Now, before I start roasting these Boomers, I want to say—I don’t think the Baby Boomers are bad people. My parents are Baby Boomers and they’re the best people. …

Key Learnings and Lessons From Successfully Getting My First Book Out Into The World (Numbers 9–16 with Screenshots and Links) — For steps 1–8, check out Part 1 here! 9. Choosing your Kindle categories The prevailing logic and common advice when it comes to categories and self-published authors is to go as niche as possible. As you can see above, my friend Ali’s book about her trajectory from gymnastics to dance to becoming a therapist ranks pretty high in some rather interesting categories.

Key Learnings and Lessons From Successfully Getting My First Book Out Into The World (Numbers 1–8 with Screenshots and Links) — In the past month, I’ve had two different friends reach out to ask about the process of self-publishing. The first was, let’s call him Bill (he didn’t want me to use his real name for this piece), a fellow ex-pat living in the same beach town as me in Mexico. …

Dark Matter, Your Future Self, and Finding the Motivation to Write Without an Audience, Advance, or Deadline. — A few weeks back I was taking my pup, Rue Billy, on our daily sunset jog. That evening I happened to be listening to a Podcast that I was just turned on to by a friend. …

The original text is in bold, followed by an extended explanation. — Many of my favorite stoned or random thoughts made it into my first book, a memoir about my first four years of solo backpacking across four continents. For the past five years—no matter where I was in the world—if I had a fresh idea, new realization, or clever phrasing pop…

A Story from One Saturday Afternoon On the Coast of Oaxaca — This past Saturday I was working under the afternoon sun in my favorite place, El Puerecito, 30 minutes east on the coastal highway from my home in Puerto Escondido. For some reason, something felt a little off. Not wrong, just incomplete. I was sweaty and dirty but still slightly restless…

The 10 Best Books I’ve Read Over the Past Two Years — I read on my kindle every single day. I rent ebooks to my kindle from a library back in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where I grew up. If you don’t know this hack, I explain how it works and how much it’s saved over the past ten years of traveling and living…

You don’t know what you don’t know, and I didn’t know these four things before first leaving The States over a decade ago. — I remember what it was like. I remember the swirling worry and anxiety before my first big, unplanned, open-ended, international adventure. I flew into Aruba, a small island just above Colombia’s northern coast, without even having a bed booked for that first night. I leaned into serendipity and started to…

I Don’t Love Every Memoir I Read, But These Six (Well, Seven) Are Undeniably Special — You don’t have to read them. You don’t have to read this—you can do whatever you want—you’re an adult! Go get some ice cream! But, if you’re a book lover, I highly recommend these six recent memoirs below. They all achieve the goal of bringing you behind the curtain to…