Category Archives: work

Whiskey Tango Facebook

freespeech, internet, politics, work, writing Leave a comment

Apple CEO Tim Cook on Facebook data leak: Regulation is necessary (Yahoo! Finance) Part of the preparatory work I do as a teacher of college-level English is to make myself aware of the technological and pop culture elements of society that my students are likely to be aware of and use in their everyday lives. This process is known as gaining “cultural literacy,” and although it’s ultimately not as important in my preparation as knowledge of the intricacies of the English language, I’d argue that…

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Shades of Marketing

books, personal, work, writing Leave a comment

The art of grabbing the attention of agents and publishers to try to get your book published is not easy, and while a large part of me still wishes that I’d been able to get The Prostitutes of Lake Wiishkoban published “traditionally,” I can’t say that I miss  the rigmarole of emailing agencies and publishing houses all that much. In addition to dealing with a shrinking number of opportunities for traditional publication, trying to market a book to literary agencies and publishers is a process full of…

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It’s Not a War Zone

freespeech, politics, rhetoric, teaching, work Leave a comment

Trigger Warnings, Safe Spaces, And The College Mental Health Crisis Media Coverage Ignores (Media Matters for America) Officer in viral classroom takedown fired (All In with Chris Hayes) One of the main influences in both my teaching philosophy and teaching performance is the bad experiences I’ve had as a student  with horrible teachers and unscrupulous administrators. Although I had a number of advantages over the years that most people aren’t lucky enough to get, I also went through things that no human being — and…

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Trying to Start Adult Conversations

entertainment, politics, sex, toledo, work, writing Leave a comment

A quick story (with news) about The Prostitutes of Lake Wobegon to lead into this blog: One of the reasons I set up a Facebook page for the novel this early in the game was because I figured that after the announcement that I’d been shortlisted for the Dundee International Book Prize I figured that I needed to grab up domain names and usernames and such before anyone else grabbed them and “held them hostage” as it were. I finally got enough Likes to get a…

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Platform Shift

work, writing Leave a comment

These past few days after the announcement that my yet-to-be-published novel, The Prostitutes of Lake Wobegon, has been shortlisted for this year’s Dundee International Book Prize, have been strange to say the least. It’s hard to know just what to expect when something like this happens, but the course of events so far has been nothing like I could have predicted. To those of you who have sent me congratulations or compliments on the published excerpt, I thank you deeply. I want to take a…

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