Stories, Writing, Publishing, and Life Between the Books
Many folks wrote to ask how Rose the Office Dog handled the fireworks on the most recent Fourth of July. Since I was at the PSWA conference when the emails came in, I couldn’t update everyone.
What word do you hate? I’m not talking about swear words, but every day, run-of-the-mill words.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about my love of Rocky. That newsletter led me to think about a lot of movies I enjoyed as a kid and the memories that go along with them: Convoy, Star Wars, Hooper, Grease, and many more. Some of my favorite movie memories from my childhood occurred with my grandmother.
What word do you hate? I’m not talking about swear words, but every day, run-of-the-mill words.
When I was a boy, crying was discouraged, especially around your friends. It was the 1970s, and we weren’t as progressive as we are today.
I love playfully teasing my girlfriend in hopes of getting a reaction. It’s like the grade school antics of little boys who desperately want little girls to notice them. Negative attention (“Stop it, Billy!”) is better than no attention (“Billy who?”).
In 2020, when COVID forced us all into lockdown, my girlfriend and I embraced the opportunity to spend extra time together. During this period, we discovered a new game (Catan) and bought many puzzles. Luckily, we could order these items through Amazon and have them delivered to our home.
When my daughter, Sarah, was in middle school she asked for a pair of red Converse shoes. I got excited and said, “Eddie Van Halen wears those, too!” *
She asked, “Who’s Eddie Van Halen?”
I realized right then that I had failed her.
Over the past month and a half, five friends have reminded me of shared moments that occurred fifteen or more years ago. Unfortunately, I had completely forgotten them.
I have a friend who writes in his journal daily, right before he goes to bed. It’s an admirable habit and one I’ve tried unsuccessfully to start many times. I would journal right before bed or first thing in the morning. I’d jot down some thoughts or concerns, then put the journal away.
I wanted to share an amusing little story from my recent brush with civic duty: my call to jury duty. It's been quite a while since I last found myself in a courtroom as a prospective juror.
Thought I’d share something cute with you today.
In 2018, we picked out our Vizsla puppy, but we couldn’t bring her home right away. We had to wait a few weeks before she could join our family.
Years ago, I read a book called The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. It’s the concept that small actions, repeated over long periods, can generate tremendous results. I was so impressed with the book that I later bought it on audio and listen to it occasionally when I need a kick in the habits.
My favorite movie is Rocky.
There are so many things I love about it. Rocky overcomes great odds to go fifteen rounds with the heavyweight champion of the world, something no one else has ever done. In doing so, he proves to himself and the world that he’s worth something. Also, the movie is a love story between Rocky and Adrian, the shy woman he meets in the local pet store.
I had plans to email my newsletter subscribers yesterday. Unfortunately, I had a migraine that knocked me off my game. The headache started Sunday morning, came in waves throughout the day, and was still with me the next morning. It stayed in full force until I went to bed on Monday evening at 7:30 p.m., sleeping for almost ten hours. The migraine broke during the night.
A couple years ago, my girlfriend and I bought a camper van we named Vanessa. We've taken some fun trips including many visits to national parks. I even drove Vanessa to a writing conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. That was a blast!
The annual Army-Navy game occurred yesterday. I’ve never watched it with anyone but had shared it with my dad for many years. Before the games, we would call or text each other the traditional boasts.
Go Army—Beat Navy!
Go Navy—Beat Army!
A friend asked why I joined the Army when my dad was a Navy veteran. It’s sort of a funny in a shallow, teenage way. I joined the Army for two reasons.
I recently bought a photo scanner to start the process of importing my old photos into the digital world. There are several reasons to do this, but none are interesting enough to share.
The call came about 6 A.M. on the morning of Friday, July 16th, 1999. It was from my boss, Rick.
“Have you seen the news?” he asked. “There’s a fire at the Fairmont. Get down here as soon as you can.”
By the time I graduated high school, I had attended six schools in three different states (California, Ohio, and Washington). My family frequently moved for my dad’s work. That’s how a young boy ended up with an appreciation for the San Diego Padres, the Cincinnati Reds, and the Seattle Mariners but undying love for the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Here is a short article that I wrote for GameRoom magazine’s Confession of a Coin-Op Addict feature. It originally appeared in the December 2003 issue. The magazine has stopped publishing, and I long ago sold the machines. However, I thought you might find it interesting.
Earlier this year, my father (David Conway) went into a memory care facility. He is suffering from both Parkinson’s Disease and vascular dementia. These diseases robbed him of a great many things—his independence, his confidence, and his humor. It’s very hard to communicate with my dad now as he frequently mumbles and often doesn’t maintain eye contact.
I met my daughter, Sarah, for lunch at one of our favorite restaurants, The Manito Tap House. Occasionally, we meet for a meal or coffee to catch up on the latest in her life. Sarah is young and busy so getting time with her is precious.
Tomorrow is the release day for Cutler’s Legacy, the sixth novel in the John Cutler Mysteries. It’s taken a while but I’m so excited for this book to be in the world. Cutler holds a special place in my heart. Not only was he the first novel-length character I created, but there are also a lot of elements of my personality in that guy (as embarrassing as that is to admit). Cutler’s a guy who seems to stub his toe whenever things go well for him.
As I write this, it’s currently 4° F. 🥶 We don’t have any snow in Spokane right now. I consider that a blessing. I haven’t skied in years and was never any good when I did. In fact, my first attempt at downhill ended up with me in a hospital and a several-inch scar under my knee.
This is Desert Steve’s Gas ’N Go. Okay, not really.
But it was in the first Flip-Flop Detective novel, STRAIT TO HELL.
I hate serial killers.
You might consider that a ludicrous statement as 99.9% of all people who’ve ever lived hate serial killers, too. The only ones who don’t hate serial killers are the killers themselves and their mothers.
A reader (Bryan) asked a question concerning the Cozy Up series. He wondered if the “Little Sister” nickname that U.S. Marshal Gayle Goodspeed call’s Beau was somehow related to True Grit. The question surprised me, and I asked why he believed it to have originated from there.
My flagship series, the 509 Crime Stories, recently had its covers upgraded. For some, that was a change to the title font. For others, that was a complete redo.
I read several personal finance and real estate blogs daily during this time. I also listened to podcasts related to those fields. The one thing that always left me feeling underwhelmed was that no one ever talked about how personal finance could link to commercial real estate (an area I worked in).
I thought I would do something different this week and share one of my favorite scenes. This comes from my short story, “The Legend of Roy Utt,” which appears in the 509 Crime Anthology, A Bag of Dick’s.
I recently saw a question posed to authors: “Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?” This immediately reminded me of a YouTube video.
Always be where flip-flops can be worn.
If you could live your life by a single rule, what would it be?
That’s a question I asked myself one summer afternoon while running around my neighborhood in flip-flops.
My writing career began in 1996. Sometime during that year, I sat at my computer and wrote a single-page story. It featured a cop drinking in a bar. Anger and bluster filled every word. It was an unreadable tale written by an unhappy man.
In 2019, I attended Left Coast Crime (LCC), a writers’ conference held that year in Vancouver B.C—only six hours from my hometown. It was my first conference of the sort, and I quickly learned it offered many great experiences.
A reader of my books once stated that she didn’t like “heroes with muddy feet.”
This comment was directed toward Detective James Morgan, the protagonist in The Value in Our Lies, the fifth novel in the 509 Crime Stories. The reader had consumed the first four novels in the series and enjoyed them. She set down the fifth book after the opening chapter.
Rich, one of my frequent readers, posted a comment to me via Goodreads that ran along the line of, “Why do so many fictional detectives have failed marriages.”
I love music. Hang around me for any length of time, and you’ll probably discover that my favorite genre is hard rock. It seeps into the way I talk, the way I dress, and the way I connect with others. While some in my age bracket (a slacker wave to those in Generation X) might be embarrassed to say they’re still metalheads, I’m not.
The knockout game is the concept of randomly selecting a victim and then rendering them unconscious with a single blow.
It’s violent, it’s illegal, and it always preys on a weaker victim.
SPOILER ALERT!
If you haven’t read THE BLIND TRUST yet, this post gives away a big component of the story. Turn back if you want to keep this reveal hidden.
For a period of roughly six months, I woke up frequently with a song snippet in my head.
I didn’t think much of it at the time. I wasn’t concerned by it. More than anything, it was an oddity. A funny trick that my mind seemed to be playing on me. When the songs happened, I kind of enjoyed them.
Those musical greetings gave my mornings a little bit of a twist.
Hearing a word, or a combination of words, can sometimes spark a writer’s imagination. This occurred to me when I first encountered the term ‘side hustle.’
C316—pronounced correctly as Charlie three sixteen—is a police officer call sign. To be exact it was my call sign for a year while with the Spokane Police Department.
It took four years to get Tales from the Road into print. Buildings can be designed, built, and occupied in shorter time. Marriages have been started, consummated, and ended in that amount of time. That’s four complete seasons of baseball. Needless to say (yet I’m still saying it), creating that book took a long, damn time.
On January 4th, 2019 I released The Side Hustle, a self-published crime fiction novel. I didn’t seek a publisher for this novel for a couple of reasons. I’ll get to that in a bit.
Before I do, let me tell you about the book.
Instead of rewriting all the good stuff below, I just blatantly stole it from frankzafiro.com, the website of Frank Zafiro, my writing partner. Not much of a grifter, when I announce to the world I stole it, huh? - Colin
The bar circuit in the late 70’s and early 80’s was something special.
Before the birth of MTV and the internet made music readily accessible and boringly safe, bands rolled into big cities and small towns across America to ply their trade. These musicians lived a fantasy many have only dreamed.
Hoopfest is the largest three-on-three basketball tournament in the world. You read that right. Spokane, Washington, the heart of my 509 Crime Stories, turns into the center of the basketball universe the last weekend of every June.
If you’ve ever wondered why some courtroom stories hinge on a murder trial while others revolve around money or contracts, it comes down to the type of case and the standard of proof that applies.
Today is when we celebrate the patron saint of Ireland by drinking green beer and barfing in an alley. Just kidding, but I’ve had plenty of hangovers on March 18th that were earned at O’Doherty’s Irish Grille (John Cutler’s favorite bar, btw).
Welcome back to our little corner of the crime fiction world! This week, I want to share a fascinating concept that adds a bit of forensic sparkle to our detective tales: Locard’s Exchange Principle.
As fans of crime fiction, we love the thrill of a well-told story. But let’s take a moment to pull back the curtain on one of the most enduring tropes in the genre: the idea that a TASER can render someone unconscious with a single zap. Today, we’re going to debunk that myth and shed a little light on how these devices really work.
I want to take you behind the curtain of a concept that often appears in crime fiction and real-world policing alike: noble cause corruption.
Most of us have driven through town and seen it—paint scrawled across a wall, a bridge, or the back of an abandoned building. Sometimes it’s just a few letters, other times it’s a full mural that makes you hit the brakes and stare. We lump it all together under one word: graffiti.
But not all graffiti is created equal.
Hello again from the world of crime and intrigue! This week, I wanted to share a little peek behind the curtain into one of the guiding principles that often shapes the way my detectives think: Occam’s Razor.
For law enforcement, the use of force is often necessary to maintain order and ensure the safety of both officers and civilians.
Last week, I shared my experience with a music AI tool I used as research for an upcoming book about a rock and roll band. Many folks wrote back and said how much they liked the music, for which I’m grateful. I enjoyed these conversations since many of them led down the rabbit hole of 1980s hair metal bands.
Artificial Intelligence continues to be a hot topic. I learn something new about it daily, whether it is at my day job or in the writing field.
Anytime we face the arrival of a new year, I like to look back twelve months and see how I did. It’s a way to feel a boost of motivation (look what I accomplished!) while eating a bit of humble pie (look what I screwed up!).
I want to take a moment to be fully transparent with you about how I approach the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in my creative and professional work. Here’s what you can expect:
For the last couple of years, I’ve offered my e-books widely across multiple platforms like Barnes & Noble, Apple, Kobo, and my own website. Unfortunately, I’ve encountered a significant amount of fraudulent activity, with numerous attempts at processing fake credit card transactions through my store. This has been a frustrating and time-consuming issue, and it’s something that many independent authors are currently facing.
I’ll admit I made a mistake in 2024 with my website. I forwarded my URL to my store, making it the destination for people looking to learn more about me and my books.
I liked the idea of having a one-stop shop. In theory, there’s a lot to like about that idea. Though it left some things to be desired.
In August 2023, I started my online store, using the Shopify platform for the backbone. I dabbled with it for a few months, trying to learn the various intricacies of being an online retailer. While I did that, I was also learning how to advertise on Facebook.
There’s an old quote that’s often attributed to Albert Einstein that goes something like this: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”
Writers are definitely guilty of this behavior.
This post is arriving just as I'm making my way to Las Vegas.
According to the weather forecast, there won’t be much sun this week. That’s okay, though. It’ll still be warmer than Eastern Washington, which is expected to be 43°F today, which is about where the temperature will stay all week. Las Vegas is supposed to be 71° this afternoon. Quite a bump!
What happens when a publisher wants all author rights?
In February 2022, I submitted an essay for a Cozy anthology with a neat premise. The editor asked cozy authors to discuss their approach to the genre. As a guy who writes tough-guy cozies, I thought it was a fantastic opportunity to share how I created Beau Smith, the protagonist for my Cozy Up series.
Below is my old About Page. I updated it recently but didn't want to get rid of this information. I figured the blog was a perfect place for it. 😊 Here we go.
Happy New Year!
Well, the day after the new year. I figured you were busy yesterday and didn’t want to hear from me. Hopefully, you spent January 1st hangover free. I stopped drinking about a year and a half ago. I never drank a lot, but I was getting so many migraines that I was hoping to find a link.
Writing a book doesn’t always look like a straight line or a race to the finish. Sometimes it’s like hiking up a steep mountain—a slow, steady pace with the hopes you’ll eventually make it to the peak.
The difference between failure and feedback is a willingness to continue.
As an independently published author, I spend a fair amount of time marketing myself and my books. This process includes a newsletter, social media, my blog, and paid advertising. Marketing is a skill that doesn’t come naturally to most folks—me included.
As the White Rabbit said in Alice in Wonderland, “I’m late! I’m late! For a very important date!” I should have mailed out this newsletter on Monday, but it’s getting to you today. Four days late.
It’s time that I look back on the previous quarter and review my successes and failures—what actions should I repeat, and which should I avoid. This is a good thing for anyone to do and I probably should apply such a thing to my personal life.
When I was in junior high school (the early ’80s), an English teacher handed out a page of funny writing rules. It didn’t attribute any authorship, so I always thought it was hers. I loved these guidelines so much that I kept them for many years until the paper became severely worn.
As an author, the most frequent question I’m asked is, “How do you write so much?”
I consider that a huge compliment. It wasn’t that many years ago that I didn’t write at all. I had lost my confidence and looked for excuses not to put words onto paper.
When was the last time you had a performance review?
I have had more than a few in my life. There was one that I’d like to forget, but the others have passed mainly by without a hitch. I believe that the goal is to acknowledge the things that have gone well and find an item or two that can be improved.
The Public Safety Writers Association held its annual conference in Las Vegas this past weekend (July 14-17, 2022). According to the PSWA website, the association was formed in 1997 as the Police Writers Club and “exists to support people involved in writing about public safety.”
There’s a saying that the days are long, but the years are short. Well, that means the months are pretty darn quick themselves. It’s amazing how fast three of them just went by. I feel that a couple of things cause this.
In August 2021, I released a double collection of short stories—Murder by Any Other Name and Black and Blue in the Lilac City. I dubbed both “509 Crime Short Stories” and created a series separate from the 509 Crime Stories.
In An Unfinished Story, I shared a letter from my dad written twenty years ago. He mentioned that it was “nice to see something without a lot of swear words and cussing.”
I’ve been wondering how you keep your series separate in your head. Do you find yourself writing and then saying, “Oops, wrong character/genre/storyline!” - Coleen
Thank you for the question, Coleen. It’s a great one!
The 2022 Left Coast Crime convention was held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, from April 7-10th. This was technically my third time attending LCC.
I thought I would try something different this week—a quarterly update for all things related to the writing life. I’ve never done this before, and I hope it provides more insight into how things are progressing. I’m not going to delay further with chit-chat. Let’s get started.
There’s a well-established financial concept known as “pay yourself first. It can be applied to creative types as well.
As a writer, I love platforms where readers and authors can congregate together.
Beyond reviewing/rating books, these are cool places where all of us can share our favorite books. If something gets sold, it happens elsewhere. What occurs at these free sites is the sharing of ideas. I wanted to tell you about a couple that I use (maybe you already do, too).
A friend of mine asked how I managed to fit writing into my life. He's writing a book and admitted that it'd been a challenging process. By the time he gets home from the office, he's mentally exhausted and needs to focus on his family. He asked how I manage to find time to write when we have similar situations.
“There are three things you can’t do in cozy mysteries,” a well-known author once told me. “You can’t swear, you can’t have sexy stuff, and you can’t show violence on the page.”
Let’s chat about a Spokane icon that keeps sneaking into my books: the Monroe Street Bridge.
Here’s a story from yesterday’s Bloomsday. I’m with my daughters, Emma and Sarah, my granddaughter, A.J., and son-in-law, Ty.
Leavenworth, Washington, may not be on the top of ’s travel list, but for those seeking a taste of European charm without leaving the country, this small town nestled in the Cascade Mountains is a must-visit destination
I’ve written previously about my reading plan. I try to read one non-fiction book for every fiction book I devour. It doesn’t always happen, but that’s the goal. Most of the time, those non-fiction books have to do with self-improvement.
I imagine most every city has an official nickname, and it’s something horribly drab that was likely coined by an equally drab civic group. Yet those cities also developed more organically cool nicknames, too. And those are the terms that the residents hold dearer to their hearts.
I love Eastern Washington (aka the 509). My signature series is set here as are most of my other books (John Cutler/Flip-Flop Detective/Charlie-316).
I’ve lived here for close to four decades now and enjoy telling people about this region.
A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned Lawrence Block in my newsletter. A friend responded and included a picture of him with LB which made me slightly jealous. You see I met Block before but didn’t get a picture either time.
I just finished reading Carrie, Stephen King’s first novel. I’ve only read a few books by King, none of them were horror—Different Seasons, The Green Mile, and The Running Man (writing as Richard Bachman). I read a horror short story of his called “The Raft” which I mentioned in my blog post, A Weird Bit of History.
I like to keep track of my yearly reading. Not only is it a nice way to look back and feel some accomplishment (especially when I look back over multiple years), it keeps my feet to the proverbial fire.
In a recent newsletter, I asked my readers two questions.
1. What is your favorite mystery series and who is it by?
2. Which of my mystery series do you like the best?
In 2017, I tracked how many books I read. I shared the list on the personal finance website I was running at the time, The Bumbling Millionaire. I enjoyed the experience so much I’ve tracked my annual reading every year since.
Here is some interesting news from a recent YouGov poll which proves how awesome my readers are!
46% of American adults read no books in 2023. Zero. Nada. Yipes!
Here's a little weird history.
I discovered Stephen King's "The Raft" last year while on a trip back to Ohio. It was in this super cool booklet format. I've read a few of King's books, but I'm not well-versed in his works. I enjoyed the short story.
Here’s something cool.
I recently finished reading Ross Macdonald’s THE WAY SOME PEOPLE DIE. It’s a Lew Archer novel written in 1951. I loved the book. It’s pace was quick and it had some excellent banter in it.
Several years ago, I started tracking my annual reading. I did this after learning how important the most successful individuals valued reading. I wrote several posts over on my personal finance blog, The Bumbling Millionaire. When I stepped back from that project to focus on my crime fiction writing, I didn’t want to lose track of the annual reading list. It felt too important.
Goodreads posed this question: “If you could travel to any fictional book world, where would you go, and what would you do there?”
Since 2017, I’ve made it a goal to read one book a week. For those challenged by a calendar, that would be 52 books a year. I’ve yet to hit that number, but I will always strive for that number. I read traditionally printed books, ebooks, and I listen to audiobooks.
Recently, my 29-year-old daughter finished a self-improvement book that my girlfriend had gotten for her. She loved that book and didn’t know what to read next. She came to me for a recommendation.
On the previous New Year’s Eve, I wrote a post (How Many Books Did You Read This Year?) that detailed the number of books I read (30) in 2017. This was in follow-up to an earlier post, You Are What You Read. Personally, the latter article is one of my favorites and in it I shared my personal reading plan.
Earlier this year, I wrote the post You Are What You Read in which I discussed the well-documented argument that successful people read.
I also talked about my reading plan: For every book I read for pleasure, I will read one book for education.
There’s a famous computer coding concept known as GIGO – Garbage In / Garbage Out. If you put sloppy coding (information) into a computer, you will get equally or greater sloppy results.
The human brain is essentially a computer. It’s an easy concept to understand from there, right?
If we put bad stuff into our brains, then we’re going to get poor results out. Duh.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about my love of Rocky. That newsletter led me to think about a lot of movies I enjoyed as a kid and the memories that go along with them: Convoy, Star Wars, Hooper, Grease, and many more. Some of my favorite movie memories from my childhood occurred with my grandmother.
Chuck Norris passed away recently (03/19/2026). As a friend put it, he was a symbol of our youth.
When my dad was a kid, he had western heroes like Roy Rogers, Gene Autrey, William Boyd (Hopalong Cassidy), and Richard Boone (Paladin from Have Gun - Will Travel)
I grew up in the seventies and eighties, so I had action movie heroes. My favorites were Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Chuck Norris, but it was Chuck who set the action standard.
My 57th birthday happened recently, and my girlfriend gave me the John Wick soundtrack on vinyl. Her goal was to find something cool, and she scored when she found the album at a local curiosity shop. She knows how much I love the John Wick movies. They are all action-packed good times. I was extremely excited by the gift for a couple of reasons (besides that it came from her).
I promised an update on the concert and the night out with my girlfriend so let's get right to it.
First, what a great night! The Offspring put on an amazing show. It might be the best concert as far as stage production. It might even be better than a KISS concert.
The Offspring has been at the top of “must see someday” list. A couple of years ago, I saw Suicidal Tendencies at a rock festival in Louisville (KY) who were at the top of my list. Then I saw Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, a couple others near the top. That left the Offspring alone at the number one spot
Sammy Hagar is my favorite singer. I loved his work with Montrose and Van Halen, as well as his solo career. In fact, I paid homage to the Red Rocker by naming the Flip-Flop Detective after him.
There are so many delightful traditions at this time of year.
Decorations go up. Families get together. Colorful cookies are baked!
Any list that says it’s the best of anything is subjective.
I just checked a top 10 list of dogs that like to play, and the Vizsla isn’t listed there. Hello? Rose the Office Dog would argue that its author has lost her mind. Rose is a frisbee maniac. A ball hog. The girl won’t stop playing. Spend a day with her, and you’ll put Rose at the top of a dogs-that-like-to-play list.
I love crime fiction movies above every other genre. Okay, Rocky is my favorite movie, and that’s a sports drama, but the genre falls short compared to crime fiction. The same goes for crime fiction. I love the original Star Wars, but I’d rather watch any movie on the below list than A New Hope.
Do you have a favorite book? A favorite movie? Or a favorite song? For them to be your favorite, you’ve had to enjoy them more than once.
Have those favorites remained that way through the years? That’s the tricky question because time plays no favorites.
Along with books, I like movies, television, and music. Let me correct that. I LOVE those things—big heart emoji type of love. As such, I’ve wanted to make some ‘Best/Top’ lists for quite some time. This will be my first, and I thought I should start with a film genre that I love maybe more than any other—the ‘buddy cop’ film.
Have you ever rewatched a movie you loved on a streaming service then noticed the one-star reviews? I saw Narc last night with Jason Patric and Ray Liotta. It’s a favorite of mine from the early aughts. If you disagree and hate it, that’s cool. There are plenty of movies that others like that I don’t.
In the late sixties, there was an anti-war slogan “Suppose They Gave a War and No One Came.” It was popularized in a McCall’s magazine article of the same name and later in a movie.
Over the third weekend of May, I attended Rock on the Range, a three-day rock festival in Columbus, Ohio. It was non-stop, hard rock at MAPFRE stadium, the home of the Columbus Crew, an MLS team. I’d traveled back to the show with a friend of mine who’d been to this annual show several times before.
A couple years ago, I was working on a house project. The sun was out and the windows were open, letting a summer breeze drift through the room.
Have you ever heard a great piece of advice and said to yourself, “Oh, man! That’s good. I should write that down.”
But you don’t write it down because you’re busy, then you forget that great piece of advice by the next day. Sometimes you might remember days or weeks later; other times, it’s just lost forever.
When I was a kid, I dreamed of being an author. I did little about it while in school, but that’s when the dream started. While in the Army, I noodled around with a few short pieces, not doing much with them, but taking way too much pride in the few words I wrote. Youthful hubris, I guess.
The Vacant Lot movie trailer is out, and its website is up!
Vacant Lot is a movie written by Bill Bancroft. If you don’t know, I helped Bill write Tales from the Road, a rock and roll biography (more on this at the bottom of the post).
I’m a movie star!
That might be hyperbole, but I am in a movie. Not a YouTube Short or an Instagram Reel that I filmed on my phone, but a real movie with a script, a director, and a film crew! It seems that I’m getting ahead of myself. Maybe I should slow down and explain how this all came about.
It all started when I was a kid.
Many folks wrote to ask how Rose the Office Dog handled the fireworks on the most recent Fourth of July. Since I was at the PSWA conference when the emails came in, I couldn’t update everyone.
It’s been a minute (as the cool kids say) since I wrote The House of Dog, my recap of the first year with a vizsla. Since then, things have calmed down with Rose, but there are still plenty of stories to share.
True story.
Recently at a coffee shop with three early twenty baristas behind the counter, each wearing a vintage rock & roll t-shirt—the Rolling Stones, Nirvana, and Led Zeppelin.
As a boy, I owned a red dog. Red, I called him.
Creative? Not really, but the name was direct and to the heart of things.
Have you ever heard a great piece of advice and said to yourself, “Oh, man! That’s good. I should write that down.”
But you don’t write it down because you’re busy, then you forget that great piece of advice by the next day. Sometimes you might remember days or weeks later; other times, it’s just lost forever.