It's 9AM

Figure it out

It is a strange feeling to lead a double life.

By day, I am just another mild-mannered guy standing with other parents at a youth baseball tournament, cheering on an eight-year-old team.

By night, I am an architect of conspiracies, space battles, and post-apocalyptic survival.

People ask me how I manage to produce books across seven different genres while balancing a family and an endless “honey-do” list.

The truth is, I escaped Corporate America by learning to lie for a living

about spies in Florida, magic in the real world,

and unapologetic lawyers saving the world.

But transitioning from a corporate safety net to a self-published career required more than imagination; it required a total psychological overhaul.

There is a massive difference between being “poor” and being “broke.”

I like to joke that growing up in Arkansas,

we had so little money we were just “PO”

we couldn’t afford the O or the R.

But I didn’t get my work ethic from being poor.

I got a sense of, “I’ll figure it out.”

That mindset of flexibility is worth more than any traditional training.

I started working at twelve as a carpenter’s apprentice on “OSHA-free” job sites.

When you learn to navigate uncertainty in high-stakes environments,

you develop an unshakeable confidence.

You need that ego to survive this industry.

My grandmother used to tell me, “I’m lucky God only made me 5’9”, cause if I was as tall as my ego, I’d be ten feet.”

That level of confidence isn’t about arrogance

it’s about the conviction that no matter what happens to the market or the algorithm,

you will find a way to resolve the problem.

“I didn’t get work ethic from being poor. I got a sense of ‘I’ll figure it out.’”

This week has been about figuring it out.

Hell, this year has felt like a lot of that too.

It’s been a lot of winning

A lot more losing

And a heck of a lot of learning how to deal with both, because sometimes the losing knocks me down so far

The win’s aren’t that big and only carry me back to baseline

I tell #10 to take more at bat’s

As many as he can, because that pracitce will get him ready for when the game is on the line

I wonder if my game is on the line

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SUNSET SUSPECTS

5 Books for $5 Boxset

The Gumbo Files: A Gulf Coast PI Mystery Collection

Retirement was supposed to be simple.

Sunshine. Fishing. Quiet mornings. Maybe a little golf.

Then Gumbo Malone found a dead body.

Then another.

And another.

Now the former corporate executive turned accidental PI can’t seem to walk into a bar, marina, condo meeting, or beachfront bingo hall without stumbling into a crime someone really doesn’t want solved.

On Florida’s Gulf Coast, the sun is hot… but the secrets are hotter.

And every smiling retiree has something to hide.