Please don’t blame Jeremy Piven.

Here’s a piece of news that will annoy some and delight others.
I’ve been writing this blog since March, sticking to it pretty diligently, as a matter of fact, and attracting quite a few regular followers along the way. Thanks, everyone, for that. Although I secretly wish we’d soared into hundreds of thousands of hits each day – [...]

Once, but never again.

In case you’re wondering, the book-reading went horribly. I was like an eight-year old self-consciously reciting nursery rhymes in front of class. Four people walked out. The rest was a stony silence. Shuffling feet. Pitying stares. Embarrassed coughs. 
I read the funniest bits too. At one point I thought maybe no-one in the room spoke English, because not [...]

Panic, anxiety, fear, sweating – and fun.

No blog today. I agreed to do a book reading tonight at the Skylight Bookstore here in Los Angeles, therefore it’s imperative that I spend the day panicking. Pick which bits to read, rehearse them, change mind about which bits to read, rehearse those instead, pace up and down, take Advil, regret saying yes to [...]

The Fifty Buck Challenge.

I had a fabulous idea. I’m calling it The Fifty Buck Challenge.
Those of us who are lucky enough to not only work regularly, but who actually love what we do, never really have to ask ourselves the one question that troubles so many other people:
How hard is it to make money?
In our neighborhood, we have four guys sleeping [...]

I wrote this. (Not really.)

Something funny.
I have a wonderful, but alarmed friend. Not long ago she forwarded to me an email that showed very vividly how American society can only function on a daily basis because of socialistic principles. Very clever and intriguing. So I posted it here on the blog. 
Well, since then, many other blogs have linked to [...]

Oh look: an author making an idiot of himself.

An alarming thing will happen at the end of this week.
Alarming for me, anyway. I’m making a public appearance. Something I never do. But what other choice is there?
Here’s the thing. One of the many duties you have as an author is to publicize your books. The principle behind this rather antiquated idea apparently being [...]

P.S.

This is a post script to an entry I wrote over the weekend. I’ll keep it brief.
My father replied to my birthday wishes!
Oh sure, the message was terse and unsigned, contained no indications of affection or love, and was a masterpiece of self-restraint at only eight words. But you’re missing the point.
It was also pleasant, featured no booby-traps or  bitter [...]

The Invisible Man Returns?

It was my father’s birthday this weekend.
I have no idea where he is or what he’s doing. To tell you the truth, I don’t even know if he’s still alive, though intuition tells me he is. Still playing golf. Still drinking with his buddies in the village pub. Still doing his card tricks. For that reason, when [...]

“I slept on nails!” Victim speaks out.

Last night I slept on a bed of nails. So you’ll forgive me if I keep this short.
I’d read in a yoga magazine about this thing called the Shaktimat, which is a sort of bath-towel with spikes sticking out of it, based on the old bed of nails used by Indian mystics in fairy-tales. And straight [...]

Of poop and pencils.

Today, let’s play catch-up. There are several loose ends that need tying up, and, since this is my blog, it falls to me to tie them.
1) Raw Food Diet.  
Can you believe it? It’s been over ten weeks since you got tired of me talking about my switch to 100% raw food and asked me [...]