Earlier this month, for the first time in almost two years, I double-masked up and went to one of the two big chain movie theaters in downtown Seattle. And I want to be positive about rejoining life after lockdowns, but it was an objectively terrible experience.Before the pandemic, I went to the movies a lot—roughly […]

First, and most importantly: If you live in Washington, have you voted yet? If you’re not in Washington, is there an election happening on Tuesday where you are? Please vote. I guarantee you that the person you hate most in the world is voting in this election. Don’t let their voice count more than yours. And […]

I want to call your attention to a letter that my friend Tim Lennon, director of LANGSTON, recently wrote to the Seattle City Council. Tim was responding to Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan’s surprise appointment of a director to Seattle’s Office of Arts and Culture—read more about that at Publicola—but even if you don’t live in Seattle I think you […]

I haven’t been posting on Twitter very much lately. Sometimes the news feels too terrible to comment on. Sometimes I feel like I have nothing original to say, or I’m just exhausted by the discourse. I’m also trying not to amplify bad takes, and some days all the takes are bad.  One thing I did […]

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 […]