This is a Now page, inspired by Derek Sivers and nownownow.com.

As of Oct 18th, 2025

I am…

• in my third semester at Pacific U for an MFA in writing. It is fantastic, and I’ve met many like souls. It is also exhausting and time-consuming and I’ve written very little on The Ghost and the Mask. But I have a break coming up so will get more words in soon.
• writing a lot of other things: a new, epic fantasy, series, and some short stories, and an essay that kicked my ass because it was a much more difficult topic than I had anticipated.
• raising two wonderful kiddos, which saps the rest of my energy. But is 100% worth it for the joy, wonder, and love they bring.
• very concerned about the hate that is so rampant in America, horrified that we have a wannabe dictator in the white house and those in power are behaving like fascists, attacking free speech and their own people, that books are being banned in record numbers, that …. too many things.
• in need of more fantasy to escape into.
• troubled about the rising use of AI in all things creative. As Neil Clarke of Clarkesworld said at the Hugo Awards (which I attended for the first time this year), generative AI is theft. Period. It steals from real creators. It’s the only way it works. I do not use it for anything creative at any stage of my writing and never will.

Currently reading…

• To Save and to Destroy* by Viet Thanh Nguyen
• Craft in the Real World* by Matthew Salesses
• Your Fathers, Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever?* by Dave Eggers (I just started this today and only read a couple pages so far.)

Currently thinking about…

• race and othering in fantasy novels, about writing the other even when it is an other that I made up, about the parallels in fantasy to real world situations, whether intended or not.

*These are afilliate links. It doesn’t cost you any more to click on it and it might buy me a coffee someday. Coffee helps me write. So you are helping me write books by clicking on them. Thanks!