My toothpaste has water in it This may seem like a strange statement to you. It’s not like it’s something you hear every day. But you need to understand this is the truth. For some reason, my toothpaste has water in it. So much that whenever I squeeze the tube, little bubbles pop out as the toothpaste splurms onto my toothbrush. It’s disconcerting. Toothpaste should not splurm. It should splat properly. But somehow, water got into the tube and now I have splurmy paste every t

"If you need more time to understand how you feel about a thing, then give yourself more time to understand how you feel about a thing." Such a simple idea, yet so hard to put into practice these days. I know I've struggled with this over the years. I've felt pressured to analyze, adjust, discard or adapt quickly to situations without allowing myself the time to really process what I was feeling. Break up with your lover? Get over it. Lose someone to cancer? Honor them and mo

One of my favorite poems is 'Autobiography in Five Chapters' by Portia Nelson. It's a simple little thing that's deceptively bigger than it appears. Like the TARDIS but not really. I came across it back in college and have kept it in my heart ever since. I thought about it again when I was writing part of 'The Born and the Made.' In the book, there's a scene where the main character is hesitant about entering an establishment. The character hems and haws, goes back and forth

So, I have to be honest. My mom didn't like my latest book. It was too sad. She wants me to write more children's books, lol. And I get it. It is a bit sad. But more than that, it was hard, I think, for her to hear about some of the hard times I've been through. As much as parents try to protect their children from strife and suffering, so too do the children try to keep their parents from finding out about the rough times in their lives. 'The Born and the Made' was born duri

Fear. It's everywhere. Fear of flying. Fear of snakes. Fear of terrorists. Fear of losing our job. Of getting hurt. Of not having enough money for rent. Of being alone. Living a life that is not dictated by fear is next to impossible. Let's be honest; the majority of our decisions are based off of fear. And yet can you imagine how different the world would be if we made decisions based off of love instead? I can barely imagine that and I'm a fairly creative person. It would b

So I'm not really the type that leaves notes to myself. At least not at home. At work I have all sorts of notes but that's only because I am responsible for keeping track of a zillion details. And my writing, of course. Lots of random notes there. In journals and notebooks and sticky notes on the desk. But that's only because I have different plot points and characters to keep tabs on. Ok, ok. Fine, I write notes. But, I don't really write notes for everyday stuff. No "don't

So I was watching the new season of Luke Cage last night and, while being interrogated by the one-armed detective, a low-level hood recounted an old Cherokee legend. (Trust me, that sentence makes more sense to me than it does to you.) And it got me thinking. The legend is about two wolves: A grandson came to his grandfather, angry over an injustice done to him by a friend. The Grandfather sat his grandson down and said to him: 'I too, at times, have felt great hate. There ar

When I was in grade school, many many many many moons ago, I was always called the two worst insults a school-yard bully could think of: fag and nerd. And now, whether an ironic twist of fate or self-fulfilling prophesy, I am both. And I couldn't be prouder. Here's the thing: once I stopped worrying about what other people said about me, life opened up. When I was a kid, all I wanted was to fit in. To be one of the 'cool kids'. But I never was. I never fit into any the group

I consider myself a somewhat creative individual. I mean, yes, I write stories and create new worlds. But that's a lot easier than most people realize. We all do it. We all have those fever dreams that shake us out of our routines and make us question everything we think we know. We all have started telling a story to friends only to get distracted by some oddball tangent and suddenly realize we have no idea what we were talking about in the first place because we're now in a