Every writer seems to be on a journey and perhaps like life itself, no journey is exactly the same. My journey began far before I was ever aware that I would become a writer. I have always had a fondness for language, a propensity to play with words, and a nearly unquenchable desire for knowledge […]
The other day while I was working out at the gym, I saw this muscular guy wearing a t-shirt saying, “Always Give 100%.” This got me thinking, “Do I agree with this premise?” The answer was surprisingly, NO. Upon deeper contemplation, this is something I have been considering for a while. However, this conventional wisdom […]
My experience with journaling began in second grade when my teacher compelled us to keep a journal that she would check. In this way, I was initiated into the art of writing nonfiction as I perceived it. When I was a sophomore in college, my mother gave me this beautiful journal with these pages woven […]
I am excited to formally introduce the project that has been more than a decade in the making: Subterranean Mixtape. This has been a journey not only of discovery and great emotional depth but tenacity. The more than 1,000 pages of my writing that I pulled together that spans more than two decades was culled […]
Poetry has been a part of my life most of the way. While working on Subterranean Mixtape, I exhumed some of my earliest poems, and it has been a trip looking back at them. Here is one poem that I wrote in seventh grade: See Me As I Am Paint me red, Paint me blue, […]
Perhaps no other writer captured my imagination as much as Hermann Hesse did in my early twenties. Both my parents admired Hesse, and it was perhaps my rebellious spirit that caused me to eschew his work for so long. But reading Narcissus and Goldman got me quite interested in his work, and soon after I […]
Often a large part of the DNA of a writer is affected by the inputs and influences. Perhaps the most pronounced is the other writers that one has read. My journey through fiction began at a young age and continues … It can be argued that every book and, therefore every writer one has ever […]
I remember the feeling of liberation when I finally received my driver’s license at the age of sixteen. There is something special about the freedom to get behind the wheel and go anywhere one wants. I soon found that this freedom had a great deal of responsibility: insurance, registration, maintenance, among other aspects. Perhaps the […]
Becoming an author is hard, no matter the route you take. The publishing industry can be so maddening to deal with that it makes you want to scream. Being a person who admits to it when someone asks: “Are you a writer?” and your reply is affirmative, is a huge step in itself. Even when […]
When I first started to get into writing seriously in 2007, I discovered Writer’s Digest. Then I picked up a copy of The Writer and also Poets & Writers. I soon realized that reading back issues was just about as useful as reading current ones. I scoured the local library, reading years of past issues. […]
