Writer, Musician, Song and Dance Man, Entrepreneur, Punk
My awesome editor came to our first meetings about my novel The Puppeteer with the expectation that it would be "Young Adult" literature, a goldmine of a subgenre within the publishing industry. Without trying to quash my vision, she explained to me what was expected of a YA title. I told her, hold the phone, I hadn't …
Continue reading "What if “Carrie” were YA fiction?"
A lot of people get killed in some pretty brutal ways in Stephen King's stories. In honor of several gruesome kills in my upcoming novel The Puppeteer (one of which is an homage to a kill on this list ... you'll have to read to figure out which ...) here are my 10 favorite / worst / …
I posted an early excerpt of my new novel, "Dark Matter," in this post here. It was a relatively humorous scene, focused on the police-procedural aspect but hinting at the themes of hard science and Lovecraftian horror that birthed the idea. I'm at almost the exact midpoint of the novel and had an unexpected opportunity …
Continue reading "Novel Excerpt: “Dark Matter,” Ultimate Darkness"
High on my to-do list for Thailand was to get a Sak Yant tattoo. I'm sure I could be accused of cultural appropriation; I'm not Buddhist, and I mainly wanted one because Anthony Bourdain got one in his classic Chiang Mai episode of "Parts Unknown." I spent much of my trip to Chiang Mai walking …
By the time the DJ played the song "Wake Me Up" by Avicii, inspiring rapturous screams from the crowded main dance floor of Club Instant in Budapest, Avicii had been dead for months. https://youtu.be/IcrbM1l_BoI I had heard the song before — it had been the "Jam of the Summer" four years ago — but immersed …
Continue reading "I took a pill in Budapest to show Avicii I was oh wait he’s dead."
In July, it never gets fully dark in Stockholm. Geographically far enough to the north, it is still fully bright at 10pm and never surpasses dusk. In the winter the days are depressingly dark. Sweden has a bad suicide problem. Before Stockholm I had never been to a latitude extreme enough to see light on …
Dark Matter is a police-procedural horror/mystery/scifi thriller. It has two major inspirations: the weird fiction of H.P. Lovecraft, particularly "The Dunwich Horror"; and the hard science of astrophysics and particle physics popularized by the likes of Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Matt O'Dowd. The main character is Frankie, a single mother and FBI agent whose obsessive pursuit of …
Season 5 of The West Wing is the red-headed stepchild of the venerated series, which still holds up despite the dated political discourse thanks to excellent writing and acting. Creator and head writer Aaron Sorkin had left the show between Seasons 4 and 5. The ensuing season is generally considered a low point of the series, as …
Continue reading "8 Awesome Things you Miss by shit-talking Season 5 of “The West Wing”"
I was just in Stockholm and it popped into my head -- "Could I nominate Hannah Gadsby for the Nobel Peace Prize while I'm here??? That seems like the kind of thing you could do in Stockholm." Turns out ... no. You actually have to be somebody important to nominate a Nobel candidate to the …
It has been fascinating to watch opinions evolve around Ari Aster's horror film Hereditary. It had incredible advance hype, with critics gushing about how it was the scariest, most traumatizing movie in decades. https://youtu.be/V6wWKNij_1M Meanwhile, audience response has been much more tepid. Maybe a letdown was inevitable. Although the film did well at the box office (with that much …
Continue reading "Sick Fuck pt. II – “Hereditary” Film Review"
In rallying my friends to see Ari Aster's debut feature Hereditary, which has already developed a fearsome reputation as the most traumatically terrifying film to come out in decades, I was reminded of an anecdote from my movie-watching past. Years ago, myself and my girlfriend of the time, Jen, wanted to spend a quiet evening at …
Continue reading "Sick Fuck: advanced musings on “Hereditary”"
It seems weird to be so broken up by the death of a celebrity. I once described him in a video as one of my "spirit animals," but I don't know what Anthony Bourdain was really like, in the flesh, other than the wit, the deep voice, the toothy smile, and the public persona that …
