This Is My Hour

March 23, 2011 Personal

People often complain about the lack of free time in their lives.  They burn through days running on the hamster wheel of modern living all the while bemoaning; If only I had more time I could finally <learn that language/write that book/take that trip> I always wanted to.  For most it’s the daily unease which [...]

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Technical Difficulties

March 4, 2011 Blog

Cuban Nomad went completely offline for several days this week.  I was caught with my pants down on this outage and didn’t have anything to let people know what was going on.  Lessons learned from this one: I should never touch MySQL without a trained professional nearby and contingency plans need to be formulated before [...]

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Broken Glass and Cracked Asphalt

February 28, 2011 Travel

The downtown portion of a city can tell you a lot about its character like the small town feel of Charlotte’s "uptown" (its like a Fisher Price "My First Skyline") or the extreme poverty meets ultra luxury of downtown Miami.  Some cities are defined by their downtown area while with others are reminders of their [...]

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Why I Contribute to Crowdfunding

February 16, 2011 Movies

Crowdfunding is an internet spin on an old idea.  For as long as I can remember people have been raising money for one reason or another; Girl Scout’s with their cookies, Salvation Army with their buckets and of course politicians with their promises.  With the Internet we’ve taken the bake sale fundraiser and gone global.  [...]

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Another last minute NYC Midnight submission

February 14, 2011 Writing

Once again I signed up for NYC Midnight’s Short Story Challenge.  I find having skin in the game (entry fee), a looming deadline and subject matter outside my comfort zone makes for a stimulating exercise.  Last year I placed third in my heat (Genre: Spy; Subject: Newscaster) which wasn’t too bad for my first writing [...]

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Why I became a Supporting Member of HWA

January 31, 2011 Horror

Ever since I went to my first Stokers Award weekend  (2009, Burbank, CA) I’ve been interested in the Horror Writers Association.  I’ve loved horror for as long as I can remember and when I write fiction it likes to veer into the dark and horrific (the first stories I ever wrote were horror), so the [...]

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I’m Committing to my Creative Success

January 18, 2011 Personal

Over a year and half ago I discovered Mark McGuinness and his site, Lateral Action.  I’ve spoken about them many times on this blog because he has consistently helped me to grow.  As a writer I’ve taken his numerous lessons on creativity to heart, leveraging both his experience as a writer and a creative coach [...]

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Why is it so hard to change from Consumer to Creator?

January 14, 2011 Personal

I’ve really been struggling with this lately.  The push and pull of opposing motivations each packed with their own idiosyncrasies and justifications.  A culture geared in one direction while a dream works in direct opposition.  Anyone familiar with Steven Pressfield knows about "The War of Art".  In the book he describes the force which stymies [...]

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2010: Highs, Lows and Next Steps

January 4, 2011 Personal

Many will agree that 2010 was a crap year.  For some it was the worst year they’d ever had.  For me it was a barely less crappy extension of 2009.  Still shitty in many respects, but after the hellacious 2009 in Los Angeles anything was better.  In spite of this there were a few good [...]

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Careers are Grown

December 7, 2010 Personal

Recently I’ve been re-reading Mark McGuinness’ article "The Story of a Reluctant Entrepreneur", a fantastic tale about how one man’s desire to become a poet somehow led to a successful career as an online entrepreneur.  It was one of those pieces of writing that entered my life at the exact time I needed it.  I [...]

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Creative Collaboration

October 11, 2010 Writing

Writing is traditionally a solitary venture.  The artist is locked in a room left wrestling with the muse in an epic struggle to bring forth the truth they know is deep inside them.  Well… if you’re into a romantic idealization of the writing profession then yes, that description fits perfectly.  In reality, the writer is [...]

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