Blog
WRITING
The 15-month Plan That Sold 10 Million Books (And Why Your ‘Wing It’ Strategy Isn’t Working
Here's what I love about James Clear's Atomic Habits success story: it completely destroys the romantic myth that great books just "find their audience." You know, that fairy tale where you write something brilliant in your mountainside cabin, send it to a publisher,...
We accidentally created a bestseller (and now everyone’s having an identity crisis)
Last week, The Wisdom Collection went live on Amazon. Within 48 hours, it blew the top off the platform in ways that surprised even me—and I'm not easily surprised when it comes to book launches. In fact, I'm kind of jaded. First, we hit bestseller in a couple of...
Why I’m revising a book I already wrote (and what it taught me about the writing game)
Eleven years ago, I published How to Eat the Elephant: Build Your Book in Bite-Sized Steps. It was solid advice that helped hundreds of writers complete their manuscripts. But here's the thing about the writing and publishing world: it doesn't stand still while you're...
From bulletin boards to Bloomberg
Back in the day, I ran a local writers' workshop with a couple of fabulous partners. We started this business on something of a lark. The three of us had spoken to a friend's college classroom about the benefits of starting or joining a writing group after graduation...
READING
From bulletin boards to Bloomberg
Back in the day, I ran a local writers' workshop with a couple of fabulous partners. We started this business on something of a lark. The three of us had spoken to a friend's college classroom about the benefits of starting or joining a writing group after graduation...
If you don’t know me, this will sum me up
Several years back, I had the privilege of being interviewed by Denise Brown for a column she writes in the North Star Monthly, a New Hampshire publication. I thought I might share an excerpt of it with you here. It’ll give you some of my philosophy and background,...
Haters are going to hate
I was 26 the first time I realized that what people thought about me had more to do with them than with who I was/am as a person. Such an epiphany should have freed me; unfortunately, it didn't. When I’d first moved to Iran, I wanted two things more than...
Or you could just write an essay
When I was in grad school, I took an essay writing course. We were assigned an anthology called The Best American Essays, which still sits, all marked up with black ink, on my bookshelf. (If I could find a link, I'd put it here, but I can't.) In it, I discovered the...
LIFE
Dead men give great advice
Plato had it right when he said, “Those who tell the stories rule society.” In other words, if you want to get ahead--and ahead does not mean taking over Greenland--you need to open your mouth and share your experiences. A piece of advice I took to heart early on in...
Momento Mori
I was doom scrolling on Instagram when I came across a Ryan Holiday post about his 2022 book, Discipline Is Destiny. In it he writes, “To procrastinate is to be entitled. It is arrogant. It assumes there will be a later. It assumes you’ll have the discipline to get to...
The typical death march
One Saturday several years ago, Walt and I decided to hike the Grand Canyon. We went down the South Kaibab trail to the bottom, meandered along the banks of the Colorado River, then headed back up to the top along the Bright Angel trail. It’s a pretty big day: roughly...
One of my inspirations for writing
When I first started writing, and we’re talking twenty plus years ago, I wasn’t the least bit interested in establishing myself as any kind of expert or to attract ideal clients. I simply wanted to better understand a complicated chapter in my life. To figure out what...
Check out my book
Straight-talking, funny and brutally honest, How To Eat The Elephant will give you–yes, you–the push you need to haul your ass off the sofa and position it in front of your computer long enough to produce a real, live book.
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