I’m John. I’ve been a writer pretty much since I was a reader — and the first thing I read aloud (according to my braggy parents) was a headline about Nixon and the Vietnam War. I don’t remember much about that, but I’ve seen proof positive of my writing from the same time period. At least it looks like writing.

Anyway, flash forward a number of years … I kept doing something like writing, was made the editor of my high-school newspaper, and then I became a journalist. One of the old-fashioned ones, with one of those palm-sized, spiral-bound notebooks that said “REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK” on the cover. I talked to all sorts of interesting people, but after three years of being a journalist at daily newspapers, I left the life of a journalist behind. (For what it’s worth, I liked it and the old TV show “Lou Grant” turned out to be a pretty accurate representation of a newsroom.)

Instead, I moved back to California, set my mind to being part of the entertainment industry, then spent years working at companies like Disney, Lucasfilm and DreamWorks before starting my own entertainment PR consultancy. (Twenty extra points if you know what that means. Fifty extra points if you don’t care.) And then, about five years ago, just before that wonderful time known as The Pandemic, I decided to start exploring the kind of writing that always appealed to me the most: creative fiction.

After working at that for a while, I got an agent to represent me … and was certain all of my hopes and dreams would come true. Turns out, getting an agent doesn’t mean getting a publishing deal. I wrote two novels and some short stories, and got to thinking: We live in the age of “the creator.” (Not the one with the capital T and capital C … you know, the ones on YouTube and such.) Since my goal was to have people read and hopefully like my stories, not to make a million dollars — but, let’s be clear, I would never say no to that — I started this blog to share my writing.

If you happen to like it, I’d love to know. If you don't like it, I’d be interested in knowing that, too. Without sounding too needy, I hope you enjoy what I’ve been writing.