Fish(er) Tales

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting! These posts will give you a better idea about what this site is about. Start here, then go here, and here, and then here.Larry Smith relates the absurd excuses people invent when they fail to pursue their passions. This is a funny and poignant TED talk.  

There’s never enough time to chase your artistic dreams, right? If you only had more time, you’d get so much more finished. But “more time” is misleading. We all get the same allotment each day. How you spend those hours is what separates those who accomplish more from those who only wish they could. Grab a piece of paper and write your most important need-to along the top (e.g....

Here are various tips, tricks, and more culled from the many chapters of my latest book, SOUNDTRACK SUCCESS : A Digital Storyteller’s Guide to Audio Post-Production (edited a bit for the blog). Production woes There are quite a few post-production fixes available, but your best defense is, as the saying often goes, a strong offense. Get high-quality sound to begin with, and half the battle is over. Picture...

I have this old bookmark. I don’t recall how I acquired it. But it is my favorite. I use it in the latest (generally) non-fiction book I’m reading. Right now it’s in Tom Peters’ “The Little BIG Things – 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence.” You should read this book. Everybody who is in business should. But I digress. My favorite bookmark is in pretty good shape...

Are you putting money toward your retirement nest egg? I hope so. The cost of your future years is getting more expensive for most of us because we live longer and are more active. Also, you may need to take on a greater portion of your retirement costs because fewer companies provide traditional pensions. Unfortunately, just about 57 percent of all workers are earning retirement benefits at work,...

Four is my favorite number (read here for why). And like what happens when you buy a new car, and you start seeing it everywhere, I always see four all around me (even when and where I never noticed it before). Generally, it’s safe to say, I see the number 4 in a lot of my life. Four instance (see?), the coolest page in a new book I’m reading is 44 (double 4 goodness!). I have four fingers...

If you’re like me, you look forward to the latest TED talks and their “ideas worth spreading.” The problem is there are so many of them. Who has the time to watch and ponder every single one? Not me. Unfortunately. Still I catch the ones that really pique my interest, and have even shared a few of my favs here and via Twitter and such. The latest TED talk I ran across today is amazingly...

The opening lines of a novel should really set the tone for the story to come. There are some great leads out there that always capture my attention. Some authors really know how to pull you in with just a few opening words.   There are tons of examples (as I’ve read hundreds of novels!). But my all-time favorite has always been the opening to Dashiell Hammett’s Red Harvest: “I first...