The Song Came Out Wrong

I set out to write an angry song. The idea was a defiance anthem. When hard weather comes for you, you've got two options — you can be a candle the wind puts out, or you can be the thing the wind feeds until it's a firestorm nobody can stop. That was the whole concept, … Continue reading The Song Came Out Wrong

Out of Tune

Several years back, I had a tape recorder in the passenger seat. Not for anything important. Song ideas, mostly — I'd get a melody or a line while driving and reach over and hit record and sing it at the windshield. Later there was a little handheld one, and after that an MP3 recorder. Same habit, … Continue reading Out of Tune

Empty or Clear?

I've written something here every day since January 1st. The plan was operational. Capture the year while I was inside it — what I did, what worked, what the numbers said. A log. I'm a data guy; logging is a reflex. Somewhere around spring it stopped being a log. The entries got longer and quieter … Continue reading Empty or Clear?

The Rules Behind the Magic

I've been building a book about a detective who believes everything has a rational explanation, and I've dropped him into a world where magic is real on the first page. The detective is the Scarecrow. That's the joke underneath the whole thing — he isn't an outsider who wanders into Oz skeptical of it. He's … Continue reading The Rules Behind the Magic