Summer is starting, so my roles are about to switch from writer/dad to dad/writer, as my kids come first. However, I don’t want to give up everything I’ve built and lose the momentum I’ve created this year. I will need to continue writing as a stay-at-home dad, somehow. Once my kids wake up, they seem to need me at all times.

George Lucas created Star Wars as a tribute to Flash Gordon. I created Mercury Johnson as a tribute to Star Wars and Indiana Jones. While I've written about Mercury before, in The Gamble, I hadn't had him actually looking for an ancient Earth Artifact yet, so I wanted to write that story. This things is all adventure. Please enjoy. Mercury Johnson and the Black Lotus by Jarrett S. Smith Some things are better left buried. However, if they stayed buried, Mercury wouldn’t make enough money to buy food, much less make the repairs to his ship.

I got the error message MacBook Air storage full. I should have known better, but I bought this laptop when 256 GB took me pretty far. All my travel devices, iPhone, iPad, and MacBook had 256 GB of storage. While I still have a ton of space on my iPad and iPhone, I ran into issues on my MacBook.

Which writing software is the best for most authors? It’s time to throw down in Scrivener vs. Ulysses. For the longest time, writing software always kicked off a creative spark in me. My output after discovering something new brought new structure ideas and excitement to discover new features. When I found Scrivener, I loved it. It changed the way I wrote.

I bought the NEX Playground hoping it would give my son a way to enjoy screen time without the meltdown that came when it was time to stop. After a few months of use, here's the honest truth about whether it delivers.

Being a stay-at-home parent is the hardest thing I've ever had to do. Raising children can test the best of us in ways we never thought possible. I wrote this story when my oldest was four and couldn't control his emotions very well. It felt like we were fighting every couple of hours. It is mostly a reminder to me, that even when things feel bleak I just need to look for the signs.

Discover the best Apple apps for writers and how the Apple ecosystem can support every stage of your writing workflow.

Learn how to use Playlist Playgrounds in Apple Music to create AI-generated playlists with a simple text prompt. Here's everything you need to know.

Learn how to organize your Ulysses library like a Kanban board to track every stage of your writing — from inbox idea to published piece — and never lose a project again.

My self-imposed goal was on the line. We’re still early in the year, but I don’t want to miss a weekly post. So, when we started packing for our ten day trip to Peru, I started to panic. Finding time to work on vacation with two kids could be challenging. Finding the time and being in another country felt even more daunting.

I flew out of my seat as we went over the dune. While I knew this was coming, I hadn’t expected this exactly. This was why we came to Huacachina, Peru, to explore the desert oasis, ride dune buggies, and surf down in the heat. But I hadn’t expected this to feel so much like a roller coaster. One of our cousins worked for a tour guide company, …

I thought about how hard it is to get your creations out into the world. I thought about how a story wants to be told and wrote this little short story about books looking to find their reader. Enjoy, and let me know what you think in the comments. A Book's Longing by Jarrett S. Smith Despite all the other books around him, the book felt lonely.

I sat in the hotel bed and scanned my Disneyland app, searching to add my ticket to my Apple Watch. But after going through every setting and then a Reddit thread, I found out that Disneyland didn’t offer one. Taking these toddlers to Disneyland wasn’t starting off on a good foot. We had become Disney people after going on a…

Discover my complete guide to the Ulysses writing app—stay organized, focused, and productive whether you’re a writer, blogger, or student.

Learn how to use Apple Music’s Up Next feature to add songs, build a Queue, and create an on-the-go playlist without making a full playlist.

Apple Music is great, but it’s missing key features like queue syncing, listening history control, profiles, and smarter playlists. Here are 5 updates Apple should add.

I had the privilege of going on Karen's World of Art podcast to discuss my writing process. Check out the YouTube as we talk about writing and life

Brayden’s app has skyrocketed, but success comes at a cost. At an exclusive gala, surrounded by wealth, power, and temptation, he must decide how far he’s willing to go—and what he’s willing to sacrifice to stay true to himself.

Parenting isn’t for the weak—especially when the flu hits your entire household at once. What started as a plan to return to work after the holidays turned into some of the toughest days of p…

Although my AirPods Pro 3 arrived a few days late, I’ve put them to the test and have barely removed them. Here are my impressions of the newest AirPods Pro fit, sound, and new features.

A place to promote your short stories and hopefully get some feedback and build an audience

One way for an author to slow a story is to employ “countersinking.” A term coined by science fiction writer Lewis Shiner, countersinking involves making explicit the very actions that the story im…

Parenting isn't for the weak—especially when the flu hits your entire household at once. What started as a plan to return to work after the holidays turned into some of the toughest days of parenthood.

Last year, I had grand plans for my writing career. None of which came to fruition. This year, I want to publish my writing goals for 2026 to hold myself accountable. Of course, I’ve never written down my goals, especially since I’ve become a stay-at-home dad. Setting goals has felt impossible until recently. Now my kids attend programs 4 days a week, and I get some time to myself to knock things off my to-do list.

I know I’m usually curious about the way others write, what equipment do they use, and what software.  These things intrigue me.  I’ve always wondered how the great writers did what they did. I’m not a great writer, but I thought that other’s might like to know what I do and how I do it.

I want to wish everyone a happy holiday, no matter what you celebrate. We need a lot more love in this world than we show right now, so I hope that during this time you can tightly hug everyone you love, or share a moment online or in real life with those you have chosen to have in your life.

It has been an interesting year. I had plans that never lasted long, I got caught up in scam, and I found some consistency that I've never had before.

This little change made me much more productive