There are no rules if you tell the right story.

Read More

My dad and I swap books all the time. We like the same authors, and as soon as one of us is done with a good book it gets handed over. I was lucky enough to receive an advance reading copy of Steven Pressfield’s next novel, THE PROFESSION. I couldn’t wait to get it. Not only am I a huge fan of Mr. Pressfield”s fiction and non-fiction (if you haven’t read THE WAR OF ART, do it today), I am working on a novel about private...

Read More

Steven Pressfield, Callie Oettinger, and Shawn Coyne are doing a fantastic job at Steven Pressfield Online, giving fans and friends a peek behind the curtain as they ramp up to the release of Steven’s next book, THE PROFESSION. Not only are they sharing the planning, execution, and results of the book’s publication campaign–they’re sharing the actual book. I am lucky enough to have an advance copy of THE PROFESSION, and...

Read More

The redline edits for Suckerpunch are done and the book is now in production. The next time I see it, it will be formatted as a paperback, which is very cool. The team at Medallion did a great job cleaning up the manuscript, and I learned a lot about what to do and what not to do going forward. When it comes down to choosing between what is grammatically correct and what sounds better on the page, I lean toward what sounds better. But if it...

Read More

In his remarkable must-read “The War of Art,” Steven Pressfield addresses The Supreme Virtue of artists: THE SUPREME VIRTUE Someone once asked the Spartan king Leonidas to identify the supreme warrior virtue from which all others flowed. He replied: “Contempt for death.” For us as artists, read “failure.” Contempt for failure is our cardinal virtue. By confining our attention territorially to our own...

Read More

I read this while on vacation in San Jose del Cabo, Mexico, and it was thrilling and a bit scary reading how the Baja Cartel owns resorts in, ah, Cabo. Even the pelicans started getting the stink eye from me. The story and characters pulled me in and fulfilled the key item on my checklist: I wanted some characters to live and some to die. All of the main players have to make some morally tough decisions, but Winslow does a masterful job of...

Read More