about ross
I'm a polymath. I have an insatiable curiosity about everything. That's led me down many lots of different career paths, but I've also learned so many different services and skills.
On October 22, 2025—just before Author Nation in Las Vegas—I finally gave myself permission to downgrade everything on my neverending projects list to focus all my efforts on a single goal: to publish my first novel within one year.
Writing a novel is already an ambitious feat by itself, but I knew in my bones that I could do it. I'd wanted to do it for years... I simply never had the courage to admit it to myself.
So I created an Amazon preorder page, launched a Facebook ad, and after 15 preorders from cold traffic, I knew the market was there.
This book is happening.
This site will cover everything related to my novel: story structure, writing tools, Facebook ads, Amazon product page, marketing & messaging. I have a lot of thoughts on lots of different things, and I think most of you will find it interesting. Most of that stuff will be free to everyone. The only stuff I'm putting behind a paywall—at a modest fee–will be my works-in-progress.
all the other pivots
At a young age, I acted in film commercials, but quickly quit since auditioning is a brutal experience, especially for a young kid. I went on to work as a production designer at W Magazine's European magazine, laid out ads for the BBC, waded through the carnage of the dot com boom/bust at a San Francisco ad firm before trying to break back into the film business as a screenwriter and director. For just over a decade, I took a break to to raise two kids, then got back to writing in 2012 with a crowdfunded anthology of short stories (all dedicated into the public domain), and then got into fine art photography doing portraits, landscapes, and events. For a time, I even experimented with game design.
While all those pivots seemed fruitless, I learned powerful new skills with each: how to write a newsletter, how to quickly test new product ideas, how to set up an Shopify site, and—my favorite—how to run a successful ad on Facebook and Instagram.
remember: it's about the story
The common thread throughout my life is storytelling... acting, filmmaking, photography, marketing, fiction. It's always about the narrative.
Crafting stories is just the adult version of playing in a Kindergarten sandbox. My sandbox happens to be epic science fiction—come and play!
Hello! I'm Ross. I live in the Pacific Northwest and go to bed dreaming of lasers, and space stations, and robots. It's a hard life.
This year, I decided to get serious about writing my first novel so I set up this web site as my main place to talk about writing craft, mindset hacks, productivity hacks, advertising, etc. Basically anything related to the making of my first debut hard science fiction novel. Readers and writers will get some unique coolness, I think.
My first 100 subscribers are guaranteed to get free access forever, but eventually I will have to charge for access so the site pays for itself. So subscribe now. Or you will wonder later if it was the worst decision of your life. (Hmm. Maybe I oversold that.) (Or maybe not?)
Book Readers will get:
- access to first drafts and the chance to offer feedback
- book reviews—both writing and non-writing
- a sometimes angry venting about how online sales is done so poorly that it leaves us all a little worse for wear
Book Writers will learn:
- How to run Meta ads using real case studies
- How to set up an Amazon Product page (image, title, blurb, etc.)
- My personal protips and hacks on mindset & Productivity
- Guidance around working with (or around) A.I. tools
- Inspiration for when you feel like writing is a pointless task
- Honest case studies on using writing apps like Scrivener, Omm Writer, Vellum, Google Docs, KD Spy, Rocket Publisher, etc.
- How to run a Kickstarter crowdfunding without pulling your hair out
And behold! My second and final not-so-thinly veiled attempt to get you to hop on my newsletter. In case you can't tell, I like snark. Because snark is fun. Look: just come into my world. Why you wait?
Access To All The Things
Hopping on my subscribers lists means you get access to everything I've done, and everything I will do. Which is a lot. Because I'm a little crazy. In a good way.
All The New things... to your in box
When I make something new, you hear about it double time. I mean, I push a button and you get it. Pretty much foolproof for me.
Meet people like you
Lots of people love sci fi. Including me. Obviously. Want to meet people who love lasers and space and robots and Dyson Spheres? I mean, who doesn't want to read about a Dyson Sphere? Plus, members can help me tip the scales on where my stories might go next...