DDWP Blog

On Reviewers, Series, and the Problem of Measuring a Story Mid-Sentence

Lately, I’ve been thinking about reviewers. Not in a defensive way, but in a reflective one. Specifically, about what it means to evaluate a single book that was never meant to be a finished statem...

Why the Morbid Name?

Death Do We Party! It’s perfect. It’s a wink to us. And it’s a vow to hold adventure and commitment in the highest regard. A brand born out of Mambo Taxis, wordplay, and a hope to never take oursel...

The Road Beneath the Road

When Erica gave me The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin for my birthday last year, it felt fated. I restarted West of Nowhere as a result of reading it, and the book met me exactly where ...

West of Nowhere: How Failure Became the Fuel

My twenties were a dark time, man. I always felt like a failure. Not because I wasn’t trying—but because every path I tried felt like a detour from who I wanted to be. My parents cared about gettin...

Bleeding Stories & Building Worlds: Why I Had to Write West of Nowhere

When I don’t write, I grow moody, restless, half-starved. Stories gnaw at me until I let them out. It’s like carrying a storm in your chest. You can hold it, but eventually it cracks the sky. Writi...

How the Hell Did We Get Here + the New Tools of #IndieLit

  Let’s be clear—we didn’t start this journey at a writing retreat sipping pinot & talking about our “process”. We started by reminiscing and goating each other about forgotten Word docs, and b...

Why I Revisited The Daisy Chain

I didn’t want to do it. Revisiting The Daisy Chain felt like moving back in with an ex. Brutal, messy, and full of ghosts. But sometimes the stories we think we’re finished with… aren’t finished wi...

How I Write from Inside the Circus: My Love Letter to Chaos, Graveyards, & Yesteryear

Some people “find time” to write. I wrestle it out of the jaws of a flaming, boy-and-pug-scented circus. Between three sons staging sword battles, a husband asking for edits mid-dinner, and the wei...