The Young Lawyer's Jungle Book

I was packing up some books the other day and came across this gem:

This book has some valuable insight on being an attorney, and was very helpful to me as I graduated from law school and began my career. I've had the opportunity to work for several firms, some small, others big.  The more I've been exposed to this profession, the more I've realized that it is all a song and dance and the people who get ahead are those who know the dance steps. This book outlines, rather well, the important steps one should take to succeed in this profession.  Of course it isn't some magical book that will do wonders for your career, and I don't feel that this book even purports to be such.  It is simply a well-written account of how to do well in this field.  It contains valuable insight on how to interact with people--tips and advice that I found helpful during internships and while interviewing with firms.  Of course there are other ways to get jobs and do well, but anyone interested in succeeding in the legal arena would do well to read this book.  In fact, I wish I had read this book before even starting law school because the song and dance begins long before you land a job.  Because of the honesty about attorneys and the field in general, the book will even help those who are on the fence about pursuing a legal career.

Highly recommended.  Click the picture to link to the book's Amazon page.

Also, posted the new chapter on over at the Campfire.  Enjoy!

An Ode to Autumn (Monarch: Chapter Two)

The air was cool and brisk, spiked with the faint smell of smoke from the fireplace – the kind of air you wait all summer for and miss when winter finally arrives. The leaves changed into a brilliant array of color, signaling the arrival of autumn. It was that time of year when jack-o’-lanterns started to make their first appearances. Ghosts, vampires and werewolves became a staple in any decoration. Apples were being harvested and made into pies that were set on windowsills to cool (you could smell the pie from a mile away). The apples that survived the pies were made into spicy apple cider and given to friends and family. It was autumn country.  

Read on for the next chapter of Monarch, posted at the Campfire!

Monarch: Chapter One

The next chapter of my serial novel, Monarch, has been posted on over at the Campfire. Click here to keep reading.

I remember working on this chapter like it was yesterday.  My oldest daughter had just been born and she would wake up during the night, as babies sometimes do.  Once I was awake, it would take me awhile to fall back to sleep, so I would write a few pages.  It was during the night, when our house was quiet, and it was just me and the story, that I fell in love with writing.  I would look forward to those quiet moments, when I would be whisked away into strange and exciting worlds.  Stories and the creation of stories had always been a part of my life, but it was while I wrote these pages that it became a passion.

What are some of your passions?  Share in the comments below!

Campfire Stories: Monarch (Prologue)

One of my favorite things is sitting around the campfire, sharing stories. Wood crackling, smoke wafting into the clear night sky, and the yellow and orange flames casting just enough light...  

Unfortunately, the opportunities to share stories around the campfire are few and far between, so I've created a new section to this website for just that reason. 

To share stories as if sitting around a campfire.  

Like campfire stories, these are raw. Unedited, unpolished, told in the moonlight and flicker of flames. The stories here are my B-Sides. The bits and pieces of fiction picked up from the cutting room floor.

The first project is a novel I wrote several years ago called Monarch.  It is a scary story about a monster in a small town.  It was my first attempt at a novel (and probably too ambitious, I'll admit), and I wrote it while in college.  It has sat on my shelf, unpublished, for all these years, but I still think its a good story.  

With this unpublished novel, I'm going to do a web series over the next couple of months, leading up to Halloween. Each Friday, I will post the next chapter.   

So pull up a log, or a rock, or sit in the grass and listen around the campfire. Here is the prologue for Monarch.