Welcome.

Back in 2011, I started a blog called A Sandbox Blog, and it wasn’t my best work. I wanted to write about issues that riled me up.  Clearly, I knew more than the average person. Or so I thought.  I wrote a few articles here and there, mostly about malpractice in video games and various social issues. But, I had discovered two things writing those articles: I felt like a jerk  who sits on a milk carton and yells at people in the park, and that it made me miserable.

I started to believe that writing might not be my career path, as I didn’t believe my personality fit. I have the verbal and physical grace of an elephant in a closet. I can become so engrossed in ingesting as much information as possible I end up getting clogged and burnt out. I believe great political writers and journalists approach topics with eloquence, the light touch I am incapable of. You have to work with what you were dealt.
With my desire to write growing stronger as I bounced around between cities, I began reading a lot of fiction. Lo and behold, it clicked for me. Instead of writing provocative articles, I wanted to write stories that people enjoy reading. I wanted to have fun, and share that feeling with others. To hell with the world’s problems, I wanted to give something positive back.

Essentially, this blog will become my writing dojo. The mountaintop would be to publish a novel and to reach that goal I will have to write often. In pursuit of that goal, there will be two continual stories every week, as well as blog posts three times a week.

On Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, there will be a post about something in the creative writing process. This will by no means be a workshop or educational, but instead some insight to the struggles of an inspiring author. These posts will talk about character archetypes, story embryos, exposition, different genres, and will be intended to be entertainment whether or not you are into the scene.

On Tuesdays, I will publish chapters for my horror story The Stranger Outside. Being closer to a book than a blog post, it will be the most difficult writing by far. I enjoy horror novels far more than their screen counterpart, as you can’t rely on cheap jump scares as a substitute for genuine world-building and suspense. The plan at this moment is to publish a chapter a week, with more if I felt like being an overachiever.

As a prodigal nerd, I love Dungeons & Dragons more than any other game on the planet. The theater of mind, the random dice rolls and abrupt decision making, the stories created by players and dungeon masters together — nothing comes close for me. Unlike most players, I prefer to be the one sitting behind the screen as the dungeon master, weaving plots and character and lining up dominoes for my players to knock down.

After I had moved to Los Angeles, I was invited to join a gaming group with friends from Philadelphia that consists of some terrific people. The group consists of comedian Andrew Stanton, writer Scott Spivack, artist and animator Steve Gallant, and my lovely fiance, composer Alexa Borden. I will most likely use one of my blog posts per week to talk about our sessions. They’ve come up with some pretty great characters, and I will attempt to disassemble the group dynamic to find out why it works so well.

I hope you find something here worth reading, enough that you share these stories with friends or family. I have uploaded the first chapter of each story and a blog post, so please check those out.

Hope to hear from you soon.