📖Author 🎥Filmmaker 👨🏽💻Technologist
As I’ve started to tell people about my book, I’ve had to wrestle with how to describe it or classify it. While it is a personal story, I have fictionalized it in parts, so it’s not exactly a memoir. I describe it as an autobiographical novel, but how is that different from a memoir?
A few weeks ago, I met this amazing human, Priscila, who is also from El Salvador 🇸🇻 and is working at the summer camp I went to for 14 years. I’m not entirely sure why but there's something about knowing someone from El Salvador is working at camp that puts a huge smile on my face.
Something interesting happened a few months ago when I sat down to work on my book. After years of struggling, I felt like a "writer." I’ve realized that, when comes to identity, there is often a disconnect between the way others see us and the way we see ourselves.
As I’ve worked on my book, I’ve come to understand that spelling and grammar aren’t the same as writing. At the same time, I’ve gained a deep appreciation for the critical role they play in bringing a story to life.
For the majority of the time I spent working on my autobiographical novel, I never identified as a “writer.” In fact, I’ve had a somewhat contentious relationship with writing for most of my life. But writing the book has helped me overcome my weaknesses and has even led to a shift in my identity.
One of the most fascinating parts of Sebastian Junger’s fantastic book Tribeis when he describes how American Indian societies used rituals to help warriors deal with their traumatic wartime experiences. For me, these ceremonies hold the key to finding homecoming and belonging.
It’s easy to look at the celebrations at the end of stories and think they only exist to please the audience, but I’ve come to realize that these ceremonies serve a much deeper, and more important role in stories and our lives.
Just the other week I wrapped up coaching Ultimate Frisbee at a Beaver Country Day School. Coaching there is not only a lot of fun but is also deeply meaningful and plays a significant role in my book.
In my last post, I talked about selecting a Batman movie, The Dark Knight, as the masterwork for my autobiographical novel, Waking From Innocent Dreams. In this post, I will share a few ways that I incorporated this movie and the character of Batman into my book.
I was only 16 when I met my birth family and didn’t yet understand the long-lasting impact that event would have on my life. So, as I look back at the past 20 years or so, I think about what advice I might give my younger self.
When my editor first suggested using a Batman film as my masterwork, I was intrigued but unsure how I could incorporate it into my work. After all, what does the caped crusader have in common with a journey about getting to know my biological family?
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Dad appears to be lost in thought as he plans out our first day of spring vacation. He scratches his mostly gray beard while scrutinizing a map of local attractions. My brother Derek and I lean on the stone wall outside of the historic Banyan Guest House, waiting to receive the day’s instructions.
Utterly drained, frustrated, and still fuming, I dump my sports bag by the door and sit down at the kitchen table. I had just returned from my weekly Sunday pickup game of Ultimate Frisbee, where the yellow team had lost 13 to 15. Despite pouring every last bit of energy I had into the game, I
In the summer of 2019, when I started working with my editor, Rachelle Ramirez, one of our goals was to find a well-established novel, film, or any other story that I could use as a template to help ground my story.
Welcome to the first post in a series I’m calling "Beyond the Book," where I will give you a peak behind the curtain and provide you a window into my thought process of writing my autobiographical novel, Waking From Innocent Dreams.
I often get asked for advice on searching for your birth family, so I created this page to share all of the information I have on the subject.
It’s that time of the year again when we all set New Years Resolutions. I wanted to share a different approach to resolutions that works with your brain and doesn’t make you feel like a failure. I discovered this approach a few months ago and have a lot of success using it in my own life.
Throughout my life I have failed. I have failed so many times, in so many different ways. Often, it seemed like the things that I struggled with came so easily to others. There can be immense pressure to succeed. To live up to the expectations of others and ourselves. Whenever
These photos first appeared in print as part of the 2015 issue of The Misfit Anythogly. For the magazine I wrote: > My favorite type of pictures are ones that reflect the human spirit. I'm always trying to capture a moment in time that speaks to who we are as people.
