A few years ago I was diagnosed with a form of skin cancer. A few months later, cancer appeared on my face. I’ve since gone back to the dermatologist every year to get checked out, and yes, have cancer removed. I grew up in Florida in the 1970s. Before sunscreen was prevalent. Hell, most people I knew used something called ‘tanning butter’ which was basically Crisco. Anyway, I’m paying for it now. But unlike back in the dark ages, I’ve…
When my wife and I married, I wasn’t a big fan of children. They were ok. Over there. It wasn’t that I didn’t like them, I just wasn’t around them enough to know if I liked them. When my wife said that she wanted to have a baby, I was ok with it. We were a good team. Together we could do anything. So we consummated our love by bringing a new human into the world who was a combination of our…
When I was a young man, I loved Super Bowl commercials. They inspired me to become a copywriter. Some time later, after working in the ad industry a while, I realized that I’ll never create a SB commercial. Instead, I was assigned projects by brands that didn’t have Super Bowl budgets, and that simply wanted to generate awareness for their products/services. I wrote good things. Award-winning things. Things that solved the problems of the clients I worked for. The ads I wrote shifted…
I’ve decided that I hate the whole ‘rating’ system for books. Yes, it feels good to get positive feedback from people, but I didn’t write Minor King so that it could be rated. I wrote it to A) share a story, and B) prove to myself I could write long-form (and at 196 pages, even that’s a bit of a stretch). I did not write it to “become” a writer, or make money, or get on a speaking circuit, or…
The following story is from the mind of my 13-year-old daughter, Agatha Rose. She wrote it on her phone after dinner on Saturday night during commercials of the Panthers game. Granted, I edited it for her, but the concept was all hers. The force is strong with this one. *** “’Come back!’ the voice called out as I ran as fast as I could down the darkening path. It was just a normal day after school when I decided…
Sometimes I’m amazed at what people share and retweet. Namely, when some self-help guru offers some basic advice about how to live, and people fawn over it. You want some advice on how to live? Stop listening to self-help gurus. Everything you need to live your life to the fullest is currently within you. It’s called a conscience. A conscience is the little voice inside of you that tells you right from wrong. And it’s in you as much as it’s…
