, I’m sure my mother is going to (as she always does) tell all of us that before we eat we must each share something we are thankful for.  This year, my mother’s house is not the center of the

Lessons in Fatherhood: 10 Reasons My Dad Was Awesome

I celebrate yet another Father’s Day without my Dad.  I thought today I would write about the ten things that made Daddy so awesome, things that I try my best to duplicate with my children, with my wife, and hopefully by doing so I can live up to the legend that was my Dad. My

To This Day Project – Shane Koyczan

I usually don’t do this, but this poem by Shane Koyczan struck a nerve with me.  Recently I have been dredging up my own demons in writing my latest novel The Painful Best because my protagonist is the result of one event cascading into several other bad events that end up ruining his life.  He is an

My Book Releases Tomorrow…Or the World Will End

As I write this it is 10:20pm Central Standard Time in the United States, and I’m pretty sure we will be here tomorrow, at least I hope we will.  The final part of my book releases tomorrow!  It has been a long 18 months of work, but I finally get to see the whole thing

The U.S. of After Chapter 46

Clayton Amy didn’t sleep for about two days after Ralph died.  She just sat in the boat and cried and held little Anya who didn’t really understand what had happened.  We stopped down the river a ways after we was sure them militia guys was gone.  We had ourselves a burial for the ones that

The U.S. of After Chapter 41

Clayton We floated down river, our boat tied to the boat behind because one of them motors had been hit in the fire fight.  This slowed us down considerable.  I didn’t pay it any mind ‘cause we were safe from the militia for now.  God had done a miraculous work and we were in the

The U.S. of After Chapter 28

Ethan That lady knew something about me. I could see it on her face when she looked at my shirt. I knew that I had to put as much distance between myself and these people as possible and I had to do it soon.  I thought I’d wait until nightfall, see what I could find

The U.S. of After Chapter 27

Clayton I was bound and determined to get Jacob alone so’s I could talk to him. It seemed as if people really liked him here at this camp.  I don’t think he’d ever really been here, but I figured he just had a way with people.  Boy, was I shootin’ in the dark.  He had