I can find silence most times I want it...even at work. When I go into the office, I work in a flex space at the back of the building. I am always the first one in, and sometimes I have an hour to myself before the second person shows up. (And … [Continue reading]
For my wife's birthday in October, we went camping at Daingerfield State Park. There was a moment during the preparation for the trip when I thought: It would be nice to put together a video of the trip: packing things up, heading out to East Texas, … [Continue reading]
The fifth (annual) writing retreat has been booked. In April, the chosen Texas State Park is...Daingerfield State Park. My wife and I went camping at Daingerfield State Park the last weekend in October...and we loved it! In many ways, it felt like … [Continue reading]
I hear it a lot: I just need to carve out some time to write... I hear it at work, from friends, and read about it online. The concept is simple: I have all these things to do, and to tackle them all means I'll have time carved out to do the … [Continue reading]
It's a five-day weekend for me, which means yesterday was the beginning of my little break. I took it easy and got some reading done. One of the things I read was this interview with Colson Whitehead. Whitehead is one of those people I've followed … [Continue reading]
Yesterday, Not about Lumberjacks turned one year old. It started with a story about a dog who eats everything in sight: "Gutterball." As I've mentioned elsewhere, I ended up writing more new stories in the first year of the show than I planned. … [Continue reading]
I work for a large software company. Recently, email was sent out that we could take "creativity" courses through one of our training sites. I went to check out one of the classes. I took the pre-test, a 4-question quiz to test how "creative" we … [Continue reading]
Last night the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. I was born less than three miles from Wrigley Field. The north side of Chicago is Cubs territory, through and through. Even people who don't particularly like sports on the north side (yes, a … [Continue reading]
Not only did I recently interview Mark Hosack, but I spent a nice evening hanging out with him during a recent trip to Los Angeles. It was my first time in California, so Mark showed me Marina del Rey, Venice, and Santa Monica. At our stop in … [Continue reading]
I recently did a podcast about business travel because I, and the friend I do the podcast with, have each recently traveled for work. A recent trip brought him to New Orleans, and I spent a week in Los Angeles. I know many people who live for … [Continue reading]
I recently released a story on Not About Lumberjacks called "Purvis." It's described like this: In 1984, a Dungeon Master struggles with keeping the few friendships he has together, all while dealing with a vicious bully. When Dungeons and Dragons … [Continue reading]
Mark Hosack is a busy guy. When he's not busy helping raise three young daughters, he's writing screenplays, directing movies, editing movies and trailers, and scouting locations for commercial shoots (in fact, this interview was done while he was … [Continue reading]
Friday mornings mean the arrival of Austin Kleon's weekly newsletter -- one of the few I subscribe to. This week, he linked to this piece by Cal Newport. If you don't feel like following the link, it's an article about how some people deemed big in … [Continue reading]