In Godblog, Dag hears about a young woman with cancer, the admin assistant of one of his regular corporate executive customers.  We don’t know his personal past experience with anyone with cancer, (though there is some).  Even though he hasn’t any apparent personal connection with this young woman, suddenly, the Hero of the Teeming Masses comes up with the [...]

There are a couple of things in Heathen and Grace’s fancy hotel brunch on Stewie’s dime that I cribbed from real life. 
The idea of items on the gourmet dessert buffet being the same cakes that the coffee shop served came from my first year university residence roommate.  Yes, I’ve been saving this one up for a [...]

First and foremost.  Apologies to anyone who has visited here (not the Russian spammers) and not found new content in what can only be described as an embarrassingly, and abysmally long time.  I resolve to be more diligent, if anyone hasn’t forgotten all about this space (and I don’t blame you if you have).
Secondly, for [...]

The corporate memos from BlackArts became part of the book out of frustration.  I was on a commuter train, with 45 minutes to kill.  I’d brought my laptop to work on Godblog and was determined to be disciplined about using this as writing time, and not just read.  I couldn’t get any purchase on an [...]

So, yeah, people will think this bit character is me.  It half-is and half-isn’t.  I did write a bunch of Godblog in coffee shops, soaking up atmosphere, and the smell of coffee in my clothes.  Which is ironic, because I don’t drink coffee, let alone triple espressos.
 When trying to think up some customers to populate [...]

Grace Rhoswen Dundonald is pretty fucking amazing.  All the good parts of her are inspired by a friend’s daughter.  Straight A student, beautiful, part-time model, basketball player, actress in school productions–all this are attributes of the real young lady.  I would tell my friend “She’s too good to be true!”  and “If I wrote her into [...]

One of the issues with being a writer is that people often mistakenly think you’ve written yourself into your works.  I’ve written many female characters, including some fiesty redheads that friends or family have thought were based on me.  In fact, six-foot, blond, single-parented, snowboarder Dag has more in common with me than any of them.
Dag sees [...]

That’s the purpose for this blog.  A window into the creative process that culminates in a novel.  I couldn’t possibly tell people how to write, I can only talk about how I write, and more specifically, what kinds of things inspire me to the point that I actually put something down on the page that harks back to [...]

Circumstances force a young snowboarder, Dag, based in Whistler to give up his sport and immediately find another way to live.  He embarks on two paths, the first, a subsistence job as a barista in a coffee mega-chain where he works hard to be a barista extraordinaire to boost his tips.  He also invents an [...]

Dag doesn’t know who he is any more.
Crapped out of his sport.   Reinvented himself on a dime.  Can do no
right by his best friend.  Can do no wrong by his girl roommate
(though he tries).  Pursued by the women he serves and the corporate
paranoia of his coffee overlords.  Baiting the world with his blog.
Dag’s brewing a [...]