Updates
Dispatches from
the query cycle.
Essays, radio spots, and television appearances as they run. One feed, mixed format — audio, video, and writing all fit the same card.
Essay · March 4, 2026
The chapter I couldn't write for three years.
Some pages you sit down to and stand up from. This one took two apartments, one editor, and a walk around Lake Michigan in February.
Read essay →On homelessness at seventeen, and what the city looked like at 2 a.m.
WBEZ Chicago · Morning Shift · 22 min
A conversation about the Metra stations, the Red Line, and how the memory of a locked door shapes the rest of a person's life.
Listen →The Coast Guard veteran writing about Egypt.
CBS Chicago · At Issue · 8 min segment
A short in-studio segment on the memoir's Egypt chapters and the postings that followed.
Watch →Selling a compliance firm at 66, publishing at 68.
Podcast · The Third Act · 48 min
On the pivot from Sarbanes-Oxley to memoir, and why he waited until the firm was sold before finishing the book.
Listen →The Coast Guard doesn't make heroes.
It makes people who show up. On the difference, and why the Distinguished Service Medal is on the shelf, not the wall.
Read →Manuscript is with three readers. Waiting.
A short update from the desk on the beta cycle and what's next in the query calendar.
Read →What memoir owes to the people in it.
A short piece on names, permissions, and the surprising number of former colleagues who ask to be included, not left out.
Read →