The Escape Hatch

I mentioned last week that my friends and I shot a music video parody.  This past weekend, a few of us got most of the editing out of the way. It occurred to me that the process of film editing is quite a good analogy for what I’m trying to do with my life at [...]

I’m happy to announce that my interview with Jodi Womack is up at the Escape Hatcher site and also in itunes. I first met Jodi at Presentation Camp last year and haven’t ceased to be inspired by her yet.  She’s one of the kindest people I have met on this journey and I know her [...]

This is the second of a two-part post.  Last week’s post was titled “You Can’t Do It Yourself.”  Yeah, I suppose I can see the irony in that. But in reality, what I’m talking about isn’t as much at odds with my prior post as one might assume.  Last week, I talked about needing friends [...]

I was recently asked, as an exercise, to envision “a day in the life of me,” 10 years from now.  Sounds easy and fun, right?  It was meant to be.  But oh lordy was it difficult. My first instinct was to FREAK OUT.  I don’t know what I want!  I don’t know where I’ll want [...]

This is the first of a two-part post.  Next week’s post will be titled “Do It Yourself.”  Probably the first in a string of deliberately infuriating contradictions in which I take particular delight. Last week was the final round of the stand-up contest that I wrote about previously.  From an initial pool of about 70 [...]

I don’t write a lot of short stories or magazine articles – mainly novels.  So each time I put myself and my work out there, I’m basically putting a ton of eggs in a very small basket. It’s been a long time since I regularly submitted my writing for publication.  I’ve never been very good [...]

What is it about fear that has us running for the hills?  Hiding under the covers of mediocrity?  or drowning in a sea of unrealized potential? I think FDR was onto something when he said “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself”…when you really think about that its true!  Its the feeling [...]

Making decisions has always been tough for me.  I’m a very analytical person; I see all sides of a debate and I weigh my options thoroughly.  Whatever the decision is, I ask as many people as I can, I make pro and con lists, I can’t turn my brain off at night as it weighs [...]

I know what you’re thinking.  You can’t ‘make’ inspiration.  That goes against the very meaning of the word.  By definition, inspiration has to arrive organically and without design. Au contraire, mon ami. One week ago today (as of the writing of this post), I lay in bed for hours on end, my mind in a [...]

I had a breakthrough last week. I realized that I have a set of perceived limits, leading me to imagine what I can and cannot do. I know what is reasonable for me, being able to visualize myself already doing what I have planned. If my plan is to produce a certain amount of artwork [...]