New job

My last day at the Federal Way Mirror was Nov. 22. I start at The Olympian on Dec. 3. Until then, I am temporarily free from wage slavery!

I look forward to learning a new beat and making an immediate impact. The staff is talented and could teach me a few things about journalism. It has been nearly eight years since I worked for a daily newspaper. The pace and deadline pressure give me a buzz.

Throughout my career, I have always worked to improve my craft. The key thing to practice is consistent production — as in producing something every day for people to read, outside of my daily demands in journalism. In my 20s, I wrote songs and poetry with my rock band. In my 30s, I write fiction.

As long as I exercise that writer's muscle, and explore my curiosities through writing, I will have a satisfying career.

I should have been dead

I should have been dead already. When I first got the keys to mom's car, I did my best Dale Earnhardt imitation, cutting through the country roads, pushing the speedometer needle to the limit. I was invincible. I turned on the car's bright lights and reached 110 mph. A deer could have pranced into the road and we both would have died. What if a black car had stopped in the road and turned off its lights, and I didn't see the car until crashing into it? Strangely enough, the bright lights gave me a false sense of safety, as if someone else were watching over me like a co-pilot.

The novel is here!

I'm pleased to announce that "Walter's Searchlight," my first novel, is now available on Amazon. For the Kindle version, click here.

"Walter's Searchlight" explores education, racism, religion, drugs, sex and stereotypes through the eyes of an unlikely homeless celebrity in a Seattle suburb.

Special thanks go to my lovely wife, Amanda Hobbs, for her support and design skills. Not only did she design the novel's cover, but she also built the novel's website. Check it out at andersonhobbs.com.

I am donating November's proceeds to Reach Out Federal Way, which operates winter homeless shelters for men and women. It costs $220 to house/serve one homeless client for 10 days, or $660 for a month.

Homelessness is the link between the novel and Reach Out. The protagonist, Walter Wadsworth, is cut from the same cloth as the late Walter Backstrom, a genius freeloader who died homeless in Seattle. The real Walter was a fixture anywhere he was accepted.

The story is fiction with real-life inspiration. Some of the scenes in the novel reflect actual anecdotes and experiences. But please don't look for hidden clues. I conjured all the dialogue, and the settings are a cornucopia of personal sensory experiences.

In full disclosure, this art imitates life in spirit rather than facts. The novel tries to harness Walter's complicated likeness without masquerading as his biography. The real Walter was one in a billion. I wanted to show that beyond the con-man was a genuine soul with a moral compass all his own. I put the character into situations that most humans face at some point. The key was to test Walter and see how he survived. Did he really show up stoned to high-profile meetings? Yes. Did he really sleep on an all-night bus? Yes. Did he love his daughter and wear it on his sleeve? Yes. These traits describe a flawed human being with good intentions, sort of like us.