November 21st, 2023 It’s hard to keep loving someone who continually disappoints you and perpetually hurts you, no matter how deeply you love them. I wasn’t sure when to write this essay, but the holidays are here, and it’s that time of year so many of us are most disappointed and hurt. Early on inContinue reading “Detach w/ Love”
Tag Archives: Empathy
Flip: I Wish I Was Special
October 8th, 2023 Flip is, ultimately, about a sad, lonely boy. Liam is the opposite of my ego. He’s also the lyrics of a Radiohead song: kind of a creep, and kind of a weirdo. I’ve never had to personally differentiate myself from a character so much; I think it’s because Flip (and its sequels)Continue reading “Flip: I Wish I Was Special”
A History of Losing My Shirt
August 26th, 2023 “Hot like wasabi when I bust rhymesBig like LaAnn RimesBecause I’m all about value” – Ancient 1990’s proverb In recovery, I live by the mantra “Progress, not perfection”; as I study karate, I’ve learned that its true goal is “the perfection of character.” These are not mutually exclusive principles. I’m dealing withContinue reading “A History of Losing My Shirt”
The Weirdos, Part II: The Sketch
August 11th, 2023 I love Abigail “Axis” Coire — aka The Sketch, though she’s never referred to by that name in Volume I — so much, for so many reasons, but one of the strongest is her complexity. The irony of this is not lost on me, because she began as a single question: “Wouldn’tContinue reading “The Weirdos, Part II: The Sketch”
The Weirdos, Part I: The Flying Squirrel
August 7th, 2023 It’s no secret that Ashley Maypole, the main character of my comic The Flying Squirrel, is the Weirdo most like me. He’s an alcoholic comic book writer with Imposter Syndrome and an unhealthy obsession with squirrels. He has a son and a Boston Terrier and a best friend who looks a lotContinue reading “The Weirdos, Part I: The Flying Squirrel”
The Words I Needed Then
July 31st, 2023 Today is the last day of Brushfire month, which means I can shut up about it for a little while now. I tell people that I don’t write for an audience, and that is generally true; I don’t sit down and think of a target person, their age or gender or preferencesContinue reading “The Words I Needed Then”
Bad Brains + Bad Hearts
July 1st, 2023 The world lately has me feeling a kind of sick, and I’ve been having to remind myself of a lesson I learned early in sobriety. When I got better, my first instinct was to help everyone else get better, too. It’s not a bad instinct, but it’s a naïve one, and itContinue reading “Bad Brains + Bad Hearts”
Cold World: Communication & Understanding
June 20th, 2023 I was working at my first adult serving job when a woman sat down in my section and radically changed my perspective on people. Applebee’s was the catalyst for this revelation. See, I worked at Chili’s. And this woman wanted — nay, was compelled — to tell me about a terrible restaurantContinue reading “Cold World: Communication & Understanding”
Cold World: Faith & Spirituality
June 16th, 2023 “It’s not that I don’t believe in anything. I just haven’t found the thing that makes sense to me yet.” That’s how I usually answer the question of whether I’m religious or believe in God. The formal term is agnostic; I learned that the difference between being agnostic or atheist is thatContinue reading “Cold World: Faith & Spirituality”
Cold World: Loss & Grief
June 14th, 2023 Cold World was the first time I explored the loss of my mom in fiction. I do it here, on the internet, all the time. Your responses to that type of writing has ranged from “this is exactly how I feel, thank you for writing this” to “this makes me very uncomfortable,”Continue reading “Cold World: Loss & Grief”
The Den 