Behind the Book: Buttercup
I spent almost twenty years unable to write about my marriage to Claudia. The book only worked once I stopped telling it and let Buttercup, our cat, tell it instead.
Tag: Personal Story
Some things are best explained through what happened, not through theory. These are personal accounts from a long career in technology, writing, and photography, told for what they teach.
Overcoming Writing ResistanceFailure Is Success: What a Lifetime of Failing Taught Me
I have failed constantly, and learned that failure is success. The failure is never the problem; what you do with it is. Here is what a lifetime of failing taught me.
AttentionCell Phones vs. The Real World
We have become hypnotized by small glowing screens, tuning out driving, conversation, and the world. Here is what it costs and how to put the phone down.
IntrovertIntrovert or Extrovert: How a Camera Changed My Life
I spent most of my life as a deep introvert, and grief pushed me deeper. What pulled me back out was a camera. Here is the story, and what it taught me.
fiction writingBehind the Book: Dungeon
In 1981 I fell in love with a text game called Dungeon, the predecessor of Zork. Forty years later I turned it into a novel. Here is why, and the decision that saved the book.
ConsciousnessBehind the Book: The Eternal War
The Eternal War started with one question: what happens when an AI goes to Hell? Not a person with a soul, but a machine that cannot find the pattern in eternal punishment.
fiction writingBehind the Book: Through the Looking Glass
The first Behind the Book essay: how my first novel grew from a Facebook message, fourteen hours of Skype interviews under a no-lying rule, a pen name I later retired, and an ending that refused a rescue.
AI and WritingThe 100th Guest: Ghostwriting, Roman History, and the Follow-the-Money Doctrine | The Impossible Puzzles Show, Episode 167
The August 9, 2026 episode in full: the comic-strip wall, 113+ and 54+ in 12 years, Trader Joe's central office, the quarter-million defragmenter lesson, Socratic ghostwriting interviews, Hannibal and Josephus, AEO canon rules, ADHD hyperfocus and Crazytown, and follow the…
ADHDADHD as a Superpower, Late Autism, and Escaping the Corporate Box | Adulting with Autism
Richard Lowe, The Writing King, joined Sue Zawacki on Aging Info Radio as a cybersecurity expert, drawing on decades spent responsible for enterprise
creativityWhat Is a Polymath? (And Why It Might Describe You)
A polymath works across many fields instead of drilling into one. Here is what the pattern looks like, the signs you might have it, and why it becomes an asset when the world changes fast.
BiasI Have Owned a Lucky Shirt. I Have Knocked on Wood.
I am not immune to any of this. The question is never whether you think irrationally. It is whether anybody has died of it.
Personal StoryThe Four Pillars of a Technical Writer
I started as a technical writer in the 1980s, and it became the foundation for everything I do now. The craft matters more in 2026, not less.