A living hall of story and craft
Back to the Ground: Leaving the Creator Economy The Vegas Strip of Socials When I finally stepped back toward art as a career, I did what everyone said you’re supposed to do: I walked straight onto the neon promenade of the platforms. It was all there — the carnival barkers with growth hacks, the slot … Read more
Why I Left Social Media and Still Beat the Algorithm I left social media for the same reason people stop feeding slot machines: I got tired of watching it eat my quarters and call it “networking.” For years I played the game like everyone else. Post a sketch at peak hours. Reply fast. Learn the … Read more
I’m done asking permission to make my work real. Every time I tried to publish a written book, the process stepped between me and the reader like a series of turnstiles: identifiers, registries, catalog entries, platform rules, waiting periods measured in months. Even when the numbers were “free,” time wasn’t. Paper wasn’t. Patience definitely wasn’t. … Read more
Why Owning Your Own Place Still Matters—On AWS, the decentralized internet, the crashing of everyone’s platforms, and keeping the lights on through it all. The Irony of the “Decentralized” Web The day half the internet took a nap, I realized I’d somehow wandered into the decentralized-web conversation—not because I was chasing a new ideology, but … Read more
Rethinking the transactional expectations we’ve built around creativity The Smile Policy I spent fourteen years behind counters, headsets, and glowing screens where the smile policy was as binding as the dress code. You learn the choreography early: the greeting that catches before it lands, the apology you deliver whether or not anything is your fault, … Read more
There’s a different kind of silence on the internet now. Not peace — vacancy. You can feel it in the empty timelines, the vanished conversations, the shop links that used to hum with life but now lead nowhere. It’s not just quiet; it’s abandonment. It’s the hollow ache of realizing that everyone you once built … Read more
At some point, every independent artist realizes that “freedom” on the internet comes with a checkout button.You start with one subscription, then another, and before you know it, you’re paying monthly rent to five different platforms just to exist. That was the day I stopped leasing my livelihood. Not because I hate technology — but … Read more
Somewhere along the way, “independent artist” stopped meaning free.Now it often means burned out, underpaid, over-algorithmed, and expected to stay grateful for the scraps. We’ve been told that “community” will save us — as long as we perform enough, post enough, and smile enough. That success is a popularity contest, and silence is a flaw. … Read more
I didn’t just log off. I deleted the accounts. No farewell posts, no digital ceremony — just gone. Because if I’m serious about internet sovereignty — about owning my voice, my work, and my space — then it has to start here. You can’t build independence on top of platforms that profit off your dependence. … Read more
There’s something very humbling about breaking your own website and then having to fix it because, well… you’re the only one around to do it. Ottawa Valley Creations has officially moved (again), and this time it’s for keeps — I think. The move is part of my ongoing mission toward internet sovereignty: the idea that … Read more