Aug 5, 2021Refuting Alabama Repubican Paul DeMarco’s disinformationFormer Alabama state representative Paul DeMarco wrote a column recently that just … it got under my skin due to the outright misinformation and disinformation contained therein. You can read the column itself HERE. However, I want to point out that in his lede graf, DeMarco makes a claim without…Alabama Politics3 min readAlabama Politics3 min read
Jul 15, 2021‘Overnight Success’Had lunch with a buddy of mine a while back. I’d just signed my book deal(s), and we’re sitting there talking about how everything had come about. He recognized, I think, that getting to this point was a major achievement. Lunch was long gone, our empty plates whisked away by…4 min read4 min read
Jun 29, 2021Suddenly I’m an Expert? Or, ‘Everything I Know About Publishing (and It Ain’t Much)’Since signing my publishing contracts, I’ve gotten several Twitter DMs and a couple of Facebook messages, essentially offering congratulations and then asking for publishing advice. It’s so weird that people think I know what I’m doing, when I clearly have no idea. Suddenly I’m an expert? I enjoy being congratulated…Writing Tips5 min readWriting Tips5 min read
Jun 28, 2021Mrs. Holland’s Opus, or ‘Why Everything I Write Is Powered by a Deep and Abiding Rage’Don’t blame me for Mrs. Holland’s prematurely gray hair. It was like that when I first entered her classroom at Enterprise Junior High School in the fall of 1984. I swear. I’m sure I didn’t help. I cared not a whit for schoolwork, and flat-out refused to do homework. Everyone…Creative Nonfiction7 min readCreative Nonfiction7 min read
Jun 27, 2021The Strange Tale of What Happened to My Book DealI woke up to the best news in the world on January 1, 2021: British publisher Close to the Bone offered me a contract for my novel, Magic City Blues. Included in the offer was a publication date of Feb. 25, 2022. …Publishing7 min readPublishing7 min read
Dec 31, 20202020 Year in Review from an Indie Crime WriterI don’t know where to start. 2020 was a terrible year. I’ve absolutely hated most of it, what with 330,000 Americans dead from Covid-19 (and that number is still climbing). I’ve missed my friends, and my family, and normal life in general. …Writing Life7 min readWriting Life7 min read
Oct 30, 2020Writing & Subbing & EditingHere’s a bit of a follow-up to my last post, where I talked about reaching writing goals for the year, hopefully with some important lessons learned. At this moment, I’m still waiting on responses for three of my stories. Suspense has a story called ‘Disappeared,’ while new publication Cheap Imitation…Fiction Writing4 min readFiction Writing4 min read
Sep 7, 2020Small Victories During a Trash-Fire YearFirst, I want to stipulate that 2020 has been absolute garbage: Wildfires. Worldwide pandemic. Murder hornets. More unarmed Black people killed by cops. Peaceful protests. Riots. Poisonings of political enemies. And yet. And yet. I’ve had my most successful year, fiction-wise, which kind of blows my mind. I know that…6 min read6 min read
Dec 31, 2019Resolutions, 2020 editionThis is a mostly personal post. I made some serious changes in 2019, and I want to keep them going in 2020. So here are a few resolutions to keep me back on track for the new year. First of all, writing resolutions: Write every day. Nita Tyndall pointed out…Writing4 min readWriting4 min read
Oct 4, 2019Short Fiction: Hidden HouseEditor’s note: This story is based around true events that happened when I was a child. …Fiction11 min readFiction11 min read
