About

Making Awesome, Fun Fiction Again

About Me

They say life doesn’t go to plan and while this is true, it’s especially true when you keep changing the plan. That’s what I did for the longest time. People usually insert a phrase like, “I’ve worn lots of hats” in these things. Some of my jobs actually required hats: working in an oil refinery required a hardhat, working as a chef allowed one of those floppy chef’s hats (or a hair net if you wanted to feel like a lunch lady).

I don’t want to die young with a beautiful corpse — I want to die old with a full obituary.

Life isn’t just about fiction, though story-telling is my passion. We can’t ignore the world of politics, and we can’t walk away from what it means to be a man. It’s an eternal question asked across many cultures. I don’t have the right answer for you, but I do have years of experience asking the question and seeking the advice and wisdom of others. This blog is an outlet for that, for my thoughts and concerns.

I’m not made of stone, so my opinions change — as I learn, as the world changes around me. As a young man I would have called myself conservative, then libertarian. Now I don’t even want to try finding a label: I want the government to do what is best for the citizens and as efficiently as possible, with as little interference as possible. Each political group will claim that as their own goal.

About This Site

To be brief: this site exists to showcase my work, to discuss media that entertains me (from games to books to movies), to discuss news and political stories that catch my attention, and to detail aspects of the mindset I have about life and the finer sides of that — notably, cigars, whiskey, and Legs.

About The Fiction

My primary brand of fiction is Cigars and Legs — detective stories, human stories, whodunnits with a hardboiled hero and a leggy dame. But as I enjoy many genres I also write in others. The Sword of Nalin series started first, though — these are the first novels I finished, in a totally different style. I grew up a big fantasy fan. Right now it stands as a completed trilogy but I’ve got notes going forward and backward from the trilogy. I also have other stories and series in the works.

As with all pursuits, time is the second greatest obstacle after myself.

Cigars and Legs is Hardboiled

Cigars and Legs is a series of adventurous, hardboiled detective novels.

The protagonist is a masculine, never-say-die natural leader with a skillset that doesn’t always match the case. He overcomes his flaws and the obstacles before him by never quitting — because a man is never defeated, he quits or he is killed.

This is what we all aspire to be.

Cigars and Legs is Balance

Cigars are a classy hobby associated with masculinity.

Legs, in this case, are the feminine variety.

The two aren’t opposites: they’re parts of a whole that are improved by the other.

Cigars and Legs is about fun

At some point it became “in” for fiction to be dreary and tedious. I went years without reading fiction for entertainment because of that. Things were formulaic in a bad way — predictable, unfulfilling. It even seeped into my own writing, and I caught myself more focused on building the scenery than telling the story.

That’s not fun. Hardboiled or not, there’s fun in Cigars and Legs — and everything else I write. This is meant to be entertainment more than a lecture, approachable without knowing all the tropes.

If I’m not going to talk about my work, I’m going to be promoting other fiction I find entertaining, fun — readable. Books that grab you by the throat and don’t let go. Books that don’t treat the reader like a student, or an idiot, or someone in need of a lesson.

Cigars and Legs is a Lifestyle

Picture this: sitting on a porch, beautiful day, a fine cigar, and a leggy, gorgeous woman for company. Sounds like a great afternoon to me. Calm and introspective, away from the stress of the world. That’s the perfect scenario. But life doesn’t allow that without getting there first. So we have to adapt, find our moments elsewhere. Seek joy in what we do, and do it well.

I’m not a lifestyle blogger, but I have my own ideas about how to spend an afternoon.