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I've been a soldier, computer analyst, market researcher, teacher and management consultant, in the US, UK, Kuwait and Bahrain. But writing keeps pulling me back.
I'm attracted to people who puzzle me. They make sense through their eyes. And they tell wondrous stories. Some of my favorites so far: Scottish carnies, Evangelical Christians, Kuwaitis, Infantrymen, ex-pats, Barbie collectors, and closeted gay Army captains.
Recent Work:
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| In a superb piece in Slate magazine, Dave Cullen reveals the conclusions of the lead FBI investigator, Dwayne Fuselier, as well as of the Michigan State psychiatrist Frank Ochberg and others who studied the Columbine shootings. | |
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New York Times, April 24, 2004 |
ColumbineA profile of the killers & their aftermath
COMING IN APRIL 2009: "COLUMBINE" will be the first comprehensive book by a prominent journalist. I wrote about the tragedy for Slate, Salon and The New York Times. Twelve will publish the hardcover edition.
PREVIEW: Read much more about the Columbine book. Also see hand-written plans from the killers, video footage of them firing in the cafeteria, and more testimonials from Frank Rich, David Brooks and the Columbia Journalism Review.
LISTEN: NPR's Talk of the Nation features me discussing the FBI's analysis of Columbine, which I published in Slate on the fifth anniversary of the massacre.
| Salon magazine's Dave Cullen, who has been on top of the Columbine story from the start, reported on Thursday that investigators finalizing the official report on Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold now say they "were never part of the Trench Coat Mafia" and "didn't target jocks, minorities or Christians." | |
My Blog & its Offspring
I started my blog in the early 2000s with this slug line: "Rants from the hinterland. A Denver writer and pretend anthropologist rips into artistic treason and random acts of ethical violence. May also contain gushes of enthusiasm." Politics and pop culture consumes most of it. Favorite specific topics: arts, culture, politics and media. Plus lots of: Nabokov, TV, writing, and homos. See my better blog posts, and my most recent faves. It's been on-hold for awhile while I work on my book, but will return soon.
The excitement for Brokeback Mountain on my blog in late 2005 spiraled into something I never imagined. We now have a team of volunteers running several Brokeback sites, including:
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The Ultimate Brokeback Forum is the largest Brokeback discussion
site on the web, with nearly 6,000 registered users. By mid 2007,
eighteen months after the release of the film, it was still attracting
2,500 unique visitors and 1.3 million page views a month. It was
featured in Newsweek, The New York Times, and media around
the world, including translations into Spanish and Mandarin. A summary
of the site can be found
here.
- The Ultimate Brokeback Guide
features links to the box office results, awards news, the cultural
phenomenon, new stories, interviews, pix of Jake Gyllenhaal & Heath
Ledger, etc.
- Members of the forum have produced a book,
Beyond Brokeback: The Impact of a
Film. It was published by
WingSpan Press
in May of 2007, and is available in hardcover and paperback.
Navigating the Columbine Myths
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Most of what you know about Columbine is wrong. The truth came out eventually, but it was years to late for the press to report it prominently.
Eight years of research has taught me a great deal about Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold, and their motives. I have an entire writing studio packed with evidence: stacked up on tables and bookshelves, and filling several filing cabinets. I have pored through thousands of pages and conducted hundreds of hours of interviews so that you don't have to.
But if you want to dive in, I can simplify the process a great deal, by guiding you to the good stuff, and steering you clear of the myths, which refuse to fade away. Several years ago, I decided to share some of the fruits of my research well in advance of the book. I organized everything into a resource I'm calling The Columbine Guide.
It sifts through thousands of Columbine news stories, more than 20,000 pages of police reports, videos, 911 tapes, the killers' writings such as Eric Harris' website and Dylan Klebold's prescient story, the frustrating Jeffco Sheriff's report, the well-intentioned governor's report, and an excellent FBI report on school shooters. And since the big release in July 2006, it now includes Eric Harris's journal, the most important evidence in the Columbine case.
The Guide is organized into separate pages for:
- Columbine Summary
- Recent Developments
- All-in-1 News Stories
- Detailed Primary Evidence
- Media Archives (major newspapers and magazines)
- Acquire Physical Copies
- Comments