Here’s a confession: I’ve been a writer my entire professional career and I have never once written a blog. Well, that’s not exactly true. I’ve been hired to write blog posts for other people or companies. But I’ve never written one of my own.

Until now.

And I feel like it’s going…

...poorly.

But if you are still there, here’s my plan. The plan is to have no plan, and stick to it.

My point is, I started to construct a “shape” or “point” for my blog. A theme, if you will, with various topics that I would write about in successive order. That sounded really boring and tedious, for both you and me. So we’re going with the no plan plan thing.

Hence, my blog posts will not have a uniform length. They will not have a consistent topic. They will not all be polished and perfect (that’s a long way of saying watch out for typos). Instead, these posts will bounce around like cocktail party discussions—not the ones with the pompous opinionated mansplainer, I promise. I’ll try to get at least one out a week and will probably tell a lot of stories, cuz that’s what I like to do. But I’ll also weigh in with thoughts on any range of subjects, from story and character development to movies and books to surfing, sailing and spearfishing (you’ll see why in a minute). My hope is that this will allow me to produce more blog posts and, more importantly, minimize the boring. It will also allow you to get to know me, and me you (please ask me questions or send me an email through my website, https://tloose.com/).

So, enough with the preamble. Let’s get to an actual point already. How about a list of things that I’ve done that will serve as fodder for stories and discussions in this blog. I haven’t had a life as exciting as some, but a bit more eventful than the average accountant—that’s not a dig on accountants, by the way; I like mine, who looks and sounds exactly like Billy Bob Thornton and saves me a lot in taxes every year (I’ve learned not to ask how). So here’s that (incomplete) list…

--Had a lot of close calls in Mexico during college break surf trips—injuries, food poisoning, drugs, federales, policia, and one very deceptive cliff diver.
--Sold my house and quit my job to buy an old boat and sail to Mexico and the South Pacific with my wife for two years.
--Returned from Tahiti with a pregnant wife—basically, I traded in one adventure for another.
--Earned an MFA in screenwriting from UCLA and wrote a bunch of scripts, a few of which were optioned, but never made.
--Worked as a story and character analyst for Netflix for 15 years.
--Moved to Hawaii after returning home to Newport Beach, California from cruising because SoCal was suddenly very crowded, cold and wave-starved.
--Died a few times thanks to a congenital heart defect. The last time almost stuck, sending me into a coma and forcing me to learn to breathe, swallow and walk again.

There’s some other stuff, but hopefully that gives you a slightly better picture of me and entices you to come back.

Finally, and most important, if you’re reading this, there’s a decent chance you’ve read my book. If so, THANK YOU! I realize how busy your life likely is and how many choices of reads you have. The fact that you chose mine means more than you could know. I’d love it if you could rate my work and write a review, unless you hated it of course. If that’s the case, maybe take back your fifteen minutes and we’ll call it a win-win…

Seriously, though, without a reader, there is no writer, so please know that you are very, very appreciated. Yes, even if you gave me less than four stars. I’ll try harder next time. Until then…

Mucho Aloha…