“Not only am I not yet finished with The MoonQuest (as I thought I was), its StarQuest sequel will take me eleven confused and frustrating years to complete. Not the book itself. The first draft!”
Read moreIt All Started with “The MoonQuest.” All of it…
I am still The MoonQuest story, just as I was that March evening in Toronto 30 years ago…the story of a bard who follows his heart and lets the tales that move through him reveal the way forward as he journeys on a quest to return story, imagination and vision to the land.
Read moreThe MoonQuest: A 30th Conception-iversary!
It is March 28, 2024 – thirty(!) years, more than twenty books, many thousands of miles and countless lifetimes since the moment of The MoonQuest’s conception. It’s hard to remember that Toronto writer who was so stressed by the loss of control The MoonQuest demanded of him. After all, when you have no idea what you’re writing from one word to the next, you have to surrender a hell of a lot of control!
Read moreA Different Kind of Independence Day
March 26, 1984: With my mother gone, all her hopes, fears and expectations for me were gone too. Suddenly, without being conscious of it or of what it meant, I was free.
Read moreAIDS Beyond Dec. 1
Although I am posting this memoir-excerpt-as-tribute on World AIDS Day, it's important to remember that AIDS/HIV is with us 365 days a year...and not only in the West and not only in the LGBTQ community .
Read moreHello, Yellow Brick Road! – Day 282 – 2023-09-21 – Afternoon
When at age twenty, a few months into my first job out of college, I announced that I was moving out, my mother announced that if I was going, my dog would have to go with me. Seven years of pee stains had been enough. She wanted her house back. (This story may appear to be unrelated to this Yellow Brick Road journey of mine. However, if you read through to the end, you'll see that it has everything to do with it!)
Read moreMy Top 10 Writing Tips (They’re Not Just for NaNoWriMo)!
Let these writing tips kindle and empower your creativity all year long, not only during November’s National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). And apply them to all your writing, whatever your form, media, subject or genre.
Read moreHello, Yellow Brick Road! – Day 263 – 2023-09-21 – Evening
It’s a scary, tightrope-walking way to write. It’s an ever scarier way to live. In both instances, however, at least in my experience to date, the results are always more wondrous, enriching and miraculous than any conscious mind could ever conjure up, because our conscious minds have access only to the visible portion of the iceberg.
Read moreYellow Brick Road! – Day 231 – 2023-09-16 / Morning
Sedona has kept me here just long enough to launch two extraordinary (and unanticipated) projects. Now, it’s time to move on. But where?
Read moreBirth of a Book
A year later in rural Nova Scotia, on the anniversary of that Toronto class, I complete the first draft of my first book — a novel I never planned to write, a novel I knew nothing about except as I wrote it word-by-word: The MoonQuest.
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