Today is the one-year anniversary of the publication of my novel, RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED FROM.

And in honor of that anniversary, I want to show you my office chair.

Yes. I need a new office chair.

I show you this because it illustrates the reality of being a writer. Most of my time is spent sitting in a chair typing. So much time, in fact, that I wore away the plastic coating on the seat.

Putting in zillions of hours focusing on craft is how this job works, at least for me. And it has worked out okay, even though sometimes there are setbacks, like it taking nine years for my first novel to make it into the world.

But I’m grateful it did.

Happy birthday, old friend.

Learn more about RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED FROM here.

Or buy it!

There’s also an audiobook!

The paperback will be out in late August, so stay tuned for that.

I was invited by Alta Magazine to discuss my article When Mark Twain Canceled Bret Harte on Alta Live.

I was joined by Russell Jeung, professor of Asian American studies and one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2021.

What started out as an investigation of the 30-year literary feud between Mark Twain and Bret Harte turned into an unfortunately relevant conversation about anti-Asian violence. Click the above video to listen to our discussion.

For Alta Magazine I wrote about cloud seeding. Did you know we already have the ability to increase precipitation in clouds? And that we’ve been doing it since the 1950s? And that the technology was invented by Kurt Vonnegut’s brother? Read it here.

I was on the I’m A Writer But… podcast! I had a great time talking about RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED FROM, ambition, and my crazy path to publication.

Listen Here

I have a new article in Alta Magazine! It’s about the 30 year literary feud between Mark Twain and Bret Harte. 30 years! That Mark Twain could really hold a grudge.

Read about it here.

Over at the Los Angeles Review of Books, I wrote about gothic horror, Shirley Jackson, and California Victorians:

RIGHT BEFORE SHIRLEY JACKSON began working on her 1959 novel The Haunting of Hill House, a postcard depicting a California mansion started bothering her. “It was an ugly house,” she wrote. “[A]ll angles and all wrong. It was sick, diseased.” She wrote to her mother, who still lived near San Francisco where Jackson grew up, and asked if she knew anything about it. Her mother replied that her “great-grandfather had built it. She remembered when the people of the town got together one night and burned it down.” Soon, Jackson was at work on the best haunted house novel I’ve read.

More here.

I was on the radio on The 21st Show in Illinois, talking about workaholism. Listen here to
Were You Productive During The Pandemic?

I read an excerpt of my novel, RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED FROM, today on KALW’s New Arrivals Podcast. Listen here!

I was interviewed about RIGHT BACK WHERE WE STARTED FROM on C. P. Lesley’s Blog. She asked a lot of in-depth questions about the plot, so you can get my inside take on the characters. Read it here.

My book has a book trailer! MARCIA made it for me! She is the best!