“I think your book The Stranger is underappreciated.” When a close friend told me that today, it gave me pause.Because I hadn’t really thought about it like that. I love The Stranger, and the people who read it tend to like it. One Amazon reviewer said:“I read it in one sitting. Highly recommend.” Another wrote:“The…
Category: parables
Old Shoeless
My brother has a funny nickname for one of the characters in my book Pillar Walker. The character is Shu Pho Pax, the storytelling pilgrim. My brother calls him “Old Shoeless,” because the “shoe” on your foot sounds the same as the “Shu” in his name… and because the pilgrim spends a lot of the…
The Sound of a Laughing Dragon
What does a laughing dragon sound like? I just found out for myself. I’m sitting here on the adventure couch where I finished recording the audio experience for my book PILLAR WALKER. (You can listen to the audio experience here.) In the story, the dragon Dinarzad is described as laughing or chuckling regularly at the…
The Wisdom of Waiting
Your message for today. I opened one of my books to a random page, and this is what came out. From “The Land of the Fey” in my post-apocalyptic cowboy adventure novella The Stranger: It was broody and dark in this forest. Muffled birdcalls echoed. Somewhere, they could smell a bog. Gerardo told them they…
Put Down the Knife: Why Fear Is a Terrible Motivator
Put down the knife. My book Parables is the story of a young thief who becomes a noble assassin in the service of an exiled prince. And from this noble assassin, I learned a lesson that I’ve carried with me ever since: “None of us can do our best when we are afraid of a…
The True Meaning of Friendship
Feel good now. And whatever it takes… Help one another. That’s one of the lessons I learned from the interdimensional space cowboy in my book, The Stranger. The book opens 5,000 years after the fall of human civilization, when the stranger comes walking into the frontier town of Josek. Alien forces have brought the civilizations…
The Bandit, the Oni & the Secret of Changing Your Story
Feel good now. “That’s a magnificent sword,” I said to the man with the sword. “I’m partial to it,” he admitted, squinting down the blade at me with a weather-faced grin. We were standing on a deserted stretch of road in the Tai Po forest between Kiori and Ad Bhajjan. The man with the sword…
Stepping Into the Unknown (And Feeling Good There Too)
Feel good now. Sometimes, that means doing what we already know. When we know ourselves well, we often think we know exactly how to make ourselves feel good. But sometimes, life asks us to step into the unknown —and learn how to make that feel good, too. This is a chapter from my book THE…
The Lesson I Learned From an Evil Sultan
I learned this lesson from an evil sultan. “Simple solutions can be highly effective. Don’t complicate things unnecessarily.” In my book Parables, the sultan of Duali had risen to his rank by overthrowing the previous royal family. With the help of a cult of sorcerers, he killed most of them and installed himself on the…
The Stranger, the Lizard, and the Secret of a Blissful Life
Life is precious. Feel good now. Let others do whatever they’re doing.Let the world be the way it is. Feel good now. And if you keep doing what feels good now, you’ll start to notice something magical: people and places around you get blessed simply because you passed that way. Here’s a moment from my…