[Before we get to this actual blog post, lemme say again thanks to everyone who signed up for First Look Access, and received an early look at the Foolscap videos and The Authentic Swing. Thank you for your comments, for taking part in the bundle offer and for your “ask me anything” questions. The Authentic Swing is up on the Black Irish Books store and Shawn and I are at work answering your questions. I’ll get the hour-long audio to your inbox ASAP. We had a great time on this one, despite the odd glitch here and there. Next time…

Does anyone beside me know who Jim Furyk is? Jim Furyk swinging his Authentic Swing Jim Furyk is a 16-time winner on the PGA tour, the 2003 U.S. Open champion—and possessor of the single weirdest, loopiest, most homemade swing on the planet. As I write this on Saturday, September 14th, Jim Furyk has just become the sixth golfer in history to shoot a 59 in PGA competition. He did it yesterday in the second round of the BMW Championship. Shooting a 59 in competition on the PGA tour is like Kobe Bryant scoring 81 points in an NBA game (which he…

First lemme thank everybody who has signed up for FIRST LOOK ACCESS and is following the Foolscap videos (#1 last week, #2 this week) and the introduction of The Authentic Swing (all only available through FIRST LOOK ACCESS). Wow, what a sentence. Totally incomprehensible to anyone who is not a regular reader of this blog. Thinking about this got me mulling how publishing has changed and how this blog has evolved over just the past four years. Here’s a bird’s-eye view: When I sit down to compose a Writing Wednesdays post, I open a folder in my MacBook titled “AFGHANISTAN.”…

It took me thirty years to get my first novel published. Along the way I wrote three other full-length novels (and about thirty screenplays), each of which took two years of full-time work and none of which made the cut. A few years ago I took those early book-attempts down from the shelf and looked them over, wondering if they might be worth resuscitating. Answer: arrrrggggh! They were not ready then, and they’re not ready now. What makes something ready for the Big Leagues? How long do we have to languish in the minors before we break through? What does it…