Blog

One Observation about Star Wars: The Force Awakens

(This post was written long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, probably in 2016 but not published until 2018) Aside from the title, which was way more auspicious than the film delivered, I was sad for Oscar Isaac, an actor that I like, that he was cast in such a...

On dying

Unacceptable ways of dying: after a long, desperate, nauseated, hairless battle with terminal cancer by withdrawal of sustenance after being kept alive artificially by some silly accident when I am so old and senile I can't take care of myself, like falling and...

Closer

(written 6/2017) There are two kinds of people in the world. Those who have seen enough pornography that they can watch Closer without getting squeamish, and those who have not and cannot. I am not joking. There are seriously, literally these two categories. Those...

Cover Art Bronze Winner

I wrote in November [2015] that the cover art for The Former Hero was a semi-finalist in the AuthorsDB.com Cover Art Contest. I didn't bother to update the post when I learned I was a finalist. But now that the final results are in, and my book has won a Bronze Award,...

My new short fiction piece is published

Topology Magazine published a short piece of mine today called "Water." You can read it here. It is mostly fictional. But it does accurately describe our family about 6-8 years ago when things were very tight financially. The theme of this Topology issue is...

Movie update

Here's a few movies I have seen lately and a brief word about each. Far From the Madding Crowd Short answer: this movie caught my interest early. I enjoyed the English countryside and the subtlety of the main characters. So despite my final criticism, I can recommend...

Two new items

This was an eventful week for The Former Hero with two significant pieces of news. First, I received notice that I was a finalist in the National Indie Excellence Award in the genre of Thriller (alas, they don't have a category for "Speculative, Psychological, New...

I gave the mayor of Austin a copy

Today I had the pleasure with several other members of the Texas Association of Authors of meeting with Mayor Steve Adler at City Hall for the proclamation of April 12th as DEAR Texas Day. As you can see, I was more concerned about standing up straight and holding my...

You’re going to find this weird, but I watched ‘Twilight’

Now. I didn't pay extra to see it. Are you kidding? No. I didn't go out and rent it. I'm a grown man. But it showed up on Netflix last week, so I thought, "Oh. That thing that everyone was talking about a few years ago." ... "Ugh. Alright. Play." Being in the world....

C-Spot Magazine features TAA Award Winners

C-Spot Magazine this month is running an article honoring the winners of the Texas Association of Authors Book Award winners, including The Former Hero. Thank you to the editors!