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When One Decision Creates Seventeen More
I love indie publishing. But there is a lot that goes into indie publishing. Thanks for reading Do Some Damage! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. And I mean a lot. But I wouldn’t have it any other way. What People Think Indie Publishing is Like I get the impression that some people think indie publishing is easy. There’s a certain thought process I think folks have about us indie writers: we write the book, we put a cover on the file, and upload. Voilà! Move on to the next. Repeat. If only it were that easy. I think there’s also an impression that, with traditionally…
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Best Medicine Finds Its Charm in the Space Between Quirk and Heart
It’s been a long time since a TV show has charmed me. I use that word to describe “Best Medicine,” an American TV show inspired by and semi-based on the BBC TV show “Doc Martin.” The Fox TV show stars Josh Charles as Dr. Martin Best, a brilliant surgeon in Boston who has developed a blood phobia after operating on a young girl that resembles his long-dead sister. He makes his way to Port Wenn, a small fishing town in Maine where he summered as a kid and which recently lost its longtime town doctor. Hang on, you might be saying. That’s a pretty grim origin story for a show…
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Chicago 18 at 40
For any fan, there is always the first, that one special album, and Chicago 18 is the one for me. My Journey to Chicago 18 I was introduced to Chicago by my friend, Chris, in the summer of 1985 when he loaned me a cassette copy of Chicago IX with the memorable phrase “You’ll probably know half the songs and like the rest.” Well, I knew none of the tunes, but fell in love with the band on first listen. What came next was obvious: I started collecting Chicago albums. Chicago 17 was the obvious next choice as it was ending its year-long run on the charts. Chicago 16, featuring…
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The Person Who Bought the Book Isn’t Always the Person Who Reads It
I thought I was choosing an ereader. I was really deciding who I wanted to support. Tell me if you can relate: You’re at a bookstore. The smell of coffee drifts from the cafe. Fellow readers huddle around the shelves, quietly murmuring with each other. A kid laughs. You look at the brand-new books laid out on a table, their covers like siren calls. You pick up one with the best cover and read the description. Something in you clicks and then you create the fantasy: you imagine yourself reading it in your own home, maybe with tea in your favorite mug. Maybe you’re on the couch, feet curled under…
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Finding Magic at the Firehouse Theatre: Shrek: The Musical
When my son asked me to join him on a weekend trip, I knew I’d enjoy spending time with him. What I didn’t expect was one of the best nights of live theater I’ve ever experienced. My son and I took a trip from Houston to Dallas over the weekend mainly to get out of town for a couple of days, do some shopping, and meet up with some of his friends. My job was to book the hotel and, strangely, pick up a pair of tickets for “Shrek: The Musical” at the Firehouse Theatre. When I asked my son why the play, his answer was simple: “Dominic’s in the…
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Remembering Walter Parazaider, the Man Who Dreamed of a Rock Band with Horns
Walter Parazaider, the woodwind player from the band Chicago who passed away yesterday at age 81, was the first famous saxophone player I knew by name. As an only child, I had to discover music on my own. It wasn’t until 1985 that I learned that there was a rock and roll band with horns (Walt’s dream) but after I did, there was no turning back. Chicago vaulted to the top of my all-time favorites list and remains one of my top two bands of all time. And it all began with a question. Discovering Chicago and Walt When kids pick up an instrument and learn it, many have established…
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What Happened After I Said Yes
The Rewards of Leaning into Fear: How three weeks, a borrowed saxophone, and a terrifying invitation reminded me that growth still begins with “yes.”
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The Writer Waiting on the Other Side
Have you ever actually felt the Muse alive in you as you’re writing? Last week, I actually did, and I realized it nearly in real time. Let me explain. “Remember, a Jedi can feel the Force flowing through him.” Those are the words Ben Kenobi tells young Luke Skywalker forty-nine years ago (in this galaxy) about the mysterious energy field that surrounds, penetrates, and binds the galaxy together. We creative types know our version of the Force. It’s the Muse. She’s there to help us create something from nothing, guiding us through our creative blocks and drawing on lessons from the past to make the best possible thing at the…
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104 Days to Make Something Real
Reframing Summer as the Season for Creating Instead of Coasting Veteran writer Dean Wesley Smith dubs the summer months the Time of the Great Forgetting. It’s that point in the year when the good intentions of New Year’s Resolutions made in the depths of winter fall by the wayside in the bright light of hot summer days when the pull to do just about anything other than write draws writers away from their keyboards. It’s only in later summer and early fall when writers remember their annual goals and either charge full-stream ahead and barrel to the end of the year, desperately hoping to achieve their milestones, or just give…
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May 1: My Writing New Year
Every May 1, I give myself permission to start over—without pretending I haven’t been here before. Thirteen years ago today, I made a resolution to write more stories, and I was going to begin with the image in my head: a man in a fedora, knocking on a door, and bullets ripping through the wood. That idea became my first published novel, Wading Into War. Every May, I come back to that decision and take stock of the work. I call it my Writer’s New Year’s Day. Some years are good. Others aren’t. But on May 1, I reflect, reset if necessary, and keep going. In past years, I laid…