I've been putting this off for many years now. I never wanted to write another "woe is me" post, not since some troll suggested I give up writing. Another troll (or maybe it was the same one) went so far as to e-mail screen grabs of my sales rank, just to rub my failures in... Continue Reading →
In this episode of Story Matters, Heather and I delve into the conservative YouTube/social media debacle. We talk about being "woke" and an "SJW," modern-day feminism, and we examine what role politics has to play in film, TV, and literature. And of course, we also talk about our favorite thing growing up, the 80's cartoon... Continue Reading →
In this episode of the Story Matters podcast, I sit down with my 11-year-old daughter, Sophia, to discuss Christina Soontornvat's A Wish in the Dark. While this book was required reading for her middle-school English class, we definitely didn't regret it! A Wish in the Dark is set in an alternate-history, Asian-inspired world, with only... Continue Reading →
There has never been a time in my life when I haven't thought about storytelling. I wake up, shower, and go to sleep with it. Before I even knew how to spell my name, I was asking the servers in my father's restaurant to record the many fictional scenarios running rampant in my head. When I... Continue Reading →
What does Kristin Cashore's Graceling, Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle, Terry Pratchett, The Promised Neverland anime, the Twilight series, Fifty Shades of Grey, X-Men, Philip Roth’s The Plot Against America, George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm, Alice in Wonderland, The Handmaid’s Tale, and The Testaments ALL have in common? Answer: THIS... Continue Reading →
I am leaving again, back to my wife’s home country of Morocco. Hopefully, while I am there, I will find some meaning to this tepid existence.
Unfortunately, I don’t have much time to write this post. This is me in 5 minutes. Even as I type, I should be packing and making hotel reservations. Still, I can’t resist leaving a few words for my fans and friends. I am going to Morocco and Greece for the summer. This will be a great way for me to change my mind set. People who have never left the country cannot imagine how insulated their thinking becomes. It is simply impossible to understand what a different culture feels like until you experience it. Just the smells of the Greek countryside, with its abundance of basil and oregano bushes, and its olive covered hills, is something that changes you. I am grateful for the many decades of multiculturalism I have been exposed to. I believe it reflects well on my fiction. It has taught me to look at the world…
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I picked up Icefall at a book fair at the University of South Florida. I came as an alumnus to talk to my old professors and to showcase The Princess of Aenya. They accepted two autographed copies of my book and offered me one of their autographed titles in return, and since I love Norse... Continue Reading →
In case you didn't know, Kirkus is America's premier book critic magazine, which has been around since the 1930s. They reached out to me a few months back wanting to feature my book in their June issue, after selecting The Princess of Aenya for their . . . Now I'd like to thank Tatiana Arnold... Continue Reading →
Quick Blurb: John Connelly's The Book of Lost Things starts off strong, with an evocative hook that instantly draws you into the story. But the middle hundred pages or so felt like needless padding, and I started to lose interest. Much of what happens feels random and disconnected to the overall plot and the development... Continue Reading →
OK, this post is going to get a bit crazy (literally) so just try and follow me down the Rabbit Hole, please. First, let me make a few things clear: I am not one of these New Age people. Crystals fascinate us because of their parallel arrangement of atoms, allowing for photons to pass unimpeded... Continue Reading →
The Art of Storytelling 
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