Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
The Boundless Open Sea is my second full length work of non-fiction. I have over a half dozen academic journal articles published, book reviews, and manuscripts lying in wait for the right publisher!
My story, hmm…you can learn a lot from someone by reading their autobiography. But, I have had ups and downs which led to a book on ‘suffering’ called, The Boundless Open Sea~ ha!
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
Boundless Open Sea was inspired by a lifetime of passionately reading literature, eastern and western philosophy, life struggles with depression, grief, failure in field after field, burning out, washing out, falling out of society, and then finally plunking down, finding meditation, putting pen to paper and voila!
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
Daydreaming while washing the dishes, mowing the lawn, driving to work, taking out the garbage, driving the kids to dance lessons are usually the exact time when my best ideas arise. 99.9% of the time there is neither pad nor paper, nor pen nor pencil around to jot down the ideas. They simmer in my mind. Sometimes for hours. Until late at night. When the day grows dark. I flip open my laptop. Add a few choice sentences to the meandering manuscript. Like building a house made of legos I add sentences, one piece at a time until the edifice is complete.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Jesus and Einstein. No, seriously, too many to mention. David Foster Wallace is my latest fixation. Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, the Buddha, Slavoj Zizek, Alain Badiou, Nishida Kitaro.
What are you working on now?
A strange set of ‘dump file’ quotations with the working title “Soft Screams in Exile” – sort of a meandering set of life-lessons, axioms, tweet-sized philosophical insights. Fortune cookies spread out to make a book. Its a bit, how shall I say this, batshit crazy, much like life itself. At times the book reads like a drunkard homeless man swinging from a chandelier with no pants on as the mad hatters ball goes on beneath.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Beats the s’it out of me? No clue. Zero help on this, its all a mystery to me.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
No. Go into widget producing fields perhaps. STEM degrees are big these days.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
The world needs ditch diggers too.
What are you reading now?
Kazuo Ishiguro’s Remains of the Day
What’s next for you as a writer?
Plug out a few books. Wanted to squeeze out a few more kids but that’s unlikely at this point. Go to Tim Hortons and hope I sell a book to pay for the cup of coffee.
Seriously, I am working on a series of modules to help people deal with stress through the practice of meditation.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Letters in a Bottle by Celan, no seriously? Um, something really long that you can get some re-reading mileage out of, Donald Trump’s Twitter Account, Georges Perec’s Life a User’s Manual, the Pali Canon, and probably oh, there was that book Sailing Alone Around the World by Jonathan Slocum (does he describe how to make a sailboat? may come in handy on a desert island)
Author Websites and Profiles
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