Stranger Than (Science) Fiction

July 15th, 2022

I know y’all have strong opinions on modern television sci-fi: some of you are Star Trek obsessives, some of you still won’t stop talking about The Expanse, some of you say sci-fi hasn’t been good in decades (and are a delight on the internet).

For me and my money, nothing beats the one-two punch of The Orville and Solar Opposites.

The first punch is the disarming humor. The second is the best and brightest ideas in science fiction brought to dazzling life.

Fiction is only as good as the reality it reflects. These shows know that, and expand on hot-button topics in ways that give them distance, perspective and clarity. I always find myself inspired and, more often than not, incredibly moved by the time the end credits roll.

Anyway, this is my sci-fi stan post. Please feel free to gush about your favorite sci-fi shows, too. This is a gate-free zone (but not necessarily a Stargate-free one).

P.S. Yes, among my many costumes, I actually own an Orville uniform. I fell in love with the show at the start of the pandemic and it was a lockdown buy.

P.P.S. Yes, this is a real Pupa. I don’t know what I’m supposed to feed it but it eats literally everything.

a squirrel, a reality star, and my addiction

July 14th, 2022

If you know me even a little, you know that I think pop culture is important, and that I use it to make sense of our existence.

The following is an ambitious use of popular culture to explain behavior that is not popular at all, but I really hope you’ll follow.

I’ve been very adamant that my book, Brushfire, is for all ages. Yes, it’s for kids; but yes, it’s for adults. At its best, it’s for both.

I have put pieces of myself in many of my characters, but Bay, a squirrel, is the most of me.

In a scene, he is ambushed by wildlife who want to see him. When asked about it by Erwin, he shrugs that adoration off:

“My father died when I was really young, so I think they just feel sorry for me.”

Bay’s self-esteem is so bad he can’t even accept that others would like him just for being him.

I only recently jumped on the Kardashian train.

The new Hulu series intrigued me, and since the end of the first installment, I’ve found myself Keeping Up with their past seasons.

Since the moment I met him, I hated Scott.

I don’t mean hate in a literal sense; I just found every aspect of him despicable. I cannot understand the family’s adoration for him; someone like Chloe, who I really respect, is constantly proclaiming her love for Scott.

And now I’ve found myself in the part of his story where he’s really fighting his demons.

And I get it.

Something I’ve learned is that, sometimes, when you hate someone, the thing you actually hate about them is the thing you hate about yourself.

And when I applied that logic, I suddenly found that I didn’t hate Scott. And I realized it wasn’t that I can’t understand how anyone could love him.

It’s that I can’t understand how anyone could love me.

Just like the squirrel.

And if you know what I’m talking about, then you know this post isn’t about pity. It’s about understanding.

That when I can recognize who the reality star is, and I can express that through the squirrel, I can pick up the broken pieces of myself and glue them, carefully, back into place.

Recognition and expression.

And some markers, glitter, and super glue.

Bubbles For Hedgehogs

July 11th, 2022

I’m sorry.

Lately I’ve been in self-promotion mode. (But, kids, we’re selling books, so it’s working.) I made the decision to release the two biggest books of my life within a month of each other; that is the bed I made, and I am stressfully, sleeplessly laying in it.

But I do miss writing about life stuff.

Though life stuff is so big right now.

When things feel massive, I tend to turn inward, squint into the darkness and see how everything small sparkles.

The tiniest things have meant the most over the past few months to me.

I recently learned that small things I did helped people I care about in ways I could have never imagined; small things are the things that stay rent-free in my mind as I find myself increasingly overwhelmed by the worldness of the world.

In the video game Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic cannot swim. When he enters a body of water, he sinks right to the bottom; I am not sure this is based on real hedgehog physiology.

Sonic also can’t breathe underwater; this part, I understand, is based on real hedgehog biology.

As he walks along the bottom of the screen, he comes upon small pockets of earth that release tiny bubbles. He’s able to breathe in these miniature bursts of air and not drown.

The small moments in life are those bubbles for me. The acts of unconditional kindness, of simple banter, of dumb jokes.

I don’t know where this planet or country or state or city is heading. I don’t even know where I’m heading.

But I know wherever I go, there will be bubbles along the way.

And I just have to remember to breathe them all in.

Thank You For Celebrating Brushfire With Me!

July 7th, 2022

Thank you so much to everyone who came out last night to celebrate the release of Brushfire!

I got to catch up with old friends and make some new ones, sending Brushfire out into the world along the way.

I’m starting to see the Kickstarter rewards arrive on your doorsteps, too, and that’s just super exciting.

As always, an extra special thank you to Issues Needed for hosting and being all-around rad people.

I’ll be taking it easy this summer until I announce the Fall 2022 Tour. Can’t wait to see you all again soon!

Brushfire News 07.05.22

July 5th, 2022

Do you live in the south metro and want your copy of Brushfire, like, RIGHT NOW?

You’re in luck! Our friends at Mind’s Eye Comics in Burnsville just received a personal shipment of my new one, and owner Eric was kind enough to put on his cool shades and model the book with me. (Shout out to my peeps Nora & Neal, too!)

Go say hi and tell ’em I sent you!

(And no, Brushfire is not a part of their incredible $1 issue sale, happening now!)

Tomorrow!

Yesterday, my all-ages graphic novel Brushfire was released into the world (and you can pick up your copy on my website or Amazon now!). Tomorrow, we celebrate it.

I’ll be at Issues Needed Comics in Apple Valley from 5 pm to close, selling and signing and talking and sharing.

I, of course, will also have treats.

I will always have treats.

So I hope you’ll treat us with your presence, and I’ll see you all really, really soon!

Happy Brushfourth of July

July 4th, 2022

“Brushfire exists to reveal and respect the truths of the universe, and to protect and provide for all of its inhabitants.”

I had to find a new way to celebrate the 4th of July, y’all.

For most of the people I know, freedom — religious, personal or otherwise — does not exist for them in a country that was earnestly founded on its promise.

I’m honestly waiting for the first unironic “Well, if you don’t like not having freedom, then get out of America!” comment.

Brushfire really ignited when I asked myself the question: what should a government be?

I asked the same question to several people I know, some of whom I generally agree with and some who I don’t.

Their answers varied wildly, except where they didn’t, and I eventually narrowed my answer down to the mission statement that every member of Brushfire has to memorize.

A way to live our best lives.

Not perfect, but always willing to learn and grow.

If you want to know more about Brushfire, I recommend watching the video I posted on Thursday, unless you’re allergic to feelings and boy tears.

All I’ll repeat is this: it is available today on my website & Amazon. I will release 1 new Wave for 3 years straight on the 4th of July.

It is one of the most personally meaningful stories I have ever created. I’ve never written a character who is closer to who I am than Bay the squirrel.

This is more of a Brushfire week; the Kickstarter packages will start going out on Monday, and I can’t wait for you to get them.

Absolutely all my love on this occasion.

Happy Brushfourth of July.

Brushfire Has Arrived

June 30th, 2022

BRUSHFIRE IS HERE!!

Please don’t watch this video. I cry in it and it’s super embarrassing for both of us.

But you have no idea how excited I am for this one.

Some key notes from the video you should know:

  • Both covers (regular and variant) arrived safe and sound this afternoon.
  • I will be working on shipping out the Kickstarter rewards to the fam this week.
  • On Amazon NOW: you can preorder the digital edition of Brushfire, or the Archive Edition in paperback and hardcover. What is the Archive Edition? Another dozen pages of bonus material: early sketches, concept art and promotional material. It’s really dope.
  • I will be at Issues Needed in Apple Valley on Wednesday, July 6th, at 5 pm to close, celebrating the release. I will have treats. You know what to do.
  • I am so sorry for crying in front of you, you guys.

There’s a lot more in the video, including insights on The Weirdos and what my mom has to do with all this. My fingers are all slippery from the tears so I have to go for now.

I am so many feelings right now.

All my love.

I Squish You

June 26th, 2022

Have you ever squished a bug?

I have.

When the world feels way too big to fix, my mind starts thinking small, and bugs are very small.

But they’re alive. They breathe and they eat and they think and they have families and they live lives.

And we squish them.

Wondering if bugs have souls is a stupid exercise. There is just as much evidence that bugs have souls as humans do: exactly zero. So if humans have souls, bugs do, too.

And we squish them.

And we tell all our friends and family that we’re “Pro-Life,” but we squish bugs. We tell them that life starts at conception, but we squish bugs that are fully born. We judge other people, and then we squish bugs.

And it doesn’t bother us. The murder. It doesn’t bother us to end those lives because, in reality, life doesn’t mean anything to us.

Life we can’t control, at least.

Don’t tell me you squish bugs to defend yourself.

“That mosquito might have malaria!”

That’s profiling. Nobody has ever asked a mosquito a single damn thing.

So we squish them.

Again and again and again and again.

We squish bugs.

And we pretend that life is precious.

the thing we ran away from

June 25th, 2022

This has been the most overwhelming week I can remember since my mom died, in ways both massive and personal.

I’ve been erring on the side of being too positive, too hopeful, but it’s been really hard. I’ve tried writing, again and again, any words to make the world make sense.

But they keep coming across as righteous, or spiteful, or divisive. Those are the tools of people who use fear.

So I only have a few words left after I cut those out.

I heard a woman talking about life right now and she said:

“I’m glad I’ll be dead soon.”

We have created a society that is both suicidal and homicidal.

We both want to die and kill everyone around us.

America was founded on freedom, especially religious; we are now dominated by a single one, populated by members with severe cognitive dissonance.

We have been America long enough to become the thing we ran from.

America has become its parents.

Definition of Soul

June 24th, 2022

“So you believe in a soul?” she asked.

“I do, but I have a complicated relationship with the word ‘soul’,” he said.

“Do tell,” she said.

“Well,” he started, “soul is a word that doesn’t actually mean anything. Like, if I say orange, you think of the color, or the fruit. It describes something that exists. There is no definitive measure of a soul, and everyone seems to have a different definition for it. And there are a lot of words like that. ‘God’. ‘Devil’. But if the words make you feel something when you hear them, they then become real themselves, because they have real effects.”

“I’m following, but this is a hell of rabbit hole we’re tumbling down,” she said.

“The problem is when we use words that don’t exist to affect things that do. For example, there would be no abortion debate if we didn’t believe in souls. We think that as soon as a sperm fertilizes an egg, a soul is put in there, too. That is the only reason we could think fetuses are fully realized human beings.”

Maya couldn’t believe this man thought this was flirting. He went on.

“Can you imagine if I took two pieces of thread, made two stitches with them and then told you that was a hat? That is not a hat, not any more than an egg/sperm collision is a human being that can think and feel and play the guitar.”

“So do you think abortion is murder?” she asked.

“Is it murder to pull the plug on a man who has no chance of ever recovering the use of his brain?” he asked in return. “A lot of people, myself included, think animals have souls, but don’t have a problem killing them. Is ending any life we consider to have a soul in any way murder?”

– excerpt from Cold World, pg. 67 & 68