Writing
I’m a writer in addition to being an editor and creative consultant, and I began being published when I was a young spoken word poet. Now I write and publish memoirs, travel and music stories, fiction, and meditation pieces. Click on any entry below or on older entry pages to read my work!
Creative Courage and Vulnerability (Article)
How to take risks and be authentic with your writing and creativity Many creative people find it difficult to write and create honest work from their own experiences because they’re afraid to be vulnerable and show their inner thoughts and sensitive history. I believe...
The Last Laugh of an Enlightened Pirate (Memoir)
The hallways of the nursing home were a labyrinth on the day I went to visit you for the first time. I walked the industrial-carpeted hallways with walls covered in paintings of farms, fishermen, and lakes. A combination of disinfectant, cafeteria food, and air...
I Am the Worst Server in the World (Memoir)
It was my final table of the night. My back was in knots, my feet were throbbing, and I was sweating under my Hawaiian shirt when I opened the black checkbook. Rent was due in a few days, and I needed this tip to be a big one. There it was. One dirty, rusted penny lay...
My Magic Watch (Memoir)
In 2007, I hadn’t thought about my watch for a long time. It had been nearly thirteen years since I lost it at a Beastie Boys concert in the Czech Republic. It was an expensive Bulova watch. One that I wouldn’t normally wear, but my girlfriend, Lisa-Raquel, gave it to...
Becoming a Scoundrel in Key West (Memoir)
When I was nineteen years old, I lived at the southernmost tip of the continental U.S., two blocks from Ernest Hemingway’s old house in Key West, Florida. My home was a one-bedroom shotgun bungalow with four other young bohemians. Two of them shared the bed, two...
When My Mind Became a Raging River (Memoir)
I had just left my job at the Off Ramp Cafe and Lounge, an infamous club that had helped the early 1990s Seattle music scene rise, explode, and burn out all in a very short period of years. There at that venue, I had formed a family with a pack of fantastic...
I Hitchhiked from Prague to Amsterdam for a Literary Magazine (Travel Memoir)
It was hot in the mid-morning sun as I waited along the side of the autobahn with two German policemen rifling through my belongings. Nearly everything in my backpack was spread across the hood of the two-door Škoda car I’d been riding in. My heart raced and I rocked...
Singing Solo at Oakland Coliseum (Music Memoir)
I stand alone on the shimmering green grass of Oakland Coliseum, between the pitcher’s mound and home plate. Blazing bright floodlights pour down through the night sky and illuminate the field. My legs quiver when I look up anxiously at the rows of people in the...
Down the Bayou in New Orleans (SUPing Story)
Bayou St. John in New Orleans is a beautiful, mysterious, and murky length of water that runs through the city to Lake Pontchartrain. Its milky green color hides what lurks beneath, and when I navigate down it, I stay perched above the warm, swampy liquid on my...
My Life Was Changed by a Mysterious Health Issue (Memoir)
I used to run and I loved it. When I was seven years old, I watched the very first televised Iron Man on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. The race was broadcast from Hawaii, and after I watched Dave Scott swim, bike, run, and win, I wanted to be a triathlete. It was...