writer, photographer, web person from Washington, DC.
Check out my Pink Line Project review of Kerry Skarbakka, The Struggle to Right Oneself: A Survey. The photos really have a dark humor to them that I really enjoyed. They’re big prints of absurd scenes – like a man in a suit leaping through fire – that tell a story, of people surviving unexpected catastrophe.
Check out the great cover that my friend Dave Newman designed. I love it!
So, what’s going on with my book, Murder in Ocean Hall? In this murder mystery, a famous explorer is killed in Ocean Hall at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Suspects are many and it’s up to a cynical DC detective to solve the case. The book was inspired by the three years I spent working for the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research. Nobody was murdered while I worked there but a lot of the science and the background in the book comes from my time with NOAA.
I’m represented by a literary agent and we’ve been following the traditional publishing route. However, the book publishing world, upended by recession and technological change, is in turmoil so it’s very difficult for a new author to get a book deal.
My contract with my agent ends March 1.
After then, Plan B goes into effect – I’ll publish the book through Lulu (using the awesome cover above) and sell print and e-copies online.
One way or another, Murder in Ocean Hall will be published.
It’s the end of the year, and the end of a decade. What were my favorite projects of 2009? What did I have the most fun working on?
I can’t help myself, I like to write fiction. People have asked me how I could leave my job and then spend countless hours alone, in a coffee shop, writing a novel. I’ve offered advice on setting a schedule and being committed, but the truth is that writing a book is a huge sacrifice and something that you must really, really want to do. And something that you must enjoy doing more then anything else. Continue reading “2009 Highlights”
I’ve done another interview for the Pink Line Project, this time with Julianne Brienza, Executive Director of the Capital Fringe Festival.
I met Julianne several years ago, when Fringe was just starting out. It’s amazing and inspiring to see how far she’s come. Fringe is definitely something that way too serious DC needs. As she describes in the interview, Washington is very much a city on the rise in terms of the arts.
I’m going to be writing for the Pink Line Project. What’s Pink Line? Describing itself as “a catalyst for the culturally curious”, the site is a guide to DC’s art and cultural scene. If you’re looking to attend fun art parties in Washington, and learn more about the arts, it’s a great site to check out.
From watching rollergirls arm-wrestle to dodging skateboarders at a photo exhibit, I’ve enjoyed the Pink Line events immensely. It’s an unexpected side of stuffy Washington that’s much more interesting than some boring Capitol Hill cocktail party. Continue reading “Writing About Creativity for the Pink Line Project”
With the advent of the Barnes and Noble Nook e-reader and the growing acceptance of e-books among readers and writers, it’s safe to say that we’ve reached what I’d call the Disintermediation Moment. This is the time when industries collapse, driven by changes in consumer behavior and expectations. Technology offers new solutions, eagerly adopted by ordinary people, but resisted by middlemen and gatekeepers who want to retain their status, control and income. Continue reading “The Disintermediation Moment”
Under construction, this new against the flow bike lane will stretch down 15th St. from U St. to Massachusetts Av.
Go see the best of DC Shorts on Thursday night at E Street Cinema.
It was a great festival again. I’ve volunteered with DC Shorts for more than four years now and each year it gets better and better.
My personal favorite film in the festival was Funky Prairie Boy. It won the Diversity Award (presented by Verizon). This short Canadian film is about:
A young boy living in a small prairie town during the early 1980s, befriends the only black kid at his school and soon discovers the prejudice that exists within his friends, his family and even in himself.
It’s got the most well-developed story of all the films I saw at DC Shorts. The characters seem real, all of them a mix of good and bad impulses. The short film captures the awkwardness of children dealing with adult issues of race and prejudice. Yet, it’s not an afterschool special, where the plot is driven by social points to be made. Instead, it’s a messy and funny look at kids trying to be kids. While they’re trapped in a rigid world that they didn’t create, they just want to dance and hangout.
Continue reading “Funky Prairie Boy – My Favorite Film of DC Shorts”
Now in it’s sixth year, DC Shorts has been named by MovieMaker Magazine as “one of the nation’s leading short film festivals.” The festival features 100 films from across the country and around the world. What’s unique about DC Shorts is its focus on the filmmaker, many of whom will be in attendance this year.
I’ve been involved in DC Shorts almost since the beginning. I volunteered with Jon Gann, founder of the festival, and was a film judge for a couple years. Me and other volunteers watched and rated the hundreds of submissions that came in. We used a clever online system to do so. One key trait about DC Shorts is how professional and well organized it is, from top to bottom. Continue reading “Behind the Scenes at a Screenplay Reading”
Too much exposure to USAJOBS has really turned me cynical. Despite news reports on the need to recruit thousands of new employees, the main federal jobs site is a usability nightmare, unfathomable to even people who work on web sites, like me. While the site has few defenders, some have argued that it has to be that way, because it’s the government. Federal requirements dictate its complexity and difficulty.
There’s got to be another way! And there is. It’s the job site for the Congressional Budget Office. The site is a model of simplicity and common sense, where you can apply for a job in minutes, rather than hours. Let me spell out the differences between the CBO site and USAJOBS:
Why can’t the rest of government do this? The site is not complicated, in fact it looks like it was designed in the late 1990s. But it’s simple and easy for visitors. It’s oriented around their top tasks, as good government sites are supposed to.
Looking at this site, USAJOBS makes even less sense to me.
