The influence of True Crime has touched my work. The ideas can be loosely based as in Escape from Dolphin Street or more overtly as in Lane Bowden 1973. A story takes on a sense of fear, a deeper horror that resonates, when put in the context of fiction that is based on a real life event. The genesis of Dolphin Street was a combination of true crimes. One crime in Billings, Montana (see The Curse of Dolphin Street blog) involved a vicious gang of street punks, a murder, and a

I had lost my way for a while, not realizing it as it was happening. I think the only life I allowed myself was through writing. I am not saying I did not live just not to the fullest while I hunkered down and wrote Rebel’s Edge. All three manuscripts were completed as I travelled for work. The chaos of modern life was forgotten as I remembered a punk life once lived and a teenage self lost to time. The relief and emptiness of finishing the three books and the curse of not be

Some of my characters are lost and are looking for signs: a symbol, a person, or a supernatural time where the stars align and create a moment of transcendence. Rarely, does change come, at least not all at once, and if it does it may not last. The hurt and despair of the damned flows through them, shaking their world and forcing their decisions with the hope of a better future or a better self. The urge to escape their captors, real or imagined, drives them to quest as they

Doubt is the mind killer just like its cousin, fear. In the past, I hated the idea of someone judging my writing. The flaws stuck out and tormented me. There was no way it could be as good as others’ work, or so I thought. I always saw images in my head like a film playing out behind my eyeballs. I used to want to make movies. I quickly learned that I did not have the resources (money and equipment) to make the desire a reality. I put it all away and life went on until an opp

Real life events impact my writing. I have used random meetings of unique individuals, places I have seen, and research of history and true crime to put my fiction in real spaces. One of the most personal aspects came to pass in Lane Bowden 1973. In the unreleased novel, Lane’s mother, Ellen, is dying of cancer. I based her on my own mother who passed away in 2009. The duality of Lane trying to deal with his sexuality and keeping things together as his mom slipped away inform

I am coming to the end of the first wave of my writing. Fifteen years ago I started with screenplays, first for a short film, Spike. The finished project did not have the budget for the shadow people and was definitely on the fly. I wanted to follow it up with a Warhol style short that is now lost to time. I kept writing and dove into a feature screenplay, Tracer, about growing up as a punk. Looking back, it was rough but had moments. I remember seeing the film Tarnation and

Research can involve more than archives, internet searches, books, and interviews. If possible, going to a location is important to get a feel for it. In Lane Bowden 1973, I wanted to know what it was like in the Heights neighborhood that summer. Houston is notorious for not preserving history, but there were pieces of the past, here and there, to be found. During the formative phase of researching the book. I went on a lot of location scouting. Driving through the Heights I