Welcome! You’ll find here my books, a weekly arts and culture column and a decade’s worth of blog posts.

I also offer writing workshops, coaching and manuscript editing, and talks on a variety of subjects–with an overall thrust toward the promotion of the artistic vocation.

“Desire lines” are the names given by urban planners to what happens when one person’s impulsive shortcut encourages others to follow, creating informal, unmapped channels through a city.

What if, together, we could begin to make new desire lines—for ourselves, for the world?

WRITING WORKSHOPS

Join me in Fall, 2023, at KYLEMORE ABBEY in storied Connemara, on the West Coast of Ireland. I’ll be giving a 3-day retreat on The Vocation of the Artist on each of the last two weeekends of September.

That’s right! I now have Irish citizenship and will be installed in the village or Oughterard, outside Galway city, from mid-July till the retreats.

More info soon under the WORKSHOPS tab.

MENTORING/EDITING

With decades’ worth of experience, several award-winning memoirs, and the #1 regular arts and culture column in the country two years running from the Catholic Press Association, I can help you envision, shape, write, revise and edit your essay, short story, memoir, novel, poetry collection or manuscript.

SPEAKING

I’ve given talks across the country and here in LA on conversion, recovery from addiction, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, everyday mysticism, prayer, and the nobility of artistic vocation.

OH HELL, WATCH A VIDEO, TOO