“All dads are scared of failing as a dad, scared about being on the wrong side of an adolescent who has the right to resent us. And make no bones about it: we’re very capable of ruining our relationships, of acting selfishly for long enough to keep us from connecting in any real way with our kids. But all dads also, at one point or another, feel pangs of that deep love, those real, sincere shots of care and hope for our kids that make us feel like we may be able to do this dad thing well after all.”

That’s a snippet from an upcoming book-ish thing I’m putting together. I really like this passage, but it needed to be cut for the sake of the chapter.

There’s that quote about writing and killing your “darlings”…

In a recent episode of WTF, Marc Maron says something to the effect of “considering it was an HBO special, I probably should have gone in there with better jokes.”

So the story is: he had an HBO special (a coveted thing) and he went in with no set, just fly by the seat of your pants Maron, angry, insightful, demons et. al.. The show was good, but he feels he should have cared a little more. (more…)

I’ve been trying to put together an introduction to a book I’m writing. I spent several hours on it, tightened it up, and totally thought I nailed it.

Then I pinged a writer friend of mine for his feedback, mostly expecting to impress him and receive some good encouragement.

I, of course, had not nailed it. His feedback was excellent, however, great stuff for anyone putting together an introductory essay/article, so I’m posting it here along with the original introduction I wrote. (more…)