Pete McCormack
In 1998, a song I wrote called Be Brave Tonight was being pushed to be the end credit song for the Kevin Costner/Paul Newman/Robin Wright movie based on Nicholas Sparks’ bestselling novel Message in a Bottle. I loved all three of those actors—Costner was superb in JFK, Wright was heartbreaking and wonderful in Forrest Gump, and I’d been a massive fan of Paul Newman from the days of Cool Hand Luke…
The dream continues in video form when you click or tap the image. In 1994, as Grunge blew up in Seattle and the Gulf War exploded, I spent nearly all my money and gave all I had to make an independent CD. In the preceding years, after dropping out of university and picking up a guitar, I’d had a band called Oh Yeah—with great players I loved—and written a batch of songs that I hoped would connect…
Last week was a sweet week for a couple of reasons. I just released two new books on the creative process — Hey, Writer. And Hey, Songwriter. They're creative guides for anyone (experienced or inexperienced) who has a story, a song, or an idea living inside them that hasn't been birthed into the world yet. Who doesn't? Not because the talent or the idea wasn't there — but because nobody told you…
A 16-foot female Great White shark named ‘Kara’ has been tracked winding its way through British Columbia waters (cue JAWS theme). Cover the pool! Drain the bathtub! Call the kids in! In honour and awe of her large arrival, I offer a video I recorded for writers and non-writers about the magic of JAWS and the miracle of resilience. Full disclosure, I was a shark fanatic in the '70s. Childhood…
I’ve never self-marketed a book before, or anything else. I’ve never launched a book in 2026 before, either. I’m more adept at watching the world with concern, second-guessing myself, and throwing ideas to the wind. But amid all the weird sales graphs, ads, algorithm noise, and small mysteries of a book launch, something lovely and unexpected happened. As sales for My Last Friends on Earth picked…
I’m writing to share a moment. After years of work, my new YA sci-fi/fantasy novel My Last Friends on Earth is finished. And I'm still in love with it. In fact, the love got deeper recently in the fine-tuning. Maximizing moments. Elevating themes through action. It was thrilling. Some of you know my creative work from novels (Understanding Ken), documentaries (Facing Ali, Spirit Unforgettable), or…
“There's no need for formal conspiracies when all of these economic and political elites share the same ideology.” —George...
“We are famous internationally—or, more accurately, we have become infamous—for money laundering. The sheer volume and the size of these...