Doors to the Stars Sample Chapter
Sixteen-year-old Wulan has weeks to live. Radiation poisoning from her last salvage run is killing her, and the only thing that might save her is selling the ancient Forger disk she found in the wreck—alien biotech that hums with her dead mother’s lullaby. When a double-cross gets her best friend ki
Men Aren’t Eggs: A Love Letter to the Westmark Trilogy
Lloyd Alexander’s Westmark trilogy won the 1982 National Book Award, yet his Prydain series has 240,000 Goodreads ratings while Westmark has just 10,900—a 22-to-1 disparity. I’m a veteran who writes about war’s moral costs, and Alexander’s trilogy shaped how I understand justified violence and polit
Colonial Violence and the Monstrous Other
I’m honored to host Dr. Imani Okonkwo’s powerful analysis of Where the Wild Things Are today. What generations have celebrated as imaginative children’s literature, Dr. Okonkwo reveals as “a primer in colonial logic” that normalizes white supremacy and imperial violence. From Max’s appropriative wol
Modern YA Is Failing Teenagers—I’m Stealing it Back
I queried *Doors to the Stars* to over two dozen agents. Zero full manuscript requests. My 11-year-old daughter stayed up all night devouring it. My 19-year-old son texted me at 2 AM about plot twists. But publishing professionals? Not interested. The book features a 16-year-old scavenger who discov
You Can’t Vote Democrat and be a Good Christian?
I’m a veteran, pro-Second Amendment Catholic who’s voted Republican most of my life. Christians have quoted Scripture to condemn my interracial marriage as “white genocide.” Now they quote the same verses at my gay son. When someone says “you can’t vote Democrat and be a good Christian,” I hear the
Eco-Marxism for Toddlers
Today I’m thrilled to host Chad Pemberton from The Pemberton Principle podcast for his devastating takedown of The Lorax. What most people see as a charming environmental tale, Chad reveals as “the most successful piece of anti-capitalist propaganda ever produced.” From the demonization of the Once-
Behold the Field in Which I Grow My Readership and See That it is Barren
I spent years building a Twitter following of thousands. The analytics tell a different story: roughly 200 people see my writing content, maybe 15 engage, and statistically nobody shares it. That’s not a platform—that’s a Discord server. Worse, the algorithm has pigeonholed me based on what gets eng
Wanted: Advance Readers for Doors to the Stars
The artifact is changing her. Everyone who wants it wants to own her. Sixteen-year-old Wulan was dying on a scavenged world until she found an ancient Forger relic humming with alien intelligence. Now the regime hunts her, revolutionaries need her as a weapon, and a smuggler crew just saved her life
Google Can’t Find Your Substack (and Neither Can Anyone Else)
After fifteen weeks on Substack, I’ve got little over a hundred subscribers and some hard data about what doesn’t work. Google can’t index your content. Twitter censors your links. The platform’s discovery algorithm favors paid newsletters, leaving free publications invisible. I tried everything—Sea
I Think I Can, Therefore I Oppress
This weekend, I’m honored to host Dr. K. N. Rosenberg-Chen (Evergreen State College, Gender Studies) for a searing takedown of The Little Engine That Could. What you thought was an innocent story about perseverance? Dr. Rosenberg-Chen reveals it as “bootstrap pedagogy for toddlers”—a masterclass in
