The Mind of a Struggling Writer

He took the shoebox down from his closet. Lifting the cardboard lid he began rummaging through the contents. Sifting thought the old Boy Scouts scarf and badges, stubs from concert tickets, souvenir buttons, and other keepsakes he took each item out of the box and placed them on his bed. Finally he found what he was looking for. The leather sheath was falling apart with age, but he still smiled as he ran his thumb along the edge. Two Japanese military daggers were placed inside. The handles were blue with an ivory dragon on one and a bird on the other. One dagger had a chip in the blue  that covered the handles. He unsheathed the blades and looked at the steel. The blades had dulled over time and brown specks spotted the blades; he never knew if it was blood or rust. His uncle had given him the military blades when he was younger. They had belonged to his grandfather when he served in the Pacific during World War II. He had served as a cook for his unit. The story was that he h...

I got some great news this weekend. Last Summer I was to be part of a writing project called Game of Thrones and History . It was to be a book comparing the television show and the books on which it is based with real events in medieval history. I was chosen to be a contributing writer to a chapter dealing with feasts and tournaments.  I spent several months pouring through books and articles, as well as watching the show and reading through the book series. Everything was going good to meeting my December deadline. Then we got an email from out editor, telling us that we had lost our publisher. It was a huge blow to me, as not only was I going to get a decent little check for my writing, but I would be my first publication. But, we had hope that we may get another publisher to pick us up. I stated my continued commitment and hoped that we would have a new publisher by March. As the months went on, my hopes of still getting this chapter published started to dwindle. Several tim...

Los Angeles defiantly lives up to its reputation as a crazy town. All walks of life are there, many dreaming of becoming something bigger and better. Though only a few achieve their dream of seeing their name in the marquee still many flock to the city in hopes of fulfilling their dreams. My friend Jon was one of these people. Jon moved to LA not too long after high school with the ambition of becoming a great actor. He had the passion and drive, and had some talent at it. He even got a part as an extra in the film Coach Carter . If you know where to look in a few scenes you can even see him.  Though he never made it big, he stuck it out for several years and lived the life of a struggling actor and musician. One year I had the chance to go visit him for a week. It was defiantly not what I was expecting. The trip almost started on a bad note; my flight was going to be delayed due to some weather and I had to reschedule my flight for the next morning. On...

A while back I had a conversation with a former co-worker that made me very irritated as a writer. I work at a computer repair facility, which is deep in "nerd culture'. Which is fine, I get some of it. The problem with many of my co-workers is that they are in a state of arrested development. I'm talking about people in their late 20s/ early 30s who still talk about Pokemon. Not to mention many of them are fresh out of high school and still have that maturity level. But I digress. So we had a new girl employee that was working next to me. She was what you would imagine the stereotypical "nerdy-girl" to look like. Black rimmed glasses, a bit overweight; not traditionally attractive, but with a little effort she could be. We were making small talk as we worked, just kind of getting to know each other type stuff. Then she asked me something that I knew was going to be annoying. "So what is your geeky thing?" Now this bothered me on several levels. Fir...

Rickey and Bruce had big dreams. One day they would leave their hometown and be somebody. Ricky wanted to be a rock star. Bruce wanted to be a famous actor. They had the desire and the possibly the talent. They were missing just one thing, a shot. They never really gave up on the dream. Ricky floated around in a few bands playing guitar and singing. But nothing quite stuck. Right when everything was starting to go right, someone would quit or move on to another project. Ricky’s best shot came one night when his band was playing at the Taproom, a big local venue. One of his friends had uploaded a video to Youtube of one of the band’s shows. A representative from a small label saw it and liked what he heard. He promised to meet them at the show and see how they were live. Ricky could almost taste his victory. Fate intervened that night. The band got together at the show and were ready to set up. There was just one person missing; Dan their drummer. They frantically tried callin...