Here’s how fast feelings about the pandemic have changed in my peer group over the past month: About a month ago, I rented a karaoke room for the evening of July 31st. I figured a room for 15 people, max, would be enough, and I was looking forward to singing karaoke for three uninterrupted hours […]

I’ve been doing a lot of interviews for my comic Snelson: Comedy Is Dying this month. (You can read the first few pages of the book in a special preview over at Newsarama/GamesRadar.) I know some authors hate doing interviews, but I really like doing them. First of all, as I mentioned last month, I love talking about the amazing […]

To be totally honest, I hate promoting my own writing. Sometimes I literally cringe when I hit the retweet button on a tweet promoting a piece of mine. I’ve always had a hard time reconciling my love of writing with my discomfort with the idea of having been read. Don’t get me wrong—I’m incredibly grateful […]

I’m very excited to announce that the first issue of my second full-length comic book, Snelson: Comedy Is Dying, will be published by AHOY Comics this August. It’s a satirical comic book about a stand-up comedian named Melville Snelson who almost hit it big in the 1990s, but has been sinking into irrelevance—and bitterness—ever since. […]

I don’t mention it often, but one of my weirdest (and most fulfilling) gigs is that I sit on the nominating board for the Prowda Literary Champion Awards. It’s a pretty cushy position: Every January, I get together with the nominating board to discuss people and organizations that have done exceptional work benefitting Seattle’s literary […]

Those of you who followed me when I was active on Instagram know that I have a 7-year-old rescue greyhound named Oberon (Obie) who has delighted me for three years now. At the beginning of this year, we added a second greyhound to our home. Wallace (Wally) is fresh off the racetrack in Florida, which […]

I’ve Been Writing For the Seattle Times, I wrote about all the weird things your subconscious brain does when you walk into a bookstore for the first time, and why Seattle’s newest bookstore, Oh Hello Again, is designed to throw your subconscious brain for a loop: The philosophy for Oh Hello Again’s unique categorization was inspired, […]

Independent booksellers put a trusted human filter between you and the overwhelming flood of books that are published every week. After just a brief conversation, they can help you find the perfect novel to suit your mood, track down the perfect gift for that hard-to-buy-for relative, and introduce you to a writer who will literally […]

When the coronavirus pandemic started spreading across the country in the spring, nearly a quarter of all young workers — defined as ages 16 to 24 — lost their jobs, according to the Economic Policy Institute. One in four young people just starting out in the workforce had their futures put on hold indefinitely. And they’re […]

“One problem with gentrification is that it always gets worse,” writes Seattle author Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore in her new memoir, “The Freezer Door,” available Nov. 24. It’s a terse thesis statement for such an expansive, witty, perambulating book. In “The Freezer Door,” Sycamore wanders the streets of Seattle, searching for signs of humanity that have […]