Joy List:
- Playing Xbox on a snowy weekend while Nickie snuggles and naps in our homey downstairs.
- Gravestone rubbing at Old York Cemetery
- MrCreepyPasta reading Invoking Ganesh
- Showing my Scrims to Gary Kiracofe at Scrimshanders in Door Co.
- Arcada Theater 80s concert with Nickie
- Miracle Legion at Lincoln Hall with Nickie
- Going to writers’ workshops with Gabe and Ava
- Making love with Nickie on “The Best Veteran’s Day Ever!”
- Holding Gabe at 3 days old in his nursery and crying
- Coming home from Iraq
- Mess Dress Night
- Singing REM with Nickie in Ireland
- Peaking out on Mt. Snicktau
- King of the Mountain on a snow day with my friends from 37 Kirkland St.
- Glacier National Park trip with Rob, Matt, and Chris
- Blues Brews & Reggae trip with Matt and Rob
- Porcupine Bay trips with Matt and Rob
- Fixing the Volvo after the accident
- Grateful Dead Soldier Field 1994; smuggling weed in my underwear
- Finishing Tales from Clock Castle
- Wedding Day; writing I Love You on my hand
- Christmas when Nickie said, “Yes”
- Christmas while Christmas Revels were playing, Nickie and the kids were sleeping, and God spoke to me
- Sledding with Colin and his brother and sister at night in Connecticut
- Playing Puck
- Playing Kinickie
- Playing the lead in Eric Spitz-Nagel’s play
- My private hiking trip to Porcupine Bay
- Anchorage ’04 trip with Rob
- When Nickie said, “I think I need a little bit of something sweet” in Spokane
- When Ava was coloring and out of the blue said, “Smashing”
- Winning the Chief’s Group Chili cook off at Cannon
- Getting a nibble from Dutton Children’s Books on Clock Castle
- Getting a nibble from Edge SF&F on Red Lakes
- Getting the Asst. Production Designer job with Broken Lizard
- Debating Roche Bros.’ employee safety policies with Granda…and winning
- Meeting Dan Harmon from Fireman Press
- Traveling to Seattle with Jason and Andy and meeting T.C. Boyle
- Solo at Outward Bound
- Actually making a basket in the student/faculty basketball game at DS
- Drinking with the manager for Whiteout and getting a demo tape
- Hiking around Loch Ness
- Going to Loch Lomond with Iain
- Playing football at Camp Foster during an overnight
- Building a Lego marble chute and watching Godzilla with Gabe and Ava
- Meeting Nickie
- Century Club with Eric and the rest of TKE
- Grateful Dead Foxboro Stadium 1990; storming the floor
- Phish Townshend, VT 1991
- Having my script reach 27 min when performed in Script Writing at Beloit
- Seeing Nickie at Beloit the summer I stayed there
- Leaving Cannon and having the Muse tell me the ending of Red Lakes
- Bike riding to the lake at Tinker with Gabe
- Kittery, ME 1984
- Christmas when I was 6 and started my tradition of getting up in the middle of the night and looking at the tree
- Writing my myth and horror stories for 5th Grade Language Arts and blowing everyone away
- Coming in 3rd in the DCD cross country race against kids older than me
- Finishing The Vortex
- Working with Kip Rathke on Puzzle Place puppets
- Las Vegas trip with Rob Torno and Chris Boyark 1997
- Grand Canyon trip ’04; Sedona; hiking alone with Gabe
- Getting a great review in the Beloit newspaper for my role in The Diviners
- Halloween in Cambridge when I first went trick-or-treating unsupervised with Matt and James Seddon and Matt Wajda at night
- Buffalo Wings and beers with Eric and Lowie
- Getting accepted to OTS
- Meeting and drinking with Jaime Brockett with Dad
- Finally getting to Castle Doune and finding out it was in The Holy Grail
- Ice climbing with Dad and Hal in Tuckerman’s Ravine
- Night sledding with Dad at some church retreat
- Outward Bound
- Saco trip when the river was flooded, we cruised at twice our normal speed, we could relax, I slept in a tree, the campers were good kids, and I was storyteller extraordinaire
- Shutting down the Beloit telescope with Prof. Schroeder and discussing time travel
- The night of 4 times in Nickie’s room at ZKZ
- Finishing Heaven & Hell
- Finishing The Crew
- Having Stilts tell me he loves Heaven & Hell
- Sharing a limo with Gary Sinise
- Helping Nickie when she got a Beloit grant for an art gallery
- My senior art exhibit at Beloit
- Profiles
- Blues Bros skit with Greg Stout for DS talent show
- Blackhawk ride; feeling like a warrior in Saddam’s palace
- River City Rascals game with fireworks and our new neighbors
- Graduating from OTS
- Snowy Saturday in St. Charles, building a snowman and snow fort with Gabe
- Eating the Atomic Wings at Buffalo Wild Wings with Matt, Shane, and Haley and having the Mexican dishwashers come out to see the Gringo eat the hot stuff
- When I was thinking about Red Lakes and Ava turned to me and said, “Daddy, you’re a really good writer.”
- Las Vegas 2008 with Nickie
- Reading The House with a Clock in its Walls in the basement with Gabe
- Beetlejuice costume NYC Halloween 1995
- Spelunking with Dad
- Back Yard Night in Portales; “Are we crazy!?”
- Date night with Nickie at Rama Thai
- Bopping to “Pumped Up Kicks” with Gabe in the car
- Playing video games with Gabe until late at night
- Finishing Red Lakes
- Disney 2014
- Invoking Ganesh winning First Place in a Writing Contest
- Reading The Crew at the Writers’ Workshop and having everyone say, “Wow!”
- Reading Invoking Ganesh at the Writers’ Workshop and having everyone demand that I keep reading. “You can’t just stop there!”